Post For Thursday Sept.15th

Thursday Sept 15

 

The tour day was wonderful and another day of firsts...

- Being on a tour with 7 people and the guide, none of whom spoke English at all. Once again the Chinese people were gracious hosts to me in their country and continually helped me out. I felt like a 54 year old child! As anticipated, being on an organized tour has its benefits and drawbacks, but overall the benefits definitely won out. 
- Paddling a Bai fishing boat on Erhai Lake. and watching a fisher catch fish using cormorants. After 3 boats of us rowed out we were joined by the female rower and the fisherman who proceeded with their demonstration of the fishing technique.  The fish are so large that the cormorants are not wearing collars to prevent them from swallowing as I'd expected.
- Another first was the singing that the guide, boatsman, fisherman and tourmates did on the way back in. At least some of the songs seemed to be traditional and one guy in particular had a very good voice.
- Eating fish for lunch at a Bai fish camp - which consisted of fried fish and skewers of crunch fingerlings and yellow something I didn't recognize (perhaps the stage before fingerlings?)
- Watching a Bai folk dance performance while having a 3 course tea (this is basically 3 types of tea served at intervals, 2 of which were very tasty and unusual (one sweet one with possibly ginger)
- Going to Heaven Dragon's Cave.This attraction was definitely one of the more incredible I've ever seen. It begins with an open air cable car ride part way up the Cangsan Mountains - the breeze was very welcome because it was a hot day. From the cable car I walked thru a little tourist market area to the amazing entrance to the Dragon's Cave, where a very long dragon carving rises up from the opening - it's tail continues on inside. A staircase rises up through the mountain and leads to a labyrinth of pathways, rock formations and chambers. The second half is very steep and challenging - but not for the woman in the red, studded stiletto-heeled boots (Quite amazing). From the staircase we emerged from the mountain and followed a pleasant descending pathway with a spectacular view of the lake and surrounding area back to the cable car terminal.  Unfortunately I know virtually nothing about the origins of the cave - although it was one of the only places with an English description giving some history I experienced  the joys or tours when there wasn't time to stop and photograph or read it without getting left behind and possibly getting lost in the labyrinth! And I have been able to find nothing about it on the internet either, except the lovely photo I've used that was so much better than the one I took.
- Going to a "marble factory" which was actually a large building housing LOTS of lovely jade jewellery, statues and other, and a small selection of Dali marble which is beautiful and apparently renowned.  I broke down and bought a cheap jade/string bracelet for 116 CNY, but was sorely tempted by more expensive items, including marble which is not easy to pack around!
- Visiting a silver sales pavillion - once again lots of tempting items, and also incredibly carved silver.
- Sharing a meal with my tour mates - this was the only time I felt uncomfortable and clumsy. It reminded me of Sociology 200 and Erving Goffman's view of the importance of feeling competent. Also I didn't want to make the others uncomfortable with my presence but silence - however, you cannot eat alone at a Chinese meal that served communally! Nevertheless, the food was tasty and the people helpful.  
- Visiting a tea house and having a lesson from a tea teacher. Most of the tour group bought tea afterwards and I wanted to buy the smallest tin. However, once again my tour-mates were watching out for me and would have none of that because they gestured it would not be a good tea for my stomach (because it was black?) and were happy when I selected a green tea.
- The tour as advertised included a visit to San Ta - the beautiful 3 pagoda temples, the oldest of which is 1200 years old. However, it was only a drive-by at the end to take a photo which I didn't mind because the day was very satisfying regardless. When we found this out shortly after the beginning of the tour one tourist reacted very strongly to the point of ranting and I would say yelling for about 20 minutes (sometimes it's hard to tell because to me speakers can sound like they're yelling when its more like being strident). The guide said her piece in response and then was very calm - and it was interesting that no one even raised an eyebrow or made any interaction with each other - just listened the whole time. Eventually things calmed down and the guy ended up participating happily in the activities.  It was also interesting to see how the guide presented her information - basically speaking rapidly and non-stop for almost the entire time that we were in the mini-bus without notes and people didn't ever stop her to ask questions.  It was more relaxed towards the end.

