Woah let me tell you how much fun I had on the trip. I went there as a stranger to the whole tour group and came back knowing everybody in the same group. WOOTS. Awesome. Made some pretty good friends there too! HAHA.
Day 1: Cabbed to the airport at like 5.40 am. MADNESS. Slept in the cab. So tired. Did last minute packing the day before till 1 plus in the morning. Haha. I was so afraid I would miss something out. Ah well. That's what Singapore does to you. You more or less turn out kiasi, everything BETTER BRING in case something bad happens. I brought a thick bath towel. HAHA. Plus all sorts of chargers even though I knew someone else in the trip would definitely bring them. Heh.
Queueing at the counters already when Junnie shook me from behind and gave me a shock. The guys were so nice. They slept over at Junnie's house to cab together and send me off. =)) Saw their sleepy eyes. Dm funny. Haha.
Rachel also came, later also looking dm tired and we all spent a whole 15 minutes eating Macs breakfast together. Woots. How lovely. So much for laoshi giving us time for breakfast.
The plane ride there was 4 hours plus plus long. I slept for 20 minutes and thought 2 hours had passed. HAHA. Yingjing and Cuicui beside me ( I didn't know them that well yet) laughed with me when I went, "HUH" after realising I still had 3 hours and 40 minutes plus plus more to go on board.
At Shanghai Airport, we wasted like an hour finding baggage. Rayson and Daniel's baggage were missing. My goodness. After a while, Daniel's baggage was found but we left the airport without Rayson's. He was dm pissed. HAHA. Kept swearing.
Lunch was horrible beyond horrible. Seemed like oil and salt is free in China. EVERYTHING had too much oil and too much salt. BARELY EDIBLE.
After lunch, on the way to WUXI, the airport called to say Rayson's baggage was found. Apparently someone took the wrong bag. BUT WE WERE HOURS AWAY FROM THE AIRPORT. So we did the next best thing. Maglev train. OMG. Frickin' COOL.
Horrible restaurant to airport by bus: 2 hours.
Horrible restaurant to airport by Maglev train: 7 minutes.
Oh yeah~ Dm cool. Saw the maglev on tv. But didn't think I would really get to travel on it. Haha. The train travels at 431 km/h and reaches the airport in no more than 7 minutes. Half the group (including me) paid 80RMB for a trip on it to and fro. For fun. Haha.
Collecting the bag took half an hour. So meanwhile, the rest who went to the airport for fun shopped and ate. Heh.
By the time we finally reached to hotel in Wuxi, it was LATE.
Rargh.
Morning call at 6.30. What the toots! No sleep man.
Breakfast was horrible. No surprise.
But going to the Water Dunno-what City and 3 Margin City places were nice. Oh yeah. There was a film set at the 3 Margin City place. Dm cool. Saw all the equipments, cameras and lights and all. And all the costumes. They were filming this period drama. OMG cool!!
After a horrible lunch, we visited a pearl factory and I got a pearl free! Haha. They opened an oyster for us and started rolling pearls across the big meeting room table. So I took one. Heh.
Got the red ink stamp thing at the factory for 100RMB. So ex. But the calligraphy was good. The shifu curved well and nice. =) PRO.
Spend 500RMB and get a free pearl ring. So thats what we did. Glenn, Warren, Sharon and I shared receipt. And since Warren spent 200RMB on his stamp thing, he got the ring. HAHA. He told Sharon and I to "fight it out" but the ring was like eurgh. Then Warren gave it to laoshi. HAHA.
After the pearl factory, we went to a teapot factory. Saw the biggest teapot in the world and saw many pretty cool teapots made of 'purple sand'. SOSOSOSO tempted to get one but miraculously, didn't.
Day 3 was spent in Hangzhou. Went to the West Lake, "Lightning Wind Pagoda", Yue Fei's temple and the "Ten Thousands Pines School" where Liang Shan Bo and Zhu Ying Tai studied at. The School was SO NICE! I don't mind studying there if I still lived in that era. Everything was so beautiful. Really.
Laoshi and Dyan raced up the many flights of steps leading to the school. So funny. HAHA. Got t on my cam. Wheee.
Oh yeah, went to see the "Fly Here Mountain". They said it flew here cos it's the only limestone structure around miles of granite. There is even a story to it all. Pretty cool.
