Lazy Bone

No Longer A Frequent Traveler

2009-03-06T11:43:00.002+08:00

I lost my job. A re-org, and my whole department is being closed down. I am waiting for my last day in this company.

I might get a new job soon, but I will no longer travel as much as I used to be in the past 6 years.

I'm sure I will miss this a lot.

So this blog will be updated less often, and if I do update, it will be from my personal holiday trips then.

BTW, we are going to HK Disneyland soon. Hope I can bring forward some interesting posts.

MAS Regional Lounge

2008-06-29T19:46:00.000+08:00

It has been quite a while I didn't travel to Singapore. Didn't know there are so many changes. There is no more shuttle flights, so we cannot just go and get whatever available!

And then at the KLIA, in the past, to use the MAS Golden Lounge, we have to go to the Satellite terminal after the train. Since Singapore (and some other destinations) terminal is G, i.e. at the main terminal (near passport control), we have to make very long trip to and fro.

This time, when I went to Singapore, I nearly missed the new MAS Regional Golden Lounge, located at the G terminals. It is one the left of the train 'station'. I almost missed it and boarded the train, coz I checked in at KL Sentral no one informed me!

This is a pretty new lounge, full with Zen concept.

Very comfortable and pleasant. Their TVs are kind of 'built' into the mirro' Their kids play area is also nice - see pic below, the little room behind the pillars. On the left with blue lights is the TV.

Very pleasant lounge, but a bit quiet though...

View from 56th floor

2008-06-27T19:37:00.000+08:00

I went to Singapore for a conference in mid June, and stayed at SwissOtel The Stamford. When I arrived, it was nearly midnight, and the reception told me that King size bedroom wasn't available and would put me in 2 single bed type, located on 7th floor.

I insisted that I wanted a King size bed. Well, not that I am huge or really need a big bed, neither nor that I am demanding... It is just some personal forbia. I always try to avoid having an extra bed in the room... afraid of inviting unwanted 'guest'!

So, I told the girl I really cannot accept 2 beds in the room. She can put me in a room with a small bed, but not an extra bed. She finally talked to the manager and put me on 56th floor! See, they have, but higher floor, so wouldn't give it to me - perhaps higher price?

Whew! The room was spectacular! The moment I entered the room, what greeted me was this view! They actually provide a balcony for people to enjoy the scene. Though I was very afraid of the height, I still opened the glass door and stepped outside to take some pictures.

And here is the view during the day...

You can see the Singapore Flyer (spelling?) there! I also saw the DHL hot air balloon from my window. Wonder why would people sit in that tied-up hotair balloon, what view would they see?!

Doorless Toilet vs 5-star Toilet

2008-06-02T20:03:00.000+08:00

I have heard so much about the toilets in China before but have never really used those. What I’ve heard was: toilets are without door not flush.

In the past, when I was in China, I tried to go to places with modern toilet facilities. So far, haven’t been exposed to this type of toilets, until my recent Lijiang Trip.

After visiting the Tiger Leaping Gorge, while we were at the First Bay of Changjiang River, we stopped at a site that is less visited. And here, we saw this type of toilet for the first time!

They only have a drain that connects a few ‘units’ of toilets. And each unit has walls that are about waist height. All are WITHOUT door. So, users have to go in and pull down the pants and squat down – with all the processes viewable by other users. This is what we felt very uncomfortable.

Luckily, there were only the 3 of us, no other visitors/users. We told each others – “DON’T LOOK!”! LOL! As if others are interested to look at you! :p

Oh, BTW, even in modern toilets, we have seen people squat down doing BIG business, without closing the door, and they were facing OUT. Aiyoh! I guess they are just not used to having toilets with doors. LOL!

In comparison to these Traditional Toilets, we found this “5-star toilets” at the Yunnan Nationalities Village.

I went to this toilet, and immediately I laughed-out-loud! They even provide TV on the wall. So, you won’t miss your favorite program, even if you have to go to the toilet. Hahahahah!

Unpleasant Experience in Kunming

2008-05-31T20:02:00.000+08:00

So far, there were a few cases of people trying to cheat us, meeting with unfriendly or rude people, but nothing beat this!

It happened in the Kunming airport. Look, I have been traveling a lot, otherwise I wouldn’t be running this travel blog. I’ve flew a lot, including to places like Pakistan. Nothing beat the uncivilized treatment in Kunming airport.

There wasn’t any clear direction and there wasn’t any real queue at all. You can queue on a line for half an hour and got bumped off when it is your turn. Every counter is busy, no one would monitor the queues.

This was what happened to us. We queued for nearly 30 minutes, and when there was just one couple in front of us, suddenly this guy rushed in and asked us to “excuse him”. At first I thought he wanted to ask something at the counter, but no heck! He was jumping queue.

The issue is, he wasn’t just jumping our queue, he even jumped the queue for the couple in front of us – whom the counter was serving half way! And the airline staff allowed that to happen. I mean, if you are serving this couple, why do you turn and serve this man.

The worst thing is, he doesn’t just represent a person. When he is in the ‘queue’, his luggage all arrived:

These are his luggage, and apparently he was checking in for a group! This airport is bad because they do not provide group check-in counter. And I believe that IS the root cause to the mess.

This not only happened to our line, but to all lines. I hope the Yunnan government do something about it, or it would hinder people away…

Accommodation in Lijiang

2008-05-29T20:00:00.001+08:00

We stayed in a motel located within the Shuhe old town (束河古镇). This place is recommended by a friend, and I too, highly recommend. And I would ask you to stay much longer than what we did. We only spent two nights, which is certainly not enough!

Motel: 田园牧歌客栈
Address: 丽江, 束河古镇开文六社康普巷 (束河办事处旁)
Tel: 0888-5115922
Website: http://www.tymgkz.cn/

We highly recommend this for its hospitality and flexibility. The owners are very nice. It is run by very young people, who actually spend the whole day with the guests. You can chat with them till late night, to understand the local cultures better. They even brought us to the square and we danced together. They make friends with their guests, which is kind of uncommon in other places.

This is the room that we stayed in: 等月亮

Top left: when we open the door in the morning, this is what we see.
Top right: toilet/bath
Bottom left: our bed
Bottom right: outside view at night, it is a corner lot.

