It’s time to leave the unseasonably hot weather in Guizhou province and make our way to the high plateau in Yunnan. To get there we had to catch two high speed trains, travelling at speeds of 300kmh until we arrived in the town of Dali which sits at 1975m and is nestled between mountains and the seventh largest lake in China. We were heading for old town Dali, said to be a hippy hangout amongst western tourists back in the day but now it’s overrun with domestic Chinese tourists who fill the narrow roads. Normally we’d like to go hiking in the mountains when they’re so close by but these mountains were more like forested hills than craggy peaks, plus it was either a tough uphill hike or a very overpriced cable car as the cheaper one was under maintenance so we decided to skip the mountain and focus on exploring the town.

It was heaving with big tour groups which kind of took away any possible charm. There were some pretty lanes though with hundreds of yellow and red lanterns all around. Food stalls lined the streets selling some interesting things like a sort of salad constructed in a pestle and mortar with mango, coriander, garlic, lemon…it all looked delicious but then they added boiled chicken feet and oesophagus which were the main ingredient to the salad. There were also a few stalls selling grubs and bugs, all crispy and served on sticks. Instead of all the local delicacies we opted for pizza and my goodness was it a good choice, it was like a proper Italian pizza with soft dough and just what I was craving.

The next day we took a bus north to explore the town of Xízhōu. It was slightly less busy than Dali with narrow lanes lined with shops aimed at tourists. Many sold a local cake filled with rose but the towns main speciality was called Baba which was a sort of doughnut textured flatbread stuffed with meat or a red bean and rose mix. It was sold everywhere for 10 yuan but we found a little stall selling them for 3 yuan which I’m glad about because it was rather sickly and overrated. There was a bustling market where many of the local ladies dressed in interesting ethnic outfits. We also ended up buying lots of random goodies like a humongous mango with the smallest stone inside (miracles do happen) goji berries, banana bread, spicy nuts etc. There was a street seller making potato rosti style snacks where she cut open the middle and filled it with what I thought was pickled veg and spring onions but the onions were in fact fish mint root, a foul root we tried when we first arrived in China and it made the entire rosti inedible. So we washed the flavour out our mouths with a fancy ice lolly that had pieces of fruit frozen into it but it was so frozen that my lips stuck to it and suddenly I realised blood was smeared all over the ice lolly, lovely.

When it was time to leave Dali we followed our guidebooks instructions and tried to flag a bus down heading north along the main road but we didn’t know which one as they all had Chinese writing. Then it absolutely chucked it down with rain so we were standing there in our ponchos feeling rather helpless. I decided to ask some police officers behind us if they could help us flag one down and they did try but the bus they stopped basically denied us and they translated that we needed to go to the bus station, which was south and the opposite direction to where we needed to go. It was so frustrating but after an hour of waiting in the rain we had to bite the bullet and take a taxi to the bus station. To get a cheaper ride we needed to order one from the Didi app (like Uber) but we couldn’t without a Chinese sim so the police officers kindly ordered one and we gave them the cash.

From the bus station we had an hour and a half wait which was very unfortunate but eventually we made it to Jianchuan where we changed to a shared car for the final leg to Shaxi, our final destination. The little village is said to be the final market place along the tea and horse caravan trail which has facilitated trade between Yunnan, Tibet and beyond to South East Asia for the past 1000 years.

We arrived at a very cute hostel on the edge of the old town where pink and purple flowers wrapped around the courtyard. Sadly the room lacked the charm of the outside with a filthy toilet and a wall which kept suddenly crumbling and falling apart. Instead of dwelling we headed out to explore the cute, cobbled lanes.

It was a very pretty village indeed and lacked the crazy vibes that we experienced in Dali, this place felt like a hidden gem in comparison with only a handful of tourists. We admired the ancient buildings with traditional tiled roofs, visited old houses with neat courtyard full of bonsai trees and took leisurely strolls along the river. We also saw some very interesting locals, one of which was wearing the most incredible flower embroidered two piece suit in every shade of pink imaginable, I’m not sure if she was part of an ethnic minority group or just dressing up for fun, but another lady we met definitely belonged to the Yi ethnic group – distinguishable by their huge, headpieces. The village had a fab little food market where we devoured bowls of cold noodles with homemade peanut sauce and lots of chilli sauce along with a side of spicy crinkle-cut chips.

The following day we took advantage of free bike rental at our hostel and explored the surrounding countryside. It wasn’t the easiest bike ride as we had to go over cobbled lanes which was brutal on a bike. I was shaking about so much that I asked Craig what would happen if a human brain was put in a Tupperware and shaken furiously, surely it would damage the brain and deteriorate it and I began to wonder if we were unintentionally taking part in our most dangerous activity so far.

We passed through many villages and every house was built in the same style with a large white section painted on each wall, framed neatly with black to create a blank canvas for an elaborate illustration or Chinese writing to be added. Some seemed unfinished while others had fabulous black and white paintings of birds or Chinese landscapes. When we got a little exhausted we stopped in a pavilion for tea and were joined by some elderly ladies having a chin-wag. The route back took us past endless fields of flowering rapeseed. It was like a sea of yellow as far as the eye could see. We spent a lot of time cycling different routes through the fields before our bums couldn’t take the pain of the bikes any longer and we headed back.

Seeing as the town is famous for being a market place we made sure to visit the Friday morning market which was bustling with locals. They all had a basket on their back, like an open-backpack to put all their purchases in. There were a couple of interesting stalls, one was some sort of dentistry counter with dentures and false teeth ready to be inserted into someone’s mouth! Another stall was just a man sitting on the floor with a few plastic bags full of human hair. He had different shades from black to grey and he held a neat hand-full to demonstrate a sort of extension option for a lady that was interested.

After the market we set off towards Lijiang, another scenic ancient town but for us it was too busy. The crowds took away the charm of the narrow alleys and old buildings. The mornings were much nicer and calmer but most of the shops were closed then so it lacked any atmosphere. One evening we opted for a caricature as it was only £6 but my goodness it won’t be one I frame or hang up. Craig looked totally gaunt and malnourished and I looked inbred, like if the drawing was a bit more zoomed out a banjo would look rather fitting on my lap. I knew my nose would be a big feature but wow, did he make it into a feature!! I would of at least expected a nice smile as a compromise but he gave me crooked teeth that were pointed like a sharks. It gave us a good laugh at least.

We did a day trip to the ancient town of Baisha which was like Lijiang but on a smaller scale. It offered some nice views of the mountains but once again it was very busy with domestic tourists. Annoyingly it took ages to reach as we had to walk a big distance to the bus stop and on the way back the roads were all closed off for some obnoxious celebrity or someone who doesn’t care about affecting other people. We were standing in the rain waiting for an hour before the road reopened so when a bus finally came through there were so many people waiting that everyone charged for the doors. It ended up being my least favourite day trip so far. On the plus side we found an incredible restaurant selling cheap Mexican food which thoroughly cheered me up and then we decided to stroll towards Black Dragon Pool Park to see if we could get any free views at the entrance. We turned up a bit before sunset so the guard just ushered us in for free, I guess at this time of the day they don’t charge which was great so we took a nice long walk past the ponds, blossom trees and pavilions. While we were walking around we saw a man acting rather odd. He was hitting trees and then he started walking while pushing his arms in a forward motion like he was taking energy from the trees and moving it around. It was quite bizarre to be honest but we kept our distance to avoid being hit by the energy he was throwing about and also because he had a huge sword on him!!