It's 5:38 am in my sweet room on the top floor of the Moonshine Inn, where I have a patio all to myself that overlooks the mountains . I've been waking up early most mornings and have decided that it's easier just to get up and do something than try to go back to sleep - I can sleep when I get back to Victoria. At 5 am, during a break from the rooster crows and occasional dog bark I heard a large gong being rung at 5 second intervals - the haunting sound drifting over from the cloudy Cangshan Mountains behind me. An awesome reminder that I'm in China..... Now it's 6:27 am and I hear very slow horn music coming from the direction of the mountains to my left.
There are 2 parts to Dali - Xiaguan, Dali New City - and Dali Old Town, Dali Old Town, which is where I and most tourists stay. Dali began in 738, and was rebuilt in the early 1400s by the Ming Dynasty. The people from minorities in Dali are mostly Bai with also many Yi and Hui. Wikitravel is a good source of information for the places I'm visiting - both historical and practical.
I arrived in Dali on Tuesday the 13th after a 5 hour bus ride which started at a chaotic, crowded bus station that had no English signage. However, I was saved again by yet another guardian angel who hurriedly scooped me up, took me to a wicket, arranged my ticket and delivered me to the bus before I really knew what was happening. (Although there's not generally a lot of rushing - when things get moving they REALLY MOVE).
I was pleased to get into the countryside - particularly movingly beautiful I found the lush green plots used for crops that follow the contours of the land on steep hillsides and stream beds - each one is planted in rows and contains several crops (I recognized corn and I'm not sure what else was there, perhaps tobacco). In many areas the soil appeared to be red clay, so I'm surprised at how well things grew. Also scattered around are farmers' low houses and out-buildings, that I think are made with clay bricks and roof tiles and look ancient. Closer to Dali the farms were much larger and had communities of homes together with what I'm guessing were farmworker's homes and fancier homes with bars over the lower floor windows. I saw what I believe were water buffalo, goats, horses and mules along the way.
Fortunately the bus made a WC and snack break after 2 hours at a stop that offered food and some tourist wares. The WC was the communal squatting kind, and did have dividers between each stall but no doors. For lunch I purchased peanuts in the shell (raw, not boiled), shrimp chips, longuns and giant red grapes (saved the grapes for later after remembering Dr. Johnson's caution about unwashed veg & fruit).
Dali New City seemed much more accessible than overwhelmingly busy and sprawling Kunming. I knew that from the bus station I needed to get to the Old Town - an approx 50 yuan taxi ride. Stepping off the bus I was approached by an older, non-English speaking guy who said he could take me there. I didn't realize he wasn't a taxi driver until I reached his lorry van - however, he was charging 60 yuan and I was already at his vehicle so decided to go with him anyway. He was insisting I pay the fare before we left but I refused and just as well, because he had no idea where the Moonshine Inn was and tried to leave me at a couple of other places before we finally found it (he would've been successul the first time if not for the intervention of a passing stranger).
The Moonshine Inn is lovely, and the architecture and character are well represented by the Inn's website. In addition to those, there are other advantages to staying here which include:
- It is down a funky alley that is off a busy main road, which helps keep it quiet.
- The view includes the Cangshan Mountains, a small waterfall, and one of the San Ta pagoda temples.
- The couple running the place are friendly and helpful, and the wife speaks a little English.
- I get to see sparkly Chinese fireworks every night - there's some sort of show going on in a nearby stadium and each performance has 2 firework displays.
- It is located at the edge of the action, so still close to many things.
Yesterday was my first full day here. It began with the soothing sound of pouring rain, and I was looking forward to spending the day holed up in my room puttering. However, the rain lifted, the sun came out and instead I spent the day:
- walking around the vicinity
- finding a Western breakfast and a yummy cappucino (that took about 20 minutes to lovingly prepare - my first coffee since Sept 9th!) at Sister's Cafe, and booking a tour thru them
- having a 60 minute "traditional Chinese medicine massage" from a guy with extremely strong hand(brutal, but satisfying in a masochistic kinda way - and I did feel good afterwards although little tender in my shoulders today)
- my first solo-ordered Chinese meal (supper, and again facilitated by a helpful bystander)
- troublesome banking at the Construction Bank of China (the ATM ate my card, which was actually fortuitous because it put me in touch with an extremely patient teller who nursed me thru trying 2 different credit cards, and finally my debit card that worked (which was strange because the ATM only had Mastercard and Visa logos on it).
- Buying a new book to read (Frangipani) as Nanny Diaries is almost done.
- Being amazed at the variety of transportion and load-carrying methods that included: electric scooters and bikes, motor scooters and bikes, giant electric carts that seat 14, motorized tricyles that have 3 bucket seats, scooters with small open truck beds, bikes with carts, ornate baby carriers, cane and modern baskets for the back, and large sacks carried on the back by a band around the forehead. I even saw the quintessential elderly woman in a pointed cane hat carrying 2 large bucket loads suspended from each end of a rod across her shoulders.
- An amazing temple that unfortunately I know nothing about because there was no English info - the shrine area had a massive 20+ foot gold coloured statue of a dominant warrior(-god?) with two slighly smaller gold statues on either side. I was awestruck by the power of it.
Today I'll go back to Sister's Cafe at 8:30 where my day of touring begins. Unfortunately the guide doesn't speak English, and I'm not sure that other people on the tour will either so once again I'll only be getting a partial picture of what I'm seeing, but at least I'll be experiencing it. The cost of a private English speaking guide would be much higher than the 160 yuan I'm paying - however, I might try arranging that at some point. I have some photos of yesterday which I'll organize and load later. Time for tea and breakfast pastries from the 88 Bakery. Sooo glad Ian convinced me not to ditch the UVA Highland tea leaves and powdered honey at Van Airport when I was worried about the size of my carry-on pack, and that I've found some milk (sweetened, in a little bag, yet close enough). A little bit of home! Looking forward to Skyping with Ian tomorrow at 8 am-ish here, 6 pm-ish there. We've done it twice, and miraculously Michelle called while we were on yesterday so we were able to have a 3 way conversation. It was so good to hear her voice as we haven't heard from her for 6 weeks - how serendipitous is that! Signing off at 7:35 am to the sounds of car horns insistently honking to warn drivers and pedestrians they're coming and birds singing. (Pedestrians definitely do not have the right of way here! Size wins.) Zaijian....
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