Some photos posted on this page are courtesy of master chin and Chuen Yee
China Eastern reached Kunming in the morning.
We collected our luggage and went to the Domestic flight counter to check in for the Lijiang flight. The flight will only depart at 12pm, we have 4 good hours to kill. We went over to rent a 3-hr room at Best, which is linked to the airport by skybridge. It turn out to be one of the best hotel throughout the journey. This hotel is run by the Hongkie, and they allow bag check in if you fly domestic. Convenient huh? There is a bookstore that sell all the pictorial books. We were thinking of buying them on the way back instead of lugging them for 8 days. Mistake. We never get to see those books again.
This was when I discover my roommate Chuen Yee can fall into deep sleep with snore within 5 mins. Amazing.
We cant help but keep flipping those pictorial books in the airport bookshop cos the quality of pictures are so good and the price is really low. What a steal. I tell myself I will be back.
Once we boarded the domestic flight, we were given bottled water and a packet of Oxygen lozenges. Quite cool. My fear for AMS deepened on seeing those pills. I found out later that we dont need those in Lijiang. My AMS only started when i was in Shangrila.
Once we reached Lijiang Airport, we hop onto the little bread minivan booked by our hotel. It turn out to be a long jouney simply because of the van - no power. All other vehicles that overtook us gave us a glare haha.
After we dropped off, we walked for 15 mins around the ancient city to reach our inn. Cant help but noticed that the city is very clean. The water inside the drain is sparkling stream water from the snow mountains with fish swimming in it. The inn lady was very friendly, showing us to a nearby restaurant that is not that expensive. We ordered a Tuji-soup (土鸡汤), soup made from chicken reared for at least a year, and some other dishes. The tuji soup is so tasty and so rich. It was a lovely lunch.
We saw a pagoda on top of the hill on the way here and decided to go up and see the city of Lijiang from high ground. Apprently the hill is known as Lion Hill. I learnt later that there is another hill called Elephant Hill (象山). We snapped some photos on top of Lion Hill. The roof of the houses looked exactly like those in the sword epics.
We came down and walked around the ancient city itself. Meeting point is always the Sifang Square (四方街). Chuen Yee went to deliver some local postcards to his friends from a post office. The streets are full of all kinda people, very touristy. But the buldings and all do have some ancient charm in them. Have been the props for some Zhangyimou's movies i heard.
We then move on to a place for resting with beer - Shuhe. We learnt later that the price of beer there is many many times more expensive than all other places we have been - kena conned. However, having ice beer beside a clear river is still quite a relaxing thing. Those PRC around us play poker and mahjong and certainly enjoying themselves very much.
I led my friends to Holland this time. Tot of trying the preserved ribs in Lijiang. Turn out that it is so oily and salty that we didnt like it at all. Not cheap as well. The driver came and met us at the restaurant and thrown us another unpalatable bomb. The fee will be RMB600 per day, not RMB 500. Damn, I gotto go change money tomorrow. Hopefully the bank open tomorrow - but tomorrow Sunday le!
By the time the driver sent us back to Lijiang ancient city, it is illuminated with all the lights. We went to Jiubayitiaojie (酒吧一条街), a street lined with discos and pubs. We have to cover our ears cos the music is blasting away, killing Lijiang city together with it. We walked for sometime and head back to inn. Lucky Chuen Yee and Yin Huan recognise the way back. I totally cant find my way in the maze of ancient city.
Jing Jing finally reached the Inn at 11pm! Yay!
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