A surprising New Years Eve

After the dinner, I felt a bit exhausted 🤣 I was so stuffed. But I decided on a whim to meet up with Hailing, who I had met online in the previous days, for an ice cream. Why ice cream? She liked to give herself challenges, and what better challenge than to venture out and find ice cream on new years eve, haha. We ended up only managing to find ice cream at KFC, but it was ice cream nonetheless.

Hailing is a local from Lijiang, and she was home alone for the evening because she had slept through the time when her parents left to some other relatives for another celebration. By that time I had received two invitations by others to spend NYE with them, and decided to simply bring Hailing along. The invitations I had received were from Russ (the Welsh guy who helped me find a place to stay), and from the hosts of my previous homestay (where I was only for the first night).

After finishing the ice cream, we headed to the ancient city to meet with Russ in a bar. He was hanging out in a rather underground joint, together with a friend from the US, who turned out to be an anthropologist who had been studying the local Naxi minority people for the past 25 years. It was such a great opportunity to learn more about the local people and culture, and even Hailing was impressed at all the knowledge that was shared about her people.

Towards midnight we changed to a folk music bar, and at midnight I ventured out with Hailing to see the fireworks. Of which there were many, though what I hadn't considered was that the ancient city is mostly made of wood, and therefore a fireworks free zone. Oh well, at least we spotted a ton of fireworks on the horizon. Neither Hailing nor I were drinking, and we were both getting tired, so she ended up dropping me off with her car at my place for the night. Happy new year!Meer informatie