Day 2 - Stone Forest and Green Lake park

I had done a lot of research on using public transport to get around. But while bus fares are ridiculously cheap, taking Didi (the China version of Uber or Grab) is relatively affordable.  During trip planning, 7 days seemed enough.  It was after I'd bought air tickets that I noticed there was more to this area than it initially appeared.  Hence I figured time-efficiency trumps cost-efficiency. 

Right, our first trip!  Took a Didi from the hotel to the Stone Forest.  RMB211/RM127 for a 90km, 1.5 hour trip - pretty ok methinks.  The pomegranate, which we saw depicted at various locations, apparently symbolises the ethnic diversity of Yunnan 'clustered in unity like the seeds in a pomegranate'. 

Outside the Stone Forest

Entrance tickets weren't cheap by China standards - RMB130 plus 25 for the internal shuttle bus/total RM93 each.  The shuttle bus dropped us off at the actual entrance.  

First, flowers on a hat

The Stone Forest is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a karst landscape of rock pillars standing like a real forest. 

At the actual entrance

At the lotus pond

To me, it was unique and worth the trip.

And, we are at the rock area

Lots of rock pillars

Us and more rock

And even more 

SE managed to lose her shuttle bus ticket.  Sigh.  Tickets are checked upon boarding the bus, but they are not sold inside the park so we couldn't buy another one.  They were kind enough to let her board the bus so we continued sightseeing from the bus.  The area is really large.  However food is not available inside the park and we couldn't have stayed much longer anyway (it was already around lunchtime).

Another area of the park

Apparently the bus we were on only travels around internally so we had to get off.

Entrance to the minor Stone Forest area

Luckily we were allowed to board the bus out, or it would have been a long walk!  We had lunch at KFC.  Quite a challenge figuring out the promo menu but we got our food.  Then it was another challenge of finding a point where a Didi could drive in as much of the area wasn't accessible to outside vehicles. 

For our whole trip, Didis didn't take long to arrive at all.  We headed to the Green Lake park.  Ahh after all the wandering amidst rock, it was nice to be back in civilisation!  There were shops around the park.

JE and a gelato

Green lake park was lovely.  The weather was cool by then and there were plenty of people enjoying the park. My spirits lifted and I was a happy bunny. :) 

Happy people

After all the tanghulus bought by JE, she finally tasted the original made with hawthorn fruit.  I liked it, tasted like a powdery apple.  The red colour was natural too.

 

Let's check this out

You must like this park, or else

For dinner we had mushroom hotpot which was a local specialty. This felt fancy!  There were various types of mushrooms (in the wooden divided tray in the picture), poached chicken, good hotpot broth and various other items.  RMB300/RM180 though haha.  Expensive since there wasn't much meat and to me, mushrooms aren't luxury items.  We did enjoy the meal which was the important thing.

Fancy hotpot meal

Rather an expensive day!  But a good one. :)