Irritated!!

Tried buying something from taobao and the online payment is so complicated. I can't even pay cash!! Doesn't help that the auction site lists all instructions only in Chinese and the bank's English FAQs are useless. Now I'm logged out of my ibanking and have to go queue to reset the damn password. Why do they make things so complicated!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rumble ramble - food in Chengdu

Rumble cos that's the sound my tummy makes when I'm hungry. Ramble cos that's what I do. I think Addy was amazed/ disgusted with my almost constant state of "hungry". Daniel's just used to it. For the record, I do eat properly on holiday! The cold on these 2 trips just made everything disappear faster than usual ( usual is about 3hrs...)

The eats in Chengdu

Chengdu is known for its 小吃 (snacks). You can find a snack stall on just about every corner. Usual snacks were 棒棒鸡( chicken served in misture of sesame sauce and chilli oil), 烤串( BBQ meat sticks marinated with fennel, chilli, pepper and a variety of herbs I can't identify) and 兔丁( Apparently diced rabbit. We didn't dare try it cos it looked somewhat dodgy but we saw plenty of locals buying it from the little stalls along the road. I enjoyed the food in Chengdu most of all! Maybe cos it's spicy and I luuuurve spicy food.

We had snacks along 春熙路 (Chun Xi Shopping District)- a meat stick and some spicy chicken bun that looks like Singapore's kong ba bao.

One dinner was at 文殊坊 a tourist district ( which was quite dead) where we found a Chengdu chain store called 龙抄手食府 serving up degustation menus of Chengdu's famous eats! So we killed several birds with one stone - tried all the local delights in one meal. The dumplings in red chilli oil ( 红油抄手）and Dandan noodles ( 担担面) were excellent. I can't say I like the stuffed glutinous rice balls much



We also had a meal at 红杏酒家 - a renowned restaurant chain in Chengdu. This was great value for money. Dishes average about 25RMB and the restaurant boasted excellent ambience and service. The spicy beef pot really set my mouth on fire as did the cold dish of escargots. After that meal I was quite sure I could spew fire. It was so delicious I was almost sad to leave :(

Hilton's Lost Horizon .. was it really this Shangrila?

Today's Shangrila was once known as Zhongdian county in China until 2000 when it got a name change. Extensive surveys ( by the Chinese authorities of course) indicated that this mountain area bore many similarities to James Hilton's "Shangri-la" in the acclaimed novel The Lost Horizon. The place could be fictitious but having seen Shangri-la, I think these Chinese folks may be on to something. You would too if you fill your lungs with Shangri-la's super super fresh air ( a rare commodity in Beijing), experience the life-extending slow pace of life, rigorously exercise your heart with every tiny step ( thanks to the altitude) and drink up the incredible view of mountains cloaked in cloud and snow. Photos can be viewed at http://gingerblossom.spaces.live.com/ or on Facebook.
So the story starts with Adeline & I setting foot in Yunnan Province, Lijiang...in those mere 5 days I came to learn/ draw conclusions on a couple of things:

A. How Yunnan got the 云 in its name

- Lijiang is located over 2000metres Above Sea Level ( ASL), so having a cloud" descend" onto the town is nothing usual. The higher we went the more common it became. Ascending to 4500m ASL we could see over a sea of cloud!

- It was drizzling the day we arrived so everything was hidden by 云. well actually... mists

- Even on the sunniest day, the sky is still covered with fluffy white clouds!

B. Lijiang's Old Towns are quaint but a tad commercial and all the shops sell the same thing

- Dayan Old Town was packed with tourists. BUT... if you make the effort to wake up before sunrise and walk around the Shuhe and Dayan towns ahead of the hordes of tour groups, you can catch a slice of everyday life among the tribes people who still live in these areas. We stumbled on some old folks wearing tribal costume doing their morning dance and on a local marketplace. That was really nice!

- The old towns feature mostly shops selling local crafts including handwoven Muosuo scarves and shawls, blocks of pu-er tea, combs made of yak horn, dried yak meat, silver jewellery, tie-dye stuff, leather bags, furry hats...after a while, you realise they all sell the same stuff. For a typical shopaholic Singaporean, this loses its attraction after ...let's say ... 100metres of seeing the same thing? Still there are worthwhile prezzies to be picked up!

- The old towns come alive at night with bars, clubs and restaurants which seems rather at odds with the whole "old town" thing. But I guess you have to provide night entertainment otherwise it'll be a dead town. As for the restaurants, the food seems a little pricier than in Beijing for simple dishes such as home style tofu. The good thing, the portions are HUGE. Between 2 girls, it's quite impossible to finish 3 dishes. ( even with me who eats more than most girls!)

C. Yak meat, yak butter tea, yak cheese is not my thing

- We had some of these in Shangri-la as part of a Tibetan dinner/ performance in a local house. I'm sure it was pricey at 180RMB but it was a worthwhile experience!

