新疆-敦煌-西安 10日丝绸之旅 yeah. back fm 10 day trip. great trip, great people, great scenery!!
stil feeling rather unwell at e moment so shall keep this post short + no photos now.. so just wanna jot some stuffs down b4 i forget
-- Day 1 (27 Apr) - flight to Xi an, waited 6 hrs at airport (transit) den to UrumqiDid not sleep e previous night.. coz was rushing my NVC report. had a gd chat wif justin also. den cooked myself Mian Xian wif eggs coz it was my Lunar Bdae..e rest were sleeping plus nt enuff eggs. so i only cooked 2 shares. mine & justin..
was sleeping everywhere. on van ride to airport, on e plane, at Xián Airport, on plane again.
finally reached Urumqi.. 刘立华aka小刘 ( our tour agent whom i liaise via msn) picked us up! he was holding a "上海贵宾林志薇8人行" paper. haha. ok.. was stil scared tat he might bang sey us but he turned out to a super-duper nice guy!
reached our 2 star hotel..nearly 1am liao..BUt it was reali quite nice lei. 100 bucks a night for double bed room. quite gd deal
--Day 2 (28 Apr) - 天池一日游
went to tis 杭州小笼包 for breakfast. cute mini 大肉包 豆沙包 羊肉包.. e first 2 are nice but e mutton one was like.. puke. v strong mutton smell.
ah beng tour agent 1 & 2 picked us up.. e ride was ok. e van was small.. and they actuly took 2 hrs to pick up everyone. sianz.
天池was magnificant. 不愧是王母举行蟠桃宴的地方. hee.. we posed as 七剑, pretended to skate at Swizterland.. and danced wif e xinjiang ppl at e 馕store. haha..
went to 二道桥大巴扎（bazaar).. a lot of ppl.. a lot of stuff.. bought some souveniors.. and we ordered a lot of food. 烤全羊，烤鸡，羊肉串，凉皮，kawaz (xinjiang beer..sweet like honey beer).. and we couldnot finish at all. had watermelon, super sweet honey dew. bought raisins..
could had shopped even longer. but poor 小刘 is waitin for us at hotel. so we decided to go back first. b4 gg for super.
Btw. One great thing to note in Xinjiang is that the day is much longer. E sun onlky sets at 9 plus? So.. ppl there only start work at 10am and knock off at 7pm. To us.,., it is gd. Coz we stil set of at 8 plus but can play til v late.
--Day 3 (29 Apr) - 吐鲁番一日游
Went for breakfast wif yingxuan, alvin & meijun for our 豆浆油条by the roadside..nice, hot and yummy!
coz we complained to 小刘 abt e long time e ah bengs took to pick up e rest.. they picked us up later and we gt damn lousy seats. was super duper cramp lor. faintz.
and..吐鲁番is reali v v hot. e hottest place in china. where 火焰山is.. went to e 葡萄沟which we feel is a waste of money coz no grapes. went for a local hse visit..for drink, dance & raisins...went 高昌古城, pretty nice place which 唐僧was there b4.
long draining day.. onli gt back to hotel after 11pm. by then, poor 小刘 had already waited for more den 2 hours at our hotel.. he is so nice tat he had bought us mineral water, bananas, cherry tomatos & jelly.. i mean. tat is reali v nice of him lor. he need not go to tat extend. we were all v touched lor.
After tat, we all went to tis dunno wat 老鸭shop for dinner cum b dae celebration.. hee. So sweet of them. Hmm, come to think of it. Tis yr is my only b dae without b dae cake. BUT. E experience & people are enuff to make my bdae special. Plus now back in shanghai, I had received b dae card fm home, b dae package fm plong, yu, teng, qi.. bdae sms fm camy and cheese..ecards fm stella, shiyan, .. b dae emails fm peishan, jiating, zhenxian, meiying, eleanor..etc. so sweet.. oh ya,, and sms wish fm 小刘also.
--Day 4 (30 Apr) – 喀纳斯4日游 -day 1
Went for our 豆浆油条breakfast again. Tis time wif minghan too. Stil as nice and yummy `
Set off for our 4 day trip. Gona spend whole day on bus. Travelling b4 we reach 布尔津. 2 tour guide 陈导 张导. Coz we were all deadbeat fm ytd’s trip.. we kept sleeping on e bus. And e poor 张导was no audience when he keep trying to talk. Haha. There is also 4 italians, studying in Beijing, on this trip. Luca (super cute guy) Anatasia ( v chio) Elena and Alice. And of coz, Luca caught our eye and became our topic throughout e trip. Ok, he is reali q v friendly and cute chap but we were merely teasing each other abt him just for e sake of fun =)
Fm urumqi which is super duper hot, to 布尔津， we passed by all sorts of terrains. Cities & towns to grass patches wif herds sheeps and/or horses, deserts and dry lands..
