Day 104 of Asia 2019 trip
Kunming (昆明) is the capital of Yunnan province and naturally we had to head that way to get out of the province. We decided not to stop in the popular Dali (大理) because it didn't interest us that much. It didn't seem like there was much to see apart from the famous Three Pagodas.
Day 103 of Asia 2019 trip
Whoo hoo! A could tick off Tiger Leaping Gorge off his bucket list! Our plan for TLG had gone without a hitch and most importantly, there was no rain. Now, having bought our bus ticket back to Lijiang from Tibet guesthouse the night before, it was time to say good bye to this great wonder.
Day 102 of Asia 2019 trip
Day 2 on the Tiger Leaping Gorge trail and our bodies were still kinda tired from the previous day.
Day 101 of Asia 2019 trip
Hiking Tiger Leaping Gorge (虎跳峽, hutiaoxia) was something that was on the top of A‘s list for this trip. This was his number one.
Tiger Leaping Gorge is an impressive gorge in between two huge mountain ranges - Haba Snow Mountain(5396m elevation) and Yulong Snow Mountain (5596m elevation). These two mountains are some of the tallest mountains in Yunnan province. The river that runs in the gorge is the Jinsha river (Gold Sand river).
Day 100 of Asia 2019 trip
We were supposed to stay in Lijiang for one night and move on to Tiger Leaping Gorge. We stayed another night as the power of the sun was not enough to dry our clothes, which meant that it would need another day! It's a bit of a silly reason but I didn't mind so much, as this meant we could climb Elephant Hill, which was right beside Black Dragon Lake and had an elevation of 2700m. Lijiang itself has an elevation of 2400m.
Day 99 of Asia 2019 trip
Lijiang (麗江 or if you prefer the bastardised version: 丽江) means “beautiful river”. I'm pretty sure the name refers to the Jinsha river (Gold Sand river), which is quite a signifant river as it flows into and forms the Yangtze river (a.k.a. Chang Jiang/Long river) in Sichuan province. The Jinsha itself is formed in Qinghai province and is used heavily for hydro power. Interestingly, Lijiang is bordered in the East and West by the Jinsha river.
Day 98 of Asia 2019 trip
A had checked the weather for Lijiang, China and the horizon was not looking good. The rain was forecast to start on Sunday, and he really really wanted to do Tiger Leaping Gorge in good weather (well, there's just no other way to do it, really) so we have to vamos and get out of Vietnam. It's supposedly rainy season around this time of the year for Lijiang (which looked like it would start this Sunday). Sigh, there goes my plan of staying in Sa Pa town for 2 more days :\
So… goodbye South East Asia. It's been fun. I'll miss you!
HELL-OH China! We will be spending a TONNE of time in the Middle Kingdom.
Day 2 of Asia 2019 trip
We had another day in Singapore but I can't say we did a whole lot. Met up with a mate and did some shopping and that was it, really. You'll notice the only pics below are of food ;)
Day 0 of Asia 2019 trip
We are embarking on a trip of a lifetime, one that has been in the back of our minds for a few years now! A quit his job, I told my job “see you later”, our rental agreement ended, we got rid of basically all our furniture and are now ready to spend the better part of a year on the road. Living simply, living out of our backpacks.
Ip + Bush = ish
Travel + ish + good food = travelishcious