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Published: October 28th 2007
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Upon arrival in Dali, I made my way from the bus stop to my hostel. I love how there is ALWAYS, without fail, someone or someones waiting there for you to take you to your destination for an absorbent amount of money. I guess they figure you don’t know where you are going and will pay whatever they say, but in comparing to my prior China experiences I have learned to just move on past them and either find it yourself or get a taxi further down the road. They all also tell you that it is SOOOO far away and uphill and anything to make the walk seem less appealing. I am amused.
So I checked into the MCA GH. The first room they gave me had a spider the size of the palm of my hand - no joke!! And ummmm, not having it!! So I switched rooms however with this one the guaranteed 24-hour hot water rule doesn’t really apply. First you have to plug in the heater and let it heat the water for 30 minutes…if you’re lucky, you get 5 minutes of hot water. I take much longer showers than that, ESPECIALLY after two days
of trekking and a 4 hour bus ride. Peeeeeyouuuu. Well I managed to squeak out a few extra minutes of hot water but the last bit was cold. Not OK. So I got me a discount…its like a dollar less. Just goes to show, I really know when and when not to argue. Hahah
By the time I get showered and all sorted out it was like 1AM and I was pooped. I woke up relatively early the next day to get in a full day while in Dali. After breakfast I went searching for the bus to Xizhou where there was a morning market. Along the way to try to find the bus I realized I was being followed by the woman whom I asked for directions…I think she thought she was going to take me there or be my guide (despite her lack of knowledge of the English language). All I wanted was to find the bus…can’t people just be nice and show you the way without expecting money?! I told her that if she thought she was going to be my guide that it wasn’t happening and I wasn’t giving her any money…she just smiled and
nodded and I turned and walked away and she was STILL following me. Anyway, I found some English speaking people who were kind enough to inform me the way. When I got to the bus and got on, you could see she was visible upset that she followed me for no reason, as was the guy she worked with who thought he would be driving me there in his car….maybe she shouldn’t waste her time following people like that…it would be much more wise to use that time to learn English!
Anyway, I love going to the markets. I think there is a great deal of culture and I just have a certain curiosity to see how it unfolds. Most of the foods are the same but I guess I really enjoy photographing it all. I also walked around the side streets here for a bit. I have figured out what I really enjoy while traveling…depending on the tourist sight, for the most part I prefer to avoid them. I like getting lost in the villages and just meandering (I love this word!) around soaking in culture by myself and not with a million other tourists. This is why
I avoided the three pagodas in Dali. I was able to get a couple different views of them, but I didn’t need to enter and be bothered by so many other people. I find that I lose the appreciation for what I am learning about or seeing when I am surrounded by an army of Chinese tourists. Unless there is some huge historical significance, for me, seeing how the locals live is much more valuable and fascinating in traveling than anything else. I believe I get much more of an idea of what a town is like this way versus the laid out plan. I also prefer to avoid big cities if I can…so much for having Shanghai and Beijing on the list…at least I’ll be with JG.
After the market I found myself in a little square and I parked myself down near two guys from the UK…they turned out to be Mark and Marco. Very nice and both have lived in Dali for a while, one for just shy of a year and the other for 5 years! Anyway, they were biking out to Erhai Hu, the very massive fresh water lake in the Dali area. I
tagged along with them for the rest of the morning and the better part of the afternoon. Again, just loved the idea of getting out of the typical tourist traps…we walked/rode on the back roads along the rice fields. After maybe an hour or so and some muddy roads we ended up on this mini-peninsula on the lake where Marco decided it would be a great idea to go swimming! While it may be fresh water, the area we were at didn’t seem so fresh. Good laughs watching him make his way through everything. I wanted to treat the boys to an afternoon beer as a thank you for letting me tag along, but like the gentlemen they are they wouldn’t have it and they treated me. Very nice people and I was definitely thrilled to have met them. Mark works at a bar in town and apparently there was some party there tonight, but I was just not up for it. Its been a long few days…on my way home I did get handed randomly a flyer for the party and thought, well maybe I should go, but motivation just wasn’t there. I also took the chairlift up the
mountain just outside Dali to get an amazing view of the town and lake below. The valley just seems so vast and beautiful…even with the hazy mist lingering over it. It was a perfect end to one of my best days yet on my own in China…nice roundtrip ride relaxing with stunning scenery surrounding me.
Heading to Kunming first thing in the morning. So it unfortunately didn’t work out to meet up with Frank again…his trip to Litang took longer than expected and mine had to wrap up sooner than expected…oh well. Plenty of others to meet along the way!
My random thought today: I suppose dogs in China understand Chinese commands…makes sense. But do you think there are many dogs that are bilingual and understand “sit” in multiple languages?? Oy, the things I think about…
I think the time has come…I am sad to admit that I am getting sick of rice and noodles…never thought that would happen, but here we are…six weeks in to my Asia travels (wow! I only have 6 weeks left now!) and I am bored of carbs. I bet there will be good food alternatives in Shanghai.
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