Shmugu

Yes I know I've said it before, but most beautiful place in China. Lugu Lake really was a perfect couple of days in such an incredible place. The "town" we stayed in was a strip of about a dozen log buildings on the lakeshore. The place we stayed was by itself just around the corner - here's the building


and the view from the window of our exposed wood, pine-smelling room with the most comfortable bed in China


Such a cool little place, I went to the toilet one morning to see the family dalmation barking maniacally at a random cow which had sauntered in to eat the cardboard box holding a bunch of empty beer bottles. At other times the pooch mingled freely with the hundreds of black baby pigs and junior chickens in the yard


We actually saw the nicer face of rampant Chinese tourism as well. We hung out and had dinner with a bunch of young professionals on holiday. Two girls from Shanghai, a bloke from Chongqing and a couple from Guangzhou. They'd all just met each other on our tragic bus ride, it was really sweet. After dinner we went into the street to join the 15 odd tourists taking photos of a huge dog mock-fighting with a tiny puppy in the street.

I don't like to focus on prices but damn, our amazing room was 5 bucks a night for the two of us and we had dinner the next night for $1.50 each where the guy just bough out plate after plate of delicious veggies and bottomless tea. I have to say, learning to say "I am vegetarian" in Chinese was the best thing I ever did.