Further life and times of *liltayinchina*

I'm writing a quick message from a business center in one of the fancy hotels located in the new town of Lijiang. We rented bicycles this morning and tooled around the city looking for an Internet cafe, finally deciding to try a fancy hotel and lo and behold, it worked! The bicycles will carry us out of town to a very small village north of Lijiang. We're in search of frescos and a couple of noteworthy Monasteries. Last night we attended a Naxi Orchestra performance, both of us doting on the 80-yr-old plus members of the orchestra. I'm not going to write too much more - just wanted to say that we're doing well and survived the 30 hour train ride. For me, it was like camp!

My computer is out of juice so I bought a journal today and am trying to keep track of everything we've done so far. Tomorrow we're taking a bus to Daju (north of the gorge) and will begin the trek towards Walnut Grove where we'll stay the night. We'll finish the gorge the following day and take a bus back to Lijiang from Qiaotou. Dali is our last stop before heading back to Kunming to fly home. My friend in Hong Kong has offered a place to stay if I want to go there after Mike leaves and I'm considering it. Otherwise, I'll head north to Pingyao or southwest to Guilin - both places I'd like to visit before I return to the States in July.

One last thing, we met a student of Naxi Culture when we went to Black Dragon Pool yesterday and he taught us a few Naxi words. Goodbye is "Lei Do Do"...

LEI DO DO! ~Lillis