Day 2: Duoyihe (多依河风景区)

After a cup of Nissin noodles each & toilet breaks at our hotel, we proceeded to Duoyihe (多依河风景区). Duoyihe wasn't on our itineary as reviews on the place wasn't fantastic. But some photos in the hotel travel book changed our minds and we decided to check the place out ourselves. :)

The journey from our hotel to Duoyihe took about 45mins to an hour.

Now we weren't exactly sure what to expect. Anyway there's this really huge park at Duoyihe. The entrance ticket is RMB 55 per person. A little pricey but since we've already spent some time traveling there, it's silly not to go in.

On a side note: The weather in Yunnan changes dramatically, by at least 10 degrees at any point in time. We had to put on our downjackets/coats & scarves at one point and remove them a few moments later. *.* The sun rays are unforgiving; so sunscreen (SPF50), hats & shades are essential.

Bamboo rafting is available at the park and so we tried it out! :) The experience cost RMB 10 per person.

Fun! But the heat is kind of unbearable. *.* You can feel your skin being scorched just sitting there.

We tried rowing the raft ourselves. :)))

The bamboo raft took us only a short distance & we had to walk the rest of the park... :(

Duoyihe park has quite a number of watermills.

After a while, this place gets boring. The sun wasn't helping either...

We made a u-turn and walked out. *.*

The highlight of this Duoyihe trip is the colourful rice of the Buyi people. :D Stalls selling them lined outside the park. Time to shop! :)

The Buyi people gather various types of flowers, leaves and roots from the mountain, and cook them in water to obtain juices. The sticky rice is then soak in the juices to dye them into pink, yellow, blue and purple. The Buyi people soak the rice for 2 hours prior to steaming it & roll the sticky rice into colourful balls. They eat the rice balls with honey or sugar.

Ann & Tina sampled some of the rice here. ;)

A complete meal is easily available.

The colourful rice makes fabulous gifts. Kids will be thrilled at the sight of them. We got quite a few bags of colourful rice each. :D

We were dying for chilled Coca-Cola by then...but there wasn't any??? Well, Sprite is the next alternative. It's approximately 3ish pm. We needed to rush back to Jin Ji Ling to catch the sunset. :O

There's so much distraction along the way. Tina & I stopped Mr Wang a couple of times for some photo taking. :)))

Can you imagine having a field of yellow canola outside your gate? :)

We would advise people against going to Duoyihe Park. But it's worthwhile if you wanna buy the colourful rice, and the scenary along the way to & from Duoyihe is simply breathtaking. Time to speed up...

Are you tired of seeing so much yellow? We're not! :)

These are called 面包车 （Bread/Toast Car). Perhaps they resemble a loaf of bread. :)))

The road we travelled on...

And finally another fav shot of mine. :) Check out our sunset pics, coming up next. ;)