Dali

We were meeting at 8:40 am for my drop off at the train station. As it was a Monday morning my guide wanted to make sure I wouldn't miss the train. It was raining out so I don't feel like I was missing anything by being on the train for almost 6 hours. We arrived at the train station at 9:30. Vikki couldn't go in with me because she didn't have a ticket. But she told me what to do. The only thing I forgot to ask was if I had a seat assignment. At about 1/2 hour before departure they started boarding. I showed my ticket to 2-3 people and they pointed me towards the same direction I was already walking. Each seating area on the train was in a separate room with 6 bunks. It looked like there were 5 seats in the room in front of me so I entered the room. I showed the ticket to the woman already in there. She pointed to the bunk across from her in the bottom. I thought this entire bunk would be mine. Next thing I knew people started sitting down next to me. Why weren't they going on the top or middle bunk? I guess during the day, everyone piles their stuff in the middle bunk and everyone sits on the bottom bunks. There would be 4 in each row. So uncomfortable. Not enough room to spread out. Not enough room to be comfortable sitting up either.

There were carts continuously coming by with food. You could get snacks or drinks. I didn't need anything. I had water, a banana, and a clif bar. I pulled out my iPod. I hadn't listened to music since the flight from SF to Delhi. It was nice to hear music. I didn't realize I missed it. Sure, I heard Nepali and Indian music and even Chinese music along the way. But to listen to my own music after more than a month felt so nice. I was rocking out in my seat. I had a window seat so I watched the scenery go by. The earth is red here. So even though there is a lot of green everywhere, you also see the red earth. There is a lot of farmland. It looked like mostly vegetables and rice growing. I was later to find out that there is a lot of tobacco grown here. Yunnan is the province that produces the most tobacco.

We were definitely going up in elevation. Every once in a while you would feel that there was strain on the train's engine. We passed through many tunnels during the way as we were in the mountains. Believe it or not I managed to sleep a bit too. When it was getting around 3:30-ish I noticed we were approaching a metropolitan area. The train was supposed to arrive shortly after 4. I assumed the train ended in Dali. But not everyone was getting off. I was waiting for our car to clear out, but apparently not everyone was leaving. Then I heard what sounded like a last call for Dali. It was still taking me a while to exit. Just as I got off, they were allowing the passengers from Dali going further to get on. And there were tons of them. I waited until most of them came down the stairs before I attempted to go up. Although after I had gotten up one flight of stairs carrying three bags, I got sent back down. There is a different way to go for exiting passengers. Good thing, because it was down and not up. I was the last one through the exit and my guide, Tom was there. As soon as we got in the car he said that my train to Lijiang would be leaving after 4 instead of before 1 on my departure day. It sounded like he just bought the ticket today.

Then he said he wanted to see my itinerary as he thought there was another change. He said the walk tomorrow would be 4 hours instead of 2. He thought it might be a problem for me. To his probable disappointment, I said no. If he told me the walk was 8 hours, I would still have said, bring it on. I told him I would check in with my travel coordinator and see if anything could be done about the train. I hate arriving in a new city near dark. It's just harder to negotiate where you are going in the dark.

The hotel was probably more like my first room in the guesthouse in Darjeeling. Kind of run down in the bathroom, but clean. The guide asked me what I wanted for breakfast and we agreed on noodles and tea. Basically he said there were a lot of restaurants around and that the food here is generally spicy.

I couldn't really tell where my hotel was on the map. The lonely planet map and my phone map disagreed. I walked in one direction on the road where my hotel was. I passed a gate. I thought I was at the south gate but wasn't sure. The old town of Dali has gates and walls in some sections. Then I found a sign for Jim's Tibetan hotel. That was in a very different place than I thought it was. Everything in the streets and shops were deserted around 5:30-6:00. I did manage to buy some Tibetan stuffed flatbread. Thank goodness since I was starving. I only had some snacks at lunch. I also got a water since this was the first hotel since the guesthouse in Darjeeling that didn't provide it. I got some cash and headed back to the hotel to drop off the water. This time I walked in the opposite direction. I just wanted to be sure that I wasn't walking in the wrong direction since I never found the road I was looking for. Yeah, there was even less going on the other way. I headed back the other direction again. This time I went down one block towards the lake. There was a temple in the distance right next to one of the city walls. Maybe that's where the old town was. Bingo! I found old town and all the excitement. This is where all the people were--also shops, restaurants, cafes, and bars.

I finally found one of the places I was looking for-- Jim's Peace Cafe. They had Tibetan food, Chinese, and western. I got puerh tea and veggie goulash. It was a curry with rice and so many fresh vegetables--peas, broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, mushrooms, beans, peanuts, and goat cheese that tasted more like paneer. All the English speakers must have the same guidebook because the three tables that were full were all westerners.

