In the evening after a brief rest, I set off into town, beautiful buildings and streams with chinese lanterns, very pictureasque.

The quaint restaurants I saw earlier in the day have turned into glitzy, noisy places trying to get the clientel in. at the minimum each has a guitarist singer behind a mic, some have groups of locally dressed girls singing and dancing or massive TV screens with music channels, big transformation from earlier.

Sat down to a bowl of soup with Sue, who happens to be a Taiwanese man, I tell him about the Johnny Cash song "boy  named sue" and we have a little laugh. Should have got the name of his hotel, he is paying 50Y for a single room, very good, lots of hotels and restaurants empty here due to it being the low season, but hard to know if the signs are in Chinese.

did some food shopping, on the way back I see this huge motorbike parked outside a leatrher goods shop, I approach enquiring about the owner, he might know where I can hire one. The girl points out on a calculator that it is 260000 Y, I put 23 on the calculator and give it back (big time haggling!) she has a laugh and points a hand bag to me, I tell her I want to hire a bike she cant help, I offer 1Y for the bag and walk away. 

back at the hostel I settle down to learn play a few games of Chinese chess, not terribly difficult but the pieces have characters printed on them rather than being certain shapes, I lose naturally.

Sleepy, sleepy -  Mamma Naxi calls time at midnight, this is actually good, I might get some sleep. Someone(s) sleep in the sitting/dinning/bar room at night and she has a 12.00 curfew in place too. Back in the dorm we chat with Charlotte, swedish girl and John from Denver and actually go to sleep 1.30 a.m.. Woken up in the early hours by what sounds like arguments outside the door (always open as it does not shut properly) a knock on the door and wonders in Mamma showing the room to new arrivals! Followed by mony talk and at the end she says "sleepy sleepy" to us as if that is all it takes to go back to sleep.

Really lazy morning, drink tea, sit in the sun and practice my cough which I have had sinc e getting to China (getting a little better now). Gave my clothes to be washed, they havent seen a washing machine for about 6 weeks and would be nice to see what they actually look like.

I get into summer clothes, shorts, short sleeve Tshirt and flip-flops and wonder into town about 2 p.m. I am getting some looks and comments (they stare at tourists any way) but I guess they think I am a crazy tourist. Temperature is about 20  and nice specially in the sun, but the locals are in their winter clothes.

Have lunch, fried rice Naxi style ( local ethnicity, apparently used to be strongly matriarchal), and while I am eating basking in the sunshine by the window, the waiteresses and kitchen staff also begin to eat. I am curious so after a little hesitation I approach with my bowl and chopsticks in hand and ask if I can try some (in English but it is pretty obvious) and take some vegetables, one fried and other boiled. their meals tend to be very simple, i have seen this many times, large bowl of rice in the middle of the table and few simple vegetable dishes. I think the tourists eat most of the meat.

Another stroll through the alleyways, two women staring, I tease them by pulling up my the leg of my short above my knee and they chuckle.

Later I am looking for something sweet, naturally, one old lady selling things off a basket on her back and one in her hand. I buy some cup cakes and another bag which looks very like Gottab, it turns out that it actually tasts similar and very good indeed, I have 4! I give one cupcake to an old lady who has been trying to sell me a map everytime I have passed.

I will be on the lookout for the old woman to see if I can buy some of those cakes again.