Sometimes I wish I could learn to love and care more...

June 09, 2008

Just another story

darling and i went on a 11 days trip to hk and shanghai from the 11th may to 22nd may 2008.

upon arrival in hk for the first day, we went on a shopping trip to purchase darling's camera lens and we basically just walk around. no much pictures were taken as darling sold his lens before we went to hk (he was going to hk to buy a new lens. so he sold the old one away) and since we merely shopped, there wasnt much things worth taking photos. heehee.

on the 2nd day of our trip, darling and i embarked on a journey on board a train, bound for shanghai. the journey took us 20 hours. however, it was a pleasant journey because we had the entire cabin to ourselves. heehee. the beds were rather comfy. :) some pictures taken on board the train!

upon reaching shanghai, the first thing we did was to proceed with checking in to our hotel. we needed to bathe after 20 hours of not doing so!! haha.

we stayed in laurel hotel. highly recommended hotel because of the great location- it was rather near to the peoples' square (about 10 mins walk) and there is a MTR located just 3 mins walk away from the hotel. Besides, there are MANY eateries surrounding the hotel. most of them serve great food. darling and i highly recommend mian da wang. VERY good la mien at very very cheap prices! (that is if you know how to order from the chinese menu!!) and the hotel provides free wireless connection. [so bring ur laptop!! :)]

pictures of our room

the rest of day 1 in shanghai was spent shopping in nanjing dong lu and ended off with the visit to the much loved Bund! :D

the great navigator! :D

the busy road of shanghai

the "massive" overhead bridge. this is a VERY wide and long overhead bridge!

peoples' square. is actually a big park. and the weather when we were there was great! so overall, we enjoued our walk in the park. :)

a picture of the public toilet in shanghai. it's clean people. heehee.

raffles city in shanghai.

the fountain outside of shanghai museum.

we also visited the museum which is foc. however, the sad thing is- we didnt have the time to visit all the exhibition halls that day and when we wanted to return on the last day of our stay in shanghai, we were turned off by the number of people queuing!the first time we went, there was no queue at all and the weather was so much cooler. the weather of the last day, on the contrary, was NOT conducive and fit for one to queue! so sad! :(

some of the pictures taken in the museum. the moulds were used for the making of coins in the olden days. the last picture above shows the procedure of coin minting in the olden days.

the concert hall in shanghai.

the office of the CCP in shanghai.

the city planning museum of shanghai. unfortunately, it was closed on the first day we were there. so we didn't go.

breadtalk in shanghai! the bread tastes and costs the same as singapore.

pictures of nanjing dong lu. the famous shopping street. hmm, it is something like shopping in orchard road but with slightly cheaper prices.

the temperature of the first night! 18 degrees! it was bearable, until the wind blows! haha.

some night shots of nanjing dong lu by the time we are done with shopping and were on our way to the bund!!

the crowded bund!

some ang moh kindly agreed to help us take a shot. so here it is, one of our very rare shots together! haha. [darling bought his tripod after our trip!! :( ]

shots taken from the bund! the bund's such an awesome place!! i simply love the atmosphere (minus the countless hawkers who kept asking if we want photo taking service!), the magnificent view and the feeling of the sea breeze blowing in my face. i love it so much that i bugged darling to return to this place again. he finally agreed and we went back on the 3rd and last night in shanghai! heehee. ooh, the jackets were purchased in one of the shops. it was simply too cold that we cant take it! haha.

The 2nd day in shanghai, darling and i took a train down to Suzhou. there wasnt much things to see in suzhou other than gardens and pavilion. darling and i visited the most famous garden in suzhou- the humble administrator's garden. aka zhuo zheng yuan. we spent a good 5 hours walking in this BIG garden, visiting all the different pavilions and taking pictures! :D

the screw up ticket saleperson gave us seats that aren't together can! :(

Arrival at suzhou train station after a 30 mins ride.

the sales office for the ticket into the first stop in suzhou- zhuo zheng yuan

i think my head looks a little disformed in this pic! :s

i love this pic!! :D

we later visited the pavilion as shown in the background of this picture. they call this jie jing

darling playing a fool with the window grills on display in the museum.

