Saunas in Hotel Rooms?

A lot has been done since last I posted from China. Three cities, a plane ride, a five hour bus ride, another 4 hour car ride, and a 30 minute gondola ride to a glacier. Oh, and I even made it back home. But here’s the first part of the story…

Kunming

We got to Kunming, Yunnan Province without incident, despite the fact that up until the moment we got on the plane we weren’t sure if our tickets were valid. Our flight was canceled twice on two different days, and then we got moved to another airline…it was all very interesting, but taught the valuable lesson to check on your flights in China. We arrived in Kunming to very clean air, and checked into our hotel room at the Greenland Hotel, only to find that apparently our room came retrofitted with a personal sauna. Seriously, it was in the corner of the room and had a tape player in which you could pipe in Tchaikovsky while taking a sauna. Doug took a picture lest no one believe us:

The next morning we got on a bus to head off to Dali. The pollution was so bad heading out of the city that you could see whole valleys disappear into hazes of smoke and toxic fumes. I was happy we were only passing through those areas. It is hard to believe that people live their whole lives in places so polluted that I can’t take a deep breath, and that in the 21^st Century it is getting worse rather than better. In valley after valley we saw houses right next to toxic smelting plants and industrial wastelands. I wonder sometimes how people live past the age of 3 in these places. I’ve seen locations like this when working, especially in the coal areas of Ningxia, but I still find it hard to believe that it happens. Fortunately, we are able to leave it all behind and keep going. I only wish something could give me hope that the situation will get better for the people left in those valleys…

Dali

Doug and I have decided we’re not sure what we think of Dali. Our hotel, Jim’s Tibetan Hotel (http://www.china-travel.nl/english/guesthouse.htm), was FREEZING. I mean, the temperature outside was in the 60s, but inside our room it was about 50. Oh, and the water was heated by solar panel, so the 2^nd day we didn’t have hot water…I am apparently a soft westerner because an icy cold shower in 50 degree temperatures is not my idea of fun.

However, the town had some very interesting aspects as well. Not the least of which is it appears to be heaven for anyone who wants to drop off the face of the earth and just hang out. There also seemed to be a large proportion of the westerners interested in…let’s just say alternative lifestyles…Like all small Chinese towns, it truly seemed like a different world, as if you stepped back in time a century or two into a place where buildings were made out of mudbrick and grey tiles with shops wares spread out for all to see:

On our second day in Dali we headed off to Cangshan to hike in the mountains. It was lovely to get out of the noise and craziness of most of China and up into the hills. We had a good 13km walk along a paved trail (there isn’t much in China that’s left to wilderness or even good old hiking trails), weaving in and out of mountain valleys where we didn’t see another soul for hours. I realized that it was the first time in a couple of months that I was surrounded by a completely peaceful environment. In all, a lovely place to be.

The last day in Dali I was pretty sick, so didn't do much more than relax and drink water. And then we headed out to Lijiang...