Zhong Guo Hailey: Dali

I have a few places on my list that I want to visit before my time here is over. This weekend I got to take a short trip to one of them. Dali is one of the most popular tourist spots in Yunnan province. I don't want to cross it off the list yet though. I'd like to go there one more time and do some hardcore tourist damage.

I got a kindle from my parents for my birthday and finally used it this weekend. I loaded it up with some books and spent the car ride there devouring my first book since August. It's hard for me to pick up a book sometimes, but once I start it's all I want to do. I read '90 Minutes in Heaven' by Don Piper. I've always been curious about it. Pretty cool book. Rented it. Read it. Done.

We stayed at this cute little hotel/hostel thing. It's called the Sleepyfish Lodge. I loved it. I'd stay there again easily. It was so relaxing, they had good food, and it was pretty close to the old town area.

You might think this is rare but this is something I see every single day here.

We didn't do too much. Went into the old town a few times, ate some American food. We spent a lot of time playing games and relaxing. I read and got to be an adult all weekend which was really nice. I usually hang out with the younger ones but I decided to go the other way this weekend. When I'm with Americans here it's teenagers and younger, or their parents. So I'm right in the middle. Freedom to roam around? I guess so. We met some really cool people there and had a lot of good, insightful conversations. It was a perfect little weekend... that ended with food poisoning but I'm just going to act like that didn't happen.