Jim's Tibetan Hotel Dali

... liking.<br><br>Tomorrow we will go to You Suo market which, according to the LP, is the biggest in Yunnan.<br><br><br>One of the cultural events I would have liked to watch is Yang Lipings "Sound of Yunnan". Yang, a of the Bai minority, grew up in Dali and has performed in and choreographed for a variety of ethnic dances.<br>http://news.cultural-china.c om/20090626161526.html?PHPSESSID=79c1c8 d5e2da8217e6f93c45c4ca4da2

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Dali (old town) is a beautiful old place, with small alleyways, bustling markets and tranquil streams flowing right through the middle of its streets. What we will always remember though is being taken under the wing of two drunk Chinese businessmen who bought us dinner on our first night, after we stumbled into a very local restaurant away from the main streets and tried our best to order dishes ...

... ourselves up with food we met back at our hostel at noon and set out for a day of horseback riding in the Cangshan Mountains. The peaks of these mountains, reaching upwards of 4000m, are usually lost in the clouds but we were lucky enough to have a day full of sunshine for our epic, day-long journey. Despite asking specifically about the type of horse before booking the day before, I was astonished to see that we were headed 2000m up the mountain on ...

... a run for their money anyways, the lads (including catriona and louise) did us well proud, as Tony and I acted as cheerleaders for a while!! I stuck to table tennis and ma zhan, as genius here left her runners in Ireland- not to worry though, Kate and Louise got pretty ones for less than 10 euro in town! The night was brill fun, and only one badminton racket was broken (not sure how Luke did it!). In conclusion, chinese guys are good at all sports! (generalisation much!?) Night all:)

... this after our huge hike! In Dali we always had Breakfast at the bamboo cafe, which had Swiss Roesti - can you believe it- and fresh orange juice. The next day was the popular Monday Market in Shaoping. Its famous for its minority people which all come from nearby villages to buy fresh vegetables and fruits on the market. Ivonne and I took a bike for the whole day and cycled 30 km to Shaping. We ...

... over defensive considerations) the city is square and aligned with the points of the compass. Two main streets then run north-south and east-west meeting somewhere near the centre. Much of the old buildings remain intact and the city wall and gate houses have been restored. We settle in at a guest-house called the Tibetan Lodge (Yunnan province has the greatest diversity and population of non-Han chinese ...

... the beware sign in Chinese. In the showers afterwards the women acted like it was the only time they'd wash in abotu a year. They stood in the showers for about half an hour each, scrubbing themselves, then each other, then themselves yet again. Washing and rewashing their hair. All i could think was i wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible and try to protect myself from getting hundreds of mental scars. Eurgh!