the following is stored into my handphone while i was on the move around China from 19th to 23rd Aug 2008. just a brief summary of the key happenings and places i went. =)
19th Aug Tues
4pm. reached Shanghai Pudong airport. after retrieveing back our luggages, we were searching for Mr Xue, who was supposed to be our driver. BUT then cam Mr. Qi, who's to replace him. He came up to us with a piece of paper telling us he's from which travel agency and told us he's our driver for the whole trip. being the super-duper-very-careful-and-suspicious ME, i asked him to call the company to double check. oh well, tho i got to speak to the lady over the phone who told me tat he's trustable and it's true that he was sent to replace Mr Xue, i still had suspicion. so i watched his every move and all. but wad to do? we trusted him and the lady on the phone (err.. like do we have a choice?? i won't noe wad to do if i continue to entertain my suspicions) haha.
So uttering silent words of prayers(which i always do whenever and wherever i am), we went with him to his van. Well, he looks honest i guess. He said he’s bring us via a van to Suzhou. Initially i really couldn’t make anything he said. Haha! Either he didn’t noe how to speak properly or his qiang is too much for me. Later found out he’s from Anhui (a part of China which i heard is one of the poor provinces) the trip is crazy. Guess how long the whole journey took?? 4 hours!!! So when we finally reach there, it’s 8pm and finally really FINALLY we had dinner. Tat’s when we get to meet our 1st tour guide at Suzhou. After that we headed to our first hotel Zhongtian Grand Business Hotel. The driver and the tour guide stayed over at the same hotel too. Haha. You tot this hotel is GRAND rite?? Me too!! But.... sighhh.. It was actually quite shabby. Ok. Very shabby i mean. And i really couldn’t believe it. So i took out our itinenary and checked and triple checked for the hotel name. It was one or two words missing but i was already demanding tat it was a wrong hotel. Haha. So the driver demanded that it was correct. He went in and showed me the hotel’s name card. Oh well.. i dun easily trust pple, esp not in China. Or anywhere in the world. A bit pai seh bout it. Hehe. Supposedly a 3 star hotel. But guess wad again??? It’s locally-rated 3 stars. That’s alot of difference from international-rating. Not too bad after all. As long as there’s a proper bed and air con and normal facilities and no bugs or anything like tat should be fine. So there goes our 1st night. =)
20th Aug Wed
Woke up at 6.45am. didn’t sleep well. Woke up at 4+ wondering why the alarm didn’t go off. Woke up at 6am, getting frustrated over why the time passes so slowly. Haha. Had breakfast buffet at a supposedly Korean-style restaurant. But i guess there’s no speciality bout it at all. Not much choices to begin with. After breakfast, we headed to wang si yuan. Then to the silk factory where cocoons are used to make silk bedsheets, clothes, pillows with bits of cocoons’ poo. The cocoons are fed with organic veggi, so there’s absolutely no smell in the poo. =) the silk factory also consists of a departmental store selling clothes and stuff made from silk. When we got onto the van. Then we were thinking whether we should follow our itinenary and go to Wuxi or Xitang straightaway since Wuxi is a detour which is super out of the way. Without counting in a possible jam which we experienced the previous day which may happen at around 5 plus, the driver Mr 7 said it’ll take around 3 hours to get to Xitang from Wuxi. And furthermore our van’s air con is not working well. Roar. Oh i haven’t said why we wanna skip the whole idea of Wuxi. It was just a place where we are to shop around at a Pearl centre (jewellery place) and oso visit where the movie The Three Kingdoms were starring at and the warships could be seen. And since the tour guide was suggesting tat there’s really nothing much to see there since the movie was produced quite some time ago, a bit meaningless to go too. Plus we as students oso won’t spend on jewellery, so more pointless to go there. Just as we had decided not to go Wuxi, the ridiculous thing happened. Mr 7 told us that having chosen to forfeit going to Wuxi, his company demanded that we pay S$30 for not