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普达措国家公园·香格里拉
On my last day in Chengdu,
I am not alone.
I thought about the last time I was here,
How I can't wait to get back to Beijing and leave this darn place.
Despite all the negative feelings,
I realised I've grown attached to this place.
Its rich history and culture are enough to blow my socks off.
Sometimes I can't believe I'm actually standing on Liu Bei's Kingdom!
The forever hilarious Sichuan accent which I enjoy imitating;
The familiar spiciness that makes me go numb and tear;
The hazy skies that's always grey and never blue;
The friendly traffic volunteers who give the most accurate directions;
Not forgetting the cute little pandas;
Which have become the icon of the city;
Delicious hotpot I'd love to try again;
Jiuzhaigou remains one of the most beautiful place I've ever seen;
And all the stunning places and small towns I've yet to visit.
If someone were to ask me what's my favourite city in China?
My answer has got to be Chengdu and not Beijing.
I know I'll be back again.
To reward ourselves for all the possible reasons we could think of, we spent the last 4 days sleeping past noon, shopping and eating! Such indulgence is a luxury for me bcos I'm a poor student in expensive Singapore.
Oh yes KFC never tasted so good. On the day of the release of results, we were so nervous and had no mood to do anything so we went to eat KFC. Ajisen again in Chengdu and local snacks (bottom row-冰粉、凉面、龙抄手) in Wenshu Monastery. Nice!
Bulk of my harvest were from Lijiang. Wallet, bags, scarf, stamps, dongba postcards, dongba art painting, a drawing, wild fungi, dried plums, dragon beard candy which became a lump of rock and I had to dump both boxes down the chute.
What better way to celebrate our results than having good food? 正宗麻辣火锅 & Pizzahut! The lean beef and soup base for the hotpot were irresistable! Shiok!
Another bulk of my harvest from Chengdu. We discovered a 五道口服装市场 which was enough to last me a few hours. More souvenirs from Wenshu Monastery, a big box of tidbits from the supermarket and a final last glance at Tianfu Square before heading to the airport.
Oh yes KFC never tasted so good. On the day of the release of results, we were so nervous and had no mood to do anything so we went to eat KFC. Ajisen again in Chengdu and local snacks (bottom row-冰粉、凉面、龙抄手) in Wenshu Monastery. Nice!Bulk of my harvest were from Lijiang. Wallet, bags, scarf, stamps, dongba postcards, dongba art painting, a drawing, wild fungi, dried plums, dragon beard candy which became a lump of rock and I had to dump both boxes down the chute.What better way to celebrate our results than having good food? 正宗麻辣火锅 & Pizzahut! The lean beef and soup base for the hotpot were irresistable! Shiok!Another bulk of my harvest from Chengdu. We discovered a 五道口服装市场 which was enough to last me a few hours. More souvenirs from Wenshu Monastery, a big box of tidbits from the supermarket and a final last glance at Tianfu Square before heading to the airport.
Why are we smiling when we're going home? :'(
Upon arrival at Chengdu Airport, there were lots of people to welcome us. Wow, we're popular!
坐车吗? 坐车吗?
住宿吗???
旅游吗??? 旅游吗???
到乐山青城山吗???
先生 坐车吗? 坐车吗?
你们订房了吗??
小姐 旅游吗??
需要车吗????
Cough cough cough!!!
There was 10 seconds of silence and some even drew back in fear.
100% proven and effective way to deal with touters.
We didn't like Panba so we decided to stay at Naxi Mama when we return to Lijiang from Shangrila. It's on the outskirts of the old town and we had problems finding it. We were walking up and down the street with our bags and out of nowhere, a middle-aged lanky man asked where we were going. We thought he's a tout and ignored him. The man kept asking and my donkey friend flared up and told him to go away. We went off down another alley and back again to the same street where the man was. I showed him the name card I was holding in my hand and he immediately said "I know where, follow me." It was his house. He was Naxi Baba, the owner of the guesthouse we were going to stay at.
As the bus weaved its way through the mountain roads, I rocked to the beat of the music playing in my ears. How strange, for I usually find myself skipping almost every song that comes up on the player. Then I started singing aloud, totally immersed in my own world and it felt like the most enjoyable ride I ever had.
I stared out of the window looking at the vast lands and clear skies whizzed past me in a blur of green, brown and blue. While I'm really looking forward to KFC in Lijiang having deprived of real food for days and getting overdosed by all those mountains, I know eventually I'll miss the rugged natural terrains here. I discovered I've taken a liking to the sense of remoteness and sacredness I found in Shangrila. And I am truly in awe with all the good people we met.
I may be back for all I know, but until then it's goodbye with great reluctance.
I stared out of the window looking at the vast lands and clear skies whizzed past me in a blur of green, brown and blue. While I'm really looking forward to KFC in Lijiang having deprived of real food for days and getting overdosed by all those mountains, I know eventually I'll miss the rugged natural terrains here. I discovered I've taken a liking to the sense of remoteness and sacredness I found in Shangrila. And I am truly in awe with all the good people we met.
