Little van conveyed us all over cobblestones to the nearby village of Baisha, where the local Naxi market was in full swing.
As we arrived early-ish we were able to get a few bargains as the stallholders wanted to kick off their day’s earnings and were prepared to barter, and not prepared to lose their first sale as that would have been very bad luck.
Beautiful veggies, nut, fruit and unknowns were being sold. And the Naxi tribe was thriving.
There were some wonderful murals to guess at.
And some remarkably intricate embroidery.
Less silverware evident in this village, but plenty of copper-banging and metal “objets”.
But we all walked away – 5 hours later – with a chess board, a vanity box, 2 metal warriors (mini versions of our Heavenly Kings – but still weighing a ton), some batik tablecloths, more bells, and some pashmina scarves (to snazz up the missing evening wear).
We had some very tasty Yunnan coffee and some freshly made veggie dumplings for brekkie.
This afternoon it poured down – we have been lucky with the weather as nothing has stopped play on this trip. And it was nice to spend a few hours cramming gear into our bags and reading back Economists so that we can throw them away!
Our night out was eventful.Due to the rain, any idea of more walking to raise Deluth's step total for the day were abandoned. Enforced rest instead.
After a 10-minute taxi ride to somewhere on the road between Lijiang and Shuhe, Sarah insisted we stop first at Sweet World to collect breakfast; Joey managed to drop her underwear on the floor of the shop (not recognising them at first) packed by mistake into /sliding down her trouser leg!

Quick embarrassed exit after selecting a few cakes (that we admired) to buy and eat.
Dinner was in a Naxi style BBQ restaurant with a name we can't write or pronounce even though Joey offered to write it down for us.
Chef's night off: we cooked our own dinner, taking it in turns to stir the bowl filled with chicken bits, mushrooms, veggies, simmering over charcoal.
The broth was delicious. A fine ending for our adventures in Yun Nan. (Yunnan). An early night due to a 5am start Weds 4 May and back to HK.
We were very lucky to have Mandarin speaking friends with us for the trekking/shopping part of the trip in Tiger Leaping Gorge and Lijiang/ Shuhe. This made the holiday cheaper, remote parts/restaurants accessible to us; it was easier to get around by taxi without language problems/being ripped off and there was no need to take an expensive tour with lots of other Westerners (not that we actually spotted many for the 10 days of our break). Deluth and Joey were also able to research the best reasonable local restaurants with the tastiest food therefore we went to places we would never have gone to on our own.
To follow in our footsteps in YunNan you would need to either:
1. Try your luck with English guide books and know enough Mandarin to figure out the signs for yourselves or
2. Travel with some Mandarin speaking friends or
3. Accept the cost and hire an English speaking local guide/taxi driver.
We saw a few Western backpackers trying 1. They did ok but everything took longer and there was a high chance of getting ripped off. In Tiger Leaping Gorge we were told to take a taxi or a bus as things were far away when in fact they were less than 2k away around a corner.
We combined 2 and 3 and on the whole had a very enjoyable time thanks to our local guide in Shangri-La and of course: Joey and Deluth.