Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Huangshan Trip Day 2
Actually we planned to see the sun rise at dawn, but it rained so heavily the previous night that it was too foggy to see anything. The tour guide continued to bring us around Huangshan and it was time to leave Huangshan. We decided to climb down instead of taking the cable car this time. It was a slightly more than 2h journey down. Along our way, we saw the other CBE gip students who were climbing up. I really admired their courage and determination to climb up. It was really super tiring to climb up as some steps are really steep and not easy to climb. Imagine we took 2h to climb down, how long do they need to climb up? Haha. However climbing down was quite tiring for us also as we were very shagged from the previous day and we also need to climb up sometimes. Below are some pictures taken during the 2nd day; foggy foggy.
Met the other cbe gip students. They climbed up!
After we reached the exit of Huangshan, the tour guide brought us to a restaurant to have our lunch and promoted another tourist attraction for us. It is called 翡翠谷 where 卧虎藏龙 was filmed. So OK! We decided to go there. It is a place full of love as there are a lot of “爱”字 on the stones, and one super big word on a super big rock. Haha.
After visiting that place, we were brought to our hotel. In the past, I will surely say that the hotel room is not very good and frown at everything. But since the night at Huangshan hostel, nothing can be worse than that. As long as there’s clean bed sheet and hot water to bathe, I’m super satisfied. I have indeed learned to appreciate little little things in life. Haha.
At night we went to the 美食街at黄山市 to have our dinner on the 中秋节night. We ordered too much food that we need to da bao and it cost slightly more than 100rmb for 5 persons. Cheap cheap! After the dinner, we shopped around the 美食街 as there were many shops selling souvenirs. We chanced upon a stall selling fans. The owner is an artiste and he will use your name as a 题材to write something. As I’m curious to know what he will write for my name, I paid 30rmb for the fan. He wrote “梁似花香 春花醉 愫如芳姿 国色娇”。I listened to him say I almost vomited. Haha. Then zw said “pui”. Argh! But I really don’t think I fit this poem. Lol For the guys, he mainly wrote about having a prosperous business in the future blah blah.. Sexism lor. I expected something like theirs and not about beauty. Haha Anw, surprisingly, there were very few people in 黄山市on 中秋节and the shops closed quite early.
The next day we took bus back to Shanghai. At the start of the journey, the bus made a turn and suddenly zw’s seat shifted outwards to the “corridor” of the bus. We were super shocked initially then burst out laughing. Cos there are 2 buttons beside the seat. One of them is to adjust the back rest, the other is to shift the chair left or right. The “left or right” button was pressed down so the seat moved when the bus made a fierce turn. I thought his seat was detached lah. Super funny situation; zw’s retribution. Lol
Super fun and tiring trip overall. Really enjoyed the company from these friends! Looking forward to the national day 8 days trip! Woohoo!
Monday, September 15, 2008
Huangshan Trip Day 1
For this mid-autumn festival, I went to Huangshan with zw, wh, ms and tw. We took a night train from 10.35pm to 9.30am the next day. The train tickets to Huangshan was very hot as it was the public holiday for the whole of China, so we only managed to get hard seats and not beds. The hard seats cannot be adjusted, so we had to sit straight for 11h. Along the journey, the train will stop at many places, so the flow of people and in and out the train was high. There were a lot of people standing in the train as they only managed to get standing tickets. The situation was so horrible, everybody squeezing with so many luggages. I couldn’t sleep well as my shoulders were frequently bumped by buttocks. Haiz! Well.. I survived this 11h train ride.
On Saturday, we reached Huangshan and met up with the tour guide. The weather was really good and we managed to see the beautiful scenery well. We took a cable car up, it was quite scary as it was very high above ground but the scenery was wonderful. It was magnificent and you will just forget all your troubles. 真让人觉得心旷神怡！Below are some pictures taken at Huangshan.
1860m! Top of the mountain! Yipee!
