SouthWest China & A Bowl of Pig's Knuckles

We booked a plane ticket from Chengdu to Lijiang. We decided that a 1 hour plane ride beat a 22 hour train/bus journey. Lijiang is a beautiful canaled city, with picturesque cobble-stoned streets. It is also at the base of the Himalayas, called the "foothills", they are only around 15,000 to 16,000 feet tall. It also houses a large Tibetan population, so we felt it would give us a good "feel" for Tibet. However, the one thing we wanted to do there, Tiger Leaping Gorge, the deepest gorge in the world, was closed due to the rain. It had been raining for the past three weeks straight and someone had just died in the gorge due to a land slide, so it was closed. Despite the set back we did see some spectacular things, like the Black Dragon pool, and just walking thru the beautiful streets. Plus we did get to see a drunk Chinese guy fall into the canal when we were coming home from eating!

From Lijiang we wanted to get plane tickets to India, however, we ran into a snag. The borders are closed between China and India--they just don't like each other, so it is impossible to fly directly. We would either had to fly to Hong Kong, 800 miles in the opposite direction, then to Calcutta, or fly to Bangkok, 500 miles south, then fly to Calcutta. We ended up taking an all day bus ride thru some amazing views in the mountains to get to Kunming, a larger city, and Hub in hopes of getting a flight out from there... but the picture there was the same. In the end, we decided to fly to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, then work our way to Bangkok and catch a flight there to either Delhi or Calcutta--what a freaking mess.

OK so we make it to Kunming around dinner time and we are starving, we haven't eaten anything all day except some potato chips. We check into our hotel, which takes about three hours because of the language problem and then we head out to get something to eat. We are on the main thoroughfare in town, so we think we'll just walk up the street and stop at the first restaurant we see. Two miles and two hours later, still nothing--finally we see a hotel with a restaurant! We dash in and order the first thing on the menu that looks good-- a pork dish with some vegetables. It comes to our table and I swear I see a pig hoof in there or knuckle or whatever you call the foot of a pig. They are just large hunks of fat with toes, tendons, joints, bones, and maybe a little sliver of meat on each part. We quickly pay and leave the restaurant before we gag. Just when we think we are going to bed hungry I spot them, small at first, down the street, a couple blocks farther-- The Golden Arches!!!! I never thought I would be so happy to see a McDonald's in my life.