Visited 魔鬼城，a place which used to be covered by sea. With strange terrains tat make strange howling sounds when the wind blow. V nice scenic place.
Finally reached our hotel.. which is quite nice actually. Den went for dinner at town. Took e mini cab which is 1 RMb per person only. But e 烧烤 was slow, and ex. Saw a few cute gals at e stall and taught them a childhood game I know. Haha. Also had dinner wif e Italians. Took my first photo wif luca. Who was sitting nxt to him. And gt them to sing me Happy bdae song in Italian. Hee.
--Day 5 (1 May) – 喀纳斯4日游 -day 2
Continued our journey to 喀纳斯.. e largest water lake in china wif snow-capped mountains.
Passed by more grasslands, crossed a few mountains.. and.. proceeded on e snow-covered roads. Yesh.. due to the high altitude, e roads and mountains r all covered wif snow. V v magnificent scenery.
Finally reached our 小木屋， no aircon, no electricity, no water, no proper toilet. And yesh, e start of our urinating and shitting in the open!
Kanasi was reali v nice. We climbed up to highest spot. Along e way, Alvin, minghan, meijun, yingxuan and I were e slowest coz we were busy posing and taking pictures along e way. Lakes, mountains and SNOW!
Up at the pavilion at the mountain top, we took our “couple video”..darn.. missed e chance to take wif luca coz I was e camera man. Urgh… (joking only lah)
i would say e way down would be quite boring if not for XX ( shall not name) coz.. XX shitted on the snow. Haha. Had great fun teasing XX. B4 tat, XX also shitted at the tree behind our 小木屋。
E night was extremely hard to pass coz. No water, cannot bathe. No aircon, super cold. No electricity, no light no everything, No toilet, toilet in the dark and open. Most of us did not sleep well at all.
--Day 6 (2 May) – 喀纳斯4日游 -day 3
Went to the border of china and Kazaktan.. impressive scenery as well. Managed to go there coz the driver gt some connection.
Also went to this 西北第一村，白哈巴 ，a v primitive tribal village. Had gt to rode horse for e first time in my life! My hse is named 小黑and he was reali quite hard to tame and one of e villager rode e hse wif me. 10mins only but enuff to leave a lasting memory.
Headed back to 布尔津and had dinner at the night market. Walked back and admired e stars on e way
--Day 7 (3 May) – 喀纳斯4日游 -day 4
All of us took our last bath for e trip.. why last bath? Coz.. we will be spending e other nights on trains. And no more bathing. Disgusting? Indeed it was but we survived! Haha. Read on to find out more.
Bus ride again to Urumqi. Bidded farewell to e Italians. To the 2 nice tour guides, especially to 张导 whom we progressively find him to be v cute. Haha. Headed to the 大巴扎again for shopping..where we encountered the first mishap for the trip.
大巴扎，is reputated for being v messy, where pickpockets gathered. Coz we were heading for the next spot, dunhuang via train, we all had our big bagpack wif us.. making us super duper prominent, the no 1 targets for pickpockets.
Poor meijun had a great fright coz her newly bought camera was pickpocketed. Luckily, e stall owners were kind enough to tell e guys tat e pickpockets were here and ron saw the whole act. He bravely confronted the pickpockets and snatched back the camera. Creating a great woo-ha. All of us were taken aback and decided tat 此地不可久留. We quickly left e place and headed to KFC. Rushly finished our dinner den headed for the train.
As we did not managed to get 8 hard beds together, ron, Justin & I slept at e diff cabin and we had a gd chat. Peaceful night rest.
--Day 8 (4 May) – 敦煌一日游
Yup. Alighted at dunhuang after a 12hr ++ train ride. Was picked up by 龚导, a v enthu lady guide..again arranged by 小刘. Took the 2 hrs, super bumpy van ride to the city. Strangely e train station is located super far fm e city lor. Sms-ed renhao, who was at dunhuang e previous day and was shocked to hear tat they had met wif a minor accident the day b4 due to sandstorm but was glad that they ere all ok and only suffered minor cuts.
