Day 6 – 8

Day (6): Wu Han (Sis-in-law’s place)

The day began after a rough night tossing and turning beneath the blanket trying to find a comfortable position to fall asleep.
Preparations for the wedding began and her neighbours and relatives started streaming in to help out with the cooking and all.

Drove out to town (2.5km away) get our hair washed and styled.
Opps! Out of bed look #1 (more to come because I’m just too cold to even think about bathing)

Requested for my hair to be straightened but it ended up looking just like how it is all along. -.-”
Anyway, that’s me with our favourite 冰糖葫芦 again.

While waiting for my bro to get some of the stuff required for the wedding.

Look at all that meat!!!

What laughable brand man. Makes you happy just by reading it out loud.

Then, it’s back to the house for more R&R…
The source of entertainment? My brother’s dog! 米菲 (Mi Fei)

Because she looks so bored and cold (like us), we took her out for walks! Loads of them in fact

The fight between the scaredy dog and the cow/bull.

What a postcard worthy shot.

And the celebrations began…
The family actually invited professional singers and emcees to perform.

Performance lasted all the way till night falls…

Day (7): Wu Han (Day of wedding)

Woke up in the morning again to get myself made up for the wedding ceremony.

Laying out the firecrackers

My Mom and I in matchy matchy trench coats! (:

And finally, here comes the couple!
And there goes all the fireworks and firecrackers that totally deafened all of us.
Not only that, we were also hit by the the wrappers of the firecrackers as they go off and I tell ya, it is super painful!

Distributing red packets the first thing they reached their rooms.
That’s when you start seeing all the kids (and parents carrying babies) rushing into the room.

Settling for lunch and more demands for red packets/cigarettes.
It was really interesting to watch how the helpers from the kitchen would come out after every 2-3 dishes asking for rewards from the couple and in return, they would give them a carton of cigarette packs. This goes on for about 3 times before we all can finally eat in peace.

Sis-in-law’s dad bought this for us the previous night when he brought us out to a nearby mahjong centre to watch people play Hu Bei Mahjong.
Speaking of which, like I’d mentioned in the earlier posts, Hu Bei Mahjong is really interesting to learn though playing it in the house is a whole lot more comfortable than going to the mahjong centre because it is totally smoked! Everyone in there has got a lighted cigarette in their hands and gosh, that was really the first time when I got choked on cigarette smoke. Was telling YS that if I were to stay in that room any longer, I would have died of suffocation. Arghs!

After resting for about 2-3 hours, it’s finally the wedding ceremony.

Couple up on stage.

Taking their vows in the most humurous manner ever. Darn! Should’ve taken a video of it!
It was super funny!

My dad making his speech and my mom looking really nervous cuz it’s her turn next. Haha!

Neighbours, relatives, helpers…. downstage gracing the ceremony

And when it all ended, GROUP HUG!!!

Followed by my tone deaf brother’s duet~ major ROFL!

And well, thereafter, we went back to the living room where we hog our place in front of the heater to warm ourselves up
In the meantime, YS entertains himself with the 2 lil girls who ends up calling him “乌龟” for some reason or another.
What to do? YS and his charm on kids… Paedophile!

Day (8): Wu Han

Nothing much happened apart from us hanging around the house watching tv and keeping ourselves warm (and alive) in front of the heater…
Sis-in-Law’s dad taught us Hu Bei Mahjong and we spent the night gambling!
Paired up with YS and we started out brilliant with a streak of beginner’s luck but soon it weared off with us losing approx. 8RMB, which is really little compared to my brother who lost approx. 125RMB to his mother-in-law. Haha!!!
But it’s great fun. After all, there’s nothing else we can do!

Continuation….

Day (4): Shen Zhen

This is kinda like the only highlight of our trip (apart from my bro’s wedding)
Went online to search for places to go in Shen Zhen and topping the list is Happy Valley!
Entrance fee : 180Yuan (approx 40SGD) each

On board our first ride. Maximum kiddo. Haha!

They’d even got a Water theme park in here too!
Too bad it’s winter so it’s closed. I mean, it’s just logical la, who in the world goes playing around in water themeparks in winter. Haha!
But still, it looks really fun!

Spot the uncanny resemblance

The insane ride!!! Too bad it’s closed for maintenance.
See that gondola midway up the arc? =)

Took this ride instead.
Ended up with a really bad concussion.
It’s fun, but really rough ride.

When he found out that the playground is only limited to children between 3-12 years old.

Our favourite of all! 冰糖葫芦!

The sky started to dim….
We slowly made our way round the park again, snapping photos before the sun sets totally.
Loved the dusk lighting…

Dinner at KFC!

Loved their peach egg tarts though I’d only got half of it left.
*glares at YS*

Then it’s shopping at 老街 again!

PS: We had to spend as much time away from our hotel as possible becuase our hotel room’s freezing!
It’s colder than the temperature outside!!!

