Dali & Travelling to Guilin

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Sunday

We started the day in Xizhou, a small town north of Dali - what hit us immediately was the number of locals (mainly women) using traditional dress as everyday wear. So far we have only seen folk dressed up in traditional dress for the tourists - our guide confirmed that this stereotype was common place 20 years ago. We then saw a 'mock' traditional wedding, were shown around the traditional house of what was a wealthy 'silk road' businessman and wandered around a food market. Last stop of the morning was to a silk embroidery demonstration - this, understandably, engrossed the ladies and left the men underwhelmed!!

After the customary 'lazy susan' lunch we went on a boat trip to an island on Erhai Lake - on a boat that matched the 'African Queen' for facilities. A hightlight on the island was watching very old men playing Mah Jong in the Buddhist Temple - purists might be shocked that they were turning their tiles up. Cringe moment was watching folk eat live 'jumping' shrimps!!

Monday

In anticipation of hoardes of Chinese returning home at the end of their October holiday we set off at an obscenely early hour for our long drive to the airport. The roads were empty!! As we reached our lunch venue a tad early at 10am, our guide decided to take a raincheck. The eventual lunch venue looked like a transport cafe but served delicious food. With even more time on our hands we stopped by a lake in Kunming - notable firstly,for the number of wedding couples taking their pre-wedding photos (sensibly they take all their photos here a week before the wedding!!) and secondly, for the disgusting toilets. At the airport we all sat down and grumbled about the price of the coffee we'd all ordered. A 60 mins flight to Guilin saw us fed and tucked up in the only bed this holiday with a soft mattress - absolute bliss!!

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