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Nice to see the return of travel blog pieces on this site.

Moon and Chalice boutique hotel has turned into a must-visit "打卡" (punch-in time slot) destination for selfie taking tourists who come to Kunming in the past couple of years.

After years of closure due to covid, one of Dali's biggest san yue jie festival is officially back in full force, from May 4 and ending May 10. Highest local officials have attended the festivities.

For those travelling by train to Dali, the Dali station is under complete renovations. No. 8 bus (3 yuan) to old town is across the street.

Hai dong train station (aka North Station) will be built in five years and slated to be the biggest train station in Dali.

Like this railway, Beerlao lager is also a joint venture (Carlsberg Group with the Lao government) and one of the most prominent brands in Laos. A national treasure worth protecting ;)

The brewery company's 10% shrinkage during summer wet seasons may be attributed to the poor road conditions scattered throughout most of Laos. One of the infrastructural problems that needs to be addressed at the ministerial level.

The "three hours" bottlenecks for passengers in Moding is a wrinkle to be ironed out... granted the two extra shared vehicle trips (jacked up fares on the Lao side) between Boting, the border checkpoints, and Moding could now be bypassed.

The Lao government needs to stop turning a blind-eye to their custom officials, not to mention the consulate staff in Kunming, from threatening passengers and pocketing extra fees for themselves.

Good news. Starting next Wednesday on March 15, passengers can book tickets for the Laos-China Railway on their mobile devices (via the "LCR Ticket" app, available on Play store or Apple).

Currently, reserving train seats for the Laos' rail portion have been hectic as local scalpers have dominated the station queues, reselling train seats to Luang Prabang at double or triple rates.

www.thestar.com.my/[...]

To update, passenger high speed rail trains connecting from Kunming into Laos have begun since earlier this year... and runs further into Luang Namtha, Oudomxay, Luang Prabang (an UNESCO World Heritage-listed town), and Vientiane provinces.

A good post on places to visit along the way:

www.traveller.com.au/[...]

Recent talks with Thailand-Laos rail network cross-border connections from Vientiane:

www.bangkokpost.com/[...]

Although Omicron has already been ripping through Kunming, the word is that the fourth vaccine, in the aerosol form of inhalable or spray, may be rolling out in Yunnan for the general public at the end of the month or the next.

I hope prior to lunar new year, the more vulnerable elderly in rural outskirt villages, where health services are relatively dearth, will also have access to these updated vaccines when they congregate in town markets every five days during traditional "ganji" to sell their homegrown produce.