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Published: September 15th 2014
Sun: Going westward It was a long day. Sore throat was still there when I woke up and felt like it was spreading…drowsy and tired. At this point, I welcome being locked up in airplane for most of the day.
We left at 6:50am to catch the 8:10 Narita Express at Shinjuku. First leg of the flight was between 11am to 1p (2p Japan time) from Narita to Shanghai. In Shanghai, 3:30 flight to Hong Kong was delayed by 1hr. We finally arrived in HK at 7p. We’re not done yet. Then took 8:30p ferry to Shenzhen. By the time we dropped the bag and reached dad's for dinner, it was almost 10p! I was sooo done! I just wanted to take pills and pass out. Finally hit the sac at midnight. Not too ecstatic about more flight early in the morning.
Mon: Going even further west We rearranged our luggage and 6:30am was the time to go to airport. I'm totally beasting it at this point. Just had to get to the next destination. I passed out good during 9:20-12:30p flight to Lijiang. We met with the tour guide at the airport and the shuttles took
us to the hotel at 1:30p. We had a brief rest and the tour regrouped at 2p for a brief tour of the old town until 4p. Less than a 3-mile stroll was enough to wipe me out. The cold bug was in full force. The bus took us back to the hotel and we were let loose. Ok, I survived. But! That meant we had to figure out the dinner part ourselves. We were already clueless with all-Chinese tour group. Going out in Lijiang made me feel even more helpless. First, I didn’t know what a legit place consisted of. Second, what to order? Totally unknown territory. It was ~5:30p and many places seemed to be closed still. Town seemed somewhat deserted. At least there seemed to be a lot of places to eat in the neighborhood. We found a place with a few groups and pictures of dishes. That was the best bet for our limited capacity. Place was definitely minimal. Not exactly enticing but I'm glad Vinh had appetite 😊
Tue: Lijiang in full force We started the day at 7:30am with a quick porridge breakfast at the hotel. Bus took off at 8am toward
the mountain. Suddenly the roads became narrower and so many horses were being pulled. We turned into an open area. Off the bus, a guy started explaining routes. It seemed that we were asked to pick a route and price. Wait what? What's going on? This wasn't a simple task that could be communicated with gestures. I had to call the SOS line for translation. It turns out, there were tour options A (280 rmb pp) & B (380 rmb pp) and everyone in the group chose B. That's great. But! I had only 500 rmb on me. I didn't get the memo! Pretty embarrassing but we had to turn to the tour guide lend us the difference. I guess, he knew that it’s not like we could run away without a word of Chinese. We joined option B safely 😊.
One by one but swiftly, we got on horses. It looked like we were going along the ancient horse trail. We went ~1.5 miles up the single track. At the top, the view opened up and ladies were waiting with bags of dried fava beans at 10 rmb a bag. She insisted we need 2 bags for 2
horses...ya. Vinh was the master of feeding. Also at the top was photo printer. When were they taking pictures of us on the horse?! We got back on the horses and descended through a different route. On the way back, we came across many other groups. At times, it was like horse traffic jam. A few occasions a horse had to take a pee pause although poops were being dumped while walking. Roundtrip lasted ~1.5 hr. After a mini tea break, we were directed into a tram. A short bumpy ride through the country path took us to a river shore where 2 shabby boats were docked. Looks like the next on the agenda is boat ride. Sun was cracking and it turned out to be a gorgeous day 😊. Of course, we sail by another boat selling beer and grilled anchovies. Business opportunities are everywhere, lol.
We left the horse area at 11am. Perfect time to hit lunch 😊. After lunch, bus took us to another old town. This one was bigger than yesterday. It even had American fast food chains, boo. Most of the stores were local fabric and yak meat stores. Also many cafes with live
music and pink disco lights. We managed to get away from that scene by climbing up a bit. As the view was just opening up, cafe with seats overlooking the view emerged. Perfect. Finally, a beer break (tea for me and it was more $$ than beer!). Just when we took in the view and quenched thirst, rain started to fall. It didn't pour but continued snoodling when it was time for us to get back to 4:30 regrouping. From there, the group walked to dinner. Darn rain had to continue falling the only time we walked and not bussed! I loved the dinner place though. Nothing fancy but not too shabby. They served hotpot on char grill. We started with assorted veggies and bacon to grill. Then the big pot came out where we put more veggies and meat. So yum and fun!
