It’s me who hasn’t chatted with everyone alone for a few days, sister CASH.
Friends who know the runaway sisters know that in addition to being very good at playing and saving, we also have a brilliant reputation-all divers!
From the moment we got our OW diving certificate, we paid special attention to whether this destination, this scenic spot, and this hotel are "enough and environmentally friendly". "Be a responsible traveler" - we always ask ourselves this way, and we often advocate this way for our readers.
Due to the epidemic situation, I have not been able to dive frequently in the past two years (be confident! "Often" can be deleted). Like us, many pollen who travel without a word have gradually taken surrounding tours and "hotel in-depth tours" as a way to satisfy their greed. The way to quench thirst has also made "staying in a hotel" the norm - of course, even for daily travel, hotel accommodation is an indispensable and very important part.
Huahua stayed in a hotel that was closely integrated with nature
And as mentioned above, the more the passenger flow of hotel accommodation increases, the more we need to pay attention to the possible "energy consumption" of the hotel industry. Even if we stay in a hotel, as we strive to be responsible for the earth, we will also pay attention to its "environmental protection factor" - how many disposable items are there? Is there a lot of plastic? Is there a waste of water and electricity... It can be said that it is really strict! Because the genes of Guangzhou people tell us that only by cherishing "playing" can we "play for a long time".
I used to think that topics like "sustainable development" should be just a slogan, or generally only exist in relatively primitive South Pacific islands, until I checked into a hotel in Shangri-La (Diqing) by chance last month , I feel that my cognition has been subverted.
I am an idler who loves to browse travel-related product websites (formerly the airline’s official website, now a booking platform) even if I can’t travel. Recently, I fell in love with a sign called "Sustainable Travel" on Booking.com. The hotel is well marked and you are really really easy to find surprises.
So what exactly is the "Sustainable Travel" label?
At present, the "sustainable travel" project has covered a variety of accommodation types, including hotels, resorts, apartments, B&Bs, vacation homes, and even tree houses. All types of accommodation are eligible for the Sustainable Travel label if they adopt sustainable measures and meet local environmental standards.
Adhering to the mission of "traveling the world, easier", Booking.com is always committed to making sustainable travel an important and easy way to experience the world. At the same time, based on existing certification standards and measurement methods, different types of sustainable practices are subdivided. For example, we no longer provide disposable plastic toiletries, switch to LED lamps, and use 100% renewable energy, so that we can personally experience the "sustainable travel" mode during our stay.
When I found the Shangri-La Dala Wild Luxury Ranch Hotel, apart from the "Sustainable Travel" logo and the price that matched the hotel name, my first reaction was that I was attracted by the score as high as 9.7!
You should know that people who often travel abroad usually have a room with a score of 8.5 or above on Booking.com, and they can live with their eyes closed. If you score above 9, you may be able to get surprises from around the gate. As for the score of 9.7, I'm sorry, in my star-studded stay experience, I really count ten. Especially in the current domestic environment where boutique hotels or high-end homestays are easy to fall into high prices and low experience, the 9.7 points voted by travelers whetted my appetite.
Then I saw this photo:
this one:
And this one:
The picture quality is very good, and there are very few traces of ps, so does it mean that it is time for me to go out? So, Shangri-La, here I come.
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Shangri-La Dala Wild Luxury Ranch Hotel
Shangri-La is the capital of Diqing Prefecture in Yunnan Province. It used to be called Diqing City, but later poetically used the classical name Shangri-La. Shangri-La is adjacent to Lijiang in the south, Litang in the north, and Meili Snow Mountain. It can be said to be a natural treasure in Yunnan travel.
The ancient city of Dukezong (Dukezong means "castle built on stone" in Tibetan, also means "Moonlight City") is a thousand-year-old city that was destroyed by fire in 2014 and then restored. It is the best preserved in China. , the largest Tibetan population, and one of the reasons why countless people go to Shangri-La.
The road to the pasture in winter via Booking.com
Dala Wild Luxury Ranch Hotel is located in a private pasture about 20 kilometers away from the ancient city of Dukezong, overlooking the snow-capped mountains; the drive from the city is about 20 minutes, even if you don’t drive by yourself, it’s very convenient to book a hotel shuttle bus.
transportation
Because China Eastern Airlines adjusted the original direct flight from Guangzhou to Shangri-La (Diqing Shangri-La Airport), we temporarily diverted to China Southern Airlines Guangzhou to and from Lijiang when we set off, and then bought a bus ticket to and from Diqing Passenger Terminal at Lijiang Passenger Terminal . One-way 75 yuan, 2 hours by car, the whole journey is high-speed, still passing through the snow mountain canyon, crossing the suspension bridge in the fog, so beautiful that you don't feel the passage of time at all.
