heyya jojo!: {travelogue} Shanghai diary [part ONE]

I'm back from one of the memorable trips again! Kind of bummed that I didn't update my blog about my Hong Kong and Bali trip last year. But it's alright.

At least I'm doing a Shanghai one. HAHA.

Anyways, this is the information about the trip :

Duration : 8 days 7 nights
Date : 19th December 2011 ~ 26th December 2011
Type of holiday : Tour
Weather : Cold, but not snowing. High : 12°C, Low : 0°C
Season : Winter
Currency : RMB (Ren Min Bi or Yuan). 1 RMB = RM0.50 , 10 RMB = RM 5 (it's divided into half!)

This tour is under Apple Tours, which is quite reputable for its good programs and all (and since we went with Apple to Japan two years ago) , so we decided to give Shanghai a try with Apple.

But this time, it doesn't come out so good.

(Read on to find out ;D )

**ALL THE PICTURES ARE CREDITED TO MY SISTER, JO ANN AND MY MUM AND SOME FROM ME :D

1st Day : KLIA - Pudong Int'l Airport, Shanghai - Suzhou

Woke up at 5.15am in the morning, all ready and set to go to KLIA for our flight which is at 9am.

Reached KLIA, and we waited at the check-in for our tour guide. She was late lololol.

Bumped into my dad's old friend, and they catched up about life and everything. Because of that, we didn't get to go MPH and get our Cafe Latte from Coffee Bean :(

We ended up at some cafe eating their lousy toast for breakfast.

They can't even spell Soya Bean right lolol.

Anyway, went to our gate at 8.30am and got ready to board the plane! :D

View from my window!

Ready ready ready for the takeoff! (Take Off by 2PM)

Running on the runway!

4 and a half hours in the plane, sleeping, listening to music ...

Time to destination 3 hours and 32 minutes.

Chyeaaah, K-POP in the plane hahaha!

The whole list of BIGBANG's songs in their Japanese album!

In-flight breakfast. "Malaysian rice" they call it. It's actually Nasi Lemak. LOL.

How cute, the peanuts and anchovies are all stuffed into this small container :D

Air-steward: Do you want Malaysian rice?
Me: What IS Malaysian rice?
Air-steward: Nasi Lemak!
Me: OHHHH. I didn't know that Malaysian rice IS Nasi Lemak.
Air-steward: I thought you were a foreigner so I didn't call it Nasi Lemak!

But if we were to literally translate Nasi Lemak, it'd be like.....

"Do you want some Fat Rice?"

Anyway so we were reaching....

I can see the seaaaaaa!

When we touched down at Pudong Int'l Airport, it was around 1.30pm-ish.

I can feel the cold already...

Got our luggage from the carousel and all by 2pm :) (By that time the sun was starting to set. You know how it is in cold countries, the daylight is shortened)

Yes, that's our tour guide with the 'Apple' board. LOLOL.

Their vending machines ain't as cute as Japan's one :(

Then we boarded the bus, and got introduced to our tour guide, Mr. Han. He's a local guide from Shanghai. The journey from Pudong Airport to Suzhou was at least an hour long, if I'm not mistaken.

Random picture of him LOLOL.

Leaving!

Angry Birds in a red car! Now we know where we get all the birds from.

A little info about Suzhou;

Suzhou is major city located in the southeast of Jiangsu Province in Eastern China, located adjacent to Shanghai Municipality. The city is situated on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and on the shores of Taihu Lake. Administratively, Suzhou is a prefecture-level city with an urban population of over 4 million expanding to over 10 million in the administrative area. - wikipedia.org

The first place we stopped at was at Suzhou Times Square. We only went there for sightseeing, to take pictures of the night lights and all. Pretty view! It was quite dark as it was already 4.30pm-5pm.

Roads of Suzhou.This place is practically empty.

But it was super cold since we didn't wear our thermals. So we were practically freezing our legs off while trying to take beautiful pictures. It is actually a mall, but we weren't really given any time to go explore :/ Well yknow how tours are.

At each city we go to, we'll be appointed with a local tour guide. (Besides Mr. Han). For our Suzhou visit, a lady tour guide was the one in-charge. I kinda forgot her name, but my sister and I called her the 'scumbag tour guide' (People who read 9gag will know this :P). Why we call her that? You'll find out sooner or later. HAHA.

We had dinner after that. We tried the 'Hairy crabs', which is one of the Suzhou delicacy. But according to my dad, that crab ain't fresh lolol.

