China » maameemoomoo

Just a quick hello!

Dec 162011

For a littlest while, i froze and didn’t know which language of greeting to use.

We were at Sichuan (Putonghua), Tibet (Tibetan), Kathmandu (Nepali) and New Delhi (Hindi), so in the end.. i gave up and figured a simple Hello it was. :)

It was an epic trip this one.

3 whole weeks of travelling – the last time i had 3 weeks of holidays was 10 years ago, during my honeymoon to New Zealand — We went to 4 countries — yup, i still think Tibet as a country on its own — saw the very very adorable panda bears in real life (!), had the bumpiest ride ever (but still couldn’t beat the epic-est YuanYang bus ride in China last year), got myself warded at a Chinese clinic in a 2-streets-sleepy-town in Tibet (had 3 bottles of drips and was made to breath in oxygen for almost 4 hours) and got separated from the new friends and Darcy for a while at the incredibly packed Old Delhi (Chowdni Chowk) where i panicked a tiny bit.

I really can’t wait to write my tales and share my photos!

Unfortunately, the schedule is not looking good this week, especially when the house is undergoing a minor makeover (by me!) and the helper is leaving for good in less than 2 weeks’ time (read : spring cleaning madness).

But for now, a picture of me at super windy Everest Base Camp will do ok? ;)

Shall be back blogging real soon!

First few days in Shanghai

friends, travel 13 Responses »

May 182011

French Concession at 7.30am

Writing this entry makes me smile.

Those were the days. Precious precious days!

There is no denying that i missed the boys. Like really, really missed them. One of the reasons i dread calling home whenever i’m traveling is that i’d end up crying upon hearing their voices on the phone, telling me how much they are missing me and how they can’t wait to see me again etc. Usually when that happens, i’d go into an hour (can be more or sometimes, less) of quiet moment, sitting at one corner feeling really guilty for ditching them while i holiday away. Hmm… It’s not exactly the best feeling ever.

But if i were to say i didn’t enjoy myself during this trip because of that, i would be lying.

L to R : night view from gf’s place, her humble abode, me checking out the gelato place which was just a stone throw away from gf’s place and her very adorable baby boy!

The first few days in Shanghai were spent eating, shopping, eating and more eating!

While waiting for other friends (who arrived 2 days after me), the wonderful gf decided to bring me go shopping till i drop — upon request *wink*. And trust me, shopped till i dropped we did!

What i didn’t expect during this trip was the girlfriend’s 3 storey penthouse that came with a breathtaking view. I am not complaining actually because methinks her heated floor (even in the bathrooms) was so darn cool! Oh, and that 4 posted bed with many many pillows… Man, i really can’t ask for more!

However, what i had really looked forward to was her 7 storey French-Colonial Townhouse. The gf didn’t inform me beforehand that she had moved so imagine my surprise when i was brought into her condo estate. I was disappointed to say the least. There goes my photo-taking opportunity. Oh well, my bad for not visiting her earlier.

L to R : 1. piping hot pao calling out to me but er, i didn’t cave in (!) 2. gf’s friend checking out eccentric (read: ah lian) looking boots 3. as much as i would love to try that morning snack that can be found on the road side, i didn’t 4. French Concession, again.

Everyday, the hor-mia (good life) gf wakes up only at 10am unless she has appointments or dates to go to. Otherwise, it’s 10am all the way! Not sure why but when i’m holidaying, i always wake up super duper early and i’m not even a morning person to begin with.

So waking up hours before the gf means i had plenty of time to do some exploring on my own. I took time to walk around the neighbourhood, clicking the camera away. Passing by the road side food stalls was fun! I made many stops along the way, staring at how the locals whipped up the food or you know, just paused, stared at the food and moved on. Surprisingly, i didn’t make any attempt to buy any food at all even when asked. Must be all the horror stories that i have been hearing! Importantly, i wasn’t about to give the stomach a chance to pull its stunt on me, just like how it did during last year’s Vietnam trip — my very first food poisoning episode. It was so bad that i lost 3kg in just a couple of days! *shudders*

I <heart> Tsingtao beer!

