I love you daddy mummy, I miss you very very much. U promise me u will play with me. Can you both come back faster or not on friday? Do you know I really very worried? How can you leave me nust like that? I already miss you very much today already. I love you. Why you just leave me? Why don't you go with me to china? I really miss you very much...
When we called him, he asked my why din I pick up my phone when he called me the day before.. and he said he really wanted to go to China.. "It is one place I always wanted to go in my life one day... why you never bring me?" Hahahaha....
Well, the fact tat he is well taken care off allows us to focus on having fun :) Thanks to Ah Yee and Popo, Gong Gong and Zeng Popo..,.
We explored around our hotel a little bit when we woke up in the morning...
The night before, we had promised Jing Gege we would go back to his cafe for breakfast... okie, it was more like brunch for us... and he said he will make coffee for us.. but when we arrived, he was out marketing.. so we ordered porridge and Max's fav yu xiang qie zi.. the brinjal fried with watever sauce... we also ordered a Naxi pancake to try... it tasted okie.. inside is sweet and the outside is like made from glutinous flour... sweet lah.. erm.. best I can describe is like gee zang with red pean paste but the outside of the gee zang is deep fried...
As it was Duan Wu Jie, they also gave us two free dumplings to celebrate the event ;)
That's Max trying to be artistic... and the pic below is well, his fav brinjal dish...
One more for memory's keepsake...
After a good meal, we walked around the streets to jalan jalan again. We wanted to go and find the Si Fang Jie.. which is supposedly one of the highlights of the Lijiang Old Town...
And we finally found it! It is just like a parade square area where people gather to dance and old men with hawks sit around to wait for tourists to pay them to let the eagles sit on their hands or something....
Walking around Sifang Jie, we found alot of shops selling nice clothes and also alot of pubs... The taxi driver told us we should come here and go the pubs one of the nights even though the beer there is more ex.. just to get a feel of the place so we decided we will be back again tonight:)
We discovered an exit in the Old Town tat leads to this place they call SHUI CHE.. which is the water wheel... in the surrounding areas, it looks like a typical city area.. remidns me a little bit of Taiwan... so different from the Old Town! I am so glad we are staying inside the old town...
This is a panaromic view of the area outside the water wheel....
We also found a booth tat grants wishes... May we early give birth another expensive daughter:) hee hee...
We were walking randomly and we saw a sign tat pointed us to yet another place of interest, Black Dragon Pool.. so we decided to walk there.. halfway, this lady accosted us and told us that if we went in via the main entrance, we would have to pay 80 RMB each but she can bring us via another route for just 30RMB each.... we din know the 80RMB she refered to was the licence tat we already paid for.. so we just followed her lah... but leh, I think it was a pleasant experience even though I was panting like mad cos she made us climb up the mountain at a super fast speed.. but up there at the mountains, we could see the whole old down.. which was really beautiful! :)
The da jie just kept climbing while I kept resting.. wahahaha.. she said she lost like 10kg just climbing up the mouuntains upteen times everyday.... So you see.. china is like tat.. everywhere you go you got to pay money and the money you pay goes to the cab drivers or the tour guides who bring you there.. but leh, if you got chance to meet the unorthodox pple without licence, you also can pay less and go inside using another "unknown entrance".. tat is actually true for all the places of interest there we saw lor.. wahahahaha....
But leh, this detour also brought us to this strange temple with alot of locks on the outside... we were told they are for making wishes and we were asked to freely look around... somehow though, we were brought to the second floor where there were three monks and they asked us to pray to the goddess of mercy.. I remembred that Ah Jing told us that if you pray, you have to pay 300RMB min and so I did not want to do so but Max went ahead to do so and so I followed suit lor.. cos I thoguht maybe he dun have alot of cash left lah.. so he dare to be so brave.. wahahahaha... the monks saw us and and brought us to seperate tables and then started to fortune tell....
Apparently according to the monks, my hubby is (ahem) very lucky to have a wife like me. I have the look of Guanyin.. hahahahah.. so my life is about helping pple... and then the monk told me a few things like I should wear checks.. and I shouldnt eat sweet or spicy stuff (kill me please) and that i should lose weight or keep this weight because the slimmer I am, the better it is for my wealth.... he said tat I should wait for next year before I venture into any business (and he actually accuratley fortold tat my biz went downhill from 2007) and I will be able to dong shan zai qi next year.. and he also said I should give birth to one more child.. prefably in the year after in 2013 and she will be gui nu who will help me and Max immensely... and then leh I cannot go attend any funerals or anywhere with alot of killings in the nmonths of mar, jun and sept for the next two, three years and they told Max he has to be careful of pple born int he year of dogs when he does business and that he cannot go tibet for the next five years and he also not allowed to go funerals like me in those mths...
