Greetings from Dali. We arrived from Lijiang in good time to book into the MCA hostel in reasonable time (ie in daylight). The journey had been very interesting as we had (fianlly) arrived in the kind of rural China that you might expect (hand tilled fields, piles of manure deposited on the hard shoulder of the road, crops being cut by hand, etc). Out to explore for the evening, we discovered Dali to be along much the same lines as Lijiang - cobbled streets, rivers running through, hordes of Chinese tourists in cowboy hats, etc.

We decided to have a 'Mountain Products, with Crossing the Bridge' noodles meal. What a feast! The principle was broadly the same as the hotpot we had in Xian. A steaming tub of broth was brought out, along with a range of mountain products which were dropped in to cook on the spot. We tucked into most things heartilly, although we drew the line at the small wholly fried bird which was dropped in, and even though the bug type things were tried, they were not followed up with any gusto. There were some very tasty meats, veg and other things (our waitress did tell us what everything was as she put it in, but the description went 'meat...... meat...... meat...... vegetable...... vegetable...... bird' etc. So apologies for the lack of detail.

We headed up the street when suddenly we passed the 'Bad Monkey' cafe, from which some chilled beats had Dave transfixed like a rabbit in the headlights of an onrushing Chinese bus. In we went, and sampled our first Lao beer (imported at a crazy price - by the standards of Chinese beers ie 1.20 GBP). The funky tunes and seats, crusty traveller types at the bar and general sophistication had us thinking we had popped out for a drink in Brixton. All was good with the Bad Monkey!

Dali is next to a large and beautiful lake called 'Lake Ear' (in Chinese, it translates differently in English). We decided to hire some bikes from the hostel. Around 1hr later we had found 2 bikes which had tolerable levels of brakes, gears, saddle height etc. The large pile of rusting bikes in ther courtyard was testament to the fact that repairing any minor bike ailments was not high on the agenda. Off we set, and made our way down to the ferry. Around 40 mins later we were on the other side, and set about the task of getting the bikes up around 200 steps (we roughly counted) before we could head off in search of Bai (the local indigenous folk) fishing villages. We were not disppointed. Tiny shrimp were drying along the roadside for about 3 miles, as the road pleasingly hugged the lake. We stoppped to watch fishermen's boats come and go, as the sun beat down on us. Time for lunch - off to a cafe we found in one of the villages where we had some very tasty quick fried shrimp from the lake, and some fried rice with vegetables. Outside hordes of bright red chillis were baking in the sun (a colour Dave was later to discover on his legs, ouch). Back to the boat for the return journey across the lake (complete with Chinese wearing cowboy hats) we then pottered (or wobbled in A-Ms case, as the steering on the bike was of dubious quality) back to the hostel. Tonight we fancied a change and so pizza was on the menu. Tremendous. Another expensive lager was (accidentally) procured - 'Wind, Flower, Snow and Moon', which was produced by the Dali brewery but was a kind of special reserve. Heavenly stuff.

Today we checked out, left our bags at the hostel and headed up Zhong Si, a local hill (our legs are starting to get used to this relentless search for height). A very pleasant walk up and down was made, leaving the ubiquitous chair lift to the Chinese tourists. Lunch at 2600m was a delicious selection of local veg in oyster sauce.

Back in Dali, we are just updating the blog at Jim's Tibetan Cafe before preparing for our first (and hopefully only) overnight bus from Dali New City to Jinghong (800km away, journey between 14 and 18 hours depending on who you believe / talk to)....