5:30am taxi ride to the airport is no fun!

Lijiang

/
0 Comments


5:30am taxi ride to the airport is no fun!


I love traveling and making the most of my day but sometimes it is a drag to go from airport to airport carrying stuff.
Last night I was going to book a taxi when I saw that someone had reserved one already for 5:30am so I went up to his room and asked if we could share the ride. He ended up being another guy traveling the girl and it was fun to hear his stories and get some tips for my upcomind destinations.

I arrived in Lijiang and since I booked a hostel last minute last night I just read that it was in the old town where everything is but I did not realize it was Shuhe Old Town and not Lijiang old town. They are probably 30 minutes away from each other but getting to Shuhe proved to be a really big challenge! I got into the number 6 local bus and was watching the route on my phone and somehow we went another way!!!! I didn’t understand what happened, it showed that it dropped off somewhat closed to the hostel. I stayed in the bus for a couple of stops since I put a reverse route and it wasn’t in that direction. I got to a small town in the middle of nowhere and got off, it seemed like everybody was looking at me. I had run out of 1yuan bills for the bus so I went to buy a banana to get some change and the bus came, I ran to get on it. It appeared that this bus #6 was not going near my hostel either so I got off as close as I could and walked for about 30 mins with all my stuff.

Once I entered Shuhe I was amazed to see that they are repairing half of the town’s ground and it was almost impossible to walk on the streets to get to my hostel. I finally reached my hostel and oh my! no one, absolute no one of the staff spoke english! Not even a little! It was so so so hard to communicate! I dropped off my bags and went downstairs, the girl at the front desk asked me if I was hungry and I said I would eat later but she didn’t understand me! She actually took me by the hand and sat me at the restaurant across from the hostel! haha She even ordered for me! Good thing she understood I was vegetarian! 



After lunch I decided to walk the old town I couldn't help but think how fake most of these Chinese cities are. I mean, they are charming and nice but they are such a tourist trap. There is actually nothing to do other than shop and eat. I felt the same way walking in Chengdu in both the alleys and Jinli street. All these streets have been remodeled to look oldish in a sense and are filled with rows and rows and rows of shops! Then the streets are filled with people taking selfies... I feel like I would much rather look at temples but it also could be that I'm on almost week 4 in China and those little town have been more of the same all around the country. 








The more I think about it the more I feel like the towns that are annoying me are those that don't have any cultural aspect to them, those that at 7pm are dead because the shops have closed and it's a ghost town since no one lived in it. I'm thinking of Hongcun and how much I enjoyed walking around that little town and see people living their everyday life, doing their chores and being themselves.

It wasn’t until I walked for a long time that I was able to start to like Shuhe and enjoy its old streets.






This is a crazy thing about China... A LOT of people prepare their food on the street! They chop and peel vegetables right where people walk!



On my last day in Lijiang I left the hostel and walked to catch the bus but with so much construction the streets were blocked and I didn’t know how to get out of there. I asked a couple of people and showed them my phone to find my way out but they were not helpful. Then, I saw a couple with a baby and asked for help, we could barely communicate but they made signs telling me that they would take me to the bus stop! I was so happy!


 I was supposed to leave early for Shaxi but when I got to the bus terminal they informed me that the earliest bus was at 1:30pm so I happily stored my bag and went to explore Lijiang old town. 


From the moment I entered the town I absolutely loved it! I entered through the market and was able to see the people from the town get their groceries and it felt like an authentic experience, like real Chinese life. I very much enjoyed watching people getting fruits and vegetables, saw how (mostly) women carry a plastic box like a backpack and the sellers put their purchases inside it. 




It was early in the morning so I got to see the town mostly closed which made it so much more enjoyable! Loved walking the stone streets up and down looking at the beautiful houses and it wasn’t until 2-3 hours into my exploration that I started to see the over commercialized and very touristic part of Lijiang.

Here's the local market:






Tea tea tea and more tea!


 Start of the old town!







These pastries have rose petals inside... they are good!




I really wanted to see the snow capped mountain from the town so I walked towards it. Once I reached the sight I took a picture, turned around to walk back and some people in uniform asked me for my ticket. Ticket? Ticket for what I asked, they told me I had to pay 80 yuans ($12or so) to enter Lijiang, to go the same way I came! That’s non sense! So I decided not to pay and walked the long way back to the market so I could buy some fruit and food to the ride to Shaxi!


(Photo of me eating Tofu on a stick... probably covered in MSG!)


Now off to Shaxi!




You may also like

About Post Author

Hi! It's me... Andrea! In 2016 I decided to drop everything and take a year to enrich my life and travel around the world. It turns out the world is just too big for 12 months! Still on the road and sharing my experience as a solo female traveler around the globe!

No comments:

Powered by Blogger.

Subscribe

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Instagram

About me




Hi! It's me... Andrea!

In this blog you can live vicariously through my journey around the world!

Please feel free to share tips or places to go!
Contact me: andreaheartstraveling@gmail.com