Day 14: Tiger Leaping Gorge to Daju
Day 3 in the gorge. We're already completely worn out and our legs aren't as young as they used to be. So what do we do? Well, some of us decide we haven't had enough yet. ;) So we go in search of this place called the "bamboo forest" and the "big waterfall". Along the way on our quest, we conquer steep embankments and converse with flocks of goats. We never reach our destination, but we do find this really cool stream-like water source. There's a wall on one side of it about 12-18 inches thick, so we walk along that for a while trying to find out where it leads (by "along" I mean "on top of"). It was really cool, but I think it would've been even cooler if we had fresh legs. Sean's guesthouse (where we were staying) has really good food, but I think I've eaten enough to supply a small country and I should lay off eating for a while. (just kidding ... put just about anything edible in front of my face and I will probably eat it -- unless it is a bean or a carrot) After lunch we started out for Daju. This is the village most people go to at the end of their gorge trek in order to take the bus back to Lijiang (the closest "major" city).
In order to get to Daju from Sean's where we had been staying (which, by the way, was the first western toilet we'd seen in quite a significant time) we first had to hike for a while over the "highway" that goes through the gorge. Okay, so it was paved road and we didn't have to do any steep climbing for a while. But I had a few pebbles in my shoes, and my left foot always gives me grief after I've walked a while, and somehow being on pavement actually was making my back more sore than going over rugged terrain. After a few hours of this (the hike to Daju was alledgedly 4 hours -- I think we did it in 5 maybe??) we started going up to a little village (following the highway) instead of down towards the river where we could catch a ferry across to Daju. I was starting to get a little ancy and just plain tired after already having hiked for a while. We passed through the village and some nice people told us where to turn off to take the ferry. It was a dirt road. My feet kinda liked it better for some reason, but again after a while I was just worn out. I was cranky. My feet hurt. I had rocks in my shoes. We didn't know where we were going. It felt like....we were wandering in the wilderness. And that was when I started thinking about some other people who also had to wander around, not knowing where exactly they were going or when they would get there. Their feet probably hurt too. They probably were tired often the time, and cranky, and they probably complained a lot. (okay, they did complain a lot) And it just hit me that here I was complaining about a few hours of hiking with a 6-kg pack on my back in good weather with some friends, knowing eventually we would figure out how to get where we wanted to go. The Israelites wandered around for 40 years. 40 YEARS. And God never let their sandals or clothes wear out. Here I was complaining after less than 4 hours. What was I complaining about? And while I was so busy complaining, I was missing a great opportunity to enjoy being in the country and enjoy the world around me. We were in a valley in the middle of mountains, for crying out loud, walking on a dirt road through all these fields in southern China. When I finally shut up (my mind, not my mouth -- I was pretty quiet) was when I started listening more to what God was trying to tell me. I complain about so many things -- so many little, unimportant things -- and when that happens I miss the things that are really important, or helpful, or beautiful.
Eventually we did get to the ferry and crossed the river. Somehow clean (mountain) water in this part of China is a gorgeous turquoise blue color naturally. It turned out that to get to Daju was still a good hike, albeit a much easier one. This part of the hike was really, really neat because again we were walking on dirt roads, but just think: these are the roads around here. There aren't really any paved roads to speak of outside of town. The cars, motorcycles, bicycles, horses, cows, etc. all use these roads to get places. That's it. The houses were really neat -- again a kind of traditional "Chinese-looking" house, kind of like a Hutong in Beijing, except these are really the real thing. People live in them still. The design is a courtyard surrounded by buildings on each side. Usually one building is the kitchen/eating area, one is the living area, one is the sleeping area, and whatever else you need in the other, use your imagination, etc. When we finally got to town we found our little guest house -- the Snowflake Guesthouse -- and guess what: it is one of those houses. And the woman who owns it also lives there with her family. HOW COOL!!! :) I was way excited to be staying in a place like that. She fixed our food for us -- traditional Naxi style (that's the local minority group here, and most of the people in the village are that minority) -- and it was SO DELICIOUS. I so wish I could cook like her. My favorite thing on the menu tonight: fried goat cheese. Goat cheese is pretty mild, but has a distinct flavor that you either like or you don't. I like it. :) Again, it was great to just be able to fall asleep with no cars. You could actually see stars at night. Everything was quiet and peaceful. I could live like that....
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