I woke up the next morning and half the people on our bus were gone. We were parked on the side of the road, and I groggily realized we had been sitting in Xiaguan, the capital of Dali, since 3 am. We stumbled off the bus into the cold dark morning and found our way to a local bus that took us to the old city of Dali. The city was just starting to wake up. It was beautiful with rushing water down covered gutters, intricately carved wooden doors and walls along the cobblestone streets. We checken into a simple room, showered, and sat down refreshed, at Jack's - a restaurant with a view of the mountains, a pot of fresh coffee, banana pancakes and Naxi fried rice. We hung out for a while and then
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