Dali in the rain

Well after an early start rolled into Dali by lunchtime today.Staying at a cracking hotel for two nights and get to see the place.Not done much with my day today apart from heading into town for dinner and playing with the buttons to upload photos for your amusement.It's been raining most of the afternoon and wanted to take it easy today,last night we had our fancy dress party where we dressed one another up in outfits of ridiculous taste.I had Dr.Nick who i dressed as a professional skipping rope champion,he wore his outfit well and with very good spirit.I however had to wear this nylon skin tight outfit that resembled a pair of pyjamas and i could of passed for an extra from an Austin Powers film.I did of course get up to many entertaining antics.It was another late night so feeling a bit weary today.

The city of Lijiang is overrun with tourists,mainly chinese and i found it too much.It is a city where orginally Naxi people settled,a tribe descended from Tibetan nomads many years ago now.Lijiang is now a world hertiage city,in 1996 the place had an earthquake destroying much of the city but the old town survived.The old town is its best feature with a maze of streets,canals and bridges to get lost among.The best way to see the old town is to get lost amongst the winding streets and do your best not to feel smothered by all the other tourists.A great place for local coffee and food is the Prague cafe you can also people watch from a window seat too.

We had our fancy dress party here too,wandering out in our costumes was great i loved the response i got from the locals.I let the photos tell the story.A few did not join in but the rest of us embrassed the evening in bad taste.Our hotel put on a buffet for us at a cost of two pounds for more than enough food to go round twice.Headed down to a local bar run by an English man.The previous night we found ourselves in a bar run by an Cork man,the name of the establishment was the "Sexy Tractor" with an irish flag on the wall and on his t-shirt were the words langered.A grand cosy little place.I enjoyed Lijiang after dark when there was less people about and the place took on a charm as the streets were light by lanterns that swayed in the wind.

China has quitely suprised me with a lot of things.The diversity of Tibet to the little bit of China i have seen and really i have only seen a very small bit of it.The Tibetan plains and the area around Tiger Leaping gorge are just the most sceanic and breath taking especially the roads in those areas.We still have John our guide with us which has been a big help,i can only manage to say a few words and didn't do the crash course in the language.The locals are grand with us and welcoming too.I'm enjoying China,each place and country i go to takes over from the rest in ratings,i'm continously amazed at where i am in the world and so glad to have the chance to do this.

Tomorrow Dali,maybe on a push bike if it's not raining,we'll see what the heavens do.Time for dinner,and not duck's feet,also will be voiding the pig's blood on the menu.Apart from that i'm loving the rice.