China - Winter 2016 (Erhai Lake cruise)

Video Clip: Erhai Lake Cruise Show

the cruise ship and Li Xue

     Having visited the shore of Erhai Lake and Caicun Port the logical next thing to do was take a boat on the lake. There are several options for cruises on Erhai Lake and we discussed taking one with Lu at the front desk of the Yin Feng Hotel. She arranged everything for a discount price of 120¥ ($18.50) per person including a car and driver to the pier and another one to take us back to the hotel.

Chen Xiao Cheng and Li Xue and RB

       Our driver turned out to be an impatient cowboy dodging and honking and passing other cars for a rather seat-of-the-pants ride, but, miraculously it seemed to me, we did arrive at the pier in one piece. We had been speculating whether there would be many people taking the cruise, but we were surprised and immediately overwhelmed by the large crowd of people and complete lack of English. It looked like there were large crowds of Chinese tourists still lingering from the Chinese New Year. We were motioned to stand aside while our driver spoke to the ticketing agent. 

posing for the camera

        There was a young couple standing nearby, also waiting for tickets. We looked at them, smiled and shrugged. The tickets arrived and seeing that we were bewildered the young folks took us in hand and between broken English and Japanese (the young woman had lived in Tokyo for a short time) and body and sign language they guided us onto the boat and stayed with us throughout most of the boat trip. We became fast friends, taking each other's pictures and generally having a great time. The young man's name is Guo Xiao Cheng and the young woman's Li Xue. Unfortunately we didn't get around to learning the meaning of their names in English.

comedy skit and dance routine

        There were two stops on the lake and a dance show before the stops. The dance show (video clip above) was humorous, colorful, tuneful and loud. Great fun! The show included three tea samples, two of which were good... The first stop was a small island nearly dwarfed by the boat with a small temple on it. There is a small market geared for the large crowds that come ashore from the boats. The stop was very short and mostly consisted of jostling with the other passengers for food and getting into the little temple to make an incense offering or just moving around the narrow spaces.

the little prince

tiny island and temple stop

prayers in the tiny temple

       One of the highlights, for me, was the seagulls. They are accustomed to following the cruise ships where they are guaranteed food. The birds followed they ship constantly from a great distance behind right up alongside the ship flying up, over and around often within touching distance while the passengers threw them food. The highlight was when a man caught one of the seagulls by the legs trying frantically to escape making for a great photo op and a money shot.

feeding the birds

captured seagull

  

     

Imperial Palace

Guanyin - Goddess of Mercy

       The second stop was a larger island with an Imperial Palace and an enormous statue of the Buddhist Bodhisattva Guanyin [観音] (Kannon in Japanese), goddess of mercy and compassion. The boat made a longer stop here near a small park dedicated to "Mother Shayi" a mythical female figure who is the legendary mother of the local tribal peoples through a kind of mystical union with a dragon (well, this is China, what else?). Xiao Cheng and Li Xue left us here since they were taking a different boat. We said good bye and thanked our young friends for their friendship and assistance. We walked up to the palace passing by the statue of Guanyin. The palace is now a hotel so it was only of limited interest with some large ceramic vases, sculpture and a pretty bamboo garden. A short hop back to the mainland ended our cruise on Erhai Lake where we were met by another driver to take us back to the hotel.

Mother Shayi

bamboo garden and fountain

 dragon window sculpture

the littlest emperor

return to port

China – Winter 2016 (Caicun Port, Erhai Lake)

on board the #2 bus to Caicun Port

     Once we got comfortable moving around in Dali Old Town we decided to get adventurous and attempt to take a local bus for a 15 minute ride to Caicun Port town on Erhai Lake, a large body of water that dominates the valley in this area. It took us a few minutes to find the bus stop for the No. 2 bus. Lu [beautiful Jade] told us to go to North Gate and look for the crowd waiting for the bus. Well, there were lots of “crowds”, but which one was for the bus? We finally spotted some people who seemed to waiting for a bus. Lu had given us a note with the Chinese characters for Caicun, the town's name. First we showed the note to an old woman who clearly couldn't read, period. Just then, an old man rushed to our rescue, looked at the note and pointed to the bus (with a #2 on it) that was approaching indicating that we should get on it. (Many people were really friendly and helpful when they realized that we were likes babes in the woods, or, should I say, babes in China?)

Caicun town marketplace

birds sounded like ... loons?

        We boarded the bus and showed the note to the driver who more or less absently nodded and pointed to a box in which to stuff the 3¥ fare (about $.50). After about 15 minutes the bus stopped at the market and everyone got off even though no lake was visible. Clearly we, too, had to get off the bus, which we did. We showed a shopkeeper our map of the lake area and she pointed to the east. We walked for about 5 minutes and soon the water could be seen shimmering through the trees—then what obviously was a boat pier and, of course, another small market place.

trying to crack pecans . . . 

. . . success

       Frankly, it didn't look especially interesting. A boatman tried to sell us tickets for a boat tour which, not being prepared to go anywhere on a boat at this time, we declined. We decided to buy some assorted nuts from a vendor and not being used to pricing yet, found the price a bit steep at 90¥ (about $15). So, I shook my head and handed the bag back to the merchant who looked very displeased. We weren't sure if we had heard the price correctly—was it 9 or 90? So, embarrassed, we showed her a 10¥ bill. She hissed and turned her upper body away to indicate insult. Then, realizing that we didn't know that we were supposed to bargain, she offered the nuts at 70¥, which was probably about the price bargaining would have settled on. We paid the 70, walked off and sat by lake cracking and eating a few of the nuts.

