Dali, China (14 July 2014): Figuring Out China

14 July 2014

Dali, Yunnan Province, China
　

At the lake

Anita’s gone. She has been gone for 3 days. She flew back to Minneapolis via Shanghai on the 11th. In terms of days, she flew back on Day 27 of the whole family’s Tip to Tundra tour from Bangkok (or Day 35 if you’re counting from Singapore). In terms of latitude, she flew back from 25°N, or 11° further north than Bangkok, where she arrived. That is about the latitude of Monterey, Mexico. But if you're counting in terms of broken hearts, that would be four for four. We all miss her very much.

Our first night in Dali was in the new city at the southern tip of Erhai Lake. We stayed in a skyscraping atrocity in a travelers’ dessert – except for the Wal-Mart, well, including the Wal-Mart. But suffice to say it was an adventure of the no-so-great type and the kids cried that morning that they hated China. After a couple of failed hotels. (Kunming’s hotel was a misadventure of the predictable type – new hotel, way out of town, kind of near the airport but not really, kind of near to nothing else in the universe, funky-weird vibe from overworked hotelier.)

The mood of the kids is so tumultuous that the large changes in our group dynamics – the departure of Lauryn and Karen in Saigon and Anita’s departure – are prominent peaks amid a range of other proud emotional mountains. Gracie, in particular, seems to careen from height to height, being set-off by the slightest comment from her brother or reprimand from her father. Traveling with her would be exhausting were she alone, not to mention a pair of siblings to help stir the pot. It must be exhausting to her, too.

"You must finish" 

But she rallies. Yesterday was a case in point. After whining from the moment she awoke, we rented tandem bikes and traveled down to Lake Erhai. She was my stoker and she raved throughout about how much she loved cycling with me. Beside the lake she (and her siblings) were the focus of much excitement and photographs from tourists of the domestic sort. Later, having worked our way back uphill to Dali’s three pagodas she fell victim to a photography accident, scraping her arm and becoming enraged. After returning the bikes we ended up at the Ya Ran Tang, a restaurant so infused with ideological vegetarian ferver that they won’t let you return your bowl unless you’ve eaten everything. Imagine how that worked with our family!

Here's what our adventures look like in a video:

Meanwhile, in the land of a one-child policy, a single father traveling with 3 kids is an aberration worthy of note. Stopped our tandem bikes beside the roadside for a drink of water, a passing farmer women stopped and inspected us. Then she counted the children – “yi, er, san ren,” (one, two, three people) then nodded before continuing on her way. Of course foreigners get stares pretty commonly in China, but I think we get extra special stares. They get included in pictures wherever we go. Not me, though.

Canyon in Cang Shan mountains