莫高窟or more commonly known as thousand-Buddha caves was magnificant. E workmanship and scale of the caves was indeed v impressive. But we were all tired and hungry. Haha. Quickly bought 8 lunchboxes and ate them on e way to the next place of interest – 鸣沙山，月牙泉
鸣沙山, a “live” desert, was really v fun to be at. We all took camel rides, had sandslides etc. we finally understood how difficult it is to walk in the desert, and we all exclaimed tat we will all faint if we were to get lost in a desert. Phew.
月牙泉was just another lake in the desert. Not so impressive but ok lah.
By the time we returned to the city, it was already passed 10.30pm and we had a train to catch. And the best thing was, we all have no proper tickets. Yup, our encounter wif e 黄牛/火车站syndicate.. impressive sia.
First, we gt 小刘 to help contact龚导’s boss, whom had contacts wif the train ppl. The 龚导gt us standing tickets, called this 2 ladies who were already stationed at the platform, den waited for the train to come. When the train arrived, there is this man who alighted to pass us the train passes (those that were to be used on trains only to be exchanged using the sales tickets). Wif those train passes, we boarded the train. The train tickets checkers, saw the passes and remarked, 就是你们八个人吗？ushered us in, another train attendant also smiled at us knowingly. All of us were super impressed by this 里应外合syndicate network structure. 不愧是中国.
Anyway, the 软卧 was super cosy and nice. 4 gals took one room and e other 4 guys took e other. After e day tour, we were all super dirty and tired and guess what. we decided to shower on the train! All of us shampoo-ed at the basins, wiped our body, brushed our teeth, washed our faces and given washed our legs in the basins. Haha. Stupid Alvin kana caught by this passenger who was kbkb-ing all the way and she also made Alvin washed the basin. Damn hilarious lor. Haha
--Day 9 (5 May) – train ride to西安
All of us slept all we want and spend the next day playing cards, sleeping and eating.
And.. just b4 alighting, we took another shower. Haha. Tis time round, meijun and I were caught by a train attender when we were shampoo-ing our hair but nothing happened lei. Haha. Must be coz we r cute and innocent lah. Haha
Finally reached Xi an. Deposited our luggage at the train station and checked out the tickets at the counter and realized to our horror that no more tickets to shanghai. Onli standing tickets.. 16 hrs-20hrs train ride..
Searched desperately for huang niu and tour agents. Den finally understood tat train tickets were not possible liao. Went to book air ticket instead. Den headed for overnight KTV at haoledi. hee.
Was v fun, but I mood-swing for a while midway. Ok. Actuly it is not mood-swing lah. But coz I not feeling well. Stomach-ache den dun feel like singing. Paiseh guys =(
--Day 10 (6 May) – 西安
Was super sey after KTV. Went back to train station area to check out the tickets. No news of train tickets again and gt my plane tickets ticketed. The rest had breakfast at a lousy restaurant while I ate nothing for the whole day. I was really feeling terrible and a few commented that I looked as thou I will faint any moment. Haha. A bit exaggerated but I was really feeling quite jialat in the heat.
Went to 兵马俑, the supposedly 8th wonder of the world. Workmanship and scale was impressive but the display was below my expectations. Mebbe coz I was too sick and tired also. Had diarrhea and wasn’t in the mood to appreciate the stuff. The 导游must be sian diao by us, coz we all look super tired and uninterested, esp me coz she asked me 2 times why we were so tired, esp me! Damn paiseh man.
And we got conned to buy expensive and lousy terra cotta figurines. 4 times e market price. &^$&#&#
After terra cotta, we went to the 小吃一条街 at xi an北院门. Oh ya, as xi an is an ancient city, we get to see those 城墙城门everywhere. V special indeed. V unique place wif lots of 路边摊and 小吃.but again, I was too tired to appreciate it. Hee but did buy some more souveniours. Heh
Was too tired and sick to walk further, decided to head towards airport and rest there instead. Again was conned by this cab driver, we saved 35 bucks for a super uncomfy 45min ride. Humph..
More toilet visits at airport, more waiting at airports. Took medicine and was quite much better. Thanks to Alvin for the medicine and warm water =) anyway. We were both sick and kept sleeping away, at airport, on plane and now back at home.
All in all, unforgettable trip.
