Yunnan II

3-13
Our first real day in Yunnan province was meant to get two tour buses (one big one full of non-intensive language students, and one small bus full of intensive language students) out of the big city and into the beautiful countryside. It did not take long to be outside of Kunming and surrounded by beautiful countryside. The landscape was full of free flowing beautiful fields with patches of dark greens interrupted by mustard yellows. There were butterflies fluttering all over and off and on I could see a peasant’s head working her land. We stopped and had lunch in the heart of the “Dinosaur Valley” (a location with a high concentration of prehistoric bones) at a model village. After the meal I trekked around the canal town and discovered the pristinely reconstructed town was completely deserted. Finally some peace and quiet!
The further we went on the highway it seemed the peasant lifestyle became more concentrated. The villages we passed through had no conception of a 10% GDP growth model and the communist revolution was something only important in textbooks. In the late afternoon we came into the large crossroads town of Dali. Dali was situated on a series of hills that eventually turned into mountains. Bellow the city was a glacier lake.
The bus caravan stopped next to the beautiful old town and we checked into a dirty hotel. Outside the streets were made more beautiful by the explosions of pink blossoming trees (momo in Japanese, not sure on an English name). It was already late afternoon but the tour led us to an ancient Buddhist monastery carved into the hill side. It was famous because the three pagodas at the bottom of the abbey were created in the Song dynasty about a thousand years ago. I climbed up the stairs to the pagodas to take some pictures and soon realized that ascending up the stairs were more temples. There were something like seven temples in all but because of a lack of oxygen and the feeling of aw I lost count. The temples were all recently rebuilt, because they were destroyed in the cultural revolution. Now they have a much more touristy feel. To my disgust I found gift shops inside the shrines right next to statues of Buddha and the various prophets and deities. At the second to highest level I found some prayer wheels which I gave a twirl. As they were spinning the sun came out and it seemed like the heavens opened up because I had awakened the giant mechanical prayer devices.
The group ate duck hot pot together and after that I went to the tourist old town for some evening drinks. I roamed the streets with a buddy from the Bay Area and somehow we were able to find cheap local brews.