School Principals let loose in China

This was an unusual trip because out of the 20 people on board, 16 were school principals. You think we would be a very serious group? Think again! Try to think of 16 stressed out overworked principals let loose. What do you think we would do?

School Principals let loose.

Dali was a pleasant surprise for most of us. Ok -to be fair, I think none of the currently serving principals did much homework for the trip since we were swamped by work in school.  So we came to Dali with no expectations.We found Dali was situated by this huge beautiful lake Er Hai. . Our hotel rooms had views of the lake in front or the scenic mountains behind

Putting our best foot forward and ...
valiantly trying to maintain balance.

I was intrigued when I heard that we could view cormorants birds catching fishes for the fishermen. Excuse me, I remember studying about this in Geography a very long time ago while I was in primary school. Of course, we needed this optional package. In the end, all 20 of us went on 2 boats. I was surprised to find out the birds were free flying and came to the fishermen's boats when called by them. The fishermen stopped them from swallowing big fishes by tying a straw around their necks but the birds could easily swallow smaller fishes. Sometimes the birds work in groups to catch several fishes.

This cormorant has caught a sizable fish.

We had this interesting steamboat where the noodles were cooked like the opening of a fan. I liked this trip. It was quite relaxing since we stayed a minimum of two nights in each location before we moved on. Another good surprise was the four-stars hotel we were housed in. We slept in rooms with two queen sized beds for the duration of our entire stay  in China . During this trip, I saw the pretty colors of China. The blue sky, green hills, and fields with varying shades of yellow from the sunflowers, maize, tobacco and padi.

If you zoom in to this picture, you can see the
dinosaurs painted on the house walls.

I was intrigued by the dinosaurs I saw painted on the walls of many Chinese villages. In our initial animated discussion , we thought they were Chinese dragons. Later we found out we were passing through Dinosaur Valley and there were even a museum to view the fossils of the dinosaur found in this region.

Dinosaur painted on the walls.

Watching the show in the rain and
with the snow mountains as backdrop

Another highlight was watching Zhang Yi Mao open air show in Lijiang. We are dressed in raincoats and the show goes on , rain or shine. The Snow mountains in the background are part of the backdrop for the show with a cast of more than 500 people. There are so many things to view - the changing backdrop, the cast appearing among us, the cast appearing from different areas apart from the stage.

After the show, we took the cable car to Spruce Meadow. we breathed in fresh air - pure oxygen.Any chance of us looking younger?

At the first bend of the river that flows to Shanghai.

Pretty patchwork fieldsaginst blue sky and white clouds

With Tibetan mastiff dog

Poisonous red flowers. Even the yaks avoid them.

We came back to Malaysia, refreshed. And we had one more day to rest ... before going back to our schools. Thank God for good company, good weather, journey's pleasures and journey's mercies.