Dali, Bai Village, Traditional Tie Dying, bike rides and evening entertainment.

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Dali and Surrounds

I honestly would like to go back to Dali and have a longer opportunity to look around. Our day started with an opportunity to photograph "the Three Pagodas of Chongsheng Temple". This was done at a distance, time did not allow us to visit the temple. Some vendors were selling objects and nick nacks primarily made from the local stone. The patterns within the stone were fascinating.

We then proceeded to a village market place. I never got the name of the village. Here I had a small bit of Covid-19 unpleasantness. Many people were maskless, however as the only foreigner a security guard at the market entrance insisted that I wore a mask, I stopped to watch, I was the only person told to wear a mask in the short time that I observed. It is just annoying.

I like markets, for me they are eye candy. You get to see the local produce, get to buy some and can observe the local folk going about their daily lives. There were some lovely looking fruit and vegetable, I bought some local cheese to taste, which was a bit stringy but edible. I watched a local poultry farmer efficiently dispatching chickens and then them being plucked and dismembered at the customer request. This area is famous for mushrooms and there were many varieties that I would have loved to have taken home to cook. We had time after the market to explore the nearby streets and sample more foods.

The local "minority people" are Bai but there are a wide range of other minorities including Naxi and Muslim. I did ask about the use of the term Minority People. To me I would find it insulting to be called a minority, but there seems to be no problems with being known as a minority, in fact the people are proud of their cultures and heritage. (Chinese in general are called "han chinese" if they are not a minority. That is the bulk of Chinese people.)

We continued on to another village with a temple. It had fascinating wall and ceiling paintings. The village became our lunch stop, our guide, Carrie, introduced us to her favourite noodle dish. A dry noodle dish made with fresh noodles with vegetables and a variety of spices and sauces to your particular taste. It was good but despite the spices and sauces I found it a little bland, I had to go back for a second scoop of the chilli sauce to spice it up. The young boys on our tour had their first experience of a small village communal toilet. I wasn't quite sure of the etiquette myself as I walked in on a bunch of males squatting over a trench with a smoke in one hand and a mobile phone in the other. The toilets were very clean however, I have seen far worse.

Tie Dying

The next part of our tour involved learning how to tie dye using traditional techniques. The dye is indigo, which used to dye your denim clothes, now the dye is made from petroleum. It is quite a fascinating process. I was born in the 60's and grew up in the 70's so the process of tie dying is not a novelty for me. But the traditional methods were interesting. The owners demonstrated the simple process of stripping the green leaves off an indigo bush/tree and simply throwing it into a tub already dark blue from previous demonstrations. The leaves are left to ferment for about 15 days. I think the term ferment might be a liberal translation, I would have said rot and decompose. The processing of the liquid after that was not well explained. Doing some research I suspect that Lime is added to make the liquid alkaline, it is probably strained also. You end up with a dark, ..um.. indigo coloured liquid. The cotton material is thrown into the vat of liquid, held under for a few minutes and then pulled out. The material comes out yellow and then turns green and blue before your eyes. The chemist in me says that the dye is being oxidised which is the colour change happening. The material is then rinsed in water to remove excess dye.

Prior to this of course you need to do the tieing. Included in the tour cost is a square of cloth, maybe big enough to make a hippy style head scarf. I chose to upgrade to a T-shirt. The cloth is then marked with a pattern, this is a simple set of pin holes in a sheet of thin flexible plastic and a pigment wiped over it. The pigment goes through the holes and stains the fabric. This is then the pattern for sewing the fabric and once the thread is sewed it is pulled tight and tied off. I am sure that readers of this know that where the fabric is bound tightly the dye has trouble getting to, so leaves white places in the fabric. The dye is absorbed in the loosely held or untied portions which then become blue.

I chose to ad lib my own pattern by simply tieing my shirt with string.

Interestingly the final product is basically ready after drying. I was expecting a second step to make the shirt colour fast using a mordant, but this was not done. It turned out alright, see the pictures below.

To me the colours blue and white are the colours of Yunnan. People wear their clothes that they have obviously tie dyed. Shops sell more professional printed clothes in blue and white. The colour combination is everywhere.

Bike ride along the shore of Er'hai Lake.

As I write this I am surprised at how much we fit into this day. Fortunate to have long summer days. Our next stop was the nearby lake Er'hai. This is most definitely a tourist spot. After kitting out with bikes we arranged a meeting place and time and simply rode along a portion of the lake. It was a warm sunny afternoon, it was a pleasure to do some exercise and enjoy the day. This is a tourist area, very popular. The road followed the lake, guest houses and small hotels lined the roadway, cafes, shops, restaurants and places for refreshments filled the gaps between the guest houses. Green spaces were used for rests and picnics. This is the place to come and spend a few days away from the hustle and bustle of the city. And people do. I did my own thing, I didn't dare mention to my fellows on the tour my ability to fall off bikes and damage shoulders. As it happened I did not fall off! I stopped a couple of times to buy a cold beer and just sit and enjoy the day. It was grand. It was relaxing. It was exercise after a lot of time in vehicles. I enjoyed it. We didn't actually ride far maybe 12 km, but distance was not the goal.

But wait there is more. Our day was not over.

Dali Ancient village

After the lake we were shown the Dali Old Town. Once again this is a tourist orientated place, with lots of restaurants, cafe's, shops and visual appeal. We visited a Christian Church, which was very pretty and appealed to the other tour members as they are practicing Christians. It was quite beautiful inside, the moon was up in the sky to feature in pictures and there were paintings on the outside depicting significant events from the Bible.After an orientation and return to the hotel I ventured back into the old town on my own. I didn't have a meal at a lovely restaurant (I am not repeating the story here) and ended up at a bar called George's. George was a contact I had been given via a home brewing group. George turned out to be a lovely man. We talked for a long time, I sampled most of his beers, but ran out of sobriety to complete all. He has a small craft brewery. A 50 litre system which is not much bigger than many home brewers, and he produces excellent beer. He started life as a farmer but decided to brew beer and open a small bar. A nice person living what to my eyes looked like a laid back lifestyle. There was a message there. (sorry about the poor quality pic of George)

That ended my day in Dali.

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