More photos at my Halong Bay Collection.

Still on Vietnam, - I went on a group tour to Halong Bay on Wednesday, February 21st right after the Tet festivities. Halong Bay is one of North Vietnam's best nature showcases. Designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1994, the bay is home to 3,000 karst mountains sprouting out from the sea in different sizes and shapes.

Hanoi Slideshow

Monday, February the 19th was still a holiday and most establishments were closed so checking out shops and museums was shelved for a while. I tried calling some people to meet up with them but they were all out of town visiting their families! I then browsed over my three dollar map and found several places that seemed worth visiting. I asked about bus routes at the hotel but Dung [pronounced 'dzoom'], the friendly night-shift personnel wasn't much of a help. Since most locals moved around the city with their motorbikes, he said that they were not very familiar with bus routes and stops but he directed me to the nearest bus stop where I hopped on the first bus that came along. I had no idea where I was going. I just sat there and checked out the places along the way through my bus window. Two bus stops away from its destination, I got off and re-traced the bus route. It was a fine day for trekking and so I walked, trying to take note of where people congregated. Ten minutes later, I came upon Dong Da Hill, a small memorial built for a local hero in 1789. Except for a mother and son having an early morning walk, there were no people around. I wandered a little bit and continued re-tracing my path. Then I stumbled into a throng of people pushing their way into an alley. My curiousity got me shuffling with the crowd. There were rows of open restaurants along the alley so I thought this was a famous dining place, then at the corner of my eyes I saw a 'ban my' stall. Yeah, I was going to have a real 'ban my' afterall! This was one of my favorite foods back at the refugee camp in Bataan. The 'ban my' is actually a sandwich where 'ban' means bread and 'my' means American, but there's nothing American in it. It's a thick crusty French bread [baguette] filled with liver pate, pork or beef slices, vegetables, chili sauce and a sauce I'm not exactly familiar with. The one's I had in Bataan were grilled over a pit of charcoal and this one wasn't. Still, I was glad I found one. I finished my loot and followed the crowd. At the end, I was amazed that the crowd was heading to a church, yes a Catholic church and it was overflowing! Families were everywhere trying to get as close to the church as possible so they could hear the priest. I got hold of a man who can speak English and asked what occasion were they celebrating since it was a Monday. "Now is Vietnamese New Year," he replied. But of course! Uh, silly me.

The church was part of a hospital complex which, according to my new interpreter, was built during the French period. The hospital now is government-owned. In the guy's words, it was borrowed from the church when the communists took over. I wanted to peek into the church but there was no way I could get through the crowd. I decided to move on instead after getting some directions. Further down the road was the Temple of Literature. Built in 1070, the small complex that includes a Buddhist temple, a drum tower, a bell tower and halls for the performing arts, calligraphy and painting and Chinese chess - was dedicated to Confucious. There was a big Chinese chess board on the ground with giant chess pieces that were carried and moved around by the players. Now that I was getting the hang of just finding interesting places, I walked around the block to the north and found St. Paul's Hospital complete with St. Paul's statue still intact and well kept. I went inside, checked the clinics, the garden and the red and yellow edifice with its green wooden windows that was very common in many of the old buildings in Hanoi. Well, it was clean and didn't smell like a hospital. [Now, do I sound like a sanitary inspector!]

I wandered farther up north and chanced upon the Ho Chi Minh Museum which was closed but next to it was the One Pillar Pagoda that was built in 1049 to resemble a lotus flower in bloom. Nearby was the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and the Presidential Palace which was not open to tourists. To the east facing the mausoleum was the Martyrs' Monument. Both structures were imposing and were fittingly solemn for their purpose. There were guards in white military suits manning the mausoleum and other guards in green outfit all over the grounds to keep people from misbehaving. I walked back to the main street by the Temple of Literature and got on a bus, again not exactly knowing where it was going. The bus went through the same area I came from alright but I got off too late and got lost. I got off in front of an impressive building called the Opera Theater. Beside it was an equally beautiful structure - the infamous Hanoi Hilton. [Thinking about the pictures I took of these places and were gone in a second now makes me feel really bad.] I tried to find my way back to the hotel. Unknowingly, I went farther and farther away from it. I accidently walked towards the old quarters and went walking in circles for two hours wondering where was that street that led to the church. Soon, a 'xe om' driver found me and brought me to the cathedral. I went back to the hotel, freshened up and went to church. This time, kids in traditional Vietnamese costume did the singing. After the mass, the priest distributed candies and gifts to the kids that were gathered at the front pews. I went back to the lakeside from the church and was rewarded with a wonderful acrobatic show at the corner of Hang Dao and Le Thai To. Well, that was my Tet celebration - one adventurous day indeed!

