Golden Dali

Love the small town/village of Dali being partly walled & still has intact the 4 big entry gates to the city.




Back to the arrival....think I got some sleep on the hard sleeper - lots of tossing & turning! Asked for help in reading our ticket to find out the carriage & berth last night before boarding ...

... 14 93;. התה חבר קבוע לשולח 03; השח. והיום הינו היום האחרו 03; למשחק, כי למחרת יעזבו כל התייר 97;ם וא ...

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Upon waking, it was apparent that something just wasn't right. Was I hungover? My instincts suggested not, as I'd shown uncharacterstic restraint the night before. No, I had definitely been taken ill. My muscles ached, my joints were creaky and worst of all, my stomach was making wholly incorrect noises.



As such, have spent the day largely recuperating. Alternating ...

... them, but very nice of them to be concerned. After our morning tea break we set off for the final leg into Dali, all wearing our white Oxfam Australia cycling jerseys and coloured stripey socks that Barbara had issued everybody. Just about 3 to 4 kms from Dali we hit a bad traffic jam caused by roadworks and had to do some more unscheduled off road cycling when lo and behold I got my ...

... at high altitudes (though Cusco is considerably higher). Both cities are fairly similar in size (around 500,000) and are major tourist destinations. With all of this the same, one would expect the cities to be similar. However, the differences in their respective countries means that the experience of the two cities is totally different. China, as I have witnessed firsthand this week, is rapidly modernizing. Heck, it's already mostly finished the task. Thus Dali ...

... oriented places. There's a dirty, manipulative energy to these kinds of places, and the energy it takes to say no constantly or just generally not try to get ripped off makes them rather exhausting. Maybe we're just sensitive, or maybe we are bad tourists, but it's a common theme we've encountered in both of our feelings about these kinds of places, so we try to listen to what our bodies and psyches tell us and stay away from the really touristy places, frankly. But ...

... Dali has been a nice and relaxing place to spend a few days, away from the hustle and bustle of the city. I think we are ready for the bright lights once again though, and in under a week we'll be in Macau as our first month in China comes to an end. Before that, we head to Kunming tomorrow for a couple of days and to ready ourselves for the long train ride east. Love to you all, Al & Em xxx

... a comfortable time waiting for our train. Other people came and went from the VIP area, but most of the time we had the comfortable seats and tables to ourselves. We played cards, drank tea (which we were given free), and tried to settle in for the wait. Next it was time to get on the train and we were the first to be ushered downstairs and onto the platform. We found our births which we shared with two Chinese ...

... They where then heated and doubled in size. The group was left with 2 massive bowls of deformed dumplings and the houseowners encouraging us to eat them. They were actually really nice but after about 4 my stomach was mega bloated (and we still had anotha bowl left). I also noticed that the chinese ate very few of these.The rest of the morning was spent learning Chinese with our two helpers/co-ordinators (Me-ow and Angelina (a local girl from Dali city)). We where to have ...