The restaurant :)

Oohh.

Some kind of corn soup.

Eat, eat, eat.

Then we went to see the night view while walking back to our bus. It was really really cold that night.

Arrived at the Howard Johnson hotel, at 8pm.

"Hear those sleigh bells jingling, ting ting tingling too~"

Huge room for my sister and I. AWW YEAAAH.

Washed up and slept immediately lolol. Was too tired!

2nd Day : Suzhou - Nanjing

Good morning Suzhou!

Nice comfy toilet :P

Oh and since it's a tour, we only got to stay one night in each hotel! :( (Not including Hangzhou and Shanghai, we got to stay two nights each)

The door-card reader.

Had our first breakfast in Shanghai!

Walking to the cafe.

YAY.

The buffet was pretty good. Lots of western stuff for breakfast like waffles, sausages and pancakes. Yummm.

Dad took and kept some boiled eggs in case we were hungry. Thanks dad :) , then we actually named the eggs - Howee. You know how we got the name? Howard Johnson became Howee. HAHA.

So my dad will ask us "Are you hungry? Do you want Howee?" HAHAHA. So adorable.

We then checked out from Howard Johnson hotel, and boarded the bus while they loaded our luggages. I'm gonna miss this hotel :(

Then the 'scumbag tour guide' came into our bus and started talking and talking about the places and all.

Street view!

We visited the Master of Net Garden. Pretty place heh.

Walking to that place.

Following our "scumbag tour guide" :P

Here we are! :D

After sightseeing for an hour or so, we went back up the bus and the tour guide started talking about the greatness of SILK. Why silk? Because we were later brought to the silk factory to buy silk. And she was telling us that we'll miss out all the awesomeness if we didn't buy one home.

OHH BUT I DIDN'T BUY ANY. Does it mean that I ain't awesome anymore? :(

We weren't allowed to take any photos while in the silk factory, so I shall take some from Google :P COPYRIGHTS BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS. I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE PICTURES.

The awesomeness of their silk.

Then the 'scumbag tour guide' asked us to hold a pen each and forced us to fill the forms to buy them. We were like ermwearenotinterested, but then she kept insisting that we did it. But we were strong so we walked away. Most of them didn't buy them too and we all boarded the bus without buying anything. Then she got pretty pissed, and said to us:

'Whoa, you guys are a pretty special batch of people. You guys made me so disappointed'.

FUNNY RIGHT. It's as though we go for a holiday to buy her silk lololol. What is life.

Then we had lunch, and she was all black-faced that time.

Chinese food all the wayyyyy!

We went to Hanshan Temple after that, and I tell you, things weren't pretty. We were taking pictures and all, and she SCOLDED us for taking pictures and not listening to her. :/

Yeah because we didn't buy her silk lol

Anyway, Hanshan temple!

Then we left to Nanjing later (phew, not gonna see her anymore), and she didn't even say goodbye to any of us. Forreaall, seriously?

It was a 2 hour ride in the bus from Suzhou to Nanjing. Took our naps, haha!

Dad drew a random doodle of 'Howee', the egg. HAHAHA.

And I drew a random doodle of the 'ALL' guy! :P

Close enough :D

A little info about Nanjing;

Nanjing is the capital of Jiangsu province in China and has a prominent place in Chinese history and culture, having been the capital of China on several occasions. Its present name means "Southern Capital". - wikipedia.org

We went to Zhongshan Mountain as our first destination. So colddddd, but really nice! Oh, and we were introduced to our local tour guide, whose name is Ms. Zhao. She's pretty and nice! That's why I remembered her name, HAHA! Kidding :P Well she's much better than that scumbag tour guide for sure ;)

We took a "train" up the mountain. Oh, we spoiled city people.

Going up!

Woooh. Reached. 5 minutes, that's it.

Mr. Han photobombed!

THE toilet.

Some toilets smell like a petting zoo. Just sayin'.

Temples.

And temples.

Staaaaairs.

Artistic shot by my sister, woot!

Stairs, and temples.

Stairs.

Had our dinner after that.

Awesome restaurant because it has dangling Santas from the ceiling.

HOHOHOOOOOOO~~

HIHIIHIHIHII~

HAHAHAHA~~

HUHUHUHUHU~~

Yeah I'm using my stalker camera phone to stalk those Santas :D !

Then we headed to Confucius Temple, which that time was already at night. And that area is a shopping area! :D So we did some shoppppping!

The history says that one side is the prostitute house, and the other side is the place where scholars do their exams.

