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Published: June 20th 2007
Sorry for the delay in blog updating. I will have some time now since I am in Singapore. Yayaya I know really not much to do in here but I am anxious just to visit with friends again and chillax, maybe sleep in, no worries about having to catch a bus or train, no dealing with smokers in buses or hoarking everywhere, no pushy sellers "lady you buy something!", ahhh....nice.
May 26 - 28
Well the bus ride was good up until we stopped and everybody got off at Xiaguan (Dali City). We made sure when buying the bus ticket that we pointed out Dali (Old city) in the China book with characters and all. Sheat! It was only 18 km to the Old City Dali but we had to figure out how to get there. Taxi guys jumped at the chance to take us for 40RMB total. A Quebecer also on the same bus told us that there was a local bus no.4 to take to the good Dali. So that was our mission for the next hour finding this damn bus. We asked at the bus station and the lady said, what I assumed was either
bus no.2 or 4. Well it wasn't no.2 cause I got on the no.2 bus and asked the bus driver and he said no. And when I say I asked I pointed to the Dali (old city) map. We asked people waiting at the bus stop where to catch no.4 bus and they pointed in one direction so we went searching, all the while taxis were following us. We ended up at the bus station again to ask again and the woman said the same thing but then wrote on a piece of paper what later we came to the conclusion that u have to take the no.2 bus to no.4 bus station. We looked at the map, the "Lying Planet" (aka. Lonely Planet) gives, figure out where we were and decided to walk to the no.4 bus terminus because it wasn't too far from where we were. Well that turned out to be wrong as well cause there was no damn bus station where it said it should be. So we turned back and took option 3 of taking no.2 bus. Got on and I asked the guy first again about no.4 bus and he just nodded. So here
Big thumbs up from Astrid
Jacob shooting his "improvumentary" (improv/documentary)was 3 of us with huge packs taking up all the room, not wanting to go to the back cause we needed to know when the bus driver motions for us to get off. We didn't pay either....we would have but more people kept filing on. On the bus for no more than 10 mins the driver tells us to get off. Sweet we didn't pay for the transport and now we were at no.4 terminus.......well not exactly. There was no bus station around so we figured he wanted us off cause either a) we didn't pay, b) we were taking up too much space, or c) all the above. Asking directions from more people and getting pointed at in the same direction, which was a good thing, we walked some more all the while keeping an eye out for the no.4 bus which we never saw. We started to question whether this no.4 bus even existed. I mean the number 4 is suppose to be bad luck for the chinese so why would there be a bus with that number. We figured it was some sick joke they play on tired foreigners like us. Laugh it up man. Laugh
Yummy pork fat!
Traveller's beware, "twice fried pork" means you'll be getting pork fat! it up. But in the distance we could see an intersection and a different coloured bus rounding the corner - it was no.4! Not seeing any bus stops on the side we were on, we crossed to the other side of the street where it stopped to let people off. We just missed one but assumed another one would come fast cause we saw like 3 pass in less than 5 mins apart. Well we waited for a little bit and realized this wasn't a no.4 stop at all but no.10 bus. We didn't care. When the bus stopped we were getting on it no matter what. And that's what we did. The guy was cool though when we realized after that that was the last stop on his route before heading back to the main no.4 station. He let us on, probably felt sorry for us with our huge packs and he didn't accept our money, surprsingly. So we made it to no.4 bus terminus after an hour of searching and we were on our way to the good Dali.
Oh ya I forgot to mention that Xiaguan even though isn't where we wanted to be it was
in a beautiful setting. The mountains in the background with more homes that seemed to be built a part of the mountains. It was quiet breath-taking but I couldn't really enjoy it cause I was pre-occupied with finding the damn no.4 bus.
