Day 94 - Lijiang to Nisai Village, Lugu Lake - Tues 28 May 2013

Day 94: Lijiang to Nisai Village, Lugu Lake - Tues 28 May 
Pretty pink clouds heralded sunrise. Weaved through goats and cattle to Old Shuhe village, and watered-up at shop. 

"The Road is Mine", sayeth......well, everybody.....

No seatbelts - freeloaders or paying customers??

Billboard of Yi people in variety of traditional costumes

 





High windy route today - workers, trucks and construction materials spilling into roads.  

Street beggars can't be seen by RHS drivers

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Stopped beside large dammed opaque/ green (minerals?) river, with lazy trails of debris. Evidence of small coal mining operation. Rockfalls, washaways and fault lines; log and brick cabins perched precariously on ridges - we shuddered at image of potential landslides in rainy season. 

 


Finally, a sweet view over Lugu Lake heralded the end of today's driving.

Pork can be preserved for 10 years.....

                                                                            










 



Gained permission from young vice chief/mayor to stay right beside lake in between Lige and Nisai villages. He would prefer we sleep in his hotel, but Andy explained "sleeper trucks", with the trade-off that we frequent his "best in town" restaurant tonight. Settled into pretty campsite amongst ducks and dugout canoes - tomorrow we could explore "a pond of crystal water in Himalayas" as our ticket proclaims (no natural resource is unticketed in China!) 

Surprised to find mayor is male as we have come to the last practicing female bastion in world. The Musuo (Kingdom of Women) have aspects of a matriarchal culture: most well known custom is of "walking marriages"/visiting relations (men NOT invited to sleep over afterwards....). Women are usually head of the house, inheritance is through the female line, and women make business decisions. However, unlike a true matriarchy, political power tends to be in the hands of males. In fact all the workers we saw during our visit were women.... 

Dinner was excellent, fish soup, pork and mushrooms, blood sausage, variety of vegetable dishes, and home-made barley tea - the latter having a touch of malt was perfect for day's end.