Day 12. To Eryuan

Eryuan 洱源 is a town between Lijiang 丽江 and Dali 大理, famous for hot springs. 

Transportation snafu

To get to Eryuan, my original plan was to call a Didi ride and it did not work out. The app showed a price of $50-60, but the driver asked for $10 private payment in addition. I declined out of principles. After two drivers did the same thing, Bei and I decided to take the bus instead. We got a Didi ride to the long-distance bus station, and bought our tickets. The lady checked our passports and issued tickets. It was 50RMB ($7) per person. 

The driver loaded our luggage and we got on the bus. One staff member came on board to inspect that all passengers were wearing seatbelts and also had the driver taking a breathalyzer test. She then got off and the bus started. 

Once we got off the bus, I got a Didi ride to our hotel Dali Geothermal Paradise (大理地热国). This hotel was huge, but did not have any signage to point to the front office. Our Didi driver just wanted to drop us off in front of a random guest room, but I demanded him to drive to the restaurant location on the map. Once we got off at the restaurant, it turned out that the front office was there too. So we checked in and they had a shuttle sending us to our room.

Hotel

This was the most unique hotel on this trip. The buildings followed local style. The place was huge, so free shuttle service was offered. One can call the shuttle using the phone in the room or via a WeChat function.

The best feature of the hotel was the hot springs. Our room had a private pool. We could adjust water temperature by mixing hot and cold water. The hot water was definitely hot springs water because it had a hint of sulfur smell. Claire was complaining about the smell, but she soon changed her mind and joined me soaking in the pool.

The hotel restaurant only offered breakfast buffet, which was free. I ordered delivery of restaurant food and groceries such as beer and fruits using the app MeiTuan. The delivery person was knocking on our door within 30 minutes. Super nice. So we just ate and then stayed in the hot springs a bit more to relax.