On the way back and forth, we also took the time to go shopping and eat in the ancient city of Lijiang. If you are not in a hurry for pollen, I really recommend this way. When the aviation situation recovers better in the future, direct flights from the Pearl River Delta to Shangri-La will be as convenient as usual.
The owners of Dala Wild Luxury Ranch Hotel are actually a very cheerful and interesting couple, Lao Liu & Sudan. After confirming the check-in, they took the initiative to contact me and asked about our flight information, arrival time, whether we need pick-up and dinner Messages like what to eat. As soon as we came out of the passenger station, we had already found the male host Lao Liu and his car.
Because during the time we arrived, Diqing Prefecture required all personnel entering Diqing to undergo a nucleic acid test. Lao Liu quickly took us to Diqing Prefecture Hospital, which is a few minutes' drive from the station, and it took 10 minutes to complete the nucleic acid test. , happily rushing to the 9.7-point "King Bo-level" hotel that I have been thinking about.
During our stay of 3 days and 2 nights, due to the slight impact of the capacity adjustment of the flight entering Shangri-La at that time, for two nights, only me and Rapeseed were the only guests in the 5 rooms of the ranch hotel! However, because each room is far apart, even if the room is full, you will hardly feel noisy. It's like you (and your roommate) are the only ones left in this world, and nature!
Because we arrived at night, we did not have an overall understanding of the environment of the ranch. When I woke up naturally the next day, the curtains were slowly opened, and this is the scene that greeted my eyes!
Such!
There are also such!
The photos do not deceive me!
Since I've been wondering how Booking.com's "sustainable travel" label actually plays out in hotels (occupational disease convict), I started digging into some details:
A series of small accessories that can enhance the experience of staying in the room are placed on the table at the entrance. In addition to the very green JBL Bluetooth speaker, the first thing that made me curious was this small tea pot:
Once opened, the fragrance of jasmine really sublimated the whole person! The excellent quality jasmine tea is different from the common high-end hotel tea bags. The matching tea set not only guarantees the taste of the brewed tea, but also minimizes the use of plastic and paper.
There are a total of 4 glass water bottles in the room. This kind of water bottle is very common in hotels in Thailand, but it is rarely seen in domestic hotels. It is said that the water is taken directly from the foot of the snow-capped mountains in the distance. The water quality is sweet and sweet, and you can contact the staff to replenish it at any time. The most important thing is to recycle it after disinfection!
The one-time loss of spare parts is one of the pollution pains in the hotel industry. However, in recent years, domestic hotels have also been in line with the carbon reduction trend in many European and American countries. Dala Ranch Hotel can hardly find a single-use item, even the trash can does not contain plastic bags, let alone toiletries:
There is a large bottle of horse oil shampoo from Japan, and the very interesting Liushen "Day Day Dianhong" shower gel. The Chinese tea series represented by the domestic product Liushen, the out-of-stock king "Dianhong", has an extremely high-grade smell, extremely delicate texture, easy to flush without straining, and the hotel's selection of products is very discerning. order!
Out of my love for glass water bottles, freshly picked fruit plates and jasmine tea, I woke up early in the morning and took food and drinks to my terrace in the cool morning mist, watching the yellowish pastures in late spring and drinking tea daze.
Measuring the luxury of a hotel is often not all about the price of hardware. I remember that a famous tourist in the tourism industry once commented on the current "wild luxury" trend in a chat: the best wild luxury should allow girls to still be "urban beauties" in a real natural environment . At that time, I thought it was a golden sentence, and I have been thinking about it until now. In the Dala Ranch Hotel, many details in the room really make me hope to continue to be an "urban beauty":
In the room with a high ceiling, the toilet and shower room are separated on both sides of the sink.
The original Dyson hair dryer directly made my lion head smooth and smooth, which led to my final cruelty and placed an order on the official website on the spot...
With a slight pull of the shutters of the sink, the beautiful view of the pasture can be seen.
In addition to the smart toilet in the bathroom, the seemingly indistinct cool breath of Jo Malone's rose aroma made me run in many times to smell it clearly.