*Glares at YS again*

Day (5): Shen Zhen – Wu Han

Woke up in the morning to make our way to Shen Zhen Airport where we will be meeting up with my parents before flying to Wu Han together to attend my eldest brother’s wedding.

New boots from Shen Zhen (only 129 yuan!)

Touched down in Wu Han airport and waiting for the driver to arrive. (subsequently found out that he’s actually my sis-in-law’s cousin)
Took him approximately 45mins to get to us!
OMG was totally freezing our asses off…

Look at the mist coming out from the car’s exhaust !

The journey to the house took us another 3 hours and gosh… I have to reiterate this.
IT’S FREAKING COLD!!!
To think that just when we were hoping that the house can be a little warmer but NOOO!!!!!
Apart from the heater that warms the toilet, the entire house is naturally ventilated. Faints!

HongKong/ShenZhen/WuHan trip 2012

As promised, here’s some photo updates from my recent trip to Hong Kong/Shen Zhen/Wu Han.

Day (1): Singapore – Hong Kong

Checked in Shamrock Hotel located right next to Jordan MTR Station.
Temprature then was approximately 17 degrees.
For someone as afraid of cold as I am, it’s like living in a perpetual air-conditioned room.

First up! Time to fill our tummies up after the 4hr flight.
Thanks to Winnie’s wonderfully detailed itinerary, we managed to find ourselves some good food in at the most unthinkable places.
Check out the dodgy entrance to the restaurant!

The famed tomato base beef noodles.
Taste heavenly! Loved it!

Next up for dessert, we head over to iSquare further down Nathan Road.

The classic : 杨枝干露
Which doesn’t really taste all that fabulous

Double boiled papaya soup which really aint my cup of tea.

Bought our tickets to “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” for the night as well.
Heard great reviews about the show.
As you can see from the tickets, it’s HKD 80 (SGD16) per ticket.
Pretty pricey for movies but oh wells~ for the new experience, why not!

While we wait for our movie to start, we headed over to Avenue of Stars instead.

My dear boy and his favourite cuttlefish!
I must say, it smells really good!

While waiting for the lightshow to start (8pm).
Look at the crowd along the promenade!

I must say the lightshow was super boring and totally not worth waiting for.
Might as well spend the time shopping or eating elsewhere. Haha!

Anyway, after the lightshow, we settled for a simple dinner at Pho 99 before heading for our movies.
Thank goodness it’s simple enough, otherwise I would have vomitted my dinner out during the show.
Go watch it and you’ll know what I meant.

Back to hotel to settle for the night.
What’s travelling without my sleeping buddies.

Day (2): Hong Kong

Woke up early in the morning for some local breakfast seeking.

After which, it’s all the way straight to Lantau Island!
Totally regret wearing my leggings that day.
It was super cold!!!
Thank goodness I brought my pullover with me that day.

Check out our glass bottom cabin!
Super cool!

The iconic Buddha Statue atop Ngong Ping 360!

Super cute!!!

Been craving for subway for ages.

On our way up to the giant statue.

Act cute max.

Some vegetarian food which tasted great. Especially the tauhuay.

New watches!

Shopping at CityGate.
Bought 3 new pairs of jeans and ran straight into the washroom to change into one immediately.

Head off to Causeway Bay for more shopping!
Went past Swarovski and was totally captivated by the displays.
Lovely huh~

Dinner : Wanton Mee!!! (once again, thanks to Winnie’s superb itinerary)

Day (3): Hong Kong – Shen Zhen

Decided to venture for a light walk around in the morning.
And we burst out laughing when we saw this.

Settled for lunch at 稻香 located near MongKok MTR Station

After lunch, we made our way to Shen Zhen~
Didn’t do much for the day apart from settling for dinner at Ajisen near our hotel in Shen Zhen and to travel to 老街 subway station for some light window shopping.

 

Abroad once more

Finally I’d managed to get some Internet connection after days of complete disconnection to civilization. If you are guessing where in the world I’m in, well, I’m currently at WuHan Airport right now waiting for my flight back to Shen Zhen. And if you are wondering why I am in China right now, that’s because I’m here to attend my brother’s wedding.

The wedding was pretty alright though it was kinda draggy with it lasting throughout the 4 days we’re there. But the real major killer was the weather though. The time now is right smack in the middle of winter and imagine sleeping/living with no room heaters for 4 full days (and nights). Couldn’t even get myself to bathe or even change my clothes while I’m there. But one thing that I’d enjoyed myself most was to be able to play with my brother’s dog. Shall upload its photo when I get back home (writes down mental note). And oh! Another thing that was fun was that we learnt Mahjong (the HuBei version)! It’s pretty different from the usual mahjong that we play back home and so it definitely took some time for us to get used to it. But thank goodness that lady luck was shining upon us then so we didn’t exactly lost that much compared to my brother and my Sis-in-law who lost about 120RMB in total. Haha!

I know it’s kinda abrupt to end a post this way but oh wells! Shall blog again next time.