tiger leaping…not

how do you deal with defeat and disappointment on the trip of a lifetime? we spent all of yesterdaytrying to find a way to get to tiger leaping gorge – a stunning and rigorous 2 day trek along the worlds deepest gorge, and by all accounts, one of the highlights of a trip to china. yet we were continually stymied in our quest – none of the buses were running. ticket agents, travel agents, youth hostels – all told us “no tickets, no bus”, but were unable to tell us any more. was it poor planning because it was a national holiday? was everything fully booked? were the buses running at all? would they be running tomorrow? no one could tell us, and we couldn’t ask. there was a rumour of an accident on the roadway (notoriously bad conditions) but a search of google china (ha!) turned up nothing. we asked everywhere and everyone we could think of. then we made a last ditch effort at just showing up at the bus station bright and early, cash in hand, hoping for a miracle. no luck. we’d come specifically all the way to lijiang with the intention of using it as a departure point for the gorge, and had to admit it wasn’t going to happen. crushing disappointment, as we’d both been looking forward to it so eagerly. but with our limited resources and information, we were at a dead end.

i am trying to take it in stride. intellectually i know that these kinds of things happen, and you just have to roll with the punches sometimes. instead we’re going to dali, a little backpackers’ haven that we’d ruled out in favour of the gorge. we’re trying to make the best of it, and i know it’s all part of the experience of living day to day on the road. (and perhaps even a blessing in disguise, as j was feeling under the weather after some yak meat that didn’t agree with him – feeling subpar would’ve made for a very difficult hike.)

still. once i get my mind fixed on something, i have a hard time letting go.

ah well, gives us and excuse to come back i suppose. not that we needed any.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, 3 May, 2006 at 9:39 am and is filed under china. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.