Musings

We stayed two nights at Z Garden in Dali. Random notes and comments! Z Garden is a small boutique hotel located just outside Dali Ancient Town’s south gate. It’s a walkable 10 minutes from the hotel to that south gate

Our last stop of the day: to ascend Jade Dragon Snow Mountain! We’d been thoroughly briefed by our guide the day before that this was not going to be an easy trek, given the sheer height of the mountain. Basically,

The famed show at the mountain was initially not on our itinerary in view of how packed our day was going to be visiting the natural scenery in the area. But our assigned local tour guide managed to squeeze time

One thing I miss about our trips to South Korea and Japan are the English maps and guides that are often found in their places of interest and attractions. In comparison I haven’t been able to find English brochures or

The majority of first time visitors to Yunnan would find time to do a full day tour of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain region located in the city of Linjiang, and many would follow a route that covers at least

It’s a short walk from Black Dragon Pool to Lijiang Ancient Town. The town is particularly famous for its system of waterways and bridges, and has numerous alleys and streets. The area was pretty busy again – it being Sunday

It was coming 2:30PM-ish when we left Yuhu village, and we headed to the Black Dragon Pool next. This pool is apparently the water source for the very nearby Lijiang Old Town, and many visitors would include a visit to

We left the city of Dali on Day 03 this morning. Our driver picked us up in the morning and began the 2.5 hour drive to Lijiang, where we were met with our guide – Ah Luo – for the

Leaving Shuanglang Ancient Town, our next stop was Little Putuo island: a positively tiny island at just 20 sqm but with a small temple on it. The temple is accessible by a small boat that one has to pay a

It was a good idea for us to lunch at Xizhou Ancient Town: the town was laid back and quiet, compared to the very bustling – and clearly – touristy Shuanglang Ancient Town. The town was 40 minutes drive away

Our assigned pair of driver and tour guide picked us up at Z Hotel this morning punctually at 9AM and we formally started our 13 day private tour with Windhorse Tour of the two provinces Yunnan and Sichuan. The planned

Day 01 of our 21 day trip to Yunnan and Western Sichuan has just started. Random notes and comments! Our start point of this trip is Dali, which if one considers linear distance isn’t that far from Singapore actually. The