China Entry the Thirteenth: Tiger Leaping Gorge
We awake again to leave Lijiang at 8:30am to drive to Tiger Leaping Gorge, which is, not surprisingly, a gorge where a mythological tiger once lept across.
It's a drive, don't get me wrong. We stop on the way there at an overview of the Yangtze. Firstly, lovely. Take a look.
There's a Buddhist temple there, too. Inside, a Tibetan monk is visiting, and he reads Ho's fortune for him. Outside, a tiny child is learning his scriptures. It is, honestly, beautiful to look at. Lisa, however, uses the restroom here. She is braver than I am.
We arrive at Tiger Leaping Gorge in a light rain. We take the walk through the gorge, where we take many photos and learn stories about Chinese astrology. It's really lovely, but I will say this. Just because it's not in America, that doesn't mean it's by default better. It's very pretty, but for the scenery type "River cutting through dramatic gorge," I'll take either the Grand Canyon or many points where the New River cuts through Appalachia. That's all I'm saying. I'm not saying it wasn't beautiful, I'm saying that there are similar places that are more beautiful right here at home!
Tiger Leaping Gorge is also the home of the phrase of the trip (in my book). So, what you must know is that Lisa was having Ho translate many, many, many, many questions on the drive to the gorge. Then, at the gorge, there was "activity" across the way. A bunch of people were trying to pull something out of the river using a rope and a small motor boat. It turns out that a car had gone into the river, but we didn't know that. So we ask Ho to ask one of the security guards what's going on. As Ho is asking the security guard the question, we see him pointing at us. When he gets back, I make a joke that what he really said to the guard was "Those annoying white women over there want to know..." Ho looks at me completely deadpan and says, "Foreign devil wants to know ..."
Maybe you had to be there.
After Tiger Leaping Gorge, we stop at the White River Dam to see some more yak.
And then we stop at the first bend of the Yangtze to see that too!
Our last official stop for the day is at the Wetlands National Park to see not only wetlands, but also the INCREDIBLY FAMOUS BIRDS. This stop is supposed to be a 30-45 minute stop. I know, if you've ever traveled with us before, you are laughing.
(If you've never traveled with us before, I think this exchange can sum up what I'm trying to say. A few days later in Guilin, Lisa and Ho are considering whether to take a half-day city tour or a whole-day city tour. We have flights out at 5pm, but the whole day tour ends at 3pm so we could make it. I just look at Lisa, roll my eyes and say, "Those tours are timed based on people who take, like, an hour at each location. WE ARE NOT THOSE PEOPLE.")
Anyway, back to the story. To begin with, as soon as we have ALREADY paid our entrance fee to the Wetlands National Park, our guide (Country Mountain Flower was her name), explains to us that the birds only come out in the winter, so we will in fact not be seeing any birds.
Okay, then. That's fine. There's still scenery. No birds, but scenery! Here we come!
The first stop on the official tour is the exhibit hall, which hasn't been visited in so long that she actually has to go in and turn all of the lights on for us. And so we look at some photographs of birds that we will actually not be able to see.
Then it's time for a video! Except that Country Mountain Flower can't get the tv/video contraption to work. She places a call to the other girl working at the ticket desk. That girl manages to tear herself away from the mad rush of off-season visitors who are flocking to the wetlands to NOT see birds long enough to realize that she can't get the TV/video thing to work either. I pass the time while we wait by forcing Ho and Lisa to listen to me while I recount my favorite Legend of Zelda boss battles and strategies for winning them. Not long into this, we opt to skip the video and start the actual tour.
So, we start the tour, and the wetlands are indeed beautiful. We learn some Naxi and Yi symbols. We learn that in Naxi pictoral representation the character with the bigger hat is always representative of the male character.
The grass is pretty. We take pictures in the grass. We're all like, "At least we're getting some good scenery out of this."
We enter a Naxi compound. We're fascinated by the greetings on the door. The left side basically tells you to come in and rest your spirit in the home and the right side threatens harm to evil spirits. Lisa will later notice that most of the lion statues gaurding the doors on other buildings have a gentle looking lion on the left adn a ferocious one on the right, and Ho will deduce that this is probably related to the greeting messages on the Naxi doors. Ho and Lisa are more observant and bright than I am.
In the main area of the Naxi compound, a small Naxi man and his female companion (who we later learn is his neice) are cooking up a piece of ... possibly chicken ... in the communal cooking area. They invite us to sit for tea and talk (via Ho). It turns out that the man had once traveled to the US. Apparently, there is an institute in DC that works to preserve ancient writing types, and since he was a master Naxi writer, he went there to teach the written Naxi language. Lisa and I were in awe of what the process of taking a 14-hour flight in a massive jumbo jet to a SUPER BUSY foreign country must have been like for this man, who lives in a tiny village in a poor and rural area. We were amazed by it.
