Golden Dali

... 3 other tourists. It was lovely; the view of the cloud covered mountains, the view of the city below and Erhai Lake, the streams and waterfalls, and the mix of colors - red, green, orange and yellow of the forest.<br><br>Heading into the eastern direction, right above Zhonghe Temple lies the secluded Higherland Inn which offers dorms, food and a relaxing atmosphere. http://www.higherland.com/<br>Passing ...

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... so we pushed on, trying to keep our spirits up. By the time we arrived at the village where the hostel was we were exhausted and covered in mud. We pushed our bikes through the windy stone alleys following signs and ended up at this gorgeous place right beside the lake. To our horror we found out that they were full, however they said we could sleep on the lounge floor, which we were more than happy to do as i was so nice there. After washing the mud away, we seated ...

... now. His name was Loman, and he was in China representing the Mexican Government, helping to improve international relations. Even though I was 'turfed out' from time to time because of the fluent Mandarin, the Chinese guy named Mac was quite serious about improving his English. "How do you say or mean this or this?" he asked me, keeping the conversation English based as we coasted along the three-hour expressway. It was nice getting out into ...

... from agriculture to tourism. Even better, almost all of the tourist there were Chinese people, which always makes for some good parties in the bar. The first night we made it to the only nightclub in town and before leaving the girls were being accosted by drunk Chinese men in their 40s... While Lindsay and I were leaving a man came and grabbed my arm and said, "The owner would like to request your presence in his private room upstairs for a ...

... hospitality! If someone pours you a full cup of tea, its a sign of disrespect, on the contrary, a full glass of wine means they like you very much! Such symbolism!! The highlight of the day was undoubtedly being shown how to play Ma Zhan (sp?!) in the Ma zhan rooms in the back of the tea house- its a Chinese game played with tiles- kind of like the domino tiles and the games kind of like a more extreme gin rummy..! Three suits, thirteen tiles each, but you can grab tiles off the ...

... lots of stairs, and an ice cream to avoid hunger. The pagodas and the temple are quite nice, but we have to leave soon, because we must catch a train out of hell. Next destination: Kunming. The train station is CROWDED! We are the only tourist here, and a young boy comes to practice his english with us. Today we will have to share cabin with some chinese. God bless us!

Dali - after a 10 hours horrible night train Ivonne and I arrive in Dali. The first think we notice is the blue, blue, blue sky like we know it in Europe. Wow I haven't seen that for a long time it feels. In Yangshuo the sky was blue but not clear blue like here. Ivonne and I catch a bus to Dali old town - another 18 km ride. quite tricky with backpacks huger than yourself and about a 100 locals pressing into ...

... and headed back down again. There is a train that leads to another temple but it's about 12km long and I hadn't the time to do it. Got down to the bottom and cycled to a lone pagoda near the Old Town wall which was the same design as the central one from the Three Pagodas up the road. The area was closed but I sneaked in under the post barrier and took a few photos. Next up it was to the Dali Museum which featured bronzes and Stone Age pottery but wasn't all that ...

... That was what we thought, anyway. The martial arts lessons are a lot of fun, the so called "hot springs" however turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. On arrival, we saw no hot springs, but a large green swimming pool with a tarpaulin roof. I threw a bit of a Kevin moment and refused to go in. I gave in however, as it was my compensation for a rubbish week, and was in for a bit of a shock as i went to get ...