WE COULDN'T LEAVE CHINA WITHOUT DOING THIS! Incredible Journey From Lijiang To Shangri-La
this video is brought to you by Squarespace this is just the starting point and it's already epic we got the perfect day oh everything tastes so good how are you doing both my legs are cramping up because of the downhill right yeah I wasn't sure how the rest of the 5 hours would go I was a bit scared the bus not here yet no uh it's going to look like this but the license plate number is not this one we have about 7 minutes I can't wait to get rid of these bags this is killing me hiking 10 minutes up from the Old Town with this bag I need oxygen just put your bag down here so you don't have to carry it I see something steaming over there I'm going to check it out okay okay got anything good I got some steamed buns eight tiny steamed buns for 10 Yuan is there anything inside I think there's pork inside they don't have the plain ones that we like is it good good yeah has pork inside oh that's delicious oh hot so we are leaving Lijiang this morning to go to the starting point of our 8 hours hike it's 8 hours on day one 3 hours on day two oh okay so our 11 hours hike that covers I think 20 km but it'll be fun I hope you think it'll be fun I feel out of shape right now I'm questioning our decision sometimes like we are no hikers the last time we hiked was in Nepal and that was just an hour hike yeah and somehow in our minds we thought it was much longer but I think it will be worth it because we've experienced like the city life the countryside life we've been in kind of really busy places we're getting near the end of our China trip so I think this will be a very different experience and a memorable one for us this is our ride yeah is this one it looks pretty full sit in the back is good yeah back is good I think we have about a 2 to 2.5 hour bus ride or van ride to the starting point of where the Tiger Leaping Gorge area is so we're not going to be right at the Gorge right away we have to start at a village buy our ticket and then start hiking from there but we'll find out more as we go and the weather looks absolutely incredible the sky looks clear so we might have a really really beautiful day of enjoying the Tiger Leaping Gorge I just saw the glimpse of the mountain it's so clear today that one is the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and on the other side of that is the Flying Dagger no Haba Mountain and the gorge is right in between awesome on a side note this is the most English I've heard there's at least like seven English speakers maybe they're going to do the hike too then it'll be nice to have some friends most likely they their hiking sticks with them oh we don't have any we'll find some broken branches or bamboo stick around there we have to get our tickets here for the scenic area but you can actually start hiking from here like a couple hundred meters from here is already the starting point of the trail but you can also get a like a shared car to go a little bit further where it is a bit more fun to start hiking because this part is more boring and there's construction going on so let me ask if the other people want to start here or if they want to go further cuz it'll be cheaper if they share car with us how much are the tickets 45 Yuan per person I guess so yeah okay have fun bye walk safe what's happening we're going to share a car to get to the Naxi Guest House and then start hiking from there so it will be 20 Yuan each perfect and what do we do with our bags so the driver is going to drop off our big bags at Tina's Guest House which is where our destination is tomorrow okay we just need to carry these ones okay good so we'll pick our bags up tomorrow when we get there awesome should we take a photo of our bag no just in case no it should be fine right he knows I trust them okay okay we're switching cars yeah doesn't it suddenly feel colder yeah much colder yeah it'll be nice when we get in the sun she says that you can take a horse or maybe a donkey what are those horses yeah no those are mules you can take them up as well but I think we still have energy we just saved ourselves like 2 hours it's good to know that we have options but since we have saved ourselves some time we're not in a hurry maybe we should get a coffee yeah sounds good this is insane this is just the starting point and it's already epic look at what this one says crazy this one says I am at the Tiger Leaping Gorge and I fell in love with trekking wow you see that I know so this we actually on the side where we're on the Haba Mountain Side so what we see over there that one is the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain that looks so epic you can see snow on there and it's like 5,000 something meters I think so close you can reach them cheers you know it was interesting that in like the three groups that were in our van that were going trekking we all have a different route or a different plan we are doing it over the course of 2 days staying one night at the Halfway Residence the other two from Belgium they're doing it all in one day they're going to end up at Tina's today wow that's a long day yeah and then the other couple I'm not sure where they're from but they're doing it over the course of 3 days that's why they didn't want to take the car to come up because they have so much time they want to slowly enjoy the process so there's lots of options huh you know what's funny well not really funny but my right knee kind of hurts oh from squatting that toilet just now this way right yeah wow just a quick update see that on our progress we're now 15 minutes into the hike and we're both dying I thought our bag was light but it's a little bit heavy I hope this vlog isn't just us heavy breathing the whole time real quick a huge part of why we can continue traveling and making content for you is because of great partners like Squarespace they are an all-in-one platform for building websites and they have all the tools you need to run your online business whether you're selling a product or service if you have a clear vision of what you want your website to be like you can try their new feature called Squarespace Blueprints which uses AI to personalize your own unique website and to