Dali: A Disappointment?

Well, as per the title, we're in Dali right now. Amongst the gaudy tourist shops catering towards the local Chinese tourists, you can catch rare glimpses of the town's old charm, but sadly I think the days of Dali's magic were lost years ago. Tour bus after tour bus drops Chinese tourists off outside the old gates on the south side of town and there they are greeted by locals dressed in traditional costume that take them on their whirlwind tour of the town. It's certainly not my idea of travelling, but that's what the masses are demanding, at the expense of independent travellers.

There's lots of great shopping to be done though: the local Bai people's specialty is silver jewellery and dark-blue batik and it's cheap, too. Today we went to the Shaping markets and bought some batik bags for A$2! Awesome! I think tomorrow I'll buy some more fabric and send a big parcel home.

Tomorrow we plan to catch the cable-car up the nearby mountains, some of which I believe are over 4000m above sea level. I will be taking my jacket, that's for sure. I think there is some spectacular trekking to be done around Dali, but I think we're feeling a bit apathetic for that at the moment. The food in town is too good and too cheap!

Thanks for stopping by. xox