Day 51

This morning we had one more look around town before we left Lijiang and Mama Naxis for Dali. It was fun waiting in the guesthouse courtyard for our bus. We had arrived their at 2.20pm in plenty of time for our 2.40pm bus, but something had gone wrong in Mama's plan. She employs a few drivers to run errands for her and this time she wanted one of them to take us to the bus station. The trouble was none of the drivers were around so it was looking like we would miss our bus. Mama was on the telephone and she kept saying "no problem, no problem" but we were miles from the bus station, five minutes till the departure time, and we didn't want to miss this four hour bus! Anyway, Mama had been busy arranging for the bus to come from the main bus station to her guesthouse as a special detour to pick us up!! Nice one Mama, you're the best! We said our final good byes to Mama and Papa and we were given some little pendants to take with us for luck, along with pancakes, nuts and bananas! I will write to Lonely Planet and let them know what a great place this is to stay - it's not listed in there yet.

1 Lijiang Square in the morning and the Naxi dance

Our bus arrived in Dali at around 5pm. It's another small town a bit like Lijiang and also sits at the foot of some mountains. Personally, I don't think it has Lijiang's charms but it's more popular with backpackers for some reason. We followed another recommendation and stayed away from the centre at a nearby lake-side guesthouse called the Dragon Fly. I liked it for it's seclusion, it's bar, free pool table, ample dvd collection and easy going Irish owner/managers. I figured quickly that I would probably just bum around here for a few days and relax.

2 More Lijiang

That night, I played pool and met a few people including a guy and girl from a deli in Michigan who were in China researching tea! They'd been paid to come here and tour China on expenses while sipping tea and taking it easy - what a great job!

3 Antonio and Nadia at Mama's

4 Me with Mama and Papa Naxi

5 Rice Terraces visible from the bus

6 Naxi women herding cattle