Thursday 26 July 2018

Shangri-La & LiJiang

A day late for TBT but 2 blog posts for TGIF ✌🏻
Last time, I stopped at my first 1/2 day in Shangri-La and here comes the following half & the other next half day (is this sentence confusing? 😂)

Shangri-La's ancient town, shopping district

I didn't walk to the pagoda but went straight to the shopping district, because the path to the pagoda was uphill 😂

Wanpiisu (One Piece) and Totoro lost in Shangri-La? 😂

There were a number of traditional percussion shops around~
The ancient town in Shangri-La was pretty big but just like the other ancient towns, most of the stores sell similar stuff~

Shangri-La's ancient town is the least advanced among the others that I visited in YuNan. Least advanced as in mostly are handcraft items, especially poncho-scarf. 
I think it's like a must item for the locals? because Shangri-La is pretty cool due to being in higher altitude~

The ancient town didn't have 'modern tea shop' (for example; no bubble tea), no MINISO, but I think it's good in a way that makes Shangri-La a recommended place to escape from busy city life~

The buildings are still in traditional design

There were a few religious relics and the road is really clean

No crowd ✌🏻

The sun was still up and bright, which is good for selfie 😂

But like what I showed in my random trip vlog, the sun was too bright for me to have photo with the religious relic 😂

The road is really good for OOTD photos <3
and another Totoro store XD

Lucky am not an avid Ghibli fan 😂

BIG DOGGIEEEEEE <3

One of the modern cafe

I don't drink coffee but according to my cousin, coffee bean in YuNan is good :D
I think YuNan's coffee bean should have more floral taste as YuNan produces a lot of flower?
At least I know that China has long tea culture ☺️

While Dali's ancient town has many flower cake shops, Shangri-La's has many steamboat restaurant.
I think steamboat is a culture in Shangri-La because it's cold? like Genghis-Khan in Hokkaido?
Didn't get the chance to try it though 😂

Night view from our hotel

I didn't get to take commemoration photo but..... 
WE STAYED IN SHANGRILA HOTEL AT SHANGRILA 😂

The night was pretty tough too 🙄
The hotel was good (though my uncle and aunty did experience something unpleasant that's related to the 'spiritual world' but this isn't something to blame the hotel for I think 😂) but the time I utilized the oxygen bottle the most was at night.

When we were reaching the hotel, our tour guide warned us to not take long bath (plus no making love 😂) that day, because we were still adapting to the high altitude
In my case, I got reallllllllly lethargic after shower, though I'm not sure whether it's simply because I can't do much with my laptop during the trip = I read book = it's easier to get sleepy but I did feel a bit hard to breath. My sleep was fine though, and I had no problem when I woke up the next day.

On the other hand, my cousin and my mum did feel nausea (and took Panadol)
Only in the morning then our tour guide said that the hardest period for us would be around 2-3AM, but he didn't tell us because he didn't want us to be scared.
But nevertheless, we're all well and healthy until the trip ended :D

Hotel view in the morning

I can't remember what DAY already but anyway, that day we were to leave Shangri-La to LiJiang. But before that, we visited Tibetan Songzanlin Monestry
As it's a temple, I brought Konzen with me :D

As Shangri-La is near Tibet, i think we'd experience the same 'adapting to high altitude' if we visit Tibet~

Yayy Konzen 😂



Commemoration

OK I was wearing the same skirt as the previous day but that's how I pack when I travel 😂
FYI? I'd always wear my pants/skirt twice during trips, unless it's a dress/jumper~
If I go to colder place, I would even wear inner (turtle neck or Uniqlo's heat tech~) 2-3 times.
For shoe, I'd always bring 1 extra shoe but it's simply for 'just incase'
No matter how I want to have nice photos, I also want to balance with the luggage I carry for convenience. And for places like Japan, it's so that I have space for shopping too 😂

That's why most of the time when it's a trip where I need thicker clothing, my OOTD color would mostly fall into 'black' or 'white', cause they are neutral + less 'noticeable' if I wear a few times 😂

STAIRS AAAAAA

Family photo <3 it was another great sunny day <3

Unlike back in KunMing, I didn't sweat much in Shangri-La as it wasn't as warm though the sun was still bright~

Definitely not as many steps as the outdoor landscape spots but the view was still beautiful

