Day 108: Shangri-La (香格里拉) – October 3rd

The old town of Shangri-La is MUCH better than the new town. That being said, it was still a bit touristy, with ‘local specialties’ such as yak jerky, Tibetan knives and other tourist-trap goods every other store. Within though, there were quite a few gems of neat little handicraft stores and coffee shops. Our favorite though, was definitely Helen’s Pizzeria, where we stopped for lunch. The owner is an extremely nice Italian man who married a Naxi-local and decided to stay. Everything was made in house, the pizza dough, the tagliatelle, the tomato sauce, even the gelato! We had a long awaited Italian meal..delicious! Washing the pizza down with a strong Lavazza coffee and finishing off with a slice of cake + scoops of gelato, it definitely hit the spot.

Strolling around the old town it was rather small and we covered it within an hour… So at a neat little bookstore, we bought two books and headed to a coffee shop and chilled there for about 4hrs. The coffee shops here all have some great interior design with a good fusion of modern styles with traditional materials of wood. We’re uber-jealous, thinking probably a pane of window or the door itself would cost thousands over back home…that type of décor would probably bankrupt us pretty quickly.

For dinner, we had some pretty authentic Korean food. Ahhh, feels like home again, it’s been a while since we’ve had variety to our meals! The food it seems was the only thing that seemed attractive in this place that’s named after paradise. We’re not as displeased with the place was before, but it still wasn’t ever going to live up to its name.