Our very last Chinese night train (Thank God!) delivered us to Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province. This was just a quick overnighter and whilst we didn't get to do too much exploring, what we did see of the city centre was very nice. Our hostel had an excellent location with a nice rooftop terrace bar overlooking the city square, but unfortunately our room was a small, hot, noisy windowless cell.

We didn't do any exploring as we need to return here at some point for our flight to Thailand so there's always a chance we'll get a better look then. From Kunming we took a train to Dali, which we'd heard good things about and were looking forward to a few nights staying put before moving on. Those few nights quickly turned into 7...Dali is without doubt our favourite place we have visited in China. And when you find somewhere you like so much, what's the point of moving on?

It's hard to pinpoint what we liked about the place. The hostel, the food, the weather, the people and the atmosphere all contributed to a great week.


Dali City

Dali sits in between a row of cloud touching mountains and the large lake Erhai Hu. It is an old ancient city, again with some city walls and has an abundance of narrow cobbled streets lined with bars, shops, and restaurants. It is the province' most popular tourist destination, both for its historic sites, Erhai Hu Lake, the mountain range, and 'Foreigner Street' that features western-style food and music

We stayed at a smallish hostel that was really relaxed and friendly. Lots of other travellers to swap tales with and chat the night away. A lovely garden with some of those chairs that are a bit like a birdcage hanging from a spring that spin round and gently send you to sleep in the sunshine. And probably the best bit about the hostel, 3 golden Labradors, one of which being a 4 week old puppy!

We spent a lot of time perfecting the art of doing nothing, but when we were actually doing something it was usually good fun.

We went on a bike ride around Erhai Hu, which means 'shaped like an ear' in Chinese. The day we chose for this was one of the sunniest we've had yet. It took its toll on us as we cycled over 20miles through old villages and past farmers tending to their crops in the fields. We reached our destination, Xizhou, which again was another old little town that had a local speciality of a type of Chinese pizza. At this point we realised that Claire had already pretty much burnt her shoulders despite layers upon layers of suncream. What made the burnt shoulders particularly amusing was the fact that she had been wearing a strappy top resulting in some awesome tan lines that Claire described herself as looking like a twelve year old. To try and combat any further burning we bought a tee shirt from a local market with a very bizarre translation on the back (See photo). The bike ride was good fun and we enjoyed the little villages we passed through and the friendliness of all the locals. Though at the end we were a little bit sweaty with extremely sore backsides.

Continuing our new healthy activity theme we also went on a hike up the mountain range, again on a very hot day. No sun burn for Claire this time though thanks to plenty of tree cover. The area is called Cangshan and contains 18 peaks in total. Now our idea of hiking is a bit different to China's. We've already mentioned about the Chinese love for hop on/off buses (of which there is one in Dali) but for hiking up mountains, their preference is to catch the cable car which seems to be on every mountain range at some point. They also seem to dictate where and where not you may actually walk. Every national park or scenic area we have been to has been covered with well built and maintained pathways, but with signs constantly reminding you that you are not allowed to leave the path. So although it's nice to have a path sometimes, it takes away any sense of adventure or options to try and find your own way.

Cangshan was no different, there are two cable car stations at either end of the Jade Cloud Path. This 'trail' is a well maintained and kept stone pathway that winds along the face of the mountains taking you in and out of steep, lush valleys and past streams and waterfalls. Anyway, in our defiance of being lazy, and more importantly saving some money, we opted to walk up to the cloud path up a series of steep steps. Once at the top of the steps, exhausted and dripping with sweat we had a quick picnic before setting off on the 7 mile path south. The views from the path were spectacular, you could see ancient Dali lying in front of the impressive Lake Erhai Hu. It wasn't overcrowded either as we feared. At the beginning of the walk we were in baking hot sun and we didn't notice the grey clouds that were gathering in the distance so we were a bit shocked when it started to spit and a couple of small fluffy clouds had gathered above us but we didn't really mind, it was quite refreshing. However we soon did mind when the little fluffy clouds soon became masses of dark grey storm clouds! It wasn't long before we then heard the rumbling thunder, saw the lightning and realised that we were on a mountain side path with no shelter at all as the heaviest rain we have ever seen started to fall. Fortunately though, we had one small umbrella, about the right sort of size to protect just Claire. Not David, just Claire. Although this may have been fate as David did say before setting off that we wouldn't get wet as it was too sunny to rain. David got soaked, he looked like he had jumped in the lake. Claire remained reasonably dry and saw the funny side that David couldn't see at first.

Fortunately after about an hour it cleared up enough to finish our walk to find the Gantong Temple. Not so much because we wanted to see another temple, but simply because this was the way down without having to pay for a cable car. It was pointed out at this point that should Claire have got herself as wet as David had, we would almost certainly be going in the cable car and straight into a taxi back to the hostel.