This is the corridor – very quiet in the morning…

Top left: outside view of the motel during the day.
Top right: a long table where people gather for meals and drinks, very cozy, like a lounge.
Bottom left: this is where we first had our dinner, a small square surrounded by the rooms.
Bottom right: our room is just behind the 2 loungers.

Look at this lock! They are so Chinese! I thought of buying one but forgot about it later! It looks like a combination lock with Chinese writings…

Kunming Attraction - Yunnan Nationalities Village

2008-05-27T19:58:00.000+08:00

There are 52 minorities in China, and out of that 51 are in Yunnan. It is almost impossible to visit all the tribes in a short stay, so the Yunnan Nationalities Village comes in handy.

It is a place that gathers the major tribes, displaying them in their most original form with performances. It is best to spend the whole day in it, coz it is very big and walking from a tribe to another takes time. Without watching the performance, it is also as good as not being there, so prepare to spend some time there. We were there after 3pm, so we missed quite many small villages and performances. :(

Here are some to share with you…

Wazu (瓦族)
Wazu is quite dark and seriously they look really like our Malay friends! Their men are one of the most macho type that we’ve seen so far, with long hair and muscular body… very attractive! :p

Here is part of their cultural performance:

Daizu (傣族)
This tribe is from Xishuangbanna (西双版纳), south of Yunnan. They are very similar to our Thailand friends. They practice the same religion and have the same believe. They also celebrate the same thing – the Water Festival.

When we were there, it was just during the water festival, so we could see many people shooting water, and they even sell raincoats and water guns to tourists! My camera almost spoilt in this, as I wasn’t prepared when someone shot me water! LOL!

Miaozu (苗族)
There are actually two Miaozu villages here, at least from the map. The main one was out of our way, and we visited this smaller one. There are Miao girls doing some sewing in their hut, but no performance though. There was a church there, but people there was not that friendly.

Local Snacks
Along the street, you can find them selling local snacks. We bought 3 types to try:

Top left: smelly toufu, which is actually spicy but not smelly at all!
Top right: French fries with spicy sauce – a better and more Asian alternatives to the western French fries. This is the most yummy of the three.
Bottom: pumpkin cake, a sweet snack, which is not my type.

Night Performance
After dinner, they had nigh performance at the square. There is a mix of Lisu tribe (傈僳族) famous performance of climbing knife ladders, songs from Wazu, dances from Yizu (彝族), walking on burnt coals, etc.

The night performance ended with group cultural dance, similar to the one we experienced in Shuhe told town in Lijiang.

Kunming Attraction - Stone Forest

2008-05-25T19:55:00.000+08:00

"The Stone Forest of Yunnan has been inscribed upon the World Heritage List of the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage."

This is written on the entrance ticket, adding on to its value for tourists!

I have heard of this long time ago, with strongest impression coming from Wisely’s novel “魔磁”. In that story, a round metallic item was found within the stone forest, with material not familiar by any scientists…

Actually I see this place very similar to the Pinnacles in Perth, Australia. Visiting these two places you need to have good imaginations, coz the stones can really represent anything that you can imagine.

Take a few examples…

On the top left picture, isn’t it look like a pig? On the top right, they look like 2 torches of fires! Bottom left is seen as a GuanGong (关公) and bottom right looks like a cat!

At the end of our tour in Stone Forest, we saw some of the Yizu people gathered and danced. These are old folks, and they are still looking great and fit!!

Here is a short video of their dance:

Eat in Dali and Kunming

2008-05-23T19:53:00.000+08:00

First Start in Kunming
On our first night in Kunming, we went to watch YangLiPing’s show. Before the show started, we found this Stone House Restaurant just nearby the KunMing Hall. It gave us a great start of our journey. The food was delicious, the ambience was great, and the price was reasonable. We spent RMB110 in total.

We ordered a plate of mushroom (老树菇), green veggie and chicken with ‘magic yam’ (魔芋). They are very spicy – a trait for all Yunnan food. Yummy!

Cost: RMB 110
Address: 昆明市北京路程27号茶花公园
Tel: 0871-3183388
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Most satisfying dinner in Dali
We were transported to Dali from Lijiang by car. The driver is from Bai tribe (白族), originated in Dali. He is very nice (unlike the Lijiang driver!) and wanted to ensure we are happy before he left us.

He dropped us in this restaurant (my God! We didn’t even know the name of the place!) before leaving for his next pick up. When he did that, he even told the shop owner to treat us nicely and not to charge us too much!

Here are the 3 dishes we ordered. Again, they don’t have a menu and we had to order from their rack of ingredients…

The first row is fried meat. After starving from meat for a few days (their chicken has no meat!), this is really satisfying! The second row is fried 茶树菇, a type of mushroom. And the third row is fried wild vegetables – too bitter for us, we ended up didn’t eat that.

There were 2 other dishes not in the picture – fried egg with cucumber, and a bowl of pickles (free).

This meal is the cheapest of all! Only cost us RMB50. Most worthy, coz we were so satisfied with real meat… :p

Sorry, no address, we were kind of lost in that city! LOL!

Cost: RMB 50
Address: Unknown, near the train station
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Cheap Lunch in Kunming
Well, we actually tried to go to either one of two restaurants. With address on hand, the taxi driver dropped us on a spot and pointed on our right that the shop is just ‘there’. But, we couldn’t find. After asking a few people, who were all very unfriendly, we finally walked along the street until we found an eating place – this was just plainly random.

I believe this is a place for local students and workers. It was really, really, really cheap!

We ordered 3 dishes and 3 drinks, and it only cost us RMB 19 (less than RM10!!!).

Cost: RMB 19
Address: Unknown, Kunming
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Dinner in Yunnan Cultural Village
Since we were inside the Yunnan Cultural Village (云南民族村) during dinner, and due to water festival the Dai tribe (similar to Thai) was quite happening, so we decided to eat there.

Here is what we ordered:

Their bamboo stick rice is different from those in Malay kampong. They are made of normal fragrant rice instead of glutinous rice. The rice absorbed the fragrant of the bamboo, smells really good! With the compression of cooking inside the bamboo, the rice also has a kind of chewy texture, though not as strong as the glutinous rice. A must try if you go there.

Other dishes that we ordered were spicy toufu wrapped in some leafs, eggplant, and a plate of grilled spare ribs. The spare ribs are very spicy, but very nice. Love it very much. The toufu is too spicy for me, so I didn’t really take it. :p

Cost: RMB 95
Address: Dai tribe restaurant, Yunnan Nationality Village, Kunming
Website: http://www.Yn25.com
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Lunch at Stone Forest
We were given free ride to the Stone Forest in Kunming, but lunch and entrance fees were covered. So, we ordered our lunch separately from the tour group.

