Day six began in the night bus back to Kunming from Dali. This trip of sleeping was extremely uncomfortable. I'm 5'9'' and the beds are probably 5'7'' so I slept with bent knees all night or with my legs propped against the window. Not the best, but not the worst. We both woke pretty cranky but we had to jet because we had another bus to catch at the other end of town to Dali. We managed to make it to the station and onto the next bus within our allotted time frame. Once on the next bus we uncomfortably dozed off and on for the next five hours.
We arrived in Dali around noon. We were in the new town of Dali, however, and wanted to catch, yes, another bus, bout a half hour north to the ancient town of Dali. This is the place to see.
We semi figure our way to the bus station but decide eating food is first. We have the day to make it to the old town. We eat one noodles at another hole-in-the-wall then find a bus stop. We follow, yet another, Chinese couple that speaks little English. About 2:00 we finally arrive in the right area. We make our way through the streets trying to locate the hostel. We use a man selling cotton candy to speak to the hostel and then give us directions. Surprisingly, this is the first time we manage to find our hostel within 15 minutes.
We check in, change clothes and head back to the city center to explore. We had no plans on this day so we spent a few hours wandering through the shops of handcrafted Chinese knick-knacks, scarfs and bags. We spoiled ourselves to a Western dinner and several drinks. We made it back to the hostel and crashed by 10.
Day7 -
8:30:
-Wakeup.
-Drowsily shower.
-Dress.
8:50: Western breakfast and coffee at the hostel, The Jade Emu, which I highly reccommend.
9:30: Walk toward the center of the old town to rent bikes to ride around Erhai Lake. The lake is 96km around so we decided we'd just go halfway and turn around since we couldn't make it around in one day.
The weather app predicted rain, but it was a sunny, clear blue sky kind of day from start to finish. We actualy got sunburnt. It was a perfect 70 degrees.
We rode through about 20 small villages as we followed West Erhai Ring Road; the main road that circles the lake.
Along the lake we nearly wrecked multiple times while staring at the scenery. The mountains sketched the background and the clouds cast shadows on them and the whole view was reflected onto the blue of the lakes surface. Flowing directly from the mountains above, I was certain this was the cleanest water to be found in China.
Hand-carved wooden boats, up to eight feet long, filled with fishermen, scattered the waters. Lilypads lined the coves near the banks.
The lake sat directly along West Erhai Ring Road. I don't exaggerate. If someone took their eyes off the road for a moment, they'd be in Erhai Lake.
To our right was the lake and the mountains in the background with all of it's beauty. To our left were more mountains. We're in a valley, afterall. But below the mountains, on the left, were countless villages accompanied by fields of crops that were full of farmers. The ethnic group here are the Baizu people. Similar to the Hani we'd seen in Yuanyang, these farmers were all aged by the sun and hard labor they've endured.
The women carry baskets of harvested goods through the fields and streets and the men hoe and till the gardens.
1:30:
We stopped to check the map and see how far we'd gone. We wanted to reach the village of XiZhou because it was supposedly larger with restaurants and such. According to the map, we had long passed XiZhou and ended up in TaoYuan Port. This place was ultra touristic and had ferrys to take people to and from each side. We turned around for the three-hour journey back toward the hostel. We needed to be back by six for showers and catching the last bus to the new town of Dali by 7:00.
2:00:
We stopped for lunch in a small village called SanCun where we ate some fried rice with greens and eggs. I also took paparazzi pictures of these two adorable old women.
2:30:
We put our headphones in and rode in peace most of the journey back. Although we took the same route, there was so much more we hadn't seen. I really struggled to find the right words to describe anything I saw on this trip. This was another day. I especially tried to just take in everything I was seeing; near and far. I was in a really mellow place this day. I remember feeling homesick and wanting to be on the lake fishing. Even the temperature was accurate to home. It's amazing how no matter where we are in the world, and no matter what we're doing, a part of home can always be felt.
I was dead on my feet by sunset. My bum is not accustomed to biking for eight hours. We made it to the train station around nine and tried to locate somewhere to eat for dinner. For whatever reason, in China, they don't have restaurants surrounding bus, plane or train stations like Westerners are accustomed to. We settled for some bread in a bakery inside the station. I was too tired to eat anyway.
