i'm ready to blog!! wahaaha.... .... ..... the first 2 days of my 10-day trip, hehe
cos i only managed to resize the photos for the first and second day. *sweats* I have 82 photos for this post, hehe..
Sorry that the resizing took really long! cos the file size of the photos from my dad's DSLR is super big, my laptop is taking ages to open/rotate/save them -_-
I don't wanna think about the rest of the photos.
Heng my leave will only end next monday, yay! Hopefully i have enough time this whole week to finish blogging
So here goes :)
2nd, 3rd Dec 2011, Singapore-Shanghai-Harbin
Our flight to Shanghai is at 12.05AM, it's a night flight and would reach China in the morning :(
I hate night flights cos i have to think about the lack of sleep, my contact lens, make up etc.. and starting a brand new day WITHOUT any sleep the night before. Not looking forward to it.
Brother and sis-in-law came over to send my parents and i to the airport around 9.30pm. Jayen came by to my place at 9pm and gave me a really BIG bear hug. Gonna miss him real badly. He gave me an AngryBird keychain as a 'farewell gift' -_- LOL
We reached the airport around 10pm, checked in and met the people in our tour group. Eleven of us. There were three families of 3, and 2 single ladies in our group They were really nice people, haha.. Got one joker uncle in the group that made travelling really fun. I laughed so much throughout the trip.
Dad, mom and my mom's friend who came together with us :)
Changi Airport. The theme is Angry Birds -__-!
There was this really innovative machine there that takes your photo! Something like NeoPrint and after taking the shot, you can send the photo to your own email!
I sent my photo to Jayen's email, so that he can look at it when he misses me during the 10 days i ain't around, hahaa
And he received it! :D
hehe
Supper on the plane (Eastern China Airlines)
Food was really, really tasty!
But the seats were really, really cramp :(
Worse than Budget airlines cos our seats were at the second last row of the aircraft.. didn't have much space to stretch my legs.
I removed my contact lens and skipped foundation that night, cos overnight with make-up is not a very good idea.
Plus, i think a travel neck pillow is very important. You know those cushion semi-circle ones? cos i keep waking up everytime i dozed off :(
Reached Shanghai PuDong International Airport at 5.05am. Shanghai temperature was
-4°C. Didn't feel the chill since we were indoors.
Some China brand store
Boarded Shanghai Airlines to transfer to Harbin...
Breakfast :)
Some Shanghai snacks like dried beef and VERY sweet red dates... which we don't get to eat here
The air stewardess were rude! omg -_-
But since they look like 还珠格格, i shall forgive them
Landed in Harbin around 11.05am.
Uber excited!!!! The temperature was -8
°C.
We went to the toilet to change into warmer winter wear.
FYI, i wore a t-shirt, woollen long johns (impt!!!), Uniqlo's Heat Tech, an outer jacket plus my pink colour Down overcoat.
Bottom= stocking, woollen long johns, woollen tights and my furry boots from H&M.
The China women really never close the toilet doors one lor!!! -_-
In SG, if i happen to push open a toilet door, the lady inside sure swear and scream her lungs out. Here in China, the women dont even bother, can still say, "大家都是女人 mah!"
FAINTSReady to go!!! Mom and i.
me and daddy :)
Met our tour guide and he brought us out of the airport to our coach. IT WAS FREEZING OUTSIDE OMG! And was snowing a little.
I didn't wear my gloves and i swear when i reached the coach, my fingers were red and frozen i thought they were gonna drop off! My ears were hurting like mad!!!! Just 2 minutes of walking across the carpark to the bus -_-
The tour guide somewhat reminds me of Jayen, wahahha... cos of his built and his mouth. Look like my ahdear :) ...... or maybe i'm starting to miss Jayen already, lol
On the way,
First stop, lunch
Had a taste of Harbin's beer. It was nice :) In Harbin, the people don't drink Chinese tea, instead they drink beer.
Second stop, a wooden Cathedral in Central Square, St.Nicholas Cathedral.
This was my favourite tourist attraction throughout the entire trip cos the scenery was lovely!!!! I super super love the snow!!! cos hor, after the first day, no more snow to see :( my impression of Harbin should be covered in thick snow, but it wasn't!!
Seeee??? It's sooooo beautiful! Like a painting! I cant help but gush at how beautiful the place is!
Walking to St.Nicholas
The inside of the cathedral.
This is actually just a replica of the original church, cos the latter had already been destroyed in 1966 during the Cultural Revolution.
Won't go into the details of it.. cos i didn't really pay attention to what the guide was saying. I was only interested in the snow OUTSIDE! :D
The lake is frozen
The bridge was covered in snow :)
My favourite place is this bridge liao, haha
nose is red from the cold.
