Dabbling in Dali

After spending a few days in Yangshuo, Gene and I hopped on a plane from Guilin over to Kunming, where we officially began our Yunnan tour. We stayed in Kunming only for a night to catch an early bus to Dali the next day. I found Kunming to be pleasant compared to Nanjing, but perhaps this is a limited point of view since we were there for half a day. All we managed to do was eat hotpot and watch a silly Hong Kong chick flick (單身男女)... which added up to a very nice dinner-date. :)

The next morning we took a 4-5 hour bus over to Dali. We got ripped off at the ticket station (to be expected but it makes me SO mad!). Chinese bus rides are never very pleasant, but we then kicked off our ride with THIS ridiculousness below:

Let me explain. So our bus drives up the highway ramp and we get stuck at the merging section for about 20 minutes. Why? Because some retards ahead wanted to avoid the "traffic jam" ahead (circled in blue) and started U-turning back down the ONE-WAY highway ramp, log jamming all incoming traffic. It was amusing, but the novelty wore off very quickly. U-turning on the highway, really? And this "traffic jam" only lasted maybe 1km at most. I am seriously getting so sick of the many instances of Darwinistic anti-public-good behavior that I see everywhere in China.

Outside Kunming there are huge lots filled with construction vehicles of every size and color.

Finally after an arduous bus ride, we get to Dali! We stayed at The Lily Pad Inn, which was quite reasonable (at $20 USD/night) for a room with a private bath. It was also located right outside the old town, which made for more peaceful nights. The old town of Dali is mostly comprised of the Bai minority, as well as a fair number of Hui (Chinese Muslims). Bai architecture is quite beautiful and distinct... as you can see below. :)

In our hostel's very cute courtyard, a wonderful place to enjoy breakfast and catch up on some reading!

Old Town Dali was very quaint and pleasant to walk through, with clean and wide cobblestone streets that seemed very recently renovated. There were no shortage of tourists here, especially since this place is known as a Westerner's backpacker town (there's even a road called Foreigner's Street, 洋人街). Supposedly it's really easy to get weed here if you look like a 外國人 backpacker. I didn't get approached though. You can also buy a lot of random knick-knacks such as silver bracelets, pillowcases, jade pendants, minority costumes, embroidered earrings, etc... lots of really cute souvenirs that I wanted to bring back so badly!!! Just remember that if you do decide to purchase something, the most reasonable price for both you and the shopkeeper is 1/3 of the original quotation. And if you like something enough then don't feel bad that you "overpaid" by a couple RMB... that's the unspoken market rule! :)

Lots of different kinds of skewers 串 (chuan4) at the Hui-style cart. No pork though, because Hui = Chinese Muslims.

We had to toss out our skewers because we couldn't handle the thick layer of paprika/pepper/mystery-spices! It was super gross, but if you get it sans spices it is actually quite tasty.

So pretty. :)

We met up with some fellow HNCers at a open-air bar street - Gene taught us how to eat 瓜子 (gua1zi, dried watermelon seeds). I always end up using too much brute force and shatter the whole thing into tiny shards. I guess I'll just have to be fed. :)

The next day we went up to Cang Mountains (蒼山), which overlooks many of the little towns in Dali County and beyond into Erhai Lake (洱海胡). The walk was extremely peaceful and relaxing, with the trail completely paved by smooth stones. The mountain is covered with fresh-smelling pine trees and is very quiet, with surprisingly very few tourists. It's definitely a good place if you need some time to yourself and contemplate the meaning of life, haha.

Did I mention that I was kind of afraid of heights?

Gene's favorite part of Cang Mountain was this giant Chinese chessboard. We spent a fair amount of time pretending to be in Alice in Wonderland, haha.

All in all, Old Town Dali felt slow and nice... it had crisp fresh air that reminded me of California, beautiful Bai-style architecture, and a relaxed atmosphere. I do have to say that the food majorly blowed and I had probably the worst curry in my entire life there. My friend Lulu warned me that that'd be the case, and I can confirm that it is indeed true.

And now introducing THE PUPPIES OF DALI! (awwwwwww~~! ^_^)

Next stop, Lijiang (Shuhe).