Buy smoke? Hash?

Trip Start May 06, 2007
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Trip End Jul 24, 2008


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Where I stayed
MCA Guesthouse
(Dali hotels)

Flag of China  ,
Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Thankfully the 18-hour overnight sleeper bus to Dali only took 15 hours.  Instead of seats, the sleeper buses in China have bunk beds in three rows down each side and in the middle with walkways in between.  Unfortunately these beds are about half the width of normal beds and not quite long enough for me to lay with my legs completely stretched out.  The driver also didn't seem to care that people were trying to sleep and insisted on honking the horn incessantly and smoking (though the passengers weren't allowed to - these rules never seem to apply to the driver).  It also was not exactly a smooth ride.  Not surprisingly, I didn't sleep much.

The old town of Dali was nice - with cobblestone streets and fortress walls surrounding the city.  Just about everywhere in town there were nice views of the snow-capped mountains to the west.  There was also a large lake to the east which Florence (from France) and I attempted to walk around, not realizing that there is no path around the lake.  The lake literally started where the houses stopped, sometimes with no grass or lawn in between the lake and the house.  Once we determined that walking even partially around the lake was not an option, we went to the ferry dock to check into taking a boat across, but the $20 price tag turned us off.  A rather sketchy guy tried to sell us a much cheaper boat ride, but once we got the price down to what we deemed reasonable he then wanted us to pay for a ride to the pier where the boat would leave, so we decided to walk away and give up on the lake.

I had wanted to go up the cable car to the top of hate mountain in the afternoon, but the sunny beautiful morning turned into an afternoon downpour, so instead I spent a couple of hours reading in a cafe.  The strangest thing about Dali was the constant offers to buy pot from random Chinese woman.  It didn't matter whether I was alone or with people or if I was sitting in a restaurant.  Everywhere I went there was at least one Chinese woman ready to sell me pot.  Very strange.  In Thailand and Laos whenever I was hanging out with guys they were offered pot from the tuk-tuk drivers, but it was never offered to me (obviously buying pot is a male activity in these countries whereas anyone in China can smoke it).  In Laos I had even heard stories of people buying pot and then getting reported to the police by the person who sold it to them.  While it could lead to some interesting stories about being arrested in Asia, I don't think most travelers are looking for that specific experience - I certainly am not.
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