Step 32 - Da... li?

Another day, another post. We're still in Lijiang, but soon to leave - tomorrow infact. Can't say I'll miss Lijiang very much, it seems a relatively dull place, more of a stopover location than anything else.

I'm currently trying to remember what I wrote in my last post, while sitting in CreaWriter with the Fallout 3 Soundtrack playing in the background - Old music is pretty awesome. I think my last post finished on the last major event in Kunming, the Stone Forest. So, moving on!

Byron and I left Gosia behind and caught a flight to Dali. It was a pretty short flight, somewhere around 30 minutes. It's the only flight I've been on where they've actually served in-flight refreshments before the plane has actually taken off. I'm not kidding, that actually happened. We're sitting on the tarmac, and two stewardesses pass by with a trolley, dispensing water and crackers. I guess stranger things happen, but it raised my eyebrow.

Dali. It's a town, pretty small. I often see people calling it an Ancient Town. Fair enough. Most people will probably recognise it by the 3 big-ass white pagodas. I know that's probably my most lingering memory of Dali, but they weren't the only thing I liked about the place.

After arriving dismounting the aircraft and collecting our luggage, we took the fixed 90 kuai taxi ride to the Old Town section of Dali. This taxi ride is actually pretty good, as it takes about 15-30 minutes from memory, and gives you some pretty good views of the general area, including New Town, the lake, the mountains surrounding and, of course, Old Town. The weather was yet again clear skies, though the wind was slightly gusty - we watched the white caps breaking on the lake surface as we drove in.

The hostel we were staying at was called the Jade Emu, owned and run by an Australian guy called Dave (from Melbourne) and his Chinese partner. This was to be the best hostel of the trip, with a large clean twin-share room and en-suite bathroom for the reasonable price of 60 kuai per person. I know, I know, twin-share? Why not a dorm!? Basically for hassle-free sleeping and general comfort. It's been nice. Anyway, the food and drink there was also cheaper than The Hump and the Wi-fi internet was available in our room, unlike The Hump. Sorry Hump, I do seem to keep dumping on you... Oh well.

So yeah, Dali. I believe we spent most of our first day there wandering around the Old Town. This was quite nice in itself, though it's all very touristy. You also occasionally get asked by local women if you're into smoking, more specifically, pot/weed. Apparently it used to be more obvious but after a crackdown by police, they're keeping it quite low-key. It's not really a bother though, you say 'No/Bu yao' and keep walking and they won't bother you until you pass by them again. It's our fault really, apparently all foreigners look the same. Yep, the coin has two faces people. I remember having noodles back in Chengdu and a guy in the place kept looking at me. I didn't recognise him, and so kept eating. Eventually he comes over and says, 'Hi... you don't remember me, do you?'. He wasn't exactly impressed than I didn't, and left. To this day, I still have no idea who that guy was, and where I was supposed to have known him from. Whoops?

What I liked the most about Dali was that I felt very... relaxed and at ease. It has a pretty chilled out atmosphere and I really enjoyed that. There wasn't really any hustle-and-bustle that I remember, though things got packed in some areas with Chinese tourists. Probably the most 'stressful' event was asking about 5 places for a top-up-card for my phone, each one passing me onto a new place that, of course, didn't have any and just redirected me. Eventually I got one, and it wasn't so much stressful but annoying.

What else did I see that I liked... a bunch of wall-poster type things that I ended up buying, and a broom-handle BB gun pistol that I didn't end up buying. I'm trying to remember any special food, but nothing comes to mind. The meal I probably enjoyed the most was probably the one Byron least enjoyed, as he complains it nearly killed him. Hmph. Just making him stronger! Better! More tolerant of chilli and other hot spices!

I'm feeling a bit tired of typing so I'll leave it here for today, with the update that I think Lijiang is kinda crap and we're both looking forward to returning to Chengdu!