Kunming - Lijiang - Shangri La, China Trip

Alas, i am back from my 7 day trip to China.... what a whirlwind trip.. 2 nites in Kunming, plane ride up to Lijiang for another 2 nites, 1 nite in Shangri-La (did u noe that its a real place?? i always thought it was a name for paradise that the Shangri La hotel chains made up!), 2 nites back in Lijiang again!

So much has happened, and yet, it must have been one of the most surreal trips i've ever taken. I am so glad that i decided not to go to Lijiang in December. Honestly, i've never even heard of that place till YE mentioned it to me.. and what an amazingly pleasant surprise that my father would have thought of the same place to bring us to for CNY! God surely knows all things.. and He provides!

I guess one of the most amazing thing that struck me on this trip is really the provision of God.. GOd's provision does not come through your salaried income.. but in every thing else! I'm so thankful that God has prospered my father even after he was given the Golden Handshake after my mum's death. At that time, things were so uncertain... him with no job at the age of 56.. not an easy thing for him. But God has so prospered my father even as Gary and I are now serving Him in church. He's so awesome!! :)

I realised that if i'd gone for the trip by myself, i'd prob have missed out on many things.. first of all, i wld not have been able to afford the accomodation we stayed in.. and while many wld say what an indulgence to spend on 4 , 5 star hotels.. honestly, i would have FROZEN other wise. We did stay on some nites in one of the incredibly cold places.. and really i cld not sleep. the 4,5 star hotels were the ones with a decent amount of heating facilities.. i don't know how i'd have survived otherwise! Bummer that i shld be from the tropics! Also, we were able to tour so many scenic spots.. some of the entrance fees that i surely cld not have afforded by myself nor with my friend. We went to the Stone Forest, World Expo of Flowers, 2 hr horse ride up the mountains, bird watching by boat, went up the jade dragon snow mountain (3, 600 m above sea level), Black Dragon Pool, Tiger Leaping Gorge and various other places that i noe not the names for. It was really a feast for the eyes!!

The coldest place i went to was Shangri-La! The nite temperature went down to -7 deg but the greatest thign was i was able to meet up with Nana, Cili Zhuma is her Tibetan name in Shangri La! coz that's where her hometown is and she was there for CNY!  I can't believe that i acutally met her so far away 3,300m above sea level! haha. We also got to meet w Sipeng and his 2 other friends who was touring the Yunnan province of China who is also from our EN family in China.. it was almost like an EN international Chinese gathering!  We had hot drinks and food in this quaint little inn and when we left to return to our respective hotels, looking up, i saw the clearest biggest sky of stars in my life! You could see the Orion Belt and the Bei Dou Xing... it was beautiful. If not for the fact that it was -7 deg, we prob would have stayed and watched the stars. But yes, it was beautiful. I wore FIVE layers of clothes when i was in Shangri La.. no kidding!

THe temp in LIjiang has a variation of 10 to 15 deg in a day.. at nite it could be 7 deg, in the day time 17 deg.. so u wear clothes that u can easily put on and off to adjust to respective temp.

At night, we went to foot/body massages.. again another indulgence that i would not have afforded by myself, not to mention the food we ate! By the end of the 6th day, we were craving for KFC and Mc Donalds.. i din noe there was so much of America in me!  Sigh. but ya.. 6 days of vegetables, green leafy, green not so leafy, light green, stir fried, steamed, dipped with soup, green no leaves vegetables, of which some were very oily or salty.. it really really made me miss SINGAPORE FOOD!! Ooo the varied tastes of local food! I love singapore food more now!

Was also very thankful for stepmum and stepaunt.. they kept insisting on paying for everything, even the gifts i wanted to buy for others!? really felt bad for that and the only way to 'escape' them was to sneak out and shop on my own one nite! But truly, they are very sweet. my stepaunt especially, she's so sweet and kind to Gary and I.. always putting our interest before hers! at nite wheni was freezing in bed, she'd get up and put her coat over me.. though i dun think it worked (Coz it was on top of 2 already very thick comforters one me), yet the thought itself, surprised me kindly.

Many other things on my mind.. but too much to write.. so let me jst end here!