A "Fool" Print

We reached Dali in the morning at 6.45am. The slept in the Sleeper bus was tolerable except a few itches at my back perhaps due to the bed lice. Jane was not so fortunate. She couldn’t sleep in the bus.

The driver whom to pick us up was waiting for us for an hour freezing in cold at the bus station. My first impression of Dali city was immaculately clean, with wide opening roads and quiet traffic. The Sam’s Hotel (http://samshoteldali.com/)was decorated in a mix of traditional style Bai Courtyard with comfortable, and generous room space. :)

After putting our things, we headed to our first destination -> Changshan where our dear lady landlord arranged a transport to bring us there. We took a cable car up to the mountain (~2400m). Perhaps it was due to the high altitude, it was tougher than usual for us to walk up the stairs. At noon, the weather turned bad and was raining heavily. We were totally unprepared. Luckily, I had my umbrella with me but my beautiful, hairy legs were exposed to the cold. The rain last for 2 to 3 hrs.

The descending from the mountain was a whole new experience to me. The cable car was we took exposed, with no shelter at the top. Once reached the foot of the mountain, We walked back to the edge of the old town to have our lunch (4pm). May was complaining our meal time was totally messed up. Hehehee

Then after, we took a local bus to Erhai Lake. Gen was really tough in her bargain skill. She managed to reduce the ferry price from $150 RMB to $80 RMB. The sky started to drizzle again. There was not much to see at the other side of the island. We were back to the mainland at 6.30pm. By now, the bus service had stopped.

A man approached us telling his friend could drive us out to the old town. I suspected the guy was telling lie and the lady driver was not his friend. Nevertheless, we agreed to him by forking out $50RMB, to give us a ride to the foreign street, Dali Old Town.

Walking in the old town was an enjoyable experience. The old town was buzzing with pubs, shops, cafes and local eat house. We stopped over a cozy café to have a coffee and desserts. Based on the staff’s direction, we managed to locate mountaineering gear shop which manned by 2 young pretty looking ladies. May and Chin Yen both bought a gore-tex China brand trekking shoes, while Jane and Gen each shopped for small items. The price was reasonable and not much discount was given.

At 10pm, we had our dinner at Panda Restaurant before taking a cab back to our hotel. It was midnight till then. Yawn…

Finally!! After weeks of preparation, phone calls and emails, we had made it to the final day. For a moment, I couldn’t even think that the trip to Yunan would pull through.

I woke up earlier at 4am and did some last minute packing before heading to the airport at 5.30am. Chin Yeh called out and informed me our plane was malfunction and we were shifted to SQ instead. He hurried me as our plane took off at 7.10am instead of 7.40am. Great!! That was the last I could need, Surprise! Now, I worried if the rest of the guys could make it to the airport on time. We were all being hold back at the check in counter for an hour before managed to board the plane.

Reached Bangkok 10 a.m. The flight to Kunming was not too smooth. After 2 unsuccessful took off by the pilot with the last nearly felt like a crash, we were transferred to a new Thai airplane. In the end, the whole flight was delayed by one hour. Oh gosh!!

Once touched down at the Kunming Airport, we quickly took a ride to the West Bus Station to buy our sleeper bus tickets(1150pm) to Dali. Subsequently, we proceeded to cloudland hostel to book our accommodation for our return trip before going out to do some shopping. The sky started to poured heavily at 8pm. We were all freezing in cold. The locals told us the city had not been raining for 6mths. We had brought them rain. OMG! I hoped it was not going to rain in the mountain. *Praying hard*