Shanghai in a nutshell.
Okay, not just Shanghai, but also Wuzhen, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Wuxi and Nanjing summed up in one blog entry. Just a word of warning to all, this is going to be one terribly loooooong entry because I am long winded. So I am going to split this entry up into various headings so that you can select which heading interests you the most. Good? Yay.
One thing for sure, I am glad to be back home. I enjoyed my trip tremendously, apart from a few small annoyances here and there. I’ve met quite a few mainland Chinese who were extremely friendly and hospitable, and managed to capture many great sights with my camera. A grand total of 327 photographs have been taken, but these would only be uploaded tomorrow when I am more awake. I am already typing this entry in a semi-conscious state. After completing this super long entry, I am expecting myself to become cross-eyed.
Okay, here goes. *Takes a deep breath*
Aeroplane Rides
One thing I never liked about the economy class seats is the fact that you get so little room. And for some reason, the passenger sitting in front of you would never fail to make your plane ride experience a miserable one by reclining their seats backwards and intrude into your space. As a result, you are also forced to recline your own seat to give yourself more space, disturbing the passenger behind you, and the chain reaction goes on and on.
Secondly, the turbulence. Today’s journey back home was an extremely bumpy one, to an extent that all passengers had to be stranded on their seats (flight attendants were also forced to cease operations) as the plane went bump bump bump as it flew through one storm cloud after another.
I felt as though I was on a roller coaster. Even now as I am sitting on still ground, I still feel as though I’m in the air.
Scenery
The scenery in China is nothing short of amazing. Their architecture is intricately designed, mostly in shades of brown, red, green or grey. The most common creature featured in their architectural designs is the dragon, whereas most designs are simply in abstract forms.
Needless to say, I was photo-happy each time we visited such scenic spots. My personal favourite tourist spots were the West Lake in Hangzhou, Ouyuan Garden in Suzhou and The Bund in Shanghai.
Especially Shanghai. The entire city would be brightened up by colourful lighting after 6pm every evening and that is when the city is at it’s best. The skyscrapers are brightly lit up, and the entire place looks so cheerful. Cruising down the Huangpu river that runs through the city yesterday evening was an especially wonderful experience.
Annoyances
On the top of that list is cigarette smoke being exhaled directly into your face. This happened to me countless times during the past eight days and I am happy that I finally have nice clean air to breathe. Don’t get me wrong, I have absolutely nothing against smokers, just the inconsiderate ones who simply insist on smoking in crowded places. Even so, the least thing they can do is to exhale their smoke away from other people, isn’t it?
The worst is that a large handful of people blatently refuse to heed the “No smoking” signs scattered among some air-conditioned places, therefore causing the stench to diffuse through the entire vicinity. Each time a group of smokers happen to sit at a table next to us in a restaurant, my younger cousin David would never fail to kick up a fuss.
Why? He is asthmatic. What if he has an attack right in the middle of that restaurant? Who is to blame? Huh? Huh?
Secondly, everyone knows that it is unhygienic to spit in public, but these people still do it anyway. As I stroll along the streets, I would never fail to hear the loud “gnrrr”-ing sound of phelgm being forced out and the “piak” sound as that offending lump of gooey substance lands on the floor.
So I warned everyone in my family to watch where they walk if they do not want to have germy shoes at the end of the day.
Shopping Paradise (And Shopping Techniques)
I shopped a lot, but my overall expenditure was still less than $120 Singapore currency. A grand total of 4 new T-shirts and 2 new bottoms went to my collection of apparel, and I must say that I am a satisfied shopper indeed.
China, I must say, is a fantastic place for shopping, especially when it comes to crafts and clothing. Especially clothing. I fell in love with most of the clothing sold in China, but too bad I’m on a budget.
One thing I realised is that these merchants love to mark their prices very high. For example, the cost price of a pearl necklace may be actually 50 yuan, but they would put the selling price at 500 yuan. Even in reputable government-owned stores, such cases are still evident especially in the less-developed cities like Wuxi.
That’s why we always play safe by bargaining. The above theory was proven when my aunt managed to pay only 4300 yuan for a pearl jewelrry set which was initially priced at 24000 yuan. That’s almost an 80% discount!
The bottom line is, you must have a flair and talent for bargaining if you would like to visit a country like China. Additionally, having an extremely loud voice would help. Most of these sellers love to yell at you if they think that you are asking for too much (which is seldom the case in actuality), so yelling back at them in an equally loud voice would prove to them that you aren’t easily intimidated.
Needless to say, I did a lot of yelling during the past few days.
*Takes a deep breath* I’M BAAAACK!
