Dali-more old towns and city walls
Saturday, December 6th, 2008Apparently the bus ride from Shangri-la to Dali is beautiful but I slept most of the way, just waking up as we approached the lake which Dali is close to, driving round the lake was nice with green fields and big mountains. I jumped off the bus close to Dali old town, as the bus heads into the 20km away Dali real town. Ignoring offers of taxis I decided to try to walk to my hostel, getting hopelessly lost of course and trying to figure out whether I was actually inside or outside the city walls.
(Dali city walls)
Eventually I made to the ‘Jade Emu’ hostel, brand new and run by a Aussie/Chinese couple, an excellent place with an amazing ensuite bathroom on the dorm, best shower I’ve ever had and they even give you towels and shampoo! Plus lots of books, movies and just a generally great place.
Recovering from my mission to get there I hung out at the hostel fom the afternoon making use of fee internet and dvd’s and sharing hotpot with an American guy for dinner. For only 15 yuan you can get hotpot at the hostel with unbelievable amounts of food, good times indeed and a bit less spicy than the last one. My next full day I did what I usually do in new places, wandered around and ate food….saw the city walls, lots of shops, lots of tourists. I like Dali a lot better than Lijang, still lots of tourists but a bit more ‘real’ feeling, as in not only existing for tourists. Its more laid back and in beautiful location with big hills behind it.
So after eating and shopping I headed back to the hostel where I met up with Ian in my room and we grabbed some dinner in town and walked around the streets for a few hours before bed time.When I was driving in to Dali we went through some really nice green fields between the hills and the lake so I hired a bike for the day and set off on what turned out to be a bit of an epic 7 hour bike ride. I just kept biking and then eventually realised I had to get back still which was a lot harder with a head wind. By the end I was over it, but the first part was great, biking through green vegetable fields, saw the huge 3 pagodas, lots of other people cruising around on bikes. Really relaxed and nice and went through a few villages.
On the way back I went down the main road which was a bit flatter, this was a lot more busy with lots of buses and cars going back and of course a head wind. Finally I made it back exhausted but at least having done some exercise! The hostel was doing another hotpot and this time there were a load of people including the owner so we had a massive dinner with never ending food, it was great!My bus to Jinghong was leaving the following night and after my mega ride the day before I just relaxed for the day, I went out for lunch with Ian and we sat in the sun and wandered around a bit, then it was time to leave, another night sleeping bus with too small beds, for 15 hours south again to Jinghong, my final China destination
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