Yes, this is our very first long-haul holiday! :D We're given the whole week off! :D Ok, not really off because we had to payback with the following Saturday and Sunday -.-"
Our holidays spanned 9 Feb to 15th Feb and we had to report back to work on the 16th, which is a Saturday -_-" KTHXBYE.
I actually asked my 2 superiors when to report back to work so that should one of them give a later date, I'd adhere to his words. HAHAHA!
Initially I asked my organization supervisor - the big boss - and he told me need to come back on Saturday and Sunday -.-
So I tried my luck and asked my immediate supervisor 2 weeks later the same question and guess what? HE WENT TO ASK MY ORGANIZATION SUPERVISOR! BACKSIDE TEAR!
So my org supervisor was like "I thought I told them before? Company calendar start work day is Saturday & Sunday" I could hear them in the room talking...haha!
My immediate supervisor then came out and told me with a smile "You guys have to work on 16th and 17th. Sorry ah, company calendar states one but I'll be back on Monday la"
Soooo...my weekends were burnt -.- HAHA! Nevertheless, the one week break was still well utilized by us :D
This is the 1st trip. It's a 2 day 1 night trip to 安徽, 黄山地区. We actually wanted to climb 黄山 but ended up getting tempted by the ice-skiing so we chose this tour package with the word "黄山" in it...Haha!
Yes the title of the blog post is our tour package name. Haha. It translates to "Yellow Mountain Drunk Hot Spring + Da Ming Mountain Ice Skiing" HAHA! Ok, it's just Huangshan Hot Springs...LOL.
Yup, we got up real early in the morning like 6am or something to ready ourselves and to meet our tour group.
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| Early morning train ride :D |
We reached the Ctrip (携程) office/set-off point at 人民广场 (if I remember correctly) and waited for our tour bus, tour guide, tour mates, etc...to come. haha.
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| While waiting... |
While waiting, we actually saw a mum with 2 SUPER CUTEEEEEE kids waiting for their tour. Jamie was like "The two kids very cutee! I hope they are in our tour."
Well, just to let you know, Jamie's wish came true! LOL! Without those cutie pies, our trip would be so much more boring. Haha.
All of us were expecting our tour guide to bring us to board a HUGE tour coach...but to our pleasant surprise...
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| Our tour bus...Ok, more like tour van :D |
It was a cosy little van for like 12-15 people! :D The best part is...after waiting inside the van awhile, the tour guide brought the mum and her 2 cutesy kidssss in!! :D :D
Yup, we had cute company :D Haha! Anyway, here's a picture of us in the tour van...photo graciously taken by Jamie :D
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| In the tour van :D |
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| Gareth, Me & Soon Hwee :D |
During the journey Soon Hwee & I spoke with the mum of the 2 kids...they were actually seated beside Soon Hwee.
We found out that they were Japanese! They weren't all too willing to disclose that because she thought we are MAINLAND CHINESE. WTH?? HAHAHA!
When she found out we were Singaporeans, her expression changed, along with her tone and she became much friendlier. Haha! Yeap, more stories with them later...meanwhile...
The van droningly drove on......the journey to An Hui was really long...I think the ride took around 4 hours. There's a stopover halfway for us to relieve ourselves and get a bite :D Here's what we bit...LOL
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| Gareth & I with our tofu :D |
After the stopover, we went back into the van and continued sleeping. HAHA! While some of us slept, some of them...Jamie and Gareth were busy taking photos of others sleeping -.-"
I hold the "most-unglam-sleeping-pose-award" with my mouth wide open and my eyes half-opened. HAHA! I shall not upload it here to humiliate myself so yeah, just stick to your imagination. LOL!
Well, I exacted my revenge on them in our next trip...by taking all their sleeping photos too :D HAHA! Look out for it in my next post about our trip to Hangzhou :D
We arrived at our lunch place soon after...I have no idea where it is and I have no intention to. Haha! The food was not too bad but the pricing is really bad.
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| The building that housed our lunch place :D |
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| Our lunch restaurant...It reads "Hui Luo Tuo Jiu Dian" |
Hui refers to An Hui province (安徽省) which we're in. Luo Tuo = camel and of course Jiu Dian is restaurant...haha. So yeah, we basically had lunch at some Camel restaurant in An Hui. Haha.
