Dali, China

I thought that with my English/Chinese map in hand, and having had the girl at the hostel write out (in Chinese characters) what bus ticket I wanted to purchase I could find my way to the bus station and get on the right bus to Dali.  Wrong… 

I hailed a taxi and pointed on my map to what I believed said “bus station” in Chinese since it was right below “bus station” written in English.  The taxi driver nodded that she understood and we set off.  A few minutes later she stopped the taxi and motioned for me to get off – signaling that this was my stop.  This was not the bus station and plus the meter was only at 8Y and it should have cost me 25Y.  I pulled out other maps that I had and looked in my Lonely Planet to see if the bus station it was spelled out in Chinese characters.  I find something and she nods that she understands. 

Surprisingly we arrived to the bus station and I walked up to the ticket window with my pre-written note describing exactly what I wanted (express bus to Dali) and just like that the woman gave me the right ticket with the best seat. 

Lesson Learned:  life is so much easier if you can anticipate exactly what you’ll need to ask or say and have the hostel write it for you in Chinese characters on a piece of paper.  Seriously, this makes life so much less complicated.

My $4 hostel in Dali

Since it was a warm night and Dali was such a cute village I stopped off at this little café for dinner with cozy outdoor seating right on the street.  Almost immediately I was approached by an older “traditionally dressed” woman asking if I wanted to buy some silver bracelets.  She then leaned over and in a quieter voice asked “you smoke the ganja”?  She was trying to sell me dope right there on the street!  Before the end of the night I had at least 4 other women approach me asking if I wanted ganja.   Crazy! 

The woman who tried to sell me ganja on the street