Drinking Dali Beer

Aug 22, 11am Yunnan Cafe

Out late last night playing poker and drinking with three guys, Tim the Brit, Aaron the Yank, and Wolfgang the professional card player. Guess who won. Not that it really mattered, as the pot went to drinks anyway, and moreover we were using Chinese mao (the equivelant of a dime) which are worth about a penny. We played so long though that we were shocked when someone would bet a yuan (a Chinese dollar, worth about 8 or so cents).

But the Dali beer is pretty good. Every major city seems to have their own brew now.

Aaron is quite a character (as Tim the Brit might say). He's from CT and has been living in China teaching English. Red haired, and bearded he can lapse into earnest little monologues. "I fall in unconditionally in love with a different woman every day," he said at one point.

Well maybe only earnest in a certain comical way. "I've been thinking about marrying a Chinese woman." "Really," I asked, "How long have you known her." "No, no," he said. "I mean in general."

We were all drunk by this point, obviously. The owner of this place, was a Tibetan guy, who had lived here in Dali quite a while apparently. His English was pretty good, should be with all the practice he gets.

The stars were out last night, the sky clear once again. It was beautiful- I don't think I'd ever seen so many stars. Wish I'd had binoculars - but I'd failed to find a good place to gaze anyway. I'd started out the evening heading for this reservoir that I'd passed earlier in the day. But I met Tim on the way and decided to join him instead. I think we talked about stargazing while anyway. Aaron couldn't beleive that we'd never been out in the country to see stars before.

By the time I got up this morning, it was cloudy again. Alas.

Our hotel bathroom, a row of stalls lined up over a pit is also surrounded by spiders and their webs. Must be good pickings them. The spiders there are smaller though (thankfully).

Speaking of smell, I remember riding on my bike behind a truck in Kunming. It was belching out black smoke and smelled awful. I wasn't alone in my appraisal. There was a horse standing at the side of the road; I saw its nose wrinkle, and then it's whole body shudder from head to toe. Peeeeuuuu.