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Published: March 13th 2009
Dali
The South Gate to the Old City.11th March 2009
A strange breakfast awaited us this morning. Poached eggs.....floating.....in soya sauce soup. It was good for the first bite! After breakfast, Mr Liou walked us to the bus stop to ram us onto an overcrowded bus, and see us on our way, but not before mocking Hayley's ripped jeans! We arrived back in Jianchuan, and grabbed a bus to Dali, 4 hours away. Dali was once the capital of this region, and like Lijiang and Shaxi, has an Old City and a New City. The difference here being that the Old City has been almost totally rebuilt to look old (the city walls were built in 1997!) The Old City is still a beautiful place, with wide pedestrianised streets and streams flowing, surrounded by mountains. However, for us, it's not as charming as Lijiang or Shaxi. The Chinese tourists LOVE IT though. They come here in their hordes and it does provide a great people watching experience! It would be a nice place to relax a little, if we had the time.
12th March 2009
Miss Coles' Birthday! Thanks again for all the messages and e-cards, they were very sweet. The day started a little overcast, which
Dali
Three Pagodas - the middle one is 70 metres high! was a shame as we had intended to visit the Three Pagodas, some of the oldest structures in Southwest China. After a greasy breakfast, we set off anyway and soon found ourselves shedding our fleeces in the heat. We arrived at the Pagodas - a 2km walk North of the city - and were instantly put off going inside when we saw the price!! 25 British Pounds for the two of us!! We walked through the 'free' visitor centre and got a great view of the Pagodas anyway....so we weren't too disappointed not going in. Afterwards, we walked around the perimeter wall and got a close up view. Sometimes it pays to be cheap!
After our trek and 40km accidental bike ride, we were determined to have a relaxing day. And so we whiled away the day drinking hot chocolate and coffee, eating home made cookies, and doing some reading about the rest of China.
That evening, we walked to Foreigner Street (no joke), and ate big western dinners and played chess. We rock. Afterwards, we strolled in the rain to a sweet little cafe ran in aid of deaf people, where we had the biggest slices of cake and
Dali
Eating birthday cake! cheesecake we've ever had!! Unable to move far after, we waddled back to our hotel - Hayley hiccuping all the way!
13th March 2009
Today we had another lie-in - in the comfiest beds for a long time - as Daniel appears to have a little bout of Man-Flu. We packed up - which we are now experts at - and checked out, before strolling through the Old City one last time to find breakfast. This afternoon we shall jump on a bus for the 5 hour journey back to Kunming (our first stop in China) to quickly do some more laundry (the exertion of the last week has left our clothes a tad, errrm, smelly) before we catch a short internal flight to the Sichuan Provence tomorrow evening, where we hope to be for a few days at least.
Keep all the messages coming - its great to hear everyones news back home!
Love
D and H
xxx
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mum and dad clayts
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We love the sights of China but all we can manage is a weekend in Devon! Back after the weekend to hopefully more blogs. When are we going to see the pandas? love mum and dad