Well we’ve taken a couple of days off from sightseeing and generally energetic activities. Yesterday we went into Dali (the new city) to sort out our visa extensions. What a great experience – the first time in my life I have ever been inside a government building where the staff outnumber the people needing assistance. Very pleasant and efficient but our visa will only be ready on Tuesday so we will be here for another two nights.

In the afternoon we took a short stroll around Dali old town to pick up some supplies for a hike and some odd looking fruit to try. The old town is a bit of a mix – some parts have been rebuilt (not restored) and look quaint but sterile. There is a bustling ‘Foreigner’s Street’ where a travelers needs can be adequately fulfilled complete with last night’s Glenmorangie (even though two doubles cost most than a nights accommodation it was worth it). The main ‘shopping’ streets are far from interesting, photocopies of what you see everywhere – we are bored of this stuff – bring on the mountains ! Away from the main streets we found less than authentic buildings in hastily poured concrete peppered with the odd derelict original structure. Golf carts full of domestic tourists rolling up and down the streets does not help – possibly we are missing something or we have just seen it all before.

Today was a bit of a cop-out. We planned to go for a hike up and along some of the mountain trails but neither of us was in the mood. I’ve picked up a stomach bug and a bit of man flu (and everyone knows that is far worse than any other kind of flu) so we decided to rest up and chill out. With time on our hands we have started to think about changing plans again – not good me thinks. We are barely 1400km from Mt. Everest at the moment and it’s killing us (that’s like being in Cape Town and having Everest in Joburg !). We have mixed reports of road closures on the route we want to take to Tibet and there seem to be a lot of complications and costs involved. The option of going to Nepal is incredibly tempting. We will definitely exit China over budget (but then again we expected to stay only six weeks – we’ve been here two months with another four weeks to go !). So after many, many hours agonizing over the options we have decided to stick to our rough original plan – Lijiang and the Tiger Leaping Gorge, then Shangrila where we will try to find a route to Lhasa (hopefully we won’t need to fly or double back to Xi’an). From Lhasa we’ll do a standard ‘tour’ including the Chinese Everest Base Camp, return to Lhasa and make our way back to Kunming (as cheaply and quickly as possible). Real trekking in Nepal is going to have to wait for another trip. So close. The costs, time and lack of gear will just not do it justice.

We spent another few hours walking around Dali old town again looking for some tops for V (and finally have been successful) but I think we are both reaching saturation point in China. We need to get to another country. Tibet will do just fine 🙂

PS… The last 5 eps of this years ‘Doctor Who’ were brilliant and bow-ties are cool. Geronimo !

[Pictures: So that’s what a nights accommodation and a meal looks like – but it did taste amazing, Dali old town, Ridley Scott’s ‘Alien’ egg fruit]

– Posted from my iPhone via Wifi