Lunch at Dukezong Ancient Town 独克宗古城

I just settled down at Dukezong Ancient Town at Shangrila County in Yunnan province. I spent quite a bit of time just to get here and I have practically travelled non stop until now. This was supposed to be a vacation I keep reminding myself since I don’t need to worry about work when I get back home. Dukezong Ancient Town is a lovely town nestled on the eastern end of the Tibetan plateau. This was probably the highest place I have ever stayed at. The funny thing is it doesn’t feel that high at all since I don’t have anything to compare against. Dukezong Ancient Town like the rest of Shangrila county is at an average altitude of 3200m. That is quite high.

I was worried that because I took less than a day to get from sea level to this altitude that I would get altitude sickness. No one seems to know how it strikes but it is said that people who ascend too fast from low altitude to high altitude may suffer from its effects. It was to the point of paranoia since I would worry about where I was breathing too heavily because of a short walk or was I getting a headache from lack of oxygen. I needed to clear my head and have some lunch.

Dukezong Ancient Town wasn’t very big and can be easily explored by foot. There are numerous restaurants and eateries here but I would like to try some local fare. There was a humble restaurant which intrigued me, I ordered their yak with tomato. It wasn’t as bad as it sounded. I would think that it didn’t taste much like Chinese food at all. The tomato was a nice contrast to the yak meat which was a bit tough. I followed this up with some butter tea, a Tibetan specialty. Butter tea is made from butter made from yak milk and unsuprisingly tastes like liquified butter. I don’t know how healthy it was but I quickly took a liking to it.

A lady from Kunming chatted me up as I learned that she comes here quite often. The staff at the restaurant already knows her. I asked her for advice as well in exploring the province of Yunnan which she obliged. I guess she was fascinated with the opportunity to speak to a foreigner here of all places. It was obvious that I wasn’t local since I can’t speak the language well but she didn’t mind as long as she understood me. I would have wanted to make her a travel buddy but she has her own schedule to follow. On the way out, to my surprise, she paid for my lunch. What a nice gesture. I naturally offered to pay for my share but she insisted. In the days that followed, I never saw here again, too bad.

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