22nd Oct - 拉市海

Woke up @ 7 am today !
Had arranged for a transport to bring us from 古城 to 拉市海. A short 45 mins ride, we reached.

拉市海- 位于丽江县成西面8公里，是个观看日出日落的好地方。拉市海是一个湿地自然保护区，高原湖泊水平如镜，玉龙雪山的倒影清晰可见。
Quite a nice place with a lake (Yes .. Its a lake, not 海) & a vast piece of grassland with horses. Apparently, the place is not accessible on foot, we need to be horse-riding. They have a few horse-riding package and they are not cheap ! (ok .. the price is ok for horse-riding, but not cheap for China std!) We chose the package which will cost us RMB380, after some bargaining, the boss agreed to be @ RMB300 (Yes .. everything can be bargain in China!)

Got ourselves up the horse. Start to feel abit scare ! Paranoid thoughts start coming to my mind. Things like - what if I fall off the horse-back, break my head n bleed profusely! Seriously, you wont want to get injured in China and visit their hospital ! This is the last thing i wan to do ! The 师夫 asked me to hold the reins myself, I started to protest! Hearing me scream, he took back the reins.
<<导游>> have to DIY then, since we only have one 马夫.

We started the journey on the grassland. I can see some fears from 导游's eyes. At that point, I was glad that I dont need to maneuver the horse ! :P

We pass by many farms, with the mountains, blue skies and white clouds as backdrop ! The air is so fresh ! Funnily, the song <<康定情歌>>, came to my head. Maybe, been drinking too much China water! haha

Dint manage to go 七彩湖 as they are maintaining the roads leading there.

Went to 原头，it is like a mini waterfall. Actually the scenary reminds me very much of the kind of "waterfall photo" you find many yrs back then come with a clock face ?

Since we cant go to 七彩湖, we told the 师夫 to let us ride around the grassland longer. After > 1 hr on the horse, was feeling quite comfortable and gamed for the idea of "riding the horse" myself. Requested to hold the rein myself, but was turned down flatly ....... because the young horse Im on will go wild on the grass ! So basically, I dint have a chance to really RIDE A HORSE ?

The 师夫 also offered to give us a free boat ride ! :) Was really nice and relaxing ! During our horse-ride around the village, we saw alot of Propaganda like these below.

They will have things like :-

1) Having 1 child will means more wealth to the family;

Looking more relaxed and at ease

I really admired 导游for being so brave to maneuver the horse all by herself throughout the whole journey !