Ok, so I've been in Dali for 2 nights. The first night was Tiia's Birthday so we got her buzzed for the rest of the afternoon and night while walking Old Town. Old town has the best street food in China so far! It's fresh and varied! And so cheap! That night we also walked into a club. It was not very full nor did it have good prices for drinks but we dances anyways and some locals joined us. I'd say we brought the party in.
The next day I decided to tour around on my own rather than go with the group to a cooking class. Since I don't really want to see the three pagodas I decided to go to a neighbouring village. By bus it was cheap but he dropped me off on the side of the highway where I would have have to walke a few kilometers to get into the town. A tuktuk driver said he's take me to the lake for 5yuan. Well he took me to some cormorant fishing show where I paid too much to see an unauthentic show. I still got great pictures and it was only $25 for me and I got to taste tea after. But there were so many clues at how fake the show was. I don't care to explain them now but I hope to see more Cormorants when I get to Guilin in a few days.
After that I was able to get a taxi to take me into the XiZhou town square like I originally wanted to. Then I walked a few kilometers to the lake side and took some cute pictures. I ran into a local who was really interested in chatting with me. So I ended up talking with him until I had 30 minutes to get to the last bus back to Dali. I made it just in time and it was serendipitous. I didn't know where the actual bus stop was (or if it existed) but in China you can just flag down the bus from the curb. I wish the Guelph buses did that! Sometimes they pass you and you are only 20 feet from the bus stop.
I walked back to the hostel through Old Town and enjoyed some BBQ and Bubble Tea along the way It was a pretty good day and I liked how everything just fell into place. Sadly though I am splitting up with The Potato Squad (that's what we call ourselves and not only because I like potatoes).
They want to go South where as I need to head to Kunming to get back on track with my schedule and see all that I want to see. I like being in the group because the only time we get upset is when we are hangry. And I've gotten to see more of real China than I would have alone. But Fujian Provence is calling me and I only have 3 weeks left. It's time to go solo again but I hope my new friends get to where they are going safely!