I ate so much, but it was really good. I walked back through the old town. It's interesting, because it looks like there are canals with a pretty fast stream going through there. I need to check in with the guide tomorrow.

I headed back to the hotel. It was a good little walk. I must have walked several miles this afternoon and evening after getting off the train. I was psyched I finally figured out the town too.

In Dali, there's not much to do but hang out. I don't want to shop. I already bought a lot of souvenirs. I'm saving my tea purchases for Xishuagnbanna when I go to the tea plantation. So unless something really special catches my eye, I'm not buying more stuff.

I went to breakfast around 7:30. They recognized me, as I must be the only westerner staying here, and they brought me tea. That was a good start. Then the porridge and hard boiled egg showed up. I was getting scared the noodles wouldn't appear. But they did. I didn't touch the other stuff that I didn't order. Tom showed up checking in on me at 8:00. I finished getting ready and came back down. The driver had not arrived yet. He showed up shortly.

It was a fifteen minute drive to Cang Shan. This is a mountain range to the west of Dali. We took the 6 person chair lift to the Quinbi Stream. There were two very clear and emerald green colored pools of water. Then we climbed up to the path. This so called tourist path zigzags in and out of three gorges along the mountain range. The path is mostly flat, which was a surprise, but goes 11 kilometers (about 6.5 miles) to the Guantong Temple. You pass many streams and waterfalls along the way. The vegetation is mostly pine trees. They have something like 24 different types of azalea plants in Yunnan. Many were in bloom. Everything was so lush and green. There were nice views to the highest peak in the range and towards the lake, Erhai Hu.

It was really a pleasant walk and took about 3 hours. We stopped a couple of times. The elevation was about 2500 meters or around 8000 feet. Tom has a son in Xian University studying architecture. It is his first year. Tom said he and his wife began speaking to their son in English when he was little. Everyone in China is required to take English class. But they focus on the writing and grammar to pass the tests and not on the speaking portion. That's why it is so difficult to speak English with people here in China.

University education used to be free until the 1990's. Then slowly, they have made each student pay. Tom said now it's around 30,000 yuan per student per year including books and housing. That's actually pretty decent at about $5,000 per year. But this is for an average university.

Tom also told me that there is a lot of marble around in the Yunnan province. So this province appears to be rich in minerals. We talked about things to do in Dali. The three pagodas is probably the most famous as it is the symbol of the town.

I also told Tom I was very interested in tea and the history of the Tea
Horse road. He said the road definitely used to go through Dali, but now the old path has been replaced with the national road. One of the best places in this region to still see the historic road is to go to Shaxi. He said that maybe I could do that on one of my free days in Lijiang.

Finally we reached the Zhonghe Temple. We stopped for a short rest before taking a two person chairlift down the mountain. It was nice to sit and enjoy the view on the way down. Apparently there is also a steep walking path if you wanted to forego the lift on the way down. They ate building another chairlift that takes you much higher up the mountain. It will be ready in 2012.

On the way back to the hotel, I asked if we could stop for an electrical converter. I told them mine had two prongs and most of the outlets only accept three. I showed him what I had. It actually worked at the first hotel I stayed at in Kunming. It didn't work at the second one and I was lucky enough that when I showed them my outlet, they had a several country converter and let me borrow it. Tom asked the driver if there was a place in the old town we could stop as he lived in town. The place we stopped had them. I tried my European plug and US plug and they both worked. Plus I could use them simultaneously. This is pretty large so I hope I can squeeze it in my bag someplace as I continue to travel the next 3 weeks in China.

So Tom is concerned that the driver may be late and I may miss my train to Lijiang on Friday. So he said we should meet at 2:40. This should give me enough time even if he is late. My train leaves at 4:00 and is only an hour. I had checked with my travel coordinator and this is the only train. A bus would take 4.5 hours, so I stuck with the plan.

So now I have almost 3 full free days. As is my regular schedule in the afternoons, I wanted to have some tea. After my shower, I re-organized my bags and the Makaibari tea Meera had given me resurfaced. This was 1st flush 2011. I kept it to drink while traveling. I think I will continue doing this every single day until I run out.

Now that I know how Dali's old town is organized I will have a wander and see where I end up. I wanted to see if any parts of the old city wall had steps so you could walk around it. I found a place near the southern temple. I took a bunch of photos there. Some parts of the wall have been completely re-built, but this southern section and the western section are still original. I could see the three pagodas from the wall and wondered how long it would take to walk there.

I was pretty hungry by this time. I headed over to Cafe de Jack. I ordered the veggy hotpot and tea of course. But supposedly they make homemade multigrain bread. I had to order some along with rice. The food is good, but every dish seems a little bit too oily in China.

