Friends and Family

I woke up on the morning 25th feeling like a champ, had a huge breakfast and was ready for hiking the famed Tiger Leaping gorge. I decided though that I (and I apologize for the details) should try and hit the can before we head out. Things were a little too...well not good. But I made nothing of it and kept the course. After hiking a little while we reached the trailhead and I had to hit the can again. And I started to feel weak. So it was that I had eaten something that gave me dysentery. We had begun already so I decided to keep going. It's only 2 days I figured. Bad idea. I spent the whole time super weak as I couldn't hold any nutrients in my body and spent the hike searching for toilets instead of enjoying the magnificence of the yangze valley.
We had met some spectacular people though beforehand, Angeli, Dave and Martina, who all helped me through with moral support.
One of the great things about traveling is the people you meet on the way. We ended up traveling with Angeli and Dave for a couple days of travel before the hike also and unfortunately they left our path just after the hike itself (we were to meet them again in Yangshuo). We traveled with Martina though for a total of 10 days though from before the hike through Dali and to Kunming where she took a different route as we headed south to Jinghong to enjoy some warm weather and palm trees after those cold days in the mountains. It's always fun to share the road and experiences even for a short time.
After hiking the gorge out of a town called Qiaotou, we decided to head northward toward a town called Baishuitai, which directly translates to "white water" something. It is called that due to the limestone terraces similar yet smaller to those in Turkey at Pumakkale. En route we ran into a guy, Liam, on the bus who spoke English and was friendly enough to invite us to his friend WangJun's place in the countryside just short of Baishuitai in a town called Aluwan nestled in a mountain valley on a hill covered in terraced fields and peopled by a Chinese minority group
Called the Naxi. It was spectacular. We spent 4 days 3 nights in his parents home, who were away on holidays, and he welcomed us warmly to his village as did all of the villagers in fact. On the walk to his house we went past a dozen or so people who invited us in or just said hi with a big smile. Unfortunately while there I was still super sick and couldn't venture far from a toilet while the rest of the crew went for walks to the terraces, a waterfall and just visited the village while I was bedridden. I really got to know the stall next to the pig pen though, and the inner courtyard of WangJun's family farm where I had a chance to feed the animals while the rest were out and about.
In all I was sick for 6 days, from the beginning of the gorge, through Aluwan, and onto Dali, where I decided enough was enough and started on antibiotics to rid myself of it. It was a success but I was off Chinese food for a while and started feeling very homesick. It could be that it is approaching Christmas or that Méliane and I had swapped being sick for 2 weeks or more, or a combination of both, that brought on our want for home. But now as we are getting closer to Christmas, and therefore the end of our sojourn in China we have a little treat awaiting us in our next destination. Méliane's folks are joining us in Thailand for the holiday season in the middle of a southeast Asian adventure of their own.