Donkeys, Tigers and Naxi Pancakes

Thursday 7th December 2006

Another early morning rise to catch a mini bus a few hours to a settlement called Qiaotou the begining of Tiger Leaping Gorge walk – the deepest gorge in the world. Before catching our bus we had time for an authentic chinese breakfast which Bora ordered for us, steamed buns with soya sauce. The steamed buns were great but the soya sauce first thing in a morning does not do it for me especially when my insides felt like coarse sandpaper. What I did love though was the authenticity of it, this was daily life in china with four foreigners sat at a little street table eating real chinese breakfasts. What a great feeling that I couldn’t even begin to explain on here. We met our “guide” Sean once we got off the bus. Sean is a remarkable guy, not only did he make the path through the gorge himself, but he taught himself english through offering free accomodation to those who trecked through the gorge, all this ontop of having a disability with his arm. We set off for our first of two 11k hikes. Local’s were perched at farmhouse gates with donkeys, at first I thought this was show for the benefit of the tourists but then they began to follow us. Flash backs of the great wall came to mind, were they going to try and sell us a t shirt? Surely not in this unspoilt environment, perhaps they were just on their way home or something…. Our first two hours we passed through a few qaint villages – Landou village and Nuo Yu village with a luch stop at the Naxi GuestHouse where we were greated with free green tea and water. However the donkey men were still following us. We soon found out why after lunch. The walk got tougher as the afternoon sun came beating down, what started off with three layers and waterproof ended up with 1 t shirt and zip off trousers into shorts. All in the name of “28 bends” up to the highest point on the treck. Emily was struggling a little, so this is where the donkey men came into play. Throughout the walk they kept asking her “you want donkey” – eventually she gave in and “had donkey” through much negotiation whilst the rest of us struggled on with our sweaty backpacks. It was well worth the struggle up the mountain, but to greet us at top were 2 Little ladies who had set up stall of walnuts, chocolate and water – prices probably represented that of a pretentious bar in the middle of London. To add to this exploitation of treckers one of the ladies was charging to take a picture of the view, so onwards we walked to take picture of the view further along. I wasnt aware that the ladies owned the view. The rest of the walk was downhill to our home for the evening “tea horse guesthouse” a quaint guesthouse with a courtyard. Showers were outside but clean, and although the toilets were not even squat but more gutter style they too were clean. The view was impecable mountains rose tall all around us, as we met others on the treck and settled down to playing cards for the rest of the evening – a full international group of spanish, isreali, russian, english and australian. Some of the guys tried “rice wine” – no thanks not for me, I stick to the tea. Free banana pancakes went down very well.