Once we reached Gantong temple we thought we might as well take a look round. At first this one looked very similar to every other Buddhist temple we have ever seen and we have seen a lot of temples. Very bright, lots of gold and loads of pictures of Buddha. But once inside it was quite surreal, as there was nobody else there. There were no other tourists as they had all taken the cable car down. There were no monks about and nobody else as far as we could see. This felt a bit uncomfortable, as we didn't fully know whether we would be allowed to go in. Figuring that it would be locked if that were the case though, we ventured on. It felt like we needed to be quiet for some reason even though no one else was there. We crept in, past the huge golden Buddha, whispering as we looked round. We found a few rooms and buildings with more huge golden Buddha statues in. The whole place was silent and quite eerie, it looked almost like it had been abandoned. Yet curious as we were, we explored all the rooms within the old golden walls. Just before we said we'd leave we decided to poke our heads into one last room. As we approached we could hear the faint sounds of tranquil Chinese music. We assumed that there might be somebody in this room, some monks or other people praying no doubt. We crept to the doorway wondering, but nobody could prepare us for what we saw next. The walls were covered in blood and in the middle was a dead monk who's throat had been slit whilst his body had been skewered by a large wooden stake! At that point we heard foot steps behind us...

Only joking, it wasn't a dead body it was a Chinese tea party! A bit surreal yes, but nothing scary. The great thing as well, was that they cheerily invited us to join them as they were about to get started. Six people were sat around a small table and though they didn't speak much English they motioned to us what we were to do. A small prayer was read out loud by the lady who seemed to be in charge of proceedings. Following which, everybody sat up straight, closed their eyes and the men made their hands into fists and placed them on their knees whilst the women folded their hands placing them on their stomach. We attempted to follow suit but obviously with our eyes open to see what we were supposed to do. We all stayed completely still whilst Chinese music played in the background and the woman read aloud some Chinese words we assume were more prayers. After 5-10 minutes, she and her assistant then poured everybody a cup of boiling hot tea, and with our arms held high in the air we all drank (the majority slurped) together - you basically had to down a cup of boiling hot water in 30seconds flat. Even though it was quite difficult to drink the hottest tea ever in this time it was nice. After the first cup as we we were just about to stand up and leave, the prayers started again, and everyone resumed their position with the whole process being repeated with another cup of boiling hot tea. Then another. Followed by another....

We got through about 15 cups of red hot tea in total (slyly blowing the water in our cups to cool it down when we weren't being watched), all whilst listening to some Chinese prayers that we had no idea what was being said. The whole thing lasted over an hour. All the while we kept on looking at each other wondering when it was going to end, as our mouths were now numb and our bladders couldn't handle any more. It was a very different but interesting experience that we literally walked into by accident. When we finally left and returned to the hostel we spoke to the owner who couldn't quite believe what had happened and asked if we had paid anything for it, which we hadn't. He then told us that we were very fortunate and incredibly lucky to have been invited to this event alongside the monks as the tea would have been very expensive. Although we felt very privaledged, we couldn't help but think that it could have done with a hobnob.

Obviously, as we have enjoyed eating our way through China so much we also decided to take a cooking course. This was a small course run by a lady who does it simply for pleasure (and obviously for a small fee). Joined by an American family and a couple from Belgium we were taught how to make a dried tofu salad, fish fragrant eggplant and gong bao chicken. All of which were very tasty.

After our very enjoyable week in Dali it was soon time to make our way back to Kuming.

This time we stopped in a different part of the city. There isn't much to report again on Kunming, it was still a nice city and our hostel was nice, next to a large green park but we didn't get up to anything much of interest.

All in all, that brings our trip around China to an end. The next stop for us is Thailand. This was our first stop 6 years ago when we first started travelling so we can't wait to see if it's changed or if it's still the 'same same but different'.


Finale

China has been good. It is an interesting place to visit. In 30 days we feel we've barely scratched the surface simply due to it being so large. If we did it again we would either take longer or perhaps try to see a bit less. The constant trains and travelling have taken a real toll, which was why we appreciated the last week in Dali so much.

The people in China have definitely won us over. Almost all the people we have met have greeted us with a smile and a Nihau. The Chinese people have always come across as honest and trustworthy which has been nice. Taxi drivers have given us directions if we have been close to where we want to go as opposed to driving round the block a few times to get the meter up. The prices we've paid for food in restaurants is always the same cheap prices the locals pay. There's only a few who we have disliked (the guide from Sichuan). The food has been a great experience (have we mentioned the food?), whilst not always delicious it's always been shall we say interesting! Some of the natural scenery has been breathtaking, even alongside a million Chinese people. The historical places like the Great Wall and the Terracotta Warriors also lived up to all their hype, especially considering neither of us has a huge interest in it.

Whilst it has been difficult and tiring at times getting around we think that's probably our own fault for doing the distance we have done in the short time we've had. In hindsight maybe we should done a smaller area or taken longer.

So yes, we have enjoyed China. But now it's "Xie Xie" to China and "Sawadeeka" to Thailand for buckets, beaches and sunshine (with some rain no doubt at this time of the year)

Things we have learned

1. Claire now likes tofu.
2. It rains heavily in China.
3. When we get home we are going to get a puppy.


Dave's Transport stats so far:

Planes used - 1
Buses used - 16 ( +3)
Trains used - 8 (+2)
Metros/subways used - 16
Cars used - 5
Russian Campervans used 1
Horses used - 1
Camels used - 1
Taxis used - 3
Cable cars used -1
Bicycles used 1 (+1)