Shangri-La is located on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau at an altitude of about 3,200 meters. There is an independent feeding machine in the room. I really feel that it is difficult to breathe and I can take a sip at any time!
Looking at the panorama of the ranch and the snow-capped mountains in the distance through the floor-to-ceiling windows as large as the room, brewing a pot of refreshing jasmine in the cold spring, while the electric heater next to it is hard at work, this situation is really worth recording.
As a hotel named "wildness", Shangri-La Dala Wild Luxury Ranch Hotel, in addition to the "luxury" indoor environment, the surrounding natural environment must and cannot insult the name of wild luxury.
It was the end of spring during the three days I was in a daze, and before I set off, I was worried that I would not see green grass or wild grass when I went to the pasture, how boring it was! Then who said that the grass is green to look good, beige in spring, emerald green in summer, golden in autumn and white in winter, corresponding to the changes of the four seasons, as long as the mind is calm, you will naturally find beauty.
When the ranch was first sold, Lao Liu, the owner of the hotel, felt that the ground was colorless except grass, so he took a handful of dandelion seeds and sprinkled it all over the ground. Since then, the flocks of sheep who come here to forage have a new vegetable food, and when I visited, there were small flowers blooming everywhere.
As a result, it was very popular——
Even the old girl who yelled how much she didn't like taking portraits on weekdays couldn't hold back.
The rapeseed made me spin and jump with my eyes closed.
And even if you are indoors, the broad view and warm texture will make you want to keep some photos, to be the playful or hypocritical or naive self that you usually don’t want to release.
The tea is really good tea.
The four seasons outside the window are natural curtains.
In the evening, the owner of the hotel will come and ask you if you want to help light the fireplace. fireplace? ! right! The fireplace is like me, the love for the fireplace is real, the night on the shore of the North Atlantic Ocean, the wind and rain outside the house, and the fire and wine inside the house. Now in the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, near Moonlight City, my wish has come true.
The fireplace is a purely handmade work by the owner, Lao Liu. It is elegant, strong and has a scientific structure. It is warm without overflowing with the smell of fireworks. The status of "urban beauty" can be regarded as preserved.
The two sisters drank and chatted by the fire.
Because Dala Ranch is a bit far from downtown Shangri-La after all, many travelers who vacation here will choose to "take food" directly at the hotel like us - the chef decides the menu, only eats in season, high-quality materials, and proper plateau collection Homemade dishes.
These two yurts are the hotel reception + restaurant + kitchen
Inside the restaurant there is also a kang stove that is common in Tibetan areas
Foodies who are worried about being unaccustomed to Tibetan or Yunnan cuisine can rest assured. The ranch hotel restaurant mainly serves stewed meat and home-cooked stir-fry. Even the "Lao Guang" rape flower lady who likes light food said it was delicious. .
Breakfast: Yak Meat Handmade Noodles
For lunch this day, because we got up late, the hostess of the hotel, Sudan, directly asked if we would like to have a ranch picnic after one o'clock in the afternoon? ——Can’t agree more! (That’s great too!) I set up a tent, and a friend who happened to live in the urban area came to visit. He brought the most famous cold vermicelli in the ancient city and scones sent by a friend in Dali. He really wanted to eat it!
The freshly picked local cherry tomatoes are the freshest, juicy and sweetest cherry tomatoes I have ever eaten in my life! Simple ham sandwiches, and tea made from organic big roses that locals can buy, can I say that this scene is too good?
I recalled the scene of decorating the dinner table with the hostess of the manor in the rose manor on the South Island of New Zealand in 2017. The delicacy at that time and the natural and unrestrained nature at the moment are actually the most precious state of travel.
Dinner is a great opportunity to enjoy the chef's craftsmanship. The chef is a lovely Tibetan aunt from a nearby village, and she is good at stewing dishes. On the first night when we arrived, we cooked a pot of rich yak hot pot, and carefully selected beef tendon to make chili fried beef tendon. Drinking two bottles of Shangri-La's local craft wine, I slept very well that night, and the "high anti-suffocation awakening" did not exist at all!
At dinner on the second day, in order to celebrate the upgrade of the girl doll "Sixi" among the two golden retrievers on the ranch, a friend of the owner of the hotel also came from the city to see the baby. The chef cooked another table of delicious dishes. In the pattering spring rain and the warmth of the kang stove, we ate from 6 o'clock in the evening to 10 o'clock in the evening.
