Welcome to "China Land", where you can easily buy pot in the street
Dali is a great place. The first thing that draw my attention and was also the first sign about the difference between the south parts of China compering to the north parts is all the Guest Houses. Not only there were Guest Houses, (up in the north you simply don't have them, you just stay in very cheap Chines hotels such as the bus station hotel and so on), there were a lot of them. So many, they even number them!
And that means that there are also a lot of travelers over there! After some of the crazy stuff I had in the far North-West (include a visiting places that can't remember the last time someone pass by and not speaking English for more then a week (this is nothing if you look at 3 weeks without any English in Mongolia). It was just so different! No doubt that the south parts of China are much more "user friendly" for travelers, and it's much more easy to go around.
So I got myself a nice bed in Guest House number what ever (can't remember the # right now) and it was a very nice place, with a great courtyard and a big TV and I start to socialize! man, that was nice - having some people around, and nice ones as well.
Over there I also start with my shopping mania for outdoor wear. All the cheap stuff that you can find there (mainly North-Fake but I did end-up with some great stuff!!!) unbelieveible! 10$ for something that will cost more like 50-60$ and so on...
One of the many strange thing you can find in Dali are the old women! they dress traditional and go and ask you if you want to take a photo with them and then after you say no thank you they move on and ask you if you like to buy some pot! and I'm talking about 50-60 years old women - in the middle of the street, in China (they kill for less!)...anyway, it's not my thing to do, so...thanks...
One of the nice things that you can have if you stay in a place for 2-3 days is to find a nice small place to eat and keep coming back. They remember you, smile and so on, I like it! the food was OK, but...sometimes there are thing more important then if you eat in the best place in town!
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