Yunnan Food - Lugu Lake and Lijiang

On arriving at Lugu Lake, we were famished. We had skipped lunch. The dentist seemed to be very hungry and was prepared to gobble up a whole suckling pig. Anyway, we stopped her. We had a proper meal/ bbq dinner in the open air prepared by another restaurant.

An Ming with her antics

Preparing the charcoal burner for our bbq at Lige, Lugu Lake

Pork. Rating = 5/10

Homemade wine (according to Doctor, she managed to sweet-talk a free jug out from the restaurant). Rating = 5/10

From left: Dr. An Ming (from Nanjing, works as a dentist), Bruce (from Beijing, works for CCTV), Joshua (from Shenzhen), Hagrid (from Shanghai, just graduated from law school). They were all solo backpackers and met Bruce at different times in Dali and Lijiang, who pulled them together to travel in his hired car to share cost. Rating for the companions = 10/10

Pork for barbecue. Rating = 5/10

Liangpi is a cold dish - savory, sour and spicy. Rating = 3/10

Fish. Rating = 5/10

This dentist has nothing better to do than to tease me with the brinjal/ egg plant. Rating for the brinjal = 6/10. Rating for the dentist = 10/10

Chicken. Rating = 5/10

Brinjal/ egg plant. Rating = 6/10

Overall rating for the dinner = 5/10

On the following morning, after coming back from watching the sun rose, we had breakfast at a restaurant. We had rice noodle soup.

The restaurant where we had our breakfast in Lige, Lugu Lake

The menu

The noodle soup came in a jug

The noodle soup. Rating = 4/10

At Lugu Lake, Bruce drove us to Luoshui where we would drop off Joshua. He would be trekking at Lugu Lake while we would be exploring the region around the lake in a car. We came to Zouhun (Walking Marriage) Bridge, where we had lunch. The dentist did not want to take lunch (for fear of the consequence of getting travel sickness later)

We had lunch at the blue-roof restaurant at Caohai/ Zouhun Bridge (Sea of Grass/ Walking Marriage Bridge)

Inside the restaurant

The four dishes were all greens, and surprisingly, they were excellent. Rating = 8/10

On returning to Tina's Guesthouse after visiting the Middle Tiger Leaping Gorge, I had fried ham rice. It was quite good.

Tina's Guesthouse restaurant

Fried Ham Rice. Rating = 7/10

As mentioned earlier, the breakfast food choices in Lijiang were limited. The breakfast food sold from this street cart was more or less universal in Lijiang.

Typical breakfast food in Lijiang

One of the most famous local Yunnan food is Guò Qiáo Mǐ Xiàn (Cross-the-Bridge Rice Noodle). I had one on my way back to Dayan from Black Dragon Pool (Heilongtan). Different sets of ingredients were sold, with different prices, from tens to hundreds of Yuan. Again, this was a rice noodle soup.

The Guò Qiáo Mǐ Xiàn (Cross-the-Bridge Rice Noodle) restaurant

The set ingredient that I ordered. The egg and the meat must be cooked first

Cross-the-Bridge Rice Noodle Soup. Rating = 5/10

Hagrid loved sashimi. He had heard of Bell Restaurant from others and went in search of it. We found the restaurant but the sashimi was very expensive for a whole fish. He just wanted a single portion for himself but the restaurant did not serve single portion. I don't take sashimi. In the end, he skipped the sashimi and ordered Qì Guō Jī (Steam Pot Chicken, another famous local Yunnan dish) and two other vegetable dishes. I did not know that vegetable dishes could be this good.

Hagrid making the orders at Bell Restaurant, Lijiang

Snacks before our main meals

Brinjals/ egg plants with the skin removed. Rating = 8/10

Cabbage. Rating = 8/10

Steam Pot Chicken (Qì Guō Jī). I took this photo after a few pieces of bony chicken had been eaten. Rating = 6/10

Day 4 Lugu Lake

23 October 2014 (Thursday)

I woke up a bit late as my alarm clock on Xperia did not ring as it was switched off. I quickly organised myself and packed up the luggage before going down to the lobby. They were waiting for me. We left hurriedly.

After coming back from the sunrise photo shoot, we went for breakfast. Then, we returned to the hostel and checked out. We would drop Joshua at Luoshui where he would stay for another night and take the public bus back. The rest of us would join Bruce to tour the lake.

From Luoshui, we would explore the Lugu Lake region. There was no pre-determined plan on where we would go exactly and we would go where the car took us. I was hoping that we would come across traditional Mosuo villages and maybe get to visit Mosuo homes and pose with beautiful Mosuo maidens. From my gps track later on, we almost made a complete loop of the lake. Our planned departure to Lijiang was 12:00 noon.

Our intended departure time of 12:00 noon could not be met. We left Lugu Lake at only about 2:25 p.m.

While travelling back, I looked at my gps unit and I asked Bruce to take the left turn. When I realised I had not set the route, I quickly asked him to confirm with the local people. The area looked unfamiliar but the locals were telling us that the route was correct. I kept quiet as I was not sure. 

The fuel level was getting low. The first group of men said the petrol station was 10 km away. We never saw the station. When we met another group of men, one said the petrol station was 30 km away. Our fuel level was down to a quarter by that time. My gps unit was not useful at that moment as the nearest town it showed was Hongqi, off the main road but Bruce said petrol stations were always along the main road. I explained that the road looked new and people might not have built new petrol stations along the main road yet. It should be in Hongqi and there would be a road intersection to Hongqi. There was no road intersection even as we passed the intersection indicated on my gps map.

Fortunately, Hagrid, using the mobile phone gps, said that there was a petrol station a kilometer down the road. He was right. 

With the car on full tank, we were relieved. Yet, at the same time, we worried whether this road would lead to Lijiang. Anyway, Bruce and the rest of us felt the same way that it was safer driving on this road as it did not have so many switchbacks, sharp bends, blind corners and is less mountainous, save for the section of the road on departing from Lugu Lake. It was safer as we would be spending a big chunk of the travelling time in the dark at the later part of the journey.

We reached Lijiang car park bordering the old city at 9:55 p.m in about 7 ½ hours too, and checked into Naxi Mama Guesthouse. They left for dinner. I did not join them as I could not sleep with a full stomach. 

The next day, Hagrid would be trekking on the Upper Trail of Tiger Leaping Gorge and staying there for a night, I would be going down to the gorge and returning to Lijiang in the evening, Bruce would be driving to Dali and An Ming, I was not sure.