Dali was the chilled out haven we had been longing for after a very hectic month in China. It’s biggest appeal was the array of good cafés and restaurants with English menus. We ate our way around the cute little town. Our favourite being the French bakery which offered a cheese and meat platter. The simple things in life…

To burn off all the good food we took full advantage of the free use of the hostels’ mountain bikes and cycled through the fields towards the famous Tang Dynasty Three Pagodas. Just as we reached our destination the rain began. We took a few snaps then made the journey back towards town in the lashing rain.

We explored the town of Dali on foot, finding the cutest looking Catholic Church. The good Catholics that we are said a few prayers for our siblings up and coming exam results. Thankfully our prayers were answered, Laura graduates with a 2.1 at the end of the month and Emmet passed his 2nd year with a 2.1 average.

This is my church..

While visiting the church, Karen made the fatal mistake of saying I will use the bathroom here…’church toilets are always clean!’ Conclusion, church toilets in China are not clean!

As evening approached the town became alive with street line dancing.

There are some beautiful mountains near Dali (Cangshan Mountains) and great trekking routes but the huge black cloud that hung over us for the two days prevented us exploring it.

We randomly met three Colombian boys, one of whom had travelled round the world but for him, Scotland was the best, in his top 4 of all time places. He was from the dangerous city of Cali so he must have felt at home in Govan.

We leave you with two oddities. Most of the scooters have Union Jacks on them and there is a weird popcorn drink combo being sold here as well.. (look closely at the picture)

Groovy baby..yah!!

Yep this happened!!