I may be back for all I know, but until then it's goodbye with great reluctance.
RS LOST HIS HANDPHONE
After a longer than expected journey up to Feilaisi, we've finally come to the last destination of the entire trip. Big sigh from me, I'm running outta steam trying to post all of these. Anyway, the previous few photos you see were painstakingly taken by me as I forced myself to get out of the vehicle while trying to avoid shitting in my pants for 10 hours cos I don't want to miss out on anything after travelling miles to come to Mount Meili.
The only hotel we stayed in throughout our trip. It's a 3-star hotel (all hotels in Feilaisi are 3-star) recommended by the waitress we met in Lijiang who worked here last time. Too luxurious for me though, I don't need the carpet, chairs, dressing table and bathtub but we decided to spend the money to have a comfortable stay after a long journey here. Same price (160 yuan) as Sim's Cosy but service was a far cry from the latter. Double room can go as low as 130 yuan. So bargain!
We almost got a free night's stay in this room cos no one asked us to pay. I had wanted to take off quickly while rs was feeling bad about it when we were caught by the female owner who shouted "Have you guys paid the rent???!" from the window at the second floor lol.
After a disappointing early morning, the pack got onto the vehicle and headed to Mingyong, where there's a massive glacier at the foot of Kagebo Peak. During the 1.5hrs, the Hongkie (someone in the pack, who has visited this place umpteen times he knows the people in the village) kept complaining about the driver (who also runs a guest house in Yubeng) blasting music in the guest house and disturbing the peacefulness of the village. Quite hilarious listening to their conversation when half the time, I couldn't understand the driver's broken Chinese but the Hongkie does and just keep firing at him.
The only hotel we stayed in throughout our trip. It's a 3-star hotel (all hotels in Feilaisi are 3-star) recommended by the waitress we met in Lijiang who worked here last time. Too luxurious for me though, I don't need the carpet, chairs, dressing table and bathtub but we decided to spend the money to have a comfortable stay after a long journey here. Same price (160 yuan) as Sim's Cosy but service was a far cry from the latter. Double room can go as low as 130 yuan. So bargain!We almost got a free night's stay in this room cos no one asked us to pay. I had wanted to take off quickly while rs was feeling bad about it when we were caught by the female owner who shouted "Have you guys paid the rent???!" from the window at the second floor lol. If I'm ever coming back again, I would stay here.
We dragged ourselves out of bed at 5.30am to catch the sunrise that's described as 日照金山 meaning at sunrise, the mountains turn gold.
So damn cold in the morning I just want to take cover
We dragged ourselves out of bed at 5.30am to catch the sunrise that's described as 日照金山 meaning at sunrise, the mountains turn gold.So damn cold in the morning I just want to take cover No one has conquered the Kagebo Peak before. Some Japanese climbers have died on their quest to surmount this sacred mountain. I've heard that one will be able to see Meili if Japanese people come up here. The view in this photo (not taken by me of course) was what everybody was waiting and hoping to see...
Alas, it was not to be. If you plan to come up here, pray hard for good weather and clear skies.
After a disappointing early morning, the pack got onto the vehicle and headed to Mingyong, where there's a massive glacier at the foot of Kagebo Peak. During the 1.5hrs, the Hongkie (someone in the pack, who has visited this place umpteen times he knows the people in the village) kept complaining about the driver (who also runs a guest house in Yubeng) blasting music in the guest house and disturbing the peacefulness of the village. Quite hilarious listening to their conversation when half the time, I couldn't understand the driver's broken Chinese but the Hongkie does and just keep firing at him.
Risk is the best
Mingyong Glacier is fast retreating due to climate change. All that ice below comes from the melted snow from Kagebo. It's a tough climb up...took us 4 hours to go round and round the mountain along horse shit trails. All that shit has produced very pretty flowers that I've never seen before. Look at that silly animal on the bottom right hand corner chewing on a plastic bag! Haa!
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Intrigued by the formation of blue ice
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Yan Yan, Ling Long, Me & Jia Bao
Yan Yan, Ling Long, Me & Jia BaoYou may be wondering, where's the food section? We didn't eat any real, solid food. Hmm except for the two oily fried eggs from the hotel that cost a freaking 6 yuan. Otherwise, it was junk all the way for 3 consecutive days. Cup noodles, chips, chocolates, pasteries and whatever we had brought up here. I had enough of food poisoning attacks!
白马雪山垭口·德钦县和香格里拉县区界
白马雪山·香格里拉
No it's not, it's the grand U-turn of the Jinsha River
This day can be summarized as...
Read on to find out why
Read on to find out why
I wasn't keen on coming here in the first place bcos some pictures I've seen on a stranger's blog gave me the impression that it's a place with lots of greenery, mud and fallen trees in the month of May. But there's no other place we could go in Shangrila with the limited amount of time we have plus transport is not convenient and the places of attraction are very far away from town. The scenery was better than what I had previously seen on the web, maybe bcos the flowers start to bloom at the end of May. Greenery, mountains, lakes, wetlands and a sea of pink and purple Azaleas (杜鹃花) on furry fir trees (松萝). It'll be a sea of yellow in autumn. You can spot an occasional bird or squirrel hopping along the wooden planks. Not forgetting roaming cattle grazing on pastures. That explains all the shit you see up there.