I’m not much of a shopper to be honest. I hardly go shopping and especially so during trips and holidays because time is too precious! (judge me not my dear shopaholic friends! :P) But lo and behold!

Shopping in Shanghai was good good good!

The gf and i kicked off the day at 10.30am and we didn’t stop till 6pm! We just hopped onto the bicycles and started exploring the little boutiques which she frequents. She called them her treasure shops. :)

From trench coats to boots. From legging trousers to bling bling top. From leather bags to leather belts. I bought them all. HEEEEEEEEEEeeeee!

In short, it was madness!

Shop assistants’ jaws practically dropped whenever we entered the boutiques with our loots. We had bags and bags on the bikes’ baby chairs and front baskets. Heck, we even had bags hanging on the handles! I really don’t blame the gf for rolling her eyes at me when we were shopping because at the end of the trip, i went home with luggages that weighed more than 40kg! (fyi, i went with just 15kg)

pssttt : if i were to shop like this thrice a week (no need daily lah yeah), i can skip all my exercises routine already! what a great workout…. *flex biceps*

At the end of our shopping day, guess what i did?

I called SOS.

Yes, that’s right. I dialed SOS’ phone number!

HAHAA!

You see.. I had to. My cash was running low (i seriously didn’t know i could shop like this before i went!) and i simply had to call the gf who was flying in the next day to bring me more cash! Sure, i had 2 credit cards with me for emergency but you know what? Cash is king in China. FYI, there are many shops and restaurants that do not accept international credit cards. ;)

And that my dear friends, was only my second day in China — first day not counted since i arrived only at 4pm (but i did shop a weeeeee bit on that night after our gelato outing :P).

Scary huh?

French Concession, and again! — can’t help it. love the botak (bald) trees! :P

Traipsing Huangshan - Part 1

travel 10 Responses »

Apr 062011

you may not be able to tell but the valley below.. it was thousands of feet down there! quite nerve wrecking as i snapped away..

Did i just scare you?

What? NO?

Darn!

Very well… i’ll stick to my original opening shot then. :P

—————————

Day 6

Hmmm…

Tough.

Real tough.

I don’t know how to even begin this post of mine. So so many photos! Guess i’ll keep it simple ;)

Hotel : PaiYunLou

Route of the day : hotel – West Grand Canyon – hotel – Rock Watching Pavilion – hotel

PaiYunLou Hotel

As soon as we finished our instant noodle lunch after we checked in, we wasted no precious time but to go out and play again.

The hotel does provide thick, fluffy, marshmallow jackets for guests like myself, who sorta overestimated her North Face Summit fleece and jacket. Due to the weather condition, a large part of West Grand Canyon was closed. The only section that was open that day, or for the rest of March for that matter, was just a tiny fraction from the giant loop. I think we probably got to the first ring and that was it. The rest of the loop, from what i heard, was a little too dangerous to explore during this time of the year.

We were very disappointed.

I mean, that was the real reason why i picked the hotel!

Initially, i thought the loop would be open to at least ring 2. When i was asking around — i even called the hotel — no one could give me an answer. That was why i took the risk and booked ahead. But no matter, because we got to see other parts of Huangshan which i thought we would not be able to see! :)

Even though the trek to West Sea Grand Canyon was a short one, it still took us an hour plus to complete. It was too beautiful. We took our own sweet time to snap plenty of photos and monkey around. We also managed to just sit down and just smell the flowers snow. Nature at its best. It was impossible to ignore the beauty and just walk away. So very magnificent.

Surprisingly, nothing much went through the mind as i sat down in all that quietness with my eyes shut. It gotta be the serenity, the tranquility, the calmness, the beauty, the grandness…

Those moments were truly magical.