I went to Bad Monkey afterwards. Supposedly they have live music every night. It's a good spot to people watch. However since I was sitting outside I was prime target for some locals trying to sell silver. They would point to my earrings and then bring out of no where this stash of silver jewelry. When I said no, they asked if I wanted ganja! I guess I must fit the typical westerner profile so when one item fails, they think they can get me with the second. Once the music started, it was really loud but not really so good. I left shortly after 9. I had a nice walk back to the hotel. The full moon was still rising above the clouds and really lit up the sky beautifully.

I started my free day in Dali with my noodles and tea for breakfast. They must have realized I wouldn't eat the porridge or egg since they didn't bring it to me today. I walked to old town and found the north gate. Then I headed back to Renmin Road. I asked a few places about bicycle rentals. It seems the going rate was about 21 plus 5 for a map. So I continued on the street where my hotel was but past the old town. You could see where people actually lived and worked because I was outside old town and the tourist area. There were lots of food and veggie vendors. I saw a lot of kids in uniforms probably coming home for lunch break. I continued walking to the Three Pagodas.

You had to cross a main street and then you could see the entrance. There were lots of buses. At the entrance there was a beautifully landscaped pond with flowers and rocks. The reflection of the pagodas in the water was very pretty. It would have been worth it to pay admission just for that.

It appears that if you are with a tour group, maybe you actually walk to the Three Pagodas but then get whisked away to only the important temples. At the pagoda area it was deserted. The two shorter temples are older and then the tall one is newer. The smaller ones actually look slightly crooked. However this could be an optical illusion.

After you pass the pagodas, there are a series of temples. Each temple is higher than the next so you are always walking up stairs and uphill. It has been hot and sunny the last two days with no rain. Of course I am walking at noon or one in the afternoon. There were two exhibit halls with relics of mostly buddhas, jewelry, and small warrior statues all less than 6-8" tall. They all looked to be copper. These exhibit halls were empty too as the tour groups don't come here. Then I headed to the 5 or so temples climbing uphill. These were not that crowded as I believe the tour groups were all at lunch at this time of day.

I guess I can see why the women in China are always carrying umbrellas. It really does protect you from the sun. They also coordinate them nicely with their clothing. In India the woman have the scarf from their sari or kulta and they would use that to cover their head.

The thing I don't understand about China is why everyone loves to travel in these huge tour groups. The smallest group I have seen must be about 20. But most are around 50 or maybe more. The leader has a loudspeaker or microphone and carries a flag. You can't really walk at your own pace.

I have seen some random Chinese couples or groups of four or five traveling together without the guide but that is definitely not the norm. Maybe they, like me, don't want to hear that the square hectares are 100,000 and the shape of the rock looks like an eagle. I mean there is some good information you get from the guide, but you can tell it is so scripted.

In India I didn't really see large tour groups. There were usually small groups of families together but never more than about 10. If you wanted to hire a guide to take you around, they were generally available everywhere.

Back at the temples, I climbed the steps at each one. At a certain point after the exhibit halls, the people movers started up again. The crowds were back from lunch. In certain temples, incense is offered, but not every one. I contined on to the last two temples and the tour groups didn't. The very last temple had three flights of stairs and no buddhas. There were some very nice views of all the temples, the pagodas, the lake, and the mountains. I had this place all to myself.

On the way back, it was certainly all downhill. I was going the opposite way of everyone else, in general. The temple where everyone seemed to offer incense to the buddhas, was the turnaround point for the tours. The mostly Chinese tourists jumped in the people movers so they wouldn't have to walk and could quickly move on to the next item on the itinerary for the day.

It was about a 1 1/2 hour walk back to the hotel. So instead I took a taxi to save my energy for walking around in the evening. I took my shower and had my Makaibari tea.

I actually went into some of the shops this evening. They have nice local handicrafts. They also have some nice clothing too. The sizes are a bit weird. The clothes are small in certain spots and too large in other places.

I was planning to go to the Caffeine Club for dinner. Apparently it was closed today. I tried the Birdie Bar and they don't really serve food until they open for drinks much later than 7:30. So after walking quite a way in search for food, I ended up at the Tibetan Cafe across from the Bad Monkey. I ordered yunnan red wine for a change of pace and veggy fried rice with veggy momos.

Turns out I got the pork fried rice by mistake but I ate it anyway. The momos were slightly different than I have had before. They were stuffed with greens, mushrooms, and goat cheese. They were good but definitely filling. I hung out until the bad music started at Bad Monkey. Again I was asked if I wanted to buy some silver earrings. When I said no, they brought out the ganga. This must be the part of town where questionable people hang out.

I walked back to the hotel and the street activity was pretty happening around the stream. Lots of people were hanging out eating.

