We depart for Dali via domestic flight in the morning
New houses in Dali facing the sea
Passing by a typical home in Dali
Streets of Dali
We arrive at our Inn, the Laughing Lotus Inn. The inn is run by a young couple who can speak English.
My room key
Laughing Lotus Inn by day
Interior of the room
Food preparation at the backyard of the inn
Still at the inn's backyard
The view at the entrance of the Inn
Where locals wash their clothes
Taking a walk around the vicinity of the Inn: a Tibetan-style Inn
We stop for lunch at a random restaurant
You will always see flowers and mushrooms being prepared as food in Yunnan
Mouth watering fluffy egg omelette with flowers
Soup with wild mountain vegetables and meat
Chilli bean paste tofu
Pan-fried yak cheese (also an Yunnan speciality) sprinkled with sugar. The taste is strong and gamey so it's not for those who do not like the gamey taste of meat or milk.
Spicy fish stew. The fish are freshwater and therefore have many bones.
After lunch, we head off to Cangshan (苍山). a mountain range west of Dali. The mountain is known for its rich and dense flowers and paths lined wtih raw marble. The highest summit is more than 4000m above sea level, but we drove up to 2000+m only in order to get back before nightfall.
Mountain paths are lined with glittery raw white marble fragments
A large bock of marble
Mining the marble is illegal, but the locals still do it anyway
A quiet temple on the mountains
The view of Dali from the mountain
Grilled yak milk pancakes
Swill for pigs
A street tailor
It is common for eating places in Dali to be curing meat overhead
At the innkeeper's recommendation, we go to King's Park Kitchen for dinner.
Walk into a cozy interior
Last stop at a café on the way back to the inn for a hot tea with yak butter
The slightly salty Yak Butter Tea. But I like it
Strange looking menu. What is hairtail bombing!
Back at the inn
The Laughing Lotus Inn
No. 3 Hong Long Jing, Dali 671003, China
Tel: +86 156 8725 8170
Website: http://www.thelaughinglotusinn.com/
