The flight was pretty scary. There was a lot of turbulence in the air - that I didn't mind. It was hair raising when we came in for landing. We would drop seemingly hundreds of feet at a time. Everyone clapped and cheered when we we finally on the ground. I had to agree, I was happy to be on solid ground.
Kunming's weather was beautiful. 80 degrees with a slight wind. Perfect compared to Beijing. Kunming is pretty for China. I'm afraid a lot of Kunmings income comes from tourism, but I hear a new international highway is being built. Kunming is expected to be a household name in the U.S. in a few years. A1, the group I was in, had a train to catch at 10pm. All the other groups got to spend a night in kunming before departing for their destinations. We dropped our bags off at the hotel and left on foot to explore the city for a few hours. It's nice to walk around with a vague goal in mind. Ours was the large central park. We walked through some streets buying last minute necessities like sunglasses, bottle openers and Snickers (a real life saver). We eventually made it to the park. As I expected it was teeming with people. C'mon. A verdant park, on Saturday, perfect weather...in China.
After just wasting time walking around and eating at a xiaochi, we eventually returned to the hotel and then onto the train station. Like my previous train station experience, there were hundreds, maybe thousands, of people there. After boarding the train everyone just wanted to sleep. We had fun and partied on the Harbin train, but we were all tired from traveling. For some reason they were playing a certain Chinese love song on loop from 10pm to about 11:30 or 12. It wasn't even a good song. The only line I can remember was in English "To kiss someone, to hold someone". Trains are my new favorite way to travel.
Dali (and the rest of this trip) is not like anywhere else in China. The skies are green and the people are not Han Chinese. 92% of Chinese people are of the Han ethnicity. Dali is primarily Bai. But they mostly still speak Mandarin, and can certainly understand Chinese characters. after arriving we went to breakfast with our new tour guide Jonathan from Kunming. Just as we were getting off the bus at the inn where we were eating Jonathan introduced the bus driver. Jonathan told us two things about him. His name and the fact he was a Muslim. I'm not sure why he mentioned his religion. Was it a warning? A funny quirk? I'm not sure, but if he had never told me I would have never known.
The breakfast was the best breakfast I've had in China. This was because it was as western as it gets. Scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, orange juice and crappy coffee. I had to use the bathroom but like a lot of things in China this was an adventure. First, I forgot toilet paper. Chinese bathrooms often don't have toilet paper. BYOTP. After I got someone to bring me some, I went to flush. Uh oh....no water? But there's water in the toilet. Where did it come from? My rudimentary plumbing knowledge directed me to the cistern. Phewf. The ball that floats up stopping the flow of water was just stuck. My toilet problems for this trip were only beginning.
After breakfast some of us went on a bike ride with Jonathan. At the bike rental shop we were told to pick out, from a selection of crappy mountain bikes, a bike that looked like it might fit us. As I was adjusting my saddle for my potential ride everyone just took off. I quickly jumped on my bike to catch them. I should point out that I was wearing my TOMS. Worst traveling shoes ever. They're basically slippers. My shoes were in the bus. After riding for about a minute I noticed my right foot hurt a lot more than the left one. They both hurt because the shoes were paper thin, but the right one just didn't feel ...right. I looked down to see half a pedal. Not even half. It was just a pole where the pedal should be. This sucked. Oh well. This wasn't my first rodeo. I've ridden a severely broken bike for much longer.
We rode through town, which isn't very big, through some fields, past some pagodas and down to Erhai lake. It's a pretty large lake, like Tahoe. It's what keeps Dali so humid and pleasant. We tried to walk out on a pier but we were told it would cost us. We didn't feel like paying so we walked away. As we were riding away a guy came up to us and offered to take us out on a fishing boat for a minimal charge. We haggled is down to 15 kuai per person. I'm glad we took the offer because it was a good story.
This fisherman was the most unique fisherman I have ever seen in my broad study of fishermen. We thought we were going to go on a large, diesel-powered, net-towing, fishing boat and taste the life of a seaman. But no. 8 of us piled into a glorified rickety canoe. As we were waiting to depart the fisherman was getting birds out of what looked like upside down laundry baskets. He and his friend were tying reeds tightly around these birds (called yuying, fish-eagles). He threw 5 or 6 into the boat with us and pushed off. He rowed a few hundred feet from the dock and pushed the birds into the water. They swam around for a bit occasionally diving to get fish. I then realized why the birds had string/reeds around their necks. The birds couldn't swallow the fish. The fisherman would call the birds back to the boat when they had a fish and then empty their throat by force. It was actually a very successful way of fishing, albeit a disgusting and mean way.
After our brief foray into the world of bird fishing we cycled back to central Dali which is a web of touristy stores and hippie paraphernalia. Dali is full of dreadlocked white people. It's a big hippie town. Occasionally we would have old women in traditional clothes come up to us and offer us marijuana...repeatedly. They really had no fear.
For lunch we felt like eating hamburgers. We made our way up an alley with a little river running down the middle and sat down at an outside table. I flipped to the hamburger section and picked out what I thought sounded delicious - and egg and cheese hamburger. After 20 minutes I was served my egg and cheese sandwich. It was just bread,cucumber, cheese and a fried egg. Bummer.
Shortly after we departed Dali by bus. On to Shaxi!
I'm reading Lost on Planet China too. Troost really nails it, eh? Read his other books when you get a chance. Brilliantly observed stuff.
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