My Trip To Longji Rice Terraces (Part 1)

On my 3rd day in Guilin, China, my travel partner Jam, his friend and I visited Longji Rice Terraces (龙脊梯田) in Longsheng County. We planned to stay a night there.

Longji or Dragon's Backbone is so named because the rice terraces resemble a dragon's scales, while the summit of the mountain range looks like the backbone of the dragon.

After our breakfast of rice noodles, we took a bus from Guilin Main Bus Terminal to Longsheng (龙胜), which is about 90 km or about 2 hours drive from Guilin. However, instead of going to Longsheng, we got down at Heping Village (和平乡) on the way to Longsheng. This was because it was nearer and more convenient to go to Longji Rice Terraces from Heping Village.

Although we planned to stay overnight in Longji Rice Terraces, we had not booked any accommodation yet. But as luck would have it, we were approached by a lady in the bus who offered us her place for 30 yuan per person. Since she also offered to be our tour guide, we did not hesitate to accept her offers!

After getting down at Heping Village, we followed the lady whom we called as Da Jie or Big Sister. She had arranged for a van to pick us up to her village, Dazhai (大寨).

On the way to Dazhai, we passed by the Jinzhu (Golden Bamboo) Zhuang Village (金竹壮寨) where we stopped at a ticketing office to pay 50 yuan per person in order to enter the Longji Rice Terraces Scenic Area.



We arrived at Dazhai around noon. I forgot to take a photo of the entrance gate! There, a few ladies with baskets on their back approached us and offered to help take our luggage for 25 yuan. We however, declined their offers.



Although we had reached Dazhai, we still needed to walk about 20 minutes to reach Da Jie's house. After paying the driver 7 yuan each, we alighted from the van and followed Da Jie as she led the way.


Signboard showing direction to Dazhai village



Road leading to Dazhai village

Soon, we reached a rock that reads Da Yao Zhai (大瑶寨) which can be shortened to Dazhai.



Not far from the rock, we could see a bridge which was called the Wind-Rain Bridge (风雨桥). This bridge served as an entrance to Dazhai village. It was made entirely of wood and had a unique architectural design.



Once passed the bridge, the magnificent view of green rolling hills and rice terraces greeted us!


We continued to follow Da Jie as she led us to her house.



We saw many wooden houses like these!



These houses were special as they were made entirely of wood with no iron or metal. They were called Diaojiaolou (吊脚楼) which literally means "Hanging Foot House". It is so called because the columns on the first floor do not reach the ground but are suspended halfway.


Can you see the "hanging foot"?

The "hanging foot" is actually a very unique architectural design found mainly in south western part of China. You can see from here that no nails were used in constructing Diaojiaolou. I found that simply amazing!



Besides that, most of these Diaojiaolou houses are built on pebble slabs and not on the ground.


All these wooden houses were built using fir wood which was abundantly found in the fir wood forests!

I noticed that most of the houses in Dazhai were either two or three storeys high.



Before we knew it, we had reached Da Jie's house which was actually converted into a hotel!



It was called Jiu Jiu Hotel (久久旅馆).



In my next post, I shall tell you more about this hotel, what we had for lunch and what we did after that, so stay tuned!

FIRST COMMENTER

Top 10 Reasons Why I Love Malaysia!

Happy Merdeka to all my Malaysian readers, bloggers and friends!!!

Since today we are celebrating our 53rd Independence Day, I am coming out with a Top 10 Reasons why I love our beloved country Malaysia!! Let's begin, shall we?

1. Malaysia's weather is hot and humid all year round. Although this may be uncomfortable, the humidity is good for our skin and helps all of us look younger!

2. Malaysia has some of the best food in the world. Think nasi lemak, char koay teow, roti canai, teh tarik, cendol, satay, chicken rice, keropok lekor, bak kut teh, etc. etc!

3. Malaysia is home to some of the best variety of fruits in the world! Where else can you get durians, mangoes, papayas, pineapples, tarap, mangosteens, dragonfruits, rambutans, guavas and bananas in one place?

4. Malaysia is free from major natural disasters! We do not have earthquakes, volcano eruptions, typhoons, twisters and blizzards!

5. Malaysia has some of the best beaches in the world. Think Sipadan, Perhentian, Tioman, Redang and Manukan!

6. Malaysians are generally peace loving and all three major races live in harmony here! It's only the politicians who are trying to spoil it all for us!