#2 bus - field of rape flowers in full bloom

 pavilion on Erhai Lake

       About a week later, now veteran travelers, we took #2 bus to Caicun for the second time to cover ground we hadn't covered the first time. We explored farther to the north and south along Erhai Lake mostly just taking it easy and enjoying the warm sunny weather and saw some interesting things along the way. Caicun port turned out to be more interesting than we had thought at first glance, a good lesson in not making too early and hasty judgements.

beautifully decorated wedding car

washing clothes the old-fashioned way

workhorses -  engine exposed rattletraps

chrome egg sculpture with fetus inside

dog's name is Bao-bao
which means baby in
Chinese - what is interesting
is that the Chinese characters
for baby mean
double treasure - 宝宝
sign says "Bao-bao's house"

afternoon tea

lunch break

China – Winter 2016 (Dali, getting to know more about you)

     Although the Ji Rui Hotel was charming and the staff were attentive and helpful, the inconvenience of having to walk a kilometer to the South Gate for next 17 days decided us to change hotels. A car from the new hotel, the Yin Feng, picked us up and drove us to the hotel. The ride through Dali outside the wall of the old town showed us a side of Dali we hadn't yet experienced. Thus far and on foot we had seen mostly the touristy side of the Old Town. What we drove through was the non-facelifted part of town—the real town. I realized then that there were two Dalis, the tourist area confined mostly to Fuxing Road between the North and South Gates, and the rest, perhaps more real and authentic as a representation of the level of development in the area.

        Driving in Dali traffic is done as much with the horn as the steering wheel and accelerator. There are hardly any traffic signals, no stop signs . . . We saw only two traffic lights at major highway intersections. Narrow roads are congested with pedestrians and vehicles of every imaginable description: cars, buses, trucks, etc. I sat on the edge of my seat as our driver maneuvered seemingly effortlessly and with nerves of steel (or none at all), blowing the horn every few seconds and barely slowing down to avoid obstacles in the road. Yet, what seems like chaos to me is everyday normal for the locals. I have seen similar driving conditions in many developing countries and I can only think that I would hate to drive a car where traffic regulations are regarded merely as suggestions when not ignored completely.

Yin Feng Hotel

room with heater at Yin Feng

        The staff of the Yin Feng (Bao Lu [Beautiful Jade] and Chen Xiao Tao [Little Ripple]) are very friendly and helpful in every way. The young woman, Lu, is especially there for you, with good English and the patience of Job it seems. She helped us to settle in and handled all our questions and anxieties with perfect politesse and knowledge of local conditions. The room is spacious, clean, has a heater/air conditioner and the hotel is right in the old town an easy walking distance to shops, restaurants, etc. Although not as charming as our first traditional (and unheated) hotel, it is definitely an improvement for the heat and location.

Yuer Park 

red and white camellia

       There is a lovely park just a stone's throw from the Yin Feng. Yuer Park is a refuge of quiet right in the middle of the bustling town. The park is popular for its camellias plants with the biggest camellia blossoms I have ever seen. It's a convenient and relaxing way to walk around town instead of walking along the very busy and bustling Fuxing Road. 

reflections

Cangshan Mountains

Chinese Banyan Tree

the card players

China - Winter 2016 (no turds allowed)

Old Town wall and Cangshan Range

    On Sunday morning the weather was sunny and getting warmer. We had arranged to meet a blog buddy at a restaurant called Kikuya not far from the West Gate of Old Town in the afternoon. The area was quieter than Fuxing Road, less touristy and somewhat shabby and run down looking. In the meantime we continued exploring. After entering through South Gate we found that we could climb some steps up to the top of the wall and the upper story of the gate itself and got a semi-bird's-eye view of the whole area from the Cangshan mountains to the west and Erhai Lake to the east, all the way to North Gate at the other end of Fuxing Road, about a kilometer and a half away.

Fuxing Road - North Gate (orange roof)

looking east to Erhai Lake

young Bai women in traditional garb

       We were beginning to get a sense of the vitality of the local people and ethnic Bai culture as well as their colorful costumes. Although many of the traditionally and colorfully clad young women are there for attracting tourists (they will pose for pictures with you if you wish), many women still wear less ornate versions of the traditional garb.

embroidered headwear of this
tie-dye worker is typical of Bai women

locally grown food is varied and abundant

       This area is still very much an agrarian society. The food grown locally is amazing in its abundance and variety. There is a vibrant, noisy, smelly, colorful market with produce laid out in the open in stalls on the ground tended either by merchant middlemen or by the farmers themselves who haul their produce to market in time honored ways and sell it themselves either in the market or along the streets and roads in and outside the city.

fruit and vegetable market

silver smith

       There are probably hundreds (if not thousands) of small shops selling all kinds of goods, from taffy to tea, silver, jade, shoes, clothing of all types, trinkets, restaurants everywhere with the constant smell of food and occasional whiffs of sewer in your nostrils—hurly-burly, bustle and hustle.

pulling taffy

various colorful souvenirs

meat market

Mr. S. - a chain smoker

Kikuya

     We met our blog buddy at the Kikuya restaurant in the early afternoon as prearranged on the Internet. Mr. S. is a Japanese man in his 60s who lives in Dali and is a good source of information about the town and surrounding area. We met him at the restaurant and had lunch and exchanged travel gossip and learned a bit about Dali. I got up to go to the loo at one point and came back LMAO. I learned something quite unexpected about Dali. The sewage system in some areas is inadequate to handle solid waste and you must not defecate or use toilet paper in the commode. A sign on the wall in the toilet was blunt and to the point. Mr. S. explained, straight-facedly, about the inadequacies of the local plumbing and that you could go to a designated toilet up the street if you needed to. It turns out that this is a common problem in many older communities (although referred to more delicately). 

a kinder, gentler reminder
(and cheaper, too)

the four characters on top say,
literally "large stools are prohibited" -
the "fine" is a surcharge for unblocking the toilet