tiger leaping gorge, yunnan province, china, december 13-14

Madhavi and I were going to just do a one-day trip to Tiger Leaping Gorge, but Mama insisted that the part we would see was "no beautiful". "Here beautiful, here beautiful, here no beautiful," she said as she slammed her finger on the map that she had just mercilessly yanked from our hands. "OK Mama," we said in submission.

The next day we sat in Mama's courtyard for one of her absolutely scrumptious breakfasts - hot fresh perfectly fried eggs with thick steaming hot bread and these slightly grilled tomatoes with a never-before-tasted spice (fafooya or something?) that was out of this world; not to mention the wonderful standard hot banana pancakes extra sweet! We set out on a 2.5 hour minibus ride and our first extended time with Aiden and Danya (the Aussies) - our conversation spanned the Iraq War, U.S. and Australian treatment of immigrants, places to visit in Israel (they are Jewish), Persian history, etc.. It was a really good time.

We took off on the 40km hike around noon. Starting at 6500 feet, it was uphill, uphill, and more uphill all day long. Villagers on donkeys were set-up throughout the trail to offer a ride to those waving the white flag. We resisted. At about 2PM, we turned a bend, looked up, and listened to our breath being taken away as we beheld the most awe-inspiring, magnificent scene of nature. Before us, kilometers away but dominating the picture like nothing else existed, was the deepest gorge in the world set against a mountain backdrop like a jagged curtain in the sky. Imagine standing there witnessing the earth rise 13,000 feet before you in a single field of view, a single blink of the eye. I wish pictures could capture the true three-dimensional grandeur of such a scene but they cannot, as much as I willed them to do so. This was the part Mama was referring to when she said "here beautiful", and we had almost missed it.

We had a nice lunch in a Naxi mountain village, then set out to enjoy more magnificence. Finally we reached our home for the night. We met some Canadians there who were itinerant adventurers - they had just done the hike we did like it was nothing: their ages? Son was ~50, Mom and Dad were ~75. Quite an inspiration.
Around 6PM we entered the dining room for dinner. Seated with us were 7 Dutch people, 2 French guys, a woman from Beijing, and the two Aussies. The meal lasted 4 hours - 1 hour of food and 3 hours of a raucous good time. We just laughed and laughed - Aiden the Aussie is hilarious: he did an amazing re-enactment of a Robin Williams skit about a drunk Scottish guy inventing golf. The French guys told us about a new slang called "verlan" whereby French kids and "hip" adults are saying words backwards: merci is cimer, etc. At one point we went around the table stating our ages: Madh and I were the only ones older than 26 - never felt so old in my life. It was great nonetheless.

The next day I froze my butt off in the ghetto shower and we headed out for another great day on the Gorge, though it could not match the scenery of day one: this was the "no beautiful" part though that is strictly relative. We descended thousands of feet into the depth of the Gorge itself, then realized we had to climb back up. Madhavi and a couple others took the same route back while myself and 4 of the Dutch used "the ladder". We won't go into that because my parents are reading this, but suffice it to say I'm fine.

The ride back was more good conversation, mild nausea, and progressive hunger and weakness. This was the biggest beating Madhavi and I had taken since the Inca trail in February 2000. We were soaked in sweat and had no clean clothes - we took the best we could find from the laundry bag and showered - tasting the salt dripping from your head is a sign that you need a wash. We reluctantly headed out for dinner with the Dutch and Aussie gang from the night before - we arrived at 9:30PM and food took forever. We were so hungry that we were getting desperate - when the food came we could hardly pick up our forks we were so weak. I've never had hunger manifest as nausea but it did then. After a half-hour of silence to stuff ourselves silly, we started talking and had another great time. Two of the Dutch kids had bought the super-sweet Dutch woman Maloush a birthday gift from all of us and we sang the song. The Dutch asked us about the U.S. and India all night. They in turn told us about how an orange tidal wave takes over the The Netherlands during World Cup: people wear orange, cars are draped in orange, even the food is orange. They are such great people: both this group and almost every Dutch person we've met over the years. Madhavi and I "fell in love with" one of the Dutch kids, a 20 year old woman named Pasquala who is so cute in every way.

We crashed like bricks at 1AM. Madhavi said she was shocked we stayed out so late after such an exhausting couple days. Though for both of us, in many ways, this night was effortless.