Yunnan Trip

We had a group of 22 pax (7 men 15 ladies) to maximise the use of the five 4WD vehicles hired from Lijiang up to Deqin and back. Half the group members were past Yongoers. The write up below is courtesy of Ms Tee Wan (teewan@tm.net.my) , a first-timer with Yongo.

Tiger Leaping Gorge Trekkers / Autumn Leaves Mingyong Glacier

Day 1 Thu 3 Nov Hong Ngoc Hotel Hanoi: KLIA to Hanoi VN758 flight 1515/1730 to Hanoi. Stayed in the old quarters and walked around the streets. Dinner at roadside shop of beef noodles and vegetables (VND 35,000 = MYR 8+ for 2 persons).

Day 2 Fri 4 Nov Overnight on sleeper bus to Lijang: Departed 8.30 pm: Hanoi to Kunming (1890m): VN908 1110/1350 to Kunming at elevation of 1890m. Relatively cold temperature around 10 – 15°C. Met up with our local guides (Wang Xin & his Australian wife Tania!) which surprised us since one of our guides was a Caucasian in China ! Left luggages at Camellia Hotel and walked around Kunming for light trekking apparel shopping and sampling of local food which included “cross bridge noodles” (RMB 2.50), fresh dates, fresh buns (RMB 0.50 each) and dumplings (RMB 2.50 per tray). Simple dinner of bread – generally, food in Kunming is very cheap.

Day 3 Sat 5 Nov Mao Yuan Inn, Lijang: Lijang (approx 2400m) Arrived in Lijiang around 6 am in the in the morning. Early check in to Mao Yuan Inn and had breakfast at Tibetan restaurant next door. Had first taste of “Lijang papa” and hot soy milk (delicious). Cycled (rental RMB 20) for most of the day to the north of Lijang, visiting Baisha Frescoes of Lijang (entrance RMB 15) and having a good view of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain throughout the cycling trip due to the clear blue sky.

Day 4 Sun 6 Nov Tibet Café & Inn, Shangri La: 4WD adventure started from Lijang after an hour delay ( 10 am ) as we lost some members. Took car no. 5 where 6 people are in one car (Ing Ing, TQ, Goh, Erica & myself). Stopped for a quick view of Napa Lake and for some apple shopping en route to Baishuitai (2380m, 140 meters in length and 160 meters in width, entrance RMB30). Baishui Terrace is regarded as a sacred site of the Dongba culture of the Naxi people.

Drove through the Tiger Leaping Gorge (entrance RMB 60) and had a glimpse of what to expect for the upcoming trek. Proceeded to Shangri La (formerly known as Zhongdian, 3297m). Checked into hotel around 8 pm. Walked into Old Town 's square of Zhongdian before joining the local Tibetans in their cultural dances. Did the dance mainly to warm up our bodies! Had a late but fabulous dinner in a nearby Tibetan restaurant across from the hotel (approx. RMB 21 p.p.)

Day 5 Mon 7 Nov Meili Snow Mountain Guest House (3443m): Day started with a visit to Songzanlin Monastery ( 7am before breakfast, entrance RMB20), the largest Tibetan temple in Yunnan . Construction began in 1679 and was completed in 1681. Also heard the tolling of the bells and the sound of the drums from the bell and drum towers in the early morning. Cold temperature around -9°C on that day. Could barely feel my toes and fingers but the early sunrise view and colours (not to mention beating the commercial crowds) were well worth the freezing coldness. Left Shangri-La and proceeded towards Deqing.

After a very cheap lunch of RMB7 pp, we arrived at “Omega” (2400m) lookout point where Jingsha Jiang flows before joining Chang Jiang (a.k.a Yangtze). Continued on to Deqing.(Diqing prefecture), a journey traversing the mountain ranges with various elevations from approx 1900m to 4292m at the highest point. Had a first glimpse of Meili Snow Mountains (over 6,000m) with 13 peaks. Sky was surprisingly very clear around 5.30 pm and had clear view of all peaks including the highest, known as Kagebo (6,740m). Even the drivers of all five 4WDs had to get out of their cars and prayed to the mountains for the clear view!

Arrived at Deqinq (outskirt) and checked into hotel around 7.30 pm . Had a round of steamboat dinner where we ate and ate a lot (approx RMB 20 pp) due to the cold. Had to use other people's bathroom as our room did not have an attached bathroom. Celebrated Goh's birthday with a cake that Lee Min bought along the way. The poor rabbits on the cake fell down due to the rough journey up!

