a little coffee

We’re back!

We arrived yesterday morning at the cold, bitter hour of 6:30 AM.  What else could we do but immediately go right back to bed and pretend we’re still tucked in the cozy room in Lijiang, sun streaming through the window or in the comfortable bunks in Kunming?

To sum up: we had a blast and this trip only got my mind working on our next three week (or three month!) getaway.  We had surprisingly little trouble as we traipsed from Kunming to Baoshan to Ruili to Dail to Lijiang and back to Kunming, surrounded at all times by a gorgeous mountain range that morphed in color and size the closer we got to Myanmar and then the further north we went to the famous Tiger Leaping Gorge, one of the world’s deepest river canyons.  I so loved  shedding the cumbersome  long underwear and the bulky down coat in favor of a sweater and sunglasses, wandering through towns still influenced by the local ethnic groups, sampling the varied and delicious dishes, spoiling ourselves with western food (this did include a trip to Pizza Hut) and splurging on English-language books.  

About a week ago, Chris got a little anxious for Anyang and “my routine!” so he wouldn’t take my suggestions of going to Thailand or Mongolia seriously.  But the over-priced, tourist mecca of Lijiang sapped my monthly salary so yes, it was time to board the train again, to spend two nights in a sleeper car, sharing a small cabin with two other men. The train was surprisinly pleasent (even though going down we were stuck with the masses in crammped, six-person hard sleepers and forced to use a squat toilet instead of the nice western-style one we got on the return trip- a bonus for spending much more on soft sleepers).  It was an excuse to read and play cards and eat lots of candy and not worry about showering for the day- or your greasy forehead. I spent a lot of time looking out the window, admiring the mountains with the rice paddies and fields etched into them with the villages below, until Anyang, where it all became flat again.

I have too many pictures and stories so in the next posts, I’ll provide a few highlights of our travels.

Stay tuned!