(i’m one of the rare few whose mind simply cannot stop churning even when i’m having a damn good body massage or when i’m meditating! terrible!).

It’s really a pity that my photography skill isn’t quite there yet to capture the magnificent mountain. :(

It’s really even more pitiful that i don’t have a wide angle lens to lug along with me. :((

These photos that you are seeing here, were taken on the tiny section of West Sea Grand Canyon. I simply can’t imagine the rest of the canyon, exactly what did we miss?!?

And more of the canyon…

Did i mention that the mountain is sparkling clean?

I was shocked to be honest…

And the toilets.. oh boy, you will want me to go there! Haha!

They are very very clean!

See the picture above, middle right?

The mountain has these cleaners working around the clock. For every.. say, 300m, you’ll see one. Impressed? I sure was!

After we patah balik to the hotel from the canyon, we marched ahead to Rock Watching Pavilion.

The initial plan was to catch sunset, but hmmm.. looking at the weather, we were extremely skeptical! Moreover, we didn’t have much time left before the sun set.. so in the end, before we could reach the Pavilion, we did a U-turn and went back to the hotel — trust me, you won’t wanna walk around in the dark, in this particular weather to be exact. However, the views to the Pavilion were quite something if not spectacular. Completely different from the canyon, but still… it took our breath away, literally, just as grub commented.

The stair case… goodness, it was never ending!

I was always the last one behind. Hahaa! Don’t pray pray (play play) okay, i may be slow.. but i was steady! And i was the photographer! Stopping a little more frequently and longer than the friends, who just whipped out their phones or compact camera, clicked and off again. Yeah.. excusesesesesesessss, i know! :P

Can you see my windburn in the picture above? Uh huh, windburn.. not sunburn. You can get windburn too! (explains the cold aye? the cold is always worse when there’s wind)

The windburn was horrid.

My cheeks and nose were red. The skin was extremely sensitive. By nightfall, i was a few shades darker than norm. Then the doc advised me to slap on layerssss of moisturizer and guess what? It worked! I was all OK again the next day. :)

I love this picture!

LOL!

Do you know why?

As you may have noticed, i like taking pictures without any humans in it, if possible. So, whenever i wanna snap a photo but the friends were in the way, i’ll shout, B-OFF! (for buzz off) Of course, it was awkward and uncomfortable to ask the friends to scramble off at first, but after a while, the friends told me to just shout B-OFF whenever i needed them to be, so.. B-OFF it was! Heh!

(yeah, such friends are hard to come by eh? that is why, i only travel with certain friends. even my bestie (Singapore’s), i dare not travel with her, yet. hahaahaha! oopss, i sure hope she is not reading this!)

Anyway.. back to the picture.

When i shouted B-OFF for this particular picture, this was how the friends scrambled off. Lol! They hid behind a tree! A skinny tree! *faint* Seriously! What were they thinking?!?! HAhaahhahaa!

Needless to say, i had to snap this picture.

So funny lorrrr!

Totally priceless. :)

———————————–

Note : to those who dare to rip off my photos without my permission, i’ll come after you with my parang!

Huangshan 黄山 (Yellow Mountain), China

travel 8 Responses »

Apr 022011

Day 6

Early in the morning at 7am, the young and nice lad sent us to the cable car station (Yungu New Cableway) at the back mountain, or better known as Eastern side in most maps, for just RMB50. But do bear in mind, locals do not know what is Eastern Steps or Western Route. To them, it’s just back or front mountain.

My map, the best out of the 3 from my collection.

When we arrived at the cable car station, the first thing i did was to hop into its office. Good laawwwdd, it was freezing cold! It was snowing by then already but very lightly. The officers were quite shocked to see me or rather, us, popping in just like that. But it was too cold! I can’t help it. With my most dazzling smile ever, i told them sweetly that i can’t take the cold outside and they nodded. Then, i unashamedly proceeded to station myself right in front of the heater for at least 15 minutes.

