Back from Jiangnan!
Back from my 7-day tour in Jiangnan! Arrived back on Tue night, and hadn't got the energy to blog till now. Not that I have lots of time to start blogging at this unearthly hour, but figured that I better start typing something, else I will never complete it. So here is part 1, heh.
On the whole, I enjoyed the trip with my family. First time touring together, and first time to such a cold place. The temp went down to as low as -8 deg C in the night. Thank God, that me being kiasu, we were quite prepared, armed with winter clothings, thermals, gloves, socks, scarfs, and heat packs. Nevertheless, the day we arrived at Shanghai was exceptionally cold, due to some wind from Russia. It didn't help that the first day's itenary required us to move about outdoors quite a lot. So we did have a hard time adjusting to the climate.
There were 15 of us in the tour group, so that's a cosy size. 2 sets of couples, 2 neighbours, a family of 5 and my family. Everybody was cordial and friendly, and punctual for each gathering. =) I liked our tour guide - Li, a middle aged guy based in Shanghai. He was very responsible, personable, witty and fun. What impressed me was that he actually noted that one of the day was my mum's birthday, and he bothered to pull me aside to ask if I have any plan to celebrate. And he gamely arranged for a birthday cake to be brought in after dinner. A small gesture, but hugely appreciated!
Apart from Li, we also had a local guide joining us at each place we visited. A total of 4 such local guides. 3 of them are ladies. And I must say that the gals did a much better job than the 1 guy. Basically, they are all very fluent in speech, and they could just rattle off the history, the culture, the landmarks, the people, etc. But the ladies had the extra smile, sweetness, and sincerety that stood out. I wonder if our Sgp tour guides are like that. Hmmm, cannot imagine.
We visited many places, and honestly, I can hardly remember the names of these places... lousy memory, but how I wish I could have recorded what the tour guides mentioned. I find the explanation and history of these landmarks so interesting. And the context of some Chinese idioms were also told to us. Makes learning Chinese so much more fun. If only I have come to encounter Chinese in such manner in school, I would have loved the subject much more.
Oh, being in a tour group also meant that we were somewhat pampered. We were driven from place to place, able to doze off in the comfort of the heated coach while the guide is rattling on. Food is "zi cha" style every lunch and dinner in decent, heated restaurants. Lots of shopping as well. Luggage is fetched for us to and fro the hotel rooms. At the cost of a tip, of course. Oh, generally, we get to stay in each hotel for 1 night and then we move to the next place. Guess it is like that for China tours eh, much area to cover within short time...
Talking about tips, this being my family's first tour together, there were lots of additional costs which we hadn't anticipate. Besides tips of various kinds, there was the optional tour which promised a good deal. Since everyone else in the tour group decided to go for it, we did so too. Result, insufficient cash!! We got to amass whatever Sgp currency we had and change to RMB! It didn't help that most of the cheap shopping deals did not accept credit cards. We had a hard time scouting for places that accepted cards. When we finally found one, it was a buying spree man! Each of us bought a new winter coat cos it is much cheaper as compared to buying in Sgp. Yes, burnt a huge hole in my pocket for this trip and also the Christmas shopping prior to the trip. =( Got to be more careful about my expenditure now...
Thought of sorting out the pics, but there are really quite a lot of them, so I shall find a more appropriate time to go through them. ok, tired now. Shall stop here for now.
On the whole, I enjoyed the trip with my family. First time touring together, and first time to such a cold place. The temp went down to as low as -8 deg C in the night. Thank God, that me being kiasu, we were quite prepared, armed with winter clothings, thermals, gloves, socks, scarfs, and heat packs. Nevertheless, the day we arrived at Shanghai was exceptionally cold, due to some wind from Russia. It didn't help that the first day's itenary required us to move about outdoors quite a lot. So we did have a hard time adjusting to the climate.
There were 15 of us in the tour group, so that's a cosy size. 2 sets of couples, 2 neighbours, a family of 5 and my family. Everybody was cordial and friendly, and punctual for each gathering. =) I liked our tour guide - Li, a middle aged guy based in Shanghai. He was very responsible, personable, witty and fun. What impressed me was that he actually noted that one of the day was my mum's birthday, and he bothered to pull me aside to ask if I have any plan to celebrate. And he gamely arranged for a birthday cake to be brought in after dinner. A small gesture, but hugely appreciated!
Apart from Li, we also had a local guide joining us at each place we visited. A total of 4 such local guides. 3 of them are ladies. And I must say that the gals did a much better job than the 1 guy. Basically, they are all very fluent in speech, and they could just rattle off the history, the culture, the landmarks, the people, etc. But the ladies had the extra smile, sweetness, and sincerety that stood out. I wonder if our Sgp tour guides are like that. Hmmm, cannot imagine.
We visited many places, and honestly, I can hardly remember the names of these places... lousy memory, but how I wish I could have recorded what the tour guides mentioned. I find the explanation and history of these landmarks so interesting. And the context of some Chinese idioms were also told to us. Makes learning Chinese so much more fun. If only I have come to encounter Chinese in such manner in school, I would have loved the subject much more.
Oh, being in a tour group also meant that we were somewhat pampered. We were driven from place to place, able to doze off in the comfort of the heated coach while the guide is rattling on. Food is "zi cha" style every lunch and dinner in decent, heated restaurants. Lots of shopping as well. Luggage is fetched for us to and fro the hotel rooms. At the cost of a tip, of course. Oh, generally, we get to stay in each hotel for 1 night and then we move to the next place. Guess it is like that for China tours eh, much area to cover within short time...
Talking about tips, this being my family's first tour together, there were lots of additional costs which we hadn't anticipate. Besides tips of various kinds, there was the optional tour which promised a good deal. Since everyone else in the tour group decided to go for it, we did so too. Result, insufficient cash!! We got to amass whatever Sgp currency we had and change to RMB! It didn't help that most of the cheap shopping deals did not accept credit cards. We had a hard time scouting for places that accepted cards. When we finally found one, it was a buying spree man! Each of us bought a new winter coat cos it is much cheaper as compared to buying in Sgp. Yes, burnt a huge hole in my pocket for this trip and also the Christmas shopping prior to the trip. =( Got to be more careful about my expenditure now...
Thought of sorting out the pics, but there are really quite a lot of them, so I shall find a more appropriate time to go through them. ok, tired now. Shall stop here for now.
posted by Handiworks @ 12:20 AM
1 Comments:
At 9:10 AM,
Inspirational thoughts said…
yoz.glad u enjoyed yr trip.school starting next week.will be hard to catch up again.have a blessed new year
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