Dali & zaijian China

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Dali felt comfortable right from the start. Our bus from Lijiang died on the way so we hitched another one after a little juggling and harp in the side of the road. The 'Tibetan Lodge' feels great with its cruisy music in the cafe downstairs. Its not as busy as Lijiang but has an old town to explore and room to bike .... Cormorant man....cool birds that dive for fish. The not so cool but tricky bit is they have a ring around their neck which stops them swallowing more than the little fish - so the big ones come into the boat - with som encouragement. Also saw some big freshwater fish being netted. I biked out to the monastry Stefan stayed at - Wusee Si. I arrived in time to be invited for luch - really friendly. It rained the last night I was their - was a novelty - the start of the bus ride to Kunming was in the rain - good timing.

It was great to catch up with Guangua in Kunming. She arrived on an eletric scooter that was running out of battery - I followed her home in a taxi and she just made it before it stopped totally. She has a nice appartment and is now teaching children english. I planned to visit Ruqiong's folks with her as interpreter (only had their address) but it was getting pretty late by the time we got there. They were so friendly and generous - would have liked to have had more time.

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