A letter from the editor

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29 April 2010
Day 23

Letter from the Editor!!!!

We are now all the way over west in the Yunan province in a town/city called Old Dali City (as opposed to the nearby Dali City). Staying in a lovely guest house/hotel with a big family room & a covered terrace area outside the room - hence the opportunity to write while 2 girls settle down to sleep (eventually!!). This is a really cute place - walled city, bit touristy, but not too bad ( - no worse than Queenstown, though a local festival on just now has made it busier) & lots of easy walking. Streets paved & a lot of it mainly pedestrian. And one of the regional specialities is mushrooms - all shapes & sizes & very yummy! Also getting some real sunshine & warmth - the last couple of afternoons have been decidedly hot!! (Have also had a good couple of downpours in the evenings, but not a problem - food can be found nearby when required and, apart from some chicken dishes which have been a bit ordinary in the last couple of weeks, the food has been great - occasionally the odd spicy (c/o chilli) surprise for poor Lauren, but all going well there.
Old Dali, according to the Lonely Planet, was once a very popular place just to chill out, but then got too touristy. Apparently that has died off a bit and, probably as it's not peak season here, we're of the opinion it still is a good place to relax. Yesterday B, L & I went walking (with pushchair) around the walled streets and just looked. (Left Molly behind to have a big session on the computer with pancakes & Coke!) Very cute, but still authentic with things like some old guy sloshing buckets of water on the street outside a bar that was closed & yelling at us for heaven knows what reason - but we got the message he wanted us anywhere but there!! Streets and footpaths all stone, some with streams (yes, water streams) running down the sides of the streets and water features, flowers, etc making them very quaint. When Lauren checked out for a while I persuaded B to stop for a beer under an awning of a restaurant & relax. If Lauren hadn't woken up distressed it would have been a perfect plan, but it was still nice and really the first time Bernard & I had just stopped and "smelled the roses". I had to remind him we were on holiday!! He's a fast learner though...
Today we went for what we thought was going to be a short sight-see up the nearby mountain for the views & a look at a temple or two. Were persuaded to go up a big cable car, rather than the closer chair lift and then walk along to the chair lift for a ride down. Certainly spectacular views back across the flat to the big lake nearby (Erhai Hu - about size of Lake Rotorua). Walked up a serious set of steps to begin our little walk and were relieved to find the steps came to a flat, wide paved path that then took us all the way to the chair lift - all 11kms !!! Well we figured once we'd reached the first "feature" at the 4.5km mark we might as well keep going. Pity we didn't have the push chair - I got a lot of piggy-backing practice! Very pleasant all the same with lovely sunshine & plenty of shade most of the time. However we did decide to take a taxi back to town once we completed our 25 min chairlift ride down (which had Bernard panicking the whole way - Lauren & I were in the chair in front of him and Molly and he was paranoid she was going to fall - we'll go 2nd next time!).
So yes, we like this place - which is just as well as we travelled a long time to get here - starting from Fenghuang we departed around 9:30am on a 3hr bus ride to Huaihua where we took an overnight train at 1:50pm which arrived at 7:30am in Kunming. We then walked up the road, stopping for a noodle breakfast, to the long distance bus station to catch a bus to Old Dali. However we ended up getting on a shuttle bus (which we half filled with our stuff!) which took us back to the train station and then a 45 min journey across town to another bus station where we got on our express bus to Dali City (not to be confused with Old Dali - which we had bought a ticket for, but which means you still get off in Dali city & hail a cab from there!) About 3:30pm we checked into our hotel - WHEW!! And then I had to go & find the bank to get some funds - fortunately not far away, esp as it had started raining to add to the challenge. Actually glad I had gone for a walk because I managed to drag the others out for dinner, knowing it was a cute place, and we went into a little cheap restaurant & had a fabulous meal - including a plate of carrots which had been stir-fried with ginger & spring onions & butter I think - Lauren's special request which they just made up for us after her eyes lit up when she saw carrots in a basket amongst all the other veges on show outside the restaurant. Just brilliant, though the latter was a little pricey at 2Y (NZ 40c)!
So we're going to have at least one more day here before we push on up to Lijiang and then Tiger Leaping Gorge and possibly Shangri La, depending on weather & health with the increasing altitude. We have planned for a couple of weeks in this region and I don't think we'll have any trouble filling that time (as the Lonely Planet predicted) and I think I've convinced Bernard that a 5 day overland trip into Tibet isn't the right thing to do with the girls so the itinerary isn't likely to be disrupted that way :o) .

Kids are a challenge at times with the whinging & baiting of Lauren by Molly and Lauren is getting a bit feisty at times to balance the ledger - certainly learning some new bad habits, but that can't be helped - and definitely getting cheekier!! But this evening was much better as we ate earlier after our big walk & Molly wasn't bored, but spent half her time shelling peanuts for us, rather than teasing her sister, and Lauren got a good dinner & later told me she enjoyed it and said "and I didn't cry" - indicating she knew she was really tired, but was proud she had held it together (growing up sp quickly!!). Bed times are a little challenging when both girls going to bed together, but hopefully that will improve.
PS, photos and further updates coming soon. No internet for a few days, Molly is distraught!

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Comments

[Shayne]

On on...
Very good! If you keep going the direction you are heading, you can say hi to some of my mates in Kolkata! Glad to hear everyone is well, and all 4 of you are enjoying the experience.