One of a local dishes that we have always wanted to try is double boiled chicken soup (汽锅鸡), so we ordered that and two veggie dishes:

The chicken soup is quite expensive, so we paid quite a lot for this meal.

Cost: RMB 135
Address: Just outside the entrance to the Stone Forest, Kunming
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Mushrooms Dinner
You might notice that we often order mushrooms in many of our meals in Yunnan. Yes, mushroom is one of their local specialties. There is a lot for export and for tourists to purchase home, which I also bought 2 packs – 牛肝菌for my mom and 鸡枞菌for my MIL. The latter is more popular amongst the Naxi tribe, but I haven’t got a chance to try, so bought a pack for MIL to cook. LOL!

After our return from the Stone Forest, the driver dropped us to a restaurant that specializes in mushroom steamboats. We didn’t know it is so expensive to eat that, and got shocked with the price.

As we wanted to try different mushrooms, we ended up mixed with a few. Later, we found out that the locals do not mix, coz it spoils the real taste of the mushrooms, which is true from our experience! We ended up couldn’t tell which is which. LOL!

Top left: Similar to other places, there is no menu, and we have to order from the fridge.
Top center: 3 plates of 6 mixed mushrooms
Top right: 2 veggies and toufu
Bottom left: close up of the most expensive mushroom on the right – 羊肚菌
Bottom right: boiling all in the pot for 15 minutes before they can be eaten, to neutralize the toxic of mushrooms

Cost: RMB 237 (they said normally they spend RMB400-500, and ours are cheaper as we mixed too much!)
Address: Unknown in Kunming
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Real local snack/lunch
And this is our last meal before leaving Yunnan: BaBa wrap YaoZaGuai (粑粑包油条)! The Baba is like roti Naan. They take half stick of YaoZaGuai, wrap it with that roti naan thingy and put sesame spicy sauce inside. This thing is very filling, and the sesame sauce is very delicious, but… * sigh * too spicy for me again!

Cost: RMB 6
Address: NA – road side stall below a bridge

Eat in Lijiang

2008-05-21T19:52:00.000+08:00

In this trip, we spent a LOT on food. We purposely asked the agency to exclude meals from our package, so we can truly experience the local food. Yunnan is a place full of cultural surprise, and we strongly believe it is also in the food!

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Lunch at Dunno where
Due to time constraint, we had our first Lijiang lunch at the attraction itself. Ordinary food, slightly more expensive, but still tasty. Maybe we were hungry, coz it was 3pm already! :p

Cost: 100
Address: Unknown, Lijiang
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Dinner in Motel
When we checked in at our motel (田园牧歌客栈) in Shuhe told own, the owner and shop keepers are all having their dinner. They asked us to join them, and immediately cooked 5 dishes for us, fresh from the kitchen! Guess what? It cost only RMB60 for the 3 of us!!

Look, they are all simple and easy to cook dishes, but we never know we can cook like that. The one on bottom right is just fry potato thin slices with eggs. This is very yummy, but of course oily – imagine it!

Cost: RMB 60
Address: 丽江, 束河古镇开文六社康普巷 (束河办事处旁)
Tel: 0888-5115922
Website: http://www.tymgkz.cn/
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Breakfast in Shuhe
Our first breakfast in Lijiang was like this:

Top left – these are their pao and buns. The plain bun is supposed to be eaten with the chilly on the top right.
Bottom left – our guide said that this is their favorite local drink, so we tried. Yuck! It tastes like butter melted in water. It is called SuYouCha (酥油茶).
Bottom right – simple fried egg in flour. Nothing special.

Before we left, we packed a puff from that lady – looks like our curry puff but non-spicy filling inside, all vegetables. Our guide told us those are actually non-local food, apart from the tea! :p

Cost: RMB47. Quite expensive!
Address: Just in front of the motel we stayed.
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Ripped-off Lunch
Our next lunch was a ripped off lunch. After visiting the Tiger Leaping Gorge, the driver said it is too long to get back to town and he recommended a place for us to eat. He is of no good intention, coz this place is a ‘black shop’. I’m sure he got big commission.

Well, the place actually looks great, as it was by the river with good scene. They do not have menus, so we have to go to the kitchen and order based on what we see à a unique way of ordering here, also in other parts of Yunnan.

Here is their kitchen - they cook rice outside:

This is what we ordered. On the left are the raw ingredients on the shelf, and on the right are the final cooked dishes. The bottom row is蚕豆, which I never know can be eaten like this – quite delicious!

Here is a flower dish that we ordered. Yes, we ate flowers fried in egg!

Well, so far, the taste is not bad, actually quite nice. But when this final dish came out, it really upset us. This is the famous local dish - boiled chicken with mushrooms (草菇炖土鸡).

There wasn’t any chicken meat. We paid for half chicken, but we couldn’t find any meat! Where did the meat go for the drumstick and the breast? They were just bones and bones only! Look how watery the soup is! We suspect that they took the meat and gave us the bones only.

It cost us RMB147, and RMB75 went to that stupid chicken dish alone – all we paid were chicken bones only.

The name of the shop is 江鱼潭伊家园. Beware! This is how the restaurant looks (quite cozy on the right photo). If you are brought there, you may still proceed as the taste is quite good, but please avoid ordering their chicken.

Cost: RMB 147
Address: 江鱼潭伊家园 near Tiger Leaping Gorge
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A-Ma-Yi Restaurant, Naxi local food in Lijiang Old Town
We have read about this restaurant before, and we purposely asked the guide to bring us there. Upon verification with the locals, it is true that this shop is run by a real Naxi local. Amayi (阿妈意) is a lady who is very famous in her cooking. She is retired now and passed this shop to her son. The restaurant is located inside the Lijiang old town, in a secluded area – that’s why not many know of this place! It took our guide some time to find it too!

We invited our guide to join us for dinner, and she explained those dishes to us. I actually can’t remember what we ordered and the pictures taken wasn’t clear. Roughly, I could remember we ordered fried potato (like French fries but in spicy sauce), fried mushrooms (干扁茶树菇), and two other very spicy dishes which I couldn’t take, plus a broiled chicken with toufu (豆腐炖土鸡). Yes, we were very upset with the lunch and want to try an authentic boiled chicken again.