Mom and Daddy
Mommy and me
Then it started snowing again i had to wear a hat, cos the snow wet my hair.
Can't really capture the falling snow in the photos, unless i use flash wahaha
Some of the lovely photos my dad took :)
Went to a souvenir shop..
As Harbin is very close to Russia, the Russians there can speak fluent mandarin! The souvenirs are from Russia too.. Like the wooden Russian Nesting Dolls that contain smaller dolls inside them! :)
We didn't buy anything from the shop cos the shop is more like an exhibition/museum.. When the tourists come in, the staff there just remove a cloth that was covering the displays -_-
Many of the people in our tour group preferred to stay warm indoors from the chill, but i preferred to head outside to experience what i couldn't experience back here in SG.
Took loads of photos!
:)
Very soon, it was sundown
The sun sets at 4.30pm during winter...
So we had our dinner at a Korean restaurant. The food was YUMMY!!!
After dinner, the tour guide brought us to a store that sells Winter clothing. Tok Tok Tok Qiang!!!
The salesgirls there SUPER PRESSURE SELL ONE LOR!
-_____-!!!
They acted very shocked that we were wearing clothes that are not fit for winter when in actual fact, our clothes were alright lor -_-
And in their super high-pitched voices, they shrieked, "How can wear this kind of shoes?!! In winter your leather shoes will crack and you will slip in the slippery snow! Your ankles are not protected from the chill! You must wear this kind high ankle one! Your soles are not thick enough! Your pants are not suitable, your thighs will freeze! blah blah blah blahhhh...."
and so the ignorant aunties bought shoes that were overcharged.
i really take my hat off the salesgirls! They can find every single thing to say about our shoes and clothes -_-
Like my boots for example, there is fur inside them and they serve me damn well in cold weather ( i can confidently say that cos when everyone else is complaining about their toes freezing, mine don't. So the boots are really good in keeping my feet warm)
The salesgirls can still come and find fault, "No, your boots are not waterproof! When the snow falls on them, it will wet them and freeze your toes."
I just ignored them.
I only bought tights with wool inside, hahaa.. cos i really needed them. I had only a pair of leggings that was fast loosing its elasticity then. Yes, i was overcharged too. Cost about SGD32 for a pair of tights. (fyi, any china stuff that cost more than 10 bucks is over-priced)
The salesgirl told me that if i'm wearing woollen long johns inside, wearing another layer of tights on the outside would suffice.
However, a second salesgirl came over and told me another story. She said it's not enough, ask me to buy yet another pair of 'better quality' tights which cost 44 SGD! -_-
Siao, I straight away told her that they 讲话都不准的.
It's so obvious they wan to TOK us really badly. Cos the same piece of clothing, afterwhich we found out, cost 10 times less somewhere else!!!
Really is kena tok-ed until cannot tok lor!
Once bitten twice shy.
The other stores our tour guide subsequently brought us to during the rest of the trip, WE BOUGHT NOTHING FROM THEM, wahahaha
Headed back to the hotel.
The hotel has a cute name -- Fruit Holiday Hotel.
haha
i brought the little bear Jayen bought for me along with me for the trip. He says it can protect me.
but it's so small, haha.. i think i protect it better.
Our group went out together to the streets near our hotel after checking into our rooms.
We spotted a limousine parked by the roadside.
It was freezing cold at -14°C and everywhere was closed for the day. We wanted to find some night market like pasar malam, but the locals told us, "So cold! Everybody also go home already la!"
:(
Anyway, it was good also cos finally, all of us could have a good night's rest :)
Day 3 tomorrow, hopefully... provided i can finish resizing all the photos.
Goody night!
i will go ahead and blog the next 2 days of the trip.. or else it's gonna drag very, very long :p
5th Dec 2011, Qiqihar-Harbin
From the 4th day onwards, we woke up very early around 6AM every morning
Did my hair the same the night before, but this time round, i only tied the back part of my hair into a bun. The fringe and sides still remain the same, cos curls at the side of my face make me look auntie, haha
i'll do this every morning, hehe.. taking a shot of my attire for the day. I'm wearing a fleece jacket from Uniqlo. Anyway, it will always look the same with my pink overcoat and black tights :) However, they are not normal leggings. There is wool inside them to keep my legs warm.
Breakfast at Qiqihar's hotel
We are taking the train back to Harbin in the late afternoon. For the first half of the day, we're gonna visit Zhalong Wetland to see Qiqihar's famous Red-crowned cranes.
This whole trip is actually called "Refreshing Dongbei".. i think "refreshing" also means "boring and actually nothing to see", keke..
