Cough - Blogabond

Qiaotou, China

Day two in the gorge seems so long ago... Today is Thursday, Day two was Tuesday. The plan was to hike to the second guest House away, a 4.5 hour hike that we had all day to do. No rush. Noodle soup for breakfast [I've stopped ordering noodles here as they really are a northern specialty, the noodles down here are just packaged pasta - not the homemade yumminess that they serve in Beijing.] Now for the most challenging part of the hike: 28 Bends, two dozen plus four switch backs [I did not count to confirm] with significant elevation gain. They were not the most fun for me, mostly because I had brought a chest cold with me and the air in my inhalations, under extra pressure of high elevation and under the weight of a backpack, were not finding the membranes of my aveoli as usual. Cough, cough, hack...

I was a bit dismayed to find that when we had accomplished this infamously toughest portion of the trail we immediately descended in altitude. All that gain in elevation was for naught? The rest of the hike was much easier. We made the first guest House [Tea Horse GH] hoping to stop for the hour Thai massage. It was closed! They served us complementary tea and we pressed on.

written by

prrrrl on March 8, 2012 from Qiaotou, China

from the travel blog: Yunnan, China

tagged Tea, Cold, Massage, Elevation, Congestion, Cough, Bends and 28

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Qiaotou, China

We had a small lunch of Naxi Ba Ba [the local flat bread] and deep fried bananas. Had we known what was coming we would have loaded up some energy. But we thought we just had 1.5 hours to go to Halfway GuestHouse. We did. But the 1/2 Way had a school group and no en suite rooms. No heating pads on the beds, either. Noisy & cold was not appealing. The beds sans heat pads were in a room with breezy gaps in the windows. The non en suite toilets were down the hall, down the concrete steps and around the corner from the sinks. They were open air squatty potties with awesome views of the moutains [and completely private unless the Mountain goats have binoculars]. Pretty to see but cold to use on a windy Mountain night. We decided to press on 1.5 kilometer to th next guestHouse. We're tired but what's 15 more minutes?

Five Fingers GuestHouse was up - yes, UP off the trail. Stiff legs, just one more hill. We climb to the GH and it looks abandoned. We call out for humans. One responds. Can we have a room? Nope, too busy. To busy with what? Not a single guest there. Not a single remodeling project, though needed, in process. Not a single sound of industry anywhere. I tell her I'm old [I'm past the age of mandatory retirement in China] & sick [cough, cough, hack...]. She refuses to House us.

Go back 15 minutes to the noisy cold place?

written by

prrrrl on March 8, 2012 from Qiaotou, China

from the travel blog: Yunnan, China

tagged Private, Cold, Old, GuestHouse, Retirement, Cough, NaxiBaBa and Bananas

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TLG III Or, the not so perfect day starts

Qiaotou, China

TLG IV Or, the not so perfect day gets worse

Qiaotou, China

Heading South?