Yunnan, China- Part 1

Day 1
Naturally, I was exhausted after arriving back on home soil after 8 days in China's Yunnan province. Still, I managed to squeeze some energy out for a footie session with half of my football gang yesterday and proceeded for an outing today. One thing I've realized after almost 4 years of on and off blogging is that once you've taken a short break from postings, it's pretty difficult to get back into the mood for the next post. Anyways, here are some pictures for you to feast your eyes on, plus a little narration from yours truly. (Our MAS flight to Kunming loading up and preparing to take flight)




Bells were tolling incessantly in my head as I threw my arms about frantically in an effort to shut the noise out. "Make them stop!! Make them STOP!"
It took what seemed like every sap of energy in my body to lift an eyelid. Just within my vision stood my brother, toothy grin-equipped, holding up the world's most annoying alarm clock. Reluctantly, I pulled myself out of bed, all the while still trying to pry the timepiece(still ringing) from my bro who was obviously having sadistic pleasure watching me suffer. Not exactly the ideal morning get-go before leaving for an 8day trip to China with my grandparents and some relatives.

Trivial issues aside, I was soon zipping along the highway towards the airport with bro, sis, my aunt and cousin. Mum, being my chauffeur of the day, didn't make as much fuss as expected. I was glad. After some small safety reminders, I told myself there and then to relax. It was 6.45. The sun had barely risen, peeking over the horizon like a obscure dash of light shone through a translucent window, bathing the scene with a unique, quaint sort of beauty. Sparse Patches of forests beside the road and the oil palm estates that border these; all immersed in a drench of blue. It seemed as if the whole of nature and man's creation were one, and there was only one colour in existance.. the colour that unites all earth, water, wood, metal and sky. The blue-hued effect faded as quickly as it presented itself, like an illusion that had appeared once upon a dream, replaced by a trickle of the day's first direct sun rays. The sky striped with orange. I stared, taking in all that I could, unaware, unbothered by the chitter chatter in the car.
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Adeline- The young, plump, sometimes over-excited tour guide from Perak.

小沙- That's the local guide's name who was there to greet us at the Kunming Airport.
I find it a pity that some of the people in the group got pissed because of xiao sha's "attitude". They describe him as being precocious (taking into account that almost all of my fellow tour group members are already "over the hill", the youngest one besides myself being 40 years of age). Anyways, I rather think that xiao sha's an amiable person. He's easy-going, speaks his mind (which probably was why he ticked one of the senior citizens off), and most importantly, possesses that ability of storytelling that I think every guide should have.

The first day, unfortunately wasn't caught on digicam cause for some reason, I snapped those photos with one of those old film cameras which is now with my grandfather. Basically, we climbed a few flights of stairs to the "dragon gate" which apparently, is of great importance to taoists as it represents one of the holiest site for taoist devotees. Kunming, as the locals say, once bred one of the world's best generation of stone craftsman which led to them carving sculptures out of stone even on a steep edge of a mountain. There's a story which is predominantly romance-based behind the construction of this "dragon gate" which I'm not gonna elaborate here. In fact, I don't think I should tell the full story of this trip lest I want readers to snooze off reading this post. It'll be straight to the point from now on.

After the dragon gate, we had a stride in a wonderfully flowered garden which held a very VERY long couplet or 对联 that had around 100 words in total. Some couplet huh. It describes the scenery of Kunming from the poet's point of view and the significant value of Kunming in China's long history to the date the couplet was written. History in retrospect should not be rued as nothing we can do will change the past. What there is left to do is to extract the "moral of the story". (All of that according to the poet)


Day 2

The second day brought us to "jiu xiang" which is a formation of Kart caves, consisting of numerous gorges including that of the Yincui Gorge and the Underground Gorge. (I plucked that right out from the itinerary)

But before visiting 9 xiang, I must mention this place at which we had our luncheon. As part of it's decor, we had short stools and tables and a floor strewn with straw. Lol.. quite interesting actually, as they serve one of the ethnic minorities' cuisine. You see, Yunnan itself is the home of 24 ethnic minorities out of 50(I forgot the exact number) that China has. The main ethnic group residing in Kunming city would be the "Yi" race (彝族). At the restaurant, I got a taste of a very strong bamboo wine, blergh... Being a non-alcoholic, I couldn't take more than one sip. Later, I would learn that the ethnic minorities in Yunnan really enjoy their Smoke and Drinks.



>>>group photo... (from left)小沙, me, my 40y.o. relative, gonggong, gu ma and ah ma.










The shallow river running right behind our restaurant








Taking a sampan-like boat in Jiu Xiang.>>>>>







We took an elevator down to a small jetty where our small sampan-like boat awaited us. We weren't on the boat for long as the ride only lasted about 5-10minutes. The rest of the journey was to be completed on foot (or if you're legs can't carry you all the way, on other people's feet)

Grandparents or "gong gong" and "ah ma" both had 轿子 to carry them all the way to the finish line>>>
















We even had a friendly staff from the park who guided us along the way. That's her back in the picture(holding the flag). Should've requested for a picture with her. Lol. She may not be Gong Li, but still, she was rather comely. :P


Hearing the constant gushing water below all the while, we climbed and descended as the path took us, admiring the cave formations of stalagmites, stalactites and columns(coming together of a stalagmite and stalactite). There were also
"神田"s though I have no idea what the English term is. Maybe if you know what this is, you can leave a comment. Enlighten me, mate.

“神田”s

Unknown fish species that's done away with its eyes after millennia of years of evolution

<<Me posing for a photo at the wrong place, and time XP











At one point, we had to hike up a long, steep flight of stairs to emerge at the cable-car station. Half way through, the people on 轿子 were already far ahead, while the rest were far behind. We- xiao sha, the pretty tour guide and I- were left to talk about backpacking and camera shuttle speed.

On our way back to the top.

To be continued...