 |
| on the Old Town in the rain |
 |
| rainy night in Dali |
The
weather that had been beautiful for a week or so turned uncooperative
and it rained for three days. We mostly hung around the hotel and
went out occasionally to eat or to take the air and do some walking.
We had seen a photograph exhibit at one the local temples. The
subject of many of the beautiful photographs were landscapes of pear
orchards in full bloom. We learned that the photographs had been
taken in orchards in the area, one of which was in a town called
Eryuan a couple hours from Dali by bus that we wanted to see. On the
fourth day of the rains, the sky looking brighter and the clouds more
broken, we decided to take a chance on the weather and do our local
bus trip to Eryuan. The day started out with a higher cloud ceiling
with patches of blue sky visible in places. It didn't seem to
have rained much overnight and the hazy sun was making a silver lining edging the remaining rain clouds.
 |
| commerce rain or shine |
 |
| bus to Eryuan |
After
breakfast we proceeded to the West Gate bus stop for local buses and
found the bus to Eryuan. It cost 15¥ ($2.30) per passenger. We ran
into a little language confusion but there was a young guy on the bus
who spoke English and helped us out. After an hour and a half the bus
stopped and everybody had to get off the bus, but we didn't know why.
This young man again took charge and helped us out and told us we had
to transfer buses and that he was going to the same place as we were
to attend his friend's wedding.
 |
| lush green vegetable fields on the road to Eryuan |
 |
Shanwei at Eryuan
Bus Terminal |
He sat behind us and we started to
get acquainted. His name is Shanwei [means something like Noble
Mountain] and he is a surgeon from Kunming. He was very friendly and
we engaged in a lively and interesting conversation. When we arrived
at the bus terminal in Eryuan we were a bit overwhelmed by the size
of the place and hadn't a clue about what to do next. We told Shanwei
that we were looking for a temple with a pear orchard, but he didn't
know where it was and, anyway, he thought it was too soon for the pear
blossoms. He called his friend on his cell then told us he was going to the hot spring resort in town
(it's well known and we had debated going there as well) before going
to his friend's wedding and suggested we all go together.
 |
| another trusty tuk-tuk |
We agreed
and got in a tuk-tuk and went to the hot spring called “Geothermal
Paradise”. It is a huge complex of hotels and hot spring pools
galore—quite different from hot springs in Japan. Also, nude
bathing is not permitted in Chinese hot springs so we had to buy swim
wear. We spent a very pleasant couple hours in the pools and chatted
amiably getting to know each other across race and cultures. I believe that, on a person to person level, with goodwill and openness, we have much more in common with
people from different races and cultures than differences. The differences are superficial, the similarities universal and profound.
 |
the fish cleanse the dead skin -
if you can stand the sensation |
 |
| on the road to Dali |
We
all got into another tuk-tuk to go back to the bus terminal. Shanwei
invited to attend his friend's wedding, but, tempting though it was,
we thanked him for the honor and declined. He got off on a street corner and we continued on to the bus terminal. I got his email address
and promised to send him some of the photos we had taken in the pools. We bought our tickets back to Dali, found the boarding gate and settled in for the couple hour drive back to town.
 |
| The Blue Gecko |
After
arriving at West Gate we walked over to a very good restaurant we had discovered called The Blue Gecko for dinner and returned to Yin Feng
around 6pm. Road Buddy's computer crashed and we had to work on recovering it
by booting in safe mode to reset the OS to the previous day when it
worked properly (one of Microsoft's better ideas) and it was
successfully recovered.
No comments:
Post a Comment