Really lor, but i'm happy cos the trip was relaxed. Just imagine, travelling 5 hours via train to and fro Harbin and Qiqihar just to see birds.
Erm. okay
On the bus...
i look so fatty face, lol
The temperature outside is -16
°C. Ear muffs are a must in winter, cos without protection, your ears might get frozen and chip off like keropok! hahaa
The guide actually brought us first to Longsha Park to see tigers in cages.
Thankfully, the scenery was very beautiful ;)
Nobody one
This is my favourite photo of the day!
Some random temple we didn't visit.
There, this was the tiger i was talking about...
Is called Northeast tiger (东北虎).. Got difference from the tigers we see in our zoo meh?
It was just walking back and forth. I think they trained it to catwalk.
Anyway, there was only ONE tiger -_-
We adjourned to Zhalong Wetland (Reserve) after that.
The coach brought us to this seemingly wasteland that was huge! It stopped right in the middle of the reserve and we are supposed to walk 15 minutes to a destination we couldn't even see..
excuse me, where are we walking to?
The wind was strong and chilly... Want to die just walking in, haha ( p.s. i look damn fat)
:)
Reached a hut-looking toilet that was so smelly.
i was trying to capture the lens flare :)
Super pretty right? hehe
The stream was frozen
Continued walking.....
Dad.. looking very 'national geographic' hehe
Parents
Took a family photo plus mom's friend
The other family
The girl i made friends with.. She's so young and cute, haha
Love this photo of her! She's so into photography she reminds me of cousin Kaya :)
So.... these were the cranes that we came all the way to see
丹顶鹤 (Red-crowned cranes)
They look quite elegant when they take flight..
Looks like a chinese painting right? hehe so beautiful
Some random pics..
Now we've seen the birds, it's time to walk back
Had lunch at a restaurant where we're supposed to be treated like gods
-_- heh
Headed to the train station after lunch..
Hopefully the train wouldn't be as packed on a Monday afternoon
but we were soooooo wrong.....
more shoving and pushing :(
Finally the near torturous train ride was over after 2.5 hours.
Reached Harbin and we were rewarded with the sumptuous long-awaited dinner -- RUSSIAN CUISINE! SLURP!
The whole restaurant was very prettily decorated in Russian theme, with oil paintings on the walls.
There were private dining rooms like this..
and this was the room for us!
Fantastic i would say! :)
Though the food wasn't as great as we expected it to be, the ambience was 5-star!
Our guide introducing the drinks to us..
We were also given a bottle of classic Russian style Vodka-- AK-47
Most of us were taking photos, lol
Our dishes
Looks good right? haha.. but taste so-so only :p
Group pic
yay!
Went back to the hotel we stayed during the first night in Harbin. And time to blog about the fifth day liao! :)
6th Dec 2011, Harbin-Jilin
I'm excited today, cos we're going to visit Harbin Polarland and also the Art Centre to look at ice-sculptures!
Attire for the day..
First stop was actually a souvenir shop the tour guide brought us to be 'toked'..
We bought a Russian Nesting Doll (Dad wanted to give to his student), some chocolates for my colleagues and 2 make-up mirrors.
Initially, we didn't want to buy any stuff cos we knew they were over-priced. But the chocolates there are Russian-brand ones. We couldn't find them in their supermarts, so had to buy from here.
They were selling purple gold too...
Only managed to take 2 photos cos subsequently, the salesperson there stopped me from taking any more photos -_-
Harbin Polarland!
with a very hamsom guard standing there without moving.
Inside
... seed the animal???
Fyi, english errors like this are prevalent.. Almost everywhere
We bought popcorn for the Sea lion show :)
me and new friend, Abigail :)
patiently waiting for the show to start....
Sea lions are so smart! They can clap with their flippers, hehe
and balance a ball on their noses
:)
erm..
Saw cute penguins! Happy feet
Poisonous Puffer fish
Look at its eyes!! Seems like there's blue light emitting from it! Amazing!
Cute Arctic fox
and its babies!!! sooooo fuzzy and cute!
awwwww...
Polar bears standing more than 2 metres tall
and white whales..
2 divers put up a show together with the 2 white whales, it's supposed to be a beautiful love story between the humans and the whales.
However, seeing humans and whales kissing is so seriously weird.
Bidding goodbye to the audience..
This is cute! Seems like the white whale is laughing, LOL
After that, we went to the souvenir shop
i bought a stuffed penguin for my tuition kid.
I should have bought more soft toys as gifts lor, cos they're considered cheap!
