Yunnan Day 4 - Dali

Had a fairly lazy morning, took our time getting ready and having breakfast, then set off around 11.30 to walk to Er hai lake, about 3-4 km from Dali Old City. It was a fantastic walk. Once we'd crossed the north south high way we were walking through fields of small plots growing all sorts of vegies and greens. There were people working in the fields, pooring some terrible smelling liquid onto the crops, which I'm sure makes them grow very well. All the work was being done by hand, there was not much in the way of tools or animals being used. We're not sure how they do their ploughing at that time of the year, but on the train from Kunming to Dali we saw some ploughing being done using water buffalo. We certainly haven't seen any tractors being used at all. There was a little village beside the lake called CuiCan, with small lane ways and not much traffic. The lanes were only wide enough for a small track and the buildings came right up to the edge of the road, no footpath. There were lots of bikes and motorbike being used, and one or two cylinder trucks, some with the engines exposed (Rob was giving us a lesson on how they work). We walked through the village to the lake, it was very misty and visibility was poor, it was a fairly drizzly day. No taxis, so we walked back.

In the evening we went to a Tibetan restaurant. My parents had some delicious lamb dishes and fried Dali cheese ( a local specialty). I capitulated and had a beef burger but it wasn't quite like the real thing - the patty was deep fried and a bit crusty. Tasted pretty good though.