Hello all. Well I missed a day sending you an email and you'll find out why in a bit. Every day is an adventure on this trip! Yesterday morning when I woke up I thought the Buddhas had worked out their jealousy since it was a picture perfect day and not a cloud in the sky. So I got up early and walked around the "old town" portion of Shangri-la which is similar to Lijiang in that it is closed off to all traffic and there's all these cobblestone streets with shops and restaurants everywhere. It's not quite as quaint as Lijiang but it's still nice. It's at a much higher altitude so it was very cold in the morning. I started just walking down the various alleyways trying to "get lost" and came across a smaller town square sort of area. They're having some type of ceremony or something where several dignitaries are sitting on a stage speaking and all these kids (all dressed in what appears to be army type pants) standing in line and listening. I guess they're indoctrinating them early into the Red Army Brigade! Right above where this stage was is another temple with a huge golden Tibetan prayer wheel which someone says was the largest outside of Tibet. So I ventured up there and checked it out. If you're ever near a Tibetan prayer wheel, always walk around it clockwise (who knows what will happen to you if you don't!) The weather was so gorgeous I decided to see about heading out to the Pu Dacuo National Park which was only about 45 minutes drive out of town. I went back to the hostel and they called a driver (for $15 this guy will drive me there, wait for me to finish hiking and drive me back. Can't beat it). So I got to the park about Noon and it was so funny, I get to the first stop and there is this large group of Chinese kids (all in their 20's) and they were staying at my hostel and I had spoken with a couple of them the day before briefly. So they asked me to join them so we all hiked around the park together for about 4 hours. It was nice, but nowhere near as beautiful as Juizhaigou. And halfway thru the trip, the Buddhas must have been going at it again, because it clouded up and started to snow like crazy. Well when we get off at this one stop, the snow is flying and the Chinese kids are going crazy taking tons of pictures and the one who spoke the best english told me they were all from a place down near Hong Kong that never gets snow, and this was the first time they had ever saw real snow! That was cool. I told them I'd take them all to Pittsburgh someday to show them some real snow!! LOL. This park is also even higher than Shangri-la and so we were up at about 14,000 feet. (I'll send pictures in a separate email). I saw lots of people with oxygen canisters but luckily it didn't affect me. We then got back to the hostel around 5 or so and they invited me to come to dinner with them which was really cool. We went to this place right around the corner that was somewhat of a hole in the wall but the food was great. The food is called "hot pot" which is sort of like the Melting Pot concept, but when they bring you the food it's already pretty much cooked and you just let it simmer a bit but you add all kinds of fresh vegetables into it and they cook up real fast. It's also pretty spicy! It had both Yak meat, which is really beef, and chicken. Several of them actually spoke pretty good english and it was funny, they were peppering me with all kinds of questions about the USA. They especially wanted to know about what people thought about Obama and who would win the next election as well as about our economy. It was great conversation. We all then just go back to the hostel and are hanging around talking when about 9 PM, the power goes out! So no biggie at first, they just bring out a bunch of candles and we keep just chatting away. Well about 20 minutes later they say, the power will not be coming back on all night! And it's probably about 25 degrees outside and there will be no electricity and NO HEAT all night long!! It was friggin cold!!! So that's why I wasn't able to email you all, I had no Internet even though I had battery left on my tablet. So today you'll get two emails since you didn't get one yesterday! I somehow managed to get some sleep and got up early and took the 8:30 AM bus back to Lijiang (this time, no hassle with the bus stations since there's only one in Shangri-la!) and I got settled back into the hostel and will just kick back and catch up on some emails and do laundry. Tomorrow will be an all day travel day since I'll fly from Lijiang to Chengdu with a layover at the airport and then a flight to Yangshou which is my next destination. The highs there are supposed to be 75 to 80... I can't wait! I need warmth!! LOL. I hope everyone had a good weekend and a great Monday. I heard that after several cheap shots and cheating plays that the Ravens squeaked a win out over the Steelers. We'll get them back in the playoffs! Happy Tuesday to all!! Jeff PS: I only have one week left on my trip!
The Wandering Italian 