杭州 - 西湖 + 千岛湖 + 乌镇

Just found some posts in my drafts that haven't been posted for like...THREE YEARS! LOLOL...So, imma just post it even though it's incomplete...because...I don't think I'll ever have the time to complete it :( Unless I become a full-time blogger and traveler or something :( haha

Yup, enjoy this 2013 post!

This is the sequel to our 黄山醉温泉 + 大明山滑雪 trip! :D It's the PART 2 of our CNY one week holiday! :D Yep, this is how the other half of our CNY 1 week holidays were spent :) Our 杭州 trip spanned 12th - 14th Feb if I remember correctly. Haha.

For the benefit of those whose command of Chinese is really weak, lemme pinyin out the title of this blog post: 杭州 (Hangzhou) - 西湖 (Xi Hu) + 千岛湖 (Qian Dao Hu) + 乌镇 (Wu Zhen). In Hangzhou, we visited the west lake, thousand island lake and an old water-town called Wu Zhen.

Once again, we went on a tour package by Ctrip, which is more colloquially known as 携程. According to the locals, their tours are super exx but it has quite a lot of options and you can pay for the tour online by international credit card unlike 驴妈妈 and 同程, which only accepts their own local China bank cards -.-

Off we were on our tour bus that we boarded at 人民广场 in the wee hours of the morning, like 7am. This is what our tour bus looked like.

On the tour bus :D

It’s not like our previous tour where we had a cosy little mini-bus to ourselves and 3 other people L haha! LOL!

Our first stop is西湖! :D It’s one of the most famous lakes in China. Xi Hu is a household name here in China. We disembarked our bus and hopped on to our boat that’ll be taking us around 西湖 :D

Me on the boat to go around 西湖 :D

From our boat we snapped many other boats, sights and sceneries :D The next few pictures are pictures of us on the boat.

Taking pic of boats from our boat...haha

Still boat-shooting :D

With a picture of the bank :D

Me on the boat :D

Only Yong Qiang and I caught the camera's eyes :D

At the boat's deck :D

The Venture peeps + Soon Hwee :D

Still shooting photos of me on the boat :D haha

All of us on the boat! :D

Yup, reached the shore :D

We finally reached some other bank or side of the island and went to see the pretty gardens, flowers and water.

The pathetic part of this trip is that IT’S SUPER MISTY!! We came to see 西湖 and all we ended up seeing is 模糊…HAHAHA! 都是一片模糊!!

We’ve heard of 西湖’s beauty but I guess we came in the wrong season. It was still winter and the flowers have yet to bloom. Haisss, so blame it on us for choosing the wrong date to visit such a beautiful place L haha!

Nevertheless, we still had fun and still managed to capture some pretty sights here and there J In the picture below you see Gareth blowing some whistle thingy? Yup, it's only 1元 so they bought it -.- HAHA! I didn't buy it.

Gareth blowing his 1元 whistle and Tingyi is really amused by it..haha :D

Picture at some old-school looking arch..haha

All of us! :D

Me at some bridge over the waters :D

Still posing around :D haha!

The interesting thing is, they have a lil' farm there for who-knows-why...HAHA! There were chickens and peacocks running around if I remember correctly..haha! Yup, a random pic of me with the farm below :D

Me with the farm :D

Still randomly taking photos at random sights..haha

Garden :D

Take 2 :D

Reflection :D

We were actually lost...the tour group went ahead of us while we were behind snapping photos so we were literally just wondering around not knowing where were we, what the place name is, etc...I think this is one big regret of mine...haha!

Cos I don't know what to talk about while typing this post...HAHAHA! The rest of the trips were are DIY so we're all more in control and know what's going on :D

Next up was dinner at some restaurant arranged by the tour group. It cost us only 25元 if I remember correctly and the number of dishes served is....WOWSSSS...haha!

While waiting for our food to come, I went to take a picture of their backyard...This is where they store their cooking ingredients and all...

Food storage area! :D

And we were rushing for time...we only had like 20+ minutes to eat? So we didn't have time to take a group photo at the place with our food :( Bad thing about tour is like that... :( And we didn't finish our food :( :( Kthxbye. Haha!

And here are some food stuffs we bought...those dragon beard cookies - 龙须酥 or 龙须糖. They're really nice but really sticky and starchy.

Dragon beard sweets/cookies :D

Another pack :D

There's a reason why they're called dragon beard cookies/sweet. Because the sweet really has a longgggg beard! HAHA! Here's a few close up shots of it and myself with the beard-y sweet :D HAHA!

The sweet! :D

See the beard stickin' outta my mouth? Haha!

Ok, moving on...this is a really famous attraction in 杭州...their Silk exhibition -.-" LOL! It was really a money-making place...HAHA!

They will try to sell you their silk products and all...Ok, the process of them making the silk and the machines used and all is interesting...

Me at the silk factory exhibit or 丝展

The different kinds of silk :D

Silk machines :D

Balls of silk!!

The silk clothes and dresses they're selling are really, really nice and soft to touch. The material is really super smooth and soothing..Here's a lil' drama shot by me to illustrate it. HAHA!

Me feeling out the silk dress :D HAHA!

LOL-pose. HAHA!

The material's pretty fine but the price is NOT. HAHAHA! Super expensive! Few hundred SGD for one piece I think. Wallet tear! LOL!

The best part of the whole thing is...you get to EAT the SILKWORM!!! LOL! Here's a picture of me before attempting the whole fried worm!

Me with the fried silkworm in my hand! :D

It tasted horrible. It was really smelly and somewhat repulsive. It had a like...rotten taste. Drank quite a fair bit of water after that..HAHA!

Next stop is another famous attraction in 杭州...their tea leaves factory -.-" Another want-to-suck-your-money place...haha!

They gave a lecture on the tea leaves, its orgin, how they're planted and all...and during their tea leaves lecture session, they passed around cups of tea for you to taste...

Me with my cuppa chinese tea :D

The lecture got really boring so Ting Yi and Soon Hwee got things going with each other...HAHAHA! :D Just kiddin :D Soon Hwee will kill me for this...HAHAHA! :D

How tea bonds people...haha! *wow* caption. LOL

干杯! Cheers! :D

After the lecture and after a few rounds of tea, they were selling the tea leaves and people were flocking around to buy it.

As for us? We're out and taking photos :D Haha! The more I blog the more I regret joining the tour man...We should've just DIY-ed like how we did for the subsequent trips -.-" HAHA!

Tingyi, Me, Gareth & Soon :D

Our next stop? 灵隐寺...It's some really huge temple with lotsa nice pagodas and chinese-triangular buildings...Haha. Here's a shot of us before we entered the place :D

En route to 灵隐寺

Grand entrance...haha

Decipher their 草书 (cursive)! HAHA!

Ling Yin Temple :D