It was finally the 3rd of June! Ever since I knew that I would be visiting Kunming with my hubby and Jean Danker, I have been very excited and couldn’t wait for the time to come! Jean has always come across to me as someone extremely bubbly; so I knew this was going to be an enjoyable, fun trip!

While queuing at the check-in counter, I was silently hoping that we would be upgraded to business class; I had read that past winners who flew up with Class 95 DJs got this upgrade. Lo and behold, my wish came true! The cabin crew were very attentive and the meals were pretty good. Especially the carrot cakes! It’s a must try if it’s on your breakfast menu!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Suresh, the Captain of our flight. He congratulated us on our win over the intercom and also came to meet us and congratulate us personally during the journey!

Not forgetting Angie, the stewardess who attended to us most of the flight and Sabrina who patiently assisted my hubby in getting the embarkation papers.

The journey from Kunming airport to Grand Park Hotel was an estimated half an hour trip. When we checked into the hote,l we were warmly greeted by the general manager, Desmond (whom happens to be Singaporean as well) and his assistant Thomas. The centralised location of Grand Park Hotel made it convenient for us to tour the area and its surroundings. “Bu Xing Jie” which means walking street in Chinese, and 2 shopping malls were all less than 10 mins away and taking a taxi cost us only 9RMB.

We found the map of “Bu Xing Jie” engraved on the floor, along with many figurines which adorned it. There was also a casual coffee bar in the middle of the walkway to allow some rest for the tired feet. While resting and sipping your coffee, you can watch the locals toss fish feed into a small pond filled with plentiful of Koi. There were also smaller tanks containing Koi for sale.

The next day we embarked on a 2 hour long journey to the scenic “Jiu Xiang” area. As we travelled towards “Jiu Xiang”, we were greeted by plantations and mountains (a scenic view that you will not find in a corporate city like Singapore).

Did you know that there are a total of 99 caves in “Jiu Xiang”? However, only 4 caves are open for tourist viewing. We were told by our tour guide that in order to admire the vast scenery, we had to tread up 700 stone steps! We felt a sense of accomplishment when reached the final step. Admiring the stunning view in front of us and enjoying the cool breeze made all those stairs worth it!

Our first destination was a boat ride along the beautiful “ Yincui Valley”. I even got the chance to paddle the boat during the ride; it was a tiring but fun experience. The ride was approximately 5 to 10 mins before we proceeded to the Grand Underground Valley (Jing Ren Xia).

Well, if you are hoping for some horror legend and ghastly experience, that’s not going to happen. The cave was named “Jing Ren Xia” due to the loud echoing thunder-like sound caused by the strong tide crashing against the big stones. One of my favourite stone figurines was of an old man with a tortoise while you walk on “Diehong” bridge but when you reach the end and turn back to look at the figurine again, you’ll see a lion in place of the old man. By this point, we reached Lion Hall where there are stones display with the alphabets “JX” engraved on it. It means “Jiu Xiang” in short and there are others that have the date when Jiu Xiang was first opened to tourists. The numbers and letters are not man-made creations of Mother Nature that were picked up by the people who were constructing the caves prior to the opening.

Have you heard of “Liang Shan Bo and Zhu Ying Tai”? They are the Romeo and Juliet of the east. I am sure many of us grew up listening to their tragic love story; on how they sacrificed their love and turned into butterflies. At Immortal cave, there are two waterfalls; the larger one is in the form of a male and the smaller one in the form of a female, so the waterfalls were named after the infamous love birds. Such endearing stories always remind me to appreciate my loved ones.

I was captivated by a large cluster of lakes in shapes which resembles paddy fields. Nature’s work truly amazed me. We also saw rocks that looked like elephants, lime stones that were formed by the side of the caves which looked like pillars; it took 500,000 years for the top stone to meet the bottom one! However, there were no bats left in bat cave since the opening of the place to tourists, apparently due to human traffic and light.

We reached a point where we are 150m deep into the cave, and to get out, we needed to climb 336 steps out to the top! Luckily for us, there is a sedan service – it’s 50RMB for 2 men to carry you out to the exit on a sedan! After getting out, we took a cable car ride back to the starting point of the whole journey. The scenery was beautiful and we go to enjoy the cool breeze as it was an open cable car ride. I looked down and it was a long way down, a frightful thought!