Vietnam Photos

The cheapest way to explore Hanoi is of course by walking but it can be wearisome, specially so when it's sunny or damp. A good alternative would be to take a bus where you pay 3,ooo dong [1.5 RMB, 0.2 $] to any point within the city limits. Farther away costs 6,000 to 8,000 dong. This was how I visited places in Hanoi, interesting or otherwise - although it wasn't easy following the bus routes. Because there were no bus route maps on sale, I did some trial and error joy rides until I figured out where the buses were going and which buses run through the streets close to my lodging. There were maps on the buses and in some bus stops that were quite helpful.

Hanoi has a lot of temples and pagodas, old churches, colonial houses, museums and lakes. It seemed that on every block there was a temple or a pagoda where some date back to as early as the 11th century. Unless you're really into Buddhism or history of religion or architecture, you may get into a saturation point visiting these places of worship. Worth visiting were the Temple of Literature [1070], One Pillar Pagoda [1049], Tran Quoc Pagoda [17th century], Quan Than [11th century], Ba Da Temple [15th century], Hai Ba Trung [1142], Tay Ho Pagoda and Ngoc Son [1843]. There were still many that may catch your interest. Just look for the big colorful square banners and you can surely find a temple nearby. St. Joseph's Cathedral [1886] was definitely a show-in for church architecture and it's very close to Hoan Kiem Lake and the old quarters. The Cua Bac Catholic Church at Phan Dinh Phung looked very medieval with its criss crossing beams and looming steeple and there's the Protestant Church at Pho Phung Hung right within the old town.

Hanoi's display of architectural designs from the simple abodes to the grandest buildings reflects its history dominated by the occupation of both eastern and western powers. It's historical past can be gleaned from its varied museum exhibits. Museums worth checking out were the Vietnamese Museum of Ethnology, History Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts and the Military Museum. And yes, Hanoi is a city of lakes. Hoan Kiem is the most visited I think because of its proximity to the old quarters but you can check out Ho Tay, Bay Mau or Thu Le which actually cover some interesting places. The Tran Quoc Pagoda, Chuc Tan Pagoda and the Tay Ho Pagoda are all within the Ho Tay lakeside. The Lenin Park is within the Bay Mau area and Thu Le Lake is at the Thu Le Zoo. Speaking of zoos, the Thu Le Zoo has a good collection of monkeys. The zoo floorplan and cage designs are quite tastefully done and are integrated in the natural atmosphere of the gardens, however, the place is overrun by food stalls and vendors. On the second thought, I think it's still child friendly.

