World China Yunnan Dali

Mr and Mrs Smith - Round the World

Dali Oct 19, 2009

After another day on the bus, we arrived in Dali. Dali is a very pretty place with a South and North gate and only a small part of the original wall around the city still standing. It didn't start well as we got stuck in a two hour traffic jam just outside the city. The Chinese are the most impatient drivers I have seen. While waiting our turn at roadworks that had blocked one side of the road, the drivers decided to fill both sides of the road so that oncoming traffic coming through the roadworks had no where to go – hence the traffic jam. We ended up getting out of the bus and walking beside it as the countryside was dotted with small farms where farmers tended to their vegetable and tobacco crops. Our free day in Dali was spent doing a tour of the local markets where we sampled a Chinese pizza – very tasty and bought a few knick-knacks. We also visited Lake Erhai and did a boat ride to a rather fancy house made up of glass panels – it was designed and owned by a well-known local architect who our guide just happened to know so we got a tour of part of the house and grounds. The owner showed up while we were sipping tea in his garden and he looked like a Chinese version of Lenny Kravitz – very cool. I got to use the bathroom and let me just say, this was the best bathroom experience I have had in China – it was very posh. We had lunch at a local fishing village where we tried another local dish – fried cheese – as expected, not very good. In the afternoon, we paid a quick visit to the temple of the three pagodas but as the sky was looking threatening with rain, we returned to town. That night MS and I decided to spice it up and find some food with some real flavour after some of the bland offerings we had been having. We decided on Extra Spicy Chicken and Chilli Eggplant. Well, the chicken was full of red chillis that set our mouth on fire and the eggplant numbed our tongues due to the abundance of brown peppercorns so it was lucky we had lots of plain rice and good beer to wash it down with. Dali is a lovely place that we will definitely remember.