We were done with Kunming, so it was on to our next destination, Li Jiang. We certainly could have spent a little more time in Kunming, but it would have been mostly museums and wandering in the same areas, so it was time to go.
The bus was nine hours, all in daylight. It didn’t honestly feel as long as it was, except for the last hour or so. We were also prepared to be in a bus all day, so there was that.
This was when I really started utilizing my journal- I only have a page of notes for the past three days, but Day 4 got two pages of doodles and notes.
We stopped three times: two bathroom breaks and one food break. The bathroom we used during the food break was, hands down, the most “interesting” and rural I’ve experienced. There were “stalls”; walls about 1.5 feet high separated the trough of water flowing beneath us, and we could hear pigs squealing and oinking very nearby (likely in the shed-covered area to the immediate left). I don’t think I can complain about toilets ever again after using those. (Or really any in China.)
Also during the food break we started chatting up the other foreigners (three) on the bus with us. The two younger guys were more interesting than the older man; Lee was Scottish, and Sebastian (or Seb) was Swedish. I talked more with them at the last pitstop and we all ended up hanging out with their friends (already in Li Jiang) for dinner and drinks. There was Jameson from Philly, his new Chinese girlfriend (name forgotten, and she didn’t talk much anyway), Charles from Quebec, and Joe from Bristol. It took some time for their friends to meet up with us outside the old city, get to the hostel (they got us lost), check in, clean up, and then find a place to eat. It was absolutely frigid in the restaurant, because as usual, there was no heating. Yunnan Province is beautiful and definitely warmer than Henan and Kaifeng, but it’s still cold enough that there REALLY should be heating in buildings. It’s something I do NOT understand about China. But the dinner was still ridiculously fun. Afterward we got hoodwinked into cabs (a lot was peer pressure, and Lee was being a strong handed drunk and saying we should get in) to a dud club. We were hardly in the club for a few minutes before we found a way out, grabbed a few more beers at the convenience store nearby, and returned to the hostel for the rest of the night.
Day 5 – Shop Shop Shop!
Marlie and I had already made the decision to spend the whole day wandering the old town. Li Jiang’s old town is a labyrinth of cobblestone roads and shops and river twisting through it, so it would easily entertain us for the day. Breakfast consisted of 粑粑 baba, a sweet cake/pastry, fried noodles, and yak yogurt. It was suuuuper tasty, if overpriced. But comparing prices to Kaifeng, everything is overpriced.
We tested out our bargaining skills, and we definitely got some good deals, though there were times we just didn’t care enough to try. We still spent quite a bit of money. Li Jiang is a great place to shop, and there are lots of things that you can only find in there, but beyond that, there’s not a lot more to hold your attention if you’re not shopping.
I wanted to get some tea and there were definitely no shortage of tea shops. I picked a random one, and I heard someone call for the owner of the shop. He pulled us into the backroom, and I was afraid we were about to be sucked into a situation we couldn’t get out of. But it was actually quite pleasant, as he showed us all the tea he sold. He was the only one who knew any English in the shop, and so we chatted and he made tiny tiny glass cups of tea for us. It was quite a process—he had to clean the cups, and everything involved in the tea-making with hot water and/or tea before serving it to us. He poured the water and tea all over the stone “shelf” specially set up in the corner of the shop. It was a very neat experience that I’m not sure we would have gotten in any tea shop. We were swayed, as it was very good tea, and I bought both his green and black tea. He sold rose tea as well and the tea-soaked flowers could be mashed into a paste to create lotion. A neat extra, and he let us try it, but the tea itself was too flowery for my tastes (I generally stick to black and green).
We came upon a lot of inns or restaurants with dog sentries like this one: 
At some point in the afternoon, a foreign guy came up to us with a flyer for a western-style restaurant. It was called LMC, Li Jiang Millionaire’s Club, and he told us that they have different dinner specials every night. It sounded cool and so we told him we would stop by. A little more shopping was to be had, I ate some yak meat on a stick (everything was yak yak yak there), and we set out for the LMC. Turned out, he was one of the owners. He was from Seattle, and the other guy was from Australia. We had their Indian dinner special (naan, curry, soup, and rice) and Lazy Dog Pizza, and I got apple pie. It was all. So. Good. We chatted with both of the owners as they washed dishes and promised we’d come back for breakfast the next day.
