Lijiang was meant to be a short stop for us before we started our hike in the Tiger Leaping Gorge, but I caught a cold in Dali and needed to heal up before starting the hike. Luckily we found the perfect place to get some rest, the October Inn, just north of old town Lijiang. We arrived in the evening after taking the train from Dali, fighting our way on to the city bus (after missing two other busses because we didn’t fight hard enough to get on!) and switching to another bus. The bus system is relatively easy to figure out in China, and our hostel sent us detailed directions on arriving by public transport, so we arrived in a reasonable amount of time. 

Once we checked in, we were told that the owner was making dinner and it would be ready in an hour, for 25 yuan per person. We decided instantly to join, and went to our ridiculously decorated room to rest for a few. Despite the over decoration, the room was large, had a comfy bed with a bed warmer and lots of blankets for the cold night, and a huge bathroom with a nice rain shower and warming lights. Most hotels in China don’t have heat, so when it gets cold at night, they resort to other measures to keep warm, such as the bed warmers and bathroom heat lamps. The room was also very quiet, since it was a bit of a walk from the old town, which made it a very peaceful stay. 

Dinner was amazing, though we did not remember to take any pictures of any of the dinners the owner Thom (spelled like my Thom!) made for us. Many of the other guests joined for dinner, and it was a nice family-style meal where we were able to try a bunch of different plates. There were greens, Chinese cucumber with sugar, a delicious potato and pork stew of sorts, tofu, and another side dish or two that I can’t remember. It was all delicious, and we found the reviews that claim that Thom is an amazing cook to be accurate. 

The next day we woke up early to FaceTime with our friend Sonja who was at the wedding of our friends Kyle and Sara, which we were very sad to miss. The connection wasn’t awesome and it was hard to hear what anyone was saying, but we were glad to at least check in and congratulate them on their special day. Afterwards, we had a simple breakfast of eggs and toast at the hostel, and spent most of the day relaxing and napping in the room because it was pouring rain outside and quite chilly for mostly all of the day, and I felt like crap. 

We did go out for lunch to the market that was a few minutes walk away, and ordered the hostel recommendation at one of the restaurants. We had no idea what we were ordering, but it turned out to be a perfect meal to eat while not feeling very good on a rainy day. It was a pot of meat on bone, with potatoes, tofu, greens, mushrooms, some sort of beans, and another ingredient or two, in a nice, warm broth. We were also given a dish of dry spices on the side. 

The lady running the restaurant was super nice, even though she didn’t speak a word of English, and while Thom was checking out the dry spice mix by picking some up with his chopsticks and smelling it, she came by and laughed so hard at us because it looked like he was trying to eat the dry spices alone. She then showed us that we were supposed to add a little of the soup broth to the dry spices and use it as a dip for the ingredients in the soup. She also gave us a couple of yummy plums that we had seen at the market and been meaning to try. We ate that soup in her restaurant for nearly two hours, listening to the rain outside and the men in the back who were possibly eating and more likely gambling. It was a great meal in a comfortable restaurant.

That evening Thom the hostel owner cooked up some Sicuhan hot pot for us, with fish, fish balls, some fish/tofu like round things, Chinese mini hot dogs, potatoes, greens, and Chinese watermelon. It wasn’t very spicy at first, but the French girls who were eating with us were dying, it was way too spicy for them! After they had most of their fill, Thom the cook threw in probably a cup more of his homemade spicy sauce because he said it had no flavor without it 🙂 It was delicious both ways, though we preferred the extra spicy version which was actually really good. He used a lot of Sicuhan peppers, which don’t seem to taste super spicy but leave your mouth and lips with a tingly sort of feeling on them, different than the usual capsaicin-type peppers. It was really good and a nice way for us to get a solid taste of Sicuhan food. 

We made it out of the hostel the next day and headed down to the old town to get a look around. The old town in Lijiang costs 80 rmb to get in (around $12.50) per person, but luckily the guard was away from the gate when we went to go in, so we didn’t have to pay this rather high price to walk around town for an hour or two. It was a particularly pretty old town, but the same souvenirs as we had seen in Dali were for sale here, so we saw a lot of African drums, flower pastries, silver shops, and scarf stores. It was still nice to walk around and we were glad we went to check it out for a little while.


That evening we had one more family style meal with the hostel owner and the other guests, and planned our bus ticket to get to the Tiger Leaping Gorge the next day. I headed to bed early, while Thom hung out with the other boys chatting for awhile. The next morning, one of the hostel workers who was doing a workaway there walked us to the bus stop and sent us off to the gorge for our hike. We said our goodbyes and knew that we had been spoiled at the October Inn with delicious meals and an amazingly peaceful, comfortable room for a great price. We would hold all of our other accommodations in China to this standard, though it was a high expectation to meet!