Dali
Trip Start
Oct 19, 2007
1
6
70
Trip End
Ongoing
Dali,
Yunnan,
China
Friday, February 8, 2008
I am really glad I made it to Dali in one piece. I don't scare easily on planes. Although fainting on the plane back from Perth ruffled my feathers somewhat... come to think of it, I don't remember if I actually wrote anything about that because it was a bit unnerving and quite embarrassing (not that this usually stops me from blabbing about my sillier antics, like riding around Kaohsiung on a scooter with a bra stuck to my bag flapping about behind me, getting the runs on trains, or being chased out of temples by Korean monks...etc, but this was a bit different). OK fainting thing first. I have fainted three times in my life. The first time was when I kicked my toe (accidentally!) against a door frame then promptly collapsed on the sofa. There was nothing at all the matter with the toe, it just hurt, so the whole passing out thing was overkill as far as I was concerned and I was most unimpressed.
The second time, I had just had an injection and was in a doctor's waiting room waiting (as one does) for the pharmacist to give me my medicine, when I felt like throwing up. Looking about desperately for something to puke in, I reached out for the garbage bin which looked like a likely prospect only to collapse on the marble floor mid grab. I came to, great big bump on my head, which I'd gone and whacked against the floor, convinced I was still in Australia (I'd forgotten the last 18 months I'd spent in Vancouver and Kaohsiung) and really disturbed by the Asian faces surrounding me and babbling in Mandarin.
Which brings me to the most recent (and one hopes, the last) incident. It was last year when I was on the way back (on a plane, just in case that wasn't blindingly obvious) to Singapore after going home for Bob's wedding in Perth. I'd just had a nap after lunch and a glass of wine. I woke up feeling really off in the stomach. I got up and was waiting for the toilet, thinking that I might throw up on the emergency exit in the meantime when (so I was told by flight attendents afterwards) I fell forwards, slumped down the wall and sprawled butt first on the floor. My butt was bruised the next day I'll have you know. Fortunately the curtain had been drawn across the aisle because all the flight attendants were preparing snacks so I was noticed immediately despite the rest of the passengers being oblivious to my plight. When I regained consciousness I was surrounded by Singapore airlines staff who stuck my head between my knees, put hot and cold towels on my head, force-fed me water, made me sniff stuff and massaged my hands and temples...etc, all at once. If you have to faint, I recommend doing it on a Singapore Airlines plane, those women are complete legends. Much better than that doctor in Taiwan. Seriously, while I was lying on the floor, still unaware I was even in Taiwan, the doctor went and asked me what happened!?! When I said I didn't know, had I fainted? He said yes, but why?! And there I was thinking he was going to tell me! To be fair, I think that doctor's specialty is kids with green snot (he has a fantastic snot sucking-device/ machine of torture which vaccums stuff out of your sinuses...) and not women who faint in his waiting room, but even still.
Back to the landing in Dali. Mountains. Lots of mountains. And a shitload of turbulence. The plane was getting buffetted about all over the place. I was a bit nervous. I might even have sworn a bit (ok, I confess, it was probably a lot) and fair enough too. Remember these were the winds that swept me straight off my feet in a field a few days later (see Blown Away post). We landed. I was relieved. I got to the guesthouse and discovered I had not only an electric blanket (joy of joys) but also a heater and was delighted at the prospect of being able to get my brains fried several nights in a row. My, but Yunnan is a fabulous place. Blue skies and electric blankets, halleluyah praise the lord!
I tried to resist the urge to jump straight into bed with the electric blanket and went to one of Dali's biggest sights, the 3 towers. Very famous and very pretty, the entrance fee almost had me going very ballistic. It was about 90RMB which is actually a fair bit here... I could buy 45 bottles of Snow beer for that. Something has to be pretty damn good to be worth 45 bottles of beer, even if it is piss weak Chinese beer. Speaking of which, drinking this pissweak Chinese beer is seriously lowering my tolerance. I was obliterated by a can of Newky Brown about 6 weeks ago. Just one can! I used to be able to down several pints and now just one is enough to make me trashed. I'm not sure whether I should be embarrassed or happy about becoming a cheap drunk. Suffice it to say I am most disturbed. About as disturbed as when Mum and I actually managed to drink enough Budweiser to get tipsy (yes, really, it is possible, but you have to drink about 9 pints each and thus be either very strong of bladder, or in extremely close proximity to the loo, we had to be the former because after we finished 9 pints each we decided it would be hilarious to walk all the way back to Manhattan from Brooklyn Heights, saying hello to New Yorkers we passed on the Brooklyn Bridge, as a social experiment of sorts to see how many would say hello back... actually, the walking was probably Mum's idea, picking on the locals was no doubt mine. In my defence, I was probably trying to find some way to distract myself from thinking about how much I needed to pee. As for results, I believe 2 said hello back, but I don't remember how many we harrassed, or the final ratio to response (favourable or otherwise) to lack thereof and quite frankly Mum is the statistician, not me, so there).
I thought the entrance fee was just for 3 towers, but actually the grounds included about 15 temples, took about 4 hours to wander through, had great views..etc, so I guess it turned out not too bad. 3 beers per temple. Still not too good when you put it like that. Most of them were replicas rebuilt in the 90's too. Something that becomes necessary when you do silly things like tear down your historical buildings, monuments and relic type stuff (darn Cultural Revolution... probably a good thing the KMT made off with so much loot when they fled for Taiwan, otherwise all the treasures in the National Palace Museum in Taipei would have been smashed to pieces too :)
When I got back to the old city, I hung out at a cafe and chatted with an Aussie girl for, oh, 4 hours. Yes, of course beers were involved. It was then that I started to suspect I'd gone and gotten wretchedly sunburnt yet again. Dali is a really nice place. Old buildings, mountains, enormous lake and a laid back atmosphere. It has become a big backpacker hangout to boot, although I suspect this has more to do with the freaky old ladies who frequently pop out of nowhere whispering "You wanna smoke some weed?" at the oddest of moments and not because of Dali itself!
