Ganja?

Dali is a great town. There's a new city (that no one visits) and the old town, complete with city wall and gates. It's a backpacker haven. It also seems to be the stoner capital of China. And the drug dealers are everywhere. They're not who you'd imagine them to be, either. Ladies, often in the traditional clothing of the local people, sidle up alongside wandering foreigners and make known what they have to offer. "Ganja?" they'll whisper. "Hashish? You want to buy?"

To escape the skunky smell that seems to hover over the city, I rented a bike and went off around the nearby lake. We're talking a big lake. I pedaled for something like five hours the first day and covered more than 35 miles to the other side, where I spent the night in a small town. The next day, I wimped out and only went a few more miles before I took the ferry back to the other side. My ass and hands hurt from the less-than-perfect road conditions.

It's rice country, and it's harvest time, so I had a good glimpse at farm life in China. They cut the plant and then bash it into a basket to release the grains of rice, which is later spread on the ground to dry, often just on the road or highway.

Of course I snapped a few photos on my way around...

From China

From China

From China

From China

From China

From China

...some nice views there, if I do say so myself.


Lastly, I've updated my map to reflect my travels so far in China. Play around with it and check out where I've been.


View Larger Map


Today or tomorrow, I'm heading out to some less touristed parts. The Hu river in very western Yunnan runs from Tibet, through Yunnan along the Myanmar border and into Myanmar in the south. It's apparently quite a beautiful area. May be away from the Internet again for a few days (the agony!), but I'll have more up soon enough.