Look at the picture below – that is a good comparison between the lunch chicken (left) and the one we got from Amayi (right).

The one on the right has so much ingredient that you can see from the surface. The one from lunch, we could hardly find anything!

Cost: RMB 138
Address: 丽江古城五一街小石桥
Tel: 13988895592
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Motel Breakfast
Here is our second breakfast, just before leaving the motel – we spent only 2 nights there. It was just plain porridge with some pickles. The porridge is so hot that it helped warmed up our body – it was very cold on our last day in Lijiang!

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Vermicelli Soup
There is one other specialty in Yunnan, which is their vermicelli soup (过桥米线). Before leaving Lijiang, our guide let us try this. Well, they brought up the meat, egg, noodle and soup, in separate bowls. What we had to do was to mix them and eat. A bit different in the way they eat, but the taste is similar to our noodle soup here, with a bit of spiciness.

Cost: RMB 41 for 3 bowls
Address: Just around Lijiang Old Town entrance, next to the taxi stand.

China Yunnan Lijiang Trip - Other Cultural Highlights

2008-05-19T19:49:00.000+08:00

Culture on the Floors

Here is a photo showing their unique way of tiling their floors. They like to use small stones that are made into patterns using roof tiles as separators/designs. Found this in almost everywhere!

Greetings
Every tribe has their own ways of calling others. In Naxi tribe (纳西族 - main tribe in Lijiang), women are called PanJingMei (胖金妹) and men are called PanJingGe (胖金哥). Well, I know, it should be pronounced as pang-jin-mei instead of pan-jing-mei, but Mandarin is not their native language and that IS the way they pronounce it! Some times a bit confusing when you listen to them, but it is quite fun too to guess what they actually mean! :D

In other tribes, these are called differently. Women are call JinHua (金花) in Bai tribe (白族 - main tribe in Dali) and A-Shi-Ma (阿诗玛) in Yi tribe (彝族 – main tribe in Kunming). We didn’t have the chance to learn more about other tribes, but it is really interesting! When we were in Lijiang, it took us a while to be accustomed to be called PanJingMei, and when we were in Kunming we found it funny when we were practicing mentioning AsiMa and other women responded to us!

Unique DongBa Religion – environment concerns
As highlighted in my previous post, Naxi’s DongBa religion emphasize a lot on taking care of the natural resource. They have built in environmental awareness into the religion, since many hundred years ago. This is really, really, unique!

They are so eco-friendly, even in their daily activities. They do not use plastic bags for all shopping. Instead, they use recyclable bags. I was told, if one walks away from a shop with a plastic bag, both the shop owner and the shopper would be fined!

All over in Yunnan, we see trash bins that come in sets of two – one is specific for recyclable items.

They Eat Flowers
Yes, they use flowers in their dishes, they EAT flowers. Flowers are not just for decorations! I will write more about this in separate posts on food.

Writings
Here are some examples of their DongBa writing. These are found on the walls in the old town:

The figure on the left top represents “Woman”. She holds a mirror with her own reflection.

The one on the right top represents “Home”, which you can see from its roof and the people staying below it.

And the bottom one represents “Pregnant Woman”. She has a big stomach and a fetus is inside the round stomach.

Basically, their writing is very much like drawings.

Dances in Yunnan

2008-05-17T19:46:00.000+08:00

On our first night stay in Lijiang, the motel owner kept persuading us (almost forcing) to dance at their local dance square after our dinner. We were so tired but still went ahead – am glad that we did that coz we practically didn’t have the chance to do that in the following days!

According to them, before TV invaded the litter quiet township, the people have nothing to do at night. It is their traditional culture to gather in the square after dinner, light the fire to keep warm, and dance circling the fire.

Of course, as tourism has boomed in this place, and with the invasion of TV and other entertainments, less and less locals dance there, and it is now full with tourists. Nevertheless, the one that we went in Shuhe old town (束河古镇) is still far more authentic than the Lijiang old town.

We watched for a while, and then was pulled into the circle to join them. I tell you… the locals really danced with their full body, seeing their shoulders and body movement – that is called DANCING. And us? We were like zombie or doing the morning exercise – practically just lifting our hands and kicking our legs here and there, as per the instruction. I found that we were very funny when I reviewed the videos. Hahahaha!

Here is a video before we joined the circle:

Here is a video showing 3 locals (2 white shirt and 1 black) dancing with us. Look at their movements!

Lijiang - Other Attractions

2008-05-15T19:44:00.000+08:00

These are some smaller attractions that I think can be skipped, especially some tend to be man made in the recent years. Well, when I visit a culturally rich place, I prefer to see its original look, rather than enriched or built by government for tourists. Unfortunately some of these smaller attractions listed in this post fall into that category. If I had known better, I would have skipped them. Nevertheless, they are not complete time waster as we could still learn a bit on their religions and their legends.

Legend of the Princess

Although there are a few versions about this Legend of the Princess, they all have some commonalities. First, the princess was imprisoned above the pond at the right side of this bridge. Second, all versions come with a sad ending, and the princess must die.

Story 1 – told by our guide
The king sent his favorite daughter to marry the prince of his enemy, pretending to be in peace with them. In fact, he wanted his daughter to feed him with information so that he could kill the prince and win the next battle. The princess fell in love with the prince and disobeyed her father. The king sent bad news on the queen, to lure the princess back home. Once she was back, she was imprisoned in a hut above the pond. She sent her dog to deliver message of her capture to the prince, but the dog was found and killed. When she found out that the prince was killed, she committed suicide in the hut by refusing to eat and drink.

Story 2 – told on the signboard

Similar to story 1, but in this version, it was the king who wanted to kill the princess by not giving her any water to drink. She tried to drink the water by dipping her long hair into the pond via the cracks of the hut floor. When found out, the father shaved her bald, and she was dead of thirst a few days after the shave.

DongBa Religion

Here is the DongBa symbol, practiced by most of the Naxi tribe (biggest minorities in Lijian). They worship 5 gods, with the most important/powerful one in the center.

This is the place they go up to worship their DongBa god. The long steps lead people walking away, from the hell to this world, and from this world to the heaven. On the left of the stair case is considered the death side – no photos could be taken there as it is believed full of evil spirits. On the right side is the good side – photos can be taken. A bit spooky, and I’m chicken hearted, so have to follow the rules! In fact, I even scared to take photo in the ‘good side’!

