Located @ about 2200 m. This is supposed to be a very laid back town. The city sits between Cangshan and Erhai Lake. The mountains and the lake gives Dali very mild and pleasant weather year-round.
Because of Tin Long Bai Boa from Kam Yung's novels, I have always been fascinated by Dali. I want to see how a place can be warm year-round... with lots of different types of beautiful flowers. What do Dali marbles look like? Do the marbles really keep the house cool in the summer, but warm in the winter. According the Chinese novels, Dali was a little kingdom in 937, ruled by the Duan's Family. The family was really good with Kung Fu. Some of the kings gave up their rule for the country and became monks due to their passion for Buddhism. How much of these stories are really true?
Things I loved about Dali:
Hotel – Our hotel is located in the old town, about 510 minutes from the Foreigner Street. We stayed in a hotel converted from a traditional Bai Minority house. When we entered the hotel, there was very beautiful and relaxing courtyard. You can simply have tea at one of the tables.
Bai’s architecture really matches its name. All their houses are painted in white with light-colored wooden beams and windows. The house will have a big courtyard in the middle. The courtyard is surrounded by three sides of houses, and one side of all. Bai Minority people are very artistic. They usually do all the painting around their houses themselves.
I really liked this hotel because it felt like we have stepped back in time. Look at the service menu and the table lamp.
The table lamp really impressed me. It has been fitted with energy-saving light bulbs. This is one of the things that I have noticed during this trip. Although majority of the Chinese cities are still very polluted, the Chinese people, and the government have actually taken steps to help reduce the pollutions. You will notice green initiatives / practises when you least expect.
Eating noodles at Street Corner – We took a really early flight from Kunming to Dali. We were all starving after we have settled down at the hotel. So, before we can do anything, our guide, Dragon, took us to a local eatery.
Here, we are sitting at the little chairs, just like the locals. This noodle place is just at a street corner. Coming from the western world, we all had our reservations when we first saw this place. But after we had our first taste of the delicious noodles, all the reservations vanished.
The soup is steaming hot. The noodle is a different from Canton noodles in that it’s a bit chewy. It tastes more like soupy rice cakes than noodles. The preserved veggies and the meat was really yummy… This is definitely the highlight of Dali for me.
Yunnan Coffee – Coffee is a VERY important part of my life. And being jet-lagged has made this beverage essential for my well being. It is also very important to my group’s happiness, and you don’t want me to be all crumpy around them. So, while having my delicious noodle, I created Mission Impossible for our guide, Dragon.
And you know what, it was literally just a walk to the market for him. He went to the market and got us fresh coffee bean and made me a fresh, strong, and delicious Americano.
It turns out, Yunnan is very famous for coffee. The coffee here is really light, tastes kind of like my fav, Blue Mountain. The coffee is exported to Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc. Too bad, they don’t ship to Canada. Later, when we were visiting the old town, we found a place that sells the Yunnan coffee beans.
This has got me hooked to hand-made steeped coffee.
Beer – Dali Beer tastes awesome, and has a beautiful name.
The name of the beer is “Wind, Flower, Snow, and Moon”. The name signifies the four most famous sceneries around Dali.
Wind - The strong wind near the lake.
Dali’s flowers – it has a huge flower market. Too bad the place is going through a drought now, and there aren’t many flowers. Snow – the snowcapped mountains.
Moon – The Erhai Lake, which is shaped like an ear, and also like a moon.
The beer goes very well with the deep-fried mushroom chips. We sneaked in the beer and the chips after lunch. :P
