Yunnan May 2012 (Day 2)

Continue from Day 1...

The highlight of Day 2 was actually Da Li (which is another county that is further up from Kunming). The minority group that can be found in Da Li is mainly the Bai tribe and hell, we got a rather grumpy lady as our local tour guide...

But before setting off for Da Li, we went to the Luyu Tea-Culture Center for some Pu-Er Tea sampling and most importantly to the sales ladies, for them to do some hardselling haha...

Setting off at 8.30am...

The tea expert... Don't underestimate her... She has a Master degree in Tea Study...

One thing interesting for this Yunnan trip is that along the way, we met many different tribes/minority groups... FYI: Yunnan is the province made up of mostly minority groups.  And in this tea center, the ladies here are from the Yi tribe and we address the ladies "Ah Shi Ma" and the men "Ah Hei Ge" (Dark brother). Those terms are also used to refer to pretty girls and handsome guys. No matter whether you are fat or ugly, they will still call you Ah Shi Ma if they want to do some business. You can't call them "Xiao Jie" because that has an affiliation to the bar hostesses or prostitutes. And knowing how bad my mum's memory is, she came up with several new terms that we had a good laugh. Talk about that later...

Yunnan is famous for its Pu-Er Tea and this is a trail which the ancient people used for tea and horse trading.

That is how tea leaves are packaged... In bricks and in cakes... Tea leaves that are packed in bricks are of the highest grade (the square one).

Tea demo... I think I drank 2 big cups of tea during the entire demo... Saw that old couple in the foreground on the left? We saw them at our market this morning! What a coincidence!

Taste rather good...

Ah Shi Ma doing some major hardselling... Insisted that we bought 7 tea cakes! Crazy! And mind you, they are not cheap... hundreds of dollars for those tea... Of course, we did not buy that much...

Second stop: Dinosaur Valley

Apparently, on this mountainous region, one or a few species of dinosaur fossils were excavated an discovered. Obviously, you can tell that I wasn't paying attention to the guide's introduction. The place is over-rated.

Can't help marvelling at how big and spacious the attractions in China are... But, this means lots of climbing and walking. Exploring a small-scaled attraction can take up 1-2hrs. Pretty tiring...

IF you show that to our governement, they will say it is a waste of space.

Drama... haha

Bougainvillea again... This is just the entrance. Once we reached the end, we still got to take a bungy ride to the top of the mountain for the museum... Told you, what a waste of land...

Mum posing again...

This is the species discovered on the mountain of Lu Feng and thus, it is named Lufengosaurus.... WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... how cheena!!!!

I think most of them are reconstruction and not real fossils.

Hot hot, can't wait to leave this place...

The mother and son who always quarrel haha...

Bye Lufengosaurus, we won't be coming back!

Along the way to Da Li, never-ending mountains... So scenic...

The unique architecture of the dominant Bai tribe. As the name suggests, the Bai tribe loves the colour white. They try to incorporate as much of the colour in their costume and architecture as it signifies purity and honesty (qing qing bai bai). They hope that their descendents will make an honest living. Here comes our grumpy and sharp-tongued local guide whom I didn't take a picture of, for fear that she will criticise me anytime.

She never failed to show us how terrible her attitude was. On the first night during dinner, she wanted to get our attention during dinner to remind us about the morning call and all of us were so restless due to extremely warm room which had no airconditioning switched on, she shouted, "Can everyone listen. By right, my job for today is over so listen now and I don't want to repeat!" WOAH!!! FIERCE!

Then when we went for a house visit and she was describing how the corridor of the living room had pictures of rat and several animals which meant good luck, an auntie innocently asked, "Huh? This is a rat? How come the tail is so short. I think it's more like a rabbit to us." Oh oh! She stepped on a bomb. The tour guide turned towards her, paused, and gave the auntie a deadly stare. DOUBLE WOAH! haha... So everytime she asked if anyone has a question, no one dares to raise one. haha...

Reached Da Li, The air is clean and architecture is beautiful...

Third stop of the day: Erhai Park

It is named Erhai (Ear Sea in direct translation) but it is actually a lake that is shaped like an ear. I think this lake pales in comparison with those that I have seen in Jiangnan like West Lake in Hangzhou and Tai Hu in Wu Xi. I realised that most of the scenic spots in Yunnan are rather raw and the history is not as rich and poetic too.

Tour guide warned, "Please don't try any of the food! You don't want to risk having food poisoning."

These men were superb swimming in the cold weather and Bro actually made friends and talked to a few. haha...

Just for laugh: A couple of our tour members are English-educated and I overheard an auntie asking her sister what the sign meant. The sister replied, "I think it's saying that you must shower before entering the lake." WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Next stop: Foreigner's street

Foreigners love how relaxed this place is and will hang out for drinks at night. Beer is VERY cheap here. 1 dollar for a bottle.

So pretty ya?

Cute doggy...

A more modernised version of the mansion that a Bai family lives in. Can you believe that a family of three or four actually live in such a huge house? According to the grumpy guide, once the daughter in the family marries, she has to move out and own her own house. It doesn't matter how big the house is because land is aplenty in China. hehe... One mansion like the one above costs about S$600000.

An ancient street with mountains in the background...

While waiting for our bus to send us to our 5-star hotel for dinner, we smelled the fragrance of braised meat. Upon discovery, we saw the backyard of the restaurant and we were immediately disgusted. haha it's better not to see how food is cooked in China.

Our 风花雪月大酒店... eat and be merry...

Rather posh lobby

but the room...

Before ending the post, let me share something interesting. Like I said earlier in the post, there are many minority groups and the form of address by different tribes is different. For the Bai tribe, they address beautiful, kind-hearted girls as Jin Hua (Golden flower) and handsome, strong guys as Ah Peng Ge. Mum decided to do it her own way and started calling female shopkeepers "Xiao Jie" and when the grumpy guide asked us how should we call the Bai men, she shouted out, "Ah Zhang Peng!"

Stay tuned for the other posts!