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| Fried egg with don't-know-what vegetable. LOL |
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| 烧肉! :D |
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| An Hui's kampong chicken. Haha. |
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| Some potato soup :) |
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| Can I not caption all the dishes next time? LOL! I don't know this vege either! LOL! I think it's like some sort of a potato vegetable...LOL |
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| AN HUI'S SPECIALTY - SMELLY FISH. LOL! |
Yes, the smelly fish above 就是安徽的特产 :D The fish wasn't THAT smelly...not smelly like the 臭豆腐 kinda smelly. Haha!
The fish was good...a bit salty and its meat was very minced and soft...like it will melt in your mouth upon entry kinda thing? LOL.
The sucky part is that they refused to on the heater. It was around 5degrees outside and inside was also chillingly cold.
When we asked the owner to turn the heater on he was like "空调已经开了!" And we were like...WOW, yeah, it's already turned on in your kitchen right? Haha!
Nevertheless, when the food came, the coldness was secondary. Haha! And when the bill came...We were hot with anger. LOL! Haha! For the price paid, I'd expect much better...that's my conclusion :)
Our next stop is our HOTEL :D I was expecting a cui hotel...And we arrived at a REALLY GRAND ONE. We're like WOW.
After the tour guide spoke to the counter staff, he was like "Ohh, we brought you to the wrong hotel." -.- Jamie was like "Whoa, this hotel so nice! I wanna stay here! And I take picture of the lobby already!" LOL!
Oh well, we were then driven to another hotel like just opposite it and when we gave the reception staff our booking slip, they were like "It's the other hotel across the street."
Once again, Jamie's wish came true! LOLLL! We went back to the other atas hotel, took our keys and chionged into our hotel room :D
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| Hotel room charges!! WALLET TEAR!! |
Now I know why our tour package is so expensive. It's because of this stupid hotel. Haha! A 2day-1night tour that costs 800RMB?! Haha!
Ok, the ice-skiing also contributed to much of the amount I guess. Haha...So yup, we walked passed a pretty pond to our room's lift lobby :D
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| Linkway bridge to our hotel room's lift lobby :D |
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| Our AWESOMEEEEE hotel room! :) |
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| Awesome toilet with my awesome act-cool face...HAHAHA! |
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| The awesome snowy view from my awesome hotel room :D |
AND GUESS WHAT WE FOUND IN OUR HOTEL ROOM??? A WEIGHING MACHINEEEEE!!! AHHHH! The truth is out!!!
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| What's my weight mr. weighing machine? |
I came weighing 63kg. When I set foot on the weighing machine...it reflected 64kg!!! And it was like leaning toward 65kg!!
AND IT'S ONLY ONE MONTH!! I'm staying here for 6 months! If I go on at this rate, it means I'll gain 6 to 7 kg which will make me a FAT 70kg!!! That will make me down-pes to pes-BP :D HAHAHA! WHICH IS NO GOOD.
Ok, enough of the weight talk. I sound like some girl tryna get attention by bitchin' bout her weight. HAHA! LOL!
Anyway, our next stop was the hot spring :D 黄山醉温泉. I didn't know it was translated as "Ravishing Hotspring of Huangshan" until I looked at the photo below. LOL!
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| Me at 黄山醉温泉! :D |
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| Yes, it's written all over the doors...HAHA! |
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| Map of the hotspring resort :D |
The sucky thing about this place is...You're not allowed to bring your handphone or cameras into the hotspring area -.-"
Their rationale? A lot of people have went into the hot spring pools without taking out their electronic gadgets and result in it getting spoilt...haha! Ok, seems legit a rationale.
Anyway, bringing it would be a hassle too because we had no where to put it and the chances of it getting lost or getting it drowned is very high.
Before we entered the whole hot spring area, we went to put our stuff in the lockers and got changed. The place was like a massive atas army bunk + toilet. Haha.
When we went to the male locker area, there were many naked men changing, loading and unloading their belongings from the locker. That scene SUPER RESEMBLED ARMY BUNK CAN. LOL!
Once we were done changing and putting our stuffs, we proceeded to the shower room...or rather...from the locker room, it leads to the shower room. Haha.
We were HIGHLY ENCOURAGED to shower. Haha! That's probably because many locals would've just went in with their unbathed bodies...HAHA! Here's a pic of the showers taken off the web.
