China Day 3 - 理想邦 (大理)

19 May - Today we bid farewell to Kunming and took a train to Dali situated at 2000m above sea level (100m higher than Kunming). When we reached our destination, we took a free transport arranged by the hotel to 理想邦, which is basically a replica of Greece's Santorini. 理想邦 by itself is an interesting concept where some 10+ hotels collectively grouped together and develop this holiday resort style township consisting of eateries, gardens and various photogenic spots purely for people to 打卡.

昆明 Station

Our room @ 海十八·烟云海景度假酒店

Welcome to 理想邦

China Day 2 - 石林 & 九乡 (昆明)

18 May - For the second day, we hit the iconic tourist spot of Kunming - 石林 & 九乡. The 石林风景区 is a renowned UNESCO World Heritage Site famous for its spectacular natural limestone pillars and karst formations. Well, I am not really a rock person, so just here to 打卡 and move on. The weather under the sun is really hot, even with the temperature saying its only 25 degree Celsius.

The iconic 石林

The karst formations

The stone depicting a local folklore - “阿詩瑪” 傳說

For lunch, the driver took us to a local restaurant outside the scenic spot. We ordered 牛肝菌, 麻婆豆腐 and the traditional Yunnan iconic dish 汽锅鸡. Bad on us to not check the price before ordering and got kind of ripped off. Both the 牛肝菌 & 汽锅鸡 was priced at RMB $128, which is way too expensive.  We found out later that other places only cost around half the price!

Stir fried 牛肝菌

麻婆豆腐

汽锅鸡 (Signature dish from Yunnan Province, famous for its unique cooking method. Instead of boiling the chicken directly in water, the ingredients are placed in a special clay pot and cooked entirely by circulating steam. This method naturally condenses the steam into a clear, nutrient-rich broth that captures the chicken's original flavor)

After lunch, we moved to our next destination - 九乡, which is famous for its Karst cave formations. To start the trip, we took a nice cable car ride overlooking fields of tea leaves, which some are used by local to smoke as cigarette. 

Tea plantation

Next, we took a scenic boat ride through the spectacular karst gorge of 荫翠峡, also called the Valley of Love for it was the place for local young men and women to sing songs in order to find lovers. The valley stretches for about 600m, flanked with verdant trees.

Finally, we entered the main attraction, which is the 九乡溶洞. You entered the cave complex by first passing through 惊魂峡, a gorge about 700 meters long and nearly 100 meters deep. It was named in honor of those who attempted to create the trails without falling into the gorge.

惊魂峡

Cave formation which looked like an alien face

雄狮厅, which is also the movie《神话》取景地

神女宫

神田

China Day 1 - Exploring Kunming

17 May - First of all, PTL for making this entire trip possible, without which, we would not have gone and have such an enjoyable time and experience. We took a direct flight from Scoot (TR160) and flew into Kunming early in the morning at 2am. We quickly found our pre-booked driver who drove us to our hotel Fairfield by Marriott Kunming Xinying Hotel (昆明新迎万枫酒店). One point to note, the service provided by the hotel is top notch: They offered complimentary free breakfast and a fruit platter that is delivered to your room by their in-house robot!

For Internet connectivity, in case you are wondering, even if you are on Singtel Dataroam, with the Great "Wall" of China in effect, your Google, WhatsApp, Yahoo and Pokémon Go does not work here! What does work is their Amap (高德地图), Alipay and WeChat Pay. Literally, with these 3 apps, you are good to make your way around China. Physical cash are not commonly used. In my entire trip, I think I only used physical cash twice!

Our hotel room at 昆明新迎万枫酒店

View from the morning breakfast @ hotel

First stop after breakfast was to visit the blooming jacaranda trees, which peaks annually from mid-April to early June. We visited the iconic 教场中路, which features a 2-kilometer stretch of over 200 jacaranda trees forming a dense purple tunnel.

教场中路 decorations

Blooming jacaranda trees

After snapping enough pictures of the jacaranda trees, we moved on to 翠湖, a 21-hectare urban oasis featuring interconnected lakes, historic pavilions, and willow-lined stone bridges.

翠湖 entrance

竹林岛, which seems like a replica of Kyoto's Arashiyama Bamboo Forest

After spending a few hours roaming through the greeneries, we moved on to our last destination of the day: 傲城 - 天空之眼. For this, we need to climb 4 to 5 floors up the stairs and this is the first time that we finally felt the effect of high altitude (Kunming is at 1900m above sea level)! I have never felt so breathless climbing just 5 floors that I needed a rest break after 4 floors of climb! Well, at least the view at the end of this exercise is worth it!

傲城 - 天空之眼

Evening time was spent roaming around 南屏步行街 to experience their night life and take pictures of iconic buildings

昆明 - 对月楼

Apparently there is a long queue for their 鲜花饼. We decided to join in the crowd as well

昆明台北街

南强街巷