Goodbye Kunming, Hello Dali

Our next stop out of Kunming was Dali.  Dali is an old walled city in western China.  It sits on the edge of Erhai Lake at an altitude of around 5500ft. surrounded by the 12,000ft Jade Green Mountains.  Yunnan was at one time independent and Dali was the main center.  The majority of the inhabitants are (were?) the Bai people who number about 1.5 million.  They have lived for centuries - maybe back 3000 years - and were rulers of the Nanzhao kingdom.  The Bai are one of the 56 minority groups in China, most of which are in Yunnan province and rapidly becoming more "minority" in their own lands.

We were headed to this old walled city, famed for its beautiful architecture, but first arrived at Dali City on the bus.  A real shocker eye-opener.  The Chinese are busy building and paving and lighting everywhere we looked on a massive, explosive scale.  Lighting up things in ways that don't make much sense.  In las Vegas maybe, but Dali City in southern Yunnan?  The west here is being developed at a pace that seems unprecedented in human history.  I guess it's getting crowded in eastern China and the government is doing everything to create a glittering brand spanking new place to catch the overflow.  We came into the old Dali form Dali City about 20 minutes away on an 8 lane, mostly empty, overly-lit highway, passing huge multi-story building after building each lit from top to bottom outlining the edges with moving multi-colored neon lights.  Insanity?  I'll let you decide.  No wonder the Chinese are having to dam their magnificent rivers - where is all this electricity going to come from?

We get into Dali at dark, find a room at the MCA Guesthouse ($24./night for a double) and venture out.  What is that huge and guadily lit-up monstrous structure we see looking down our street?  There is a carnival atmosphere.  What in the world is that glowing behemouth?  We thought we were coming here  to visit an ancient and preserved walled city. On closer inspection we see it is actually the South Gate of the old city of Dali, all jazzed up and bedecked in lights on every level.  Kind of takes away the romance and mystery of seeing an ancient place. Out in front are Chinese dressed up in kitchy versions of  traditional Bai costumes, unrecognizable in their guadiness.  And hoards of Chinese tourists.  I've been in a lot of crowds in my life - think Carnival in Rio, peak time in Las Vegas, etc - but never have I seen such masses of people.  And all shopping, shopping, shopping.  Old Dali - the once magnificent center of the proud and noble Bai people - is now a huge shopping center.  And the Chinese are into it big time - it's like all those years of pent-up desires under theCommunist rule has exploded in this new ecomony and its huge new middleclass can't get enough.

To their credit the Chinese tourists in mass are really well-behaved - no drunks and vulgar clothing and loud behaviour.  They all just seemed too intoxicated with buying things.

Kunming: Tasting Tea and Hanging with Dwarves

                                          You cant believe how many wild muchrooms there are
                                           in Kunming Dali, Lijging.  We ate mushrooms everyday
                                           so many different shapes and sizes and cooked in every
                                           way.  I think this was a highlight of this trip.

                                           We discovered this restaurant and pointed at the dishes
                                            that looked good and were so proud of ourselves for
                                            creating such great plates of food.

                                                       this is the entrance to the tea market
                                                       in Kunming.  We started talking to
                                                       a woman who was going there and
                                                       we became friends with her and her
                                                        family.  We bought a lot of teas for
                                                        the rest of my life.  My tea hasnt arrived
                                                        yet, but Katherines has.  Now we only
                                                        drink tea all day.

                                                        this is the family photo after we made
                                                         our tea purchase.

                                                        What kind should we buy?

                                          Tea in bricks

                                          Wong Fong Temple in Kunming

                                          Learning how to make oragomi boats

Here we are at the little people village

                                                          the main caracters

                                           I could live in one of these houses if i fit

                                            Little people condos

                                           they talked about their lives and said they enjoyed
                                           living here at the dwarf empire where they do shows
                                           sing and run the kingdom.

We have to apologize to our readers for not posting more - many adventures and few English speaking computers along the way!  Plus the machines don't like Katherine's big photofiles for downloading... next time we bring an iPad.

We're actually in Lijiang today but let's backtrack to Kunming in Yunnan province - our first stop in southwest China. It is known for being laid-back and full of flowers.  Its name means "South of the Clouds" and it has been dubbed "Spring City" because of its year round pleasant weather.  And pleasant the weather was and we did see some nice flowers and a lovely downtown pedestrian area lined with willow trees.  But let's be honest here, whatever it may have been in the past to deserve these poetic descriptions, it now comes off as another overbuilt Chinese mess of a city clouded in a grey smoggy haze. Yes, there are some pleasant parks here (but the plants to me looked like they were gasping for air) and I haven't seen another big  Chinese city in over 25 years, but still.  It is another enormous sprawling city which appears to still be growing rapidly.  But there are parks.  And Grace and I danced in one with the ladies of Kunming early one morning by the bird and flower market, then strolled along that lovely willow-lined shopping street and bought some famous Yunnan Baiyao or Yunnan White Medicine made of over 100 herbs and said to heal all wounds.

PHOTOS of park & the market

But we were in Kunming to taste tea!  And look for the Kingdom of the Dwarves.  Grace had gleaned years ago - and it caught both of our fancies - that somewhere in Kunming there is an entertainment/amusement park that is run and staffed entirely by Chinese dwarves.  I preferred the more politically-correct "little people" but, no, it is called the "Dwarf Kingdom".  So in China, get used to it.

But first to taste tea!  Now getting to the big Tea Market our first morning in China, given that we speak no Chinese and it is off the tourist map, was challenging.  At breakfast we weren't able to even order tea and got a cup of hot water instead.  But lo and behold as we bumbled our way off the bus in the general direction of the Tea Market, the good tea fairy appeared.  She was to take  us under her wings for the next two days but first she lead us to her sister's tea station in the market.  And there we drank tea and more tea and more tea, each one more delicious than the last - most of them types of the famous Pu'er tea of Yunnan province as well as an enticing smoky green tea called tuocha. 

