Heading back to Lijang and a fresh set of clothes was supposed to be a straight forward bus trip according to the staff at my hostel, all I had to do was show up at the bus stop just up the road by 8am. Arriving 20 minutes early I found out the only bus for the day in fact left at 7:30am and I would need to try make a 3 part journey through Dequin, then Shangrila and on to Lijang. 14 hours later and with a very lucky purchase of a ticket from a lady who bailed on a sold out bus from Shangrila leaving straight away (including a seat next to a rude bloke who pushed in front of me at the ticket counter, with a flatulence problem) I made it to Lijang. Unfortunately the hostel holding my bag was full along with all the others we phoned, they were kind enough to set me up a mattress on the floor for the night which was far more inviting than the park across the road.
Planning to head up to Panzahua by bus in the morning, then a train on to Chengdu overnight, the staff at this hostel told me I would have no problems going to the bus station in the morning to buy my ticket. Terrible advice again as the only bus I could book was in the afternoon, so after a very frustrating 9 hours work including walking to the train station twice and the bus station FOUR times, I finally had tickets booked for the following day. With a few hours left to chill out I visited the old city, again just another tourist magnet with hundreds of Chinese flanking me from evey angle. The food vendors must have loved me as I took the opportunity to sample every steamed and fried delights I passed wandered through the back streets. At one stand a shady looking kid who's age would have been single digits, came up with a fag in his mouth trying to flog me a used iphone, no prize for guessing where the phone would have come from.
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