哈尔滨

Sun Island （太阳岛）
For the sake of convenience, many people advised us to catch a cab to the Island! Being the leader of the Ella Cheapo Club, I decided that we should catch the Bus! *the only drawback is that loose change is needed!


Bus - damage to wallet (approx 10rmb)
Taxi - damage to wallet (>10rmb)

A price which we had to pay for taking the bus was that we had to walk 1.5km in to get to the site of the snow carving exhibition! The reward - erm... slimmer thighs???

When there is Demand, there will always be Supply! Consumers desire New Nightlife Venues! Satisfy your customers and the cash registers will be ringing non stop, if not your business will flop! ! Ice Bars have been popping up around Asia, to add a cool relief to the swealting tropical heat! I rekon unless I hold my wedding ceremony in an Ice Bar back home, I can't imagine my Rents stepping into one! Till I have saved up enough dough to bring my parents to the Ice Hotel in Hokkaido. Here is a snapshot of Mum experiencing a preview of what our future trip to the ice hotel might be!

I love the Beautiful Montif design on the wall

A 3D Life size village carved out of snow!

We visited the Ice Park on Sun Island. Replicas of well known landmark buildings could be found in it. For 1 1/2 hours, I found myself trotting around the globe and visiting famous spots around Asia, The pacific and Europe at a cost of JUST 75rmb! If only they were the real thing!

哈尔滨

Mum and I took a train and headed northwards to 哈尔滨 (Haerbin)! Aside from the fact that the 10 hour's train ride felt like we were living in a smoke chimney and we had two VERY unsociable teens in our cabin, the whole ride was alright. Frigid Cold Air & Slippery Floor & Snow greeted us at 哈尔滨 火车站! Apparently there is no designated Taxi Stand at the station and passengers had to go to the main road to flag a cab. Yet that night many cabs were just satisfied with dropping off passengers and speeding off into the darkness! So two tired ladies sought the help of a helpful policeman to 'rescue' them out of the situation.

We parked ourselves as JinJiang Inn (Sophia Plaza) for three nights. Having read online about the horror stories about cabbing around Haerbin. Minimising cabbing was a top agenda on my list! The location of our hotel was within walking distance of many major sightseeing spots so it was great being able to see the city on twos instead of fours!

Zhaolin Park - Disney was the theme of the Ice Festival there.

There is a night and day pricing for entry into the park and a china student pass is extremely useful as it enables you to pay half price for the ticket! A Mega Saver especially when an Adult ticket is around 120-150 rmb! *I feel like kicking myself for not taking advantage of my student pass to tour the country! A little too late to regret :(

erm... another chinglish error? (:

Life Size Sculptures : visitors of the park could climb up/down or slide down them

Castle from Aladdin

ship from Pirates of the Caribbean

I was captivated! The whole sculpture was roughly three to four storeys high. There was an in-built lift and escalator and a mega high slide! Awesome!

erm ...not for a scary cat like me

北京

Clara's Hostile Shawl

"attacking its victim"

北京

It has been slightly over a week since the Missus of the Heng Family has arrived. Since then I have been living a life of a Part Time Tourist and Part Time Tour Guide! Before my mum's arrival I had a schedule drawn out, I spent a long time revising and perfecting the itinery and on the day of her arrival I felt I was ready to Host her! Yet on the second day, my so called 'perfect' schedule had to be thrown out of the window! We were not going according to plan! We were spending longer at the attractions, & we were visiting attractions which I didn't plan for! So a piece of advice if you plan to visit BJ. Be Flexible as there are many hidden gems around they city just waiting to be discovered! go FREE and EASY - be Flexible Regardless of Every activity scheduled Everday & Enjoy And maximise your Stay, nobody is chasing You away:)

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Limited Edition Bra of 08, costing 359rmb!

Will you buy it in 09?

北京

I said Goodbye to 2008, by junking out my favourite pair of Jeans which has been with me for the past 6 years. Found a rip on it on 31/12/08! I counted down to 2009, by watching Mulan 2 and I found my favourite Disney Prince!

General Li Shang

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Just one month and I will be Home. Considering that my wardrobe has been revolving around 7 long sleeves top, I am looking forward to having a full wardrobe! Christmas and 2008 has gone and now we are into 2009! Clara joined us during the Festive Season and she brought along jelly beans, jelly bears, home-made cookies and foreign chocolate for the both of us! What a treat!

Our first adventure together was a day trip to Silver Fox Cave in the Fangshan District! We had to catch a bus from 苹果园 to the Cave . Do not be deceived by the name 苹果园, there is no 苹果树 there! There may not be 苹果树 there, but that area is famous for pickpockets so do watch your belongings! The bus came every 1 1/2 hours, so we spent slightly over an hour waiting for the bus! If you plan to go to Silver Fox Cave be prepared to be harrassed by touts while you wait for the bus. Clara was so irritated that she turned to one and said this 你知道你多么烦！像乌鸦一样kwa kwa 的叫!

our 导游 who followed us all the way to the cave and back to the main road to wait for the bus!

Silver Fox Cave is none other than a Limestone Cave, with various limestones formations inside with fancy names accompanying them! The highlight of the day The Silver Fox

We missed the earlier bus, so we ended up waiting for slightly over one hour for the bus! This time instead of Vultures hovering around us looking for prey. We were surrounded by a couple of 黑车, confronted with the prospect that we might have missed the last bus and we were stranded almost 80 over km away from BJ City! Darkness was creeping in, the temperature was dipping to below 0 degrees and we were v v v v v cold & hungry! Not exactly a nice position to be in!

Our little misadventure at the Ski Resort! Clara fell off the pulley lift and I resembled a cartoon character crashing into a wall, when I crashed into the Padded Barrier! We had this bright idea to take the ski lift up to the expert slopes, even though there was a sign warning us that Beginners should not get on! Upon arrival at the top we realised that there was no other way down aside from skiing down! After the dreadful fall, I kind of lost confidence and I didn't trust my skills and ability to be able to navigate the sharp bends and steep slopes! Safety nets surrounded the edge of the cliff, however I was not confident that the nets could save me if I crashed into them! Erm.. in the end after deliberating for about 1/2 hour, I managed to get down. I bid farewell to the ski resort by leaving my bum imprint on the snow for the very last time!

We decided to try Ice Skating on the Lake at HouHai. Being novice skaters, it was hard to find our centre of balance as the ice was so slippery. The task was near to impossible so we gave up attempting to skate after 5 mins and traded our skates for a chair skate! So we spent Christmas Eve chair-skating around the lake!


clara gamely agreed to try deep fried insects with me and in my opinion they were simply delicious!