Travelled to the Mei Family Village, famous for its Dragon Well Tea. Everyone's surname there was Mei. Haha. Bought $40 worth of tea. My goodness. So darn ex. And I didn't buy the best tea! The Miss Mei who introduced us to the different grades of tea showed us 3 grades of tea at first. Then the Mr Rich from my group asked if there were better grades. The Miss Mei was surprised. She said that if nobody asked, she wouldn't introduce it since every year, quantity produced is very little. Woots. PRO.
Watched the West Lake Cultural show after dinner. OMG dm exciting!! The stunts were madness and the performers were crazy. Like seriously. Dm flexible and not afraid of death. Haha. They fly in midair with only a piece of rope slung over one leg. THATS ALL. SIAO
At night, laoshi brought a few of us J1s to the supermarket. MY HEAVEN! =)) Chocolates, titbits, biscuits and ice cream!! OH MY TIANS. Woots..
Taxi fares in China are dirt cheap. Can you imagine. Even if it's 10RMB, divide by 5 is $2. Cannot even ride in a Singapore cab for a second!
Went to Hangzhou School Number 15 the next afternoon. Prepared for it in the morning. The students were all very enthusiastic about everything and for Moral Ed, the students conducted the lesson. Haha. Did Clay art during their art lesson as well. Cool stuff. Everyone there were very eager to learn english so in class we did the pledge in english. And they applauded like they saw magic. Haha.
In Suzhou, saw the rocky lion park, where the lions were actually rocks from Tai Lake, went to the Silk Factory and Embroidary Factory. Was very impressed at the embroidary factory. Everything was very lifelike and the artworks were stunning. The prices were stunning too. Haha.
And the silk factory was very.. comfortable! HAHA. During the tour around the factory, they led us to this place selling silk quilts, pillows and everyone started grabbing bolsters and pillows and cushions. Haha. I didn't waste much time either. I just plonked myself on the quilt on display immediately while the lady was still explaining stuff. HAHA. SO SO comfortable!! =))
At nights in Suzhou, we walked the streets nearby the hotel and had supper in this dumpling shop. Very good dumplings. Laoshi bought 60. HAHA. Madness. We helped him eat so many but there were so many left over.
Then cos laoshi turned 28 on the trip, we surprised him by giving him 28 muffins. There were 28 students on the trip, so just nice, 1 give one. HAHA. And there was cake. The candle was so coool!!!!!!
It was a lotus, Then when you lighted it, it opens up and fireworks appear!! OMG DM COOL.
Dyan's father was in Shanghai, so when we were there, we skipped the museum visit and went out with her father. Dyan, Benny and I. Uncle was so darn PRO at bargaining when we went shopping. SERIOUSLY. From 150 plus to 35RMB. AWESOME.
Got a few shirts and a pair of shoes. But thats all. =( Met Joanne for dinner and she gave me like a million DVDS and 6 packets of Henniu. I bought an extra bag to put everything in. HAHA. Joanne's chauffeur then sent us to the hotel where the rest of the group had dinner. SO GLAD we ha dinner separately. BEST MEAL on the trip. No fight.
Joanne's chauffeur is 22 years old!! Thats like dm young. Haha.
Then in the car on the way, we were laughing at my chinese. Oh yeah. How fun. About how the chinese in Hangzhou told me ," Wo yi ju hua ye ting bu dong." In english, ," I don't understand a single word you are saying."
Woots. Brilliance eh. And all I asked was scrambled eggs in chinese. He was the chef frying eggs during morning breakfast in the hotel. Haha.
Nothing much else on the trip, other than the intense annoyance everyone had against the tour guide after the trip. He's dm lousy and has 7 years of experience. Nationalist, jerk. Kept praising chinese and critisizing Singaporeans. Everytime he said he had to severely critisize us, we were all," OMG. Speak for yourself." Just shut up and go home to your lovely Hangzhou where apparently everyone was pretty and handsome and gentle and healthy.
Oh no. Didn't see any chinese women quarrelling and fighting like mad. Oh no. Didn't see chinese men spitting everywhere. Oh no. Didn't see rubbish thrown just like that. In the open, broad daylight, on the streets. I so totally didn't see anything.
Everything in the chinese airport was so expensive. Madness. But I bought some stuff. Finish up my money. Haha.
Was assigned a seat next to Warren. Like couple seat right at the back of the plane. Swopped and sat next to Benny and Dyan. Haha. Dyan was assigned a seat next to Glenn. Just nice. So Warren and Glenn, me Benny and Dyan. =)
Waited for about an hour in the airport for mummy and daddy to arrive from australia.
So many other stuff happened on the trip I can't put it here. But if you ask me, I'll tell you. Shhh.
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