Goodbye Dali

Dali is apparently known for these three golden pagodas at the foot of the mountain, so Sean and I went to check them out yesterday (Jenna has a cold...eek) but I found them underwhelming. First of all, they were built recently to add something to the area and you can't even climb to the top of the thing. It's also a whopping 171元 to even enter the complex. We walked up behind the thing and a bit up the mountain to get a good view of Dali and the lake. There are frequent checkpoints on the mountain to make sure you don't  have a lighter because the forests are so dry. There aren't any breaks
on the mountain either!

One of our new friends, Andy, had a bad case of the 拉肚子 (travelers diarrhea). Poor kid likely ate a bad western steak (eat Chinese!) and  was suffering for about 18 hours before I gave him some Cipro. He was  back in action when we left and Sean, Evan and Andy are coming up to
Lijiang tomorrow.

Jenna and I took the bus up to Lijiang this afternoon and are now in our new hostel, Mama Naxi's. Mama herself cooked us a family style dinner, as she does every night, for only 15元 each person! We got four plates of food, bananas and tea. She is so friendly and adorable! We also just witnessed her sending off some people with more bananas, extra water, and lots of hugs and kisses. This hostel also has several dogs running around, but only one bathroom/shower that we know of. Lonely planet wins again!

We're going to explore the city tomorrow. America in two weeks!