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| Shower room :D |
The awesome thing is that they provide FREE SHAMPOO! LOL LOL! And once again, it really is like army bunk, all the naked men walking around -.-" haha
After the shower...the road leads to the warm-up pool :D Haha..Here's a picture of the warm-up pool from my camera...This is to help you to acclimatize to the hot spring temperatures outside.
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| Warm-up pool :D |
You must be wondering "EHHH...I thought can't take photo?" and you're absolutely right about that! LOL! This is actually taken after everything. Haha.
We went back in with our dry bodies to take photo of the warm-up pool. The rest of the hot spring pools are outside...it's a really big place.
Yup, this pool serves to warm your bodies up to prepare for the hotter waters outside. HOWEVER, IT WAS A MISTAKE WARMING OURSELVES THERE.
WHY? Because the distance from the warm-up pool to the open-air hot springs outside is PRETTY FAR. HAHA! About 50metres?
50 metres in a drenched body clad in swimming trunks, in a 10-12 degrees celsius environment; even a 1 metre walk is sure to send chills down your spine...LITERALLY. HAHA!
The moment we stepped out of the warm-up pool...I tell you...even the hair on my legs were shivering. HAHAHA!
The truth is...when we got out of the warm up pool, we actually went back in because it was too cold. HAHAHA!
We had to FORCE ourselves OUT of the
indoor warm-up pool (the 2nd time) to the
outdoor hot spring...That journey was crazy. HAHA!
As crazy the journey maybe, the destination was rewarding :D There were A LOT OF pools there. Each pool had a different essence.
Here's some of the hot spring essence/minerals that I could remember: Jasmine essence, coffee bean essence, milk essence, rose essence, etc...
The first pool we dipped in looked something like that...These pictures are taken off the web...so yeah, credits to Google. LOL.
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| Hot spring pool - type 1! :D |
As seen from the picture above, there is a sign beside the pool which tells you what minerals and essence are in the water.
The average hot spring water temperature is around 40 - 42 degree celsius!! A WORLD OF A DIFFERENCE from the atmospheric temperature of around 12 degree celsius! LOL!
My body couldn't acclimatize to the water at first...When I was like in the second pool, I started to feel my muscles cramping up like the way it felt when I suffered heat cramps in my Thailand training in army. HAHA!
The difference is, it wasn't as bad...haha. I just stepped out of the pool, cool myself a bit and went back again. After the 2nd pool, I was alright already...If not, Zhi Sheng and Soon Hwee would have to evacuate me outta the place. HAHAHAHA!
Yup, the first kind of hot spring pool there is the rocky, natural kind...the other is the swimming pool kind shown in the picture below...also stolen from the web :D
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| Hot spring pool - type 2 :D |
The pool with the greenish water at the back is the COFFEE BEAN essence pool! LOL! I remember it pretty clearly because it was the most unique essence out of all those available there. Haha.
The clear pool is actually the MILK essence pool...I think they haven't add in the milk in the picture above..HAHA! When we were there, the water was totally milky and murky and A LOT OF AH MAs were inside it!! HAHAHA!
Throughout the whole dipping escapade, mainly Ting Yi and I were like spotting which pools to go to...We tried to avoid pools with too much ah-ma essence and ah-pek essence. HAHAHA!
OH OH OH! STORY TIME! At the coffee bean pool and milk pool (pictured above) we spotted a REALLY PRETTY and HOT china babe. Haha!
Jamie, Ting Yi, Zhi Sheng and myself were in the coffee bean essence pool and she was in the milk essence pool which is contiguous to ours :D Kah Wei, Gareth, Soon Hwee & Yong Qiang were in the milk essence pool with her! LOL!
Next thing, her ULTRA-FAT boyfriend stepped into the pool with her and they sat together and his arms were across her sizzling-hot shoulders. LOL LOL! There was like a live barbeque session there man...Fat arms + hot bod = cooked meat. HAHA!
Ok, so we were like looking at her and she caught us or mainly me looking at her! BACKSIDE TEAR! LOL! And guess what? After exchanging a few gazes, she took out her handphone and TOOK A PHOTO OF ME!!
We were like WHAT THE HECK?! HAHAHA! It should be the other way round...like...we take photo of her? LOL!