Jacob was chatting with a british and recommended the guesthouse where he was staying, Yu Yuan Hotel. This place was pretty nice. It offered free internet and free laundry service which won me over right away. The owner showed us one room and it was quite posh, with toilet and bathtub. The bad thing was these rooms were 60RMB ($8.57). I couldn't afford, well I could I guess but I need to start watching my money more. That would be the most I've paid for a room ('cept one night in Dalat at $10). Astrid and Jacob totally could since they would be splitting it and they were going to stay. I asked if he had a room for 30RMB but he shook his head, either he was thinking I was bargaining for this room..don't know. I really didn't want to go and look for another guesthouse cause I was tired and desperatly needed a shower since
I hadn't had one since leaving Sapa. No way I was taking a shower in the pisser toilet in Kunming. I left my bag in their room and was on my way out when the man motioned for me to follow him where he showed me another room that was not as nice (still had double bed and tv) with no bathroom and said 30RMB. I was like "ya" but then asked where the bathroom was. It was just down the hall, right beside Astrid and Jacobs room and then I thought I would try my chance at getting a lower price, even though I was willing to pay 30RMB. I told him 20RMB ($2.85) cause bathroom not included. And at first he said no but then agreed!! Sweet! Shower time!
Got on the internet and started using the free service. More flight searches, uploading pictures, and updating blogs. Dinner was in order so we took a stroll down the popular touristy streets. Decided on this one place where we shared dishes. I thought it was quite good 'cept the fish and chicken could have had more meat on them. It was cheap, split between the 3 of us
Women workers in the bush
Couldn't figure out what they were picking....looked like the leaves off this particular bush. (18RMB each). After dinner we walked some more, checkin' out the nightlife and the lit up chinese style buildings which were pretty cool. Stopped and got some goodies at this bakery. I was going to do more reading once back in my room but was too tired and crashed. It was a really good sleep and I must of had some wild dreams cause I was diagonal on the bed with my sleep sac twisted around me.
The plan was to hike up the mountain to Zhonghe Temple but I talked to Frank, the british guy from the bus about teaching english and he wanted to know if I wanted to go to the school where he's teaching and get a job. I was taken by surprise and really wasn't planning on teaching right yet since I just started my china travels. I really didn't even want to go because of just that fact that I didn't want to be presented with this opportunity that I couldn't pass up if it turned out to be good cause it would screw my travel plans. Frank was telling me about the hours, schedule, pay, and duties and it didn't sound like
what I really wanted but I figured this was an chance to maybe get my foot in the door or for when I'm done my travels at least they would know me and I could come back and teach. On the bus ride to the Mark's English School, back in Xiaguan, Frank was asking me about what I did back home. When I told him I was a biologist and worked with polar bears he was quiet interested in learning more about what I did. It has been a long time since I talked about my thesis and biology in general. It was refreshing actually. At the school, he introduced to the girls in administration and the boss as the
new teacher which I didn't like at all but anyway. Sniper, teacher/boss was pretty young...well age or younger. He told me about the job which basically, you aren't even teaching, you are pretty much just a helper to the chinese teacher. So when you are needed for pronounciation or whatever that is when you "teach". It's not full time, only weekends and minimum 5 classes over two days. Pay is 60RMB ($8.5cad) per class with a small stipend for living.
