Category: Dali

Got up quite early.  The Irish boys in my room were off to visit some villages, so they were up early too.  I told Aidan I planned on chilling most of the day and he joked that it was a good thing I was up early so I’d have the whole day to chill, not just part of the day.

I grabbed my cds (not really sure why), and headed to Lost Angel.  Jessie, the owner, was playing some good music, so I asked who the artist was.  She wasn’t sure, but went on to say I could download any of her music if I wanted to.  I pulled out my cds and said she could take any of mine, too.  She was interested in a few, so I copied them over to her computer.

Wandered around Dali, then headed to the guesthouse and moved some music over to my ipod.  In the evening I went and grabbed a book, then headed back to Lost Angel to put some more music on Jessie’s computer, and get some dinner.

After dinner I headed back to an unusually quiet guesthouse.  The tv/dvd was free, so I threw in Jumper.  I’d read the book before, but the movie was pretty different.  Not entirely bad, but not too good either.

The  guesthouse seems overrun with Koreans, so I spent some time talking to them.  Nice group of people, and they all seem to be heading towards Lijiang as well, so I might be seeing them around for a few days, at least.

Got up and headed to the Lost Angel cafe for breakfast.  Dave, the owner of the guesthouse had recommended it, so I figured I’d give it a shot.  Breakfast was pretty tasty, and every table had a laptop, so I managed to get a bit of internet stuff in as well.

I’d rented a bike from the guesthouse, so from the cafe, I headed north on the main road.  Dave suggested I check out the north of the island, so I figured I’d give it a go.   The ride there was pretty good – with some nice scenery, as Dali is wedged between Erhai Lake and a mountain (which also has a name, I am sure).  There were plenty of kids on the road, and a lot of them were pretty excited to see a foreigner, it seemed.  I exchanged hellos, but the language barrier was pretty tough to break after that.

I was pretty beat on the way back, a combination of a lack of fitness and a lack of food, I think.  Had a shower in the guesthouse, and then did a bit of reading in the common area.

Wanted to stay up later, but sleep grabbed me at about 10pm, and I didn’t put up much of a fight.

After an uneventful bus ride, I arrive in Dali.  In Kunming, I’d asked a girl at the hostel to write down the Chinese directions to my next destination, Jade Emu Guesthouse – so I showed that to a taxi driver, and was on my way.

It was too early to check in, so I grabbed a coffee, and jumped on the internet for a little while.  The place is brand new, and run by an Australian guy – the best thing had to be the power chargers in the security lockers – perfect if you want to charge an ipod, or phone, and not watch it all the time.

I wandered around old town – it’s quite touristy, but doesn’t seem so bad, because 99% of them are Chinese.  China has made acquiring Visas a little tougher of late, because of Tibet and the olympics, so I think a lot of people have decided to skip it as a destination.  But the Chinese are in full force.

Had dinner downtown, then headed back to the hostel to relax, read, and chat a little.