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DALI ART.

You will see some beautiful paintings if you go to Dali, the colours are vivid, and every picture tells a story.

DALI, CHINA

A one-horsepower Dali taxi.

MORE OF DALI, CHINA

DALI, CHINA

On the way to Dali.

The next morning I was up early, keen to have a look around Dali. It is a pretty little town, dripping in history, like most places in China. Although it very commercialised, there is a certain charm about the place, I think because of the old style buildings that abound here. The shopping is very good, but you have to haggle, or you will lose your shirt, and probably your trousers. I found some very nice hand-woven cotton scarves, and some very old embroidered tablecloths, which I could not resist. The cotton scarves are on the website, but I can't bring my self to sell the tablecloths. If my wife finds out they will be up there tomorrow. If you want to have a look at the website go to www.lannacharm.com .

TRIP TO CHINA, JULY 2006

In July 2006 I was lucky enough to do a trip to China, to look for product for our website. Like most people, when I hear the word "China" I immediately think of huge factories churning out millions upon millions of mass produced items which are of poor quality and have very little appeal except a low price tag. Which is exactly what we don't want for our website, because we try to sell only hand crafted , hand-woven silk and cotton products , made by hill tribe families and people in small villages, who rely on the income generated from their work. We also like to buy directly from the artisans who create these products, so we know exactly how they are made, and we are sure they are getting a fair price for their efforts.

With this in mind, I set off to China anyway. Because of time restraints, I flew from Chiang Mai to Kunming, in southern China with Thai Airways. They were the only airline servicing that route at the time. Saw some good examples of the rapidly growing Chinese infrastructure on the way to Kunming, including the bridge in the above photo. Kunming is a city of more than 4 million people, a very modern place, but to me lacking in character. After 3 days of walking the streets looking for something to buy for the website, and not finding anything of worth, I jumped on a bus and headed west for Xiaguan, around a 5 hour trip. The roads here are amazing, 6 lanes wide in places and as good as any I drove on back in Australia. Because of the mountainous country, there are some long tunnels on the way, some 3 or 4 km. long!

After arriving in Xiaguan the fun started, namely trying to find the local bus to Dali. After awhile the people I was traveling with sorted it out and we were on another bus to Dali. It took about an hour to reach Dali, then the hunt for a guesthouse begun. We finally settled on the "Tibetan Lodge", and it was a good choice. Nice rooms at a reasonable rate, very friendly lady running the place, and the food was heaven. After being in Kunming the food here was unreal, lots of Tibetan style meals at a fair price. Had a nice dinner, a few cold beers, ( good beer) and a good nights sleep. See next post for more about beautiful Dali town.

Trip to Luang Prabang , Laos , on Mekong River

Of all the trips I have done so far throughout Asia, the 2 day boat trip from Chiang Khong, in far northern Thailand to Luang Prabang in Laos was probably the most memorable. The trip is just made for people who are not in big hurry, and want to take in as much scenery as they can. The boat left the wharf?? late in the morning, and we cruised along the Mekong at about 10 knots all day, reaching Pak Beng late in the afternoon. Passengers had to find a room for the night themselves, which was not hard, as there are quite a few guesthouses in the town. The next morning we were off again, more of the same scenery, beautiful river scenes , lots of villages and mountains galore. Arrived in Luang Prabang about 5.00 PM, and checked into the Sayo Guest House, a great place to stay, with friendly staff and nice big rooms. Handy to the main street and the river, too. The following morning we took a small boat up the river for about 2 or 3 kilometers and found the small silk weaving village I had heard about. This was the main reason I came to Laos, to collect hand-woven silk and cotton to put on our website, and I was not disappointed. Took some photos of the ladies weaving silk and cotton and filled my backpack with some beautiful silk and cotton. Anyone who is interested in this wonderful material can visit our website at www.lannacharm.com . We have lots of hand-woven silk and cotton from Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.