And it would be under the table unless I got a business myself. He wanted me to get back to him by thursday to know whether I could teach this weekend. Now that was pressure! They invited for lunch which was very good, steamed rice with a variety of other dishes, like vegetables and spicy tofu, some sort of shredded veggie, and stringed beans and chicken but it was probably pork. Had two bowls since I didn't get a chance to eat breakfast. Over lunch talked with the creator of the Mark's English School, Mark. He said that I totally looked like a teacher and would fit in quiet well. I would be the only foreigner working but it really looks good for the school to have a native english speaker cause the parents think better of the school then. I think I just looked the part because I am a white female with blonde hair, blue eyes. Anyway. After lunch, Frank left and I stayed around chatting with Sniper for an hour before I was to sit in on a class to see what it was all about. It was pretty fuckin' cool and it got me excited to
teach which I never thought possible. I took notes on how the teacher taught, how she got the students to pronounce words and sentences. There was a lot of repetition and the chorus of 17 students, aged 8-10 (I think), echoed in the small classroom. I was very curious to how she would teach the students new words since the first half of the class was review from last week. The second half was learning new material. I was impressed. Basically she just sounded each letter out in the word and one by one combined the letters to make up the word. And it worked cause the students caught on quickly. I take for granted english being my first language and don't really realize how hard a language it is (obviously not as hard as some, like freggin' chinese) but still I was grateful to have sat in on her class and learned something myself....how to possibly teach english. I would catch myself repeating the sounds and words along with the students. It was fun. After class, Jasmine the teacher asked me if I had any advice for her about teaching and I was like "no you did a great
job. i actually learned from you!" I promised Sniper I would email him by thursday with my decision and then I was on my back to the Old City. With an ice cream in hand and feeling good about understanding the woman when she told me how much it was I went to the no.4 bus terminus without any problems finding it. I came to the conclusion on the bus ride back that I wasn't going to take the job for several reasons: 1. couldn't afford to work just weekends, 2. just a teacher's aid not actually teaching, 3. would be working under the table, 4. too early to start. But I am super glad I went.
Dinner was crappy. Well the dins for me and Jacob. He ordered twice fried pork with rice and all he got was pork fat (see pic). It was disgusting. I got a very not tasty cucumber and tomato salad which is suppose to be spicy but wasn't at all. Astrid was satisfied with her choice of sweet and sour pork with pinneapple. We went for some tea and dessert at this coffee house and played some cards. They got apple pie and
I got chocolate cake with ice cream. It was made fresh too....they made the pie on the spot cause it took so freggin' long to get. My cake was more like a brownie but that's okay too. Of course, eating western food, my stomach started to turn for the worse. But that's okay because right next door there was a massage place that advertised diarrhea massage. We were makin' cracks about that all night.
Didn't go to bed til late again and woke up not feeling too rested. We hiked the mountain which took longer than an hour which the "lying planet" says. The hike was steep uphill, going through cemetary's, farm fields, and pine forests. It was nice when you had the chance to see out between the trees at the view of Dali and the Erhai Hu Lake. The temple at the top wasn't that impressive. There were these monks or whatever they were that told us to give a give to Buddha with incense and then of course money. My guy wanted me to give 100RMB and I was like "i don't think". Then he said 50RMB....ha ya whatever. I took my wallet out and a
second monk tried to look in my wallet. I "donated" 3RMB for good luck for Buddha. Fuck whatever. We chilled at a guesthouse about 2500m high but didn't go another 5 hours to the top of the mountain (~4500m). We wanted to take the chairlift down but you had to pay, of course, to take it. So we hiked back down taking a different trail. We walked back through what looked like to be an old chinese village. Now that is what I pictured China to be like. Had a crappy lunch at this fast food chinese noodle place. We were just so tired and hungry that we just settled and of course we were disappointed. We went out later in the evening to the place we had the pie and cake, for some better food. Astrid and I got the chicken sandwich on brown bread. It was tasty. I haven't had brown bread in a long time so I quite enjoyed it. The only thing the "lying planet" wasn't lying about was the fact that Dali is a place to take a break from travelling. I could stay here longer but I need to get moving again and I hear many good things about Lijiang as well, where I am heading next. Lates.
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Danff Local
non-member comment
Hmmm fat!
Hi Lindsay! Thx for the link, it's good to read about it all again...I may just print it up and glue it in my journal! haha! I'm also stealing the pix, especially the twice fried pork fat! We're in Xi'an right now - going to Lhasa~! Yay! We even found another couple to share a jeep with us! Today we went to see the Terra Cotta Warriors, they were alright, maybe built up a bit too much (in my head). They may also be another tourism scam! JK! Jacob wants to make a documentary about it, but then decided he'd be mysteriously killed by the Chinese gov't! Hahahaha! Anyways, sounds like Singapore is the kind of relaxing you've been looking for, so enjoy! Astrid