After leaving Zhuo Zheng Yuan, we headed to the Shizhi Lin. A rather famous pagoda in Suzhou.

bird's eye view of the city from the top of the pagoda. all the roof of the houses looks alike right?

after a whole day of walking around, we left suzhou to go back to shanghai.we had steamboat in shanghai for the first night! :)

on the third day, we went to hangzhou. the journey was longer and once again, the screwed up chinese ticket office salesperson didnt give us joint seats! for all the 4 train rides we took out of and back to shanghai, only the last train ride back from hangzhou did we have the chance to sit TOGETHER!! but this time round, we were stuck with this old coupleee!!!
as darling and i didnt want to spend time thinking of where to go (cause we only planned to visit xi hu), we decided to join a tour and travel in comfort. haha. a little pricey as it cost 100 RMB per person for the tour but it brought us to places we wouldnt have known if we were to travel on our own. so it is a trade off la. heehee. :)

the train that we took to suzhou and hangzhou. they call this the dong che

this is the (entrance) to the infamous lei feng ta. legend has it that some superstitious and ignorant people often took bricks from the pagoda in the belief that the abrasive powder of the bricks was a magic remedy that could cure all diseases and keep a foetus from aborting. Others stole Buddhist scriptures from the pagoda in order to make money. Finally, in August 1924 the foot of the pagoda was dug hollow and other parts of the pagoda were so severely damaged that the ancient pagoda suddenly collapsed. In November, 2000, the Hangzhou Municipal People's Government declared that it was going to rebuild Lei Feng Pagoda. And the construction completed in October, 2002. heehee.

our very first stop in hangzhou- a temple (which i forgot the name! hahaha.) the BEST thing we got out of the temple would be the VERY CHEAP lunch! we paid only 4 RMB for 3 side dishes with rice and soup! haha. we were a little apprehensive about trying it initially, but after some recommendations from the tour guide, we decided to try it anyway. and we were glad we did! sheng, u should be there!! haha.

posing with the magnificent xi hu behind us. xi hu is seriously big la. really. we were glad we didnt attempt to go on the tour around hangzhou on our own, cause the things in xi hu were expensive la (the boat ride especially!!). haha. and we also didnt know how to walk and visit all the nice nice places. haha.

we went on board this boat to tour around the lake. the view was really really breath taking. pity darling didnt take much pictures as we were busy listening to the tour guide. apparently, xi hu's featured on the back of the Chinese one yuan note.
the last picture above is one of the three stone pagodas, first built over 800 years ago,2 meters in height. these stone pagodas are the main scenic spot known as "Three Pools Mirroring the Moon" within west lake. To the west of the isle stand three ball-shaped hollow stone pagodas with five round holes around. At the night of the Mid-Autumn festival, when the moon shines full and bright in the sky, a candle is lit inside each of the pagoda, the light and the moon cast their reflections through the holes on the water, hence the name.

west lake is one of the places where chinese couples loved to take their wedding pictures in. there were a total of 10-12 couples waiting in the pavilion for the photographer to be done with others! haha. damn funny right the above pic! haha. they were symmetrical before darling took this lor! hahaha.

after the ride around the lake, we walked around to take some pictures. heehee. i really really love the place- the scenery was awesome! :)

this was the last stop for hangzhou. called the yue lao miao is where people go to pray when they want to seek a life partner. :)
before the tour ended, the tour guide brought us to this tea farm for some tea drinking session.haha. we also visited a silk factory.

by the time we left hangzhou, it was already sun set time. :)
upon returning to shanghai, darling and i took the metro down to xintiandi. the night spot in shanghai.

xintiandi is basically just a stretch of road with restaurants and pubs lining the side. the drinks there were also damn expensive. so of course, we didnt buy anything there la. haha. we merely went there to take photos and then we proceed to walk back to hotel le. (see, our hotel is near to everywhere! hahaha.)

