Dali

Dali is a sweet little village in Southwest China, with twice the population of Turnhout. Eline totally loves it, and she does have a point. You can find all sorts of restaurants and little bars here, and all of them have terraces. Unfortunately (according to me), this is all the result of its popularity among backpackers. I do find the town a nice place to stay and to hang out, but I regret the inflated prices, the lack of true Chinese spirit and the dozens of women that come and ask you 5 times a day whether you "like to smoke". Dali is often compared to Lijang, be it a bit less beautiful and less crowded. When talking about Dali, one shouldn't mistake Dali Old City (Dali) with Dali City (Xiaguan), which is a new city about 18km to the south, where all connections to other major cities start.

We started our stay by blogging and sleeping, and went out in the early afternoon, as Eline was ill. This region is famous for its banana pancakes, which automatically became my afternoon goal. We wandered around, and found many cosy places. We also found Cycling Dali, a place we knew from an advertisement in Kunming, where we could make landline phonecalls home for 1 Yuan per minute (that's 0.10 euro, cheaper than many Belgian cell phone calls), an excellent occasion to call home and get some updates. The guy who ran the place just started his business and was a mini-entrepreneur with many small activities under one roof. He had phonecalls, an internet bar with 2 pc's, printer, he sold kites, Teva sandals and shoes, and bicycles. A Merida mountainbike, full suspension, 300 euro to buy it and have it shipped to your home.
Afterwards, we had a pancake and two beers. We strolled along the shops some more, looking for a nose spray. We have one, but Eline finds it not powerful enough. We found one in a pharmacy.

"is it powerful?" (not understood)
"Different kind?" "nonono"
"Okay we take it..."

It was the most powerful and painful nose spray we had ever had. It burned!! Oh did it burn! Our nasal cavities were thoroughly desinfected, and probably also the front parts of our brains. A few hours later, it still burned when blowing our noses. The Chinese are crazy! Our noses were clear though...
We went back to our hostel, and had dinner at the restaurant next to it. Eline ordered Beijing Duck, which was horrible, 80% of the 'meat' was duck skin, so her pancake was rather empty. We went to sleep at 8.30, as we both were a bit ill (snotty nose, coughing, feverish, and a lack of sleep because of the horrible "sleeper"bus).
Thank God for sleeping around the clock!!! We felt much better. Today we were going to do a bicycle tour along the lake, to a nearby village, Xizhou. We didn't ride next to the lake, but had to use the road that was also used by dozens of busses. The scenery was marvellous!!! Right now, it the harvest is going on, and the roads are full of grain and corn that is drying in the sun. The fields are getting cut, and farmers bring the grain to the road on their backs, where it is then stacked on mini tractors and bicycles. Lovely! Dali is also known for its marble, and there are plenty of workshops next to the roads, with huge rocks of marble, ready to be cut or treated.
The village itself was also very charming, and we saw plenty of small chops and local activity. We lunched with a local pancake like thing. Eline also saved a fish, when we witnessed how a fishfarm was filling up it's truck. The small fish fell next to it, and Eline came to the rescue. (Our hostel also has a small pond, filled with fish for cooking, all chinese keep their fish alive in ponds and tanks till the day of consumption, as it is safer that way)
We came back, had a beer, and then Eline saw some choes. They were beautiful, true, but only in size 35. Very sad situation. We wanted to ask the hostel lady to help us translate where we could find those shoes elsewhere (or the wholesaler). She told us to look in another street. We searched for half an hour, fruitless... We know the brand though, and the quest will go on!
We had dinner and went to sleep early again.
This morning, we're as good as cured, and our bus for Lijang is leaving in twenty minutes.
Byebye!