Feeling like being photoshopped into paintings again 😂

I brought Konzen out for the first time and it's stained with my lipstick ;o;
The temple had nice design <3

I don't know how my lipstick got to it but what's done is done :'D

The temple's design is less oriental (no red~) as I believe, it's Tibetan's
There were 3 buildings that visitors could enter but no photo allowed.
One had monks chanting + scultpures + spots to pray
One had monks in training
I didn't enter the other one

Our tour guide mentioned that monks and those in training do eat meat, in other words not vegetarian.  The reason is because it's not easy to have plantation in higher altitude area. 
But even though they consume beef, they don't consume fish. The reason is when one cow can be eaten by a number of people, while fish is 1 fish = 1 person. I do like this reasoning!

It was a pleasant visit

I didn't pray or do anything religious there but it feels like a better place to increase 'zen' than the mountain-water-rock area XD

There was a lake in front of the temple~

LOTS OF DUCKIESSSS

I don't have the behing-the-scene photo but I definitely squatted down 😂

With duckies~

Steamed chicken and roasted duck were always served during our meal but I don't enjoy roast duck 😂

somehow my pose is more to Baby Shark? 😂

Nice view 2387428957294

with my partner in crime 😂

To take this candid photo

There was this photo 😂

I can't do nice candid photo 😂

May be this is the finest 😂

Then we left Shangri-La~
and I started on another novel~

Did I enjoy Shangri-La? YES
Does Shangri-La's image of Heaven on Earth stay in me? YES
Would I recommend Shangri-La to other people? YES
How much will I rate Shangri-La? 8.5/10

There was one thing that I regretted when I was there, and that's why didn't I continue learning Mandarin as I didn't understand what my guide talked about regarding Shangri-La at all 😂
I guess it's because Shangri-La is less advanced which caused them to not have English speaking guide for us ;o;
Though in the other towns I visited, 3 out of 4 guides, their English is almost not understandable due to their accent /-/
But yes, Shangri-La did capture my heart to that point of I wanted to know more about the place.

Though my love for Shangri-La is not as big as Japan, as in I wouldn't want to retire there (my retirement ideal spot for now stays as Fukuoka 😂) but when I want to escape from reality? from people? I'd think of Shangri-La
The only minus point during my trip would be the 'adapting to high altitude' as it was hard to breath but I think it won't be that hard if it's a 'one week visit'.

But why I wouldn't want to stay there for the rest of my life is I still long for advanced city life with convenience.
Medan is more advanced than Shangri-La but not as much as Japan, not even Singapore. That's why I still long to experience life in Japan, even though more advanced means busier too. But what stays as number 1 in my current life goal is 'convenience'. 

Andddd I do have a maso side 😂
Shangri-La is surely heaven on earth, but I think life can't be just all sweet?
It's like I'd prefer Ikebukuro though it's both heaven and hell on earth (cause of the money spent HAHA) but unlike Shangri-La, it'd make me not escape from reality too much.
It's a long story if I were to explain it but the conclusion is, I wouldn't choose Shangri-La as my final destination 😂

Shangri-La is one of the reasons why I would recommend YuNan to those who wanna visit China
To be exact, I don't mind just recommending Shangri-La.
I didn't come with the thought of 'I wish to come back to Shangri-La again' when I left but the place is in my 'I wouldn't mind visiting again for relaxation' list. The town surely gave a strong impression to me.
I do think Shangri-La is worth visiting!!

Next subject, Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult
8.5/10! very easy to read, pretty addictive that I think I finished it in 2 days
I enjoyed Jodi Picoult's Sister Keeper before and this book confirmed my love for her writing.
There are some books by her that I don't try to read because her books mainly focus on emotional bonding and family matter (where I prefer romantic love stories because I am an otome 😂) but I do love her writing.
When I bought this book, I didn't check review and only decided by the synopsis, so the story's flow did surprise and intrigue me as I read but in a positive way.

The story is about same sex love in a society that's not so supportive. Human relationship is definitely one of the themes but one thing that made me enjoy reading is I can relate to the characters due to what's around me. 
Sometime, it's hard to read, or comprehend a story to be exact, because of the different culture due to different setting of the novel and where I am. 
It's the same reasoning as to why I try to avoid books which is set like fifty to hundred years ago because the writing tends to not give me a good image of the story's location and what's happening. 
Of course there's a way of doing research or googling but I read book purely for entertainment so the furthest I'd go is googling for vocabulary that I don't understand.
That's why I enjoyed reading this book a lot!

