This is My Life......

Despite the beautiful scenery, i still miss sinagpore sooooo much... especially the local food...... Today, I shall write a review of my holiday trip..

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day1: 8 dec 2007
time: 1615

Reached Sinagpore Changi airport with my bro and met up with the rest of my relatives. All of us were happy and excited as it was the first time for so many of us us to go oversea together... 27 of us..... WOW... A holiday 3 trip for 3 generations..... *0*

My big family

My ticket to fly...

My grandma, grand aunt and Milly gugu

We waved good bye to spore at 6.15pm. To some of my relatives, it was their first time taking a plane.... a few were a little confused by the new check-in system, and the new regulations for bringing fluid on board.... I had to run around the airport to get 27 zipper bags for them to keep their lip balm, hand lotion, medication oil, etc....

It was a 4 hr flight to Nanning.... On the campy, little plane, me and my cousin chatted and took lots of pics. A local tour guide, li min accompanied us during the whole trip. She's also chinese, but she is a very sweet and soft-spoken lady and very helpful too....

My cousin, Shi Li & me

My first meal on plane.

By 10pm, we landed safely in Nanning Airport. The China personel gave us a black face at the custom check point. In return i gave her a "Extremely unsatisfied" feedback. As the ground temperature was only 18 degree, we were all shivering as we carried our luggage to the coach. From the airport, we took another 40min bus ride to our first hotel, Hua Xing Hotel. On the bumppy journey, our China tour guide, 小刚 introduced himself and our 2 professional drivers. 小刚 is a humorous guy, he shared with us his experience as a tour guide and the funny incidents that he came across. He also told us a way to avoid falling sick during the trip: That's to drink a glass of water every morning and every night. 5 minutes before we reached the hotel, 小刚 briefed us on the next day's schedule. This was when everyone gave him all our attention.

our friendly tour guide, 小刚

By the time we checked into our rooms, it was already 12 midnight. We had to stay in that hotel for 2 nights so i did a little unpacking before i turn in to bed with my Milly gugu.

day2: 9 dec 2007

Morning call rang at 6.30am. Breakfast at 7.15pm. Well, it wasnt a wonderful breakfast. The century egg porridge taste weird. The fried guo teow is freaking oily. The tea taste funny. Only edible thing was the hard-boiled egg.

We set off from the hotel at 8am and took a 4.5 hours bus ride to 德天瀑布. Along the way, beautiful scenery filled my eyes. Spectacular mountains, seas of orange, sugar cane plantation..... After an hour, we had our first visit to the china toilet. As we expected, the toilet stinks and there was no toilet paper. Luckily, Milly gugu brought 6 rolls of toilet paper from spore, which we had to use sparely. Then, the journey continued.... After some time, all of us dozzzz off, as the journey was really very long.

A rocky mountain captured along the long trip.

After some time, the bus began to wind up the mountain. On one side, it was the cliff of the mountain, leading to the 黑水河（the river that separates china and Vietnam). We stopped for lunch at a restaurant before we proceed to the 德天瀑布. It was a feast of china tribal and Vietnam Cruise. The quality prepared was sufficient to feed 50 people, where there was only 27 of us.

By the time, we reached 德天瀑布. We had lots of energy the conquer the endless stair-climbing. Most of my relatives took the chartered tram to the top of the waterfall, while the younger ones proved to the rest that we were still young and fit to do all the climbing... It was indeed a fruitful climb as the view was undescrible. By the time we reach the top, we were all breathless. Luckily, there were horses which we could ride down the mountain. Then, it was rounds of photo-taking and shopping for Vietnam products.

德天瀑布's entrance

Things ppl do to capture the amazing waterfall.

Closest waterfall i can get to.

We made it.. After all the stair-climbing....

The journey back the hotel took us another 4.5hrs. We returned to the hotel for dinner, which served similar dishes as our lunch(boiled meatless chicken, roasted duck, omelets, 15cm long vegetable, steamed fish....). After dinner, we returned to our rooms to packed our stuff as we need to go to another hotel in 阳朔 the next morning.

day3: 10 dec 2007

After breakfast, we took a walk in the local park. The air was fresh and the weather was just perfect. In the park, we saw some of the locals practising the qi kong, while some were dancing folk dance. We were told that the in month of june and july, the park will be filled with peach and longan. But we did manage to pluck some star fruits off the trees... haha... There were some unique tribal pieces in the park. One of them was the 8 big pots cum gongs, which will bring us good luck as we hit them.

Pot cum good luck gong

status that significant the chinese fight for freedom

After the park, we proceed to a conference center that holds a conference for 10+1 countries, including singapore, m'sia,china, vietnam, etc. We thought that a international conference center should have a clean toilet. BUT>>> we were WRONG.... The toilet stinks like hell... before reaching the enterance, we nearly puke.

