Old Dali

We arrived in old Dali two days ago following a three day, 1300 km train ride south from Chendu to Kunming and then northwest by bus. Essentially this stage of our journey has skirted the the eastern edge of the Tibetan plateau as we headed south, and then, turning northwest from Kunming (500m, alt), we now head back up the gradual climb into the high country toward the Tibetan border. Dali, a smaller, Saskatoon sized city, is at 1600 meters and is beautifuly located amongst steep forested mountains on shores of a large lake. Its a real nice change of pace from Chengdu, Kunming and the other mega cities where we have spent much of our time in, and which were starting to wear a bit thin on us, what with the noise and pollution and their general "sameness".

The five hour bus trip from Kunming up to Dali is one of the more beautiful stretches we have travelled anywhere. The four lane divided highway, devoid of livestock and donkey carts, allowed for a smooth, fast and relatively relaxed ride.The widely varied scenery is at times reminiscent of the Okanogan country with high hills and a forest cover of mature dwarf pine, cypress and gum trees that gives way to terraced rice paddies on the lower reaches and manicured vegatable and fruit plots on the occasionally flat valley floors. All the while the surrounding peaks rising higher as you work your way up through a series of twisting canyons and gorges.

With the great new road, old Dali is a a real tourist town (think of Banff, Gastown or Victoria's Government Street) crowds of Chinese and Japanese tour groups wandering through reconstructed old town architecture lined with endless gift shops selling the same gift shop stuff. That said, there are large sections of original 17th to 19th century courtyard neigbourhoods that are fun to wander; and their are many walks around the lake and in the surrounding moutains and villages that we have yet to explore. Their are dozens of hip bars and cafe\restaurants to choose from and a wide variety of truly great foods and beverages at the best prices we have yet seen. To top it off we are staying in a gem of small guest house run by a very friendly local Bai (minority tribe) family; large well equipped room overlooking a sunny courtyard packed with flowers and shrubs, free laundry, internet, cable, and breakfast for $11 Can.!! Joan's favorite room feature is the elecric blankets that substitute for the lack of any heaters in the rooms here. Temperatures range from lows of + 5c to highs of 18c. We'll hang here for a few days before continuing north to UN heritage site of Lijiang, a smaller town further north up the valley, hopefully to hike the famed "Tiger Leaping Gorge".

Learned shopping lesson # 83 yesterday. Little guy guy in a ball cap and minimal English sits me down to shine my black Nike walkers for the agreed upon price of 2 Yuan (30cents). After he gets my shoes off and starts the polish job, he suddenly spots the ripped seam on my daypack and takes off 30 meters away to his sewing machine with Joan giving chase. Atfer a three minute repair job, he returns to the shoe job and suggests,and immediately makes, a few reinforcements to the sole, where I am wearing it down. Obvious Lesson I already knew: ALWAYS GET AN AGREED UPON PRICE BEFORE THE WORK BEGINS. This fellow's slick divide and conquer and commence work first, negotiate price last, tactic was in retrospect, a crafty piece of salesmanship. A long negotiation led to a somewhat reasonable price for a nice piece of work. ($3.50 Can)

We bought a new 5 MP Lumix camera in Chengdu to replace our wounded Nikon and it seems to be working well, even if the instruction manual is in Chinese. I have been sending compressed photo albums to Bubbleshare.com and Ted Green has been posting our emails and number of these photos to our blog at lostinbigchang@blogspot.com. Thanks again Ted. Unfortunately we have been unable to access the site ourselves since we arrived in China; I have sneaking suspicion it has been blocked by the Chinese internet cops. We would be interested to know if you are able to locate the blog and\or the photos.

Correction; the new rail line to Tibet cost $3.2 Billion US not the $56B I had stated earlier. That said, the 80.000 workers who laboured for five years to complete the 1100 kms, weren't getting Fort Mac wages either.