What a long day it was. We survived all-Chinese day 2. Let's see what next day awaits. Lights out. Passed out.
Wed: En route to Shangri-la 8am depart. That was the single most important info of the day. We are going to Shangri-la! At 9am, bus made a rest stop already but this
one had a view! And the best view was, of all places, from the bathroom!! Opposite of the stalls was all glass and you could see the valley from high up, man! I busted out my camera right there. There were fruit vendors and we, too, picked up some tangerines for the road. We crossed the bridge overlooking the valley and at 10, we arrived at Leaping tiger gorge. We had 2 hrs there...to do what? No idea. But hey, looks like we could get some walking in, sweet. A stone path continued along the river down below. Of course, there was an option to purchase a cart pulled by a man. After an hour or so walking, water started to become rough and there emerged the leaping tiger rock! There is a path to go lower and closer. We made it back safely by noon...ready for lunch! Everyone returned and the bus took off. I hope we are going to lunch next...yes! It was probably the shabbiest lunch in this tour but we needed it.
After another short stop on a high plane, finally, we arrived in Shangri-la at 2:30p. The first stop was the temple. It totally
reminded me of Lhasa. Our tour group went through a guided tour of the cultural center. So sad I understood nada 😞. It even ended with a palm-reading session by a Tibetan monk 😞 😞 😞. We had free time to check out the temple until 4:30p. I don't know what significance those primary-colored cloths have. I need to look it up later. Do they have prayers? In any case, those banners were adding a lot of character. Outside of the temple, the place was pretty run down. We tried to walk around it but it was dug up for construction. We had early dinner just across the street.
During dinner, we understood, thanks to our fellow tour group member who spoke some English, that there will be another extra excursion tonight. At 7p, we could visit a local house. Sounds awesome, sign us up! At 7p, bus took us to the house. It was more like a big two-story mansion. We were welcomed with a scarf, a shot and a photo snap. We were directed onto the second floor where a banquet was setup. A few other bus loads joined the banquet. It started on a traditional note
but as the night went on, alcohol kept circulating and the acts getting rowdy. And once Madame of the show (crazy voice, btw) laid her eyes on Vinh, he was in trouble, lol. The party went to 9:30p.
Thu: Snow Mountain! Today, we were told of 8am depart to snow mountain. Of course we had no clue what that entailed, haha. After a short ride, we pulled into a parking lot at ~8:30. Parking lot was pretty empty for once. Out of the bus, everybody went up to a booth and started ordering stuff. Hmmm...getting jackets? It was one of those winter NFL jackets that cover down to your calves. Snow mountain but really? Well, the tour guide got one. He’s been here. He should know. We should get one too. Everyone was also busy buying oxygen tanks. Seriously? Naaa, skip that, silly. This is definitely not an extreme adventure tour. They weren't cheap either! It turns out, we were at 11,000ft elevation. No wonder I felt shortness of breath already yesterday! I had this lingering headache which wasn’t the same as from being sick.
We ascended via 2 gondola rides to the peak at ~13,000ft. It
Temple
Shangri-latook a good hour for the trip. By the time we got to the peak, weather had already changed from mild to stormy! It was snowing sideways!! Despite the rental jacket, I wasn't dressed appropriate for the blizzard. It was freezing to the bone, especially my feet >_
Fri: All day travel back to Shenzhen Our ride to the airport was scheduled at 10:15am. So we thought we might scope out and get coffee & breakfast. By this time, we’ve had it with porridge and boiled egg. But the plan didn’t really pan out. First, it started raining just when we were ready to head out. We didn’t have umbrella on us so we didn’t want to go too far. Hey, but there is a fancy Western-style restaurant/coffee place next door. It’ll have to do but they weren’t open yet. We had no idea if it was going to open and at what time. Hotel people spoke zero word of English. I tried to do the Chinese character thing but no luck. I didn’t think they go there but it’s right next door. I was hoping that they’d at least know what time it opens. At 9am, although
the place was completely dead, we tried to go in anyway. Surprisingly, we were able to sit! Kitchen staff was still having a meeting in the back alley and the wait staff in the dining area. We were given the menu that consisted of full-blown meals. Yeah, I think we were a little out of sync. Everything was super $$ in comparison to everything else in that neighborhood. We just wanted some egg tartlets but it took so long to come out. Did we take them by surprise? :p. Being the fancy place that it was, butterly tartlets came warm, mmm 😊.
