Day 3 To YangTze! (6th March 2009)

Day 3
We woke up earlier today. As we have to for our 3 days trip to Yangtze River. We packed our stuffs which will last us 1 day in Singapore. As we decided that since it was cold, we will not bathe for a few days.
We met Ms Wang at the gate where a bus was stationed, which will bring us to Yi Chang where the ferry terminal was located.

We sat in the bus for 4 hrs. It was a pleasant ride as the scenery outside was good. Yellow flowers filled the lands, which I later found out that these plants are used in making cooking oil.
Upon arrival at Yi Chang, it was dinner time. We went to a restaurant,which the tour guide brought us. Her name is Ms Tan. As we take our seat, we waited for the dishes to arrive. We were received with 11 dishes on the table with a balance of fish, meat, vegetables & soup. In all, 11 dishes was served. However we only had 10 people at our table. The eyes of the girls almost popped out as they start nagging about how fat they will be after the trip.
We boarded the cruise called, Yin Yue Liang. Its a 4 star cruise. The rooms are cosy and good. Fortunately, my room is located just beside the back roof. So I can just easily go out for a nice cool breeze. However, it was dark outside so we didn’t manage to see anything, beside lights. Along the way, we saw many bridges which are excellently constructed. Therefore we deduced that China people are masters in construction of bridges. The bridges were lighted up beautifully. It was simply magnificent.
As it was dark and had nothing to do on the ship, we decided to have an early night.
It was just a day of travelling.

Day 2 Venturing Into The Lands (5th March 2009)

Day 2
In the morning, it was freezing cold. We realised we didn’t turned on the heater! How foolish are we.

We reported at the gate at 0900hrs. Meeting Mr Wee, other travel mates and Ms Wang, teacher from WIT and also our guide for the trip. Ms Wang brought us to purchase our China phone card so that everybody is accessible to their family back in Singapore. However, only a few of us purchased it.
Ms Wang then brought us to have our breakfast. We went to the food market opposite of our school. My friends and I see this stall which sells Dry and Spicy Noodles and had a long queue. Being typical Singaporeans, we decided to go for the safer choice and queued for it too!

The portion was huge! In the bowl, it has noodles, spring onions & Sauce. It cost us 2.5 RMB approximately S$0.60. It was delicious, dry & super spicy. We enjoyed our breakfast and made our way to our lecture hall to get familiarise with the way.
On the way to the lecture room, me and friends we chatting about why when we say thank you to some china people, their face will turn hostile. We were wondering throughout the walk to the lecture room. And came out with an idea, we decided to observe the locals and learn what we should and should not do.

At 11am, Ms Wang then brought us to Carrefour. We took the public bus. Bus stops were located close to each other. Which I had no idea why. Each bus stop would only take 3 minutes to reach. In the bus, it had a speaker which would tell us which stop we are in. It’s the speaker which we always hear in Singapore’s MRT.

Upon arrival, Mr Wee gave us 3 hours to do our shopping for necessities and assemble at the ground floor. In Carrefour, imported goods had almost the same price as Singapore goods, only slightly cheaper. However, goods made in China were cheap as hell. We bought loads of stuff from food to washing powders.

Hearing that Macdonalds in China are delicious, we headed to there for high tea. The food there, were slightly cheaper, probably S$2 cheaper than what we have in Singpore. Me, being not every supportive of Macdonalds food, had only fries so I do not know how they fare.

We then headed back to our hostel at 4 pm. We settled down, get everything done. The clock hit 7 pm quickly and it was time for dinner.

We headed down to a restaurant; we ordered something like 8 dishes. Mr Wee insist that we should not order fish as it have a smelly smell to it. When the food arrived, almost every dish has blackwood fungus in it. Probably, the country, have abundance of it. I also realise, the country only uses chilli powder and do not have chilli sauce. They only sauce they have are tomato sauce, BBQ sauce, etc, but not chilli sauce. The dish that left a lasting impression on me was the dish which had loads of chilli in it. The chilli is short and fat which we don’t see in Singapore. In that dish, the chilli is mixed with small pieces of chicken. The chicken is fried in a way that it absorbs the chilli oil. I picked one piece and put into my mouth. It was super spicy until the after effect of the spiciness can be felt with the pricking feeling on the tongue. I picked up my tea and tried to wash the chilli off, but it got worse.

After the sumptuous meal, we foot our bill. We were shocked at how much everything would cost. It was only 265 RMB. In Singapore, we probably won’t even get S$265 for what we ordered. It was Mr Wee’s treat that meal.

We walked back, feeling delighted that we had so much good food with so little money.
Reaching the hostel, we were all tired and turned in.

P.S Pardon my English, I’m super fatigue to think already =)

DAY 1 When everything you see is Alien. (4th March 2009)

Day 1

We'll be leaving for China today. A place where ideologies are different from the rest of the world. A place where it is most populated on earth. It will be like a Journey Into The Unknown!

We gathered at the Airport at 0530 hrs. Looking at the faces of those I’m going to spend 6 weeks was filled with tiredness. Nevertheless, excitement fills our spirit as we get ready to embark on a trip which we have never experienced before.

The aura of suspense & excitement can be sensed as we get ready to board the plane to Guang Zhou, CZ352.

On the plane, sadly, we didn’t see what was expected of an international non-budget airline. Service was great! A smile can always be seen on the stewardess face. However, the facilities were terrible. Packed like sardines, we endured the long and torturous flight to Guang Zhou which took a painstaking 3 hours.

Upon arrival on Guang Zhou, it was truly an eye opener. Domestic flight terminals are just like any other bus terminals in Singapore. Just that, it requires our bag to be checked for security purposes. We were able to leave the airport, but weren’t able to leave too far as we were afraid to lose our way and miss our transit plane. Stepping out of the Airport, the temperature of Guang Zhou is 11 degrees. Unable to adapt to the change in temperature, of a hot 30 degrees back in Singapore, I caught terrible flu. My friends, being caring people, decided that we should move into the airport so that my flu won’t worsen. We boarded the plane after that.

Arriving at Wuhan was god sent, just calculating the amount of time we had to spend on a sub-standard facilitated airline. As we step out of the Airport (was raining at that time) it was a cold 6 degrees. All of us were just shivering and folding their arms to generate more heat. The bus was roughly 600m away from where we are. Finally! We get to walk on Wuhan ground. Bearing the cold, worse with the wind, we walked to the bus.

We took the hired bus to our hostel, located in Wuhan Institute of Technology, with an estimated 1 hour to get there. Along the way, I was surprise that China was improving and developing faster than I thought. Roads were well constructed and maintained. Highways were lighted up by over head lamps which were modernly constructed.

Upon arrival at Wuhan Institute of Technology, we proceed to our assigned rooms. We were all delighted and happy to see that our rooms were well equipped and clean. The house is cosy! However, it was late, therefore we couldn’t go out to look around as it was dark and cold, the people there made dinner for us which we brought back to our rooms.

I realised that locals are very skilful in cooking fish. The fish was simply delicious, although very bony. The dinner was sumptuous.

As we spent the entire day travelling, we decided to turn in earlier and tackle the morning, filled with surprises, with energy!