Okay, so you are wondering what’s the big deal. The truth is, there isn’t a big deal about me being back. I’m just so happy to be back home so I decided to do a bit of screaming. Ermm, or perhaps not, that scream was also filled with part frustration, because the trip was over so quickly.
Day one was mostly spent in the car, as we were driving up to Kuala Lumpur. Finally reached Mines Resort City - Palace of the golden horses hotel at around 6 in the evening, our second trip to that place within a year, and it hasn’t changed one bit. The later part of the day was spent shopping at the Mines Shopping Fair (Part of Mines Resort City), and messing around with my cousins and distant relatives in the hotel room until late at night.
As the second day came around, there was a debate as to where we wanted to go to. Some of us wanted to visit the Sunway Lagoon Theme Park, a handful wanted Genting Highlands, and the rest wanted Berjaya Times Square. We ended up going to Berjaya Times Square, a shopping centre in the central Kuala Lumpur boosting more than 8 floors, hundreds of shops, and an indoor theme park.
Again, there was another debate. Some wanted to have lunch, a handful wanted to hang out at the indoor theme park, whereas some others wanted to shop. We ended up splitting into three groups to do our own thing. I chose to be with the ’shopping’ group whereas most of my cousins ended up in the ‘theme park’ group.
My overall haul from the shopping trip? 5 new tops, a belt, and some hair accessories that cost me less than $80 (Singapore currency). What a bargain.
(Complete photo set is no longer available)
In the midst of these activities, most of the time was spent catching up with my distant relatives. The last time I’ve seen them was four months ago, so we had quite a lot to talk about. The best part? I was fortunate enough to be placed in the same hotel room with my two cousins Jeremiah and Matthias, and two distant cousins Joel and Jessica.
Or at least, ‘fortunate’ was my initial impression when I received the news. Why? Because Jessica moves a lot in her sleep, and it so happened that I was the one sleeping beside her. Within a short span of an hour, she changed her position four times, and I got kicked by her eight times. Finally, I decided that enough was enough so I grabbed a blanket and slept on the floor. I just didn’t have the heart to wake her up.
On the last day, or rather this morning, we spent some time in the hotel’s swimming pool. Jessica and I, however, were chased out of the pool because we weren’t in proper swimming attire. (Both of us were in shorts and a sleeveless T-shirt). So I simply spent most of the time lingering by the pool area and soaking up the sun’s rays while the rest of my cousins fooled around in the swimming pool.
I soooo badly wanted one of them to teach me how to swim.
Words cannot express how happy I am to have my feet touching Singapore ground again. The past five days in Malaysia had been pretty eventful. Although I am a wee bit disappointed that the trip has already ended, I am also partly happy because I can finally indulge in my much-deserved sleep, as I am badly sleep deprived judging from the size of my eye-bags.
Just a word of note, my extended family and I were not at all affected by the Tsunami Disaster that struck the coasts around the Indian Ocean and part of Malaysia last Sunday brought about by the 9.0 scale earthquake in Sumatra. Quite a few people were calling my relatives during our trip to make sure we were safe, and yes, we indeed were.
In fact, we didn’t even know that the earthquake happened until we reached Kuala Lumpur. It was absolutely impossible to feel the tremors as we were in a moving vehicle most of the time en route to our destination. We popped by the Petronas Twin Towers to book some tickets for a visit the next day, only to be informed that the Petronas Twin Towers were closed to public due to some technical faults caused by the earthquake.
Because all of us were completely unaware about the disaster that took place that morning, all of us were simply wondering “What earthquake?“
Though we were informed about the earthquake, we were still completely unaware about the extent of the situation until we reached our hotel. Upon switching on the television in the hotel room, we were met with the gruesome news coverages about the Tsunami Disaster, with people and their belongings being swallowed up by the sea. Absolutely terrifying, and for such a thing to happen on the day after Christmas, that was indeed a double blow.
The next few days on my trip saw me scurrying for the newspapers the first thing in the morning to read through the latest updates on the tsunami disaster. Hopefully all the missing people would be located eventually, safe and sound. But the countries affected are definitely going to have a hard time restoring their land to its original state.
Keisha told me that Genting Highlands was slightly affected by the earthquake as well, though not as much. So we continued on with our trip as initially planned. Overall, the trip was fantastic, apart from the fact that I fell mildly ill on the last day which I managed to control with some panadol. The weather was perfect for the first two days in Genting, but became quite cold for the last two days. Even while I am asleep in the middle of the night, I could hear the wind howling outside my window.
In the meantime, I shall head off to bed so that I can nurse that sore throat I am currently having. Seems like I had indulged intoo much ‘heaty’ foods during the past few days, and now I am paying the price.