Day 12: Dali (大理) and on to Lijiang (麗江)

Woke up late this morning, the hostel was just too nice and comfortable, plus I stayed up until 5am watching the world cup finals. We got lunch at the hostel which is run by an indian guy, so it was indian/chinese fusion and it was really good. It was almost all vegetables, but we needed that.




Charlotte then went shopping while I did some work that I needed to finish. After we went to a park with 3 Pagodas the center one dates to around 836-840 AD, I am unsure of the other twos dates, but they are at least 1000 years old. The park is also filled with tons of temples for different gods.



Entrance to the park



Another picture at the entrance



1000+ year old Pagodas










Charlotte in front of reflecting pool





Temple within the park



Another Temple up against the mountains




Buddhist prayers




Buddhist prayer wheels, you spin them while praying




Prayer flower



A view from the top of a palace



A view of the lake in the distance


After we walked around we took a bus from Dali (where the person is on the map) to Lijang (the bus symbol) It was a 3 hour bus and we arrived around 10pm. We then took a cab to near where we thought our hostel was. Little did I know the cab driver pulled up next to a drain for the road. I stepped out of the cab with all my bags and disappeared as I fell 3 feet into the drain. Luckily i was just shocked and didn't injure myself aside from some very minor cuts. We then searched for the hostel for about an hour before finding it. This was Lonely Planets #1 pick in town so we knew it would be good. When we got there we would soon find it was by far the worst hostel we have stayed at in China. It is #1 pick because a lot of westerners hang out there and eat together. If I wanted that I wouldn't have traveled to China. The rooms were dirty, the bathrooms worse including when we woke up the next day, no running water, we were supposed to stay here 2 nights, but immediately decided 1 night would be enough

From 77 Days in China