a few days in dali, i left lijiang on the 6th to go to dali city. the stunning scenery on the bus rides seems to have faded away since leaving sichuan, it's now just really nice! on the bus i met 2 chek girls, one of 31 and the other just about to finish uni, the girls had been to dali before so when we arrived at dali they took me under their wing and showed me to the guest house they stayed at before. very cheep, 10 kwai for a dorm bed! the staff are really friendly and the place is not bad either, they have a t.v. room where you can watch a dvd, and the dvd i have seen, one of the all time best films to ever be released, cannonball run 1+2!! i'll be watching those then!! the girls took me out to dinner and i let them order what ever they thought was good. out came about 6 or 7 dishes, one of which was called 'ants climbing up trees', very nice!! after food i walked around the old city. much the same as lijiang with all the shops and the cobbled streets, but not as nice to look at. they have a cool little river running through the centre of the city which parents seem to take their kids so they can splash about, many of the fathers were joining in too! that night i went back to the guest house, got a beer and chatted to the, very excitable, american guy who was sharing my dorm and the 2 girls from earlier. just a quiet night drinking and chatting. back in the room the older american guy was standing on his bed smaking the walls in a vain effort to rid the room of every mozzie. not a chance!! in the morning i decided to change guest houses. there was nothing wrong with the place i was staying at but the place i had a look at yesterday had some really nice places to chill out and it was closer to the shops and resturants. i had breakfast before leaving the first guest house and tried to watch cannonball run. to my great frustration it turns out that the film is in chinese and it doesn't have english subtitles!! b*****!! at the other hotel i hired a bike to cycle arund the lake. when i got to the lake there was no path leading around it so i just stayed there for a while and did nothing. on the way back from the lake i went through a really nice little town and made some local friends and then i cycled to the 3 pagodas. i didn't go inside the complex because it costs a small fortune and i was happy riding about. when i gave the bike back i decided to go for some food at this really lazy looking bar/resturant. here i bought another book, well 4 really, robert adams's 'hitch hickers guide to the galaxy collection' for 40 kwai! bargain!! i had a pizza and watched pulp fiction. back at the hotel i find out that there has been a terrorist attack on london. what the bloody hell is happening in this world?? i e-mail some friends in london to see if they are all right. the next morning i'm straight on the internet again to find out if my friends have e-mailed me back, 2 out of 3 have, one friend missed a blast by 15 minutes! i wasn't feeling up to much that day. i just wanted to relax. i spent the day reading and walking around the city. i still felt really s*** with what happened in london so i went to watch 'lock stock and 2 smoking barrels' which did cheer me up. that night i got a e-mail from mother telling me that she can't change my flights from back home and that i have to do it out here, so it was onto the internet again to check to see where the closest sta travel agencey is. the closest in china is a 25 hour train ride away, and the flight to chang mai is really expensive so if i can't do it over the phone to singapore airline it will be back on that train! cheers all. christopher