The Beauty of Shangri-La
Shangri-La is one of the most beautiful places in the world. Close to the Tibetan mountains the scenery is breathtaking. The spectacular view from the magnificent picturesque mountains leading to the ‘Tiger Leaping Gauge’ by floating on the Yangtze River.
The drive up is fun with blind spots and bends where I had to place my hand over to horn time and time again. The driver was used to encountering the dangerous roads and had been reluctant to use the horn himself.
I placed my plastic cup out of the window to collect some mineral water from the waterfall en-route the mountains.
Walking up on the mountains I passed by a corn hut. The simple ways of drying corn in the sunshine, which hits at the high altitude. In contrast, I was taken down across logs to reach a stream, which is where the milk was kept beneath a rock to act as a refrigerator system.
Staying at a guesthouse was something of a luxury even though when my electric blanket did not work in the freezing temperatures of the night then I was given two warm bottles of water to keep at my feet instead. From the balcony, the constellation was absolutely amazing. The clear night sky and the bright stars could be seen close by on a panoramic view.
I made a visit to a dwelling of one of the local people. It involved finding my way in pitch darkness and climbing up stone steps to reach to the higher level of the mountain. Inside the hut there was a single pole holding it up. It was rather frightening when one of my friends leaned against the pole and it almost collapsed which would have brought the entire hut down. The roofs tiles were placed down with stones.
Yaks to See and Yaks to Eat
On arrival at the guesthouse I had seen below me a few Yaks one actually winked at me. It came as much of a surprise that during our lovely dinner I was offered a plate of shredded Yak meat. It wasn’t of course from the ones that I had seen earlier.
The Tiger Leaping Gauge
Legend has it that a tiger needed to cross the Yangtze River in an escape bid and actually leaped over and across it. The tiger-leaping gauge marks this. To visit it you have to walk down a series of steps, which was simpler than on the way back. An old man that was carrying a chair was offering me assistance all the way up but I managed to climb back up although breathless when I finally reached. I was wondering how long it would have taken for the old man to run back up and ask for someone to join him to help carry me up. I did not see anyone at the series of stops on my way down.
Such beautiful pictures and scenery. I may have to look into shooting there.