Kunming to Dali, CHINA - 30 april 2002
Alex and I took the same bus to Dali. On the bus, there were three ladies dressed in traditional head-dresses and costumes. The road to Dali was actually on an excellent highway, yet one of the ladies vomitted half an hour into the ride. The wind caused the vomit to splatter back. Eeeeeww…
We arrived at Xiaguan which is the new town of Dali and had to catch a minibus to reach the old town of Dali. The bus was crowded and Alex, used to the sardine-packed conditions of South-east Asian minibuses, said it was not that crowded. He spoke too soon. The bus attendant was relentlessly gathering people onto the bus. We were soon packed nostrils to nostrils, spine to spine. She had lipstick, blush and mascara on – every bit like a lady - but she was quite an Amazon as she clamoured over the metal railing and bull-dozed her way through the packed bus, yelling and screaming for us to squeeze some more and collecting money from the yet-unpaids.
Dali is beautiful. It has many old traditional Oriental buildings laid out in rectagular grids more or less within some ancient walls, part of which are still around. Some buildings are slanted and have grass growing out of their roofs; others were recently restored with painted pictures and straightened walls.
Because of the Third Lunar Month Festival, most streets were packed with tourists, mainly from other parts of China and villagers from nearby settlements. Many of the villagers were from the Bai minority groups, but there were some from other minority groups that I did not know the names of. The costumes and head-gears are all interesting.
The Bai costume is mostly white, with a little apron-skirt and long soft pants. The embroidered decorations are either in pink or red. Their head-gear is like a semi-circular disk around the head with little ribbony or feathery stuffs sticking out. It seems unreal the locals would wear something as elaborate as this on a daily basis. While there were tour-guides dressed tackily in these, I saw many mothers, on the way to the market, with kids in tow, donning such costumes as well.
Various types of stalls were set up along the roads. The food stalls sold spicy barbecued kebabs, fried potatoes and fried tofu, jelly, hard sweets, etc… Also, there were stalls for daily needs like towels, knives, nail-clippers, whatever… lined endlessly along the streets. Villagers and tourists streamed into town all day, wandering around and shopping.
The buildings within Dali old town are now converted to sell tourist souvenirs, are travel agencies or western cafés.
At 4pm, I gave Thai Airways office another call and again, * sob sob * no backpack. I guess that was it. No luck of ever seeing it again. I decided that I would do some major shopping tomorrow to get more necessities.
My hostel cost only Y10 with free internet and free laundry (if I had any laundry, that is). Excellent deal. Except for the toilets.
OK, a quick note on toilets in China. Although I had been pre-warned about Chinese toilets, I was still shocked when I encountered my first one. There were low walls, sometimes with doors for each cubicle. There would be a drain in the middle for one to squat across. Down below would be the glorious turds of squatters-past, encouraging you to contribute your own and quickly, too. Some bad-aimers might miss the drain totally. Watch where you step. Sometimes, even for those with doors, the Chinese themselves would not bother with closing them. I could never get used to this. So, I usually looked straight ahead with minimal pause when using the toilets. Once, I looked and a well-dressed lady with her undies pulled down, was SMS-ing on her handphone. A very disturbing sight.
Dali, CHINA - 01 may 2002
To cut a long story short, I went shopping the whole morning in Xiaguan for T-shirts, pants, shampoo… And at 4pm however, I still felt compelled to make my final (absolutely, the final one, I assured myself) call to the airport and lo and behold, my backpack had landed!!!
I did not know if I ought to be happy or sad. It was difficult to get used to this piece of good news now on DAY 5. And with my newly procured items, I definitely had EXCESS baggage now! But, boy, it was really great to get my things back.
I made more inquiries and made the trip to the Dali airport late that night to meet the last flight from Kunming to retrieve it. Phew… What a trip my backpack had made - on its own too - earning more air-miles than I… all the way to Tokyo, then back to Bangkok and somehow onwards to Kunming and finally to Dali.
Dali is also a place where foreign tourists can obtain ganja quite cheaply. In fact, ganja plants are grown at many odd places if you know where to look. Alex told me he had been approached five times by 2pm if he wanted ganja. First, the ladies would ask if he wanted a horse-trek to the waterfalls. Then, they would whisper, “Ganja? Smoke?” I supposed they only approached Western tourists since I did not receive any such offers.
I did not really believe Alex as these petite little ladies looked quite innocent. Anyway, Alex got a small bag for Y50 out of curiosity of the quality of the ganja and also, so that he could show me. Hah…
That night, the ‘aromatherapy’ fragrance left lingering in the room was, of course, ganja. I slept after I returned from the airport at 11:30pm. The other four guys from my room were out the whole night. One of them, Ato from The Philippines, is an improvisation musician playing in one of the bars in Dali. The guys had gone there to hear him perform. At around 3am, all except Carlos from Argentina, returned. Then, a while later, Carlos returned… to hoots of laughter and delight. Carlos had apparently hooked up with a lady ‘from a minority group’ and had gone off with her for a quickie. Now they were saying they love China.
