Dali, Yunnan Province

From Tiger Leaping Gorge, we headed back to Lijiang for another night, then hopped on a bus bound for Dali. Dali is another tourist city like Lijiang, but doesn't feel nearly as genuine or real. A lot of it has been rebuilt in the old style to attract tourists. It's pretty enough, but after Lijiang it falls a little flat. Perhaps we should have gone here first! People here are more aggressive with selling whatever it is they are trying to sell, which is irritating. This is also the first place in China that we have been constantly approached by locals (always older women) trying to sell us "smoka the ganja?". Pot grows as a weed all over around here, so it's no wonder why someone had the thought to sell it to foreigners. No thanks on that one. Chinese prison doesn't sound too fun to me.

Evening by the North pond


South Gate all lit up


All this being said, Dali is a nice enough place, and we spent much of the day wandering around the back streets and in the local vegetable market. There are a lot of yummy things for sale here, including live frogs, eels, lamprey, catfish, larvae, snakes and snails. Apparently all of these are pretty tasty, but Sarah hasn't convinced me to try any yet. Though the larvae kebobs do look pretty enticing....

We're going to spend tomorrow morning exploring the edges of Lake Erhai Hu and adjacent villages and rice paddies by bicycle. The valley the city is located in is gorgeous, green and surrounded by big mountains with temples and pagodas, so I'm sure we'll find something interesting to see. On the bus ride in yesterday, I was happy to see my first "waterbirds" of the trip, including Pheasant-tailed Jacana and several species of egrets. An exciting surprise was a Common Hoopoe flying across the road. For all you non-birders, you should do a Google Image Search for this bird. It's pretty awesome.




We have a 15-hour sleeper bus ride out of here tomorrow evening. We're booked for the "beds" on the seond deck. I don't even think we can stand up! Should be interesting. We've decided to skip Kunming and head straight down to Jinghong, a tropical town right on the border of Burma and Laos. We expect to cross into Laos a couple days from now. We've enjoyed the cool temperatures thus far, and I know we'll look back on them with longing after a few weeks in the steamy tropics. That being said though, we're really excited to get into Southeast Asia. Onward to adventure!

-Matt!