It appears that a large group of young kids had checked in to my hotel. They were really loud and screaming until after 11. I couldn't really call the front desk to complain because they wouldn't understand me. A couple of times I got up and went into the hallway and said "shhhhh". I don't think it really worked.

My bed is not really comfortable so I was tossing and turning as I tried to fall asleep. I finally decided to take the duvet cover off the second bed and use it for padding. The bed is as hard as a rock and this at least helped some. Just as I suspected, the kids were up early and screaming as well.

Instead of going to breakfast in the hotel this morning, I decided to get an onion flatbread. It's more filling. I packed up my bag for the bike ride and unfortunately it was very heavy. I found a place that had bikes for 20 + 5 for the map. They were really nice mountain bikes with thick tires. Who knows what kind of roads I will encounter. I strapped the map on the front and the owner gave me a bike lock. Then I was off. I had no idea how far I would get around the lake. Soon after I started I saw the entrance to three pagodas. There was a lot of farmland to the right before you hit the lake. I had heard there was alot of tobacco planted but what I saw was mostly vegetables. Soon it became primarily rice. Men and women were working in the rice paddies. The men were raking the muddy fields so the rice could be planted. Then I saw many seedlings in bundles. Mostly the women were planting the rice and they had on bamboo hats and plastic boots. This looked like much harder work than plucking tea leaves.

The road I was on had one lane in each direction. There was a very wide shoulder for bikes or all sorts of small farm equipment. I also noticed a series of canals or aqueducts. Water was running pretty freely.

All the road signs were in Chinese so far. The map I had, included Chinese and English names so if I needed to ask for directions it would be fairly easy. I noticed my first sign in English and Chinese. It gave mileage in kilometers to three towns. It was odd because only one of the three towns was on my map.

I figured they must have been very small and my map didn't include them. There was a side road that went to a town called Xizhou. I decided to take it. I could always weave back to the main road. This was actually a nice town. They had some nice temples. I kept pedaling. My pack was getting heavy. And my bike wasn't as comfortable as it seemed this morning.

All along the way, school children walking or on their bikes would say hello to me in English. In a couple of instances, some of the older women in the rice paddies also said hello.

Soon I entered a fairly large town. To the left was a butterfly spring and to the right was a boat landing. This was the closest I had been to the lake thus far. I turned right. It looked like a large pleasure boat had just arrived. Lots of people were coming towards me in the opposite direction. There were a lot of fruit vendors on the street as well. It turns out two boats were docked up. Unfortunately, there was no place here to have lunch overlooking the lake.

I decided to check out the butterfly spring on the other side of the highway. There were a lot of tourists. I met a Chinese tourist from the Fujian province. He was really nice. He had been travelling a few weeks. He was heading to Lijiang where I would go tomorrow. He said he really wanted to get to Chengdu before heading home. I'm not sure what the big draw is in Chengdu. I thought it was mostly industrial. He gave me some tea from his province. That was really sweet. He said he is accumulating too much luggage--he sounds just like me. He said he has 4 bags now. If I could get a guide to take me to the post office, I would be all set and just have the bags I started out with.

I decided not to go to the butterfly spring. He said it was a hoax and not worth the admission price. At this point, I thought I should head back and maybe grab some snacks along the way.

I found a great little roadside stand where a man was making some bread. This was the same fried flatbread I was eating in Dali. But this was steaming hot and filled with honey. Umm, it was so good. He offered me his stool so I could sit down and enjoy it.

The ride back was a little bit more difficult as it was into a slight wind. But I was lucky because the road was relatively flat. As I got closer to old town I was relieved. My pack seemed to have gotten even heavier. Plus the sun was so hot, I had to put on my wind breaker so my arms would be out of the sun. I went a slightly different way back to town that was less touristy. As I arrived at the bike shop, the owner was nowhere to be found. He told me to return by 8:30. I don't think it was much later than 5:00. So I kept riding back to my hotel. I knew I would come back to this area for dinner so figured I could just ride the bike and return it then.

I took a nice hot shower and had some Makaibari tea. By this time I was getting hungry, so I dressed and hopped back on the bike. He was at the shop this time. I returned the bike and thanked him. I went for dinner at Jim's Peace Cafe. I had gone there the first night in Dali but the food was really good. This time I tried the eggplant and potato dish and steamed rice along with a small Dali beer. I had walked by the Gurong Hotel many times and it looked very nice. I was hoping to go there to get some tea after dinner.

They had a beautiful restaurant and a teahouse where you could order a pot of tea and hang out. That's what I did for about two hours. At first I thought they must have misunderstood me. I ordered a pot of tea and they brought me one cup and a very tiny glass pot. Maybe I would get three small cups of this overpriced tea. But every 15 minutes or so my server would come by and refill my pot. Then she would brew more tea for me when it was getting cool. What a relaxing evening for my last night in Dali.