Blogs from Dali, Yunnan, China, Asia - page 8

At the end of this blog you will know everything about: crazy chinese tourists crazy western hippies cheating temple monks (probably also crazy) crazy entrance fees and better: how to avoid them our first real case of sickness called “travellers fatigue” (us getting crazy?) our three highlights in China and how we went through the four seasons in four weeks time So, hmmm...where shall we start? We ended our last blog with the story about entering China. After entering we immediately headed for Kunming, a provincial city in the south-west of China. Kunming was quite a surprise. We had expected a sleepy provincial town (like we had seen some in our earlier visits to china, cfr. Bart's fourth visit and Raf's third to China) with it's occasional shopping malls, but still with the obligated old ladies ... read more

Hier is dan eindelijk onze blog van Dali, waar we inmiddels al weer enkele dagen geleden zijn vertrokken. Wegens een kapotte internetaansluiting in onze hotelkamer hebben we dit verslag nog niet kunnen plaatsen. Enjoy! Maandagochtend zijn we vertrokken vanuit Shangri-La, de bestemming was Dali. Eerst nog een stop bij het visumbureau om ons visum te verlengen (in Den Haag volgens onze berekeningen een dag te weinig gekregen). Echter werd ons hier medegedeeld dat we precies genoeg dagen hadden (30), geen reden om te verlengen en dat gaat sowieso pas een week voordat je visum verloopt. We gokken er nu maar op dat het goed gaat komen, anders moeten we op het vliegveld een boete betalen. Vervolgens naar het bustation waar onze minibus op tijd vertrok, maar vlak buiten het busstation moest er gestopt worden omdat een ... read more

Der Rest der Bilder aus Dali.... read more

Another hot and cloudless day, 33deg, although it was cooler this morning as we set off. Have been doing lots of climbing in the mountains today, 1000m up then 1000m down. Lots of hairpin bends and lots and lots of smoky wagons, labouring up the hills, belching out clouds of fumes-our poor lungs! Our diet of rice and noodles. which are served for breakfast, lunch and dinner, is becoming rather wearing. Yesterday the meal was so spicy that it burnt our lips so we have asked them to tone down the spices a bit. Have passed what appear to be lots of lime kilns today where they appear to be curing earthenwear roof tiles. On the roads the farmers lay out their rice crop for the passing traffic to thresh, then they sweep it up and ... read more

A very hot day today, 33-35 deg C. It gets very hot in the afternoons but at 6.00pm, when the sun sets, it becomes a lot cooler. Most nights I have been in just shirt sleeves but last night I had to wear a sweatshirt. Dali was a very nice place, very touristy, with lots of vigour, lights, live music in the streets and 100s and 100s of shops. I bought 4cds of traditional music and some small gifts.I am very worried about the weight for the plane. Been to a Bai village, a minority people with their own small kingdom. They had a market selling spices, live fish swimming about in buckets, live chickens, chicken feet and pigs' heads. It was a very interesting place. Most of the population are very friendly and the young ... read more