Usually SG and HK's stuffed toys cost around 10-20+ bucks in our zoos /theme parks, but over here, they cost around $4 to 10+.
After almost 2 hours in Polarland, we left and went to Sun Island Park
Songhua River... frozen too
Took the shuttle to the Art Centre to visit the Indoor Ice-Sculptures museum
Harbin is well-known for its ice-sculptures. However, the weather is not yet cold enough (should be around -40
°C) to be able to see outdoor ice-sculptures. That's why we could only visit the indoor museum :_(
On second thought, i think it's a blessing too. Cos -20
°C we already cannot tahan.
. imagine -40
°C, i think i rather die.
An ice bar-table!
i expected the ice-sculptures to be more exquisite one. Didn't imagine it to be so coarse.
Still, they are beautiful :)
we were warned not to touch the ice with our bare fingers or lick it, cos we might just get stuck. lol
Nice :)
Ice sculptures from different countries were displayed for the Ice-carving competition.
From Mongolia, "Advance Courageously"
From Thailand, "Peace Prayer Buddha"
look like singapore flyer, but no. It's "City" by England. i figured that should be London Eye, hehe
"Geo Flame" by USA
China's "Fencing"
"Eclipse" by Khabarovsk Russia
Lastly, "Female Knight" by Japan
More photos
:) like like like!
I'm sitting on a chair made of ice, hehe
There was also an ice-slide for you to slide down on a rubber tyre...
My folks urged me to try, but i didn't want. Yes, i admit i was apprehensive about sliding down.
Soon, it was lunch time! haha
As the restaurant's name suggest, we're having dumplings!
i hate dumplings
me? not a fan.
After lunch, we left Harbin on a 4 hours' coach ride to another province, Jilin.
On our way, a sight that blew our minds!
Look at those cuts in the frozen lake?
The locals are cutting ice blocks from the lake to carve sculptures out from them (in time for the outdoor ice-sculpturing during end-Dec-Jan)! Amazing!!
Too bad we aren't going to see the end product of these ice blocks :(
It was already night-time when we reached our hotel.
All the entrances of hotels and most restaurants have revolving doors like this! This is perhaps to keep the cold air out
The rooms were very spacious :)
Their bathrooms also provided huge bottles of LUX bath foam and shampoos! (so generous!! :D)
but must pay attention to your feet... -_-!
Our group headed out to the streets again after we checked in the hotel
Stalls selling BBQ-ed pigeons
Dog meat?!?!
Went groceries shopping at a small mini-mart near our hotel
yeap, that's about all for Days 4 and 5, hehe
Time to resize photos for Days 6 onwards! *sweats*
7th Dec 2011, Jilin,长春
The weather was getter colder day by day.
Preparing to set off around 6.30AM. This is the thing with guided tours. We have to wake up very early every morning. My folks tend to wake up an hour before the morning call.
This morning when we went up the bus, this was what we saw on the bus windows...
In SG, we would see condensation. Over here, the condensation isn't water droplets... looks more like snow. It's called 霜 (shuang1) in chinese. Cute right? :)
Today, we were going to visit The Puppet Manchurian Palace of The Last Emperor, Puyi.
During World War II,
长春 was the capital of Japanese-controlled Manchuria and it houses the site of the Imperial Palace of the Manchu State, once a home for Puyi.
Ticket for entry
I'm not very sure of its history, even after diligently reading the descriptions on all the walls / signs and listening to the explanation of the tour guide, i'm still very confused... guess politics is just not my cup of tea.
but i'm quite excited to see how the palace actually looks like :)
walking in...
The palace's surrounding is quite scenic.. looks like the scenes in period dramas. I can almost imagine myself in olden times, walking with poise along the corridors, hehe...
Aiyah, they should just rent out those period costumes for tourists to wear and take photos mah :)
But i doubt anyone would be interested to change into them in winter cos it's simply too cold!
Freezing as usual -_- nothing new.
Dad and mom :)
Reached the palace
It's very small, compared to Beijing's Forbidden City (
紫禁城).I won't bore you with the historical details cos i myself can't even figure it out. lol... and it will demand too much of my brain juice.. so even though i'm blogging about historical stuff, i will only write the things in that palace that interest me, lol
sorry i know it's so bimbotic, heh
Remember this cute fella?
This is a wax figure of The Last Emperor, Puyi, when he was enthroned at a tender age of 3.
Kids, wives, home affairs interest me. War, abdication, politics... i switch off.
Thus, i only took photos of Puyi and his 5 wives, their bedrooms etc.
Wanrong was a very beautiful and talented lady. I think Puyi was infertile cos they never consummated their marriage. So Wanrong had an affair with one of her guards and became pregnant.
