Winter in China. We never really gave much thought about our recce trip. It was difficult to even imagine that we were due to make 3 transfer flights before arriving in Lijiang at dusk.It was just Hajjar and Salman who walked passed the departure gate of Budget Terminal. For the both of us, it was our first time travelling out of Singapore with just each other and however the case may be, we kept our faith strong knowing God has always been our insurance.
At Lijiang Airport, we were greeted by Brother Hamzah (chief village) and Brother Ahsu (guide) whom the team is due to liaise with in time to come. We checked in a hotel for the night, rest for the following day's journey up to Haba Mountain as we were warned its going to be exhausting.
We were joined by Cik Mariah and together, the 5-men team set off in Bro Hamzah's van for HABA MOUNTAIN.
We did had some detour / stopovers along the way... We stopped at a bridge that cuts across the Yangtze River - that divides Lijiang and Shangri-la. We surveyed the appropriate WCs -water closets that we feel our team members are able to utilize it. Many we encountered either without doors or its doors are half the supposed height. We stopped by Tiger Leaping Gorge Town where we had lunch and it is also to be the place where the team are to get construction and household supplies. We descended down the Tiger Leaping Gorge (one of our R&R destinations), to view the magnificant river that never stop eroding the gorge to deeper height- slowly but God's Will, surely. The road was extremely winding. As our small but sturdy van drive past through the meandering road, not forgetting steep, Salman counted the number of times we had to drive on untarred road, conducted his risk assessment for possibilities of rocks and boulders to roll pass or worst, over us.
We 1st met Brother Ali @ Kunming airport on our 2nd transit. Bro Ali also joined the team in our June Expedition.Upon reaching Shangri-la, We vi
sited 1st of the two intended villages; Lan Jia Chun - the village unknowing to us at that point that it was where we would some day call 'home' . Salman n Hajjar were greeted by a tall handsome man carrying his pink cheeks daughter. He was soft spoken however his smiles spoke a thousand words. We were clueless as to who he is. But with God's Grace, our path crossed once again during our June expedition.
After the ground assessment at Lan Jia Chun, we took off to another village -Long wan Bian village, 30mins van ride. After much consideration and identification of needs on the 2 villages, with God's Grace, Lan Jia Chun is where TeamSkybreaker! would have an experience of their lifetime.