Back to my trip. Shangri-La -> LiJiang

First stop in LiJiang is Black Dragon Pool, where LiJiang ancient town's water source is.

Yayy daily dose of flower and water 😂

Okie this place suits Mulan a lot------

Bamboo and Konzen (?)

Yusuke pose cause it's YuYuHakusho UT!!

I kinda shy though, thus it's not so nice 😂
I'm still waiting for Kusuo's to come to Medan ;o;

Pagoda-water-flower-cloud-fish /-/

The nice reflection <3

Photoshopped into a painting 2871962412893

From the garden, we walked to LiJiang's ancient town

really clean water~

Entrance of LiJiang's ancient town

Commemoration photo

These are bars~

The building design in LiJiang's ancient town is really nice too <3
During our walk from the entrance to the centre meeting point, we could hear live music from the bars~!

There were 6 districts from the centre meeting point.
My cousin and I went to the snack district first cause I said I hungry XD

The 6 districts were:
- bars
- snacks
- uphill
- district with even older building, unique cause slanted (due to too old 😂)
...I can't remember the other 2 😂
I checked my Twitter, where apparently I also forgot the other 2 districts already when I wrote about my trip like 2 weeks after it 😂
One thing for sure, the 6 districts are all connected~!

There were a number of food court area around

Just like any other ancient town, got a lot of similar stores.
The snack area had a number of tea shops and satay stall (like the one above this picture, the one with the cat~).

But we chose long fries 😂

I think this snack originated from Taiwan but I ate it in China 😂

There is cafe at the second floor~
and our second snack was fried yogurt

I really like the mood of LiJiang's ancient town among the 4 shopping districts I went.
No modern shop like Miniso or McD Dali but also not too many traditional goods like Shangri-La.
LiJiang is more modern than Shangri-La and not as high, which make me prefer LiJiang if I were to reside in YuNan
I think Shangri-La is a bit too 'heavenly' to reside for long period of time 😂

Fried yogurt, more like frozen yogurt 😂
The making video is in my YouTube 😂

Yogurt -> spread out on the frying area (which I believe is cold) like crepe -> add strawberry jam -> wait till it's hard -> crack it to smaller pieces
It's a snack that made me think 'as expected of China, anything also can' 😂
It tasted good though! I think it's a good business idea 😂

We walked further down the snack area and turned to the supposedly 'older house' area

As I mentioned, the paths are connected~

The older house area was more of a tourist photo spots

I think we didn't walk to the famous slanted houses because the area is very huge but my cousin and I just kept on walking 😂

Saw this cute cafe~

And the inside is as the cafe's name; Free Life XD so relax~!
Found another cafe that I only took picture of the board cause got cute bunny XD

Snack area -> Old houses -> uphill area. These 3 are at the same side.
My cousin and I kept on walking because we wanted to get back to the centre meeting point from the old houses area but before we know it, we entered the uphill area, which was uber quiet 😂
in other words, we were lost 😂

NO ONE WAS AROUND

BUT WE WERE ALL SMILES 😂

We were somewhat walking in the 'back alley' area without us noticing it 😂
Apparently, there were lodgings in that area.

But anyway, it was kinda exciting as we felt as if we entered another dimension. 
For me, it's as if I entered an acient China book, AKA Fushigi Yuugi's setting 😂
I'm a Fushigi Yuugi freak so yea 😂
definitely got a bit scared when seeing no one after the crowd in the main street but it can't be exciting if there's no a bit of thrill 😂

At last we saw humanssssss after 10-20 mins of walking 😂
Then we tried rose tea from one of the tea shops

We thought we'd be late from the getting lost but we had 15 mins left, so we got to try rose tea~!

Beautiful red <3

The tea was a mixture of rose, plum and some other thing, which made it really delicious~!
Got sweet, got sour, got nice smell, I'd love to buy it if it's in sachet TwT

I'm stopping at my first half day in LiJiang again, as the next post have a lottttt of photos. Yes, it's back to mountain-water-greenery visit but LiJiang's scenery was one of the best I've seen in my life.
See you in next post!

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