Dali - beautiful, romantic and ganja

It was time to move on and leave Kunming for more rural areas of Yunnan. We traveled by bus from Kunming to Dali, which takes about 4hours time. We were lucky and got a pretty decent bus which made the journey quite enjoyable. Because the views from the bus along the journey are quite nice and picturesque.

The long distance bus station in Kunming / Der Bus-Bahnhof in Kunming


Very busy... there are quite a number of buses going to Dali on a daily basis / Viele Leute... es gibt einige Busse täglich die nach Dali fahren

*phew* our bus seems to be quite o.k. / Glück gehabt - unser Bus schaut ganz gut aus

Some scenic shots along the way from Kunming to Dali / Einige Landschafts-Fotos auf dem Weg von Kunming nach Dali

Reading Lonely Planet - getting the latest facts about Dali / Mishell las die Informationen über Dali im Lonely Planet

Dali Old Town is known for its traditional architecture, minority cultures (mostly Bai but also with many Yi and Hui) and simply to relax. We picked ourselves a nice guesthouse ('The Jade Emu') which has a nice relaxing courtyard, a pooltable, decent food and comfortable rooms.

Highly recommendable - The Jade Emu guest house / Sehr empfehlenswert - das Jade Emu Gasthaus

The courtyard is perfect to chill out and enjoy the local Dali beer / Der Innenhof ist perfekt zum entspannen und ein lokales Dali Bier zu geniessen

The staff is very friendly and helpful - the place is owned by an Australian dude / Das Personal ist sehr freundlich und hilfsbereit - das Gasthaus gehört einem Australier

The rooms are clean and comfy / Die Zimmer sind sauber und komfortabel

After installing ourselves in our room, we went for a first discovery tour through Dali. And we soon realized how lovely and chilled out it is here, this was not just because of the nice architecture, car-free areas and the amount of coffee places but due to the fact that we got offered Ganja (Marihuana) in average every few hundred meters by some old Bai lady.

Not in the mood to go out - sleeping beauty! / Nicht in der Stimmung um auszugehen - schlafende Schönheit!

The traditinal houses in the Dali Old Town are beautifully lit in the evening / Die traditionellen Gebäude in der Altstadt von Dali sind wunderschön beläuchtet am Abend

Since it was getting late already, we went for dinner at some local restaurant in the main street of the old town. After dinner we decided to go back to our guesthouse to get some sleep :) (I know we just like sleeping a lot....)

The dinner place was not very crowded - is that a good sign? / Das Restaurant wo wir zu Abend gegessen haben, war nicht sehr voll - ist das ein gutes Zeichen?

Guess not - dinner was o.k. but nothing exciting / Wahrscheinlich nicht - das Abendessen war o.k. aber nichts aufregendes

With the beautiful Cangshan Mountains a short distance to the west of Dali Old Town (4,200 metres at the peak) and Erhai Lake a few km to the east, it has a perfect natural setting and therefore lots to explore.

On the next day, after a delicious breakfast at the guesthouse, we went for a walk in the direction of the Erhai lake. According to some locals, one can quite easily walk there...so let's see!

We started walking across the old town of Dali. During one of our coffee stops on the way, Mishell convinced Pasci to buy her some jeweleries that were offered by a local Bai-lady. Very cute stuff :)

*houh-houh-houh* What a manly breakfast! / *houh-houh-houh* Was für ein männliches Frühstück

The female counterpart / Das weibliche Gegenstück

Very chilled out and not so many tourists - perfect! / Sehr entspannt und nicht so viele Touristen - Perfekt!

Mishell's new ear rings proudly sponsered by Pasci / Mishell's neue Ohrringe gesponsert von Pasci

Very green, no cars, some cute shops.....very nice! / Sehr grün, keine Autos und hübsche kleine Läden....sehr schön!

Even dogs like to chill out in Dali / Sogar hunde mögen in Dali entspannen

Pasci needs to take a break as well / Pasci braucht auch eine Pause

How to bring up a pile of bricks to the 2nd floor! / Wie man einen Stapel Backsteine in den 2ten Stock bringt!

'Hello....? Somebody home?' / 'Hallo....? Jemand zu Hause?'

You can guess who bought her the bracelet? Ihr könnt raten, wer ihr das Armband gekauft hat?

I told you the dogs like to chill out and make out here in Dali / Ich hab Euch gesagt, dass die Hunde gerne entspannen hier in Dali

The Dali Old Town is still fenced with a beautifully renovated ancient city wall. After we exited the city through the East gate, we made our way through some beautiful rice fields. And wow..what is that over there??! OOOOOppsss...it's a CYCLONE! Cool... :) Never seen one before!

The ancient town wall of Dali / Die alten Stadtmauern von Dali

Not as old as the city wall - just the local design... / Nicht so alt wie die Stadtmauern - aber einfach das lokale Design...