Here are some souvenirs they sell there. I’m particularly scared of the faced doll. It looks like voodoo thingy to me. :p

Meat Stones

They have an exhibition of meat stones in one of the attractions (can’t remember which one). Meat stones are natural stones that looks exactly like a piece of meat, without any modifications! There are 65 pieces of such meat stones in displayed in this museum. Apart from this set, there is one piece in Taiwan and another one in Singapore. Don’t you think they look like real meat??!!

Lijiang Attractions - Old Towns

2008-05-13T19:42:00.000+08:00

There are 2 old towns that we visited, one is called Shuhe (束河古镇) and another is Lijiang (丽江古城).

Our motel is inside Shuhe. It is a much quieter town than the other one. At night, there are less activities. The highlight of its activity is the nigh dancing which I’m going to share in next post. I actually prefer this town than Lijiang Old Town, due to its serenity and peace.

Top left – a quiet and peaceful morning, residents taking water from the river (drain?) to use)
Top right – the water is very clear, and you can see right through it to the bottom!
Bottom left – a shop owner making goods from silver with her tools.
Bottom right – the stone road is so smooth, which indicates this section of the road has been a few hundred years old. The longer it is, the smoother it gets.

And picture below is Lijiang Old Town at dusk:

Top left & right – entrance to the old town
Bottom left – this is the famous Bar Street (酒吧街), where you find a lot of bars in traditional format. Some even with local cultural dance, and some with the cross singing!
Bottom right - this is the Square (四方街), which supposedly for people to gather and dance. But no one did that when we were there, not as fun as the Shuhe old town.

We visited the House of Mu (木府) on our last day, which is situated just within Lijiang old town. It is where the local ‘king’ lived in, many years ago. He tried to imitate the Forbidden City (故宫/ 紫禁城), so lots of structures are quite similar to the one in Beijing – looks too familiar to me!

From here, if you walk to the top of the last room, you can view the whole Lijiang old town from here (picture above, at bottom right). Quite a spectacular view.

Lijiang Attractions - Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and Tiger Leaping Gorge

2008-05-11T12:35:00.001+08:00

Jade Dragon Snow Mountain
Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (玉龙雪山) is the second place we visited in Lijiang, which was our original main focus. My expectation on this attraction was much higher than what we got. I later learnt there are 2 routes to view the mountain, one could be nearer to the snow mountain but would probably more demanding on physical strength.

Due to high altitude, we get tired easily. Though we didn’t get any altitude sickness, I’m glad we didn’t go the other route coz at the end of this trip I was exhausted. There was some uphill walk (very minimal).

This is the cable care that we took that brought us nearer to the mountain. Without that, I guess we won’t be able to make it in such short timing! :p This cable car is very similar to the one that we used in HongKong’s NgongPing 360.

When we reached the end of the cable car, we were required to walk around 30 min before seeing the snow mountain.

A bit disappointed coz the mountain can only be seen from this far distance, unlike in New Zealand where we could even walk on it. Later, we found out that the mountain is not very high (5000+ m), but it has never been conquered! The mountain is Naxi tribe’s pride, especially with this fact! No wonder we can’t get very close to it! LOL!

Here is the bottom of the hill. Water from the mountain’s snow is their main source of water, for all activities (drinking, washing, agriculture, etc). Here is the first stop of the water. It is very beautiful, and the water looks like jade. It was regarded as mini JiuZhaiGou (小九寨沟).

Tiger Leaping Gorge
There are 3 parts of the Tiger Leaping Gorge (虎跳峡), namely the Upper Leaping (上虎跳), Middle Leaping (中虎跳) and Lower Leaping (下虎跳). To view the gorge from Lijiang without going to Shangri-la, we were only able to see the Upper Leaping, and it was 3-hour drive away from Lijiang town.

It was a long walk from the entrance to the site. We had to walk along the cliff of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, and on two parts of the walk we had to walk pass tunnels that cut across the mountain.

Look at the photo above, we had to walk along the cliff. There are stones falling from the top, and we have to walk close to the cliff and walk fast. But read the sign below, it is quite funny to read their translations… :p

After walking about 20 to 30 min, we finally arrived at the site here. The view was breathtaking! It is hard to imagine what would happen to me if I fall into that water…

The big rock in the center of the river is called the Tiger Leaping Stone. I think the Naxi tribe is very imaginative. They have a story for this as well!

They said many years ago, there was a hunter hunting down a tiger, and the tiger leaped to this stone and then hopped to the other side of the river, hence named the Tiger Leaping Gorge, and this stone is called the Tiger Leaping Stone!

The First Bay of the Changjiang River (长江第一湾)
Changjiang (长江) begins at the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. On our way back to Lijiang after visiting the Tiger Leaping Gorge, we stopped by to view the first bend of Changjiang.

It is supposed to be a brief stop here, but we spent quite some time just to enjoy the scene. It feels so comfortable and the place was really full of serenity and peace.

Where is your toothbrush?

2008-05-06T11:00:00.000+08:00

My friend WW has a strange habit. Whenever she stays in hotels, she'd keep/hide her toothbrush. We thought she was paranoid. Then...

Later on, 2 weeks ago, she forwarded this video to us. Aiiyyykk!! This is disgusting. From now on, we all follow her practice. LOL!

Lijiang Attractions - DongBaGu

2008-05-04T17:47:00.004+08:00

There are a few places we visited in Lijiang, which worth to journal down. Today, I will focus on our first top in Lijiang - DongBaGu (东巴谷)

This is a cultural village in Lijiang, displaying some major tribes and their cultural activities. Unlike the Yunnan Cultural Village (云南民族村), they do not really have a schedule for performance. As and when tourists are grouped together and led by their tour guide, when the group arrives at any tribal village, they would perform.

They also display some of the Yunnan 18 Peculiarities (云南十八怪), which were explained in their cultures.

Entrance to the cultural village.

Here is one of the 18 peculiarities – They sing more than they speak. As we read that, we entered into Lisu tribe’s village, and we were welcomed by this couple, who sang us a Welcome Song (video).

Apparently, in Lisu tribe, they believe in relieving evil/ghosts from pains. So, in some sacred activities, they climb knife ladder like this:

The ladder was really made of sharp knifes!

In the same Lisu tribe, they also have a ritual to chase away ghosts (ghost-buster?). In the performance, this old lady actually burned the steel till it was red hot and she actually licked the hot steel.

