storytelling

23rd June 2010. Shanghai.

Woke up late because of the Greece versus Argentina game the previous night. Lazed around until late afternoon before pulling myself out of the couch and head for some photo-shooting so that my Alpha can redeem itself for missing out on 田子坊 and 外滩. So I left my house with m tripod and Alpha, praying that it wouldn’t go to sleep suddenly again. Guess it’s good to explore around myself a bit, so that I can take my time with the shots. Took the train to 泰康路 and hung around 田子坊 for awhile. Pretty interesting to see old Shanghainese people still leaving there, while most of the buildings are converted to souvenir shop, bars and boutiques. It gave a reminiscence of 798 Art District in Beijing when we visited it. Chat up with this Austrian girl who once studied in NTU, before walking all way to 新天地. Moved out for 外滩 when night fall as I snapped my way down till I found a train that goes home. Reached home just in time to catch England play Slovenia and packed for Suzhou the next day.

22nd June 2010. Shanghai.

Saw Wenyi off at the bus stop before heading back to Kunying’s. Felt a sudden surge of emotions and fear as I sat alone in the room. So I decided to not travel alone to 苏州 and join Vivian and Jingxin earlier in Shanghai instead. That means extending my stay in a city that I don’t particularly like. Went out with Vivian and her friend at night as I began to feel better. We went to this place near 新天地 to eat before heading over to 新天地 and realised that it really wasn’t the place for us because everything there is so expensive! The place is filled with restaurants and bars and boutique shops that seemed to blow a hole in my pocket. Left 新天地 and headed for some yummy yogurt ice cream before going back to my new dwelling in Shanghai.

21st June 2010. Shanghai.

Picked up Alpha early in the morning and prepare for Day Number 2 at the Expo. I realise that going to the Expo is like going to war. You need a weapon, for me it’s my camera and tripod, and then you need rations because buying food inside is crazy (ie 25rmb for laksa at the Singapore Pavilion). And then you need physical strength and mental toughness, to counter the queue cutting China population and endure the many hours queuing for your favourite pavilions. So with all that, we begin the Expo at the Denmark Pavilion, where they brought the Little Mermaid over. then it was the Norway Pavilion and the Sweden Pavilion. I think I spent almost 4-5 hours attacking these Scandinavian pavilions. Switzerland was the fun one because at the end of the exhibits, there’s this cable car ride INSIDE the pavilion that leads all the way up to the roof of the Pavilion. How cool is that! Queued for 1.5hrs for the British Pavilion - probably one of the most interesting design and facade at the Expo. It was made up of hundreds of thousand of acrylic rods, each housing a seed of a plant. Lots of effort in there. Chilled at the deck of the pavilion before deciding to do a night attack at the Korean Pavilion. Arriving at around 8pm, we were still expected to wait for another 1.5hrs before we can go in. Lucky for us, we caught the last movie screening inside and just took our time with the high-tech exhibits.

19th June 2010. Shanghai.

Rushing all the way from 华腾园 to the 动车 at 北京南 was really a challenge, especially with that load of luggage - almost 30kg in all. Me and Wenyi made it just in time, the train seemed to know they were lacking 2 very very late passengers I hope. And there we were, 2 minutes later watching 北京 zoomed past in the dark. That was how I left 北京, somehow I wished I didn’t have to - not at least in that rush. But 10 hours later it was ‘Hello 上海!’, and I finally set foot on this city which I visited 10 years ago. Met up with Kunying at his place and set off to explore around after a brief rest. My first impression of 上海 was that it had grown to become really expensive, and things were put up and enforced because of the World Expo. Road marshals were plentiful to make sure the Chinese habit of jay walking can be curbed and booths were everywhere giving infomation on the Expo. Went to 人民广场 before my day was interrupted when my Alpha decided to go on strike. So I had to content with sightseeing at 田子坊, while frantically trying to looking for Sony Shanghai and finally sending it for repair. Refreshed at Ikea before heading to 外滩 see the changes that have taken place over the last 10 years at 上海’s financial district. Bad camera and a swelling gum at the side of my mouth ruined the day.

15th June 2010. Hohhot, Inner Mongolia.

