It’s very difficult to wake up when your room has no windows and it’s freezing cold and raining outside. We both battled to get going this morning – sore and stiff from two days hiking. We decided to take it easy and spend an extra day here before heading back to Lijiang and then to Chengdu.

We have had to dig our shoes and fleeces out of our packs – my feet don’t know what is going on but it is rewarding to stroll through puddles without getting wet for a change. We went in search of breakfast on the way to the bank and found the well know Noah Cafe and an excellent western breakfast. That’s 2/2 brilliant meals here. Fully stuffed we walked it off while looking for a China Construction Bank branch. The only item on the to-do-list for the day was to deposit cash for our Tibet tour. Once again through sign language and a bit of blind luck we managed to deposit money into an account – could have been anyone’s account. We got confirmation later from the tour operator. Relief and success !

I got to spend a couple of uninterrupted hours on the PC at the hostel uploading photos and getting the photo link to posts working more or less how I want (it’s not pretty but it works).

After getting some laundry done using a fantastic contraption (I think it is called a ‘washing machine’ ?) we hung it out on the hostel roof with the aid of Martin’s wash-line and a break in the weather. The afternoon was spent wandering the streets and alleys of Shangrila old town. The place is tiny, completely geared for westerners and empty but with slightly more ‘character’ than the other ‘tourist’ towns we have been in. It has the added benefit of having a number of outdoor gear shops, mostly ‘North Fake’, and mostly clothing, but any gear puts an unjustifiably large grin on our faces 🙂 We didn’t find anything except a cap for V but it was ball. It only took only a couple of hours to stroll around the entire town. I snapped some cool looking buildings, streets, doors and windows. A great way to chill out in an enjoyable little spot.

After another (that’s 3/3) excellent meal (home made pasta and pizza) at a well know, Italian run restaurant in China ! (Helens Pizza), we returned to the hostel and started chatting to an older Italian guy. He is a true walking encyclopedia of Chinese towns and transport links (apparently he has been touring here for years). Once he starts imparting information it is impossible to get him to stop but the end result is that we will head North and loop back to Chengdu. Only the first 300km is difficult (takes 12 hours by bus) – we’ll see some incredible scenery and possibly a beautiful national park if the weather clears. A large portion of the trip is above 4000m – I’ll leave the details to V but it looks like we’ll be buying bus tickets tomorrow and heading off on Monday morning.

[Pictures: a Tibetean Stupa in Shangrila old town. The yak burger restaurant is to the right (out of shot)]

– Posted from my iPhone via Wifi