End up, Puyi punished her by confining her to her rooms. She got addicted to opium and died from malnutrition and the withdrawal effects of opium.
(A digression: i just checked out Wanrong got
facebook lor! -_- LOL)
Empress Wanrong's bedroom
Wax figure of Wanrong smoking opium.
The second wife of Puyi was often ridiculed because of her looks. Eventually, she divorced Puyi. She was known to be the bravest because she was the first woman who dared file a divorce with an emperor.
The love of Puyi's life - Tan Yuling. She was only 22 years old when she died from typhoid fever.
Nothing much was mentioned about the 4th and 5th wife.
I actually have many more photos from the palace to post up here but it's getting very boring and i keep getting distracted and going over to facebook, youtube etc... that's why this blog entry is taking so long to be completed. haha.. So can i skip all the boring stuff and go straight to lunch???? :))
Yes i will.
YUMMY :)
The best time to eat 旺旺雪饼 is in winter!
:)
Some more pretty photos!
all with me inside, hehe
This part of the Song Hua Jiang is not frozen over because it's very near some hydropower plant..
The sun is going to set soon.
My parents took a shot with a cathedral opposite this part of the river
I love this candid photo of them! hehe
After that, the coach took us to this place which we can't remember, cos.....
None of us was interested in that building structure, cos we were all playing in the snow! hahaa...
As you can see, there's no snow on the ground one. There were only small plots where they manually placed snow in (something like sandbox).
We girls started playing first...
and then, the older adults also joined us! haha! damn funny
All of them play until darn shiok lor!! wahaha
I think all too deprived of snow liao (cos we came to Harbin and expected alot of snow, but end up there wasn't much.)
Love this photo of the little boy in our group! He's so so cute!
I look like i'm in some very snowy place! lol ...when in actual fact, i'm only playing in the "snow-box" haha
Played with a local's pet dog (food) on the way back.
Soon, it was time to visit Sika Deer Farm before it gets too dark!
such beautiful animals!
Spotted deer 梅花鹿...
Fallow deers...
i swear i saw BAMBI
♥ !!!
This should be a fox ba?
and what's this?
Mink?
After the farm visit, we adjourned to the souvenir shop selling deer and mink fur products.
i bought cute mink fur keychains cos they are so cute and soft!
Now i've bought them home, i'm starting to regret. Demand for fur products would eventually lead to more killing of these poor animals. ohhh no... should have just left them back there :_(
Beautiful photo of sunset :)
Headed back to the hotel after dinner..
Saw Jay Chou on a TV advertisement! hehe.. This is for you, kaya! :)
I've only blogged 6 days of the trip, omg.. :( i promise i'll skip all the boring stuff (politics) in the rest of the entries.
and i've gone back to work today :( Abit not used to it after such a long break, sigh... and I'm feeling sooooo sleepy from the cooling weather ;) Bed bed here i come! :)
8th Dec 2011, Jilin- ShenYang, 沈阳
We're heading to ShenYang today.
The temperature is -20
°C, it's crazy. The news on TV was reporting on the weather, saying it was the coldest day in ShenYang since the onset of winter.
Ready and waiting outside my mom's room for them to come out.
Dad's panoramic shot of the lake outside our hotel
Breakfast
i usually do not take a heavy breakfast, cos my appetite in the morning is not very big.
So happy to have some cereal finally! :) Just that, i'm abit wary of the milk. I hope it's not Sanlu brand.
On the way,
Awesome photo taken by dad.
Actually all the photos coming up were taken by my father, lol (i'm too lazy, just sleep on the coach only)
:D
Looks like a scene in a snow globe :))
Dad giving Abigail some useful photography tips :)
Finally reached ShenYang, look at the jam!
Got down for lunch and the ladies started buying grains again. Nuts, grains, dried red dates... their favourite! haha... They can't stop buying them!
Walked over to ShenYang Imperial Palace...
It was so, so, so cold we started frantically buying gloves, ear muffs, hats etc...
The lady of this push cart was overjoyed, cos when one person buys, EVERYBODY in the tour group buys too!
She got a sudden windfall today :D We bought like 10 pairs of gloves, 5 ear muffs from her.
Brrrrrr...... I totally regretted not wearing my woollen hat. Think my brain freeze liao lor.
Guess who i was snapping at?
Garfield! hehe
huh????? lost in translation
Some photos taken in the palace.. of beds and a baby's cradle
Okay enough of photos in the palace! hahaa
Boring
Daddy
This is food, confirmed!
Its owner said he's going to eat it :_( Poor doggie!! It's so cute and its fur is so pretty!