Zhi Sheng & Jamie were like "ORHHH! JONAVAN! You on her mafia hit-list already! The fat boyfriend and his gang mates gonna come and rape you!" LOL LOL!
Yeahhhh...Either I was really hot and attractive that she took a photo of me to commemorate my beauty or she was adding me to her hit list...HAHAHA!
SOOOO...conclusion? That's was an interesting encounter. LOL! And I'm still here typing this post...so that means that she probably added me to her "Hot guys" list instead of Hit-list. HAHAHA! KTHXBYE. LOL!
Yup, the whole place is littered with those two kinds of hot springs, each with their own unique set of minerals.
The rest of our time was spent playing VOLLEYBALL!! HAHAHA! There's a pool-volleyball inside that's located next to the water playground. We call it "The Frozen Playground". HAHAHA!
Below is a picture of the FROZEN PLAYGROUND also taken off the web....duh...Do you think we know those 2 china girls in the picture? LOL!
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| The Frozen Playground...haha |
Because our volleyball swimming pool is just beside this water playground, and because our volleyball skills are not that fantastic, we inevitably sent the ball into the water playground several times. HAHA! Several times is an understatement actually...we sent the ball there A LOT OF TIMES! LOL LOL!
I'm the main culprit actually. LOL! My best shot was when I sent the ball onto the platform before the slide. HAHA! NO ONE managed to do that. LOL!
Retrieving the ball is one heck of a nightmare. We'd have to get out of our warm volleyball swimming pool and enter the FREEZING WATERS of the frozen playground. HAHA!
That's how the water playground got its name actually...LOL. The water in the water playground is NOT HEATED -.-"
Nevertheless, we still had a whale of a time volley-balling :D We actually intruded into a middle-aged china couple who were happily tossing the ball to each other...we asked if we could join and they were happy to include us.
BUT, their happiness didn't last for long...HAHAHA! They ended up touching the ball a lot less and watching it fly out of the pool a lot more. HAHAHA!
Yeap...after volleyball-ing, we went to wash up and hurriedly headed to attack the FREE FOOD!! HAHA! Yeashhh...they provide free snacks and fruits - BUFFET STYLE :D
It's at the 3rd or top floor or something. There's a spread of oranges, watermelons, nuts, crackers and drinks...We were whacking non-stop! :D HAHAHA!
Amidst our kiasu whacking of the food, we managed to squeeze in a blurry photo of me and Kah Wei with the food :D HAHA!
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| Kah Wei with his watermelon slices and me with my nuts and crackers :D |
Yup, had a fantastic time of dipping and absorbing all sorts of minerals...including the ah-ma and ah-pek essence...HAHAHA!
Here's a few leaving shots of the place. And yes, it's a AAAA attraction! :D Not too bad eh? If we were ever to come back, I'd go earlier and leave later...cos it's a one time entry and one time payment :D
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| 4A attraction! :D |
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| Group shot outside the place :D |
Yup, back to the comfort of our AWESOME POSSUM hotel! :D And no, our day has far from ended :D We had dinner at this food court which is a 5 minute walk away from our hotel :D
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| Our dinner place :D |
We actually had no idea that this place existed. We actually went to the hotel's restaurant and the prices were wallet-tearing and we actually asked them "Got any cheaper alternatives nearby?" HAHA!
The staff were more than happy to bring us there! Wow, excellent service indeed. She actually walked us to our dinner place shown above.
Jamie was saying "Aiya, I think they inside got no customers so they don't want us to go in and give them work to do" HAHAHA!
Jamie has a point there...because the restaurant was really empty...HAHA! So she was probably really happy to get rid of us...haha!
They had like dim-sum there and it was SUPER CHEAP...Food in China is just...SO CHEAPPPP. LOL! Ok, excluding Shanghai, Beijing and other tier 1 cities. Here's a few interesting dim-sum dishes they are selling.
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| Pass an imperial examination congee!! LOL LOL! |
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| CORRUPTION GARMENT ROLL?! HAHAHA! |
That's what happens when you translate it word-for-word. Haha! Shown below is my sumptuous dinner order :D
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| Onion oil noodles + meat and a Chinese prata + 2 carrot cake slices :D |
Yes the onion oil noodles were GOOD. So were the carrot cake...but the prata thingy was kinda hard. I bit and pulled until my braces brackets almost flew out. HAHAHA!