Going to Shenzhen has been constant delays! Our flight was delayed by 1hr again! Pilot beasted to make up for 30min. When we finally made it to Shenzhen, it was pouring monsoon style.
Sat: Regaining our pace in HK 7am start to HK today. Subway was surprisingly full already and all the seats were taken! Could they all be goign to HK already? No way! Apparently! Train got even more crowded and flood of people flocked toward immigration once we got to the Shenzhen/HK border station. We weren't as early birds nor did the rain
forecast scare anyone away.
We got to HK Central ~9:15a, not bad, considering the immigration. Our plan was to hit Victoria Peak before it gets crazy. Peak tram entrance was surprisingly close by the station. I must have been lost last time. Line at the ticket counter was almost non-existent except multiple tour groups just got dumped. We just beat them. But by the time our tram just arrived, loads of people were going for a narrow tram entrance. I got pushed out by big tall dudes, ugh. Really? No shame! Near 100% rain forecast hasn't started yet, thank god. We had a good view at the peak. It has nice lush stroll on either ride of the peak. One day, perhaps, I'll look into hiking it up 😊. At 10:30am, we made our way down toward Luk Yu Tea house. It's a repeat for me and a no-brainer. This place does dim sum right in all aspects. It's made-to-order. No more than 2 items are brought out at a time. This way, everything we eat is warm and fresh. Nothing is heavy and blah even with the most standard item. Staff is attentive with tea. We made it
there smoothly at 11am. For being Saturday, I was pleasantly surprised that we got seated right away. We might have beaten the crowd as the place got packed quickly.
With happy tummies, we headed toward Star Ferry to Kowloon. HK is non-stop high-end shopping. HK island was filled with the stores to the shore and restarted right away in Kowloon. We stayed clear from it and went for a stroll toward east promenade and avenue of the stars. It's HK equivalent of the star road in Hollywood. Bruce Lee had the highest honor with a cool statue 😊. Just when we got to the man, it started to sprinkle. We busted our umbrellas but it started to rain even harder. Looks like dessert is in order. We went for the closest subway station and head back to the central. In rain, we walked up and down, looking for the place we looked up. But it was nowhere to be seen. We picked up wi-fi at seven eleven, walked up and down again. We went online again and it turns out, the place moved far away, doh! Plan B! During our search, we saw a few promising places. Finally, we
agreed on Sweet Tooth. Some of the desserts were too over-sized for us but loaded fruit bowl and barley milk soup were our picks and they didn't disappoint.
Rain was still coming down hard. Navigating through the side street wasn't easy. I had waterproof jacket on but that alone was soaking my feet wet. Putting the umbrella up was challenging in the narrow side street with gazillion umbrellas. It was still early so we decided to hit one more place from the list that was within our reach. Chez Kubota isn't far, really. It's just across the park. But ever-strengthening rainfall combined with construction detour made it more difficult than it should have been. Rain was accompanied with thunder at this point. Just when we've had it with walking, we finally reached the mall. It's ginormous with ice skate link and movie theater. Very posh and clean. Finally, we found the patisserie outlet on the 3rd floor. Chef Kubota must be a Japanese patissier trained in France. Looked very refined and elegant. Seemingly not made-in-HK might just be what HK is about. Little outlet had 4 tables that seated 2 each. Needless to say, they were all occupied and
Peak!
Snow mountain, Shangri-la there was another couple waiting already. We couldn't back down at that point...right? But expectedly and predictably, crowd in these establishments takes all the time in the world to sit and sip on over-priced coffee. That's ok, we've got not much more to lose. We're not leaving until we get that damn cake! I waited as Vinh looked for electrical outlet to charge the phone. But! This mall is so posh, all outlets had cover so they won't be an eye sore!! Amazing detail. Finally, almost after 1hr wait, we got our table and Vinh had just come back after calling it quits on the outlet search. We had matcha and raspberry cakes and they were very good. Flavorful and delicate.
It had been fun, HK, but it was time for us to head back to make it to dinner in Shenzhen. It would have been difficult to explore much more in this monsoon anyway.
Early next morning, we said good bye to rainy Shenzhen. Finding food for me was a bit of a debacle in HK airport. Plenty of meal choices but I’m a snacker :p. Red bean macha frapp had to do 😊.
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