We were famished by the end of this little excursion and decided to stop by the restaurant ‘Qian Ju Jie’ which was just round the corner of our hotel to try out their local cuisine, as recommended by our tour guide. Called crossing-the-bridge noodles, the bowl of soup was covered by a thin layer of oil and you have to throw in raw meat and vegetables to cook for 2 minutes followed by the noodles for a minute. The soup was so hot and the meat cooked quickly when put in. The verdict? It was really yummy and only cost 15RMB, which is equivalent to S$3.00! What a bargain!

After dinner, we decided that we needed to do some shopping to bring home souvenirs. In between, had to stop at the coffee house along the street of Salvador’s as it was recommended by our tour guide and we didn’t want to miss it – It was bustling and their beverages were indeed really savoury.

The plan for the rest of night was to chill out and enjoy a good beer in a pub down the street from our hotel. A 2-storey pub with exquisite oriental design, they had a live band that sang to a good range of song selections and that made us more relaxed.

There was the ‘Singapore Sling’ on the menu and we had to order that for some reason. I must say that it was interesting, but the taste was not near the delicious one we have back home in our beautiful Lion City.

Next morning after a good night rest, we had a hearty breakfast in the hotel before heading out again. Our initial plan was to first visit the Ethic Village, then next to the Flower and Bird market but we detoured after boarding a taxi. The taxi driver told us that there was another scenic area in Kunming that was very near to the Ethic Village and not to be missed. So we listened to his advice and headed for “Xi Shan Shen Ling Gong Yuan”. The cab driver was right! It was beautiful!

At the Ethnic village, you could either take the feeder ride to the cable car for 70RMB in total or book a minivan at 40RMB per person. The former would be faster, but we decided to go for the latter as it made stops along the way. This let us see more albeit taking a longer time. At the top of Xi Shan Mountain, we had to hike up a little mountain to the top pavilion for a better view of the scenery below. When we finally got there, it started to rain and I was disappointed as the view was being covered by thick fogs that started to accumulate.

Along the descent of the mountain was the Hua Ting Si temple. It was 6RMB per person for entering and we were not allowed to take pictures inside the temple where the god statues where placed but we did manage to take a few nice images around the temple’s premises. There was a 2 nd temple in the mountain but it was undergoing construction so we couldn’t view the interior. Outside the temple, there is a Gingko Biloba tree which is 600 years old and counting! It was beautiful and there were little squirrels running around too!

Back to our starting point, we visited the tomb of the famous musician Nie Er and an exhibition area that recounted the musician’s life and had his belongings on display. The whole mountain journey took about 1 and a half hour to complete.

We took the cable car back to ground level and made a trip back to the Ethic village via the feeder service and there, paid 70RMB per person to enter the village. There are 26 ethic people in the village and the map of the Ethic Village reminds me of the Asian village attraction we used to have in Sentosa. Maps can be really deceiving though, after walking for about 3 hours, we could not complete covering the grounds. We should have gotten one of the ethic people as a tour guide or rented bicycles to cover the massive grounds. However, we are glad that we managed to catch their massive performance with all 26 ethic people on stage. Getting to know how these people live and looking at the different architecture of these ethnic groups was really an eye opener.

Time really flies and it is our last day in Kunming. After our breakfast, we strolled down to Green Lake Park to enjoy the last day of cool weather before returning back to sunny Singapore. At the entrance of the park, we saw a bunch of kids celebrating a birthday at a fast food restaurant, dancing to music.

Entering the park, we saw people fishing, the elderly strolling, and even a group of people dancing. There were a few push-cart stores in the park which sold jade, wooden combs and accessories. Soon it was time to get back to the hotel to pack our things for the return flight.

Although it was kind of a rush, we did enjoy ourselves tremendously and we would like to make a trip back to Kunming in future to view more of its stunning scenery.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Class 95 and SilkAir for this memorable trip. Not forgetting the cabin crew of MI912 of their great service. Well done and keep it up!