I think it was just too painful to watch. A tourist voiced that out to the guide, pleading them to stop this, which I think is a brave action! And I think he was doing the right thing!

Here is another peculiarity in Yunnan. Their wok cover is made of straw hats! Look at the smaller pots in the lower right of the picture above, they are all covered with straw hats.

Here are some fried rice cakes, which they fried on the spot and selling for RMB1 per stick. Delicious!

In some tribes, their doors are very small and low. This is to pay respect to the people staying in the room – you have to dip/lower your head as you enter the room!

In the old days, they do not have fridges, so the best way to preserve meat is to air dry the meat. In the pic above, the pig (left) is already mummified, and was already 8 years old! The ones hanging at the ceiling are dried pork and their jaws. Can’t imagine how they would use them. In fact, later on when we went to some restaurants, we also saw these air dried meats in their kitchen and storage area – really wonder if those are the meat they served us. :p

There are just so many snacks available. We bought a few others in DongBaGu. But nothing beat the rice cake mentioned above.

I have to admit one of the most unique culture I observed in Naxi Tribe is their environmental awareness and practice. Their religion teaches them to love and respect the environment, to observe ecology balance and not to destroy the nature. There was a section in the cultural village that exhibits things that help create the awareness.

In the pic above, they have a graveyard for extinct animals, with reasons of extinct and the animals last words. The writings are quite critical. Take the right one as an example, what was written are:
巴厘虎
产地: 亚洲
灭绝时间: 1937年 9月 27日
死因: 皮好, 肉鲜, 骨可入药
凶手: 人
遗言: 森林, 多保重, 我走了

(Bali Tiger
Geography: Asian
Extinction date: 27 Sep 1937
Cause of death: Good skin, delicious meat, bone has medical benefit
Killer: Human
Last words: Forest, take car, I’m leaving)

Related Topics
Overview of My Lijiang Trip
China Lijiang Trip Itinerary – useful for people planning to visit

China Lijiang Trip Itinerary

2008-04-30T13:05:00.004+08:00

Here is our itinerary for our Kuala Lumpur – Shanghai – Kunming – Lijiang – Dali – Kunming – Shenghai – Kuala Lumpur trip. You can buy Kuala Lumpur – Kunming- Kuala Lumpur flight ticket from MAS and reduce the trip by 2 days.

Day 1 Kuala Lumpur-Shanghai
We (SM & I) flew MAS to Shanghai, arrived around 2pm. Went to TM’s house to refresh, then out for dinner near XinTianDi. Slept in TM’s house.

Day 2 Shanghai-Kunming
The 3 of us (SM, TM & I) flew Southern Airline to Kunming, arrived around 3pm. Signed up local tour package in the airport, purchased ticket for YangLiPing (杨丽萍) show. Headed to check in Hotel YunLiang (云粮大酒店), left to KunMing Hall (昆明礼堂) for YangLiPing’s show at 7pm. Dinner nearby the hall before show starts.

Day 3 Kunming-Lijiang
Flew first flight to Lijiang, arrived around 9am. Went straight to Naxi tribe’s DongBa Cultural Village, Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (玉龙雪山), and a few other Naxi’s interests. Had our lunch at one of the attractions. At night checked in Motel TianYuanMuGe (田园牧歌) inside Shuhe historical village (束河古镇). Dinner in the motel. Joined local to dance in the dance square after dinner.

Day 4 Lijiang-Tiger Leaping Gorge-Lijiang
Departed from motel at 8:30am to Tiger Leaping Gorge, which was 3 hours driving distance from Lijiang town. Lunch nearby the gorge. Dinner in Lijiang historical village (丽江古城), in a Naxi restaurant - Amayi (阿妈意).

Day 5 Lijiang-Dali-Kunming
Morning returned to Lijiang historical village, visited House of Mu (木府). Had lunch nearby, then depart to Dali in a car. After dinner in Dali, took a train back to Kunming (arrived 6:30am next day).

Day 6 Kunming
Checked in hotel in the morning, refreshed and out for lunch in town. Visited DaGuanYuan garden (大观园) after lunch, adjoined to Yunnan Cultural Village (云南民族村) by boat. Dinner in cultural village.

Day 7 Kunming-Stone Forest-Kunming
Departed from hotel at 8:30am to the famous Stone Forest (石林), which was around 3-4 hours drive from the city. On the way back, visited Seven Colour Yunnan (七彩云南) – a commercial place set up by government to ensure quality of Yunnan’s specialties. Dinner in Kunming city center.

Day 8 Kunming-Shanghai
Checked out after breakfast, free & easy in Kunming city. Flight back to Shanghai at 4pm.

Day 9 Shanghai-Kuala Lumpur
Morning flight back to KL.

My Recommended Itinerary
I would recommend the following itinerary, especially if you have time. We didn’t really research well, and due to the detour to Shanghai we wasted some time. A few attractions were missed out as we were short of time. Shangri-la was missed too due to the recent Tibetan issues.

Flights from Kunming to Lijiang can be obtained from this website: http://flights.ctrip.com/.

Day 1 Kuala Lumpur-Kunming-Lijiang
KUL-KMG 0935-1310.
KMG-LJG 1630-1720. (Costs from RMB 200 to 600)
I would recommend staying in one of the motels (客栈) in the historical villages, good experience! Enjoy the night activities in those villages.

Day 2 Lijiang Sightseeing
Visit Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, and a few other attractions like DongBaGu (东巴谷). Seriously, I feel that only the snow mountain and dongbagu worth visiting, though we went to quite a few others (which we can’t remember them!).

Day 3 Lijiang Sightseeing
Spend a full day strolling the historical villages - both Lijiang Old City and the Shuhe Old Village are worth visiting.

Day 4-5 Lijiang – Tiger Leaping Gorge – Shangri la
Depart to Shangri la in the morning. On the way, visit Tiger Leaping Gorge. There are 3 spots to be visited. To save time, can visit the most famous spot – the Upper Tiger Leap (上虎跳).
Shangri la is best visited in May, June and July. In May they have lots of activities. June and July are the most beautiful period.
Spend 2 nights in Shangri-la.

* Day 4-5 Alternative: Lijiang – Luku Lake
Luku Lake is very beautiful and worth visit due to its special tribe – the Mosuo People (摩梭人). Mosuo tribe is also regarded as the Women Kingdom (女儿国), the famous kingdom in Journey to the West (西游记).
Spend 2 nights in Luku Lake.

