the lovely dali old town

I’m gonna start my entry with…

I LOVE DALI OLD TOWN!!

Good food. Amazing hostel. Great hosts. Perfect weather. What more can you ask for?

Picture this: A walled city along the edge of Erhai Lake, surrounded by vast lands of padi fields. A picturesque town with mountains as the backdrop, and in the foreground, we have the old Chinese style architecture – cobblestoned roads and buildings of tiled roofs, a few pretty new and fake, but still beautiful. That’s Dali Old Town. =) It’s home to mostly the Bai (they pronounce it as berl) ethnic minority.

Our accommodation was near the Dali Old Town, where the buildings were kept relatively untouched as compared to the new town which was quite a distance away. We stayed in the Jade Emu International Hostel, run by an Australian man, Dave and a sweet Chinese lady, Song. Alex had (I think still has) a thing for that man. She blushes whenever we tease her. yucks. But anyway, it’s a highly recommended hostel to stay in!

We hired a local guide by the name of Ya Jie, and she brought us to the Shaping Market on the first day. The road which led us there was lined by padi rice fields on both sides and the scenery was superb. A pity we didn’t cycle along it which many tourists chose to do so. Shaping Market has all sorts of merchandise, and the customers were mostly old ladies carrying a basket on their shoulders where they’d place their buys. Yeejia yearns for one of such baskets.

Shaping Market offered us an interesting look at the locals’ life in the small town. And it was over here that I experienced one of the WORSE EVER toilets. Even paid 0.50RMB for it to an old lady whom I think just happened to be there. Poor alex that she had to accompany me in. HA. And of course, NO PICS of that.

Dali is also famous for its batik fashioned from wax and dye and we visited one of the batik factories.

On the second day with Ya Jie, we visited this lake which extends out to Erhai, inhabited by this man and his family, who earns a living by fishing with cormorants. The trained birds had strings tied round their throats (only when they’re at work), which allowed them only to swallow the small fishes. Big fishes which the birds capture will be caught in their throats and then removed by the fishermen. Unfortunately, the time when we dropped by was the season whereby fishing is prohibited in Erhai, and we could only rowrowrow our boat around the little, confined lake.

This particular bird was placed on the boat edge beside me and it remained in this position for a very long time (supposedly to dry its wings):

I thought it looked idiotic. Wanted to stroke it but apparently it disliked me, unlike the one beside alex. =( I conclude that I don’t really fancy birds……

Our fisherman is a very friendly guy. He taught us the parts of the boat in Chinese, English and Japanese languages. He talked NON-STOP, shifting his audience from one of us to another whenever the former lost our span of concentration. He talked about politics, presented detailed statistics and information regarding the earthquake, etc etc. Interesting guy indeed…

We dropped by the famous Three Pagodas, but didn’t enter as the entrance fee was skyhigh.

To really enjoy Dali Old town, you gotta slow down your usual pace, amble leisurely along the cobblestoned paths, and absorb the simplicity and stunning scenery surrounding you. How I wish I could relive those moments.

I love Dali. =)