Old habits die hard...

Yunnan Mama I

The glorious days of wiping LCDs have passed. For the last one wk or so, I've been on a 9 -5 job, 9pm to 5am, catching every single action of the World Cup on TV while fretting over how much I might lose for betting on matches. After placing more than $2,000 worth of bets over 56 matches of the World Cup, I am proud to announce that to date, I have made a satisfactory profit of $20.50. That's like slightly over 1 percent return from my investment. Tmd...I think putting money in the bank nowadays reap better interests and I would not have to go through the many heart-stopping moments when I seriously pondered if I would still have enough money left to go France after 9th July.

Today, World Cup takes a break. My daily routine of visiting asianbookie and awaiting the best kan tao to appear is pleasantly disrupted. Thus, I now have time to sit in front of my laptop, without having to have a single Mozilla tab on the singapore pools website. Instead, I am going to embark on a meaningful mental journey by recapping and writing on my expedition more than a year ago to Yunnan. Hopefully, my account will strengthen Shaopeng's resolve to go India, and perhaps touch and inspire a few other souls to do similar overseas community projects.

It was by chance, and a good deal of the karma I had garnered in my previous life, that I was brought onboard the Yunnan project. I was one of the last few to join the team and I remembered having my interview with my team leader, Katherine, over the phone midway through the Stardust competition, where Jiahao was to amuse us with his rendition of 'Small Town Girl'. Was it the interview that clinched me a place in the team? I do not know. My guess is that it was probably my friend, Loo's recommendation that secured me the place.

The group did not know each other very well before the trip but it was only to be expected. We had some team bonding activities pre-Yunnan - we had a barbeque session and a trek at Kota Tinggi. However, people are usually brought together during bad times, not good times. We acquainted but we did not yet know each other.

We left for Yunnan on 15 May 2005. Our project was to be carried out at Huang Ban Ping, a little hill in Ninglang, which is a little town in Lijiang, which is a little province in Yunnan. Basically, Huang Ban Ping is a very ulu place and does not support any direct flight from Singapore. Hence, we had to fly to Kunming first.
















This is Kunming, the developing capital of Yunnan, from our hotel.
















We knew on the second day that the project was not going to be all smooth sailing when the bus that was fetching us from the hotel to the domestic airport broke down at the traffic lights and some of us had to alight to do some pushing.

Anyway, from Kunming, we left for Lijiang on a domestic flight. We were to stay in Lijiang to acclamatize for one night before going to Huang Ban Ping.

Lijiang is, till today, one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited in my life. Honestly, Paris can stand one side. Lijiang is well-visited by many tourists every year because of the Lijiang Gu Cheng, which has inhabited people for more than a thousand years and has survived, though barely, the onslaught of modernization. The traditional architecture remains but homes have been replaced by shophouses to cater to tourists' irrational needs for souvenirs. Nonetheless, Gu Cheng's beauty is simply quite extraordinary and Lijiang's charm is enhanced by the fact that the Gu Cheng and the Xin Cheng sit beside each other, separated by just one street. Hence, the title of One City Two Tales for one of Discovery's documentary on Lijiang. The photos we took did not do justice to Lijiang's beauty. Neither did my words. However, I have written and I will post the photos.
















A view of Lijiang's suburbs while on the bus to Gu Cheng from the airport. The climate in Lijiang is the perfect climate for living...similar to that of Genting but not as cold.
















Mu4 Lao3 Ye2 Ke4 Zhan4. The hotel that we stayed in.












































The many faces of Gu Cheng in the day.

















Gu Cheng at night.





















Loo in our favourite shop in Lijiang. This shop has a salesgirl who is super music savvy. She recommends customers different genres of world music , plays it for you to listen and if you are satisfied, she will customize a CD for you. Basically, this shop pirates good music.

- to be continued -

posted by le chye @ 2:04 PM