Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Lijiang: perdy, perdy.

Few shots from 5 days of some incredibly pretty goldfish lined towns in the province of yunnan.. more soon.All the wooden bridges lead to little bars with little acoustic bands
Woh, woh, woh.. since when can a guy not walk off into the mountains with a pig anymore ?
Here goldfish have only one one natural enemy, drunk people.
Village of shu he... yep, wearin tights.. so what ?
Crowd cutting
this wouldnt be china if you couldnt light a smoke with a wax sculpture of mao 24/7.
obviously the thing in his hand is a pipe; as to whats in it...
Hard to believe perhaps but after this picture a 15 minute conversation ensued with the guy in the fur hat regarding the notion of me trading my bicycle for his horse... i was pushing hard that he had to throw in the hat but he wouldnt budge. But seriously how post rockabilly is this guy, and can you see those dimples ?
looking slightly awkward but speedy while biking into town while awesome friends take my bags in the car to my side.. Me in the distance, still not as fast as the car even without bags.
China: looks just like canada, but with less chinese people.
Things like a grass lawn are pretty hard to come by in china, even this one I wasn't actually allowed on, but i just pretended i couldn't understand chinese.
Jam session at the best bar in Lijiang - Stone the crow.
Giving mao the ol' upside-down whatup.

Monday, January 12, 2009

The best things in life are Lee

Approaching mordor and/or, tiger leaping gorge. Can just barely see me, but i think this is my favourite picture so far. Reading on my balcony, naxi family guesthouse

Despite looking like the gates of hell, this was mostly a sunny day, next pic is a shot in the other direction.
Not so bad right ?
Not a bad view for 7$ a night.. see also: try their banana chocolate walnut honey pancakes before you leave.
Jean Paul Goatier. - handsdown winner, 2009 goathair cut of the year. Sunrise on the mountain, unfortunately it's not above the mountains till about 10am
Yep, i totally agree with that sign.. (the first character means middle i know that much)Getting my bike to jane's guest house, where the hike ends.Landslides: pack a lunch or pack a shovel.. you aint goin anywhere for a while..Do you see this map ? thanks woody!
How did they know, i've been craving a cup of coef for daaaays..

thank god for electric blankets and continence

Bikin on in...Shangrila - there are wiser places to go in the winter but.. it's like chinese cottage country up here.
Town of Bai shuai Tai

White water terrace, 3hrs from tiger leaping gorge.. a whole field of this stuff.
ye olde evil monastery.
Clearly used to seeing foreigners at lunch...
That little green pool is actually a pretty decent hotspring, and to top it up there's also a sauna built into a limestone cave that women aren't allowed into as the men beleive the hot water will go away if women come in.
There's s0mething really nice about getting a .50 cent pair of slippers traditionally fixed almost every morning.. far more pleasant than just reading the newspaper - except that you have to stand on one foot for a lil while

new years - not exactly a wild night with chinese new years only two weeks away, but being as I had a roman candle and a beer in each hand, and i'm standing with a tibetan guy i don't actually know.. i guess it was a pretty good night.

Friday, January 2, 2009

Lil dull upload - Road to shangrila.

Some actual nice pictures of Shangrlia *awesome place.. and tigerleaping george in a few days.. just wanna get these off my chest
Xiang Cheng Monsastery on the hills. This game is sorta like the carnival game where you throw hoops over fish in buckets to win a goldfish.. except it's for adults and instead of winning a fish, you win the bucket.
China's 4th annual - Bring your goat to work day
These guys actually scared me.. knocking on my door and yelling police! - but turned out they just wanted to have some lunch with me. (and make sure I'm not a spy)
Chinese kids and tibetans alike indeed get home from school and study more.. they're playin a game where they yell works in chinese while the others yell out the tibetan translation to see who's the fastest.
Gramps may not look like it but he can cook some mean fried potatoes, he also may not look like someone addicted to tabacco snuff but...
Cleanliness:Next to Godliness, Godliness: likely distant cousin from Chineseness. (heres hoping the guy next to you has some fiber in his diet)
Awesome downhill stretch in Denrong (Valley of the hidden sunshine) Denrong Town center - Little known fact, there isn't a single town in urban china where the people don't congregate every single night to dance in the town square in a big circle.Making friends the cold and hungry way - china style.
Hey, can i bum a light random guy sitting in the middle of absolute nowhere?
Arriving in shangrila - banana pancakes here i come.