After realizing how much money we’d spent that day, we made an early night of it with some tv shows (Supernatural and/or How I Met Your Mother) on Marlie’s laptop.
Day 6 – Superficial Springs and Smoke
As promised, we went to the LMC for breakfast after a short reunion and farewell in the hostel with the guys we’d met two nights earlier. At the LMC I had fantastic pancakes with yogurt, honey, and banana on top. We even ate in the sunshine because it was so much warmer. It felt like it would be another good day.
Since we had a shorter bus to Dali from Li Jiang, we wanted to make the most of our extra time. We walked out of the old town and to the Black Dragon Mountain Forest Spring Pool or however many adjectives it had. We tried to sneak in like Joe had done the day before (and regaled us about that morning), but failed. It was 80 kuai to get in, which we thought a bit steep, but we decided to make the best of it. Sadly, other than the pool, there wasn’t much to see in the area. We also unfortunately got roped into our first (and hopefully last) tourist scam. We noticed a Phoenix Temple nearby and had barely got in the doorway when a woman accosted us with incense. We accepted, hoping we would just pay a few kuai, if anything, to place them near a Buddha like we’d seen so many Chinese do in plenty of other temples. Instead, she led us to an alcove where a “monk” (I suspected his authenticity) held our hands and did lots of complicated motions with the incense and some clapping. Afterward, he showed us a guestbook where other sad folks had gotten roped in as well and then said “Money?” We grudgingly handed over 50 each. So now we’d spent 130 kuai to get into a pretty useless and boring park (other than the pool area which was not as impressive as it could have been). Feeling disheartened and unable to wander aimlessly for much longer, we made an early break from Li Jiang.
At least we left with this Chinglish (sadly, that’s a pretty close approximation to what it says in Chinese too. Why???):
Thankfully, it was easy to get to the bus station and we got a bus leaving in ten minutes. We sat in the very back row crammed with most of our stuff. It seated five, and two were already occupied by two Australians, Mike and Tom, from Perth. We all agreed it would be better if no one else came to claim the now half-seat between us. We were not that lucky. A Chinese man came and sat between our groups.
The bus ride was hellishly smoky. At least five men in front of us were heavy smokers, and so there were barely a few minutes before one of them would light another cigarette. At least, in the back, we had access to the windows, and so I could open the windows to get some fresh air, but it wasn’t always enough. That is another thing I absolutely positively will NOT miss about China—the persistent smoking of ALL the men. At least the man squeezed next to me wasn’t smoking. He actually offered us some gum, which was nice of him. Eventually he left and we were able to expand.
This bus also functioned as a free bus for some people who were seemingly waiting in the middle of NOWHERE, to hop on, stand and ride, and then get off again in the middle of NOWHERE. It was all very surreal. After a bit of anxiety about where our final stop was, we got off the bus with the Australians, and took a taxi together to the Jade Emu hostel. The Jade Emu was by far the nicest hostel we’d seen. It had a gorgeous courtyard, and the room had both heating pads AND a heating fan. We also got BBC World News and Stars Movies at night on the television. Our dinner was also a relief after the disappointing morning at the Good Panda in the old town. It was probably the best beef and vegetables I’ve ever had. We inadvertently followed the Australians to the same restaurant and we finally had a proper conversation, rather than the forced introductions we’d had in the taxi. We told them we would be heading to the Bad Monkey bar shortly, and they were welcome to join us there, which they did later that night.
While we were searching for food, we spotted the Beloiters we’d met in Kunming, but didn’t have the presence of mind to yell at them. Marlie commented that we could have yelled “BELOIT!” and they likely would have turned around.
Bad Monkey was a cool place to hang out, but I could tell that it was a far more happening place in the summertime. We still met two other American girls, Ayesha and Kendall from DC. All of us (including the Aussies) were staying for the next three nights, and it would be very likely we’d run into each other again (which we did). I personally got along better with the girls than the guys- the conversations we had with Mike and Tom were a tad strained, but it was still good to talk to people with English as their native language, and so I tried to enjoy it as much as I could.
When we returned to the hostel, Drag Me to Hell was on Stars, one of those bad-funny movies. We only caught the end, but I know Marlie and I made a lot of stupidly great comments about it before collapsing into sleep.