going!! Yucks. Wad a way to earn money. So tat’s why i always believed in the real world there’s always a trade off between time and money! We find it totally a ridicule and i wanted to argue and complain to his boss. Demanded him to call back to his company let me talk to the boss. But he has been very patient with me and told me tat since it’s a way for them to earn money, there’s no use talking to the boss. I’m surprised at his patience and finally, we gave in. It actually affected us quite a bit. But still. Trying to thank God lahh.. :D afterall, serene, it’s a thanksgiving trip remember?? STOP COMPLAINING!! Thank God that Mr 7 is rather patient and good to us. So now we’re on the way to change a better working aircon van which is at Shanghai, Mr7’s apartment’s carpark. I was wondering if he’s rich since he managed to stay at Shanghai tho he’s from Anhui.. so this time we changed from a white van to a light blue van. Looks more presentable too. haha. And guess wad AGAIN?? Around a couple of hours after we changed to a new van, the air con gave the same problem again. Have to open the windows. Had lunch at some Xitang restaurant where the waitress was not friendly at all. Guess it’s not just in her tone, it’s in her personalities lahh. Can’t expect everyone to be nice. We ate lin rou (which until now i oso dunnoe wad izzit.) it’s a kind of meat and some shell animal. Quite small and in the size of a... ah ta ji! But it’s very soft in texture which sends creepy feelings down my spine. Haha. Eating something u dun even noe wad is weird. Hee. Ate beef, potato strips, tomato-egg soup and pork (with some hair still not cleared properly. Enyun was busy plucking them out but i just eat lah). Next Mr 7 brought us to the famous Xitang tour and drop us there before fixing the aircon at a vehicle’s repair shop which is very near the entrance of Xitang tour. The 2 blur us went in not knowing wad’s ahead and where to go. Then we came to this palace shelter where a number of old and ‘dirty’ uncles are at. 1 of them was signalling us to come to them. Must be us coz there’s nobody else in front or before us. At first, we were thinking of going around on our own. But there’s one uncle, super persistent, named Chang Sheng Sun. He offered to bring us around on his trishaw. Err. NO. He hardsold and convinced us to take his tricycle at 15PMB dropping us at the centre of the attraction or 40RMB for the whole place around Xitang. The place is like a village with 9 rivers. There are actually 12 poicts of ancient stops in all but we only had time to go into 4 of them. Some ancient places and figures of gods and Buddha and god of fortune etc. After which the uncle brought us to where Tom Cruise was starring at Xitang for a movie. But i dunnoe wad movie. Aha. Took pictures with Tom Cruise’s photo. Then uncle bring us back to the entrance of the place we bought tickets at. :D and off we go to HUADU international hotel!! It’s 4 stars can!! Very luxurious and nice!! Suddenly felt like a cinderalla overnight. And so i gathered that hotels with the word ‘business’ in their name is not very high class one. Hehe.
21st Aug Thurs
It’s a beautiful day!! :D had very very good sleep yesterdae! Better than the one i had back in Singapore.haha! woke up to a western cum Chinese breakfast buffet! Ate beef zou, fried rice, noodles, ham, sausages, cakes, orange juice! Not bad not bad! :D then ta bao 2 pieces of bread with sausages and ham clamed in between for our dear driver (who couldn’t stay with us due to us being a small tour group and the hotel being a very high class one and a giam one too) but sadly, he left it on the waiting table and forgot to eat. But he told us he had breakfast before he came to pick us. Next we pulled our luggage to the van and i realised i have yet to take pictures of the hotel name!! So rushed to do so before boarding the van. :D hee.. super nice and honoured to stay in this hotel. One of the best we had. Will remember this hotel. Now we’re on our way to.... the legendary romantic and mesmerizing HANGZHOU! Thank God for blessing us soooo far! God is so good! God is so good! God is so good! He’s so good to ME!! Cheeerioss! :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
Labels: China trip part one (19th and 20th Aug)
