Phong Sa Ly

Sitting at the bus station at Dien Bien Phu at 7am after my day of exploration, I had a little decision to make. Only two more busses would leave on this day, and both in the next thirty minutes, one to Phong Sa Ly and the other Luang Prabang. Without too much thought about it, and very little information to go on I decided I would get the ticket to Phong Sa Ly.

After the border crossing at Tay Tang, there were about fifteen hours of windy mountain roads through northern Laos, including stopping for an hour behind a crash on the road and unloading cement bricks for an hour at a random town along the way. By the time I was dropped off at the bus station it was dark, foggy and there wasn't another person in sight, I walked with my backpack along the road for about thirty minutes before finding a restaurant that was open for business. I was able to order noodles by pointing, but my cell phone was not working in Laos and nobody understood a word of English, I decided to try my luck with Chinese, and before I knew it the people next to me were helping to describe exactly where I could find a hotel and offering their help to get me there.

Tay Tang border crossing

View out the bus window in Laos

Anshun

To start my journey in Anshun I went out last night to try and find the food stalls at Gufu street. When I reached what I thought was the food stall area at the intersection of Gufu and Tufu, I was disappointed with the lack of street food selection and decided to walk deep into the alley in search of something more interesting. My search lead me to a crammed two story restaurant that I don't imagine too many foreigners have visited.

Hongshan Lake

Streets of Anshun

Grandma Liu @ Lijiang Baisha Village

Lijiang's Baisha Village is an old Naxi settlement, located north of old town near the foot of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. When I read about the village there was a comment on the post explaining that if you are approached by an old lady who invites you into her house to share some tea, that its totally normal. So when I was walking through the village 3 hours later and this happened to me, I thought I would give it a shot.

She took me into her recently remodeled house and sat me down at an old wooden table with a pile of guest books on it. If there is such thing as a Naxi accent, I'm pretty sure this lady has it, I was unable to understand almost anything she said. Luckily she understood me when I asked if she had any beer(Ni You Pijou Ma?), she went into her kitchen, dug through some dirty boxes for a minute and then a large bottle of local Baijiu was dropped in my lap.

Grandma Liu