Nuts and seeds again! There were hazelnuts this time round!
The tour guide was cracking the shells with his fingers and popping them into his mouth. I took one nut, removed my gloves and tried to crack open the shell BUT MY FINGERS WERE FROZEN. i couldn't move them much :(
All of us wanted to die of cold liao, so quickly got back to the bus. How cold was it?
Look at my frozen face, lol
very x100000 cold!!!!!! :(
Reached our hotel which was very grand!!!
Look at the lobby!
The room..
Their pillows were the best!!!! :D
I love the bathroom tooo! I prefer a shower room to a bathtub... cos, it feels more modern and not so ghostly! heh... i always tend to imagine what lies in the bathtub behind a shower curtain :(
watch too much horror movies again -_-"
Since our hotel is right smack in the city area, there are many mega malls around! SUPER SUPER EXCITED FOR SHOPPING!!!!
Shopped here! :)
The things in these kinda mega malls are costly! There are actually many local China brands which carry very stylish clothing!!! Super nice one lor their style!! Just that it's very expensive, like 100+ (SGD$) for their local brand. Initially, i wanted to buy a really nice shirt for Jayen, but to spend 100+ bucks on a China brand nobody hears of in SG... abit erm right? Somemore their brands are like use han yu pin yin one. Eg: Sun Wen.
To them, it's a super brand. Bring back to SG, pple think u buy from pasar malam one. Sad right.
It's a pity, cos the fashion there honestly, better than SG.
I ended up shopping at Watsons, cos they actually carry some stuff we don't see here in SG.
Eg,
My mom thinks i'm mad to buy tissue paper in China (imagine have to waste luggage space), but it's RILAKKUMA!!!!!!! how can i not buy??
The Lip & Cheek Balm is soooo cute, in the sweetest shade of pink! A brand of cosmetics we don't have in SG's Watsons. Super cute, i just want to buy back for my BFF.. But i come back liao, dunno who to give to. omg, *reality check* i don't have any BFF! :_( hahaa
Guess what we saw in the shopping mall?
PappaRoti is supposed to be from Malaysia right? However, the staff told us that their Singaporean boss came over to open a franchise in China.
See the Merlion on the TV? haha
A slideshow of photographs of Singapore were shown on the TV! It's so weird coming to China and seeing our own country's photos being displayed instead, lol (Feel so at home? heh)
The young boy preparing the roti. It was freshly made and oven-baked lor!! Can't be any fresher than that right? :) hehe, yupp it was delicious!
All of us ordered drinks and roti, chatted till it was time for the shopping mall to close for the day.
Next day liao!
9th Dec 2011, ShenYang, 沈阳
All of us woke up super early at 5am today! Cos we're planning to go out before breakfast!
:) We wanted to find some morning-market (早市)!
It was helluva' cold morning!
Walked a few streets before we finally got to find one 早市!!!
can you imagine how cold it was from the photos? wahaha..
We bought more gloves over here! keke.. i bought face masks too!
The winter gloves are so pretty right?? :))
We also bought.......pirated DVDS!! hehee
i know jayen sure love them so i bought 3 for him. One DVD got 8 movies inside lor! haha
I bought Stephen Chow & Andy Lau's movies.
Mom also bought a few, keke...
Soon, we all cannot tahan the cold weather liao. Our toes and fingers were freezing.
Tell u something u all sure won't believe lor.
i was wearing my Taiwan mask and as you know, the water vapour from my breath sort of moistened my mask a little. And in a while, the water on my mask froze into ice!! My mask became hard!
Just half an hour walking, i even have tiny ice forming on my fringe and eyelashes -____-! if u can see it here.
i didn't even realise until Abigail took a closer look and commented, "Aey! It's so cold u got ice formed on ur hair leh!" -_____-!
it was darn cold la! We wanted to hail a cab to go back to the hotel cos we felt sick just thinking about walking all the way back in this temperature.
I finally understood how the "Little Match girl" in my childhood storybook felt liao :( so ke lian!!!!
We couldn't get any cab.. so continued walking and finally, reached the hotel.
My frozen look again, haha.... i was 'thawing' in the hotel washroom.
After breakfast, when all of us got up the bus, we saw...
dad accidentally left a bottle of mineral water on the bus overnight, and the water inside has turned to ice! haha..
Our coach got us here..
9:18 Memorial Hall
:)
The Japanese tortured the civilians in Shen Yang during its occupation. Inside here, there were pictures of horrifying acts by the Japanese soldiers towards the people back then :(
This place looks like the iceberg at the "Titanic Exhibition" in Singapore ArtSci Museum! hehe...Details on that in a later entry! :)
Torture chamber :(
this is to torture people also :( They will put the person in this 'cage' with metal spikes poking inwards and roll them off the mountain slopes! Sadistic and inhuman! :(
Real skeleton dug out. It was believed these 2 persons were buried alive.
sigh, dont wan to blog this already. So cruel :((
Go on to happier stuff!!