 

It was a very full day from 8:30 am to 5 pm, the best 160 CNY I ever spent!

After the tour I went out for a late supper after some downtime in my room, and had my final first of the day - seeing my first brothel - then my 2nd, 5th, and 8th - all within 4 blocks. I hadn't been out that late in the evening before and the storefront operations are shuttered during the day. Although prostitution is illegal in China I think Dali must be one of the areas that the law isn't enforced, as mentioned in an

interesting Wikipedia article on prostitution in China. Because I find it unlikely that the police haven't noticed the pink-lit lounges with large posters of naked women and/or couples in flagrante delicto, and a bevy of attractive and for the most part quite young-looking women with short skirts, low tops and high heels sitting around chatting, watching TV and doing their nails and make-up.  At least the men seem to have found them anyway....  The article mentions that the popularity of prostitution may in part be due to the one-child policy which resulted in a disproportionate representation of men in the population.  (And as I've read that the male/female ratio has had other unforeseen societal results as well.)

 

Although I found the final discovery disturbing, all-in-all it was another very fine day!

Photos of the Moonshine Inn

Moonshine Inn Roof Detail with Dali Stone (Marble)

Front Door

Moonshine Inn Ladies

Patio View

Day 3 in Dali

Day 3 in Dali - Sept 15

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....

Breaking The Silence

Breaking the silence.....

How's that for drama!  I haven't been able to post because 1) I've been very busy, 2) I've been "aclimatizing" to this new world and to travelling alone, and 3) when I did have a chance to write my time was spent trying to figure out how to post. I've discovered that in 2009 China banned all blogs (as well as many downloading sites) - a minor detail I missed in my research! After unsuccessfully trying work-arounds using blog editors Ian's agreed to copy and paste e-mails into the blog. Thanks Ian!  I'm glad to be able to have a record of my trip to look back on. Each day has been a gem, better than I imagined - I've met many incredibly friendly and helpful people, and I'm gradually adjusting to solo travelling and having only the schedules and expectations I set for myself. So far I've taken about 300 photos (surprisingly not all masterpieces :p ) but I could've taken hundreds more - there's so much I want to capture!  I've only added a few as some serious editing has to be done.



Sept 9 - 13 The flight....

Was very long! 12+ hours to Shanghai from Vancouver, a 4 hour wait in the Shanghai Airport, and a mere 3 hour flight from Shanghai to Kunming. Laptop movies, talking with my row-mate, and The Nanny Diaries got me through though. The airports in China weren't what I expected - not a mad crush of rushing people.  Actually, I find the pace here quite relaxed after all.  The Shanghai (Pudong) Airport is very modern, clean and somewhat stark and institutional.  One worry I'd had for arriving in Kunming at midnight had been about finding a ride to the hotel while in a groggy state and in a place where little English is spoken - indeed it was challenging, because my hotel - the Eway Xintiandi Kunming - was towards the outskirts of the city, 12 km from the airport and as it turned out very unknown.  Neither the people at the taxi stand, my taxi driver (who spoke zero English) or the 6 people he asked along the way (including other taxi drivers out there) knew what or where it was. However, patience conquered all and I finally arrived safely at 1:30 am to a hotel that sits at the end of a long dark driveway. Although I was dying to sleep registereing was quite time-consuming because the night staff spoke little English, I speak no Chinese, and my phrasebook seemed useless - even so I was thrilled because the place looked even better than in the photos - beautifully done for approximately $50/night.  Once in the room I sent a quick e-mail to Ian to let him know I'd made it and finally to bed.

Thanks probably in large part to the No Jet Lag I diligently took throughout the first flight I was up for breakfast at 9 am, where I met my first Kunming guardian angel Sun, who approached me in the dining area. Sun studied for 3 years in Austria and her English is good.  She was visiting friends who live in Kunming for the Mid-Autumn Festival, and when she found out that my plans were the same as hers (to go the the nearby Yunnan Minority Village and ride the cable car up the mountain) she asked if I wanted to do them together. 