The city gate is the symbol of Dali Old Town / Das Stadt-Tor is das Symbol von der Dali Altstadt

On the way to the slaughter house?! / Auf dem Weg ins Schlacht-Haus?

My beautiful wife.... / Meine hübsche Frau....

After crossing some highway we ended up on the paddy fields on our journey to the Erhai Lake / Nachdem wir eine Autobahn überquert haben sind wir auf den Reisfeldern gelandet auf dem Weg zum Erhai See

We didn't know if we should be in awe or run away of this???! / Wir wussten nicht ob wir vor Bewunderung erstarren oder davon laufen sollten?

We decided to stay and take some pictures - pretty cool! / Wir entschieden uns zu bleiben und ein paar Fotos zu machen - sehr cool!

Beautiful landscape / Wunderschöne Landschaft

We kept walking and walking until about 5ish and we decided to abort and turn around since our stomachs were already growling. We should have followed Mishell's idea to rent a bike to go to the lake instead of walking - but too late now.

After Dinner it was already about 10ish and time to go back to the guesthouse where we drank another beer before going to sleep. The local Dali beer is excellent!

Tired after a long day with lots of walking / Müde nach einem langen Tag und viel laufen

The next day we planned to go to the Cangshan Mountains to do a 12km walk on 4600meters above sea level. We were quite lucky with the weather, although it was raining hard initially when we took the cable car up, the rain all of a sudden stoped and already on the walk the sun started to show. Fantastic!

We all knew that Mishell is a very strong woman! / Wir alle wussten das Mishell eine sehr starke Frau ist!

On the way up the mountain / Auf dem Weg hinauf in die Berge

Alamak - raining like stupid! / Alamak - es regnet wie blöd!

Hmm...the map was not very clear / Hmm...die Karte war nicht sehr verstänldich

Neither was this one.... how is this supposed to work?! / Und diese war es auch nicht....wie soll das funktionieren?!

But swoop - the sun was out! Cool! / Aber Schwupps, und die Sonne war da! Cool!

View on Dali and the Erhai Lake / Aussicht auf Dali und den Erhai See

Do you understand what happened? / Verstehts Du was genau passiert ist?

Nice views on 4600 meter above sea level / Schöne Aussicht auf 4600 Meter über Meer

Enjoying the sun / Am Sonne geniessen

It was only when we started walking that we realized that it is more of a walk than a hike, since everyhting has been paved and is wheel-chair accessible. But the walk was still very nice and the view on Dali and the Erhai Lake breathtaking. And also it was a good preparation for our hike that we planned later on our trip (Tiger Leaping Gorge).

The path was winding its way along the cliff - very spectacular! / Der Weg bahnte sich entlang der Klippe - sehr spektakulär!

Good stuff up here - nice walk! / Schöner Spaziergang hier oben!

That's where we were coming from / Von da sind wir gekommen

Done already - took us about 2 hours for the 12km walk / Schon fertig - wir brauchten ungefähr 2h für die 12km

Taking the cable car down / Mit dem Sesseli-Lift nach unten

Woooahh...and now Mishell got a new scarf (which we later realized, that we overpaid him double the price compared to the price down in the city! *douh*) / Wooooahhh...und jetzt hat Mishell noch einen neuen Schaal erhalten (später haben wir realisiert, dass wir das doppelte bezahlt haben im Vergleich zu den Preisen im Dorf *Dumm gelaufen*)

Outside the old town, Dali stretches quite far / Ausserhalb der Altstadt reicht Dali noch sehr weit

Coming down from the mountain we continued walking through the Old Town of Dali, where we bought some fruits at the local market. For dinner we went to a local restaurant where we could try some of the local Bai specialities, such as: Ru Shan which is a kind of fan-shaped deep fried diary.

Meat dish with chilli powder - *delicious* / Fleischgericht mit Chilli Pulver - *köstlich*

Ru Shan which is a kind of fan-shaped deep fried diary powdered with sugar / Ru Shan ist ein frittiertes Milchprodukt mit Zucker

Some greens with yak cheese / Gemüse mit Yak Käse

And another dish...which was...ahhh...hmmm....dunno?! / Und ein weiteres Gericht...das war....ahhh...hmmmm...weiss es nicht mehr?!

After dinner we walked around the town a bit more and discovered that there are more cool bars with lounge feeling - very cool!

Busy streets at night in Dali / Viele Leute waren unterwegs abends in Dali

Wuhua Tower, central landmark of the old city / Wuhua Turm, Sehenswürdigkeit im Zentrum der Altstadt

Then it was time to pack up again and get ready for our trip to Lijiang, apparently even more beautiful than Dali. We shall see :) We both were a bit sad that we had to leave Dali again, since it is a realy relaxing place where it would be nice to just spend a couple of days more reading a book while sipping a coffee in the streets of the Old Town.

Next stop: Lijiang