Dancers in the old town square

Oh dear. We arrived at Lijiang in the very wee hours of the morning. It was still very dark out. Instead of sleeping a little longer on the bus like the other passengers seemed to be doing, we sluggishly dragged our bags off and found a cab. The driver nodded when we showed him the card to the hostel we wished to go to, and off we went. Apparently he didn’t actually know what he was talking about. So he called the number on the card, presumably to ask directions. Hanging up, he told us that the place was full. After some confusing signaling (was the driver asking us if we wanted to sleep at his place?) and pointing to the address of another hostel he started to drive again. (Did I mention the car heater was on? I can’t remember the last time I was in a car with a heater.) We seemed to do a loop around the Old Town when we turned down one of the cobbled streets. The driver got out. Was he looking for the address? Oh no, he was just looking for a REALLY expensive hotel where he kindly suggested we spend the night. Yeh right. #1 paying that much for a room in such a place was ridiculous, #2 I am paying the driver for the ride, not a commission on a hotel room. We gave the driver some kuai and sent him on his way. I had seen a little hotel just up the road from where the driver had dropped us off, so we headed in that direction. The staff didn’t speak English, and we can barely utter a couple of words of Chinese, but somehow we (thankfully) were able to get a room. Instead of having us register right away, the grandma who appeared to be running the show motioned for us to shower and sleep. Grateful for her hospitality and understanding of the plight of a weary traveler, I didn’t argue with her suggestion. The temperature in Lijiang is definitely colder than anywhere we have been in months, and the steaming hot shower followed by a quick jump into the electric-blanket heated bed was the perfect remedy to the cold morning.

Lijiang is just so cute (albeit in a recently-recreated way), I just wanted to put up a few more pics so you could see what its like wandering down the cobblestone alleys.