Beautiful skies in Shangrila :)
Yes, we headed back to Helen's Pizza for the third time. Not that we love the food. We were still traumatised after the food poisoning at Tiger Leaping Gorge. But I'm getting sick of the food here...
Lunch was omelette fried rice
Watermelon juice for me and warm milk for him
We were buying groceries at a supermarket nearby and needed to go to the toilet urgently. Noah Cafe was the nearest toilet we could find so we settled our dinner here as well. Bad choice. Carbonara was damn dry and sickening. Homemade ice-cream was very nice! Who knows this led to another nightmare...
Tavern couldn't have us for another day because a family had booked our room so we had to move. Harmony was the place we had planned to stay in the first place so we went to check it out.
In the middle of the night, I started to have a bad diarrhoea. Worst diarrhoea in my life. I was shitting pools of mud non-stop. It must be the milky dinner at Noah Cafe. It kept coming and I was practically rushing in and out of the bathroom throughout the night...How am I going to survive the 9-10 hrs ride up to Meili Mountain the next day...? T_T
Watermelon juice for me and warm milk for him
We were buying groceries at a supermarket nearby and needed to go to the toilet urgently. Noah Cafe was the nearest toilet we could find so we settled our dinner here as well. Bad choice. Carbonara was damn dry and sickening. Homemade ice-cream was very nice! Who knows this led to another nightmare...
Tavern couldn't have us for another day because a family had booked our room so we had to move. Harmony was the place we had planned to stay in the first place so we went to check it out.
Cramped double room with attached bathroom was 80 yuan. Bathroom was so tiny there wasn't enough room to move my limbs without knocking into the wooden wall! There's no additional drainage for water coming out of the shower head. So the squatting platform serves as a toilet as well as drain the water away. Poor design. The only good thing was it's warm in here unlike Tavern!
In the middle of the night, I started to have a bad diarrhoea. Worst diarrhoea in my life. I was shitting pools of mud non-stop. It must be the milky dinner at Noah Cafe. It kept coming and I was practically rushing in and out of the bathroom throughout the night...How am I going to survive the 9-10 hrs ride up to Meili Mountain the next day...? T_T
We started off with a short but strenuous climb (high altitude made me breathless very easily) up to Baiji Temple, a small and relatively run-down temple hidden up on a hill that's just behind Tavern. Nothing special but I like the fact that I'm seeing something in its natural state. The view on top was superb.
YEAAAAAAA
As we made our way down, we saw that gold wheel and decided to walk towards it
Just when we were figuring out how to go there, we met this uncle who was making his way down the hill. He was carrying some pine cone trees that's used for incense burning. He guided us there as his house was along the way. Another kind soul we met in Shangrila.
Street lamps look like the Tibetan prayer wheel. Cool!
At the foot of Guishan Park
My camera is often in grave danger of falling from great heights
吉祥如意圣幢-世界上最大的转经桶
Guiness World Record-Largest prayer wheel featuring ORS!
This photo is for my friend Sabrina who introduced us to Helen's Pizza and provided us with useful travel information here in Shangrila! We had 3 consecutive meals here cos it's the only place we know that's clean and we could eat in peace. Service is great and food is not bad too.
According to Sab, the BBQ in town is really good and assured me it's safe but we were still very much traumatised from food poisoning so we didn't try.
Waiting for the daily Tibetan dance to start
She took the lead
If you wanna have fun, join in! Don't just stand around and look!
Don't laugh lor it's not easy k...u not only have to move your feet but also your hands
How RARE to see rs dancing! Looks like he's enjoying himself!
Dancing in the moonlight~~
They were trying to stop the male dog from getting on top of the female dog.
At the foot of Guishan ParkMy camera is often in grave danger of falling from great heights吉祥如意圣幢-世界上最大的转经桶Guiness World Record-Largest prayer wheel featuring ORS!
This photo is for my friend Sabrina who introduced us to Helen's Pizza and provided us with useful travel information here in Shangrila! We had 3 consecutive meals here cos it's the only place we know that's clean and we could eat in peace. Service is great and food is not bad too.
According to Sab, the BBQ in town is really good and assured me it's safe but we were still very much traumatised from food poisoning so we didn't try.Waiting for the daily Tibetan dance to startShe took the leadIf you wanna have fun, join in! Don't just stand around and look!Don't laugh lor it's not easy k...u not only have to move your feet but also your hands
How RARE to see rs dancing! Looks like he's enjoying himself!
Dancing in the moonlight~~They were trying to stop the male dog from getting on top of the female dog.
I actually lasted for more than an hour when I don't even know the moves! Haa! I like the feeling of moving and swinging together in unison (well not quite, some like me attempt to lol) with everyone else. We like the music so much we each bought a cd back home! Woohoo!