keep your website up to date you can easily connect and sync all your social media accounts just head to squarespace.com for a free trial and when you're ready to launch go to squarespace.com/floraandnote to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain now let's get back to the video because we are about 2,200 or 2,400 meters above sea level it is a bit higher altitude than what we are used to so I think an important thing for us is to just take our time go at our own speed don't try to rush and we also bought this can of oxygen from the Old Town yesterday so it was only only like 12 Yuan and you get 100 puffs of oxygen but usually usually you don't need to use that during this trip but we're special but we might need it but we're like you know just in case it's an extra like 12 Yuan we might as well get it in case we were so unfit I already find it hard to breathe you do yeah the air is thin the air is dry my nose is all dried up yeah my throat is pretty dry but I'm trying not to drink all our water at once because then it's pretty hard finding a private place to pee on this trail I would say you just pee in the woods babe just close your eyes no one will see you you mean I won't see anyone if you don't see them you wouldn't know that they see you he's really trying to sell you the horses he said it's about half an hour to get up there and he's like it's really hard it's really hard it's okay we got it it's funny because we look like we need it [Music] we're now at the beginning of the 28 Bends so it's like zig zag like this 28 times that's why he said that we have to basically climb up to the top of this mountain before we start crossing over to the other other side it looks so steep so steep I said we're still considering that's funny it's actually kind of nice to keep seeing the same people on the trail like we take turns resting so we passed a couple and then we rest and then they passed us and it kind of feels safe in a way that there's constantly people around but not too many that you're in each other's way and quite a few of them also said to me means oh I'm so tired but keep going this is awesome how beautiful is this just for this view I'm glad we decided to do it yeah wow so kind of them lending us the walking stick cuz it helps they said they're using one each they have two just hanging on their bag they're like feel free to use it don't be shy we'll keep seeing them on the same path okay and they're also stopping where we're stopping tonight perfect is it much better it helps for sure wow this part is this way is harder for sure I'm so hungry yeah we have some snacks can we just rest here and eat have our lunch we have beef jerky and you want banana do they have bananas yeah they do oh bananas looks good I got you the most expensive banana how much is it 6 Yuan that's not bad that's a dollar is it yeah I got a water water is just a backup because I think there's still an hour and a half before we get to the bigger tea house where we can have like a proper lunch so I got an extra water we have some beef jerky and egg oh and egg yeah and I got a Snickers so this the beef jerky mhm we got a couple types some are five spiced flavor and some are Mala flavor it's funny because we were looking for protein bars everywhere but we couldn't find any no it's either this or chicken feet yeah individually wrapped chicken feet which is probably good collagen and some protein but I don't feel like sucking a chicken feet in the mountains oh good I needed food badly that's delicious ooh spicy the 28 Bends was pretty difficult is that the hardest part of the hike I think it's one of the hardest parts of the hike they could call it the 28 Rests I feel like every bend we're like let's rest we at least stopped 20 times for sure everybody did this is good practice for us cuz eventually maybe some sometime this year we want to do the Annapurna hike and that one is 9 days hike we're already struggling with this one and this is considered like a relatively easy hike but I think if we do the Annapurna we would definitely get a porter without taking our heavy bags I think it would be easier yeah that would make a big difference [Music] look at this the hiking cafe and pub in the tea house except here it says keep going you still have one and a half hours to go how are you doing okay except both my legs are cramping up because of the down hill right yeah luckily we we got the walking stick helps a lot but still so painful both knees or one knee it's not it's above the knee like inner thigh I need to stretch it out [Music] I think we need to take a moment to appreciate this spot that we just found oh my goodness isn't it crazy no words no words I lost words to describe how beautiful this place is so basically from here you see everything you see the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain on the side and this is the Haba mountain and right in the middle is the gorgeous Jinsha Lake or Jinsha River you can hear the roaring of the gorge you hear that too yeah I hear frogs frogs everywhere we go you know why it's called the Tiger Leaping Gorge no because there was a tiger that was being hunted and he came to the to the end where the river is and then he leaped across the river to the other side of the mountain to run away from the hunter so there is this one rock I believe down there somewhere down this river that people go to visit and they take photos there and they've kind of made this tiger statue to represent that tiger that jumped over the gorge I mean leaped over the gorge does the rock look like a tiger yeah it's beautiful but I don't know if we get to see it because we're doing this trail most people either go from Lijiang or Shangri-La and they would just take a car or van or a bus or something directly to the viewpoints if they're not interested in hiking but I don't know where that point is for us if we will get to see the tiger but I'm not complaining because I think we get to see so much more by doing this hike [Music] this is our reward the portion is insane this is four times the rice that I would eat so what did you get me what's this this one is tomato chives and egg stir fried on rice and this one is I think it's gourd and chicken and chilies and peanuts