Chateau de Woody Guest House
The 2nd day trekking in Tiger Leaping Gorge
The trek from Qiaotou-28 bends-halfway was definitely a pain in the ass, we stayed in the Halfway Guest House for the first night. My first stop was to check out the views from the toilet window, the view of the Tiger Leaping Gorge was just as stunning. Much better than the guesthouse we stayed in.
After a OK breakfast we continued on our way. This day’s journey was much easier than the day before. Breathing became slightly easier as you made your way downwards. We stopped at Tina’s for lunch. We had met people coming from the opposite direction that had complained that the staff at Tina’s where not a happy bunch at all. We had also read this somewhere online, thus our decision was made: we would prefer to stay at Chateau de woody tonight.
Chateau de woody
Chateau de woody (Shanbailian in Chinese) is about 20 minutes walking from Tina’s if you choose the lower path. Usually people will go down the gorge to the Jinsha river, and climb up the cliff again. We chose another path, followed the Zhang Family Path down the moutain, walked along the bank of Jinsha river for 2 and half hours, heading to Chateau de woody. You could see signs of Shanbailian at almost every crossroad of trails, the owner tried to lead you at every turn.
Chateau de Woody’s is the first hotel one encounters when approaching Tiger Leaping Gorge from the east, either you take bus Lijiang-Daju or Zhongdian-Baishuitai-Haba-Walnut Grove.
The family who runs Woody’s was just so nice. The shop owner is Mr. Mu, a Han who married a Naxi wife, he has a 22-seat coach, also a good driver who takes passers to Lijiang, zhongdian, deqin, Mount Kawakarpo…XiaoMu, their 21 year old son is a good chef, The food was fantastic and he made the best Naxi Sandwich we had the entire time we were in Yunnan. XiaoMu was just beautiful and cooked us a huge meal of everything fresh and green.
There are three level rooms in the single story building on the Gorge side of the road. They are dark with simple furniture and simple bedding. After being shown the standard rooms, we stayed in the deluxe rooms, which are in the newest building – the two story challet on the Gorge side of the road. The bathrooms are in typical Chinese fashion, the shower is in the middle of the bath area and gets the entire room wet. And since the floor was a bit uneven, there was shallow puddle-ing in spots.
In nice weather dinners are served in a courtyard below the deluxe rooms that has a splendid view of the mountains surrounding Tiger Leaping Gorge.
There was no Internet at Woody’s guest house and none in the surrounding area.
