I arrived in Shangri-La by bus from Lijiang. The ride cost 68 RMB ($10.97 USD), took about four hours, and was full of beautiful scenery.
ShangriLa China: Guishan Park and The World’s Second Largest Prayer Wheel
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Lijiang, China: My Budget for a Three Day Visit
Lijiang, China: Round Bed, Choking on Altitude and Getting Westernered
Upon arrival in Lijiang, I was picked up by a driver my hotel set up for free, and I was brought to my hotel. I am staying at Xi Tang Exquisite Hotel. When I had booked it, I picked it because it had round beds and I had always wanted to sleep in a round bed.
Shortly after booking, I got an email letting me know that there is going to be construction going on during the day…my heart sank as I thought this was going to continue to tell me that the room is now not available. But it was! I had a reduced rate because of the construction. YAY ROUND BED!
Escape From Ganzi to Dege, Tibet: Hotel Horrors and Hotel Highs
So when we last left off, I had just had a complete nervous breakdown in the middle of Tibet and was told that I would be leaving Ganzi in a shared minivan at 8:00 the next morning. You can read all about that here.
Well that morning was this morning and I should probably start off by telling you that I did indeed get out of Ganzi (YAY) but the story is a bit more complicated than that.
I knew I was supposed to be leaving at 8:00 so I planned to leave my hotel at 7:30. The shared minivans gather about ten feet from the door. I woke up at 6:00 am and was just about to eat a Cliff Bar and drink some milk tea when someone began knocking on my door. What the hell. I open it and it is a dude standing there who says “Dege” to me. I say “I thought we were leaving at 8:00” which he does not understand, as if it mattered anyway. He does a driving motion and says “Dege” and points down, meaning “come on, let’s go.”
If I wasn’t such a maniac, I would not have even been awake yet. I could in theory have set my alarm for 7:30 and still have been outside by 8:00. As it was, I was only awake for maybe five minutes. So now I have to rush like even more of a maniac and pack and get out now. I am ready in five minutes, but I am all shaky from doing too much when I was only awake for five minutes in high altitude. Plus, I had consumed zero calories. But hey, I am getting out of Ganzi so let’s go!
Ganzi, Tibet: A Nice Place to Visit, But I Don’t Want to Live Here.
I am sitting here on my hotel bed typing this out. My laptop is the only thing warm in this room and I am using it as a heater on my feet as I sit Indian style. To my right is the sound of thunder and lightning shaking my windows, to my left is the sound of the shower dripping as a reminder that I now have not showered in two days. Or maybe the five or six flies buzzing all around me are the reminder. I don’t really know anymore. I do know that I am putting off showering today because I want to wait until the very last minute to discover that once again I do not have hot water. I have already verified I have no heat. I did not expect to. Actually, if we are going to list things I was not expecting, let us put “spending yet ANOTHER night in Ganzi” at the top of the list.
See, I am an independent woman who travels solo. I speak online with a lot of women who are scared to take the leap. My signature stance is that: if you are temporarily lost, just get in a taxi back to your hotel. Problem solved. No one has ever had to relocate and live in a city they traveled to because they got lost and could not get out. But I now live in Ganzi. Because I cannot get out.
Cost of Traveling in China: Dali, China
How much does it cost to visit Dali, China? Let’s find out.
I spent two nights in Dali. I arrived early morning on day one and left early morning on day three.
How did I travel to Dali? I flew from Kunming. There are bus and train options which are way cheaper. But one of the benefits of being employed full time is that you can justify these splurges in order to get a few more hours in a destination.
While here, I stayed at the Dragonfly Inn (Hi Lorelai and Sookie!) in a private room with private bathroom.
Train Ride from Dali, China to Lijiang, China
To get from Dali to Lijiang, you can take a train or a bus. I took a train, because it was only two hours compared to five. But it ended up feeling like seventeen hours, so maybe the bus is a better option after all.
Arrival at Dali train station. Look at those stairs you need to get your luggage up. I pitied myself for only the ten seconds it took before I saw a woman with two full sized suitcases navigate the steps without any help.
Dali, China: Beautiful Movie Set-Like Setting and Cangshan Mountain Cable Car
One thing you never realize while growing up American is that all the things you are exposed to are just replica of real things thousands of miles away. So when you arrive in a place like Dali, China, it takes a while for your mind to comprehend that this is the real deal. This is all authentic China. This is not an amusement park, not a theme park, not a Hollywood movie set, this is an actual true town that looks like this:
Pretty, right?
Dali, China: The Gorgeous Three Pagodas of the Congsheng Temple Grounds
If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you may have seen me post that once upon a time, I saw a photo of Dali’s Three Pagodas and immediately thought “I need to go there.” So I did.
This is one of the many things I love about travel. That as you go further and further, you realize how attainable things are. You can be a person who looks at a picture in a magazine and thinks “Oh how pretty” before turning the page and running for your car keys when you see an ad announcing that your preferred brand of kitty litter is on sale, or you can be the person who does not turn the page and instead brings the magazine to her laptop and begins Googling to figure out the logistics of getting there. I will always be the latter. How could I not be when this exists:
Dali, China: Beautiful Scenery, Dead Butterflies and I Get Lost and Hitchhike
I woke up in Kunming this morning and had a fight with my VPN for way too long to actually admit to, so let’s just say it was a long time.
Took my hotel’s airport shuttle to the airport and checked into my flight to Dali. The flight was a short 57 minutes but I screwed up everything about it. I thought it was leaving at 9:35, but that was the time it was arriving. I also at some point thought we were leaving an hour late because it was 8:30, but that is the time my flight was supposed to leave (and I thought it was 9:35 so wouldn’t 8:30 be an hour early and not late?) Yeah.
We land in Dali and I am picked up by a prearranged driver for my hostel. This is a luxury I love affording myself because it sure beats figuring out where I have to go. Which as you read on, you will see why it is probably best I am not left to fend for myself.
I checked into my room at the Dragonfly Guesthouse. There are so many places to stay in Dali, all with amazing reviews. How do you choose? Easy. Pick the one with the Gilmore Girls related name. Easy, peasy. Lorelai would be proud.