Lest you think i didn’t dressed for the weather, i did. I had my North Face Summit fleece and its shell on, together with thermals and more sweaters. I was no different than a very stuffed xiao long bao, really.

The officers were rather nice. They allowed us to stay in there for as long as we wanted. I even managed to make small talk with them and they were really quite friendly! In fact, i was offered a chair when 1 of them saw how i struggled to pull my pants up — ahem.. my water proof bottom ah, of course i had my proper pants on (!) — with so so much clothes on! I was as clumsy as Humpty Dumpty, to say the least.

We were the earliest to arrive at the station. The ticket office wasn’t opened yet as they were waiting for green light from the maintenance officers. A while later, we took turns to have our arses aired in the cold, queuing up to get our entrance (RMB200) and cable car tickets (RMB80).

Shortly after we had all our Gore-tex on, we practically r0lled over to another snaking queue, only this time, it was for the cable car. And so the highlight of our trip began.

photos unedited, taken by Canon Ixus 300

The cable car was nice and comfortable but my journey up wasn’t quite an enjoyable one. Don’t get me wrong, our transport was perfectly safe, clean and all. It was just me.. too cold for my own comfort. Ironically, the middle aged lady who sat opposite me wore only 2-3 thin layers and was gloves-less! I asked if she was cold and she shook her head. She later offered me her hands and goodness gracious me, her hands were warm, like really warm!! :O

How is that even possible huh?

The first thing that hit us when we stepped out from the cable car station on the mountain was the snow. It can no longer be categorized as light snow anymore. It was snowing quite heavily!

All i saw then was people scrambling to get the snow spikes for the shoes.

Initially, i brushed off the thought of getting it… mainly because of the sturdy trekking boots i had on. But a mere minute later, i changed my mind. Safety… always, always comes first. It didn’t matter if i didn’t need it. The thought of having the snow spikes on gave me more confidence and assurance. It was almost like buying myself an insurance. So in the end, the girls and i got ourselves 3 pairs of brand new snow spikes, just for that peace of mind. I must say, it was indeed, a decision well made.

From the cable car station, we needed to trek for another 1.5 hours to our hotel. No short cuts, no cars. Just you and your legs. That’s Huangshan for you :)

I planned our hotels according to the route we would trek on the days we will be spending on the mountain.

Night 1 : PaiYunlou Hotel
Night 2 : Baiyun Hotel

There are a good number of comfortable hotels on Huangshan with almost similar prices because they are managed by the same management. But if you are on budget, there are dorms available.

Anyway.

Don’t laugh… but this was my first experience with snow. :)

It was amazing. I loved it.

Had i worn more layers or a much thicker jacket, i would definitely enjoy it more.

The trek to our hotel was quite a torturous one. As i mentioned, the snow was getting heavier and heavier but strangely, i was getting colder and colder despite carrying a 10+ kg backpack + 2-3kg slingback and probably had 4kg of clothing on me.

I was cold. Period.

I was so cold that i didn’t even bother to take any photographs of the amazing scenery and views, right from Mushroom Pavilion, passing through Harp Pine to Black Tiger Pine.

I was so cold that i didn’t even bother to get my sunnies out, which was right on top of my backpack’s small pocket, even though the snow kept getting into my eyes and i had trouble opening them.

But.

That was not the primary reason why i didn’t whip out the camera or the sunnies.

It was my toes.

For a while, i thought i was gonna lose them! :(

I cleverly had only a pair of socks on. No thermal pants over them. No nothing. Just 1 pair of good old pathetic socks and my boots.

I kept asking the girlfriend who’s a doctor whether i’d lose them to frostbite! I almost went out of my mind i tell you because i really still wanna wear nice open toe high heels you know. :( The doc assured me that i wouldn’t, as long as i kept moving. And so i did. Kept moving. No stopping. Faster and faster. Hoping the toes would warm up a little.

It was only at Beihai Hotel that i was better, much much better.

The toes felt alright again. *Phew!*