Chengdu to LiJiang

We are now in Lijiang getting ready to go hike the Tiger Leaping Gorge Trek. Unforunately our 20 hour bus ride yesterday turned into a 24 hour bus ride but fortunately we were riding on a sleeper bus. The first time I had ever heard of a bus like this, it has no seats just lots of bunk beds, three across and six deep complete with blankets and pillows. We boarded at 12:30, had a couple of pit stops including one for dinner where we ate at a road side cafe. And when I say road side cafe, I mean road side. A couple of tables with umbrellas and an open stove. We pointed at what we wanted, the lady cooked it for us and brought it to our table with a bowl of rice. It was delicious!!! Near the end of our meal the bus started loading and we thought we might get left behind so we started to rush to finish up and pay. As we were getting up the grandma and grandpa sitting next to us said in Chinese, "Don't get up, eat slowly, they'll wait". It was really sweet. In total I think we got about 9 hours of interrupted sleep on the bus, Irene and Shauna a little less because they were in the middle row and it's really challenging to sleep peacefully when the roads aren't paved and suddenly turn into one lane. But we are now happily here in a hostel with Mama. She provides free internet, hot showers, and a banquet style meal everynight. I must say it is nice to have someone look after us and I think we are all happy to have some other travellers to talk to. Now that we have had showers and cup of tea we are ready to go explore the old town. Then tomorrow we'll head out into nature for a two day 25 mile hike.