I'm so hungry they call this one kungpao chicken though oh man for some reason working for your food feels satisfying isn't it we walked like 5 and a 1/2 hours yeah we have walked 5 and a 1/2 hours and it says we walked 13,264 steps almost 10 km climbed 126 flights of stairs but after this we still have 2 and 1/2 hours to our guest house for tonight or our inn for tonight probably going to take us longer too we're pretty slow I would say but I'm enjoying the process and the view has been so amazing so every time I feel tired no hesitation I'm like let's just sit down and look at the view of the mountainsyeah so this place is actually a guest house it's called Tea Horse Guest House and some people will just spend the night here before they move on or like us grab a meal and then move on it's not overly expensive this was 30 Yuan for a dish and I see a parking lot you can actually drive all the way here if you want to start your hike here instead of why would you want to miss the 28 Bends that was house that was the hardest part oh yours is quite yummy and when you look around the walls here these are all the people who have come here before isn't that neat there's Chinese there's English there's Korean there's French how did they get it on the ceiling this person actually wrote here from Angie from South Africa said you can ask for a ladder and you can write on the ceiling let's leave our marks here before we leave they sound a perfect place to write our name here in the sunlight and no one will write on top of it it's perfect cuz we love the sunlight my calves are tight though my back is sore so you can't sit too long or else it kind of tightens up how are your boots good but I think I might have blisters underneath my my feet yeah potentially I think I might have a blister on my right my left toe wow look at how dusty our shoes are oh my gosh which way is the halfway halfway point they speak um Chinese hello they speak Chinese you have to say yeah yeah wow look at how he's standing just on the edge of that rock yeah that's why they call them mountain goat that's so crazy you guys you guys are very balanced huh look at this guy like I don't care if I fall down I'll climb up again oh okay this way this way thank you that's nice of them to help us so friendly we need to uh keep up the pace to make it for Sunset look at how the dirty your bag and your butt is that's a sign that we stopped a lot and sat a lot on the dirt I feel so dirty and I feel super dry look at my skin yeah look at the cracking up yeah my finger actually cracked open sorry this is gross but can you see it you don't need to show them your gross finger my gross arm's already gross enough so the section right after the Tea Horse Guest House where we are right now this 3 hour hike well 2 to 3 hour hike depending on how fast we go is supposed to be the most scenic part of this hike and easiest cuz it's just flat I think not the easiest but definitely easier than that 28 Bends monster ascend that we had to do how did you feel after uh doing that 28 Bends I wasn't sure how the rest of the five hours would go I was a bit scared and at one point I was like where's the donkey man he probably would have got me near the end but somehow after the um 28 Bends we got to some shaded areas and then I felt so energized and that Snickers definitely helped if I see another vendor with Snickers I'm going to get another one I'm really glad we did this this is a side of China that we didn't know about it's incredible and honestly it's been pretty straightforward and it's one of the most popular hikes yet it's not that crowded I just asked the shop owner she said we are about 40 minutes away from the halfway house oh that's not bad yeah and we actually made okay time it's almost 6 I think we'll get there before 7 um check in we'll be able to go to the platform to see the sunset we should get going there all right bye mountain 7 and 1/2 hours later we have arrived yes we are at the village we're going to spend a night and another hotel is just right there that one on Trip.com it's called like Halfway Residence Inn
but it's actually called Judy's looks pretty nice it's not as busy as the Halfway Guest House which is the most popular one that is easily booked out and a bit more expensive than Judy's but I think it'll be good I just want to shower we're coming Judy looks pretty nice I hope we get one of those balcony rooms yeah I'm not sure what I booked actually I also hope we have a balcony I think you look pretty tired even the last few steps he said keep going words of encouragement 3188 oh I'm so excited for this that's the most beautiful sound of the hotel door opening oh god let's see wow oh wow oh my god automatic curtains oh fancy wow oh we have a balcony and two queen beds yeah I couldn't get one bed but I think we would enjoy having our own bed yeah I don't mind let's see what the wow now look at this balcony oh nice work babe I love this place this is nice how much is it again $65 USD a night oh that's not bad at all yeah it's pretty big sleepy time shower time I feel so gross need to shower so proud of you I'm proud of you too I'm proud of us it was not easy for us at least it was not easy but we've done the hardest the hardest part of the two days tomorrow we just wake up make our coffee in the room enjoy our beautiful balcony view of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and it's only a 3-hour trek to Tina's and then we can reunite with our bags we hope they're there I'm curious to see what my feet look like I'm in pain oh no the bottom my foot do you have any blisters yeah got a blister ew don't show people that's gross how about this one no just on this one how's the shower so good oh it's perfect it's hot the pressure is good life changing oh this is the best I'm sore everywhere both my knees I'm worried about the 3 hour trek and I think it's downhill maybe check with the reception see if it can take the car back I think if you drive to the next place it's only about 30 minutes yeah but I don't know if there are cars so we can ask okay but if we hike then it's 3 hours just check for me right here here they are this one and that one all right we got our bags and we are off to Shangri-La let's go
2024-05-29 09:39
