Guizhou : Day 2 - Bijie Baili Azalea Nature Reserve - Anshun

After breakfast, we came out for a walk around the vicinity of the hotel. There wasn't much to see. 

View from my hotel room ... we were just next to the fire station! 

We left at 9.00 am. It was a long drive through the Guizhou countryside.

油菜花 Rapeseed flowers everywhere! 

The expressway was so high! It was like driving across the mountains .... 

But I totally enjoyed the ride since I had a great view from my seat ... 

We reached Bijie in time for lunch.

This is Celtuce, or  窝笋... I hadn't eaten it shredded before, I think it's a great idea and I would cook it myself next time! 

This is deep-fried rice cake, served with dark sugar syrup and soybean powder .... I think it's deep-fried in lard as it had that savoury flavour ... 

As I got on the bus, my friends said there was sakura or cherry blossom along the road divider ... I got so excited and ran to take photos of the flowers! Right in the middle of the road! 

We spent some time taking photos of the cherry blossoms .... seeing the sakura flowers really made my day! I believe this is my first time seeing these precious flowers!  

Next was the Bijie Baili Azalea Nature Reserve 贵州百里杜鹃省级自然保护区 ... this area was huge and we rode on the electric buses from one point to another ... 

This place is full of rhodendenrons .... the most common ones were the bright red, pink and light-coloured ones .... 

View of the viewing platform from the top of a random trail .... 

Buckwheat cookie ...

This cookie was soft and had a faint bitter taste .... I did not like it ... 

We had dinner at a very interesting restaurant that displayed a lot of stones ... and there were even 2 live peacocks in the restaurant! Among the dishes for dinner, my favourite had to be this very unique dish .... it's black sesame tangyuan stir-fried with preserved sour vege ... 

This was the first time I had tangyuan cooked like this and surprisingly, sweet black sesame and sour veg actually went so well together! Some of my friends were not adventurous enough to try ... but those of us who liked it, ate a few tangyuan each. I had 3 pieces! 

All meals came with either 2 bottles or 2 cans of beer .... 

Guizhou did not produce its own beer, it only produces Moutai .... so we were served all sorts of brands of beer ... tonight we had the Snow Beer's SuperX Brave the World 

Because of my fondness for its brand ambassador ... I just had to take a mandatory shot of the beer ....

We stayed at Anshun ... we would stay here for 2 nights .... The guide told us there was a food street nearby. So we dropped our bags in our room and went there for a walk. 

The food street had food eateries lining it ... but there wasn't anyone eating ... we couldn't eat as well since we already had our dinner .... 

As we turned into the main road, fortunately there were many shops that we were interested in .... like the snack shop Busy for You 零食很忙.... a few small supermarkets and pharmacies, and even a fruit shop .... 

I bought some snacks, some fruits and a hair tie since I had lost mine the night before at dinner .... 

Jasmine Tea Candy 

We slowly walked back to our hotel and retired for the night .... 

Guizhou : Day 1 - Guiyang

I made sure I slept from 7.30 pm to 1.30 am. Then I got up and get ready for my trip. 

Flight was at 6.30 am and we gathered at the airport at 3.00 am. Fortunately, bro was back for the hols and so he and sil could send me to the airport at the wee hours of the morning. We were the first few to check in, and we got the emergency seat at Row 15. That was great cause we would have a lot of leg space in the plane.

Well since this chartered flight was during school break, there were lots and lots of teachers I met ... I met L and J and F and Y and a whole lot of people ... we were all in different tour groups ... but lol ... we would bump into each other a lot in the coming days .... 

Anyway, KIA had no water stations at the international departure gate, and so we could not fill up our bottles. The chartered flight, 9Air did not provide food but they gave out a bottle or drinking water. The flight took four hours to Guiyang Longdongbao International Airport, Guizhou. 

9Air ... I didn't know there was such an airline ... it was a comfy flight as I had plenty of leg room ...

As soon as I got out of the plane, I enjoyed the mild weather. Throughout my stay there, the weather was really pleasant. 

Getting through the immigration was easy. There were no other flights arriving at that time so we did not need to wait for a long time. It was the bags that we waited a long time for! about 50 minutes? There could be a malfunction of a conveyor belt cause they changed to another belt halfway through. At one point,  everyone was already getting anxious and restless! My bag was the very last few to come out. 

Our guide, 小周 greeted us at the arrival hall and ushered us to our bus. There were 22 of us. There were 10 in my party, 7 in a family, and 2 teachers from SMKST and their families made up the rest of the number. 

The bus was great, 3 seats in a row in a 2+1 format. Really clean and spacious, and fitted with USB ports to charge my phone. I sat right at the back on a raised platform together with my friend N, as per usual. I had a lot of leg room too and a great view from the back. 

Our first stop was lunch. It was at the Colourful Guizhou Scenery Eye Cultural Creation Park 多彩贵州城 ... All 8 groups ate here.

Our first meal in Guiyang, but the food was rather ordinary .... I remembered that the soup was already cold. 

After lunch, we walked around the area. There were some shops but not much to see. It seemed to me that this place was still being set up, with renovations going on all over the place.  