IRONIC HUH.

People, people, people!

I bought a new Paul Frank phone cover!

Hehehe

And we saw McDs! Omg! They have Tiramisu McFlurry. Hoomg. I couldn't resist trying new stuff, so I quickly ordered it even though it was 4 degrees celcius outside. HAHA.

Coffee flavoured swirl, with crunchy cookie bits! LOVEE.

I want Malaysia to have it too :(

Cold air, and bright surroundings with bustling people and energy. LOVING IT!

We bought McChicken set for supper hehehehe. So tasty after so many meals of Chinese food.

At night we stayed at Nanjing Jinling Hotel. It was pretty outskirts-ish, so mehhh. No convenience stores around. Booo.

Had a pretty fun night with my sister, hahahah. Joking and laughing around in our hotel room, ish. I love you boooo! :P

3rd Day : Nanjing - Wuxi

Good morning Nanjing!

Had a buffet breakfast in the hotel. Not as good as the Howard Johnson's one in Suzhou.

BUT the best thing was.. I met my online friend from Australia whom I've been close to and talking to for 3 years there! We practically screamed and went all crazy! It was FATE that brought us together omg.

The first thing we did was, stopped by the JADE shop. We were forced to shop, like the silk one in Suzhou.

Do you see the pattern now? At every city we go to, we must at least stop at one of these shops. Because the local tour guide is getting commission from all these! And before they bring you there, they will tell you how good a product is so that you'll buy it.

Imagine the first place you go in the morning is a Jade shop. How depressing. Read this to find out more about how they brainwash you :P

We spent at least 2 hours there. More 'shopping' time, less sightseeing time. MEH. :/

Then after that, we went to the Yangtze River Bridge, which has a lot of history and significance. Nice view and misty cold weather~

Pretty tour guide heh.

Then we were told the history of this long bridge and how it was made, really interesting.

The bridgeeeeeee!

Random picture of a Hong Kong tour guide who risks himself to take a picture of his tour people. Such a nice tour guide lol.

Had lunch after that at a mall looking building. They have Papa Johns, Pizza Hut and everything but we ended up walking into a Chinese restaurant again lololol.

OOH A MALL! CAN WE SHOP?! --

Nah we're just eating lunch.

This picture is not meant for my hand, but meant for that hot waiter behind it ;)

I bumped into my online friend from Australia again! :D

Left Nanjing afterwards and headed to Wuxi. It was a three hour journey! A little suffering since the bus didn't stop for toilet breaks lol. -.-

A little information about Wuxi;

Wuxi is an old city in Jiangsu province, China. Split in half by Lake Tai, Wuxi borders Changzhou to the west and Suzhou to the east. Wuxi was also dubbed "little Shanghai" because of its close proximity to the city, rapid urbanization and booming economy. - wikipedia.org

The first place we stopped at is Lingshan Grand Buddha, which is a mountain that holds a super huge Buddha statue.

Standing solemnly at the site of famous Tang Dynasty Xiangfu Temple, the Grand Buddha is pleasing to tourists, widely looking at all the living creatures. The left and right hands have hand print with "wish", wishing the world happy and welfare and the character on the Buddha's front chest represents solemnity and virtue. With the nearby Lake Taihu and a beautiful range of hills, the Lingshan Buddha is a symbol of Wuxi and attracts visitors nationally and internationally. - wuxi.jiangsu.net

We sat on a buggy-thingy to go to the Buddha statue. Hahaha yes oh so pampered people.

Awesome shot by my sister!

There was a musical fountain performance too; it's actually a story about the dragons and Buddha.

Wooosh!

Baby Lord Buddha! :)

Visited the Lingshan Fangong, which is like a huge palace which has a fancy interior where monks gather. Pretty place, super nice for photography.

We have to wear shoe covers in this building as a respect to the floor~

Interior!

Praying room? I'm not sure but the floor can turn!

The baskets to throw your shoe covers

My family and I thought we were done visiting the whole place after 20 minutes, but actually we only saw 40% of it. LOL! We didn't know at first, but then suddenly Mr. Han suddenly came to us and said "I'VE BEEN TRYING TO FIND YOU GUYS! You didn't see the whole place yet!" And we were like "OHOHOHO OK OK OK OK,"

Went to dinner after that. Dad was pretty grumpy since the food we had were 90% veggies without meat dishes.

When we arrived at the hotel, the first thing we did was to hunt for a convenience store which was within the radius of our hotel. Thank God we found it.