Rustic and delicious highland meal
Seasonal Toon Fried Eggs
Shangri-La's best local wines
Here I need to share the hotel construction process I heard from the owner of the hotel, Lao Liu:
The couple who originally opened an inn in the ancient city of Dukezong were born one after another with three babies. They hope to give the babies a larger interactive space and a living environment closer to nature, so they found the ranch by chance. The name "Dara Ranch" was actually chosen by the couple themselves!
Later, according to the image of their "Dream House", they experienced hundreds of days and nights with the workers, and built the five houses by hand bit by bit, and redesigned the interior again and again. After one optimization, the hotel was finally repaired in 2020 and opened to welcome guests.
Lao Liu, Lao A and Sixi
Along with the guests, there is also a new family member: "Old A", a stray golden retriever dog. The young couple left the old A, who was well-fed and strong, and married a daughter-in-law "Sixi".
Almost all travelers who come to Dara Ranch have gone for a walk by the river with the "little couple". After leaving the hotel gate, walk through the low thorn bushes on the plateau, and walk for 5 minutes to the side of the naturally formed snow mountain river, watching the glacier water flowing slowly, and watching the lively dogs slamming in the river and then Can't find the way to go ashore, laughing and laughing.
Follow Lao Liu and Lao A to take a walk by the river
Happy old A
On the road, I met a black pig mother raised by a nearby farmer and her baby was looking for food in the wild
Overlooking the distance, you can also see the flock of sheep grazing freely
But I was luckier than other visitors on this trip in late spring, because I met old A's daughter-in-law Sixi's delivery day! Lao Liu and Sudan watched Sixi go into labor and prepared chicken and crucian carp soup. In the afternoon, I was drinking tea and listening to music with rapeseed flowers in my room, when suddenly I heard Sudan say: The first one came out! The couple in charge of delivery kept announcing the good news: two, three...a total of five!
baby day 1
Seeing Sudan, who is Xi's grandmother, crying and laughing for a while, and going in to see Sixi, who is a little weak but content to breastfeed, and looking at the little milk dog who has not yet opened his eyes, I did not live up to my expectations and secretly wiped my tears—— —Life is amazing! It is this continuation of life that is the kindling of this natural endless life. And how lucky I am to witness this small and great time.
Because of the temporary work arrangement, I had to end the journey back to Guangzhou early. The beauty of Shangri-La is really too much to be explored in the future.
It was drizzling in the morning when we left, and Lao Liu and Sudan drove us to the city center before sending us to the passenger terminal, where we checked in the "Quanfang Butter Tea", which was rated the first in the hearts of the locals.
In Shangri-La, a typical Tibetan settlement, butter tea is indeed a must-try. In fact, when I was traveling in Tibet, the high-calorie butter tea was my life-saving means at high altitude. Many friends said that they could not accept the heavy taste of ghee, and they thought it was just right in the plateau.
One of the signatures of Qunfang is yogurt. After all, this is a plateau pastoral area where "the wind blows the grass and sees the cattle and sheep". After the fresh milk has been fermented and precipitated, the butter is put into the pan, and the yogurt dregs are fried in a casserole until the bottom is crispy, the inside is soft and chewy, and it is eaten with white sugar. It is amazing, fragrant and delicious up! Foodies from Guangzhou are amazed!
And the yogurt water of fermented yogurt is not wasted, it is directly used to make dough to make soft big white flour steamed buns! For breakfast, Shangri-La people will also fry a plate of soy sauce, garlic, and chili peppers to eat with steamed buns, refreshing and appetizing.
Sudan also specially recommended the must-eat "hand-kneaded highland barley noodles" in Tibet. The dry highland barley powder is kneaded into pieces by adding some water. The crunchy taste is a bit like British whole-wheat digestive biscuits! Sudan emphasized that it must be kneaded into lumps to be called authentic!
This trip can be regarded as a glimpse of Shangri-La, Top 1 of Booking.com's "Top 10 Hospitality Destinations in China", but it is also an in-depth travel in this 9.7-point "Sustainable Travel" marked hotel - deep viewing of scenery, deep relaxation, deep communication Friends, in-depth eating and drinking, and in-depth witnessing of the birth of new life. Since then, I have a reason to visit Shangri-La again, and I am also a little nostalgic and miss: After all, I want to see how strong and strong the puppies grow up!
I still want to thank Booking.com for letting me hang out when I was bored, and awakened my heart that insisted on being a responsible traveler who was dusted by mundane things.
Only by loving the earth with actions can we truly "play for a long time", isn't it?