Day 6 Tue 8 Nov Meili Snow Mountain Guest House: Sunrise over the Meili Snow Mountain around 7.30 am – wonderful colours. Not so nice breakfast of the only available menu of oily noodle breakfast in the hotel (RMB 5 per bowl). 4WD took approx 2 hours to get to nearest village for Mingyong Glacier climb (entrance RMB 60). Wonderful late autumn colours and glad that we walked instead of taking the pony. Only issue was the constant running nose due to the cold! Arrived at highest lookout point (2984m, 10°C) around 2pm. Wanted to take pony down but all ponies have left the area by the time we went down. Stopped at the Tibetan village/temple to talk to the locals and had photos taken. Arrived back at base of glacier climb at 5 pm before ordering a sumptuous dinner of 6 dishes for 5 people! (<RMB 20 pp).

Guesthouse on the Tiger Leaping Gorge / Stupas near Deqin

Day 7 Wed 9 Nov Tibet Café & Inn, Shangri La: Departed Deqing at 9 am after a breakfast of oven baked “Lijang papa” and a bowl of “mie sien” chicken & egg noodles. Crossed the highest point again at 4292m and this time, we forced our not-so-friendly driver to stop despite him overshooting the lookout point.

Arrived at Tibet Café & Inn by 4 pm and checked in. Didn't go to hot spring and instead wondered the streets of Shangri La before meeting at 7 pm for a Tibetan dance performance & BBQ lamb / beef dinner (RMB 15 + 20 pp). Took a taxi (RMB 10) to some rather remote place and had us worried since the driver first brought us to a wrong place before arriving at the correct place which was almost pitch black! Show was rather enjoyable though the food was not quite enough to fill our stomachs! Thereafter, spent much time re-packing everything into 1 backpack (shared by TQ & myself) for the Tiger Leaping Gorge trek as it covered 4D3N before we could get our luggage back from the 4WD.

Day 8 Thur 10 Nov Naxi Family Guest House (2211m) communal toilets & shower: Departed Shangri-la for Qiaotou (1830m) after breakfast at the same Tibetan restaurant as per our first night in Shangri-la. Started the trek a day earlier due to unreasonable hotel rates at Qiaotou (according to Tania). Started our trek at 2.45pm on which was a relatively tiring uphill climb. Arrived at guest house around 5 pm. Breathtaking close up view of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain . By the time we got to the guest house, it was too cold for a hot shower where the hot water was inconsistent. Had to forego shower for the day and make do with “dry cleaning”! We had our luggage carried by the pony and only carried our own essentials such as water, jackets and snacks. Pony “porter” was RMB 15 per bag up to 28 bends.

At night, we sampled great Naxi home grown and home cooked meal for RMB 15 pp. Pre-ordered our breakfast in view of early start the next day. Also enjoyed simple Naxi dances before resting for the day.

Day 9 Fri 11 Nov Tea Horse Trade Guest House (2323m) communal toilets & shower: Early start after a delicious breakfast of banana Lijang papa. Went up what was known as the 28 bends although it was really difficult to determine if there were exactly 28 since some bends were quite obscure. Highest point after the bend was at 2670m. Arrived at our lunch stop in Tea Horse Guesthouse around 12 pm . We were supposed to stay at Halfway House for the night but tour organizers changed the venue due to the excellent food (not to mention price) and hospitality (lunch & dinner were at RMB15 respectively pp). Took a walk further up to nearby farmhouses before returning by 3 pm to have a nice hot shower. Other people were having a lazy afternoon by watching some DVD, courtesy of Lee Min!

Watched “Saint Ralph” which had most of us hooked (couch potato would be a good term except no couches. Instead, hard & cold wooden chairs & stools!). Amazing how we rushed back to continue with the movie immediately after dinner. Disgusting but still I enjoyed the movie... Later continued with some other movies which were not too interesting hence stopped midway before pre-ordering our breakfast again and retired for the day.