He also made me flip this fortune telling thingy and I flipped two GOOD pages consecutively. he says in his 27 years as a monk doing this.. i am the 7th person to get both good pages and to prove his point, he showed me tat one page earlier or one page later, it is a bad page... both pages I pikced refered to immnese amounts of good fortune.. so i guess money really likes me... now, just need me to like money..wahahahahaha...
I hope Max gets the idea and stick close to me.. cos money likes me:) wahahahahahaha...
Anyway, we gave them watever cash we had left (they initially asked for min 300RMB abd even suggested we give 3000RMB) and they even asked for SGP money as "souvenior"...
But as we are on holiday and they said lots of good things to us, we just take it as extra blessings lah... tat is max making me pose with bamboo trees AGAIN>>
So beautiful.. so we sat down for a rest to enjoy the scenic view...
Then it started to rain and so we decided to go back.. we passed the "side door" we entered and so I went to pose there to remember my unforgettable mountain trek.. wahahahahaha
As we walked backed, we saw this slaughtered lamb.. eewww......
I felt tired and so we decided to go to Yong He Dou Hua shop for dou hua... I hope it is similar to or at least as good as the one in Singapore... discovered tat the Spokeswoman for this shop is Big S.... and I discovered a poster tat said their fried dough fritters are 'HEALTHY".. I never knew deep fried stuff are healthy lor... wahahahahahaha... (PS: We discovered a Papa Roti there too but din try it...) It turned out the food sucks.. the fritters were way too oily, not crunchy.. the dou hua is very strange as they just had warm dou hua and added sugger on top like a sprinkle and the only thing tat was nice is a plum soup tat was served cold.. tasted like those suan mei cha we drink in sgp but they call it suan mei tang...
These are all the goodies from the pasar malam area outside..
We webt back for a rest afterward and come evening time, we made our way to Sifang Street again and found pple dancing there...
We saw one of the night spots tat looked crowded and decided to go in.. the night shop has got many wooden tables and chairs. At every table, they light a red candle for you and they give you these wooden clappers you suppose to use to hit to the music as "interaction"... or when you are doing cheers...
They would make you shout "Ya suo! Ya suo! Ya ya suo!" Because it means relax and enjoyment in the Naxi language.. and they will promote YAN YU... and keep asking single men to get to know the woman seated there.. Max says if i look closely, can see alto of women seated at the tables without drinks, they are there to wait for men to buy them drinks... i dunno though if it will lead to one night stands.. wahahaha..
Tat is a China beer called Feng Hua Xue Yue.. dam useless cos after 3 bottles you feel like you have just been drinking water!
Anyway, earlier in the night, they will ask pple to perform.. sing song lah.. dance lah.. and the songs they sing all are the mountain songs lah.. cheena cheena type one.. after tat then they will do dancing and the music is to the best of my description, CHEENA techno.. wahahahaha
Then we decided to have tome REAL PROPER beer... so we ordered Heineken and then started to feel a little high lor...
Then can start dancign and take funny pics.. hahaha:)
Then they had pple perform mixing some cocktail drinks with cheesy names like yi jian zhong qing.. and they made pple bid for it.. some idiot bid it at 999RMB and gave it to a girl he din know.. wahahahaha...
Aftertat.. we decided to walk around and look for ATM and toilet.. walked round and round and round.. finally found both... and then we felt hungry... but we walked the wrong way and got a little bit lost.. hahahaha...
Finally arrived at Jing Gege's cafe for some fried noodles.. see Max's satisfied look...
Anyway, we were telling Jing Gege tat we saw this snack called Yunnan 18 Guai.. asked him wat is it and he says it is a range of snacks.. one of it is er kuai.. we asked him wat it is and he BBQ one for us to try.. it is like a piece of chee cheong fan before it is rolled and cut...
Anyway, Jing Gege told us that Yunnan Shi Ba Guai originally refers to 18 interesting things about Yunnan..but was later used to refer some snacks commonly found there...