The conference center with stinky toilet.

Later that night, after we check into our 2nd hotel, 阳朔漓江 hotel, we had our dinner in the hotel restaurant, where we were served with 啤酒鱼，a local delicacy. It taste pretty good only that the fish they used has too many bones..which make it a little fussy to eat.... After dinner, my uncle paid RMB 500 for everyone of us to watch <<印象刘三姐>>, a performance that is held on the landscape of guilin. The performance is done on a river using the mountains behind as the backdrop. According to 小刚, the area ratio of the stage and the audience area is 1:1. That night, there was a total of 4000 audience watching that performance. U can imagine the crowd over there. Being the older kid around, I've to keep a close watch on my younger cousins. The performance was visual fantastic, too bad i couldnt figure out the storyline which was written by 张艺谋.

After the performance, 小刚 brought us out to 西街，a night market street which look very similar to our Clarke Quake. Along the walkway, there were stalls doing drawing for tourists like us. We had a good laugh at each other's portraits... Some drawing was a great difference compared to the actual persons, while others were an exact imprint of us.... 西街 is really a shopping paradise for us. My aunts bought "branded" luggage which cost only RMB140... It's really cheap.... As for me, i bought several tribal handicraft for myself for my friends. Along the way, we saw how the local girls flirt around with the ang mohs. Their value is just like the luggage that my aunt bought: CHEAP.... As the temperature got lower(below 10 degree), the stall holders started to pack up and leave. We also began to make our way back to the hotels with our shopping bags filled with souviers and tummy filled with the local roadside food... So happy and fulfilling.. and shivering cold...

day 4: 11 dec 2007

After a good night sleep, another 2hr bus ride brought us to 漓江. We then took a little boat ride down the river. The feeling was amazing.... The view was fastastic... The water was crystal clear... The air is fresh... The locals simply enjoying their slow paced life, fishing... kind of envy their pace of life.. too bad we can have that in Spore.. unless i've a freaking rich father... hahaha... As we drifted down the river, a relaxing feeling came upon me.. it was the moment when i felt my mind and body relax, just allowing my 5 senses to take in all....

诗情画意

me on board..

How i wish how could slow down my foot step....

雾里看山.

On the boat, we were offered fried seafood that were caught from that very river... It was pretty tasty... very fresh, but too oily.... We also had 沙田柚子. Me and my cousin, cherylynn had a hard time opening them.. however our hard work was paid off with the sour-sweet flesh of 沙田柚子.

We did it... took us huge strength to peel open the 沙田柚子.

After that we change to 竹排 with 刘三姐. 27 of us split into 4 rafts as the raft will start to sink when there were more than 7 ppl on board During the raft ride, we sang and took lots of pics.. When we stopped for a break on a little platform. My relatives paid RMB15 to change into the trible costume and took pic. Well, they look pretty cute in those costume.. Especially, my 2nd auntie.. the jingling necklance made her sound like walking jingle bells...

Row, row, row the boat....

the 6 beauties...

My cutest cousin, Xuan xuan..

After the photo taking, we watch a little performance done by the locals, where the fisherman fished using this bird known as 鱼鹰. They tied the bird neck loosely so that it can only swallow the small fish, leaving the big fish for the fisherman. The fisherman then force out the big fish that were trapped in the bird's throat. It was kind of gross seeing the way they force the fish out...

In the afternoon, we visited 银子岩 (Silver cave). It is actually a limestone cave, that presents tourist a variety of glamorous stalactites and stalagmites formed in different geological period. The cave is deep and irregular, with a great number of stalactites of thousand charms, which, in lights glint like silver, hence the name of the cave. These majestic, diamond-like stalactites decorate the cave and make it into a dazzling place. The cave can be divided into three sections: upper cave, lobby and the lower cave, with dozens of distinctive scenery. Some of the limestones shaped like waterfall, others like the myth figures. It was really up to our imagination to see all these limestones.

银子岩 (Silver cave)

The reflection on the shallow water made it look like it spans all the way down.

So pretty...

Waterfall made of Limestone

Later that night, we went for a performance known as Dreamlike Li Jiang. The theatre even had TV inside their toilet.. just in case u miss any bit of the show... The act put up by the performer was good and dangerous too... The arcobat acts reflect the hard work and effort they put in for the past years. The storyline reflects the importance of friendship and kinship. After the performance, we spent some time taking pics with the performers.. The lead actress was very pretty.. but they were kinda shy towards us....

Me with the lead actress...

Shall continue the remaining trip in my next entry....