Day 10 Sat 12 Nov Daju Snowflake Hotel (1720m) communal toilets (no water there!) & shower: From now, it was downwards all the way. Paid another RMB 25 for our luggage to be brought down until lunch place at Tina's Guest House. Came across some nice waterfalls along the way. After lunch, took a van to the old jetty for crossing the Jingsha river. Steep climb down and another steep climb up on the other side of the river towards Dazu. Kim Leng was the only smart one who took the pony up the climb while the rest of us huffed and puffed our way up. Should have taken pictures of us but I guess we were all too sweaty and trying to recover our breaths by the time we got up the climb!

Walked towards Dazu village and enjoyed looking at what was planted. Also invited ourselves into a villager's home where there was an almost ripe fruiting persimmon tree. Had 2 little sweet girls picking over 30 persimmons for the group. Lee Min was kind enough to pay the villager RMB30 for all the effort even though they only wanted to charge RMB 0.50 each. Had a rather oily and salty dinner at the hotel (RMB15 pp) and also pre-ordered breakfast for the following day. Michael demonstrated his reflexology skills after dinner, focusing on those who were not feeling well (e.g. Boh Seng, TQ). Much laughter and merriment before everyone retiring rather early after a full day's trek from 9 am to 5 pm.

Mingyong Glacier Lookout / Tiger Leaping Gorge waterfall

Day 11 Sun 13 Nov Mao Yuan Inn Lijiang 2404m: Our 4WD vehicles rejoined us (Edward, Valuka, TQ & myself in one car this time round). This time, we had a new driver who was a lot more pleasant. Proceeded to base of Maoniuping or Yak Meadow before taking a pony ride up. Went up to an altitude of 3603m, 4 C around 1 pm (entrance + pony ride RMB 70, 27 9' 59.9” north latitude, 100 14' 26.9” east longitude ). My guide for the pony is of Miao ethnic group and a very pleasant and humble person. Had a light lunch made up of yak meat satay sticks and potato satay sticks (yum…) after a walk around Maoniuping. Later, our car made an unscheduled stop at the “man-made” Baishuitai where the water flowed down from the glaciers of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain . Missed the colours of the river/lake on the other side of bridge due to unawareness!

Dinner was at Lijang and we had steamboat for dinner (RMB 25 pp). After dinner, we started trekking apparel shopping with TQ buying a fleece windstopper jacket for RMB 120. Several people also purchased the same and this brought to light the term “economies of scale” well into my vocabulary. Talk about cheap purchases in bulk! I was amazed to see how many red colour apparel that Michael bought (red inner jacket, red outer jacket, red gloves, wanted an orange headgear but we said “NO”! before he finally settled on gray colour!)

Day 12 Mon 14 Nov Mao Yuan Inn, Lijang: Free and easy day in Lijiang. Went up the Lion hill to have breakfast (again the every oily noodles!) at a guest house there so that we could see the roofs of Lijang old town. Later proceeded to the Wangu Tower , the highest structure in the old town of Lijang to have a bird's eye view. Later walked the streets of old town and did some light souvenir shopping. Lunch & dinner (both meals less than RMB 20 for 2 persons) was at new town where food was cheaper. After dinner, we attended the Naxi music performance (RMB 80 pp) which I thought had too much talk (compered by Xuanke) and too little music. Only 6 pieces of music were played over 1.5 hours from 8 pm . It was also cold in the old town theatre and it was a pity we couldn't exercise a little more to keep ourselves warm!

Day 13 Tue 15 Nov Yuyuan Bai ethnic Family Owned Inn, old town of Dali: Reluctantly left the beautiful old town of Lijang for Dali (1900m, located between 99 58' - 100 27' east longitide and 25 25' - 25 58' north latitude ) by a private tour bus for the group. Journey took approx 3 hours. Somehow, Dali was an anti climax after Lijang even though the scenery was unique and still beautiful. Dali is surrounded by Cangshan mountain range which has 19 peaks, with an average height of 4000m. The highest peak, Malong, is 4122 m high but it was difficult for us to determine which peak that was due to the clouds hovering above the peaks like a ring around the finger. In between every 2 peaks, streams trickle down and flows into the Erhai Lake . Lunch in new town for RMB 14 for 2 persons.

After lunch, walked towards the 1 pagoda which was closed for restoration works. Later took bus no. 19 (RMB 0.50 pp) to the 3 pagodas. Didn't go into the park as we found the entrance fee of RMB 52 to be too steep. Ended up taking photos of the pagodas from outside.