Dali, CHINA - 02 may 2002
I made a trip out of Dali to the smaller towns further north - Zhoucheng and Xizhou. Both are more quaint than Dali and definitely less touristy. They have better preserved Bai architecture and all those alleyways and tiled roofs would look great in black-and-white film. I was Miss Snap-happy again. I really had to control myself. I still had another eleven months and three weeks to go. I should not be taking so many photos.
I was invited to see how the Bai people made their tie-dyes in their homes, but I felt sorry for them since I could not buy anything from them.
There were many people dressed in variants of the Bai costumes. Many old men were also dressed in those Communist blue blazers and wearing a blue head-gear which was a cross between a cap and a beret. Toothless old ladies sat on doorways. Elderly folks chatted in the square and had their bottles of tea nearby. The old grannies usually had checked scarves to wrap their hair and wore straw hats on top. Some were sitting by the steps and listening to Chinese Operas.
I observed a few men playing a couple of games of Chinese chess. Stall-holders whiled away their time playing mahjong or cards. It was very peaceful and quiet. I greeted a little old lady with ‘Ni Hao’ [How are you?] and she gave me the thumbs-up and praised my Mandarin. Gee, that was easy. These towns were great places to walk and linger, doing nothing.
That night, once again, the guys went to the bar. I did not join them for I had walked for hours today. When they returned at 4am the next morning, what I overheard them discussing was really funny.
Apparently, they now suspected that the girl whom Carlos scored with the night before, was actually a guy… or rather, a transvestite. Yes, a lady-boy. The alleged lady-boy had actually told Carlos ‘she’ was gay last night but Carlos did not believe ‘her’ to be a guy because ‘she’ was really beautiful and he had detected no oddities in ‘her’ body.
But tonight, the others studied ‘her’ for hours at the bar and found ‘her’ shoulders too broad, ‘her’ hands too large and Adam’s apple too prominent. Carlos, very disturbed now, finally believed them and had to pretend ‘he was tired’ to avoid another session with his lady-boy tonight.
But tonight, the others studied ‘her’ for hours at the bar and found ‘her’ shoulders too broad, ‘her’ hands too large and Adam’s apple too prominent. Carlos, very disturbed now, finally believed them and had to pretend ‘he was tired’ to avoid another session with his lady-boy tonight.
Dali, CHINA - 03 may 2002
It seems a very common thing here in China to carry your tea in bottles or jars. Some have sieves at the top to filter away the tea leaves and one can always find hot-water anywhere to fill up the bottles. The Chinese are very obliging in sharing their hot-water flasks.
Alex woke up with a stiff neck and I seemed to have an out-of-place hip-bone. We contemplated if we should order a medicinal massage from our reception as they would send a masseuse by. Carlos wanted to know if the masseuse was a male or a female. On second thought, now with his ‘new’ experience from the other night, he figured it did not matter anymore.
The day was rainy so I cancelled my plan to climb up to Zhong He Temple in the mountain and spent the day doing nothing.
We went to Dali Arch that night to watch Ato perform. The lady-boy of Carlos was there and I decided to observe ‘her’. I had to agree with the verdict of the other guys. ‘She’ looked quite like a guy in a way.
Dali, CHINA - 04 may 2002
Another rainy day with nothing to do. The four of us, Alex, Carlos, Keita (from Japan) and I bought two crispy ducks from the wholesaler and some preserved vegetable from the market and made a messy lunch out of them.
After lunch, it was siesta time for the guys. Siesta time??!?! They woke up at 11am and now it was back to sleep at 1pm??? Gee… the really tough life of travellers…
That evening, I was suddenly inspired and headed out in the rain to a bookstore to see if I could buy a Chinese book to read. In my entire life, I think I had only read ONE Chinese book. That was when I was 14 and it was for a book review. My friends back home would be so proud of me to learn that I actually purchased such a book and it was a Chinese legend called . Oh, alright, I confess… this was a condensed version for children with cartoons and pronunciation guide.
Dali, CHINA - 05 may 2002
The day was brilliantly bright and sunny, finally. I was elated. I saw Dali with new eyes today and walked around with almost a skip and a silly grin on my face.
By afternoon, Alex and I finally made the much-postponed climb up the mountain overlooking Dali to the Zhong He Temple. The view from there was fantastic. At the temple, I made my thanks for the return of my backpack.
After the hearty climb, we took the easy way down by cable car. We then headed to a nearby physio-massage clinic to fix his neck and my nagging right hip.
The masseuses kneaded us like dough and ticklish Alex was giggling like a girl. As my mom is in this business, I was used to what the masseuse was doing to me and bore my pain in brave silence. Detecting no reaction from me, she kneaded me harder. Arghhh… On her advice, I should return the next day for more treatment. But both of us agreed it was actually really good massage.
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