Here's the best shot of the night :D We actually had dinner with the Japanese family :D These aren't the cutest moments of the 2 kids ok...you shall see later :D
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| All of us with the Jap family! :D |
The cutesy girl's name is Suzu and the cutesy-cool boy's name is Shou-da. We were too obsessed with her kids that we don't even know her name! LOL LOL!
The next activity was some cultural show. Tickets were given to us free of charge as part of the tour package. It costs 180元!
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| 黄山门 tickets! :D |
Shou-da, the lil' cute-cool boy wasn't feeling too good and didn't want to watch the show. So, his mum had to bring him back to the hotel room.
By bringing him back, that would mean she'd be late for the show...and that could result in her missing the show...On the other hand, her energetic and playful daughter Suzu is up and running about wanting to go and catch the show.
So, she left her daughter with us! :D She trusted us enough to care for her daughter :) Yup, we brought her in with us first and her mum came like 15-20mins later :D
The show was really good. The acrobatic stunts, flying acts, singing, acting, dancing, lights, music, narration, storyline, etc...were all interwoven very nicely.
The stage set was also massive. The stage could open up to reveal a big pool with a boat in it and the background of the stage could also open and reveal a waterfall with like...real water pouring down its slopes! Kinda thing?
I shall let the many snapshots of the whole show convey a small part of what actually took place :D Pictures are not captioned because...I don't know what to caption...too many pics to caption! LOL! Enjoy the visual feast! :D
Yeash, the stage set was awesome right? They even made it rain on stage! haha! In spite of its awesome-ness, Ting Yi who was seated on my left sort of dozed off and so did Jamie on my right I think. HAHAHA!
Ok, it's not the show that's boring, it's the seats that were too comfortable la huh...haha! And yeap, as usual, we'll end off with a group shot :D
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| Yong Qiang, Kah Wei, Me, Jamie, Ting Yi, Gareth, Zhi Sheng and Soon Hwee outside the theatre :D |
Yeap, that's how we ended our day...with a BOOM-BASTICALLY AWESOME SHOW :D haha! Now's the time to nua in our fantabulous hotel rooms :D
The next day is our ICE-SKIING DAY at 大明山!! :D This is how we fantastically started the day...
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| Breakfast buffet!! :D |
Yes, our hotel booking comes with the breakfast buffet! :) The spread was REALLY GOOD...As in, the variety was really good...but not the quality. LOL.
The food wasn't THAT fantastic...it was normal. The vast variety of western and local cuisines and the time limit we had left us in a real flustered state. HAHA!
So how? Jonavan-style: JUST WHACK! HAHA! LOL...Here's the few dishes I frantically whacked...
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| Dim sum goodies! :D |
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| Western goodies :D |
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| Anyhow whack! LOL! |
Yeah, we were trying our best to fill our tummies as full as possible because lunch IS NOT PROVIDED. Haha! When we're done we headed over to our tour van and rode over to 大明山 :D
The ride there was fun and filled with laughter because we were interacting with Suzu and Shou-da :D Gareth was like using Google translate on his phone to translate the statements he wants to make in Japanese. Haha!
We also learnt that the mum's daughter Suzu was brought up in China while her brother is brought up in Japan. That explains why Shou-da seldom interacts with us...because his command of the Chinese language ain't that good.
Their mum also speaks rather good Chinese and a tinge of English. But when she speaks with her kids, they will start rattling off in Japanese. Haha.
Oh! Suzu was like telling us who she really liked amongst the 8 of us. She was telling me "我喜欢她" and pointed at Jamie. Haha! I was like "为什么?" and she went "她很可爱" in a shy kinda way...SHE'S SOOO CUTEEE. HAHA!
I then asked her "你觉得谁最帅?" and she shyly pointed at Gareth without uttering a word...HAHAHA! As she pointed, she slouched further and further in her seat in utter shy-ness..HAHA!
We kept quizzing her and she also told us Kah Wei looked really stern and she was kinda scared of him. Here's the BEST PART OF THE STORY...
CHEEKY ME (as usual...LOL!), twisted her words and I was like "Kah Wei!" and when he turned around to look at us, I continued, "Suzu 讲她喜欢你!"