After the many days of Chinese food, we yearned for Western food hence decided to go Western for dinner. Surprisingly, the Western food was good and cheap (approx RMB 40 for 2 persons). All bread was toasted in the oven hence it took quite a while for dinner to be served (burgers!). Rejoined group to celebrate Jean Loh's birthday.

Day 14 Wed 16 Nov Overnight in sleeper bus Dali Kunming: Breakfast of cup noodles before departing for a cruise on Erhai Lake (RMB 25 pp) at 9 am . Erhai Lake is the largest highland lake next to Dianchi and one of the seven biggest fresh water lakes in China . It means "sea shaped like an ear". Visited the temple on Golden Shuttle Island (Jinsuo Tao) on the lake and had a great view of the mountain range although some peaks were still covered by clouds. Also visited the smaller Xiaoputuo Dao (originally devoted to Bodhisattva Kwan-yin) which can be traced back to the 15th century. This “island” is reknown for the belief that Kwan-yin once visited the place hence the erection of the smaller temple to commemorate the visit.

Boatman was by then impatient and gave everyone a talking to by being 15 min late ( 11.15 am ). Later chugged our way to a nearby fishing village of Bai minority and were required to pay RMB 2 pp but group refused to pay given that we were there to buy /shop for things. Witnessed 2 hawkers having a shouting match with each other and later had light lunch of cold noodles (RMB 2 pp) which was quite tasty albeit the rather unhygienic preparation by the same hand that handles money. Left at 12.25pm , 5 min earlier than scheduled. 4 people were left behind by the impatient boatman. Our left-behind members took a subsequent boat back to the pier half an hour later.

Proceeded to the old town of Xizhou where some group members enjoyed Bai cultural performances and tasting of 3 courses of tea which we missed out on due to feeling lethargic. Proceeded back to Dali old town and rested in the same Inn before taking a shower around 4.30 pm in preparation for sleeper bus back to Kunming.

Overall impression of Dali – people there are too materialistic, either influenced by the Han Chinese or brought about by the mass tourism!

After Lee Min's encouragement and influence, part of the “troupe” went of for last minute shopping for soft shell jacket where several people purchased the jacket for RMB 150 including TQ. Dinner of Western meal again (yummy sandwich & toasted bread with hotmilk & hot chocolate < RMB 30 for 2 persons). Headed for our sleeper bus at 7.30pm.

Day 15 Thur 17 Nov Camellia Hotel Kunming: Back in the city of Kunming , arriving around 4 am and not moving to hotel until after 7 am . Boarded taxi from bus station to hotel (RMB 10). More walking around and shopping for trekking apparels and food tasting. Breakfast of noodles with lamb (RMB 3 pp), lunch of the same “cross bridge noodles” (RMB 2.50) and more fresh buns. Ended up at the larger Bird & Flower market about 30 min walk from hotel. Also visited Carrefour and had coffee in an outside high class café where coffee was RMB 15! Purchased DVDs at RMB 5 per piece.

Later had an enjoyable and delicious dinner in restaurant next to hotel a la carte style (RMB 25 pp) where there was a dance performance of the various ethnic groups of Yunnan . Rushed to try purchase day packs but could not find the stall at night (which was actually already closed for the day without our knowledge!). Wasted effort.

Lijiang Old Town / Naxi Orchestra Lijiang

Day 16 Fri 18 Nov Hong Ngoc Hotel Hanoi: Had a good buffet breakfast in hotel and gave up the thought of buying the day pack bags until further discussion with group members. Rushed to find the stall and finally purchased the 35 litre day pack for RMB 120 each. Also purchased a larger back pack for RMB 140 (just too cheap and enticing to ignore the temptation!). Got back to hotel around 11 am and re-packed luggage due to new purchase. Many within the group did last minute purchase up until the designated meeting time of 12 pm. Celebrated belated birthday for Valuka in hotel lobby.

Boarded flight VN909 1450/1540 to Hanoi without having to pay airport tax in Kunming after all since it was already covered in our air tickets. Hmm… should have spent the balance RMB on more shopping! Arrived in Hanoi for more walking around in the old quarter before going for the water puppet show (VND 20,000 = MYR 5). Felt the show was better value for money as compared to the Naxi music performance in Lijang.

Dinner in roadside stall (VND 37,000) and later proceeded to have shell fish for VND 25,000 per kilo).

Day 17 Sat 19 Nov Home: Early departure after breakfast in hotel. Flight home on VN759 1000/1415.

A FANTASTIC HOLIDAY!