Day 39 - Our arrival in a lakeside paradise

Waking to the noise of Old Lijiang Town we realised how great it would be to head out into the wilderness of rural China again, it's sort of reviving to escape the crowds and pollution. However, first we had to mount the packs and head through the masses by local bus to the long distance bus station to wait for our 8 hour bus. Thus today was another typical traveling day for the adlibers.

We are headed to Lugu Hu, a lake sitting at 2,685m on the border of Yunnan and Sichuan provinces. The scenery on the way to each new place we travel to continues to remind us that it's not so much about the destination as it is the journey from place to place, and in China the journey sure takes some time! We spent the day weaving our way from one mountain side to the next. Surrounded by the valleys that the Chinise had somehow managed to build a road on. The road was made from small rocks no bigger than a fist most of the time, but on ocasions it turned to tarsealed road or to dirt tracks. Adam noticed (luckily Liv didn't) that the wooden bracings holding the mountainside road up were either already falling in big chunks, or were showing the beginning signs of following suit. At least the scenery on the way made up for the shoddy roads.
We stopped at a scenic spot where we got an unbelievable birdseye view of the Lake, where we would soon be arriving. When we arrived at the lake we suddenly realised the 8 hours on a bus was worth it - the lake is stunning and absolutely crystal clear. There are tiny fish swimming around the edges and frogs floating on Lugu Hu seaweed - a delicacy that is either boiled or fried (the seaweed, not the frogs). One thing we noticed upon getting off the bus was the beartiful garden of bright blus flowers dotting the hillsides, and sprinkling a bit of colour into a very NZ-like green paradise.
On the bus Liv sat next to Lemon, who along with her two friends Xiao and Li Jing, were headed for the same destination as us - Lige (a small settlement half an hour further round the lake than Luoshui where the bus arrived). Luoshui is set up for tourists, but Lige is a secluded paradise with only a handful of guesthouses to stay at - we are staying at Yase Daba Traveller's Paradise, right on the lakeside, literally a jump away. We are surrounded by hills and mountains, the highest being a peak shadowing over us at 3754m high!

The night was spent relaxing, reading, and a small walk around the lake - more exploring will be done tomorrow.

Adlibing it to a lakeside paradise.