SHOPPING!!!!!
As usual, the 'older folks' sat at Breadtalk (yes! there is breaktalk here :) while Abigail and i combed the stores in the shopping mall.
Nothing to buy in mega malls.
We walked and found a SHOPPING HAVEN!!!!!!! :D
tell u i was darn excited!!!!!!
cos we found a "Bugis street" here in China!
Everything was sooooo cheap!!!!! Majority of the stuff in Bugis street are like 10-20 bucks. Over here, most of the stuff are like 2-8 dollars!
BUY BUY BUY!!!!!!
Footwear also very cheap, but too bad mostly are winter boots and winter clothing.. Nothing that can be worn in hot Singapore.
But i managed to get these!
Furry cap for 6 bucks, 2 pairs of shorts / skorts for 5 bucks each, super good quality somemore!!!!
(fake) Agnes-B wallets for 2-6 bucks! My mom damn 强 at bargaining lor! She slashed prices from $103 to $60, wahahha
:) So so so happppy!!!! i should have bought more stuff lor, but my mom's eyes were like the hawk's, constantly watching me making sure i didn't waste money.
BUT HOR, OVER HERE WHERE GOT CHANCE TO WASTE MONEY?!!?! only back in SG then will waste money lor! everything in SG so expensive one. *sulks*
i should have bought more! Really!
Dinner was at a Chinese restaurant. Considered a grand one, cos got pple got wedding dinner here lor!
In SG, newly-wed couples will move from table to table and "YUM SENG!" Over here, the bride and groom goes to every guest and offer cigarettes lor! The bride helps to light the cigarette as a form of thanking the guest! Interesting!
After dinner, we went back to the hotel and i camwhored with my new cap, hehe
Yeap! tat's about all!
left last 2 days of the trip to blog liao :) YAY!
Finally!!
This would be the last entry of my Harbin adventures, haha
Phew..getting abit tired of it liao, haha.. plus i've got other stuff to update, but gonna finish blogging the trip first.
10th Dec 2011, ShenYang- ShangHai
i'm loving my fleece jacket! teehehee.. and my skin is obedient in China! Really lor, come back to SG only jialat until cannot jialat, SIGH :( having a bad outbreak, damn!
Today we are leaving ShengYang. Initially, it was supposed to be a 9-day trip, but the travel agency said there were not enough air tickets to fly back that day, so it changed to a 10-day trip, where we would stay in ShangHai for another night before flying back to Singapore.
One family, however, was taking a straight flight back to SG. So it was our 'last day' together as a group, so we took a farewell photo.
i'm posting this candid shot before the proper one (below), because the latter is blur! The tour guide don't know how to take photos one lor! All the photos taken by him all blur one -__-
see? :(
Finally we're leaving the freezing NorthEast to ShangHai. Yay! cos Shanghai wasn't as cold.. only 0
°C, very warm! :) hahaa
At ShengYang airport... checking in
Look at the number of luggage! Each of us had an additional hand baggage now.
Before we went into the gates, the men started hugging! -_-
saying good bye to our tour guide. He won't be going with us to ShangHai. He sang us a song, 祝福 by Jacky Cheung on our way to the airport. Awww.. he will be missed by all of us.
While waiting for our flight, we shopped, ate ice-cream (as if it's not cold enough!) and watched this 'Match-making variety show" on TV which is very popular with the locals. Too bad i don't have the title for the variety show, or else can go youtube and search.. cos it's quite entertaining! lol
Lunch on board the plane. Pasta!!! i love it! The food was really appetising! Even the chiffon cake was very nice and spongy.
Reached Shanghai at 3pm and checked in LiHao International Hotel at PuDong, Shanghai.
The hotel was new and looks grand!
Huge lobby.
But it's located at the outskirts.. so it's quite far from the main city.
(Think: Changi's Crowne Plaza hotel). Yes, new and grand....but nothing in its vicinity.
One of the best hotels we've stayed in
Very spacious indeed!
Bathroom damn nice :)
Love the shower room, lol
We decided that we had no time to lose cos it would be night time soon.. and we're flying back to SG early next morning.
Also, it doesn't make sense to travel for hours to the city area (think: Orchard), so we settled for somewhere nearer to our hotel (think: Parkway parade) but not so happening.
Took 2 taxis to 川沙街. Not bad, it looks like Bugis! wahaha...
