Today we left our hotel in Kunming, the Jin Jiang. We had a 5 hour drive ahead of us with numerous Mechanical and Police checks. Entering Dali we had our first glimpse of Erhai or Er Lake which is an alpine fault lake. Its' name means "Ear-shaped Sea", due to its shape.

Lake Erhai is the second largest highland lake of China at 116 kilometres long and its average depth is of 11 metres The lake has a backdrop to all of Dali City and in the west against the Cang Mountain.

The lake is an important food source for the local Bai people who are famous for their fishing method: their trained cormorants catch fish and return them to fishmongers. The birds are prevented from swallowing their fish by rings fixed around their neck.

On arrival we met up with our local guide Steven who was from the Bai minority ethnic group. He took us to a lovely hotel for another banquet lunch.

After lunch we made our way to the three Pagodas at the foot of Mt Cangshan facing Lake Erhai. The Three Pagodas are made of three ancient independent pagodas forming a symmetrical triangle.

Jenny and I decided to hop on the green bus which took us to the very top temple. Each temple had Buddhas made of either gold, silver, wood or crystal. The views from the top were amazing with the mountains behind us and the Lake in the foreground.

The Three Pagodas has survived several eras of severe earthquakes. Two of them are leaning. My favourite place was the Reflection Pool. It was really peaceful and the reflection of the pagodas in the pool were beautiful. Great photo stop.

We met up with our group and hopped on our bus to our hotel for the next few nights, The Landscape which was located on the outskirts of the Old Town. After we checked in we met in the lobby and made our way into the old town. We had our evening meal at a local cafe, another banquet and then had time to walk around the Old Town. There were lots of cafes, bars and tourist sourvenir shops. We walked down "Foreigner Street" which is in the upper section of Huguo Road with a length of 185.6 meters. There was Chinese and Western restaurants, jewelery shops, tie-dye shops, antique shops, art galleries, bars... A few of our group found a bar with chairs outside and had a few drinks before we headed back to our hotel.

Dali is an absolutely beautiful town.