You should've seen the utter look of despair on her face. HAHAHA! She immediately squealed defensively in her cutesy high-pitched voice "我没有! 我没有!"
And with each "我没有!" she hammered my right shoulder with all her angry strength. HAHAHA! Everyone simply burst out into laughter at that SUPERR CUTE scene...Hahaha!
But she wasn't all that angry...after that we continued playing and talking with her and she was fine :D Soon enough, we reached our destination :D
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| Da Ming Shan welcomes you! Haha...Duh, you're welcoming our cash...LOL |
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| The registration counter :D |
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| Another 大明山 signboard :D |
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| It's a AAAA, 4A attraction! :D |
While waiting for the tour guide to get our tickets, we started a SNOWBALL FIGHT!! HAHAHA! It started with someone instigating Suzu to throw a snowball at me! HAHA!
The next two pictures should totally be stitched together into a GIF moving image...Haha! So try to see it as 1 moving image...LOL
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| Fire in the hole! |
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| *BEESSSHHHHHH* |
With that, we all started hurling snowballs at each other...but everyone was mainly interested in throwing it at me -.- HAHA! That's because I'm the most agile "adversary" there...hahaha!
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| My turn to fire! :D |
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| Me ready to dodge Suzu's artillery round...haha! |
After all the running around, evading snowballs and delivering them to my friends, I WAS SUPER HOTTT!! I was PERSPIRING!!! Like totally perspiring!!!
One way to really survive winter is to run around. #TRUESTORY. Been there, done that, sweat that. HAHA!
Yeah, we then headed to board a bus to take us up to the cable car station which is located rather high up there.
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| Pathway to the 大明山 bus :D |
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| We are on 大明山 bus 11! LOL! |
Yeap, that's our bus. Inside, I took off my scarf and down jacket and GUESS WHAT?! My ENTIRE BODY was STEAMING!! My whole body was emitting smoke! LOL LOL!
I looked TOTALLY COOL!! HAHAHA! Like those Naruto characters with their Chakra fully charged kinda thing? You could see my "aura"..HAHAHA!
Yes, that's how much I perspired! My entire inner shirt was soaked and my outer long sleeved shirt was half-soaked and spitting smoke...HAHA!
Anyway, the bus ride was HORRENDOUSLY DANGEROUS. The roads were SUPER WINDING and the bus is travelling at like 90km/h?
The best part is...the road is SUPER NARROW and it's a TWO-WAY ROAD!! The road width is just wide enough to fit 2 buses FYI!!
The video of the bus journey was captured in video by Gareth. You can watch the video for yourself and see how much faith we exercised while sitting on the bus...HAHAHA!
After that faith-breeding ride, we still had to walk a stretch of road to the cable car station...Along this 10 minute journey there were a few picture-worthy stuffs...
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| Walking to the cable car station! :D |
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| Me at a scenic look-out spot :D |
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| Frozen drainage system!! |
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| Icicles hanging from the rocks!! :D |
Yup, it was that cold...but not too cold. Haha. The entire place was snow strewn :) And we're not done with our journey to the cable car station yet -.- haha
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| Still walking... |
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| And walking...haha |
We knew we reached when we saw a makeshift food stall there :D haha...Really respect this woman who brought all her stuff all the way up here to cook and sell.
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| Street food at the cable car station! :D |
The scenery at the cable car station is SUPERR PRETTY!! There's like a waterfall + a lil dam there :D Peppered with tufts of snow, the whole waterfall looks really pretty :)
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| Waterfall! :D |
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| The beauty of the background can only be complete with me in it! :D HAHAHAHA! |
The cable car tickets were not included in the tour package >:( Expected la...a lot of hidden costs here and there...or maybe I didn't read the itinerary properly? LOL!
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| Cable car :D |
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| Group shot before we hopped on to the cable car :D |
The guy on the extreme right in the photo above is our tour guide :D He's also pretty young...early thirties at most I guess.
