Shaaxi 沙溪

As we're into week 13 - the last week of this trip, I'm set in Chengdu, and not moving too much other than to take care of some beaurocratic issues that need to be addressed until the last minute so that I can get out on the designated time - I will save you the sad details.

 

In the meantime, between an overdose of Hot-pots, Dry-pots (干锅) and Chuan-cai (The Sichuanese Cuisine minus the above), a sampling of museums/ exhibitions, and drinking spots - we might be able to throw in another couple of posts. Alas, at this point, we are tracing back, nibbling at memory traces with the help of the remaining photos, and the order of posts is going to be quite random.

This one - Shaaxi, is from back in Yunnan, somewhere at the end of August.

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In one of the hidden valleys between Dali and Lijiang lies Shaaxi - a small ancient village that lies on a trading route, through which many trader horses passed and traded in years long forgotten.

 

Most of the travellers skip this place, and really, it's a lot of effort to get here (no direct transportation from either Dali or Lijiang) for a village that can be explored throughout within a couple of hours.

Still, some of the few travellers you do find here (and you find them all quickly - we were 7 foreigners for my first night in, sitting together over beers at the village's ancient square, including 2 foreigners that actually live there doing some botanical research) get caught here for quite some time, and quite a few are repeating visitors. So it's not a bad place apparently.

 

It's quite charming and quiet (minus the dancing in the village square that makes a lot of noise every night - something that apparently started to happen recently), and offers some nice little hiling opportunities around.

 

The real fun for me, though, was on a day trip I took for the near-by mountain range. And more than the mountain itself or its promised grottoes (that at mostpart stayed hidden from me), the real interesting bit was quite random and lucky, as I ran into a big group/ family that came up with me to the little rundown temple at the top of one of the hills, and with which I spent half the day as they were cheering the place up, and preparing loads of food - I asked later, and there was a very local festival coming up in a few days, but nothing really on that day - it might have been a private occasion or some early prep for the upcoming festival - but I never really found out.

 

And with this, I'll let the pictures tell you the rest.

 

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