The sun rose at Yacha Village at around 10 o'clock but I got up early and chose to start trekking to the next village. I thought I should be in Qiaotou at least before 4 in the afternoon and I still had to hike down to the middle rapids. So I had a quick breakfast of Naxi bread and Yunnan coffee and headed north. I set off at 8:45 and although the sun wasn't up yet, it was bright enough for me to see the trail. The morning mist was chilly but I was already perspiring after 20 minutes of walking. I walked all alone in the middle of nowhere surrounded by massive rocky mountains and deep ravines and I thought if those mountains were alive, I could have been easily engulfed into their guts and nobody would have ever thought I'd ever been there, such is a reality of life underscored by the immensity of those mountains. I treaded on constricted pathways mile after mile until I came to Bendiwan Village an hour later. That was the halfway point from Qiaotou to Walnut Groove. I kept my pace and overtook at least three groups of hikers who stayed overnight at Bendiwan. I ascended the last climb before Tina's Guesthouse and was rewarded with an amazing view of Yulong Xue Shan from top to bottom. The river flowed furiously hundreds of meters right below a ledge along the second highest path! Then it was downhill all the way to Tina's Guesthouse at the low path. Soon, I had lunch at half past eleven. I lingered for a little while and tried to shake off my weariness from the more than two hour hike and hit the road once more to the middle rapids. I wasn't really sure what I was expecting to see or do at the rapids, but the attraction of the mysterious was so inviting and so I had to satisfy my curiousity. The guidebooks suggested several places to start from but it was still an hour's hike to Woody's which was said to have the best view of the gorge. I crossed a bridge over a very deep canyon and hiked farther down the road until I saw a signboard showing directions to the river. The gushing sound of the river can be heard from the highway and the river can actually be seen from some points of the road so I thought it shouldn't take long for me to walk down to the river and be back in time for Qiaotou. It took me a little more than two hours going down and coming up from the river! It looked so close yet so very far away. Halfway down into the river, I was ready to give up. I couldn't see nor hear any signs of human life around me and if I got suddenly ill down below, I wasn't sure if I could climb back to the highway, yet there was this part of me that kept cheering me up and urging me to go on. Then out of nowhere, there was this bearded man perched on a rock, just sitting there gazing at the foliage beneath him. I walked on and followed the trail, at least happy to see another human being in the depth of this gorge. Then suddenly, I came upon a very nice platform complete with a rock table and stool overlooking the rapids. The view was remarkable. If only I could stay longer and let everything sink in, but then again, there's a bus I got to catch. As I was resting and enjoying the vista, a girl came out from a hut nearby and asked for coverage fee. I realized the trail and the platform were made by the family and so I paid 10 RMB. I asked if I could drink the water running from a spring near the platform and she gave me boiled water and asked if I wanted tea with it. I readily took her offer minus the tea. After a while, the girl showed me how to get to the other side of the ravine to get to the shortest climb back to the highway. I went along as told and found the trail was so tight and dangerous but there was no way I was going back to the trail I used coming down. I held on to the precipice with the river practically under my feet several meters down. I edge my way around the crag until I got to safer grounds. There was a makeshift hut by the banks of the river but there was nobody to ask about directions, only a three year old child playing with the dirt inside the hut. Soon I saw people upstream, on a rock but I wasn't excited about walking that way. I was too tired to be going down and coming back this way again having seen a pathway going up. Instead, I went on and climbed the path above me. Not until I was at the top an hour later that I realized I did the steepest path in all of the suggested trails from the middle rapids! No wonder I felt like a cliffhanger, pulling my body up on the face of a huge rock. The most dangerous part was a climb on a more or less 20 feet high steel ladder made out of thin steel bars that stood almost as straight as a street light post. And I kept on thinking I must have gone crazy doing all these by myself. But then again, I didn't want to dwell on what if's because I knew there were always reasons to everything going on with my life and the best way I could deal with them was to look at them on the positive side. That, I could say with my extraordinary passage through the Tiger Leaping Gorge.

While in Lijiang, I asked around about getting to Yulong Xue Shan, otherwise known as the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain which was visible from the city on a clear day. Touts at a van depot close to the entrance of the old town mentioned about a 100-200 RMB fare to go there on a private van, a 120 RMB entrance fee and 160 RMB chair lift ride or a 180 horse-back ride to the mountain. That was a lot of money getting lost on a simple mountain trek! It was good I didn't buy it because the next day, I was up into one of the most exciting journeys I ever did in China.