Day 6 Shangri la/ Luku Lake – Lijiang
Return to Lijiang

Day 7 Lijiang-Kunming
LJG-KMG 0840-0930.
Rent a car to the Stone Forest.

Day 8 Kunming Cultural Village
Take a cab to the cultural village, worth spending a full day and should start in the early morning (8am), as every tribe has their own cultural dance, scheduled at different timing.

Day 9 Kunming-Kuala Lumpur
KMG-KUL 1420-1750

Related Topics
Overview of My Lijiang Trip
Lijiang Scenes & Activities - Dongbagu

Overview of My Lijiang Trip

2008-04-30T13:02:00.004+08:00

As my Enrich points going to expire last year, I redeemed return tickets to Shanghai, intended to visit its surrounding areas (Suzhou, Hangzhou, etc) since two of my friends are living there. After further discussion with my friends, we ended up going to Lijiang from Shanghai, and it was decided very late – almost near our departing date. :)

So, the route that I take is definitely not a recommended one to anyone intend to visit Lijiang, as you would end up spending too much on flights! I went to Shanghai, then flew China Southern Airline to Kunming, then flew over to Lijiang. The total trip was 9 days 8 nights, with actual time spent in Kunming-Lijiang only 7 days 6 nights.

The recommended route would be to fly directly to Kunming with MAS. This will save you time and cost. For me, I don’t mind this as I also intended to meet my friends who are currently staying in Shanghai. :)

I will split my Lijiang trip into a few posts, starting with the next one on our itinerary and my recommended one!

Related Topics
China Lijiang Trip Itinerary – useful for people planning to visit
Lijiang Scenes & Activities - Dongbagu

Hotel Drinking Glasses - Are they safe?

2008-04-22T21:24:00.000+08:00

This is one of the few things I would like to share this week.

Below is a video taken from hidden camera, showing us how hotel staff cleans our drinking glasses. It is a shocking fact, but why I'm not surprised? There are just too many things done behind us nowadays... :(

Maybe we should just bring along our own glass, plate, bowl, fork and spoon, etc, whenever we travel? :p

LED rope lighting

2008-03-24T18:31:00.008+08:00

I've been asked to review this LED rope light from Birddog Distributing.

I've never heard of this LED rope light, so I did some research. I am pretty much surprised with its beauty and its benefits.

Basically, LED (Light-Emitting-Diode) is the kind of light bulp used in most of the cars' tail lights. My old Satria's 3rd break light used LED. And lately I've bought some torch lights with LED bulps as well. They are usually brighter than the traditional light bulps. Because it doesn't involve burning of filaments like traditional bulps, LED uses less energy and producing more lights/brightness.

And these LED rope lights are slowly replacing conventional rope lights due to its energy saving, low heat and long lasting attributes.

Though I could see there are various types of rope lights (2-wire, 3-wire, 5 wire), but I could only see 2-wire LED rope lights in Birddog Distributing, maybe that's the only one available. Currently they are running promotions and prices are slashed for a limited time. Some are bout 37% discounted.

This LED rope lights comes in 7 different colours, i.e. red, blue, yellow, warm white, cool white, green and RGB (changing colours). This allows outdoor light decorations to be done more creatively.

I actually find the rope lightings quite fascinating. Never knew we can do so much with LED rope lightings. It would be good if the site can share more examples of the usage of rope lights.

Here is an example picked from the site to show how beautiful they are. Mostly for commercial usage though.

[Sponsored Post]

Great Japanese Dinner at Zipangu, Shangri-la KL

2008-03-04T21:39:00.002+08:00

My sister has decided to give me a treat last weekend, and she brought me to Zipangu at Shangri-la Kuala Lumpur for a Japanese feast.

She chose this venue because she is the Shangri-la's Prestige Platinum cardholder, which entitles her for 50% discounts on the bill (before tax). She highly recommended Zipangu's foie gras, and has been mentioning it many times. This is the first time I try that out.

These are the things that we ordered...

First, it is the not-to-be-missed sashimi. As both of us like only Salmon, she ordered Salmon Belly (Sashimi Harasu). Salmon Belly is more tender and juicy. It basically melts in your toungue, and it is a lot sweeter than other parts.

RM65
Then, the rice came. We ordered Rice in Green Tea and Salmon Mustard Onigiri (Rice Ball). We are very Asian, must eat rice. LOL!

Tea-Rice: RM16, Rice-Ball: RM10
To eat the tea-rice, we must pour the tea into the rice, mix well before eating.

The above were for sharing, and while we were eating our rice, the highlight of the night arrived - Unagi Foie Tohga (eel and foie gras). There are 3 items in the bowl. The one on the top is foie gras (i.e. goose liver). Underneath it is a slice of eel, and at the bottom is a piece of winter melon.

RM35
We had one bowl each, and they gave me a very generous size of foie gras. It gave me a very satisfying bite. The foie gras was fried outside, and then braised (or steamed?) till cooked inside, and the juices from the foie gras and unagi were absorbed fully by the winter melon. So, every single pieces of items were delicious, and one can accidentally swallow your own toungue!

The last dish came, and it was called Mentaiko Gratin. It is basically mixed seafood pieces, baked in cheese sauce. A dish quite westernized. Though this is also a nice dish, I think it is overly priced, and nothing so special about it that you cannot skip. Hmm, perhaps we were already full that time?

RM80
We ended our dinner with glutinous rice skin rolled in ice-cream for each of us. I forgot to take down the photo, but this is really GOOD! The ice-cream that we ordered was black sesame ice-cream, instead of the green-tea ice-cream that I usually would order. The rice skin was very fresh and thin, when it wraps the ice-cream, it blends in very well with it... Yummy... The dessert costs RM15 per bowl.

With the above, the total was over RM300+, but since my sister is a Prestige Platinum cardholder, she only paid RM155.83 for the above (2 Unagi Foie Tohga, 2 Daifuku Goma, all others 1 each).

How to become a Prestige Platinum member? First year subscription fee is RM499, and subsequent years is RM488. First year you get only 1 card, but subsequent years you get 2 cards. One card entitles 2 persons dining, so if you have more than 2, you'll need more cards (that's why the second years onwards more worthy). If you always go for fine dining, this is definitely a good offer. It is not only limited to the Japanese restaurants, it is to be used in all the restaurants in Shangri-la.