Day 7 – At least 15 kilometers
Gogo Café provided us with breakfast this morning on the recommendation of Kendall and Ayesha. We didn’t want to attempt Cangshan (mountains) that day so we set out around town, quickly exiting and spotting the famous three pagodas. Marlie had read the night before that it was not worth the price to enter the park, and so we walked literally as close to the pagodas as we could without paying. Our path led us up stairs along the wall where at least twenty vendors were stationed. We also weren’t keen on paying a lot of money after our fiasco at Black Dragon Spring Mountain Pool Whatever Park, so we turned and headed east. (It was very easy to navigate Dali, as the mountains run exactly north-south.) This led us to a gold phoenix plaza overlooking the pagodas and mountains. It was quite empty except for a handful of vendors, which you can barely see in this photo.
We continued walking, with only the general idea that we wanted to go to Erhai Lake. Before that, though, we ran into what looked like an abandoned district. It was the site for a photography expo in 2009 and hadn’t been used since (we learned this later from an Australian woman back at the hostel) as the guy who owned the land was in serious debt, or in jail or something and so it was just sitting there, unused and empty. I sort of wanted to explore it at night, but it felt eerie enough by day, and I don’t think Marlie would have joined me.
Clearly these haven’t been used in a while. Look at that sink!
The walk to the lake took far far longer than we anticipated, and we were the ONLY people walking along the road; everyone else was biking or busing. We knew it was the right direction; we’d just poorly judged how long it was going to take. There was a ferry for the river, but it cost at least 120 kuai and we still felt spurned over spending money in Li Jiang, and so chose to trek along the edge of the river instead. This got a little wet, as you can see…
Also since we had the time, we decided to turn into a village instead of turning around, because what’s the fun in going back a direction you’ve already taken? Sadly, this only led us to a dead-end within the town (we would have needed to cross over a lot of farmland to reach the road again, and I felt that would be rude, tramping over someone’s crops), so we were forced to turn back.
When we were walking forever on the road to Erhai we were able to determine that the #2 bus could at least bring us back some distance to our hostel. So many of them passed us by as we walked, and at this point we had walked at least 15km around the town and down to the lake, so we wanted to take a bus as far back to the hostel as possible. We were correct in our assumption, and got off a little distance from the west gate of the old town and headed to the hostel for some rest.
Dinner was at Café de Jack, and the Aussie boys joined us since they clearly had no better plans. Talking with them was still a bit of an effort, and I wasn’t surprised that they had an excuse to return to the hostel instead of heading to the Bad Monkey again like we wanted. We tried a special drink of Bad Monkey’s which turned out to be Malibu, mango juice, and grenadine, which I know sounds god-awful sweet to most people, but I really enjoyed it. That night we got bored fairly quickly with the bar, and so returned to the hostel and our Stars Movies. (I’m not misspelling it- it wasn’t Starz Movies, it was Stars.) It was My Bloody Valentine starring Jensen Ackles. We both thought it was hilariously bad and it was a good end to a long day of walking.
Day 8 – Mountains
Being in Dali, it’s hard NOT to notice the mountain range. And doing research prior, Dali was the area I wanted to do a little bit of mountain climbing or exploring. Also, being Day 8, I thought I would still have the energy for it (which I did). Unfortunately, we both slept in a little bit and so we had a hurried, but delicious “American breakfast” at the Yunnan Café (across from Gogo) so we could catch a taxi that would take us up to the mountain park entrance. The taxi wound us up and up through a village near the foot of the mountain entrance. At one point we stalled because of a funeral. I was grateful we were in a car, and not on foot, because I seriously would have felt I was intruding. One woman was screaming and wailing like I’ve never heard from a human, and being held back by four others. A few men were hoisting the coffin onto their shoulders and ready to carry it up the mountain. It was just startling to see a funeral so publicly and on a main road.
We’d actually booked the day through the hostel, and it was about 50 kuai cheaper than if we’d tried to do it all ourselves. One of the Chinese workers from the hostel came with us in the taxi to take care of the tickets, so it was completely hands-off for us. Fantastic!
