R&R in Shangri-La

On Tuesday we part company with Max and Audrey's trail and take an early morning flight up to Zhongdian, an ethnic Tibetan town in the mountains of northern Yunnan province which is China's official Shangri-La. We visited the region in May two years ago, on a cultural tour from Hong Kong, only to be disappointed that we had so much wet weather that we never saw the peaks of the mountains emerge from the clouds. This time we're much more fortunate. On the short flight from Kunming we glimpse the snow-covered peaks that rise to over 14,000 ft. - the closest we'll get to the sensation of flying the Hump - and a spectacular sight.

We bypass Zhongdian (with its phony 'old town' developed for tourists) and head for the Banyan Tree Ringha, about 30 minutes from the airport. We're spending three nights here, our indulgence after a week on the road. The Singapore-based Banyan Tree group opened this luxury resort three years ago, naming it Ringha after an 800-year old Buddhist monastery which sits on a nearby hilltop - Ringha means 'five wisdoms of Buddha' in Tibetan. The remote valley is an inspired choice of location for complete relaxation. We're booked into a 'Tibetan Suite', one of 32 two-bedroom lodges and one-bedroom suites which make up the resort, and quite the largest hotel room I've ever stayed in. Each suite is part of a reclaimed, traditional Tibetan farmhouse and is on two floors - the upper floor is a vast bedroom/living area with a balcony overlooking the river valley (see photo), and the lower floor (where Tibetans used to keep their livestock) is a bathroom and dressing room, leading out onto a private terrace. The farmhouses, which were disassembled and moved from local villages, are exquisitely restored and adapted, with wide plank floors and carved wooden shutters. But with a lot of dark wood, and underpowered lighting, the rooms could be gloomy in poor weather - we are very happy to wrap up in the chilly air and sit out on the balcony for a pre-dinner drink, watching the sun set over the hills.

We've earned our glass of Chardonnay by taking a long walk along the valley on our first afternoon, passing yaks, cattle, pigs and village houses. This is just a warm-up for our major adventure the next day - we've arranged to take an all-day trek from the resort base at 3300m to nomadic summer pastures at a daunting 3800m. When I booked this, I was warned that the altitude and the possibility of light snow on the ground could make the trek pretty challenging - but I was relieved to discover that we'd be followed by horses in case we got tired! We wake to a thick mist in the valley, and a hard frost ( no snow at least), but thankfully by the time we set off about 9:30 the sun has burnt off the fog and it promises to be a gorgeous day. Our guide is a young Tibetan, who speaks good English and is great company. Two local women, with bright pink headscarves, follow along leading our horses. For the first hour, we climb gently past the monastery and through a valley bordered by yellow-leaved aspens and pine trees - it could be Colorado in the fall, except that both the animals and the local people are more exotic. Then we begin a stiff climb along a beautiful wooded trail, and I take a couple of breaks on horseback, which is great fun, though Mike valiantly makes it to the top on foot (benefiting from all that running he's been doing!). By midday, our vista opens up as we reach a high alpine plateau. This is the summer pasture for yaks, as well as a common crossbreed of yak and bull, and sheep. The plateau is dotted with the rangers' wooden huts, and we find some are still in residence with their livestock - including a very friendly old woman. We wander across the plateau (think a Chinese Brokeback Mountain), and our guide sets about colonizing an empty hut and lighting a wood fire to cook our lunch. As the Famous Five said, food tastes better in the open air, and we savor a plentiful picnic of soup, beef stew and dried bananas sitting around the camp fire.

Then it's time to head down, and we take a different trail which is a logging road. We meet a guy whose pair of yaks are pulling three large tree trunks downhill - villagers are allowed to fell trees to use in building their own houses, which may explain why houses in this area are much larger than those we've seen elsewhere. The views are still superb, the air unbelievably clear and the sky a deep blue. Apart from hiking to the bottom of the Grand Canyon (thanks, Willkies) this is the most unforgettable trek I've done. We make it back to the Banyan Tree around 2:30 - impressively fast, according to our guide, but then the horses did help. And we are definitely ready for hot baths in our room's huge antique wooden tub.