Traveling Salesman- Day 2

Day 2

6:03 am - Struggling to get out of bed because it dipped into the 20's last night and there is no heat where I'm staying.

6:57 am - Ready to go early today since our bus leaves at 8 am for Lugu lake. My derriere still hasn't recovered from yesterday but no time for resting. I did have time to enjoy a little Monday Night Football and a french presses Mt Kilimanjaro Blend (which I had to backtrack 30 minutes yesterday because I forgot to grab it on the way out. Why backtrack for a bag of coffee? You may asking. Well I at a point in my life where I can't possibly leave my coffee needs up to random chance and the hope that someone is serving something fresh or real). I am definitely thankful for the little things though. Like being able to watch American Football live despite being thousands of miles from the actualy game. In fact is there someone watching it further away than I am?


7:35 am - Out the door and off to find the bus. The trek through the mountains will take anywhere from 7 hours to 11 hours depending on fallen rocks and/or other acts of nature.

10:45 am - A few hours out and making good progress. Not sure it will really take even 7 hours as I keep checking in on the map on my iphone and it doesn't look that far. The picture below is from the side of the road at a "rest stop." A "rest stop" here is simply a Chinese outhouse and few local sellers offering some fruits and vegetables from the trip. If you look carefully you can see the winding road. I know my Mom would not have been able to make this trip with me. Way too many mountain passes.

1:30 pm - Lunch break for the driver. I hope I am wrong but I have a bad feeling that the driver may have had a beer at lunch as his personality has completely changed and the last 30 minutes of the trip made me feel like he all of sudden decided to get there as fast as possible.

3:02 pm - The secret is out. As we stop for a 1 hour break to rent canoes on the lake, I realized that the trip only takes 6 hours but the driver gets some kickbacks from these types of places for making planned stops.

3:35 pm- After asking our business acquaintances to come pick us up at the canoe rental place we have finally made it to Lugu Lake. Absolutely beautiful. Crystal clear water completely surrounded by mountains on all sides. Lugu lake is home to one of the last untouched and unpolluted resources in China and also to a matriarchal society. The women of the Mosuo people are in charge of all production and management and marriage is non-existentent as men float from woman to woman until the woman tires of them or as long as the woman likes.

- Posted via iPhone