- The Yak butter tea was a little salty. It tasted exactly like butter melted in water. After you drink about 2/3 of the bowl, you can add grounded roast barley and form a pasty mixture. This is eaten with a dip of sugar. Tasted a little bit like sesame paste. Just of a thicker consistency which you can pinch with your fingers

- We also got to try Barley alcohol. I have no idea what is the alcohol content. But one tiny glass was enough to keep my face warm the rest of the night. With outdoor temps at -1 to 8 deg Celsius, the warmth was welcomed!

- Yak cheese had a strong animal smell, a little like goat's cheese except that it tasted more sour. I tried eating it with the barley powder and sugar and it tasted much better. But this is not something I want to eat again!

D. Shangri-la is really beautiful and the cultural/ religious differences from mainland China make it all the more interesting

- The beauty of the place is undeniable. There's a very rugged beauty about the plains and the people. When you look at the surrounding mountains and forests, you feel a sense of timelessness. Hundreds of years ago, these mountains and trees where here and they'll still be standing a thousand years later ( if man doesn't destroy them first!!)

- The people here are mainly of Tibetan origin so they believe in Tibetan Buddhism. Listening to our guide's stories, it appears that they also have more superstitions. I suppose its got to do with the fact that they people are mainly farmers who are at the mercy of nature. As such it seems inevitable that they believe that certain mountains or rivers possess supernatural/ mystical qualities. They are also deeply devote people who would give all their worldly possessions to the temple. A large number of young males are sent to the temple from the age of 7 to become lamas. This is one way of ensuring that they get an education. In the temple, young novices not only study scripture but also medicine and languages. There are exams and those who continue on to be lamas into adulthood will learn skills that are meant to help the village people. Some of them attain "living Buddha" status and are deeply respected by the village people.

- We met one of these "Living Buddhas" and though I'm still skeptical, I can't deny that he identified correctly some of the physical ailments that I have. All from looking and prodding at my palms!I guess Tibetan medicine has to work since it's been curing Tibetans for so long in absence of modern doctors and hospitals.

Mother Nature's techni-colour dream coat : Day 3

Mirror lake pix


Day 3 of our trip and our 2nd visit to the nature reserve
The sun was out! And once again the scenery changed. Sunny days in Jiuzhaigou are for admiring the lakes which turn into mirrors for Mother Nature to admire herself! We hit the same sites on Rize Valley and also visited Zechawa. Zechawa isn't as interesting although it boasts the largest lake in the entire reserve. It's big but that's about it. Not quite as colourful as the other lakes.

On this day other new sites we hit were:
a. Long Lake and 5 color Pong in the Zechawa Valley

b. Rhinocerous lake ( Story goes that centuries ago, a lama apparently came upon this lake while riding a rhino ... yes a rhino... the lake's beauty touched him and he let loose his rhino to graze by its waters for the remainder of its days.)
c. Shuzheng Tribe ( Jiuzhaigou nature reserve used to have 9 tribes living in the area. Apparently 3 are accessible, Shuzheng being 1 of them, 4 others are deep in the forests and still closed to public and 2 have become assimilated with the existing tribes)


The photos we took look pretty much the same - trees, water, sky. And that's what we were in Jiuzhaigou for. The photos certainly don't do justice to the real thing...

Mother Nature's techni-colour dream coat : Day 2

Was away again so I never got to finish rambling about Jiuzhaigou. But yes... you generally get the idea. I loved it and was truly sad to leave. Daniel & I spent the next two days going into the nature reserve. The area open to public covers more than 240sq km and is split into 2 trails - The Rize Valley and Zechawa Valley. If you walk just 1 trail from the entrance, its an estimated 98km... thank goodness for their eco buses that stop at every point of interest!!

Day 2 of trip -First day in the nature reserve
It was a rainy day. On a rainy day, the beauty of Jiuzhaigou is best reflected in the mists, mountains and flora. The autumn colors just look brighter under the rain and the valleys look also mystical with all that mist. Daniel & I went along the Rize Valley and saw:
a. Primevial Forest ( Trees that weren't chopped down in the 60s & 70s logging era)
b. Arrow Bamboo Lake (this is where a famous scene from "Hero" ( 英雄) was filmed. The one where a swordfight between Tony Leung and Donny Yuen took place over a lake of breathtaking beauty)

c. Panda Lake ( Pandas used to roam these forest and stop for a drink at Panda Lake but these days the hordes of tourists have scared the pandas deeper into the 700 sq km of forest. And mainland tourists make enough noise to be heard miles away lor!)
d. 5 Flower Lake ( So named for the brilliant colors found here)
e. Pearl Shoals ( A scene from the old " Journey to the West" was filmed here! )
f. Mirror Lake ( we got lost on the trail and ended up walking almost 5km to reach the next site)
g. Nuorilang Waterfalls ( 20 m high and 320 m wide, they are supposedly the widest highland waterfall in China)

We were really cold but totally enjoying the view, even our 5km hike was fun because we hardly saw anybody on the trail. Funniest thing is we saw a cat! He was going about his own business in the park ( i.e sitting around cleaning himself) and appears not to belong to anyone. I was trying to take pix of him and other tourists thought I brought the cat there! Most amusing.