It was an amazing day and the weather was beautiful. I got to see and try many new things:

• Dianchi Lake and Dianchi Lake Park.
• The spectacular Lakeview Restaurant (where Sun's friends worked) which has huge tanks of live fish, many different dining areas and an amazing menu with photos of dishes with unusual ingredients, such as caterpillar fungus.
• The cable car that went over Dianchi Lake and then up the mountain, with amazing views. Luo (sp?),Sun's friend, joined us and was quite nervous about the height, laughing and grabbing onto Sun.
• My first real meal in China (not counting the rice porridge and steamed custard bun I had for breakfast) that we had up the mountain. I learned valuable lessons from eating with Sun and Luo: it's gonna get messy, there will be a lot of food (although even Sun who ordered was surprised at the number of dishes we were served), and a lot of it probably won't get eaten.  It was novel to see the side plate, bowl and cup come as a plastic wrapped set and I tried to copy how Sun and Luo approached eating their food. I wanted to treat us to lunch but that offer was soundly refused. 
• Temples built into the sides of the mountain - Sun and Luo offered prayers with joss sticks at one of them.
• Total strangers talking to each other as if they  were well-acquainted. I've witnessed this countless times since I've been here - one Chinese person approaching another for assistance or directions without thinking twice, and the person responding in kind.
• In the evening I did Chinese folk dancing around a fire pit with the performers and other audience members at the excellent evening show at the Yunnan Minorities Village, which celebrates the music and dancing of some of the minorities in Yunnan.

Sun returned to her home in Qingdoa (pronounced Chingdoa) the next morning and I decided to travel out to the Anning (also referred to as Anming) Hot Springs, 34 kms southwest of Kunming and about an hour's bus ride. I had planned to take a cab to the bus station at 11 am using the Chinese directions for the taxi driver that the hotel's front receptionist had written out for me. However, due to miscommunication the taxi showed up 15 minutes after breakfast (at 9:30) and rather than try and sort it out I decided to scramble my stuff together and just go with it. Which was a very good thing, because on the bus I met lovely Liu and her sweet 5 year old daughter (I have a hard time remembering names in Chinese unless I can write them down). We were sitting across from each other on the bus and the little girl said Hello, waved to me a few times and was watching me. When we arrived at the Hot Springs I was surprised to find that there are actually several establishments with hot springs and with my lack of Chinese I wasn't sure where to go next.  Happily, Liu and her daughter approached me and asked if I would like to join them - it was also their first time and a driver who talked to Liu when she got off the bus showed her a brochure for "the best hot springs there". And I believe he was likely correct - at the Jinfang  Hot Spring ("Jocundity, Mildness, Romantic") there are at least 20 separate pools in a natural forest setting, including pink rosewater, yellow lemon, white milk, and something very green pools, and one pool with many little fish in it that nibble soakers (an extremely unique sensation!). We all squealed at that and Liu's daughter had a very long giggle. There was a tremendous kid's pool, and a swimming pool, and various water massaging showers and beds, and also a very good restaurant where I had delicious crunchy dried/steamed fish and other tasty dishes that Liu ordered. Once again I was not allowed to pay for or contribute to lunch - but Liu did let me buy the ridiculously inexpensive bus tickets back (8 CNY for an adult). Liu told me later that her little girl had told her on the bus to Anning that she wanted to be friends with me, and I imagine that was at least in part the inspiration for us getting together.  I think she was curious about me, and you don't have to be a very tall white guy (MK) to be a novelty in China - people do stare, and one boy at the hot springs got quite scared of me.  As it was still the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday the hot springs was very busy and yet I was the only non-Chinese person there - at one point a man asked Liu to ask me if the teenager he was with could have her picture taken with me and I was happy to oblige. After leaving the Kunming Airport Sunday midnight I don't think I saw anyone who wasn't Chinese until on the way to Dali on Tuesday afternoon.

Liu and I parted ways when the bus got back in Kunming but we will stay in touch. I left on the bus the next day for Dali.  I was sad to leave because of the wonderful time I had there and the beautiful hotel with my balcony overlooking the forest and a pond, but I was also excited to see my next stop.


Catapillar Fungus  

Elephants At Xintiandi

Eway Xintiandi Kunming Foyer