In the middle of the night on July 2nd we got to Kunming, China. We were in Kunming for 4 nights and then we took an eight hour bus ride to Lijiang. After that we took a two hour car ride to Tiger Leaping Gorge. The bus ride has hard because it was so so so hot and you can’t watch Netflix in China.

Shangri-La is this small town with an “Old Town” and “New Town”. Old town was burned down in 2013 and they rebuilt it. My parents came through China in 2005 when they were traveling. They met this guy named Eric in Lijiang and he told them that he was going to this town called Zhongdian and that they should come with him. Zhongdian was the original name of Shangri-La but the Chinease government changed it to increase tourism. When they were in Shangri-La they met Jason (the guy from Bali) in the bar he owned called The Raven. Then Jason invited them to go on a road trip to the nomad country.

Eric happened to be in China while we’re here. He now has a wife named Dasa and a kid named Soren who is now one of Decker’s new best “dudes”. He loves Star Wars, Legos, Star Wars Legos, and Nerf. All of Decker’s favorites. Every morning Decker says, “When is Soren coming, when is Soren coming, when is Soren coming?!” After the fire they rebuilt The Raven in new town. We’ve been going a lot.

On Saturday we went to The Raven and met with this guy named Tsebho. He is really good friends with Eric and Jason. He has a really cute kid named Alladin (All-A-deen) and a wife named Tutu. He is one of the four people that own The Raven including Jason and one of the three people that owns Hai Wei Trails including Jason. Hai Wei Trails is a guiding company. My parents talked about what trip we should do while Decker and Soren played foosball. In the end my parents chose to do this road trip in Northwest Yunnan. The good thing was that it was never to far away from Shangri-La.

Our first stop was the top of our first peak. To get to each place we had to go over a lot of mountains. The highest we got was 14,500 feet. On our first peak we had lunch and hung a some prayer flags. It great.

Our second stop was this amazing gorge outside this town named Mulu. It was the most amazing gorge ever. We walked along this trail that was carved into the cliff for five hours. In some parts there was a rockslide on the trail and it was super sketchy. It’s name is Sharagak gorge.

After awhile we decided to turn back because it was raining so hard and we were tired. Tsebho had gone ahead of us and so we turned back and then we stayed under a bridge and skipped rocks while we waited for him.

We had arrived at our campsite the day before and had started the hike when we woke up. We camped right next to the river on the end of the dirt road. We would have camped on one of the islands in the river but we were worried that it would rain too hard and that all of our stuff would get washed away and then we would drown if the water came up. So we slept on the end of the road. It was really fun but it was raining all night and it was hard setting everything up in the rain.

After the hike we drove to this tiny town called Nagara. We stayed in a home stay with some villagers. They were really nice. The village of Nagara is tiny. We walked around it in five minutes. The people cooked us dinner and breakfast and tea. Our bathroom was their vegetable garden and chicken coop. We paid them with money and fruit. In the morning we packed up and hopped in the truck. We made it about five feet when my mom said,“Do you hear that?”. Turned out we had a flat tire. So we lost about 30 or so minutes.

After that we drove to this really sweet different gorge. Eric calls it “Cat Leaping Gorge”. After that we drove to Tsebho’s wife’s sister’s husband’s family’s house in Dong Wang. It is literally a Tibetan mansion on a hill. It probably had 6 bedrooms. It was so big that nobody ever used it and they were always in their little annex with a kitchen.

The next day we drove to this other town called Benzilan. We could have stayed in a guesthouse but we wanted to camp. We drove 45 minutes out of town and stayed at a campsite next to a stream. Across the road Decker and I had an awesome base. Multiple times cows would come and Decker had to chase them away. It was awesome.

The next day we packed up and drove back to Shangri-La.

I know my blog is obviously better, but my dad has some new posts! Be warned that they are PG13.

Another cool part about Lanka Lodge was that it was stationed right next to tiny “roads” in which the Sri Lankan villagers lived. One day we were walking along the big road back to Lanka Lodge when this little old lady was like,” Come, come… come”. So we followed her down the little road and we passed kids running and these little 4 year olds carrying big wood logs back to their homes. Then we passed this little house and this girl who seemed to be about 11 or 12 kept telling us to go in. So we did. In her house was this big open space with some plastic chairs. In the room was a cute little baby and the girl’s sister that looked about 15. Once we stepped in two little 5-year-old boys ran in. We asked the girl how old she was and she said that she was 14! And than we asked what her brother’s name was and she said that it was actually her sister’s baby! Then the dad walked in and the parents engaged in conversation. Then they asked us to have dinner with them! “Fish curry”. The dad told us his phone number and we asked what his name was. He told us, “Fisherman Man”. We had our Polaroid cameras with us and we all got together and I took a photo. When it came out we showed it to them and then one of the little boys grabbed the picture and ran around the village showing everyone. After that we walked back to Lanka Lodge and all had a great big laugh.

 

P.S. Check out my “Route” page in the toolbar!

The next day we took a 4-hour drive to this tiny town called Weligama. It’s a surfing town. It has really good surfing for beginners (us). It’s a really great town. Very authentic. There were cows in the middle of the road and on the beach just minding there own business and happily munching.

One of the best parts about it was the place we stayed. It’s called Lanka lodge and it’s amazing. One of the best parts is that they cook you really authentic Sri Lankan food. Sri Lankan food is a bit like Indian in the sense of rice and curry. You get one main dish and then a lot of different delicious side dishes. A lot of them are spicy. Lanka Lodge is on the beach, but not a surfing or swimming or chillaxing beach. It has sharp rocks and seashells. One day Syd, Christian, and I walked down on the beach to collect seashells. And boy, were their a lot of amazing ones. We were out there for about 2 hours and we almost missed breakfast. There was some tide pools with sea cucumbers. We also hiked up a hill and chucked rocks at unsuspecting and suspecting crabs below. By the end of it our feet where all numb.

On one of the touristy beaches we went to there was this restaurant called W15 that we went to twice. They had a really nice beach and a great pool.

Another amazing thing was that their was monkeys in the trees in our yard sometimes. One time when they were their we got to feed them!!!

On June 10 we flew to Colombo, Sri Lanka, which is off the southern tip of India.

We spent the night and when we woke up it was the countdown to when the Nickums were to arrive. If you don’t know the Nickums, that either means you don’t live in Hailey, Idaho, or you’re crazy. Hilary and Christian are the parents, which is ironic, because my mom’s name is Hilary too. They have kids named Maddox and Sydney. Maddox is 14 and Syd is my age, 11. Syd and I are really good friends. Syd and I met in kindergarten and she has been one of my best friends since. So then our parents met and they are also really good friends. Both with the same name!

We were siting on the rooftop pool of our hotel and it was half an hour until they were to come. I couldn’t sit still. I was jumping and hopping and annoying everyone around me. Then ten minutes to go I couldn’t wait any longer. So I made everyone come down with me. Then they came. It was so amazing!! I was sooooo excited. We went to dinner and then went to bed.

The next day we went to open all the things that people had sent to us through the Nickums. (Thank you so, so, so much if you were one of those people!!!) I now officially have a completely full backpack. After that we walked down town and visited these really cool Buddhist shrines. In the second biggest one there was the smallest Buddha in the world. You had to look at it though a magnifying glass! It was crazy.