Dali and Lijiang

YES YES, the famous Dali and LiJiang.  If there are two areas of Yunnan that people go visit, its Kunming the capital and these cities.  It took us 3 buses and about 7 hours to get to Dali, but actually we went around the lake to Old Dali which added an hour.

On one of the bus rides near the end of it, this guy must have been bumping her seat a few times throughout the trip but near the end as I said, it became more frequent.  I guess she thought he was doing it on purpose and regardless was annoyed by it and turned around to look at the guy.  Seems fair to me.

This guy says something to her that has obviously pissed her off.  After some coaxing she told me he said “Are you Chinese?”  He was trying to be insulting to her for speaking to me but like I told her, jokes on him because you know English, have a college degree and will be able to make a better life for yourself and family.  We got some ice cream bars after that.

The first night was in a standard no frills hotel and the biggest perk was that the location was across from the walled off “old town.”  Old Town has some charm to it.  They have kept the traditional styling and even if you are remodeling you still have to make it look old skol.   Also, this is a place for westerners to go chill… as the Dali University is a handful of kilometers away.

Walked and found some western themed diners but we settled on a place that had all the food in buckets in front of the store.  Food was good.  Instead of having the bowls and cups shrink wrapped like YuanJiang, they have them in a paper bag with plastic on the inside.  Not sure the +- of either.

Along the way we found some foreigners playing musical instruments.  It makes me curious, since they were their every night, what are you doing here.  You don’t have a job (maybe playing music), are you traveling and staying an extended period here?  I’m not so sure sometimes about these long term vagabonds…did society/family reject you, you reject them, 1/4 life crisis?  Maybe I’m just judgmental.

Either way, once we passed them, we found a bakery and it had Strawberry Cheesecake…I had it twice and another flavor once.  First time I have even seen that desert …ever.

The next day we went to LiJiang by train.  My first long distance train experience, 2.5 hours.  We didn’t realize that to do the one thing I wanted to do, Tiger Leaping Gorge, you need to leave in the morning but also need two days not several hours.  Apparently it takes 1/2 a day to get there.  It is a huge Grand Canyon like place and lots of people walk the upper ridge, stay at a lodge and walk one more day.  I just wanted to go see it. Oh well.

A bus later and some walking and we got to see this mountain.  A ski lift can take you to the near top 15000ft and then you can walk some to go higher and they give you an oxygen mask…but it was expensive and locals weren’t sure it was even open… well I’m not chancing that long bus ride for nothing.

Walked through a cute park with a pond in the middle before getting a caramel latte and walking to “old town Lijiang.”  Now O.T.L J is more ‘famous’ than O.T.D but oh my I just thought OTLJ was a gigantic tourist trap waste of time.

It was like 7 types of stores but just TONS of them.  Tea shop, drum circle drum store, carve your name into plastic, local dresses, a special type of painting store, and some restaurants along with small niche hotels.  Now granted the hotels were great because once entering the door they had a unique atmosphere on the inside.  Maybe a little stream and walking stones, a water mill, and fung shway stuff….very cute.  Pizza Hut and McDonald’s were even near the entrance.

Regardless, I was ready to go home that evening, especially with most of the exit roads all jacked up because of road construction.    Did take a picture of me and a gigantic statue of General Mao.

Next morning we went see the 3 Pagodas but we didn’t go in because she had been many times and I didn’t care.  Did get a good photo of a golden painted Flaming Chicken Bird. For lunch one day we saw a place that was cutting up some fresh meat, well can’t beat that type of freshness. YUMMY ribs for lunch and got an umbrella after ’cause of the downpour.

Which leads me to the actual Reason why I went to these towns?  Ling and her BFF’s have a big test that gives you a certification for English majors.  This is going on throughout china that morning. In fact this week of May is another nationwide test for being able to work certain government jobs, particularly teaching.

First evening we met up and stayed in a sweet hotel next to old town Dali square and quick access to the buses.  Ate some delicious hotpot.  One friend after a few hours was able to understand me much better and did talk to me even though it was obviously not easy for her…the other friend barely tried because she was so shy.

Off we went early Saturday morning to Dali University.  WOW this place was beautiful.  It is laid on on a hill overlooking the whole city and lake.  Turn around and you see the front range of the mountains.  Plus since it is a university, it has nice statues, trees, flowers etc.  Saw some volleyball being played and down below near the winding path of water and walkways some karate class was occurring.  Bunch of white belts, I hung around hoping to get a “come over here and kick this bag” but no such luck this day.

I explored the campus while they took the test and after we all toured together again. Heck I even walked up the hill and saw about 20 cars on a track to teach people how to drive…yes in college.   Dinner was with some pseudo friends of theirs but we were late showing up and apparently the people there were not too friendly to us.

We left early but not before securing a 3/4th day tour at apparently the cheapest rate than anyone else on the tour.  Had a pineapple beer at dinner, um it was ok.

The tour was just 3 of us (plus all these girls in the picture); the shy one had to work that day.  First, we got to get on a big canoe and watch some bird’s fish.  They dive into the water and can come up with a 5-10 pound fish in their mouth.  Then they fight over it…picture time!

On the paddle back we stopped by a boat and some local group did some singing but they all looked like if the boat capsized and all drowned that would be a better end of the day than having to sing and dance one more time. LOL

The next few stops I wanted to drown myself.  One was a silver shopping experience, followed by a crappy lunch, with the next stop being a local tea sales pitch, and the only redeeming quality was that the sing and dance here showed what their groups wedding ceremony looked like.  Funny because at one point it is tradition that you come up and pinch the bride for good luck. HAHA.

The last place we went was alright to me but they didn’t care for it.  We took a ski lift up the mountain and went into a cave.  Again, they put colored lights throughout the cave to amplify the nature beauty.  Truthfully it was kind of boring compared to the swallow cave I went to months back.  There is a girl statue in this cave and it and the cave is famous because it was in some Big Movie.

One evening we went change a train ticket from leaving that day to the next evening so we could all hang out more.  (the night train to Kunming, takes 6 hours.)  While in Dali we walked to this big Epcot Golf Ball style building but it was closed 🙁   We missed the last official bus back to Old Town so we had to walk 45 minutes to the place to catch the small bus…which was packed but it was fine…I’m fine walking.  I did pee in an ally.

The train was nice, 3 bunks stacked and got to see some beautiful countryside.  Oh and on the way to Dali the first time around, a traffic jam was on the other side of the road and it took close to 14 minutes to drive past it all…and we were going normal speed. YIKES