We are back in Kunming again, and although we had no internet last time, I managed to find a network cable when I was hunting around for some lost papers. A little more investigation revealed a network port previously hidden. Best of all, this being a large city it has the fastest internet connection yet! We plan on making the most of it before we head off to Beijing tomorrow.
Today’s photos were taken on the way to Zhongdian, a small city (still 1 million people!) in Yunnan that borders onto Tibet. In fact, 90% of the population are Tibetan. It is about 3,500m above sea level and has been known to cause altitude sickness. Michelle was still feeling a bit ropey from her food poisoning and she slept most of the way there.
Zhongdian was renamed Shangrila in 2001 or so in an effort to boost tourism. It doesn’t seem to have had much of an effect on the Chinese tourists, though, as this was the most relaxed and tourist-free city on our trip. Once again we stayed in the old town, but unlike Lijiang most of the shops were actually locals selling local products. And one of those products is yak.
I had been keen to try yak meat ever since I saw the dried yak meat shops in Lijiang. Our guide, Benny, told me there would be plenty in Shangrila, and she was right! The first meal we had I ordered yak cooked with hot rocks. It was delicious! Unfortunately, the other yak dishes I had didn’t really compare, but we ended up back in the same restaurant on the last night, so I got to have it again.
By the time we left I had tried stone cooked yak, curry yak, stewed yak, yak in noodle soup, yak butter tea and yak yoghurt. Michelle was alternating between telling me I was sprouting horns and that I was growing yak fur. I could have used the fur, though, as it was pretty damned cold! The hotels require a smart card to be inserted to keep the power on, so as soon as we left our room the aircon and electric blanket would turn off.
We figured out a solution though and were able to thoroughly enjoy our time there. Michelle was feeling better each day and was back to her usual self by the time we landed in Kunming, asking where we were going for lunch almost as soon as we touched down.
