misadventures: Spring Festival Break: Pt 4. Dali

Feeling the pressures of time, I cut my stay in Kunming short and caught a bus up to Dali. This pretty little town is enclosed by rebuilt walls and original gates and has a ton of original architecture. Sure it looked nice but the whole place just seemed to lack in atmosphere. Seemed a bit bland to me. Dunno why. A bit Disney. It's also a bit of a drugs mecca. Not one minute had I gotten off the bus before I was approached by a woman asking me if I wanted some smokes. Each time I walked down the street I was offered one thing or another, always by middle-aged female pushers, proudly proclaiming their wares as if they were selling fruit.

Still it was good to wander about and explore, and my hostel (No. 5 hostel, pictured below) was quite friendly and comfortable, with films shown each evening. The setting was also magnificent, with the Erhai lake to the western side and the Cangshan mountains to the east, topped with a fresh layer of snow during my visit.

I met some cool people in the hostel - a British couple from Leeds who I hung out with for a bit, and two Japanese girls who were sharing my dorm. They were Maria and Neko, pictured above, and together we went to explore some of the Dali sights. First on the list was a cable car ride up the Zhonghe mountain behind the city to the Zhonghe temple. It wasn't far to the cable car terminus, so we decided to walk. The locals had other ideas though.

Before long we were hounded by a man who wanted to take us in his little ma ma yo-like contraption. We declined. It was a nice day, we fancied a walk. The guy though would not take no for an answer. He followed us up the cobbled street in his bone-rattling contraption, occasionally getting out and shouting new prices to us and trying to sell us discounted tickets for the cable car. Even when it was cheaper than cheap, we refused. We just didn't want to. Not good enough. For a good mile this guy followed us. Seriously annoying. Eventually we arrived at the ticket office and he was still with us. At that point another Chinese guy pointed out that he'd bought tickets from this guy the previous day and that they were legit so, in the end, we gave in and bought his tickets. Guess it shows how perseverance pays off, even if you manage to piss everyone off in the meantime. We were glad to hear his wreck turn round and finally putt-putt off into the distance. That was worth the price alone.

The cable car ride up was nice, but it would probably have been more rewarding to walk. We got an amazing view from the top though, and aside from some monks trying to force us to make donations, it was pretty pleasant.

Back down the mountain we went to see the Three Pagodas just outside the city walls. The tallest is over a thousand years old. It was pricey to get in at 120 yuan, but the whole complex was walled off, so there was no other way to get a good look at the place. However, once we got in, we found we couldn't even go up the pagodas. They were all sealed off. Bit disappointing. We did get access to the huge Chongsheng temple complex behind it though. It's a modern temple on the site of a much older one and was quite impressive. It just kept going on and on and on. You pass one set of buildings and there above you is another set, and another... There were real monks there, which was good, but also a raft of tourist stalls inside each hall selling cheap and nasty tat, which was not so good. Finally, after having seen all tiers of buildings, and feeling we had justified the entrance fee, we left to have a well deserved rest.

Somehow Dali just didn't do it for me, so after just one full day there, I caught the bus further north to Lijiang. Maria was heading the same way, and I met an interesting Aussie called James who accompanied us. And, as per usual, the scenery was astounding. Just wish more of my pictures had come out ok. A moving bus just isn't the right platform...