Lijiang first couple of days

Lijiang First Days
So we arrived well enough after the midnight train ride. It was a bit overwhelming arriving at a hotel house. I figured that we would just be staying with one of their friends because that is what would have been done in the states. Well, we didn’t have the house to ourselves. There were five rooms with 3-5 beds in each room. There was a tourist group staying in the other rooms. Well, they were a group who woke up at 6:00am and ate at 6:15am. You might think that this would be no problem, but Chinese do not think about being considerate of other people. It seems like a very self absorbed people, but this is just how they were raised. So at 6:00am, it got very loud in the house. My room was right next to the dining area so I had the luxury of hearing them for a solid hour talk (loudly) with each other planning their day. Luckily, this only went on for three days. We got “out of bed” at 9:00am to eat and then walked over the “new” old town. The modern area was filled with cafes and restaurants, but when you walk outside the modern area you see the old houses and mountain areas and wild goats.  At the top of one of the mountains, you might see some flags. It is a Tibetan tribute. Well, after walking around see tons of shops selling all the same little “tourist” trinkets, we were picked up to go to the hostesses house.  

  
Well, they had been grilling a goat the entire day. Needless to say, we ate goat for the next three days. I am not saying that it is a bad thing, but too much of a good thing…well you know the saying.  Well, after eating a HUGE meal. It was of course time to sit down and eat more. So we had the meal then a little later, they made dumplings. A LOT OF DUMPLINGS!!!! Well, after eating too much to even think about breakfast, we retired for the day only to wake up the next morning to arrive back at the lady’s house to, you guessed it, EAT!!! At least after the meal all we had planned was to climb the side of a hill. Well, you might see the pagoda at the top of this hill. So the Chinese constructed this nice concrete stair/path that leads up to the pagoda and gives a nice view of the city and snow mountain. I don’t know how much it costs to take the path, but apparently, it was too much. So we had the pleasure of find a hole in the barbwire fence and climb the side of a hill. We also had two 5 years-olds with us. I know the hill does not look that bad, but it was definitely not any picnic walking up the side of it. I ripped holes in my jeans.