The Tiger Leaping Gorge [Hutiao Xia] was highly rated in many of the guidebooks I've read so I decided to do it. Together with some foreign teachers and students from Europe, Canada, the US and Australia, I took a bus to Shangrila that dropped us off at Qiaotou, the Tiger Leaping Gorge town. We paid the entrance fee of 50 RMB each and went our separate ways. I quickly went looking for the Backpacker's Cafe to leave my bag but couldn't find it, instead, a man directed me to Jane's Guesthouse some 50 meters away. For a fee of 5 RMB, travellers can leave their bags at the guesthouse and claim them whenever they can. I thought it was wise to do so since there's no point in carrying my things up and down the mountains when I didn't need that much clothes for an overnight up in the villages, besides I was going back to Qiaotou to get a bus to Shangrila anyway. I had everything settled, was given a trekking map of the mountain and went on with my journey. As described in the guidebooks, there were two trails, the low path and the high path. The low path actually wasn't a trekking trail at all. It's a paved highway that goes all the way to Shangrila through the gorge. I took the high path that goes through some Naxi villages some two hours in between. The trail was easy from Qiaotou but as I hiked onwards, the trail became more challenging. Along the way, a man came following me with his horse and offered me a horse back ride for a fee. Considering that I was alone and I needed a guide and as I looked at the map it was going to be a painful climb at a certain point, I took the offer [that gave me a travelling companion and a horse at 100 RMB four hours into the gorge] so there I was on a horse, mesmerized by the serenity and beauty of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. That was one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen in my life! And I'm not talking about the way my students back at the coastal region call a thing beautiful. Once in a while, we passed by some hikers trying to catch their breath and I felt a little awkward passing through still looking good, but I tell you, riding a horse going up and down a steep mountain on very narrow paths wasn't easy at all. One misstep and we could go plunging into the rocks and river below. Two hours into the hike, we came to a Naxi village called Nuoyu. We stopped for lunch at the Naxi Family Guesthouse. Good heavens! I could sit there and just look at the Yulong Xue Shan towering over the village all day. Even with the chatter going on at the guesthouse courtyard, the place was very peaceful. I soon mounted the horse and we went along. And then there came the 24 bends, a zigzagging climb to the peak of a mountain followed by a steep descend down to Yacha Village. My travelling companion led me to the Tea Horse Guesthouse where I booked a room for the night. Later in the evening, the guys I rode with on the bus to Qiaotou came in groups and checked in as well. Still, Yulong Xue Shan stood at a very close distance, its snow capped peaks glistenning like a white jade under the evening sun, looking mighty and powerful, yet gentle and calm.

Add caption

I was tempted to take a day tour of Erhai Lake which brought tourists to some of the villages and islands across Dali but it was too expensive and like most Chinese tours I'd been to, my time would have been limited in exploring these areas, more so by the fact that the tour offered too many places in one day so, that one had to be a miss. I decided to take a walk to the foot of Cangshan Mountain and to take a chair lift to Zhonghe Si. I walked up Boai Lu then turned left to the West Gate. I crossed the street looking for markers I saw in the map but I couldn't find them. I hiked farther up on very rough cobbled streets which to my surprise was partially deserted in the middle of the day. And then there was this sign board that led me to the chair lift. Huh! It looked so close in my map I thought it was going to be a short walk - and that was only to the foot of the mountain! I got a ticket from a tout who offered me 50 RMB for the chair lift instead of the regular 60 RMB fee. I thought these people must have different sets of tickets for the same service! Back at the hostel, I overheard the lady at the ticketing office selling the same tickets at 80 RMB each to some Australians which she even boasted to be much cheaper from the regular price of 100 RMB. Whoa! That's a big mark up there. The chair lift was a 15 minute ride to the temple and provided a commanding view of the Old Dali Town and Erhai Lake and the villages around them. Climbing Zhonghe Shan to the temple is not recommended if you want to view the city from the hill. The hill was thickly covered with pines and there were too many different paths that mostly led to the cemeteries underneath the tall trees. I was particularly drawn to the pine trees along the way. There seemed to be two varieties growing in that area. One was like the one's covering the Cordillera ranges in the Philippines [Note: For some of you who haven't been to the Philippines, the archipelago is normally warm being located right below the equator but there's this patch of land that's eternally cool and grows Khasi Pines in the tropics.] and Himalayan Pine or Blue Pine. Both trees grow as tall but the Himalayan Pine had a trunk that looked more like an alnus, smooth and grayish unlike the Khasi Pine which had dark red brown barks that can be peeled off from the trunk. The cones sticking out of the branches of the Himalayan Pine were much bigger and the long needle like leaves had a shade of grayish green that looked silvery in the sun. I had fun checking out those trees. You see I grow up practically around pine trees and it's always been a source of joy for me to be able to breathe the sweet scent of a pine covered forest.

