The near and far of Xishuangbana

Friday was my last day to walk around the Gardens and I realized that I had mostly taken “tight” telephoto pictures and that I hadn’t looked at the wonderful views around me so I  replaced the telephoto with the normal lens and off I went.

While walking in the shade garden, this man-made fog came rolling in…..

I was instantly reminded of Harry Potter in the maze during the Tri-Wizard Tournament!!   Fortunately I didn’t turn upside down when I walked into it!!

There are some low mountains around the garden and I loved this photo from early in the morning…….

…and this one from after dinner one evening….

They have done a wonderful job of building structures that fit into the garden atmosphere, including this walkway across one of the ponds…..

I remember this pathway from our previous visit and it was still exciting to walk thru….

The palm trees formed a wall along the path but you could look thru the trees to see the beauty beyond….

I hopped into a small museum and laughed when I saw the wall outside of the building.   The vine had obviously attached itself to the painted wall and then left it’s imprint….

Of course, I kept seeing things that I wanted to take closer photos so I decided to just run a test and start switching lenses whenever I want to.   The bottom line is that it only takes about 20 seconds to switch from the telephoto lens to the regular lens.

In the afternoon, I completely changed direction and went out with the close-up lenses and played for a while in the shade garden next to the hotel.  These lenses are some that came as part of the camera kit so are not wonderful quality and I found them hard to focus.  I got a couple of good photos…..

….but was honestly happier with the ones that I took using the telephoto!!

On Saturday, we were supposed to visit a couple of Dai (a local ethnic group) villages but it rained ALL day so we decided to just spend time working at the hotel.  On Sunday we returned to Kunming to prepare for our Dali trip….but you already know THAT story!!