Day 3 - Dali

First agenda was stuffing ourselves at the hotel buffet.  :)  Tummies happy, we checked out and took the metro to the Kunming railway station.  Tickets were RMB145/RM90 each for the 2-hour journey to Dali. 

Off again

I'm always good when toilets are available!  Hot water was on tap too.  

Hot tea, a book, some snacks. Ahhh

At the Dali end, got ourselves fish soup with rice and beef noodles for lunch - both were yumms! Unlike our recent trip to Korea, we didn't encounter any rules in China that you had to buy one meal per diner.  Two meals were enough for the 3 of us, though greedy me was on standby to purchase more food hehe.

 

Yummy lunch

It started to rain halfway to our hotel Z.Garden.  I'd used chatgpt to get the Chinese name (didn't notice  the hotel had provided the correct name via the chat option) and ended up getting dropped in front of a completely different place!  Luckily managed to find the hotel on Amap (Google map doesn't work well in China) with a doable 21min walk.  The rain wasn't heavy but our shoes were wet by the time we arrived.  But... look at what greeted us.

 

Welcome to my castle

My balcony - care for some tea?

I can make it for you at my bar

With lemon perhaps? Fine the lemons aren't mine

Or you can rest if you're tired

And at the corner of the room you will find a door...

...to your very own bathtub

The place was beyond huge!  And at only RMB550/RM330 a night!   

Or you could take this room. Don't mind me, just staying out of the photo

It couldn't have been more perfect.  We were within a cobblestoned area where cars can't enter.  The road leading to our hotel was lined with food stalls in the evenings and it was only a short walk to the nearest gate of the ancient town.

  

Gate to the aforementioned ancient town

We walked through the gate and were instantly happy.  It is a tourist place now but the buildings provided a lovely setting.  And people offer you samples of tea, pastry, coffee, sweets freely.  I guess it wasn't peak tourist season - there was plenty of space yet enough people around.

See? Not crowded

Quick picture here first

Mummy also wants a picture

We wandered around and eventually it was dinner time.  Went for the 'peacock banquet' common in these parts.  Various dishes are served in this peacock platter.  Ours included lemongrass grilled fish, pork ribs, pork belly and thai-style chicken salad at RMB138/RM85. Tastewise... all right, not great.  

Peacock head not edible ya

Walked around more after dinner before heading to our wonderful hotel.  How not to be happy with a place like that to return to?  Heh heh heh.