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| Tingyi, Me & Soon Hwee :) |
After the 5 - 10 minute cable car ride...we arrived!! :) Arrived at the landing station...The place is STILL A 5 MINUTE WALK AWAY -.-" haha...Ok, we basically reached la...haha
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| Ice-skiing arena! :D |
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| The scattered visitor...LOL!! |
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| Ting Yi, Gareth & Soon Hwee waiting for the rest to come out from toilet..haha |
Ohh, I forgot that Ting Yi during this period was sick. She actually vomited several times after the first day...so as you can see from the photo above, smiling wasn't too easy :/
Because she's sick, she didn't join us for the ice-skiing :( The sickness really took away her bubbly-ness and enthu jokes :( Oh well, she's fine after all :)
Yup, we were informed that if we exceed the time limit, we'll be charged for the next hour which is 200元!! And the lousy part of this tour is that...we were only given an hour to ice-ski -.-" Haha...However, we still went in full knowledge of that. LOL.
So no one to blame but ourselves because we gian the ice-skiing...HAHA! The worse part is when I found out Kai Sen and his Beijing gang bought some ice-skiing groupon for only like 90元 and they can ski the whole day at their Beijing skating place la...haha!
Ok, on to our ice-skiing escapade...After we got our ice-skiing cards we went ahead to get our ski boots! :D It's a tap card system there...so if you lose your card, BIG PROBLEM. All charges will be counted from the time you tap your card to borrow their equipment and the time you tap out upon returning.
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| Me in my SKI BOOTS :D |
Next we collected our skis and the ski support stick or whatever you call it. Haha! The next few pics are the most exciting moments of our lives :D
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| Jamie & I without our skis, yet :D |
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| Yong Qiang & I with our skis on :D |
Oh I almost forgot, there were A LOT of instructors there offering ski-lessons and we were persistently bugged by one of them -.-"
She was like telling us 200 bucks for 3 people...If no one teach you, you'll not be able to ski properly and it'll be impossible for you to go up simple slopes...etc...
I was tempted, but I knew I only had like an hour to ski. Haha! So to get an instructor is really a waste of money.
Anyway, her words rang true!! At the smallest of slopes, we couldn't get ourselves up and when going down small gradients, we didn't know how to brake, we'll just slide uncontrollably! LOL!
After trying to get up a lil slope for sometime, we finally gave up, took off our skis and walked up the slope in our ski boots. HAHAHA!
And my first accident didn't take too long to happen. HAHA! When I put back on my skis and started moving around, I encountered a lil' down slope and I STARTED SLIDING DOWN IT UNCONTROLLABLY!!!
I BANGED RIGHT SMACK INTO AN AUNTIE down the slope...she was holding the barricade thingy (it's in the next few pics below)...HAHAHA! I was like "对不起! 我无法控制我的滑雪!" And she was like "没问题, 没问题" HAHAHA!
Of course 没问题 la...I kena jiak ba sia! HAHAHAHA! JUST KIDDIN' :D LOL LOL! But that was my first and last accident :D Zai lorry la me :D HAHAHA!
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| Soon Hwee & I :D |
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| And you thought that skiing was the only activity up in 大明山? LOL LOL! |
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| Still us warming up to the skis :D |
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| Gareth, Yong Qiang, Me & Soon Hwee! :D |
For some reason, Gareth looks like some India Indian in the photo above...HAHAHAHA! Doncha think so too? LOL LOL!
After the monkeying around at the flat ground and training area, we decided to GO UP THE HILL or rather the long slope...And of course we didn't go up by ourselves...
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| Going up the slope on a conveyor belt :D |
The ride up the slope on the conveyor belt took a good 10 minutes. SUPER LONG! Getting bored, I took out my phone and snapped photos like the one above and the two below..haha!
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| Me on the conveyor belt up to the slope of death!! LOL! |
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| On the conveyor belt in my ski gear :D |
When I reached the top, we all took a last photo of ourselves in case we never get to take any more photos ever after the ride down...HAHAHAHA!
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| Me at the top of the SLOPE OF DEATH! LOL! |
The SLOPE OF DEATH is named that because...WE CAN'T SKI FOR NUTS and we're attempting a super long...maybe 3-4km slope down!
One by one they went before me...Yong Qiang went and 3 seconds later, fear overtook him and he sat down -.-" WOWS.
Next was Zhi Sheng who also sat down after about 5 seconds and Jamie followed suit and banged into his fallen body. LOL!
Kah Wei also went down but he got himself stuck at the side barricade...I think he veered to the extreme left and got caught in the barricade....haha.
