Day 5 to 7 to Nanjing

Our comfortable 2 hrs express train from Shanghai Railway Station to Nanjing.

Btw fyi, much information needed along our journey was gathered from the book Lonely Planet for reference. Lonely Planet may not have the best recommendations of tourist attractions but it has been helpful in giving most of the info that we need. For hostels, can visit Hostelworld.com as it provides a listing of some of the hostels in the world which you may want to consider booking though the listing isn't exhaustive at all. Any other better recommendations u guys have related to travel, pls feel free to share with me and the rest in my blog. Thanks.



Finally, my cousin is up on shot! He doesn't like to take pics!


The hostel in Nanjing is the one which we booked directly from our hostel in Shanghai. Under the same hostelling organization. I don't like this hostel bcos the shared toilet only got 1 pathetic small cubicle! Imagine it urself by seeing the photo below. I dread showering and using toilet each time! My sis again asks me to count my blessings bcos she has been to much worse hostel in Korea.

Sister's robotic pose along the corridor.




Our 4 beds dorm! I like this layout bcos it made chatting much easier for us.


Pls see the bathroom area I was talking about. Only 2 bathrooms and 1 toilet cubicle.


Pls compare the above with the bathroom below which is the one back in my shanghai hostel. 2 bathrooms and 2 toilet cubicles and much bigger and cleaner! Great difference rite? !


Despite me marking down this hostel in terms of its overall impression, I must say the location of my hostel was just fantastic. Nearby my hostel has such great shopping streets. Can tell taxi driver that you want to go to Fu Zi Miao. Its in that area.



Shanghai has too many shopping centres. What we like is such shopping streets!







We dint manage to come across any good food, as you can see from their facial expressions below. Disappointment after disappointment. haaa... The nu rou shao mai which I have told some of you guys about is the dish on the right! Nu rou shao mai without nu rou! So misleading!



To be continued....

Hope u guys dun find my blog boring..... me blogging them just so to remember the trip. Photographs are really footprints of memory. If not, memories might just fade with time.... and it will be hard to retrieve them once they are lost.

A Question Mark

When you realize that the things that matter to you actually don't matter that much to someone else...suddenly, the things also don't matter to you anymore....



What used to bother me in the past also does not bother me now as much as before.... no longer finding silly thoughts to ponder over....

Maybe it just goes to show that certain thing has started to lose its significance in my life.... what I used to hold on dearly has started to depreciate over time....

Ironic...


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Day 4 to Hangzhou

This is another day tour that we booked from our hostel to visit Hangzhou.
Hangzhou, from the various destinations t hat we have been, is proven to be a more beautiful place than the over hyped Suzhou, it seems.

A must go place:

Xi Hu (West Lake)




Another must go place:

Song Cheng (Song Dynasty)









Other that that, we went to other memorial sites and authentic temples to visit, which has little impressions on me. HA.

Think u guys can just see my photos and don't think wanna go China le rite. haha.
I wld say if whole of my 8 days trip is fully tour packaged, I would not have much impression of China bah, given the kind of places we went to which is mostly sight seeing in a rushed manner if were to be in a tour grp.

Thats the end of our 2 day tours. Next few days is my personal favourite of Nanjing that we have took a 2 hrs train ride to visit on our own.

Day 3 to Suzhou

We book a day tour directly from our hostel to travel to other nearby cities from Shanghai. Day tours in china are pretty disorganized and haphazard. Some hiccups along the way though on the whole it is still fine and sort of enjoyable.

Plus points about going on day tour:
Just follow the tour guide. No need to waste time finding and asking for directions.
Just hop on the bus and you get to go to many places in a day. No hassles for transport.
You get to listen to stories and explanations made by the tour guide relating to the places you have been to.

Minus point:
Restricted time spent on each place of interest. Everything is so rush.
You do not have vivid impressions of the places you have been to because you are not the one who plan the itinerary.
You are forced to visit commission-based destinations like factory for silk or tea production that you won't choose to go if on your own.

Suzhou is described as the Eastern version of Venice because of its various lakeside and pavilion sceneries. Hmm...abit exaggerated lah. hahaz. Suzhou, in my opinion is just so so lor.

Some places of interests that we have been in Suzhou:

Shi Zi Lin (Lion Garden):






Han Shan Shi Jing Qu (Hanshan Temple):








Bei Shi Ta (North Temple Pagoda):


During the bus journey: Both awake...



Midway: Both asleep.... hehe so cute.


I think the most "vivid"part of the journey in Suzhou was the late realization that my sis was kena 'cheated' in buying the overpriced Zhi Sa Hu (ceramic cups and teapots) at a factory that we were made to visit. Zhi Sa Hu was the topic of dismay when we found out that Zhi Sa Hu was sold abundantly in Nanjing at a much cheaper price! Knife stabbed right into the heart....was how my sis described her agony upon the sight and mention of Zhi Sa Hu when we visit Nanjing days after. heha...i guess such experiences are very common in China bah.