The end of the vacation ended quietly. Because we were unable to get to Meili Xue Shan, we could afford to be more relaxed for the second half of the trip. I woke up early and went out and had a great breakfast, bit the bullet and bought some gifts for various folks. I was successful, for the most part, at least I was proud of the success I was having. I bought a shirt at one place and I thought that I got a reasonable deal by negotiating a shirt down 10% or so to 75 RMB, or 10 bucks – certainly, a very nice shirt for that price. But later, I was walking by another store and the jovial shopkeeper stopped me:

“Hello” (in traditional Chinese English accent)
“Hello (English)…Good morning! (Chinese)
“I have the best clothes…so cheap!”
“Really? How much?” (laughter from the observers)
“Come in and have a look!”
<I see a similar shirt>
“How much is this?”
“Oh, I don’t know. What do you think?”
“Uh, 20?”
“OK! You want it! I’ll wrap it up!”
“Ssssure…20? Really? OK!”

Did I get ripped off again? I just love the psychology of “the deal”. I’m totally happy with the shirt at ten bucks. So, I’ll just view the three dollar one as icing on the cake.

Shots of the streets and canals of LiJiang.

Views of LiJiang rooftops from a hill in the middle of town.

Quality signage. The second is a list of various teas at a Sichuan restaurant.

We ended the evening with a barbeque. It sure tasted good (at the time) and included chicken, mutton, beef, sausage, toufu (not considered a vegetarian’s meat in China). We woke up at 6am the next day with enough time to catch a “shuttle” to the airport for the flight back to Shenzhen. I had woken up an hour earlier not feeling so good. I knew it was that damn barbeque and I hoped that I’d be able to make it back to Shenzhen without much incident. Li Zhen (James) and I, along with a couple traveling back to Beijing, waited out in the cold, empty, cobblestoned street in the area designated to accomodate a little van for our shuttle. When it finally arrived, I hopped into the front seat, had a quick look at the driver, a shabby unkempt fellow…and then smelled the guy. Ugh! He was one of the worst smelling people I’ve ever smelled in my life. I didn’t know if I’d be able to endure the ride to the airport. I dropped the window down about an inch and kept my nose very close to avoid that reek that could wake the dead. Later in the airport, we talked about how bad that guy smelled and I learned that some of the minorities here only bath a couple of times every year, as part of their custom. I certainly don’t doubt that frequentcy.

I didn’t feel any better waiting on the aiport, but strangely felt pretty good once we were in flight. As we were approaching Shenzhen, something happened and I had to get the “sanitary bags” ready quick. Hadn’t been sick on the plane in a long time, time to reset the calendar. Damn Chinese barbeque on the last meal of the trip! Well, at least it wasn’t the first. I was purified! Li Zhen got sick 24 hours later. The End!