云南第一怪： 鸡蛋用草串着卖 (egges are sold while tied in grass)
To prevent the eggs from breaking, as they are transported home after the customers buy them, they weave the eggs into grass and one string of grass weave can house 1o eggs. They will then hang them on the walls and cut out the amount they need to use or eat...
云南第二怪： 摘下斗笠当锅盖/摘下草帽当锅盖
In Yunnan, there is a type of straw hat tat looks like an inverted funnel.. they also can use it as a pot cover as the bamboo actually releases something to make the food and rice tastier..
云南第三怪： 三只蚊子一盘菜：
There are alot of places in Yunan that are warm and so tehre are alot of mosquitoes and the wild mosquitoes are actually very much bigger than the ones we see elsewhere (I have a pic of it in my day four picture when we were having tea at a cafe in Suhe Old Town). So they just exegerrate and say you could make a dish with three mosquitoes..
云南第四怪： 火筒能当水烟袋：
The locals like to smoke using a bamboo pipe tat is similar to the pipes pple use to blow at fires to start a fire for cooking. And the combination of water, steam and the bamboo pipes make the smoke very smooth and apparently makes the taste very fragrant.. but I wouldnt know cos I din try..
云南第五怪： 糌粑被叫做饵块：
Yunnan likes to use rice and glutinious rice to make into snacks.. after they steam and beat it, it becomes this flat piece of thing like chee cheong fan before it is rolled and cut... you can try or cook or steam it... so this food is called Baba elsewhere but in Yunnan, it is caled Er Kuai..
云南第六怪： 背着娃娃谈恋爱
The people here love to have children so leh, they usually conduct a wedding and the bride goes back to her own home till she has a baby then they will go back to their husbands and really start to fall in love with their husbands lor..apparently, they have rather open views about sex and many couples also fall in love and have sexual relationships and only get married AFTER they have children...
云南第七怪： 四季服装同穿戴
The weather in Yunnan is ever changing but it is not warm in summer and not cold in winter. But the difference in temperature in night and day is very big and so the clothes you see being sold everywhere are for all seasons.. I would say you can wear the same clothes throughout the four seasons... just like singapore.. only it is MUCH MUCH COOLER there:)
云南第八怪： 蚂蚱能做下酒菜：
The peop-le here love to eat fried insects lor:) And supposedly baby bees, worms, etc make the best snacks to go with alchohol...
云南第九怪： 姑娘被叫做老太
Due to language and intonation, they call young woman or rather, the sisters of your husbands Lao TAI.. which in chinese means old woman:)
云南第十怪： 和尚可以谈恋爱：
There are alot of buddhist in this area and so to them, becoming monks is like compulsory NS in Singapore like tat lah and many a times they are allowed to have children and wives..
云南第十一怪： 老太太爬山比猴快
There are many mountains here and as the women here are in charge of the physical chores like farming and gathering fire and wood, many of the old women are well trained in climbing mountains and so they say they can climb faster than monkeys.. this one I agree totally lor.. tat old aunty tat brought me up the mountains doesnt pant and doesnt stop.. while i felt like my lungs are coming out of me liao lor...
云南第十二怪： 新鞋后面补一块：
The indegenious people will add a piece of cloth at the back of the shoe to act as a extra support..and actually there were alot of cloth like kungfu slippers with very nice embriodery sold there but leh, even though they look so nice, I wouldnt wear them.. so i din buy any..
云南第十三怪： 汽车还比火车快：
Because Yunnan is very mountanious.. so the train tracks are on slopes with very high gradients and always winding here and there.. tat is why leh, the trains have to go very slowly.. even slower than cars...
云南第十四怪： 脚趾常年都在外
Erm I think cos of the mountains, pple have to climb alot and their feet will sweat so they prefer to show off their pinkies so tat their feet feel cooler...
云南第十五怪： 娃娃全由男人带：
Like I said, here, men take care of the house and children and women take care of the farms and working outside to earn money...
云南第十六怪： 花生蚕豆数着卖：
Peanuts and beans are commmonly sold everywhere as they have agricultural produce harvested at all four seasons in the year...
云南第十八怪： 四个竹鼠一麻袋：
Well, there are alot of rats there and they feed on bamboo shoots are are all BIG and supposedly tasty.. I dunno wat it means lah...I haven eaten any.. wahahaha..
Look out for day three Jade Dragon Snow Mountain pics :)
Previous Post: Lijiang Day 1
No comments:
Post a Comment