Day 3.
We were picked up at our Li Jiang hotel at 7:30, and our guide and driver took us 3 hours to a small town called Shaxi, a relatively untouched village in a charming valley.
In the hills above Shaxi we stopped at an interesting temple built into the side of the cliffs. As I viewed the entrance and the 1,000 steps behind it, I was both dismayed and determined. Incidentally, the “urinate” sign I showed you in Day 2 was in fact located in the restroom to the right.
Off to the left of the entrance were some interesting carvings on the rock wall.
Halfway way up I looked up at my destination…
…and down whence I came,
…and all you could get out of me at the time was really heavy breathing and a breathless “I’m OK, I’m OK.”
We finally reached the main temple, which was loaded with Buddhas of every color…
(in at least two meanings of the word)…,
…and thus had only a few thousand more steps (i.e., 50) to get to the upper part of the temple.
It reminded me of a monastery my wife and I saw in Greece.
Up here we encountered playful monkeys,…
…a dripping waterfall,…
…and a sign with spacing problems.
It was early in the day, and I think we might have been the first visitors. Soon there were others…
whose sole purpose for their visit seemed to be to bribe the monkeys with junk food.
The golden happy Buddha called out to FII to stop and pay homage.
FII and I started to head down when we simultaneously wondered aloud how these monks were supplied with the staples of life. The answer was supplied almost immediately by these old but clearly tough women.
We left the temple, drove a short way, and descended into a ravine to see an old grotto,…
…only to have to climb back up. (Heavy breathing.)
In the town of Shaxi, we were taken to a house/restaurant with an unusual circular entrance,…
…a charming courtyard,…
…and an even more charming chef/mother/hostess (the one on the right).
No written menu. We were ushered into the kitchen…
…and shown the cooler with the veggies she had on hand that day.
She asked us what meat we wanted. I don’t remember how we responded, but the result was our hostess going out to the courtyard, standing on a small chair, and grabbing one of the 50 pieces of meat hanging just above us.
So, while we sat in the courtyard sipping tea,
…our chef chopped…
…and stir-fried,…
…her way to a delicious lunch of 4 different dishes. The meat in this dish tasted like country ham.
After we said our farewells, our guide took us to our “hotel”…
…that, despite the cold weather, had a nice yellow shrub in its courtyard.
After being dumped by our guide, then dumping our stuff in our room,…
…ignoring the complimentary safe-sex accessories on the middle table,…
…we headed out to tour the town. We went first downhill about a block to the river, which turned out to be an upper section of the Mekong (from Vietnam War notoriety),…
…part of which was diverted to create this picturesque canal along the new riverside park.
From what we saw of this town, it is in the process of positioning itself as a tourist destination for savvy but not high discriminating travelers.
We headed back through the “old town,”…
…spotting more of those strange trucks…
…and little carts powered by motorcycle engines.
It was an interesting town with lots going on, even though the weather was overcast and occasionally a little rainy. This couple was selling some meat they butchered.
We weren’t quite sure what the meat was, but an errant piece beneath the table gave us a hint,…
…later confirmed by a different view.
Friday is market day in Shaxi, and we heard it is wild and crazy. We were there on a Monday.
As soon as I took out my camera, the girl on the right in the hooded jacket pulled up her hood so she wouldn’t be photographed, while the woman in green was hamming it up.
Some locals evidently keep, at least temporarily, their pet fish in the gutter.
This couple was plucking a chicken on the sidewalk. Sorry the photo’s a little blurry, but I felt I should be surreptitious in obtaining.
At least they were being moderately fastidious.
We must have had dinner, but I can’t remember where, so it mustn’t have been very memorable. Maybe chicken. Either that or my memory is failing – but we know that can’t be.
That was Day 3.
保罗
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