I spent three days and nights in Lijiang, China. You can read about that here.
Total cost:
The Old Town Protection Fare is required if you are going to be in the Old Town. I wasn’t quite sure how to go about paying for this. I was eventually stopped and asked to show my receipt, which I did not have. So I paid it then.
Once upon a time, my mother bought me a pig change purse for good luck for an upcoming trip to Las Vegas. A year after she died, I lost the poor pig at a fest and was quite upset about it. Imagine my glee at finding the same exact one while lost in Lijiang:
The food and drink budget was spent largely on fresh squeezed fruit juices and yogurt drinks. Oh and one lunch at McDonalds. Sorry foodies!.
Unlike my gross overspending in Dali, the only real way this trip could have been cheaper would have been to book a cheaper hotel. But I was not going to do that when I had a chance to sleep in a round bed.
Oh and those stupid ATM fees. For some reason, I am being charged to check my balance every time I go to an ATM, in addition to the ATM fee. Yes, I am aware Charles Schwab exists and yet I am still using a bank. So this is my own fault.
The way this could have been more expensive would be if I hadn’t been sick from the altitude and had gone to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain like I had planned.
To leave Lijiang, I took a bus to Shangrila. When I got to the bus station, I was getting a lot of stares that I accept, but hate. Luckily there was a car crash outside the station so everyone turned away from me to look at that.
I was surprised at how nice and clean the bus station was. I decided to use the bathroom, which is on the second floor. This is China so that means up three flights of stairs, with luggage. Sigh. The bathroom was so gross and the opposite of everything the rest of the station was.
And for anyone who has asked me how I get around China without speaking any Chinese language, this is how:
Here are some stray photos from Lijiang:
That budget is quite a bit smaller than one for Vegas, yes?
I haven’t hit $50/day in weeks. This includes that I am paying for my hotels in cash upon arrival. This is why I stopped taking longer trips to Vegas. That whole “but the rooms and food are comped” thing just doesn’t work mathematically when you gamble to get those comps.
(I have started planning a three week trip to Vegas. I may not actually go through with it once I get back to the good ol’ USA. But right now, I would love a fancy hotel room and room service.)
I’m in the very preliminary stages of planning a trip for next spring. I’m hoping beyond hope that signing up online at the Cosmopolitan site will yield something I can use.
I don’t have all that much to use. I have tons of Caesars comps. My ADT must be insanely high because I can get five nights at Caesars. But resort fees…
I also priced New Year’s Eve on Air BnB and there is a condo in the Allure condos behind where my beloved Riviera used to be for under $100. That is really pushing me to stay there. High rise condo? Sign me up.
There was a while where I could get free rooms from certain Harrah’s properties when I combined my and my wife’s cards. But, since we pretty much stopped going to Harrah’s in AC that well dried up.
I must have gone insanely degenerate on my last trip to have such a high ADT. I need to decide what I am doing by August because that is my next gambling trip and I will probably lower my ADT and then all offers will be gone.
Thanks so much for your sharing! How about the road condition from Lijiang to Shangri-la?
I took a bus and it went smoothly