Dali for christmas

I headed up from Kunming to Dali for christmas with friends. It was also a reason to get out of Kunming after having been there in grey and chilly weather for the previous 10 or so days. Christmas eve was celebrated by having a nice dinner with Adam and Kaja before heading out to the foreigners bar to meet others. The rest of the time there was spent riding bikes around villages, eating western foods, and general relaxing all around. It was a good break and tons of fun.

christmas dinner, polish style. so we had cheese potato dumplings and mulled wine. I made the mashed taro dish.

xmas eve with new good friends

I helped an old man carry flowers across the street, only I didn't know where they were supposed to go as he stayed on the other side.

here he is looking for me one way

and now the other

serious mah jong strategy

rocking out mah jong with the kids

helping some village cook

there's my belly, a common site on this trip

what we're cooking

I actually sat down to play with these guys for a bit, only i couldn't play the instrument and just made some god awful noise.

we hired this boat to get us across the river

adam pulling hard to help (though we actually caused more of a hindrance). notice dan's crack.. unintentional, I swear

just another day rowing on erhai lake

our boat leaves us to go back home

we got some snacks. we ate what we were told were pearls. those clear ball things we were told were pearls that had not hardened yet. they were ok, nothing special.

Carla and me laughing. It had to be from one of the many hysterical things that I always say. I'm sure. :)

They said that I couldn't break the gingerbread house with one hit.

but I did, I crushed it.

Me: 1 Gingergread house: 0 though you can see some swollenness in my hand.

We headed up to a local market where all types of fun ensued. This is me putting a pan on dan's head. I'm wearing a local tribes scarf which makes me look like a gay pirate.

local tribes old headdress, looking even more flamboyant here.

Yes, Dali indeed was a fun time.

This is going to get bad. We were waiting for adam to stitch his pants and I was bored and hot and tired and hungry. the following pictures I have no real memory of. :)

I'm helping a telephone worker out.

It actually got even better with more belts, but no photos were taken of that.

Eating some local yellow bean soup. I really loved this dish. I first had it on my first go around of Dali with Paula and was excited to have it again.

the best baba (local style of bread) in Dali

anyone know where to find good donkey meat? apparently it's common in Dali but I never had it, only saw this sign for it.