We were up again after less than four hours of sleep! I was feeling much better, though. We had to race to pack up everything again and make it down to the bus without getting any chance to eat breakfast.
Our first stop was taking a boat on a river in Dali. It was a beautiful morning and we took a lot of pictures. There had even been several Olympic events that had taken place on the river.
Then, we were taken to the “old town” version of Dali were minority people sold their art, food, jewelry and clothing. The tour guide gave us only forty minutes, but I could have easily stayed there for hours. We did manage to go from food cart to food cart on the hunt for breakfast and got to try some new snacks.
Then, we were back on the bus where we were driven to a huge silver outlet shop. I have never seen so many pieces of silver in my life! The tour guide had talked about how amazing it was and he told Cindy and Joyce that he expected me to buy a lot of things since I was a foreigner and must have a lot of money! Ha! This led me to not buying a single thing in any of the tour guide appointed shopping areas, except for maybe water or ice cream or fruit from the vendors outside of the places who made pretty good money off of the bored tourist groups.
We got back on the bus and the tour guide started yelling at us about how we didn’t buy enough. I learned that the tour guide gets commission. Lucky for me, I had no clue about what he was saying and was able to blissfully look out of the windows at the beautiful mountain vistas around me and sharing snacks with the funny three sisters sitting with me on the back bench of the bus.
Then, we were taken to some medicinal shop for another hour. I was getting antsy to actually explore, but waited it out with an ice cream cone.
We got back on the bus and were taken to a little hole in the wall place where the tour agency pays women to cook different bus groups’ lunch. The food was pretty bad… Think camp food…. bad camp food… and multiply the grossness by about 6! It was pretty nasty. Then, the tour guide screamed at us because most of the bus group was buying fruit outside of the lunch place to supplement our meals, but we were running late for a show.
We watched a show about Dali’s minority peoples dancing. I was just starting to enjoy it and it was already finished! So disappointing! Then, it was back to the bus with the mean tour guide man.
Next, we were driven to a mountain where we took cable cars up to the top. While waiting for the cable car for over an hour, I decided that I should take a few extra days at the end of my trip to visit Shanghai. I also spotted a man wearing a U of O track and field tee shirt. We spent the rest of the hour trying to talk to the man! At the top of the mountain, we walked through a cave that was the setting for a very popular kung fu television show. Everyone was so excited to be there and taking pictures, but I had no clue about what all the fuss was about.
Then, we slowly started to make six hour drive to Liquiang. The landscape around us was just spectacular. I just looked out of my window in awe most of the time drinking in all the greenness around me. It was absolutely lovely.
Then, we were forced to stop for an hour and a half at a jade shop. We spent maybe ten minutes looking at the jade and then we had more ice cream and fruit and water and talked with our fellow bored bus mates.
Our final stop of the day was to a historical campsite. We were led through a day in the life of how the minority group of the area traditionally lives. It seemed that the performers did this over and over again each day and looked really bored. I felt sorry for them. Plus, I had no clue about what was going on!
Then, we were back on the bus for the rest of the bus trip to Liquiang. I watched episodes of “Bones” on my laptop after it grew dark and I couldn’t see outside. (In one episode the team solved a murder on a flight to Shanghai, so I took that as a good sign for my own trip). A lot of the road wasn’t paved, so it was a pretty bumpy ride. I was thankful I wasn’t sick for that day!
We reached Liquiang around nine in the evening and parked right next to a gigantic statue of the Chairman. We were taken to a bad dinner and sent to our hotel room. It was quite the day!
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