7. Malaysians love to eat and we have 24-hour eateries! The only downside to this is we are getting fatter and fatter!

8. Malaysia has the tallest Twin Towers in the world! It's also the most beautiful Twin Towers!

9. Malaysians are generally warm and friendly. In fact, we are in the Top 10 most tourism friendly countries in the world!

10. Malaysia is among one of the countries in the world with the most public holidays. Now I like that a lot! Haha!


Sunrise in Redang Island

Although Malaysia is not perfect, and no country in the world is, I still think the positive aspects of Malaysia far outweigh the negatives. So let us focus on the positives, shall we?

The grass is not always greener on the other side. Let's appreciate our beloved Malaysia.

Thank you Malaysia for being such a wonderful and beautiful country. You are indeed my home sweet home, my Heaven on Earth! Happy Merdeka Day!! : )

FIRST COMMENTER

Working Hard Or Hardly Working?

I know I've been pretty quiet lately, but it's crunch time!  This weekend is all about work for me, so I thought I would be so kind as to share this cheese ball "Loverboy" tune with you!  Enjoy...

Since I will be buried this weekend, I want to direct you to one of my favorite blogs.  Elizabeth is the author of "observationmode," a fashion cornucopia covering trends in apparel and footwear, among other things.  Take one of Elizabeth's fun fashion polls!   And in case you were wondering, yes, this is the same Elizabeth who sponsored this sexy dress! 

Elizabeth is going to look haute, haute, haute in this little number!

Top 10 Things That Make Me Say OMG!

OK, just for once I shall write a very short post.

The Top 10 things that make me say ...



1. I am in the middle of nowhere and my iPhone battery goes dead.

2. I dine at an expensive restaurant and when it comes to paying the bill, I can't find my wallet.

3. Mariah Carey's pregnancy is false and she is in fact, just plain fat!



(Note: She is still my No. 1 singer whether she's fat or slim!)

4. The final scene of Inception.

5. Lady Gaga is following me on Twitter.

6. Taylor Lautner reveals on Oprah that he is a girl!

7. I open up a letter found in my postbox and it reads ...



8. After watching a disturbing video, I answer a phone call and a very creepy voice says "Seven days."

9. I die, go to heaven, and God says to me "Congratulations! Welcome to the real world. You are now out of The Matrix."

10. I just came up with this Top 10 in under 10 minutes!

Have a great weekend, everyone! : )

FIRST COMMENTER

I Saw Jay Chou At Guilin Night Market!

Yes, I saw Jay Chou at the Guilin Night Market! But let's not jump the boat.

After we came back from Daxu Ancient Town, we went back to our hotel, took a shower and went straight to sleep!

We slept for about one and a half hour then proceeded to go out for a simple chap fan (economy rice) dinner. No photos of the chap fan as they were just the normal rice with meat and vegetables.

After dinner, we decided to visit the Guilin Night Market which was located along the Zhong Shan Road, the main road of Guilin City. The night market was probably a few blocks long, with hundreds of stalls in red tents.



It seems that every night, small Chinese merchants would come to Zhong Shan Road and set up stalls at this night market.



There were many things on sale and the good thing is you can bargain to your heart's content. Definitely a bargain shoppers paradise!

Souvenirs galore!



Third row from the bottom - can you see what looks like round buns? I did not get a close shot of these buns but they looked like the real thing, all ready to be eaten!

Lights with cute and attractive designs! Can you see Doraemon, Ultraman and Hello Kitty?



Beautiful fans!



Chinese musical instruments and music CDs!



Can you see those black, egg shaped instruments? They are called Xun, a flute-like instrument that is made of clay or ceramic. I have seen these ancient Chinese musical instrument on TV before but it was my first time seeing the real thing here in Guilin!

I was so excited I almost ended up buying one. It seemed to come with an instruction manual teaching you how to play the instrument.

Handicrafts galore! These looked pretty cute!



Food, snacks, fruits and drinks were also available at this night market.



Can you see the luo han guo fruits at the left side of the photo above? These luo han guo were quite popular and could be seen being sold at many places in Guilin.

And then, I saw Jay Chou!

Not Jay Chou in person, but on T-shirts! Haha!



Can you spot Jay Chou in the photo above?

Of course, I did not only see Jay Chou but also many other celebrities. Can you spot all the other celebrities?



Oh! There's Britney Spears, Osama bin Laden, Michael Jackson, David Beckham, Barack Obama, Marilyn Monroe, Jolin Tsai, and more!



