Lugu Lake

Trip Start Jun 11, 2005

114

Trip End Dec 22, 2005

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Flag of China Lugu Lake, China
Monday, August 15, 2005

After our Tiger Leaping Gorge disappointment we decided to find the great Chinese outdoors at Lugu Lake a supposedly 5 hour journey from Lijiang that turned out to be more than 8 hours due to frequent photo, toilet and meal stops. The scenery was spectacular as we wound our way through the mountains on beautiful winding roads. We finally got to Lugu in late afternoon but were told we would have to wait a further 1 1/2 hours at the lake as some of the people on our bus were sold a boat trip. Thankfully not all the people on our bus wanted to do this so we argued with the bus driver to take us on whilst they did the boat trip.

We finally arrived at one of the lakeside villages to find a pretty basic hotel with lots of mossies. Not quite what we were expecting at the end of a long day's travel. Lugo Lake is very beautiful but the villages are not well kept and the edges of the lake are dirty with effluence going directly in

Evening at Lugu Lake

. Apparently a few years ago it was very remote but it is now being developed very rapidly with little regard for quality.

The weather also took a turn for the worst with a huge thunder storm erupting that night, so we decided to move on again. We met a very nice chinese couple Be Be and Hou who were also heading our way and agreed to share transport.

We set off for another marathon journey into Sichuan (the next province). Also through amazing countryside, arriving at Xichan in late afternoon. Be Be helped us buy our onward train ticket and we then collapsed into a great value hotel (one of the best we've stayed at) for only GBP 8 a night. We treated ourselves to a nice dinner of
local oyster mushrooms, pork with salt crust and another pork dish with pickled vegetables (we had ordered chicken but they had run out and the chef had substituted)!! A good introduction to Sichuan cuisine, which is the spiciest of china with much use of chillies.

Having been in china for a month one thing we have not got used to is the continual hawking the chinese do which is especially bad on journeys!! As Tina and Miha said, it is like they are trying to dredge things up from the soles of their feet. They don't mind where they spit, even if you're eating in front of them and it is absolutely disgusting!

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