Hippie town; not so groovy

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Well we are back in Kun Ming, just waiting to get on a 16 hour night train to Chendu. I don't know if there is anything of intrest in the city itself; but I read/hear there are a couple good places a day trip away from it. But I don't know if we will stay there that long, comming out to Dali wasted a lot of our time. I think 'wasted' is a bit harsh, but really I didn't think much of the place. The local people were quite nice, the senery was good, good food, but, I still think it really isn't that special of a place.
The street where all the tourists go (most Chinese) is nice, but so many shops selling the same things. The National Park was pretty, but the best we saw was far from where anyone else goes, so what does that tell you about the park? The lake proved to provide some nice sunset pictures, but its more the talented photographer than anything... All in all it was a nice town, and it really proved to Randy and I that I like the way we travel, and the people that stayed in that town, at our hostel, are nice, but the reason they need two months to see a place is becuase they go on a hour bike ride around the town and have to come back, get drunk/high, and spend the rest of the day recouperating after there grooling day of intense Cultural experiances....
Again, maybe I am getting a little out of hand here. I just don't like how long-time travelers seem to look down on us, when we seem to see much more of the town and people than they do. I really had hoped the people we came there with could have proved to me how great their way is; but they didn't, and I don't see me staying in a little town for very long again. They had a great time though. While we got up earlie to see everything, they slept off their hang-overs, got up in the afternoon, had some cheap sandwitches, got high, had some laughs, went out, got some food, had some beer, came back, got high, partied with other travelers in the hostel, and then repeat.
It does sound like a great life, and it is a lot of fun. But honestly, can't they do that where they come from? The way we travel is very very hard. We don't have that much 'fun.' What we have our experiances. I guess getting high is an experiance, but I think a rather boaring one. Whatever I have spent too much time talking about a very stuid subject. If you are a long-time traveler like this, please send me a message and tell me how I am wrong, I would love to hear it.
Anyway, Chengdu is spose to have some amazing food as well. Very spicy, and full of flavor. So what I see happening is that we spend a night there just eating the food and seeing the city. Then we will be on our way to Xi'an. The people we were with in Dali told us Xi'an was "crap" and the terracata army was "pointless." An interesting perpective from someone that knows for a fact that "Real" Italian Gellato is better than any ice cream in North America, when he has never in his life been to North America, and the ice cream he has had is Ben and Jerry's. While very good ice cream, I think Cold Stone, and more importantly, home-made ice cream is far greater than any Gellato I had in Italy while I was there. It doesn't bother me that he likes Gellato, it bothers me that he 'knows' it's better when he has never had the latter.
It's interesting how one person can have such a negative impact on how you view a place, people, or culture. Even though I know one person is not going to be anything like the next, one person can make a big difference. This is true everywhere, with every travler. I'm not going to judge a place becuase I had one bad expericance there; but people do it all the time when they have a good experiance. Thats why taking advice about traveling is very dangerous. Anyway, got to go.

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