Mixing with the Locals, Shangri La, China

We had had such a nice time that we were very sorry to leave Mama's and Lijiang. But it was time and we left to the usual loud departing words from Mama, "Lessa go. Lessa go", but this time she bundled us off with a bag stuffed with pancakes and bananas followed by a big hug and a "Gooda lucka. Gooda lucka". Now, here we are at 3200m - that's about 10,500ft above sea level - in the town of Zhongdian - THE Shangri La apparently. Though you wouldn't think it if you saw it!! It's small with a pretty standard chinese block-brick new town. As for the quaint 'old town' - well, it's small, quaint with lots of character.... and still being built!! Ha ha! We thought we had left the rain and cold of Lijiang where I wore long-johns and my down-feathered socks to bed on our last 2 nights, but no, the weather has been cold and wet here too. Thankfully, our guesthouse has electric blankets that have saved us! Scarily, early evening yesterday there was a power cut and we almost didn't get our electric blankets! Now that would have been disastrous for my feet!

The last few days we have just been chilling out and acclimatising at this altitude in preparation for Tibet - just watching DVDs, walking around town, mixing with the locals (note this lady's single, solitary tooth, and my nice new pair of sunglasses - pair number 6!), and watching them gather and dance in the old town square, visiting the local monastery perched on a hill, catching up on internet.... and taking Martin to hospital to try and sort out his persistent tummy troubles. He had been doing great for about a week and then it took a turn for the worse 2 days ago. Hospital was scary as no-one spoke english and we had to point to things in the phrase book. Lisa, one of our travelling friends speaks a good chunk of chinese and helped us out no end. She had also been to the hospital herself that week and so knew the procedure of doctors, stool test and blood test counters to visit, pointing out even the direction of what was to be Martin's second worst toilet ever (he was pleased about that!), and desks to hand over money, before getting treated... We think (!) he got some antibiotics and a saline drip, and then he got given a whole stash of other stuff to take for the next few days to bung him up, rehydrate him and settle his nausea! The whole thing was not a great experience - it was a bit miserable sitting in a cold and not very clean(!) hospital with a cold drip going through him for 2 hours. Hopefully though, this'll sort him out ready for Tibet!

From China there are several routes into Lhasa - some more $$$ than others. Zhongdian is really only a popular town because it is one of the hopping off points to Tibet by road. In the end, we finally decided that we would fly - a bit cheaper (at $250 U.S. including the elusive foreignors 'permit') than overland which costs about $700. We should be picking up our flight tickets this afternoon, so fingers crossed! Once we arrive in Lhasa it's a few days acclimatising - especially for Martin bearing in mind his previous altitude sickness experience. Then hopefully, it's a trip to Everest base camp possibly by jeep which takes about 8 days from Lhasa. Depending on the altitude and how fit we're feeling, we'd like to walk part of the way, but we'll see on that one... *Mush