First days of traveling

Here is a blog I wrote the first days of traveling...

The last two days have been full of exercise. Once I finally got to my hostel (I took two flights and an overnight train) my students and I explored Lijiang. The hostel guy suggested a bike ride so off we went! We were planning to see an old town and some beautiful scenery by a lake. What he didn't tell us was that we would have to bike up a mountain! We ended up walking quite a ways with our bikes. We saw the town, but then missed our turn for the lake. By that time we were enjoying the downhill, and didn't want to turn back to find the lake.

Day two started off with an early bus ride to Tiger Leaping Gorge. Wow!! We hiked down 2000 meters walked around on the bottom for a while, then slowly, very slowly, made our way back up to the top. Along the way we had ladders to climb, rocks to maneuver over, bridges to cross, horse poop to avoids, and A LOT of stairs!  Even though I felt like death by the end, it was so worth it. The sights were amazing!!! We were down inside of a gorge and I was blown away by the beauty. 

After a short nap back at the hostel, I ventured out for a short walk alone. I loved walking around in china with amazing views alone.  I sang hymns out loud and marveled at the vastness of His creation.  I'm thankful I got this time to relax before heading into a busy year of teaching and studying.

Even as I think back on this area, I'm in love. It was such a great peaceful place to be. It's crazy that in this country of a billion people there are places where no one is to be found. I was alone and it was great!

Horses along the way. They want you to ride them up when your half dead. Great marketing strategy!

You couldn't take a bad picture!

A bridge along the path

They had these great rests spots along the way. Very helpful!

View from my hostel

LOVED this area. This bridge is called G-d River Bridge :)

Hard to see, but there is a milk cow in here

The menu at the hostel

This one's for my dad! It's another cow. This is their "barn"

Beautiful!!!