beats a monday at the office
a strange and busy few days. we flew into kunming, and just stayed a day en route to lijiang. unfortunately the day in kunming was pouring rain, so instead of exporing the city, we went to the cinema to see an english language movie (”eight below” in case you were wondering – which, if you’re a dog lover is a schmaltzy but wonderful movie. not that we had a whole lot of choice.) and hide out for a while. then we went shopping in parkson’s department supermarket, which was just *nirvana* for me. see, other people collect teaspoons or t-shirts. i collect new snacks. i love to try things i can’t even identify just to see what they taste like. most are interesting and tasty, some are blah, and only a few a truly awful. yesterday was a bonanza. i found wasabi flavoured potato chips, extra strong mentos, barbeque meat snacks, green tea biscuits, lemon custard filled marshmallows, and seaweed flavoured peanuts. yumm-o. needless to say, however, i felt rather ill after tasting all those at one sitting.
and then we took the overnight sleeper bus to lijiang. which i imagine is something like the night bus from the harry potterbooks, only cold, dirty, uncomfortable, and smelling strongly of fetid feet. not the nicest 11 hours i’ve ever spent. and then we got dropped off in lijiang at 6 am, in the dark, with no idea where we were (not the bus station, certainly).
but, with a hefty dose of deductive reasoning and not a small amount of wandering, we found the town centre – which is quaint and cobbled, and full of handicrafts and food. we had a gorgeous breakfast, and then rented some mountain bikes for a nice long ride into the countryside, through picturesque naxi minority villages, rice fields and green mountains. i got sunburned (since it’s the first time my skin has seen daylight in a year), then we came back and relaxed with a beer and a hot shower.
beats the hell out of a monday in the office.
