Dali, Shaxi, Home

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Well, it has been a little while since we had time and good internet access.
So I will try to catch up to the present. We're back at home with the boys, all safe and sound.
Our second day in Dali, we rented bikes and had a nice day riding through little villages along Erhai lake. They were Bai minority villages that were comprised of farming land surrounding clusters of buildings. The streets and alleys were very narrow and fun to ride through. Between each little village, we would ride through the farm fields on gravel paths, sometimes getting a little lost. In one village, some kids were playing basketball and invited me in. I played one on one with their tallest guy. It was fun, but I wore out fast in the sun and heat- he was in a lot better shape, but I managed a few points.
My tire had a slow leak, so the guy I played against led us to a little shop that had a pump, and then we went on our way. Eventually we made it back to the bike shop and returned the bikes, and took showers and went out for dinner.
At dinner the night before, we were approached by a young woman who is a guide in the area. She offered to go to Shaxi with us, which is a place we had thought of going to, a small village valley about 4 hours away. So we agreed, and after the bike ride day, we got up early to catch a bus to Shaxi with our guide. We arrived in Shaxi around lunch time, and ate at a local restaurant.
Next we went for a hike up into the hills. We met a guy who was walking up to a minority village way up in the hills, it would have been about 2 to 3 hours. We hiked with him for a while, considered going all the way tehre, but it was getting dark, so we would have had to spend the night, and we already had a guest house in town, so we went back. Turned out to be a good thing, since my stomach was a bit upset from lunch, and got the Shaxi Sh**s.
We spent the evening visiting a local family in Shaxi, which was interesting. It was a household of Grandparents, their son, and his two sons, and their wives. We ate dinner there, and talked with them as best we could. Our interpreter ate with the grandparents, leaving us with the son and his wife, and some of their workers. They were remodeling for a new room for one of the sons. I couldn';t eat much because of my stomach issue, but their food was good, and they also offered some baijeo, a locally made rice alcohol, very strong. Sharon and I shared a small glass.
It was interesting learning about the way they lived, and some of the history of their lives there.
The next day we headed back to Dali, got on an evening bus to Kunming, stayed at a pretty crappy hotel there, but it was only 5 minutes from the airport. Flew from Kunming to Shanghai, and had the afternoon and evening in Shanghai, where we recuperated, I got some stomach medicine that worked great, berberine, and then we went to an acrobat show that night. Of course it had the cage of death with 5 motorcycles riding around at once inside the sphere.
After the show, we found ourselves in a hip little area, turns out it was the French Concession district. We had a drink in a bar, walked around some, then went back to our nice hotel, same one as before, where we got a good night sleep before heading back home the next day. We rode the maglev train to the ariport, and it went 432 km/hr... about 250 mph or so, pretty speedy!
The international flight was great- good service, lots of stewardesses, and they actually are helpful. Two full meals as well as free beer and other drinks, all complimentary, free movies, etc. Nothing like domestic flights, which is too bad, we do a lousy job of customer service domestically.
After a day in Seattle, we got back here Friday. I came back first with Sam, then Sharon and Blaise came up later in the day. The boys were very good travelers. They had fun in Seattle, going places like the flight museum, children's museum, the zoo, and playgrounds.
It was a great time, hard to believe we got away for 3 weeks!
Now, it's back to school, and back to work.
Cup machines are headed this way, so I have a lot to do to prepare...

Until the next trip... Zaijian!

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Photos

a spontaneous game
i won... as far as you know

mud brick homes
it was fun to check out the earth plasters and mud bricks

the acrobat show
hat jugglers

Maglev
went 431KM/HR!