We took the longest gondola ever up the mountain. It took us about 1/3 of the distance up and the rest were trails and paths curling their way around the mountains. If we hadn’t slept in, we could have trekked one-way and taken a different cable-car down on the other end of the mountain, but the cable-cars shut down at around 6pm, and so we had to double-back. We still managed to make it pretty far, even while tromping along in the snow. It was extremely refreshing; the view was spectacular, the area was crisp, and we hadn’t had any serious travel or money problems (since the last one). We returned to the hostel with very very wet shoes (and boots in Marlie’s case), though.
Because of our hiking, we were both completely famished after we attempted to dry our shoes (Marlie had to switch to a different pair. I used the hair dryer to get mine back in working condition), so we made a second trip to the Good Panda and ordered a TON of food. When we were done, the waiter looked stunned that we’d actually eaten everything. Here’s a shot sometime in the middle of dinner. It included Bai-style potatoes, a broccoli/carrot mix, ginger fried eggplant (the red one), celery with beef, and a barrel of rice (in the upper right corner). The beef plate is maybe ¼ of the size it was when we received it. Every single dish was delicious.
Marlie was finally offered ganja after dinner. Mike had been offered the night before while we were searching for a restaurant, but he also looked the type to accept weed. We’d been told Dali is a place to get it if you desired (which we did not) but it was still amusing and exciting for Marlie to finally be offered. It was like being part of a secret club.
On another recommendation from Ayesha and Kendall, we visited two bakeries for some breakfast foods for the next morning (since we would be leaving). We got some, and I also bought some tasty looking raspberry jam (I can’t find any in Kaifeng! It’s only ever strawberry), which I got made fun of for carrying the rest of the trip. (I guess carrying a jar of jam while traveling is a little odd.) Then we had the best. Cheesecake. Ever. At a bakery run by two men hard of hearing (the window had a sign saying so).
We watched some Supernatural from the Jade Emu DVD collection and concluded our night.
Day 9 – Navigational Nightmare
We were completing our time in Yunnan Province with a bus back to Kunming to catch a train to Guilin, in Guangxi Province, the province to the east of Yunnan. We also were giving ourselves over seven hours to get from Dali to the train station, and so we thought we could visit a museum in the downtime.
First off, I started getting anxious when our taxi to the bus station to catch our Kunming bus was not arriving. Our bus would leave in ten minutes! The taxi arrived, we threw our stuff in, and… he crossed the street. It wasn’t a bus station, it was just a gravel-not-even-a-parking lot. Annoyed about worrying, but relieved, the bus ride was uneventful. We had two grannies in the seats in front of us, one looked about 100 years old and the other would talk even LOUDER when she spoke on the telephone. I think I slept.
Immediately returning to Kunming, things went wrong. We didn’t know which bus EXACTLY to get to the train station, but we knew how to get to the center of town. However, we could not find the bus stop for the bus we ideally wanted. So we took another option. That took at least 40 minutes, dragging our stuff around and around the block.
The bus itself was insane- we got seats, thankfully, but with our stuff and about ten billion other people squashed up to us and the awful traffic (Kunming’s population seemed to have tripled since we’d been there last) it made for a very irritating bus ride. And only to the middle of the downtown area. We still had to find our way to the train station. We knew exactly where it was, but no idea on the means.
Lunch was at McDonald’s and we tried to take advantage of the wifi, but this was one of the few (of the entire trip) that did not have any. Marlie noticed that the flyer for the Hump had directions from the train station to the Hump, and that maybe we could take the same bus, just in the opposite direction. It was our best shot.
We were wrong, of course. It headed to the north train station, and not the main one like we needed. SILLY US. So we got off once I realized where it was heading and tried to get a taxi. Which took forever, even with Marlie’s awesome taxi-grabbing skills. We weren’t pressed for time or anything, but there would be no down-time in a museum in this return trip to Kunming (plus the Zoology museum that I wanted to see was CLOSED that day; we checked beforehand). We were both slightly irritated and just wanted to be at the train station in time for our train.
We reached the train station with about an hour extra and finally got to relax. Marlie accidentally melted her bottle with the drinkable hot water and so had to buy another. We experienced another example of Chinese impatience. About 25 minutes before the trains boarded, people started crowding and shoving to be first in line. I do not understand this unless there are standing room only tickets, there’s no reason to be first on the train when everyone has a specific seat or bed (we had hard beds). This was just a cherry on top of our irritation with the day, so it was good to sleep once we got settled on the train.
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