Today, we said goodbye to beautiful Dali and began our journey back to Kunming. As much as I loved the laid-back vibe of Dali, it was time to slowly make our way back to where this adventure began.
We stopped for lunch at a very pretty restaurant in a small town along the way. Peaceful surroundings, good food, and a nice break from the road.
Back in Kunming: Old Meets New
Arrived back at Kunming and headed out to explore Qian Wang Street, Kunming’s century-old street. It’s the epitome of old Kunming vs the new Kunming – old buildings with a contrast of modern buildings just around the corner. When we were walking back, we realised the street was actually quite close to our hotel.
Last Dinner in Yunnan: Mushroom Hot Pot
For our final dinner in Yunnan, we went to Dian Jun Wang, a restaurant famous for its Yunnan mushroom hot pot.
And here’s the interesting part – we were told not to cook anything ourselves and let the waiter/waitress do the cooking and only eat when they told us that it’s ready so we won’t get mushroom poisoning.
Back to Where It All Began
After dinner, we returned to Horizon Hotel Yunnan Kunming, the same hotel we stayed at on our first night. Since it was our last night, we went back to the nearby night market and food street for another walk. But, we had pretty much seen it all the first night anyway so we headed back early, rested, and packed up for our journey home.
Day 8 : Kunming – Singapore
Guess what time our morning call was? 3:20am.
We departed the hotel at 4am for our flight back to Singapore at 8:40am.
On the itinerary, it states “After breakfast, if time permits, you are free to move around until the assembly time, then transfer to the airport for your flight back to Singapore.”
Hah. We didn’t even get to have breakfast.
To be fair, the hotel kindly packed breakfast for us to eat at the airport – very nice of them.
And just like that, our Yunnan journey came to an end – early mornings, long drives, incredible landscapes, and countless memories packed into eight days. If you’d like to retrace the journey, you can read the full Yunnan itinerary here.