After we finish our tea, the man announced that he actually makes his own rice wine, and would we like to try it? Lisa doesn't really drink hard liquor and I am full of tea and also worried about the bathroom situation on the way back, so we pass. Ho, however, does not pass and rice wine is brought out. For the record -- Moonshine! MOONSHINE IN A PLASTIC JUG! I take one sip of Ho's and I nearly pass out on the spot. Ho finished the wine and proceeds to look at me with uncentered eyes almost immediately!
Lisa and I want to have the man create some scrolls for us. I can't write about that here because it will ruin the surprise for people later. But suffice it to say my "Can you do two for me," turns into "Can you do three for me," and Lisa's "Can you do one," turns into "Can you do three," and then Ho gets into the action. We are there for A LONG TIME.
In fact, we've now been there for so long that our guide comes looking for us. He's ready to leave. We're not even a quarter of the way into the wetlands.
And Ho and Lisa and Country Mountain Flower are not ready to leave! There will be more wetlands! Off we go!
It's about at this point and time that Lisa and I decide that Country Mountain Flower is the perfect woman for Ho, and we start pointing this out relentlessly. And when I say "relentless," I mean "RELENTLESS." Ho, Lisa and Country Mountain Flower all mosey out onto the wetland planes, and Lisa wants to take a picture of Ho and Country Mountain Flower. She brilliantly turns this into a solid five minute process wherein she keeps making the two of them move to different spots while she's "in search of the perfect picture," each time having them stand next together while she's all like, "Hmmm...wait....just stand there...hold on a second....Nope! Why don't you move over there!" I stand in the windbreak and laugh hysterically the entire time. We're wondering if Country Mountain Flower is figuring out what's going on, but if she does she's too classy to say anything. She also wants a copy of the picture, so she gives her address to Ho. Lisa and I see endless possibilities there!
We finally get in the car to head back to Lijiang. It's 7:00pm.
Our driver calls home and his family has already sat down to dinner (because, you know, it's 7:00pm). So he decides that he's coming out to dinner with us! We go to a Naxi place with a Naxi stage show and order ... NINE PLATES OF FOOD FOR FOUR PEOPLE. Plus beer! Dude, the driver makes out. He could have been home with his family of wife and all daughters listening to them yap in his hear, but instead he gets a massive feast, beer and a stage show without them! There is -- A LOT -- of food. It's almost unreal.
I also forgot this story. In the car on the way back to Lijiang, the driver turns to Ho and asks him if he has a headach. There are many, many ways to interpret that question, but Lisa and I decide that clearly the driver means, "Do you have a headache from listening to these gossipy women all day long?"
It was a good day. We fall asleep right away.
It's a drive, don't get me wrong. We stop on the way there at an overview of the Yangtze. Firstly, lovely. Take a look.
There's a Buddhist temple there, too. Inside, a Tibetan monk is visiting, and he reads Ho's fortune for him. Outside, a tiny child is learning his scriptures. It is, honestly, beautiful to look at. Lisa, however, uses the restroom here. She is braver than I am.
We arrive at Tiger Leaping Gorge in a light rain. We take the walk through the gorge, where we take many photos and learn stories about Chinese astrology. It's really lovely, but I will say this. Just because it's not in America, that doesn't mean it's by default better. It's very pretty, but for the scenery type "River cutting through dramatic gorge," I'll take either the Grand Canyon or many points where the New River cuts through Appalachia. That's all I'm saying. I'm not saying it wasn't beautiful, I'm saying that there are similar places that are more beautiful right here at home!
Tiger Leaping Gorge is also the home of the phrase of the trip (in my book). So, what you must know is that Lisa was having Ho translate many, many, many, many questions on the drive to the gorge. Then, at the gorge, there was "activity" across the way. A bunch of people were trying to pull something out of the river using a rope and a small motor boat. It turns out that a car had gone into the river, but we didn't know that. So we ask Ho to ask one of the security guards what's going on. As Ho is asking the security guard the question, we see him pointing at us. When he gets back, I make a joke that what he really said to the guard was "Those annoying white women over there want to know..." Ho looks at me completely deadpan and says, "Foreign devil wants to know ..."
Maybe you had to be there.
After Tiger Leaping Gorge, we stop at the White River Dam to see some more yak.
And then we stop at the first bend of the Yangtze to see that too!
Our last official stop for the day is at the Wetlands National Park to see not only wetlands, but also the INCREDIBLY FAMOUS BIRDS. This stop is supposed to be a 30-45 minute stop. I know, if you've ever traveled with us before, you are laughing.
(If you've never traveled with us before, I think this exchange can sum up what I'm trying to say. A few days later in Guilin, Lisa and Ho are considering whether to take a half-day city tour or a whole-day city tour. We have flights out at 5pm, but the whole day tour ends at 3pm so we could make it. I just look at Lisa, roll my eyes and say, "Those tours are timed based on people who take, like, an hour at each location. WE ARE NOT THOSE PEOPLE.")
Anyway, back to the story. To begin with, as soon as we have ALREADY paid our entrance fee to the Wetlands National Park, our guide (Country Mountain Flower was her name), explains to us that the birds only come out in the winter, so we will in fact not be seeing any birds.
