The Not-so Perilous Train Ride

(Ola)

Well folks, I'm alive. Contrary to what I had imagined, the overnight train ride we took from Kunming to Dali went off without a hitch. After reading The Namesake a couple of months ago, I had conjured up a bunch of worst-case scenarios and at the beginning, was not entirely thrilled about this experience. But, when we got to the train station, Abby and I were too absorbed in some deep heart to heart conversations with Ms. Li for me to think about what could go wrong.
We got on the train and went to our separate compartments. In each 5' x 7' compartment, there were four bunkbeds and a table. Considering we also had all our luggage with us, it was very cramped. As you know, there are five of us merry travelers. Therefore, one of us would be sleeping in a separate compartment with three strangers. As luck would have it, my ticket was 005, meaning I would be the lonesome soul. Since I'm still slightly young and vuln, Mrs. Li kindly volunteered herself as tribute. To no one's surprise, she made fast friends with the three strangers by heatedly chatting about international affairs as well as sharing life stories. Although we were in very tight quarters, we were all so tired that we immediately fell asleep and didn't wake up until minutes before our 7 AM arrival in Dali. Traipsing off the train looking slightly feral, we were greeted by the sight of Mrs. Li exchanging emails with her new friend from Guangzhou whom she named "Rocky." When we departed the train station, our new guide, Frank, took us back to the hotel. We ate breakfast and showered so as to not frighten the townspeople of Dali throughout our day. The hotel was beautiful and had many elements of Bai architecture. The buildings were white with extremely colorful and intricate roofs. They all had a courtyard in the center where an abundance of potted plants resided. Frank told us that the Bai people have a deep respect and love for flowers, plants, and the earth. For example, his daughters are named Camellia and Azalea.

Frank took us to Chongshengshi, also known as the Three Pagoda Temple. It is a park with three pagodas and about 15 different Buddhist temples. The temples are home to thousands of copper and gold statues. Chongshengshi's temples have many different view towers. One can see snowcapped mountains, lush green hills, and an immense sparkling lake all-in-one vista. Due to our high altitude, the sun was brutally beating down. There were forceful, toppling gales of wind. Anxious to get inside, we went into a temple that has the longest wood carving in the world. The carving took only three years to create and depicts stories of Buddhism. As we walked, we noticed that the two smaller pagodas on either side of the middle larger one were leaning. Frank said that the large one is completely hollow, but that the top tiers of the smaller ones are filled with cement. Therefore, during earthquakes, the pagodas uprightness shifted. After a delicious lunch, Frank took us to an old Catholic Church as well as the old city gate. We also walked around town to see what the local vendors were selling. We learned that Dali is very famous for its marble. When Frank let us loose, Abby and I, no longer able to stand the glare, bought some sunglasses. Described by the travel guide "Lonely Planet" as a hippie town, Dali's marketplace is like a more calm version of West Street in Yangshuo.

Our dinner, like so many of our meals, was an eventful one. We decided to try out the western restaurant that was located on the hotel grounds. You would think that a western restaurant would be prepared to serve western food. But judging by the reactions we got, we were one of the only people who had ever stepped foot in there. It seemed that every time we would try to order a dish we would be met with the response "meiyou." They didn't have approximately half of what the menu claimed they had. We were rather amused when, upon finally ordering, we heard the waitress and hostess worriedly exclaiming in the kitchen. Perhaps the cook had taken the night off? Either way, these two tried their hardest and eventually brought out what we had ordered. The relief when we finished eating was palpable.

The next day we drove to Shaxi Village. In the past, many of the students said Shaxi was one of their favorite parts of the trip. When we pulled up to the Old Theatre Inn, an old theater converted into a five room inn, we could definitely see why. The landscape is so beautiful and one feels instantly at peace. I remarked to Ms. Li that if I ever became one of those brooding artistic intellectual types that take several years to go ponder life somewhere, I would come here. After a brisk walk through the village, where we saw temples, people washing clothes in the river and some goats ambling down the street, we returned to the inn. The inn's workers are very accommodating and brought out tea and biscuits for us as soon as we pulled up. The only ones here, we sat in the bright sunlight of the courtyard and enjoyed the fields of canola flowers as well as the wondrous arrays of grazing cows and goats. We relaxed in the late afternoon by reading, writing postcards, and writing this blog post! To spice up the atmosphere, we also decided to do all of this while listening to some good ol' Shakira tunes (shoutout to Señor Linardi!) The evening culminated in a delicious dinner of plentiful veggies and many laughs.