Dali, Yunnan

After a 7 hour bus trip from the Tiger Leaping Gorge to Dali, changing buses in Lijiang, I was greeted by a friendly lady on the street in Dali, who persuaded me to follow her to the Tibetan Lodge. Normally I ignore people who wave flyers in my face, but she was really friendly. It turned out to be a very nice place, so I didn't hesitate to check in without further investigation. A very cosy room with private bathroom (designer sink!) in the center of town for just 60 Yuan. It's very small, but has a nice feel, a nice double bed (rare!), soft lights (also rare), and a writing desk (with oversized tv). The lodge has free internet access (8 computers!) , a nice restaurant, and is decorated with Tibetan prayer flags and lots of fantastic photos of Tibet.
The first two days I just walked around the old town of Dali, and heard a lot of Dutch spoken around me. The majority of tourists here is still Chinese (like everywhere in China), but the percentage of Europeans is much higher than elsewhere. Like it or not.
Despite the tourism, Dali is a charming town, and it looks like it has been a popular hippy hangout many years ago. There are still some of these hippy bars, with rasta music and dreads, batik clothes etc. A bit of Thai influence maybe? Also interesting is that many local women (wearing funny hats) try to sell you drugs on the street (ganya).
There are may small coffee bars and restauants serving a mix of Western, Thai, and Chinese food, besides the usual array of Chinese mini-restaurants. These Western places are quite comfy, with soft couches, dimmed lights, and shelfs filled with English books. I tend to visit the Chinese places during the day (lunch) and the Western places in the evening, to catch up on the latest gossip about European affairs, and to drink luxuries such as cafe latte and Jack Daniels.
Today I rented a mountain bike and made a nice tour (about 50km) to the Three Pagodas Temple, to a village North of Dali, named Xizhou, and to the lake near Dali (Erhai Hu). Along the way people were busy harvesting rice, and in the villages the rice was further processed on the streets and in the courtyards of the houses. Piles of rice everywhere, lots of couleur locale!
After pedaling back from Xizhou, I turned towards the lake, and found a brand new guesthouse (opened 6 weeks ago) run by a local family and some Irish guys. A nice place, also a bit of hippy atmosphere, and some Japanese hipsters hanging out there. Good place for a beer and some noodles, before heading back to Dali.