A quarter past 11, it was finally time to board the sleeper train. Being 5'9" in China is not always easy. Many Chinese are no more than 5'6" and small in build, therefore, most things are designed for a smaller population. There was about two feet between my bunk and the roof of the train. Getting situated with all my belongings was quite a chore. Finally settled, and too tired to notice the uncomfortableness of the bunk, I fell asleep to wake in Kunming train station at 6:45 a.m.
We semi figure our way to the bus station but decide eating food is first. We have the day to make it to the old town. We eat one noodles at another hole-in-the-wall then find a bus stop. We follow, yet another, Chinese couple that speaks little English. About 2:00 we finally arrive in the right area. We make our way through the streets trying to locate the hostel. We use a man selling cotton candy to speak to the hostel and then give us directions. Surprisingly, this is the first time we manage to find our hostel within 15 minutes.
We check in, change clothes and head back to the city center to explore. We had no plans on this day so we spent a few hours wandering through the shops of handcrafted Chinese knick-knacks, scarfs and bags. We spoiled ourselves to a Western dinner and several drinks. We made it back to the hostel and crashed by 10.
Day7 -
8:30:
-Wakeup.
-Drowsily shower.
-Dress.
8:50: Western breakfast and coffee at the hostel, The Jade Emu, which I highly reccommend.
9:30: Walk toward the center of the old town to rent bikes to ride around Erhai Lake. The lake is 96km around so we decided we'd just go halfway and turn around since we couldn't make it around in one day.
The weather app predicted rain, but it was a sunny, clear blue sky kind of day from start to finish. We actualy got sunburnt. It was a perfect 70 degrees.
We rode through about 20 small villages as we followed West Erhai Ring Road; the main road that circles the lake.
Along the lake we nearly wrecked multiple times while staring at the scenery. The mountains sketched the background and the clouds cast shadows on them and the whole view was reflected onto the blue of the lakes surface. Flowing directly from the mountains above, I was certain this was the cleanest water to be found in China.
Hand-carved wooden boats, up to eight feet long, filled with fishermen, scattered the waters. Lilypads lined the coves near the banks.
The lake sat directly along West Erhai Ring Road. I don't exaggerate. If someone took their eyes off the road for a moment, they'd be in Erhai Lake.
To our right was the lake and the mountains in the background with all of it's beauty. To our left were more mountains. We're in a valley, afterall. But below the mountains, on the left, were countless villages accompanied by fields of crops that were full of farmers. The ethnic group here are the Baizu people. Similar to the Hani we'd seen in Yuanyang, these farmers were all aged by the sun and hard labor they've endured.
The women carry baskets of harvested goods through the fields and streets and the men hoe and till the gardens.
1:30:
We stopped to check the map and see how far we'd gone. We wanted to reach the village of XiZhou because it was supposedly larger with restaurants and such. According to the map, we had long passed XiZhou and ended up in TaoYuan Port. This place was ultra touristic and had ferrys to take people to and from each side. We turned around for the three-hour journey back toward the hostel. We needed to be back by six for showers and catching the last bus to the new town of Dali by 7:00.
2:00:
We stopped for lunch in a small village called SanCun where we ate some fried rice with greens and eggs. I also took paparazzi pictures of these two adorable old women.
2:30:
We put our headphones in and rode in peace most of the journey back. Although we took the same route, there was so much more we hadn't seen. I really struggled to find the right words to describe anything I saw on this trip. This was another day. I especially tried to just take in everything I was seeing; near and far. I was in a really mellow place this day. I remember feeling homesick and wanting to be on the lake fishing. Even the temperature was accurate to home. It's amazing how no matter where we are in the world, and no matter what we're doing, a part of home can always be felt.
 |
| "Look Ma, no hands!" |
A quarter past 11, it was finally time to board the sleeper train. Being 5'9" in China is not always easy. Many Chinese are no more than 5'6" and small in build, therefore, most things are designed for a smaller population. There was about two feet between my bunk and the roof of the train. Getting situated with all my belongings was quite a chore. Finally settled, and too tired to notice the uncomfortableness of the bunk, I fell asleep to wake in Kunming train station at 6:45 a.m.
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