China Day 8: Shangri-La

We woke up before sunrise and ate a nice breakfast cooked by our amazing host. We gave her some money in thanks and got right on our way. Though my legs were all itchy from the blanket I slept on the night before, I was very warm and comfortable in my bed, even though our host put out vests as pillows. Or jumpers, as those crazy Welsh call them.

It takes us a while to get to the final stop on the trek where we can hitch a ride back to DeQin. The trail wasn't very well marked and we ended up going the wrong way and had to climb through quite a bit of bushes, getting all scratched up before someone saw us from across the bend and told us how to get out. It took us maybe two hours to get to the last stop, even though we could see our final destination most of the time we were hiking. So we found someone to give us a ride back into town where we caught a bus back to Shangri-La. We didn't return in time to catch a bus back to Lijiang like we had hoped, but I'm quite glad. Shangri-La is a great place, and the lack of tourists makes it all the better. We found the Old Town, full of shops selling prayer wheels, song bowls, shawls, coyote hats, jewelery, and a multitude of handicrafts. We ate dinner at The Compass and talked with the owner, a Singaporean. The Old Town has got a square in the middle, a place for the locals to congregate for their nightly dance. Prayer flags draped from rooftops line the perimeter of square, and in the back of the town lay the largest prayer wheel in the world.