Hey Macho
Yep, I'm in Kunming now. PM me if you want to meet up for a coffee or somesuch!
You might check out Shaxi, which is about 4 hours or so from Dali. Some people do it in a day trip because there's a good market, I think on Sundays? I A really nice little town on the old tea-horse road, it is much less commercial than Dali or Lijiang.