For enquiry on card or make reservations, dial: +60 3 2032 2388

Massage in Bangkok

2008-02-15T21:27:00.002+08:00

If you have been to Thailand, but not experienced a Thai massage, then you are considered not visited Thailand!

That was what I was told, when I first visited Thailand many years ago.

I am not a person fond of body massage because I dislike strangers touching my naked body. And I don't like the typical Thai massage, as I have fear of breaking my bones when they twist my limbs. :P

So, I settled for foot massage, and I trully love it. Thai's foot massage is different from the Chinese, though they both refer to it as Foot Reflexology.

As my job now requires me to travel a lot, everytime when I go to Bangkok, I never missed it. However, year on year, I feel a drop in the quality. I got disappointed on many occassions. My colleagued even stopped doing massage completely.

But then, my friend who works in Bangkok now, brought me to two very good ones in my last visit. If you are looking for good Thai massage, you should visit them. They are not too pricey and the massuers are very well-trained.

They are both very good, and we would use them depends on vicinity and availability.

Asia Herb Association is near to the hotel that I always stay, very convenient for me. It is located on Sukhumvit Soi 24, just walking distance from Phrom Phong BTS and Davis Hotel.

In my last visit, I paid BHT 450 for 90 mins Foot/Head & Shoulder Massage (BHT 350 for 60 mins). It was really, really, good. I didn't know how tired my feet was, until the massuer gave them a good touch. It was sooooooo GOOD that I fell asleep. If I had stayed longer, I would have visited them more. :D

I missed it the first night because they were fully booked. So it is important to make advanced booking. Their number is: 02261 7401, 02260 8864. It is very popular amongst tourists, and particularly the Japanese. For more info, visit their website: Asia Herb Assiciation.

Another recommended one is Health Land, this is very popular amongst the locals. I tried it once, on full body aromatherapy massage. It was very good as well, but as I generally dislike full body massages, and the outlet is located quite far from the hotel, I didn't visit it again - not if my friend drives! :P

Whatever it is, I have a strong believe if the locals go there, it must be good and reasonably priced. True enough, compared to other outlets, it is a lot cheaper. Foot reflexology is only BHT 250 for 60 min.

For more info you can hop over to their website: Health Lang Spa.

Fuji restaurant, Bangkok

2008-02-05T01:22:00.000+08:00

When I was in Bangkok, my best friend took me to this place in Tesco -- Fuji Japanese restaurant. It is a chain, and my friend said the price is very reasonable.

I was very hungry the time when we had our dinner. It was way passed my usual dinner time, due to time difference and shopping done. :P

In the beginning I still able to take photo, but when my main course came, I've just forgot about it. LOL!

Here is fry asperagus. Very fresh and juicy. I like it with a little bit of chilli.

Egg sushi and seaweed:

Here is the mushroom salad. I don't quite like it, coz there is too much of glass noodle.

This is the usual egg pouch sushi (dunno the name). It is quite different from what I had in the past, coz the rice inside is not just plain rice. It has a mix of some pickles and finely chopped mushroom.

The rest, I forgot to take photo. They are: unagi teriyaki, salmon sashimi and garlic rice.

I dislike the unagi teriyaki, couldn't finish either. I might be prejudice on the dish, coz I dislike anything to do with teriyaki anyway. Another reason I dislike this is, it has a lot of bones, all over the piece of the fish. Every single bite I am stuck with bones which I couldn't swallow. I am just not good at unagi - also not my favourite fish. I ordered this out of no choice, they have sold out gindara shioyaki. :(

Anyway, they didn't give me the itemised receipt, so I don't know the cost of each item. In total, we spent RM 138 for the whole bill! It wasn't cheap at all, for the type of things we ordered.

Compared to the fine dining Jap restaurant in Jakarta, Nadaman in Shangri-La, this is definitely not worthy at all. Imagine, the meals I had on the second day was less than RM50 (as it turned out in my credit card bill). If we ordered 2 sets, it would still come out less than RM100, in oppose to RM138 for what we had here in Fuji... Interesting to know why she thinks it is cheap, must check with her again.

Pratunam Market

2008-02-02T19:34:00.000+08:00

In my last visit to Bangkok, I had a very busy schedule. Meeting was from 8am to 5pm everyday. On the second day evening, right afte I dropped my stuff back to the hotel, I took a cab to the Pratunam market.

I was deterined tha I must do some shopping. I have been grounded for more than 3 months and havn't got the chance to buy any CNY clothes for the children and even myself!

I went to the Pratunam wholesale market, despite knowing it was probably too late. When I arrived 80% of the shops were closed, and the rest were in the process of closing. I managed to catch one shop before they closed the shutter. It is a shop for children's clothing.

As I was in a hurry (can't believe that my bladder was full at this critical hour!), I didn't have the energy and time to negotiate, but I was pretty happy with the price despite knowing I probably paid higher than I would if I have time.

Here are the pants and shirts bought in that shop. All shirts are priced at THB100 (RM10), pants at THB150 (RM15), and jeans at THB200 (RM20). Ya, some of the sizes are too big - remember I was in a HURRY?

I then quickly went to the toilet in a mall nearby (nearby? 10 min walk!!). After than, when I returned, all shops were closed INSIDE the main block of the Pratunam market. What were left, only those outlets along the main road.

Still not too bad. I found a shop selling very little choices of children's clothes, but VERY CHEAP! Look, the Cheongsam for Isabel are only THB250 (RM25) for all the 4 pieces!

You can't even get this in Beijing, not to mention KL. I checked at Isetan KL a week later, similar dress (not same of course) costs RM89.90!!! Well, of course the ones at Isetan is a branded one - 'China Town'. But come one, 'China Town'? I don't really recognize that brand. LOL! Furthermore, for kids, I won't spend that much just for a dress that would probably last for 6 months only.

I then went to Carrefour and shopped at the stalls nearby. Wasn't keen to go to the SuanLum night bazaar as my aim is really clothes only. At Carrefour stalls, I only found black and white coloured clothes. Then, remembered it was the mourning period for the demised prince, which the citizens would mourn for 150 days.

Though they are all B&W clothes, their design is quite interesting. I found many nice B&W clothes but didn't really want too many of those. Hey, my aim was for CNY, how can I wear mourning clothes for New Year celebration? I will be killed by all the elders. LOL!