Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Tea-horse road to the sky

China-Lijiang-road
Lady, lady, I take you today. No ticket! No tourist!


I'm standing in the town square reviewing my inventory of polite rejections when, lo and behold, my rogue intuition wrests its way to the forefront and I hear myself saying, "Okay, so where are we going?" An abnormally large Naxi woman emerges from the shadows and sizes me up. "You ride horse?" she asks rather skeptically. "Sure, I ride horse," I respond indignantly, at once calling to mind a favorite movie, True Grit.

Rooster Cogburn: Mr. Rat, I have a writ here says you're to stop eating Chin Lee's cornmeal forthwith. Now it's a rat writ, writ for a rat, and this is lawful service of the same. See, doesn't pay any attention to me.
[shoots the rat]
Chin Lee: [Runs into the room] Outside is place for shooting!
Rooster Cogburn: I'm servin' some papers!

Okay, I know that had nothing to do with anything, but I liked it.

Anyway, thanks to trusty intuition, and the kind attention of my guides Richard and Li, I had a most magical day. I rode a shaggy little horse four hours up a steep mountain trail -- the very path that for hundreds of years has linked southwest China to Tibet. At the summit were views of the Yangtze River and the breathtaking Snow Mountains, known to us as the Himalaya.

When the blue haze lifted, I could see all the way to everywhere.

China-Lijiang-mountaintop-village
TO THE LEFT OF THE CENTER PEAK IS THE MOUNTAIN VILLAGE
China-Lijiang-meadow
ALPINE FLOWERS AND CROPS
China-Lijiang-marijuana-1
MARIJUANA MAKES A PRETTY CONTRAST
China-Lijiang-village-on-mountain
THE NAXI VILLAGE
China-Lijiang-Lashi-Lake
VIEW OF LASHI LAKE
China-Lijiang-Marie-on-pony
ME LIVING LARGE ON A TEENY TINY HORSE
China-Lijiang-pepper-berries
PEPPER BERRIES
Naxi woman harvesting berries
China-Lijiang-mountain-ladies
NAXI WOMEN PICKING PEPPER BERRIES
Naxi boy and cabbage
A BOY HIDING BEHIND HIS CABBAGE
Naxi boy without his cabbage
AFTER TEN MINUTES OF CAJOLING HE'S READY TO POSE
Naxi doghouse
ALPINE DOGHOUSE
Naxi tent
THE MASTER'S CAMPSITE
China-Lijiang-Yangtze-again
THE YANGTZE RIVER
China-Lijiang-Yangtze-vista
LOOKING TOWARD TIBET
China-Lijiang
MY TRAIL GUIDE
China-Lijiang-trusty-steeds
OUR TRUSTY LITTLE STEEDS
China-Lijiang-silhouette
MARIE AND RICHARD INCONSEQUENTIAL
Lijiang men
THE NAXI MEN AFTER I BLEW THEM A KISS!

1 comment:

The13th said...

More photos! Nice!!! Great stuff Marie.