The Ancient City of Dali

Dali Old Town
see all photos »

Rising yet again at an hour at which we are not at our best we dragged the luggage back across the cobble stones to arrive at the bus station at 8.28am. We'd hoped to purchase some breakfast at the bus station but sadly this was not to be as the 8.30 express bus to Dali was about to leave.... yep, we leapt aboard and enjoyed our biscuits, water and peppermints on the journey. The only hitch was at our destination as we watched the place we were heading for pass into the distance! Fortunately, Keith was clutching his Lonely Planet Guide to China which made changing to a local bus at the next stop fairly easy, despite having to lug our cases onto a crowded bus! We arrived this time at the Ancient City of Dali and settled into our abode for the next few days! It has free laundry, free internet, electric blankets and hot water 24 hours a day... absolute bliss!

Jackie admires Keith's new purchases
see all photos »

We spent the afternoon sauntering around still more cobble-stoned streets (great to look at and full of charm but not ideal for cycling over or dragging suitcases over!) Keith was absolutely stoked to discover even more souvenir shops for tourists selling pretty much the same stuff as in Lijiang... everyone knows how much Keith enjoys shopping!

Keith decides to avoid the onsite dentist at the local market!

We spent the next day touring around the lake with Jackie who we met at our hotel. Jackie works at a cooking school in our final destination in China - Guilin so that could come in handy! We set off in a minibus with the driver pretty keen for us to visit a place to see dancing and tea ceremonies... we declined as we were after the lake as it is nearly 50kms long afterall! Next stop was a batik workshop... again we resisted the temptation to buy all that much and asked for the market and lake.

Jackie & Wendy at Lesser Putuo Temple
see all photos »

Success! We found a local market held on Mondays that was hugely entertaining. We quickly learnt to look without touching anything (pretty much as our mothers always wanted us to do when we were kids!). To touch something suggested that we were interested and we were then followed by salespeople as we continued our wander around the market! Bartering is an art that I am not entirely sure we have mastered to best effect as we ended up buying a Mao hat for Keith (for only $1.20! a bargain), some earrings for Wendy ($1.75) and an antique pipe for Keith (probably a genuine antique made last week!).

Wendy goes cycling
see all photos »

Wendy was fairly keen for Keith to try out the onsite dentist as he had chipped a tooth... Keith declined muttering something about the autoclave being noticeably absent! The guy had a foot operated drill though and lots of old teeth to choose from on his table. Admittedly he didn't wear gloves but the old man having a false tooth fitted seemed to be very happy with the service.

Apparently Wendy missed an absolute treat at the market. Jackie visited the ladies toilets and found something she'd never seen in China before (and she is Chinese!) - yes, just what Wendy had been expecting but dreading... a toilet without cubicles.. just an open pit. Phew! That was a close call!

The hard way to water the vegies
see all photos »

After enjoying the market for sometime, we set off again to circumnavigate the lake. With Steven Spielberg (aka Keith) stopping regularly for photo opportunities we made it to the halfway point and stopped for lunch at a great little restaurant by the lake where the fish were quite literally jumping out of the tank they were so keen to be eaten! Jackie ordered for us all and we enjoyed a bucketload of spicy shrimp, some deep fried mini fish (they really couldn't be called fish as they were tiny but tasty!) and two vegetable dishes - eggplant, red peppers and lettuce root along with the obligatory bucketload of 'fan' ie rice. Since Jackie had done the hard work ordering, Keith took a deep breath and offered to pay for the meal for us and the driver. Expecting the worst he approached the restaurant owner and nearly fell over when told it was only Y30 (ie around $5). It was quite possibly the best meal we've had in China but we suspect that Jackie told the chef that she was a cookery teacher and we got some special treatment.

The next day, Wednesday, we were determined not to be on a bus, just for a change. So we slept in, enjoyed a delicious breakfast (must recommend the MCA Hotel - a great little place) and walked into town to hire a couple of bikes. We set off with no particular destination in mind - just a ride around the local part of the lake. It was all downhill, and we just took a random turn in the general direction of the lake. This took us along ever-decreasing tracks, surrounded by fields full of vegetables, being tended by the farmers. It looks like hard work - carrying water by bucket from a well to the field, ladling it out then coming back for more.

Before long we were pedalling along a foot track between the fields, and found ourselves in a small village by the lake. Quite picturesque. We had imagined that we would be able to cycle near the lake to reach the main port town, but there was no road. So we headed back to the main highway and turned north, coming to the turn off a couple of kilometres later. Wendy in particular was feeling the pain of the rather unspringy bike seat, and had tied her jacket around it in an only partially successful attempt to get more comfortable.

A kilometre or so down the road we found the wharf, many boats here catering to tourists who might want a jaunt on the lake. We decided against it, bought some mandarins for lunch and had a bit of a saunter round.

We decided to head for home, just as an almighty wind sprang up - a head wind, of course. The trip back was part ride, part walk. Made it back eventually covered in grit, happy that the hotel's services include cold Diet Coke.

Next stop - Kunming