superericman's travelogue: Dali

Ok im gonna start my travel blog from today, and will recap back dates slowly.

The 5 hour bus ride from Lijiang turned out to be 7.5 hrs.
luckily the bus is pretty empty so i got a whole double seat to myself.
The driver played some chinese drama on the tv, its some communist Taiping rebellion show, and i was glued to it, for the whole journey. omg thats like 7.5 episodes.
Snicker bar for lunch. sad life.

Driver dropped me off at Dali, and went on to Xiamen.
Lonely Planet said its a 20 mins walk to the hostel area, but it turned out to be 40, with my fat ass backpack. not easy, doesnt help that its been raining.

Dali is really rich in history. used to be Nan Zhao Guo before The Duans took over (yes, as in Jin Yongs Novels) and subsequently the Mongols. The place is right smack in the middle of montains and a huge lake (Erhai Hu), hence its reallllly pretty.

Its evening and its raining but i am already so absorbed by what i am seeing.
Dali architecture is truly unique. white washed walls with San Shui (scenery) paintings on the wall. Some of the larger ones will have 3 walls in a squarish formation, and the last side will be a simple wall, and all these white walls will reflect light into the courtyard. very smart. Most of them are Bai people, a minority in China. and huge families like the Yang family may have "qing bai jia juan" written on the main entrance, which means they are from Yang family cuz of the Yang Jia Jiang (Yang Warriors) who are famous loyal and upright warriors from way back.

Got to Tibetan Youth Hostel, got a room for 60 yuan. They have wifi! but wierd cuz the browser not works sometimes. did'nt do much this night, cuz of the rain.

Next day (today, 28th oct) i went to the Erhai hu, took a boat out to the opposite end, it was horrendous. i seldom get sea sick but this ride is nasty. after 10 mins of taking pictures, i got dizzy and settled in the cabin. we went past Yang LiPing's (creator of peacock dance.) mansion and its really amazing. shd google it. awesome archi. nuthng much on the other sides, its just the mansion and some awesome food.

next stop, i saw comorants fishing. fucking awesome. the fisherman trained these birds to fish and come back to him. he tied a string around their necks so they cant swallow the fish. my driver hooked me up, so im the only guy on the boat. The fisherman told me he went japan for a competition before and came out tops, cuz the birds are so well trained. really awesome!

next day im going kunming, not much there, its just a stop over for me to go feng huang. so until then.