At night we slept in a hostel at the top of the mountain. As we were on budget, we chose the cheapest hostel which cost 80rmb per bed. Guys and girls have to sleep separate rooms. Ms and I slept in a bunk with 23 other girls from another tour group. The condition of the room and beds in the hostel is… wah kao! … super disgusting! They seldom change the blankets, bed sheets and pillow case. The tour guide warned us before that the situation of the hostel is not very good and mentioned that the bed sheets are changed every month. I thought I had prepared for the worst, but seeing the real situation made feel nauseous. As at the top of the mountain, the air is very damp making the bed, pillow and blanket damp also. The room stink also. The room was filled with cup noodles smell and as there are no windows, and the air is still. Wonder how I slept? I laid a disposable raincoat, then use my clothes as pillow, had my 羽绒服as my blanket. I was super tired, so I managed to sleep a few hours.
The reason why most people eat cup noodles is because food up in the mountains is very expensive. It can cost 70-80rmb per dish. The five of us grouped with another 5 from the same tour group and ate at a restaurant which cost 500rmb per table and consisted of 8 dishes and 1 soup. The food was edible, just to fill the stomach. I can say that the rice tasted the best.
Alrighty, that’s all for the first day at Huangshan.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Black Thursday Morning
I was super bek chek at work yesterday morning. In the morning, my colleague asked me to take the water bath, which was quite heavy, from our lab on the 2nd level to the lab on the 1st level. The water bath was fully filled initially, so she poured away half of the water. The temperature of the water was 60degC at that time. So I was thinking, as long as the water won't spill out, I will not have problem carrying it.
My colleague accompined me to the lift, so I thought she will acc me all the way to level 1 as the lab is quite far from the lift. Then when I entered the lift, she stood outside. I was super shocked lah. Cos both my hands were carrying the heavy water bath so how to press the lift! Ok nvm, I managed to press somehow and went to level 1.
At level 1, I almost fainted as there were slopes. This was when the hot water started to spill whenever I move up or down the slopes. Wah, I must tell my brain not to let go of the water bath no matter what, if not my leg sure kanna hit badly. When I thought there will not be anymore obstacles that I will face, I stood in front of a big door stunned. If it is a door that I can push, it is ok, cos I can just use my body. But I need to pull this door! Wth! All the 三字经 come out liao. I never felt so 狼狈 before lah, arms feeling stiffed cos of the weight of the water bath, clothes feeling wet, hands feeling burned cos of the hot water. I was wearing lab coat at that time, so my clothes were not super wet. This was the only thing that comfort me.
When I returned to the lab, my colleague started to explain some concepts of the experiment to me. When I answered wrongly to her questions, she will show me her bek chek face. But nvm, I think my face was blacker. At that time I really sian diao lor. I was super tired cos of the carrying of the water bath and unhappy that my clothes were wet. I really no mood to listen to her.
Luckily I managed to calm myself down, so everything was fine again a few hours later. What a Thursday morning.
Today there's no lessons in Fudan University, but I choose not to go to work. Wanna rest at home and prepare for the 黄山trip tonight! Hope that this journey will be fun and safe!
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
朱家角
Blogging is such a troublesome thing. But I must at least update for all of you the fun things in Shanghai. haha
Last Sunday, zw, wh and I went to 朱家角，上海的水镇。The day before we went to buy the tickets for entry and bus fare to there, it cost 85rmb. We took the tour bus from Shanghai Stadium and the ride took 1h. When we reached there, we alighted at the parking lot and were left alone, and there was no tour guide to bring us to the entrance of 朱家角. The 3 of us were like super shocked as we just woke up and we were blur blur. After asking around, we managed to find the entrance of 朱家角.
The thing I enjoyed most is the food (except the restaurant food). The 鸳鸯酥 is omg delicious. At the first glance of the picture, I thought is curry puff. I was super excited as I miss sg food so much lah. Then when I knew it is meat (salty) and 豆沙 (sweet), I was like a bit disgusted as the taste will be a bit wierd. But after zw tasted it, he said: "hmm.. not bad" So I bought it. It was very special and really good indeed.
Below are some pictures taken there. For more pictures, go to my facebook (will upload soon bah)
Met the other cbe gip students. They climbed up!
