Some documenting of China

Because my blog had been more neat insights but y'all facebookers might be wanting to know, where are you going and what are you doing?

Kunming
We landed here. Quick stop. Tati got a migraine from a 36-hour flight extravaganza. I wandered the streets and chewed betel nut with a guy.

Lijiang
One day here. Tourist town, meaning downtown is all old fashioned things that are pretty, and nice shops.

Tiger Leaping Gorge
I already blogged about this.

Shangri-la
A couple days here resting and getting ready for the next trip. Another tourist old town, but I mean the old town is prettier than the new town. Big monastery. Nice guesthouse where they helped us plan our Yubeng trip. A barrage of tasty food; we discovered the Tibetan barley cake, or qingke bing, which is delicious.

Yubeng
Took a van to a viewpoint mini-town called Feilai si. Crashed a wedding, accidentally. ("Tati, let's check out this cookout thing!" "Dan, that looks like a private party." Too late, we sat down, welp.)
Hiked to Yubeng. 1100m elevation gain, which I learned is a lot. Spent a day recovering and hanging out in this Tibetan guy's "Team A Bar" drinking honey lemon tea. Sadly, no Mr T references. Still, Team A Bar would do well in San Francisco.
Hiked to a waterfall. Frickin gorgeous. Plus I guess we got all our sins forgiven.
Hiked out, mostly downhill. That was much easier for me. It was harder for Tati because her shoes were too small. I guided her walking backwards for part of the way. We stopped walking backwards when the trail became along the edge of a cliff.

Back to Shangri-la
Hanging out! Tati got a stomach bug, probably from something in Yubeng. I tried to acquire Imodium or Azithromycin or Pepto-Bismol from a pharmacy, and instead got Bismuth Subcarbonate, Smectite, and some plant pills that looked like skittles. It all worked marvelously, really.

Daocheng
Took a bumpy bus to here. Auf. It was the first ride I'd compare to rural India; the rest of the roads here have been pretty awesome. Daocheng is strange: looks like it was all built last year, and it probably was. About three streets, all of them full of hotels. It looks like it's a new tourism destination; they built an airport here in 2013 and now it's Disneyland. People dancing in the square in the center of town. Is this a thing that happens?

The ride to Yading
... is supposed to be an easy paved 2 hours, but due to a landslide we had to go the back way. Always be nervous when Tibetan drivers suggest going the back way. This dirt road was intense! Tati has some good videos of vans trying to pass each other on a one lane dirt road over a creek on the side of a cliff. Wow.

Yading
And then we finally made it here! Outdoor Disneyland. Beautiful mountains, but not like Yubeng: here everything is on wooden plank paths and paved roads and guardrails. On the other hand, there's not trash and mud all over the place. I have mixed feelings, really - not "mixed feelings" as in dislike, but really just kind of complicated, some like, some dislike. But then they are overwhelmed by much bigger feelings of "whoa those mountains." Doing the last of the 3 big hikes we had planned today! (In addition to Yubeng and Tiger Leaping Gorge) Well, we had wanted to do the kora, or trek around the mountain, but seeing as it is 3x as long as the hike into Yubeng, we probably couldn't make it in a day. So we're hiking to Milk Lake and 5-Color Lake and heading back down.

You may have noticed that Tati has been unlucky enough to acquire a series of minor ailments. She's quite positive about it though. I am lucky to have married someone resilient, strong, and generally awesome. And we both feel good today! So, here's to that.

Incidentally, on my phone, the Blogger app just fails to upload pictures. I can upload pictures by going to the Blogger site in mobile Chrome and doing a lot of frustrating zooming and poking and waiting, but instead perhaps just check Tati's Facebook for photos of all this.