丽江Lijiang Days 2,3

Day 2 - Lashi Lake
After checking in at our new hotel (for the bargain rate of 40元/night) we set off to Lashi Lake. This was a cool place because we got to ride horses! A kindly gentleman led Karen and I on a 3-hour adventure which wound it's way through the farmland around the lake. After the horse-riding we hopped in a boat piloted by the same man who led the horses. I was amazed that after climbing a small mountain and trudging through mud and tall grass, this man didn't seem the least bit tired. We caught a car back to Lijiang and I noticed that most of the buildings were decorated with intersting artwork. The driver told us that this art was done by the locals and depicts the Naxi language and charactergrams. Very cool. I was still a bit sick that day, so I came back and crashed early in the hotel that night. My butt was also kind of sore.









Day 3 - Muhu Palace
I was hoping to recover from my cold, so we got started around 11am on day three. Due to my illness we planned a relaxing day enjoying Lijiang and seeing the Ming dynasty palace the town was built around. After a nice long walk trying to ignore the shopkeepers enticing us to buy their goods, we had a nice Naxi-style lunch. Just around the corner was the gate to the Muhu Palace. Besides the Forbidden Palace in Beijing, Muhu was one of the largest I had been to in China. It seemed to go on forever with many different palace buildings, gardens and apartments. We were also lucky to tag along with a Singaporean couple who had paid for a tour guide. It's always nice to get a history once in a while. The tour ended with a tasting of local teas. I found the Pu Er tea very interesting. Supposedly this is one of the more famous teas of the region. Dinner, and a little more shopping rounded out day 3 in Lijiang. Oh, and I got to hold a hawk.