The city is just so much different from the last 2 days I’ve stayed in Inner Mongolia. It’s hot (but not as hot as the desert), and it’s a lot less interesting. Does’t have the kind of interesting things we do on the grassland like horse riding, watching Mongolian wrestling and horse racing. And it doesn’t have the fun I had when I rode camels and did sand sliding in the desert. It’s just historical buildings that ain’t really historical, and a newly built museum that looked a little out of place in a city that don’t really look that developed. But the museum was a good place for new knowledge though - like learning about the dinosaurs that once exist in China, the Chinese space program, and the life of the Mongolians and Genghis Khan. Left for Beijing in the evening thinking that if only all of Inner Mongolia was just that piece of grassland where people lead simple and carefree, but contented lives.

14 June 2010. Inner Mongolia.

The sunrise on a cold morning in the grassland bade us farewell as we headed to the desert. It’s kinda interesting that this tour we’ll be dwelling in 3 different terrains – the grassland, desert and city. There was a huge jam on the way to the desert, leaving us to watch this Chinese drama that depicts the life of Genghis Khan, the hero of the grassland even in modern times. But because of the jam, when we got to the desert we were only left with less than 2 hours of playtime. 响沙湾 is the name of the desert and the tour guide said that the desert will produced some noise when we slide down the sand slide. Wary of the time and budget, almost all of us took the camel ride and did a sand slide. Having ridden a horse for over an hour the day before, the pain in my ass was still giving me lots of trouble on the camel back even though I must say that the latter is a lot more comfortable and gentle. But I felt the best part of the desert must be the sand slide. Sitting on a piece of wood, we were able to slide down the sand slope of around 70 degrees steep. Exciting stuff but nope, no noise from the sand when everyone slide down the slope, except for an occasional scream from the girls. Before night fall, we head back to the city for the last day tour within the city of Hohhot.

13 June 2010. Inner Mongolia.

For the first of my post GIP trip, it was a trip to Inner Mongolia! After yet another lousy night on the 硬座 of the overnight train, it was finally Hohhot in the morning. And the first day of the itinerary was a good day at the grassland. All of us expected bad weather because of the inaccurate MSN weather website, but it turned out to an extremely good day for outdoor activities! Inner Mongolia is a region for the 蒙古族, but only 17% of it’s population are 蒙古族, and even so, many of them are already influenced by Han culture (汉化). So much of an irony for a land where the great Genghis Khan once ruled and built his enormous empire. And to experience the life of the race that once ruled the grassland with their horses, we did the exact same thing - horse riding. That 1 plus hour of horse riding to attractions was great, but my butt paid a heavy price for it. I can’t sit properly after that! That evening we watched Mongolian wrestling and horse riding, and feasted on lamb ribs and slept in 蒙古包, preparing for sunrise the next day.

The final day at 清华 finally came. It was a day when our Mother Tongue was put to the test, having to make a presentation in Chinese, and it was also the last time we see each other in the same classroom again. Guess everyone was looking forward to this day, get the presentation over and done with - some of us just can’t wait to travel, while others just want to go home as soon as possible. Me, Ter, Jingxin and YC entertained the crowd with our 四大美女, while Jacq and Co. did a fun one on Chinese Opera. At the end of the day, it was time for one last family picture before Shuyu leaves for 苏州 at night. Though it was not written on our faces, many of us did felt nostalgic as we parted, and head out of the different gates of 清华, whatever it is, we were once classmates of 5 months on this foreign land.

It was an unusual morning to school today, as me and Terence faithfully accepted that fact that we have to be there somehow. But fortunately China’s Ethnic Minority was a great lesson, even though it felt like the teacher was trying to share her travelling experiences with us towards the end of class. One of the places she mentioned actually caught my attention, 茶马古道 ,and I just couldn’t stop thinking about the possibility of heading there for grad trip next year. 2 weeks trek/walk/horse-riding/mini-van. Exciting! Chinese Painting was what followed after lunch and it was fun! Haven’t been doing chinese painting for some time and it was just good to mess around the rice paper and ink. Headed over to 南锣鼓巷 to meet up with Wenyi and shopped for souvenirs while showing her around. Found some little treasures that I can buy back finally. But first, it’s back to the reports, and a little more sleep.