PHOTOS of tea tasting

So we tasted teas and collected large samples and tried to stop drinking the tiny cups of tea, but somehow couldn't say "no" in Chinese and weren't sure how to stop the pourings.  Needless to say we were buzzing.
Finally the "conversation" (no one spoke English) turned to inquiring about the Dwarf Kingdom.  By this time our hosts had become a small group and everyone there - like everyone else we had asked since arriving in Kunming - looked at us as if we were a little nuts.  But they persevered and found the key to the kingdom, about an hour plus away.  The tea fairy waived her magic wand (cellphone), with hand signals told us to wait ten minutes and before we knew it we were being chauffered by her lovely sister out of cloggy smoggy Kunming and through its cloggy smoggy exurbs to the magical kingdom of the dwarves.

And magic it was!  In the first few minutes of our arrival, while chatting with one of the dwarves in the giftshop, we met the Chinese English-speaking anthropologist Peter who offered to escort us around the village.  He's a student at Yumman University in Kunming doing his thesis on the dwarves and living with them during his summer break.  Of course this was just what we needed and we spent a delightful afternoon actually being able to communicate with these charming little people and talk about their lives in and out of the Kingdom.

Pedicures and fishicures

  from Katherine in Bangkok
     Up bright and early at 2:45 am - wait - 2:45?  Ah yes jetlag is in full swing.  Better here in Bangkok than on the road in China.  Here we have to lots to do to plan for this trip and lots of amenities.  For instance yesterday Grace got her teeth cleaned, I bought a much needed watch.  This latter involved a trip to a huge shopping mall - mall is the wrong word.  More like a shopping empire in the middle of Bangkok, teeming with Thais out on a Saturday. I realize that there is currently much discontent in many parts of this country and many people barely surviving but something must be flourishing in the Thai economy to to support what we saw.  And you know what?  With all those masses of people at the Skytrain stations through Bangkok getting there and all the waiting and rushing and crowding, the Thais were hugely polite and patient.  The people waitng on the sleek Skytrain platforms just automatically formed a series of polite little lines in anticipation of entering through the train doors when it pulled up.  Wow - I've never seen that before.  It seemed so relaxed and natural.  No shoving or pushing or tense, silent impatience.  The world should have more of that.  Something tells me China will be very different...
     As I said we have lots of business to take care of here.  Last night on Phatpong Road, Grace got a pedicure while next door I got a ...fishicure?  Yes, in the spirit of the great Bodhisattvas who offer themselves for the sake of all beings, I paid to put my feet in a pool of water and let the fish feed on them.  It was tickly-delightful and , ok, maybe a little grisly, especially when they were climbing to the surface of the water around my legs and I could see their hungry bulging eyes.  But after awhile I felt a bond with those little creatures  - I was a part of them in a way at this point - and the whole experience left me slightly electrified and shaky.  And with the most amazingly pearly smooth feet!  It occured to me that maybe one could try this as a sort of exotic spa facial - you'd have to cover the eyes and all orifices but it could do wonders for the skin. You could have a fishicure for the feet and a fishial for the complexion!  Unfortunately this computer I'm on will not let me download the images that Grace shot so I can't show you all those little fishies.  Maybe later.
      There's lots more to say about Bangkok but without the photos it would just take too long.  Like the magnificent temple Wat Arun I visited today on the Chao Phraya River.  Tomorrow we leave early for China!   I'll miss the dazzling variety of delicious street food here, the beautiful and intriguing daily offerings in the small shrines on the street, the neon pink taxis and neon pink buses and the warm and gentle Thai people.
   
    

Bangkok!

 8/5  from Katherine in Bangkok

   After a few bad airplane meals and some unmemorable movies and some uncomfortable sleeping, we arrived at the Atlanta Hotel in Bangkok's Sukumvit area.  Great hotel with an old-fashioned atmosphere and alluring out-of-another-era decor.  It has a swimming pool with fountains, a restaurant serving oatmeal and congee and fresh juices you can't begin to choose from and free wifi!  The restaurant is tightly run by an older woman named Anong who has been there forever.  A sign outside the Atlanta Hotel warns "Sex tourists are not welcome here" (Bangkok has a reputation) and in the the hall more such warnings plus "Zero tolerance for troublemakers" and "Zero tolerance for illegal substances and activitiies" followed by the tongue-in-cheek "Complaints Not Permitted - not at the prices we charge!"  In our case $34. /night for two for a very comfortable "suite" with two large rooms.

 The lobby of the charming Atlanta Hotel






 





  On to our first taste of China - the Chinese Embassy! - to apply for our visas, our really, really over-priced visas.  On the board, in the huge waiting room are lists for visa fees for all foreign visitors, fees for Thai visitors and the very special fees for us Americans, which  are 3X the highest fees listed for everyone else.  These "special" prices are new as of about a year ago, obvious by their listing on paper which has been pasted over the old prices
on the sign in the visa waiting room.  A very charming and fey young Thai guy helps us through the process.  What to say for our employment?  Self-employed? Work in the media (not a good idea in China)? Retired? Teachers?  We are marginally any of these.  Detailed account of where we wil stay in China?  Not a clue as far as we're concerned, but a fabulously smartly attired Thai transvestite overhears our quandry and volunteers via her iPhone the information we need for a hotel in Guanxi.  I'm not even sure where that is in China but it works for us and later after a lot of tuk-tuk and taxi haggling and buses and delicious street food, we make it back later in the afternoon to pick up our official and expensive visa for China!  Now to plan our exit from Bangkok...

Leaving soon! More to come....