I followed the trail to the temple from the chair lift station. Although there were monks [not really sure whether they were monks since they were not wearing robes] in residence, the temple itself was not extra-ordinary. After lighting some joss sticks handed to me by one of the monks, I was coerced to give a donation of 100 RMB for goodluck. What? I thought that was a highway robbery! No, I gave ten which was enough to buy me lunch and more. I would have readily given him ten yuan but I felt bad that he had to ask that much. Even Bill Gates I suppose would mind where his money was going specially when taken by a stranger. I walked out of the temple and hiked to a guesthouse farther up into the mountain. The little map in my ticket showed the way to a pool and a waterfall but finding my way there now was a pain. I was really tempted to explore the mountain, however, a public announcement posted near the temple advised trekkers to bring adequate provisions, have enough clothes and to climb with somebody - got me worried. I was trekking alone and I had no provisions, besides my legs were already aching from the intensive walking the day before so I gave up. Instead, I scouted for a nice place to get a view of Dali, sat there and tried to contemplate on my life and its impact on other people.

Coming down from the mountain, I took a quick lunch and rode a bus to Eryuan. I stopped at the crossing to Xizhou 18 kms. north of Dali. There were three wheeled motorbikes waiting for passengers at the crossroad. I took one and we drove through some dirt and paved roads to the town. Xizhou is known for its ancient Bai houses and that was why I was going there. There were no other tourists when I got there and so walking around all alone in empty streets and alleys and gawking at buildings under the heat of the afternoon sun made me look like an idiot. I wandered at the vicinity of the town square and found two blue batik cloths for my wife. Aside from the ancient houses, I read that people in Xizhou do have a tie dye industry and so shops sold genuine batik cloths than most shops in Dali did. Having nothing more else to do, I went back to the crossing and waited a while for a bus to Dali to come along. The rest of the day was spent checking out shops and cafes at the foreigners' street in Dali.

I got on a bus to Lijiang from Dali that worked its way around beautiful canyons and plateaus. I couldn't quite get used to the fact that China is a huge country and the great variety and vastness of its topographical wealth always left me awestruck. It is akin to the greatness of the Lord Almighty that humbles the most arrogant soul into a tiny little speck and cradles it in His bosom. The picturesque villages, the green and brown fields, the waterfalls and rivers, the tall mountains, wide plateaus and valleys were all enthralling.

Lijiang City is not as captivating as some modern Chinese cities are but once you get to the old town, the atmosphere changes and the world moves back in time. The cab I hailed dropped me off at the entrance to the old town. I made my way to the lane I believed led to Wang Gu Cheng Inn, then I got perplexed with the alleys. They were too close compared to the illustrations in the map and I was looking for a big river, at least wide enough to row a boat in like the one's in Zhuzhuang and Tongli but the rivers described in the guidebooks were now more like an open drainage system to say the least. I called the inn and the owner came to fetch me.

After depositing my backpack and having a meal of Yangzhou chao fan and greens, I got on my feet and wandered into cobbled lanes and alleys. I peeked in some of the shops selling mostly ethnic garments, jewelries, art pieces, antiques, leather bags and accessories and of course local foods. The best way to discover Lijiang is to get lost in its maze-like lay out. So I went drifting away into the streets poking my nose on glutinous rice and pig's blood sausages and deep fried larvae. Ah, there's always something interesting coming up at every corner. At the square by the two big waterwheels, I chanced upon a Naxi family doing an open air concert of traditional Naxi songs. There were about 12 of them playing different local instruments, the youngest of which was somewhere around 10 to 13 years old and the oldest was about 60 years of age. Then there were the arts and trade shops that spoke of handed down skills that were passed through generations like paper making, cloth weaving, wood carving, leather bag/accessories making, theater arts, singing of traditional ethnic songs and many others. Being able to locate these family traditions took me a lot of meandering and going back and forth the same streets that were becoming more and more familiar.

The mood of the town changed with the weather. On the three days that I was there, I saw lots of sunshine, the rain and snowfall come to Lijiang. When the town wasn't wet Square Street was full of people and Naxi women held a dance around a bonfire. Everyone joined in the dancing whenever they could and local people and tourists had fun keeping up with the music. The snowfall made the whole place sober but it didn't dampen the spirits of determined visitors. It even made the buildings look more interesting and scenic.