I was quite impressed! Don't you think they are nice?



It is also at this Guilin Night Market that I bought the mini mahjong which I offered as a prize for my Top 3 Commenter Contest last year. Read more about the souvenirs I bought HERE.

Besides what were shown in the photos above, there were many other things on sale which I did not take photos of. Among them were clothes, leather goods and jewellery.

If you ever go to Guilin, do not miss the Guilin Night Market!

FIRST COMMENTER

Don't Drink And Drape

I've been working lots of long hours on my show for New York Fashion Week which, incidentally, is coming up in just a few weeks!  I felt the need to calm my nerves a bit tonight.  Lately, I've been getting awfully cozy with WendyB's and MrB's dining room table and tonight, I felt a glass (or two, or three) of wine would be appropriate. 

me in action!

Wendy was sneaky kind enough to snap this photo of me in action... working my booty off.  Normally, I don't let people see me in my spectacles (vain much?), but I'm making an exception.  I want all my readers, supporters and sponsors to see the real deal! 

Meanwhile, I still NEED TO RAISE an additional $2000 to pay for the lighting costs for the show.  Please help me pass the word along and scrounge up more sponsors.  $5, $10... every little bit counts!  Contribute HERE :-)

More pix to come!
xoxo

My Visit To Maozhou Island

It had been quite an experience visiting Daxu Ancient Town seeing the ancient buildings, walking on the famous Longevity Bridge and getting scolded for not paying a local old folk for showing us around her house.

It was already 1pm in the afternoon when we were approached by this modest looking lady who invited us to have lunch at her home across the Li River at Maozhou Island (毛洲岛).

This island, which is directly opposite Daxu Ancient Town, is the biggest island on Li River and is also known as "Bottle Gourd Island" due to lots of varieties of bottle gourds being grown there.

We called the lady 'Da Jie' and here you can see her waiting for us to get onto the boat.



This is the view of Daxu Ancient Town as we were leaving in the boat.



The boat ride was quite pleasant.



It took just 5 minutes and before we knew it, we had arrived at Maozhou Island!



Climbing up the stairs, we reached the front gate.



Entering the gate, we could see a waterwheel.



The signboard showing the direction to Ecology Corridor (生态走廊) and Clearwater Bridge (清水桥).



It started to drizzle all of a sudden. Da Jie quickly got us each an umbrella. We followed her as she led us through the Ecology Corridor, where we could see lots of fruit trees and vegetables were grown.




The local folks at Maozhou Island had in fact developed an ecology tour whereby visitors are invited to have a meal and stay overnight at their homes to experience the peasant family life. We did not plan to stay overnight of course, but it would have been nice, I think.

Da Jie even had her own farm and she grew lots of vegetables in which some ended up in our lunch later.



Soon, we reached the Clearwater Bridge.



Crossing to the other side, we came across the Lovers Tree. Da Jie told us that the two trees grew in such a way that they resembled two lovers hugging each other.



After a few minutes walk, we reached Da Jie's house. Her house number is 69.



This is the front entrance of her house.





There was a bamboo forest surrounding her house.



And I saw this bottle gourd hanging from the top!



Once inside, we were given a menu to order for our lunch. While Da Jie went into the kitchen to cook and prepare our meal, we had some refreshments and some sweet and sour fruits called Yellow Skin Fruit.



It was my first time tasting this fruit. I could see a lot of these fruits being grown here. They seemed to be quite popular in Guilin.



Soon, our meals were ready. We ordered stewed home grown chicken, stir fried bamboo shoots and bitter gourd with eggs. I was quite surprised that the food was served directly in the wok placed on an induction cooker!



The food were absolutely fantastic! I enjoyed this lunch very much! We also ordered a soup to complement the food.



And our lunch would certainly not be complete without a serving of the local LiQ beer!



I could not remember how much we paid for this meal but I think it was quite reasonable.

We took some rest before leaving. Da Jie led us back to the pier to take the boat back to Daxu Ancient Town. On the way, we crossed the Clearwater Bridge again.



Walked through the Ecology Corridor and reached the pier.



Soon, we were back on Daxu Ancient Town. Da Jie was there to look for other customers. We bid her farewell before walking to the bus stop to take a bus back to Guilin. It had been an interesting experience and I was glad I visited Daxu Ancient Town and Maozhou Island!

Coming Up Next : Guilin Night Market

FIRST COMMENTER