i just like to try taking this kinda photos.haha. i wanted to create the effect of the 'lone traveller'. haha. i particularly loved the last one above. haha. the 'effect' is there. heehee. like some foreigner, alone in a dark alley. aiya, i dont know how to describe the feeling la, haha. :D

along the way back to our hotel we passed by some shopping malls. time square is one of them. the way back to hotel was something like orchard road. heehee. the shops there are like zara kinda shops. haha. so of course, we didnt buy anything again. ;p

on the fourth day in shanghai, darling and i went to visit the tv oriental tower. we wanted to go take the sightseeing tunnel. but it was too expensive and so we really bu she de la. haha. so, being adventurous, we decided to walk from our hotel to the bund. it was a BIG mistake. as it may seem near, but it was actually very far. haha. we walked for a total of 45 mins! UNDER THE BLOODY HOT SUN. haha. (yes, the sun decided to come back on the 3rd day of our trip. hahaha.) along the way to the bund, we stopped at this bridge to take pictures.

the view from our hotel room. haha. can u see the tv tower? haha. darling say this is jie jing again. haha.

after deciding against taking the sightseeing tour, darling and i head on to yu yuan.

yu yuan is a beautiful place. of course touristy as well. haha. but i think the prices there arent that expensive la. heehee. we didnt pay to go into the garden. we walked around the bazaar area to take pictures and all.haha. we didnt want to go into the garden because we were quite broke la. haha.

then, we came across this famous xiao long bao shop. my sis's friend also told me about it. so of course, i didnt miss the chance. we queued and bought 12 pieces each. heehee. the queue was freaking LONG. we waited for a good 30 mins! hahaha.
after yu yuan, we went back to people's square to take the metro to xu jia hui, the shopping area.

we didnt really take much pictures. xujiahui was something like suntec and marina area. that wraps up our 4th day in shanghai.

on the morning of the 5th day, darling and i woke up extra early. it was our last day in shanghai before taking the 3.30 train back to hongkong. we had to grab all the time we could to do whatever we could. haha. initially, we planned to go out early as we wanted to visit the museum (as mentioned above in day 1). also, we had to bathe for the "last time" before 12pm, the time of check out. (we cant bathe in the train u see! hahaha)
the first stop: pearl oriental tower. of course, once again, we didnt have the money to go up the pearl oriental tower to have a birds eye view of the place. therefore, we went for the cheaper alternative- we went grand hyatt's lobby. haha. it's free. and we get (about) the same things la. haha.

to get to this road, darling and i risk our life lor! wa kao. cause of all the construction going on for olympic, we had to jaywalk like no body's business as the subway was closed! wa lao. and we had to walk ONE BIG ROUND just to get to the jin mao building (where grand hyatt was located in). argh.

Jin Mao Da Sha!

after the short visit to grand hyatt, we walked to the nearby pearl oriental tower. rather, the outside of it. haha. and this was the closest darling and i could get to the tower. but i am already happy. haha. :D
after the exciting visit to century road, we headed back to the side of the bund. then i recalled that i had to get the starbucks bear for alester. so, we went to this particular outlet, but there were no more stock! then we recalled that there was this particular outlet near xin tian di that has the remaining stock. we were at a dilemma as we didnt have much time left. darling, being very very nice, ran all the way to xintiandi to get the bear! hehe. (aww, alester, feel bad!! hahaha.) after getting the bear, we were broke! haha. we had only like just enough to buy our lunch! haha. we had to sign for it. haha.
after checking out of the hotel, we wanted to go to the museum (as that is the place which is FREE and had AIRCON. haha) we didnt want to perspire u see. haha. however, as stated, the queue turned us off. aha. so... we went to raffles city (again!) and we found this...

COLD STONE CREAMERY!! the ice cream was SUPERB! haha. and i bought a book. but because we were really cash strapped, we had to sign card for both these purchases. haha. and, i was left with 20 yuan, just enough to pay for the cab to the train station. darling had 40 left- to buy KFC lunch. haha. we slacked in raffles city till it was time to head back to hotel to collect our luggage and it was time to head back to HK! haha. see u in the next blog post for HK! :D

<3
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