Okay, then. That's fine. There's still scenery. No birds, but scenery! Here we come!
The first stop on the official tour is the exhibit hall, which hasn't been visited in so long that she actually has to go in and turn all of the lights on for us. And so we look at some photographs of birds that we will actually not be able to see.
Then it's time for a video! Except that Country Mountain Flower can't get the tv/video contraption to work. She places a call to the other girl working at the ticket desk. That girl manages to tear herself away from the mad rush of off-season visitors who are flocking to the wetlands to NOT see birds long enough to realize that she can't get the TV/video thing to work either. I pass the time while we wait by forcing Ho and Lisa to listen to me while I recount my favorite Legend of Zelda boss battles and strategies for winning them. Not long into this, we opt to skip the video and start the actual tour.
So, we start the tour, and the wetlands are indeed beautiful. We learn some Naxi and Yi symbols. We learn that in Naxi pictoral representation the character with the bigger hat is always representative of the male character.
The grass is pretty. We take pictures in the grass. We're all like, "At least we're getting some good scenery out of this."
We enter a Naxi compound. We're fascinated by the greetings on the door. The left side basically tells you to come in and rest your spirit in the home and the right side threatens harm to evil spirits. Lisa will later notice that most of the lion statues gaurding the doors on other buildings have a gentle looking lion on the left adn a ferocious one on the right, and Ho will deduce that this is probably related to the greeting messages on the Naxi doors. Ho and Lisa are more observant and bright than I am.
In the main area of the Naxi compound, a small Naxi man and his female companion (who we later learn is his neice) are cooking up a piece of ... possibly chicken ... in the communal cooking area. They invite us to sit for tea and talk (via Ho). It turns out that the man had once traveled to the US. Apparently, there is an institute in DC that works to preserve ancient writing types, and since he was a master Naxi writer, he went there to teach the written Naxi language. Lisa and I were in awe of what the process of taking a 14-hour flight in a massive jumbo jet to a SUPER BUSY foreign country must have been like for this man, who lives in a tiny village in a poor and rural area. We were amazed by it.
After we finish our tea, the man announced that he actually makes his own rice wine, and would we like to try it? Lisa doesn't really drink hard liquor and I am full of tea and also worried about the bathroom situation on the way back, so we pass. Ho, however, does not pass and rice wine is brought out. For the record -- Moonshine! MOONSHINE IN A PLASTIC JUG! I take one sip of Ho's and I nearly pass out on the spot. Ho finished the wine and proceeds to look at me with uncentered eyes almost immediately!
Lisa and I want to have the man create some scrolls for us. I can't write about that here because it will ruin the surprise for people later. But suffice it to say my "Can you do two for me," turns into "Can you do three for me," and Lisa's "Can you do one," turns into "Can you do three," and then Ho gets into the action. We are there for A LONG TIME.
In fact, we've now been there for so long that our guide comes looking for us. He's ready to leave. We're not even a quarter of the way into the wetlands.
And Ho and Lisa and Country Mountain Flower are not ready to leave! There will be more wetlands! Off we go!
It's about at this point and time that Lisa and I decide that Country Mountain Flower is the perfect woman for Ho, and we start pointing this out relentlessly. And when I say "relentless," I mean "RELENTLESS." Ho, Lisa and Country Mountain Flower all mosey out onto the wetland planes, and Lisa wants to take a picture of Ho and Country Mountain Flower. She brilliantly turns this into a solid five minute process wherein she keeps making the two of them move to different spots while she's "in search of the perfect picture," each time having them stand next together while she's all like, "Hmmm...wait....just stand there...hold on a second....Nope! Why don't you move over there!" I stand in the windbreak and laugh hysterically the entire time. We're wondering if Country Mountain Flower is figuring out what's going on, but if she does she's too classy to say anything. She also wants a copy of the picture, so she gives her address to Ho. Lisa and I see endless possibilities there!
We finally get in the car to head back to Lijiang. It's 7:00pm.
Our driver calls home and his family has already sat down to dinner (because, you know, it's 7:00pm). So he decides that he's coming out to dinner with us! We go to a Naxi place with a Naxi stage show and order ... NINE PLATES OF FOOD FOR FOUR PEOPLE. Plus beer! Dude, the driver makes out. He could have been home with his family of wife and all daughters listening to them yap in his hear, but instead he gets a massive feast, beer and a stage show without them! There is -- A LOT -- of food. It's almost unreal.
I also forgot this story. In the car on the way back to Lijiang, the driver turns to Ho and asks him if he has a headach. There are many, many ways to interpret that question, but Lisa and I decide that clearly the driver means, "Do you have a headache from listening to these gossipy women all day long?"
It was a good day. We fall asleep right away.
Labels: silly hats
posted by pregamejocelyn at
4:06 PM
permalink baby
1 Comments:
And you know, that picture above only shows HALF of the plates of food that were finally, somehow, after lots of maneuvering, placed on the table. -Water monkey
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Anonymous, at 11:54 AM
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