There was this roadshow by China Unicom (should be their telco company), and giving away free gold!
The emcee on stage was throwing gold chains and rings to the people below the stage! Of cos, i was one of them!
See the gold chains around his left hand? He was throwing them down and the people below just grabbed whatever was thrown down.
He threw one over to me! wahahha
See the gold necklace in my hand? blurry photo taken by dad, but can see i was super super super happy!!!!!! :D The person claims it is 18K gold, but my folks told me is fake one lar.... If real gold where will throw for free one!?!
I was quite upset, cos he say is real gold mah.. if fake, can anyhow say real one meh?
And then my folks reminded me, that i'm in CHINA.
hmm :(
Anyway, we entered the shopping mall but as usual, mega malls' stuff are expensive. We didn't buy anything, but had a good dinner of various Shanghai dishes :)
This is my favourite!It's called 口水鸡 (Saliva Chicken?!)
Super nice!!!
This is 酸菜鱼, so-so niah
i love this! Sambal squid! plus my favourite capsicum too!
We still ordered a few more dishes and the total bill added up to 200 bucks (40SGD for 8 people). Considered cheap :) wahaha
After dinner, we left the shopping mall (cos nothing to buy inside) and headed to a street with many small shops (like Bugis street!), muahahaha..... i went mad again! haha
Don't play-play... here got Lady KaKa one lehh.... LOL
Went into this shop which sells everything for 29 RMB ($5+) each!
Mom and her friend bought a knitted top each. The clothes inside are quite auntie one, but i managed to find a dress that's pretty. That's bout it. ONE in the entire shop, lol.. Anyway, so cheap only. (Photos of my loot at the end of the post :)
Accessories at 1 dollar (RMB) each, so it's 20cents SGD for one! lol
Soon it was sun-down.
There was nothing much to buy here, the clothes are all winter wear. But I got yet another furry cap!!! I LOVE IT!!! (photos later :p)
LokLok we also don't dare to eat
Managed to find a nice knitted top right here! hehe.... It was slightly more ex.. 35 bucks ($7)..
I wanted to buy a pair of nice shoes for boyfriend, but they always don't carry his size :(
The shoes are so cheap. 7-8 SGD per pair lor!
sigh....
i ended up buying a electronic shaver for him, it's actually quite cool!
cos it's very slim and looks quite chic!
:) There were many designs to choose from, but THIS was the nicest among all already :)
:) Vertu lehhhhh! hahaa
Before we went back to the hotel, we satisfied our cravings of.....
KFC!!! muahaha.. we wanted to find out whether the KFC here tastes better than in SG.
Verdict= Same taste. We thought the chicken would be juicier here, but No. :( As dry as SG's.
I haven shopped enough!!!!! but the older folks were tired so we all headed back to hotel.
I took a photo of my buy-buys! :)
Knitted dress at 5+ bucks and sweater at 7 bucks :) Furry cap was 7 bucks too
Super Super love the cap!
It's made in Korea and the fur is soooooo soft! Can you see the cute hearts on the fur? Love the colour! Grey and pink is a my fave colour-combi! hehe
However, it's alil loose on me :( i think i will go sew it a little.
11th Dec 2011, ShangHai- Singapore
Took the morning shuttle-bus from the hotel to the Airport at 7.30am. Our flight back to our little island was at 10.05am.
Last minute shopping at ShangHai PuDong airport... bought cosmetics for my sis-in-law,
customised a seal with Jayen's chinese name :)
bought souvenirs for boss and colleagues,
Soon, it was time for us to board the flight! Can't wait lor!! haha... 10 days in China is enough, plus the weather was rather torturing!! My nose was bleeding from the dry and cold air, tooth is aching and knuckles were red from the cold too.
Very ke-lian lor!
Somemore, i have super alot of static electricity on me, i wonder why :( I kept having electric-shocks whenever i touch metal :(
I reckon if i stay on any longer, in no time i'm gonna 'electrocute' myself to death -_-
On board Eastern China Airlines,
Pasta again, yay!
And with my remaining monies (plus mom & dad also chipped in :D) hehe,
got boyfriend a decent gift from the Airline Duty-Free catalogue! :D
YAY
The watches inside there are quite limited. I think this looks the best liao, classic design, i like!
i hope he likes it too! Anyway, it's his Chirstmas present, i just gave it to him just now, wahaha
Merry Christmas to all of you, peeps!!
I've finally finished blogging my 10-day trip to Harbin, China! YAY!!! don't worry, no more China from now on! haha i'm getting sick of my china-posts! hahaa
;) love u all, thanks for reading! :p