The trip to Dali from Kunming took some four hours. As it is written in the guidebooks, the bus stopped in Xiaguan, the new Dali City. Local buses 8 and 4 run through the main city street up to the Old Dali Town. The ancient town is a walled city accessible through four major gates and smaller passageways. The buses pass through Boai Road from the south then turn left at Yu'er Street to the West Gate. I stayed in a nice and cheap hostel teeming with backpackers at Boai Road. As a rule of thumb, when I get to a new place and while the sun is still up, I explore the area as much as I can to check on places to see, eat and wander around. And that was exactly what I did after checking in at the Old Dali Town Hostel. I found a map in a ticketing office by the gate of the inn but it was too large it wasn't convenient to carry around, besides I didn't like attracting attention to myself in any way possible [being invisible is much more fun I guess] so I quickly memorized the location of the hostel in relation to the main streets. My goal was to find the tower I saw on my way to the old town from Xiaguan and determine my next itinerary from there. I walked down Boai Road to the south gate and climbed the wall and the tower. Well, that was easy! Dali was beautiful from the tower - rows and rows of traditional Chinese buildings swathed with the shadows of massive tall mountains to the west and tamed by the gentle breeze from the Erhai lake to the east. Months of hazy Longzhou and everywhere else I was in China made me long for the blue Cordilleran skies back home; and there I was in Dali overwhelmed by the enormity of a clear sky made more prominent by the hugeness of the mountain ranges surrounding a vast valley and a wide lake. On the downside, the development of the areas around the old city into commercial and residential spaces seemed to have taken away the novelty of an otherwise sleepy quaint village.

Next stop was Fuxing Lu. This was a cobbled walking street lined with souvenir shops that stretched from the south entrance all the way to the north gate, well, almost. I've noticed that stores started to dwindle after Yu'er Lu. Traditional houses close to the north gate, I later found were more rickety and worn out than those towards the southern gate which I think more truly represent the Old Dali Town. If you are into jewelries and Chinese arts, then this might be the place to hunt for that precious stone or antique painting you've always wanted, otherwise you can simply wander around, ogle at things and watch people come and go and enjoy the distinctiveness of the place from most Chinese cities. I tried a grilled cheese from a woman selling in one corner of the streets as suggested in some of the guidebooks - well, it's nice but for me, it's not something I'm going to crave for.

I turned right at Renmin Lu towards the east gate and Erhai lake. The tower looked very close from where I was standing. It turned out it was quite a distance. I climbed into the tower and waited for the sunset. It was a beautiful sight watching the city at twilight as the streets came alive in the evening with the lights popping up from the street lights and house lamps. I headed back to the main commercial area and wandered some more. Huguo Lu was abuss with diners and shoppers. Apparently, it has become a favorite hang out for foreign travellers so western foods and drinks are served in almost all of the restaurants. Coffee is of course ever present in a western menu in the Chinese context which until now I can not understand why it's very expensive when very few Chinese persons drink it. Yunnan coffee was free at the hostel during breakfast and so I had my fill there. I found out it's the same variety I used to pick from our backyard garden when I was young! Now, I missed my mother's freshly brewed Arabica! Back at the hostel, Indiana Jones was showing on a wide screen.