We liked the flowers here though .... 

Azalea

Hall's Crabapple 

Begonia Crabapple

We didn't know the names of the flowers actually, lol. We had to ask AI. At 2 pm, we set off. 

We visited the Yelang Valley, an open-air park created by artist Song Peilun ... he made statues, sculptures and totems using local stones and ecological materials ... I didn't quite appreciate the pieces ... they just looked a little creepy to me ... 

We were more interested in the fruits sold outside the premises ... there were a lot of Baba Gan 杷杷柑 and strawberries and blueberries. I wanted to buy the 耙耙柑 but the vendor's Alipay could not accept my payment for some reason .... in the end I could not buy the oranges since I did not have small notes ... 

In the evening, we visited the vicinity where Guiyang White House was located. It's massive and opulent and I wondered who could live there without getting lost! 

We walked around the park in front of the mansion - the Huaguoyuan Wetland Park ... and we could see the cute Dolphin Plaza complex and the Twin Towers as well ... 

I bought a packet of Mala potato crisps here at the edge of the park ... it was so spicy! 

CNY15, when I bought this, they had only the 麻辣 flavour left; it was so spicy that I could only eat 2 pieces at one time; my friend N managed to buy the tomato flavoured one .... 

We were then ushered to dinner .... 

There was a hotpot in the middle of the table; it was chicken and mushroom soup and we could put vegetables and potato starch noodles inside ... 

That night, we stayed at Shanrun Yunting Hotel 闪润云庭 ... The room was dark and cold,  the clothes racks blocked the windows, the beds were sinking and there was 1 bath towel missing .... I was tired and desperate to bathe ... but I had to wait for housekeeping to send the towel before I could bathe and retire to bed. Even then, I couldn't find a comfortable sleeping position ... it took a long time before I finally fell asleep .... 

Entry 20.03.2026

Went to Yong Lok Garden for dinner … Better book first to ensure you get a table, cause the seating is quite limited. Sometimes they cater to a lot of takeaways too, so they cannot handle big volumes of customers.

We orders 7 dishes, 5 rice and 5 drinks and the bill only came to RM165. We were impressed by the taste of the food and the reasonable prices.

Fish lip soup

Thick enough and sour enough, but lacking in ingredients, in my opinion .... 

Stir-fried French beans with preserved radish ... 

This dish was very fragrant ... garlicky and preserved radish was tasty with rice .. 

Lemongrass chicken

This was a signature dish here; the lemongrass flavour was very strong and the stewed broth was thick and rich ... not bad ... 

The red wine flavour was quite subtle ... 

I liked the claypot tofu ... 

Thick with lots of veges and chicken 

Garoupa in asam curry 

The curry was very fragrant ... but I think it could be thicker, redder and more sour .... 

This salted egg prawn was also good ... recommended  

We had to wait quite long for our dishes ... but once the first dish was served, the rest followed quickly. I'd come back to this restaurant again next time! 

Entry 19.03.2026

Went back to Kenyalang Park Wet Market to buy some fish and prawns ... then of course we headed upstairs for breakfast .... 

RM7 

Thus was pricey, in my opinion

Today had the stirfried kueh tiaw from Hap Hap Hin (Stall 37) … the noodles were salty and savoury, it was missing the sweet profile … so ... hmn ... I probably won't order this again next time ... 

At 10.00, I picked up bro and family at the airport .... we headed to Yong Kwang cafe straightaway since it's mandatory for the KL-ites to have their kolo mee right away! Lol .... 

Would you believe it? Bro and his son had 2 bowls of kolo mee each! 

Later in the afternoon, we also went to the Jubilee Ground Hawker Centre to buy ABC …

I normally bought from Ah Tan, RM4.50 per cup.

Entry 18.03.2026

Had breakfast today at the Kenyalang Park Wet Market , since school has broken off for the Raya holidays ... otherwise I wouldn't be here on a Wednesday morning. 

Seng Kee Porridge (Stall 32) was a favourite among the locals ... Mom had the pork porridge, only RM5 for a generous bowl. 

I ordered a meepok from Wai Seng (Stall 34). A bowl of kolo meepok and a small cup of black coffee costs RM4.90. That's incredibly cheap and delicious too. The noodles were merely RM3.50 while the coffee costs RM1.40.  

I actually seldom eat here at the market, but I think I should come more often next time. We bought some fresh fruits and vegetables and then headed home. 

Entry 17.03.2026

My cousin T came back from Singapore ... so yesterday afternoon, I brought her out for chit chat session yesterday afternoon ... we went to Vantage Tamu where Bakehouse Cafe was ...

Matcha Latte ... thick and mildly bitter ... 

Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon 

I'd have more Hollandaise sauce with this ... 

This morning, my friend made us stuffed tofu and bittergourd ... we had them together with out kolo mee during breakfast ... 

They were absolutely yummy! Nothing meets homemade goodies ...

Oh and my former student P came to school today, and he brought me a pack of Luicha … he’s currently working part-time at a tuition centre while waiting for his STPM results. Good to catch up with him.

School will be closed 12 days starting tomorrow ... I'm heading to Guizhou for a week!