City of Eternal Spring - Yunan Ethnic Village

5th day, we woke up to a wet morning. Its to Yunnan Ethnic Village, the village houses the 26 nationalities in this province amidst a beautiful landscape garden. The scaled versions of the ethnic groups occupies an area of 7,500 acres where visitors can experience their lifestyles all year round. It rained ~ drizzle nearly the whole trip. Here's some photos of the area. buildings with Chinese elements
in one of the ethnic houses, inside is very much like 'the rumah panjang' of our East Malaysia. the pots are not for show only, something is really cooking and there's this group of ppl really eating in their 'dinning room' . I think the 'staff' lived on this very site as well.clothing with Chinese influence and Thai?a pretty 'Ar se mah' beading smashing troubles away, a belief of one ethnic tribes. Diane had fun smashing bottles!!
and she said she felt a sense of peace after, seems that if you managed to smash the bottles or plates into 'the mouth'-opening the better! the pottery house, does it looked like our yesteryear's Chinese 'kampung' house ? seems that the ethnic women folk are very crafty. There's almost some sort of craft related thingy in every house. This is one of the largest and there's even smaller ones around
We didn't explore all the ethnic houses, only those with significant history were explained to us, yet those that we eventually did stop to have a look were quick and short, throughout the journey, 'Siow Tai' kept signalling us to move on. She is simply trying to get us on time to our next venue.the souvenir stall at the exist. Its a remarkable in sight into these ppl's life

Its our last nite in the City of Spring and dinner this evening was extra special. We were introduced to Yunnan's famous dish, 'Across the Bridge Rice Noodles' or 'Guo-Qiao Mien-Xian' . Like everything else in China, there 's a story of how it became famous. It is said that during Qing Dynasty, there was a scholar who was preparing for his imperial examination. He retreated in an isolated island to study. Every day, his wife would bring him his meal, crossing a bridge. By the time it reaches him, his food was cold. The wife than discovered to keep the meal warm with a layer of oil in the soup.

Interior of the restaurant

appetizer

we were first served with this very hot hot soup in a clay bowl with its condiments separately whereby we are to put everything into the bowl immediately including the rice noodles that looked very much like our 'laksa asam' noodles and treated to an hour long of fabulous ethnic dances, impressive performance and a beautiful package put together. I didn't put up the video here as the waiter and waitress serving us food was sort of interfering with the taping that could not be avoided.Thereafter, there was a mad rush to go on stage when it was announced that we are given 10 minutes to photograph with the dancers. Here is Diane, she managed to pose with 2 ladies after some hesitation.
or three? they are alll so pweeety!!

The next morning, its was Bye! Bye! day.

We woke up this morning to another gloomy wet morning, at 7. 45am we were at the coffee house . Breakfast today for me was this, can you believed that I gained 2 kg by the 3rd day weighing? Scarry!!

I was so glad to have drop 1.5 kg on my last day by watching what I eat during lunch and dinner on the remaining days. Someone in the group said that he gained 7kg! horror! Oh ! did I mentioned that we were a group of 18 ppl on this tour?

We checked out of Horizon Hotel at approximate 10:30am and headed to lunch at 11am, en route to the airport, its another eleven dishes altogether .We arrived at the airport at 12:45pm, our Malaysian tour guide, Derrick was waiting for us at the airport. He had gone ahead of us while we were having lunch to finalize our departing details.

Diane did some last minute shopping, buying her 2nd and 3rd doll at the airportDolls made of wood and dressed in ethnic costume cost double compared to the first one she bought at 'Zi Chai Yi Nan' , the restaurant with beautiful courtyard complete with in house gallery, souvenir shop, a temple and beautiful landscape garden.

An hour and a half after take-off, lunch was served on board our national carrier.

We arrived KLIA at 5;35pm and reach home sweet home at 7:45pm
Thank you for visiting, this ends the final installment of my trip.
I wishe every one a good Sunday!