Zhongdian [also known as Shangrila and Diqing] struck me as a sleepy town neatly tucked in the lower Himalayan plateaus. Like anywhere else, visiting travellers should know what they're looking for to be able to really appreciate the place. Except for the distinctively Tibetan buildings, I wasn't initially impressed. I thought I'd been to more beautiful towns in China. Perhaps, I expected so much and was looking for a paradise that never was. But I wasn't totally disappointed. A stroll down the main avenue and a fleeting moment of interaction with local vendors along the street somehow gave me a taste of Tibetan culture. The fact was Shangrila covered more space than just Zhongdian City alone that required several days to explore. Lijiang and the Tiger Leaping Gorge, in fact are all part of the mysticism of the lost paradise. Worried that I won't be able to get to Chengdu on time for the Amity Winter Conference, I spent only a day checking the lamasary, the old town and Napa Lake.Going to the lamasary took a short drive north of the city. It is said to be the largest in the world with its 600 monks in residence. It appeared that like the Buddhists in Laos and Thailand, young boys were offered to the service of the temples and so I would say that was the only place where I've seen so many monks of different ages, some of which looked really very young. The lamasary was on top of a hill with a major temple that housed different incarnations of Buddha while the monks lived in Tibetan houses within the compound. At the lamasary, the view of snow capped mountains at a distance and the wide grazing land below were quite impressive. I wandered around a little bit, then took bus number 3 to the old town on the southern part of the city. The old town showcased traditional Tibetan houses and like Dali and Lijiang, there were shops and inns and restaurants catering to tourists. There were old women on ethnic costumes dancing at the square and I watched for a while before moving on.Having seen piles of snow on the streets, I'd been hoping it snowed, and it snowed the night before I left! I was told by the owner of the inn where I stayed at Yacha Village and the girl I met at the middle rapids that it seldom snowed at the Tiger Leaping Gorge area. The snow came only about every ten years. I found that rather odd because there were always snow on top of the mountains. I was at a cafe having dinner feeling a little bad that I wasn't going to see Shangrila with the snow as had always been impressed in my mind, then there it was, it was snowing hard like I've never seen before! I thought I was the only one excited, but even the waitresses were equally fascinated. It snowed all night that night and on the day that I travelled back to Lijiang. I was surprised that after ploughing through the snow for a time that seemed forever, it was almost dry at the foot of the mountain along the river. Then the snow was back as we climbed the other side of the mountain to Lijiang. I wasn't able to catch the last bus to Jinjiang [Pan Zhi Hua], Sichuan Province so I stayed the night over at the old Lijiang town one's again.

Kunming beckons travellers from freezing Chinese provinces in winter like a light does to a moth, but I wasn't there for the weather - Longzhou as a matter of fact is even warmer than Kunming, rather I was travelling through the Spring City to get to the northern cities of Lijiang, Dali and Zhongdian. Kunming is the capital city of Yunnan Province in the south western part of China where Yunnan shares borders with Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Tibet, Sichuan, Guizhou and Guangxi. Yunnan is the sixth largest Chinese province and home to 24 ethnic minority groups besides the Han.
The night train from Nanning was quite comfortable. It left at 6:10 in the evening and arrived in Kunming at 8:15 the following day. I immediately took a cab and well, the taxi driver brought me to a hostel. I gave him the address I got from a website but he insisted he didn't know any hotel by that name and address. I was glad though that he brought me to a place I read about somewhere and somehow has been recommended by international backpackers. The place was nice and comfortable and an excellent breakfast came with the room rate. The day was beautiful. It was sunny and cool and so I wasted no time and went exploring the city after a cup of coffee and a toast. Oh, yeah - I met one of my Amity colleagues over breakfast! She just arrived from Gansu through Chengdu in Sichuan. Well, that was odd but I was pleasantly excited being able to start my day in a strange place with someone I knew.

Not really knowing where to begin with, I hopped in a cab and pointed to the driver the park in the middle of my map. It was called the Green Lake Park and again, I was pleasantly surprised to see hundreds and hundreds of red-beaked seagulls flying all over the place. People were tossing bread crumbs into the air and the birds would swoop down for them. The crackling sounds, the sudden plunge close to my ears, the continuous ecstatic flying, the cacophony of bird shrills and human laughter were simply overwhelming. I proceeded to the nearby zoo from the park. I was particularly pleased to see many of the animals looked happy unlike zoos I'd been to before. Well, you can say I love animals and there's this child in me that leads me to these places. I wandered around, took some pictures and left before dark.

The next day, I had second thoughts of taking a bus to the Stone Forest. I've seen it before and I wanted to see it again but I thought I didn't have enough time, so that was a pass together with the Bamboo Temple. Instead, hoping to get to the nearest interesting places from downtown I ended up at the remains of the 1999 International Horticultural Exhibit. It's still being maintained and there were nice exhibits though. From there, I took a short bus ride and walked up to the Golden Temple. Like many non-functional temples in China, the place draws more tourists than worshippers. It seemed that senior citizens visit the place to socialize, play card games, Chinese chess or ma jiang. The hill has a thick forest cover and well maintained gardens that makes it unique and worth visiting on its own.