hellooo!! im in dali, in yunnan province, and this is the first time ive been a comfortable temperature since our 5 star hotel in zhengzhou- totally worth 22 hrs on a train!!. we'r up in the mpuntains here and its so much cooler than it was in yangshuo, im revelling in it. at 2000 meters dali temperatures rarely go over 25!! so we're next to the biggest freshwater lake in china, surrounded by mountains and its quite beautiful. yunnan is also the most ethnically diverse province in china, so its cool to see lots of bai people around as well as tibetans, in traditional costume. pretty touristy here but im heading north now, and further up into thw mountains so it shd get pretty interesting. im going in totally the opposite direction to where i should be i know!! but i have a flight back out of yunnan to shenzhen nr hong kong on the 18th. havent got much time but im gonna see how far i can get!! dali is pretty chilled out, i came here with three americans who im leaving now to head on (they have more time than me) but that meant finding a nice hotel was easy and that train journey was bearable too. i actually slept for 18 out of 22 hrs as i hadnt slept the night before (too busy chatting to some of the nicest ppl ive met in my life, who were all in yangshuo. some of them will be in hong kong same time as me- yay!! the americans trish, dan and kelly actually wondered if id fallen into a coma!! so we stayed in a guest house here, beautiful big rooma nd bathroom and the most chilled place ive been yet in china. theres a garden and bar playing funky music every night and plenty of herbal relaxants going round here too- seriously, it grows everywhere!! getting a bus to lijiang in a couple of hrs, im sure ill find some new people to tag along with when i get there. hope everyone is well. sorry i missed ddd bday bash, bet it was such a laugh. happy birthday dave! thanks for taking care of chris for me. glad u like ur llama ammo. hi mum, gil and dad if ur looking. missing u all. any new dogs yet? hi to everyone else i love too. see u in a few months!!