The next hero was Soon Hwee...he went down and after like 15 seconds later...you couldn't see him any longer...He zoomed into the misty underworld...HAHAHA!
Yup, the end of the slope down can't be seen...HAHA! It's covered in cold mist...Left on the top of the slope now is Gareth and I.
I was NEXT. I actually went down by accident. HAHA! Was trying to position myself but ended up losing control and I ended up sliding down. HAHAHAHA!
So I just went with it. I stood up straight unlike the rest who tried to lean forward/bend down...The journey down was COLD and SCARILY FAST!!! A small bump would've resulted in a flying superman Jonavan. HAHA!
I was praying ALL THE WAY...on the conveyor belt up, I was already asking God to protect his lil' crazy adventurous child who attempted something he knew was near suicidal. HAHA!
In that 5 minute speedy journey down, I was totally trying to maintain my balance and I was thinking of the shit that would happen if I bang into someone at that speed.
I was imagining how that person would be killed by me...haha! Or if I banged into a tree or something...I was thinking of how to do E-brake and stop...etc...
Next thing I knew...I MADE IT DOWN UNSCATHED!! HALLELUJAH!!! HAHAHA! And I was the ONLY ONE WHO MADE IT DOWN WITHOUT FALLING! HAHAHA!
*SLOPE SKI ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED*
I thought Soon Hwee made it too but after trying to find him at the "landing" area for like 10minutes...I figured returning the ski gear would be a wiser choice...in case I exceeded the time limit and forfeit 200元. Haha!
Upon returning everything and gathering back together and hearing each other's stories, I realized I was the only one amongst the 8 of us to have the "slope ski achievement" unlocked! LOL!
The sad thing about it is, it's only a pathetic one hour -.-" But it was quite a fun experience :) I wouldn't mind doing it again and really learn how to ski instead of just relying on God's grace to see through. Haha!
Yup, after the ski, we were PERSPIRING LIKE MADDDD!! It's really tiring actually...because we exerted a lot of upper body strength on the ski handles and maintaining balance took a lot of calve and thigh muscles.
Removing our down coats revealed plumes of smoke being emitted from our hot bodies! HAHAHA! Hot from the physically strenuous skiing. *CHAKRA round 2* LOL!
We then ate like those instant bowl noodles at their canteen. I sat with the Jap family and the tour guide and we were chatting about how we got to where we are today...haha! Sounds philosophical..but nah...just a chat on our jobs, studies and all. Haha.
After a mini-meal, we headed down to our mini-bus to go down the not-so-mini 大明山. HAHAHA! And I just realized that the video of our mini bus ride above is actually the ride down. Haha! Same same la...haha!
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| Boarding the mini-bus to go back :) |
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| Yong Qiang, Soon Hwee, Me & Suzu on the bus :D |
Always before the journey ends, a group shot is taken...Haha. Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). LOL! Here's our group shots on the way back down :D
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| All of us :) |
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| Take 2 :D |
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| All of us at 大明山's main entrance :) |
And before we left, we left our dearest trip companion with a lil' gift from 大明山...a lil' cutesy farewell gift :'(
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| A SNOWMAN!! :) :) |
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| Suzu take 2 with her lil' gift :) :) |
When our tour bus reached Shanghai, Zhi Sheng and Jamie gave Suzu a big huggg :) I would've but they were like rushing off so...yeah. And if everyone hugged her, I think she'll be traumatized? HAHAHA! Just kiddin' LOL!
Yup, we had an awesome timeeee and the Jap family really added flavour to an otherwise nominal adventure.
We're all having Suzu-withdrawal symptoms and Gareth even put his picture with Suzu as his Facebook display picture! HAHAHA!
Throughout the trip Gareth was already revealing his pedophilia by being obsessed with her. HAHAHAHA! Ok la...she was just too cute. LOL!
And oh, that's how Gareth got his nickname - Pe-Po-Koala. HAHAHA! Gareth looks like a koala bear...LIKE TOTALLY. And he always has this poker face even while cracking jokes. And yeah...his pee-dophile ways...HAHA!
Put them together and you get Pe-Po-Koala! LOL! A term wittily coined by Ting Yi! LOL!
So yeah, had a great trip...many more posts to comeeee! No time to blog them all! :) :) Stay tuned! :D
