Hol #3: Inner Mongolia, 13 - 15 July, Part 1

Wah I have been dying to blog about this trip man, only because there were so many sights (sai sai sai everywhere), sounds (groans, yelps, sometimes silent screams) and smells (have I mentioned sai sai sai everywhere?).  I thought about how best to write about this - themes? animal categories (mostly mutton btw)? pain spectrum (ha ha ha!)? - and I think chronological order would be simplest.

To kick things off, here are the characters in the trip. With all good novels, you need to identify with the main characters for the story to be compelling. There is no need for this effort here. Just need to know who's who can liao. And there will probably be more of them in my later posts.

From back row, left to right: Grace, Vic, Ming, Des, Shermaine, Wei Wei, Chen Ann, Jasmine,  me, Baolin & Peisheng

Before I start off proper, I feel like I need to make a small clarification (if my travel buddies are reading this).  For the most part of the trip, I sat next to the window in the mini-van and I have been asked whether I was contemplating the meaning of life while staring pensively out of the window at the rolling hills and poofy sheep. The answer is no. I sat that way because my frigging right knee hurts when I sit in one position for too long and staring out of the window with my body half turned is the only position that provides relief.  And I stared outside pensively because the sun was in my eyes and I forgot (until the last day) that I had a pair of sunglasses with me so my eyes were perpetually like half-closed, hence giving me the thoughtful look. So there, the Tracy as everyone knows.

Back to the trip. So we all arrived in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia at different times but when we all meet up, it is like Thanksgiving. A bit awkward (because some of us are travelling together for the first time), all on best behaviour and all with polite nods and hellos but we know we have a long weekend ahead of us. But we quickly bond. Nothing like hardship to put everyone on an even keel right? The first day & night were hardship. Mega hardship. But I am getting ahead of myself. 

Hohhot is a very nice city (there is a huge Wanda!) and when I stepped out of the airport, this is the sight that greeted me. Not bad right?

Nice city yah?

This is where we started our fab journey to the grasslands and singing desert.


Day 1- Grasslands 
Off we go! We were met by Mongolian yodellers with rice wine that taste like horse' piss to me. We were supposed to sprinkle some at heaven, earth and I think our neighbours but avoid eyes pls - may blind.

The look of fear. The slogan on the tee did not help.

We chose to do a 2.5 hr horse ride that I think at least a couple of us will never forget in this lifetime.  The 11 of us had horses that were bros and sis, cousins, or just living in the same stable. So the horses were all very cooperative and stayed together in a pack. Sometimes too close when they started snorting at the legs of the person in front, or whipping their tails.  And sometimes when one decided to make a dash, the rest of the pack followed.  Mine was in the same pack as Victor's and Jas' and they were all well behaved horses.  

That's me and my horsey peeing. Not me, just the horse.

Chen Ann, Bao Lin and Shermaine's horses were another pack. Maybe this would be a good time to mention that Chen Ann and Bao Lin sustained the most "serious injuries" from the horse ride. And it is probably because Shermaine kept urging her horse "小花，冲啊！". Not sure who told her that her horse' name was 小花 (actually not sure if it was even a mare) but it sure did respond by 冲ing.  When she first started telling the horse to 冲, we hadn't found out about the pack thing.  But crossing the 1.5 hr mark, I think I heard Chen Ann telling her that if her horse 冲s, his and Bao Lin's would follow suit! Ha ha... Oops, not supposed to laugh. 

小花 and her posse. Two of the riders weren't smiling much after this photo. Ha ha!

Anyway, the horses did 冲 and while we kept saying, "wah the galloping very fun hor!", actually, they weren't galloping la. I think they were doing maybe a quick canter? Or erm, brisk walk? Still gruelling and painful for the butt though.  The horses brought us to a few sights including a part where we saw wild horses (I think) and a lamb.  The lamb bleated so sweetly and this is uber bims but it did sound exactly like how I imagined bleating to sound like. 

So cute right the meh meh...baaa baaa...

The horse ride brought us to vast expanse of grasslands where we spent much time... posing and taking pictures. Ok, so here we did some deep soul searching and we did spend some time in silence (cos there are so only so many times one can say "Wah the sky so blue!" or "The grass so green!" or "My horse shat again.".  But it was truly beautiful. 

How do you find your way in the grasslands where there are no buildings or discernible markings? Build one yourself!

After the very strenuous horse-riding adventure, we gathered some cardboards, laid them out on a patch of grass with the least horse manure and while some of us played 三国杀, Baos and me Nooked and viewed Harper's Bazaar. 

Getting ready for an afternoon of violence

The world at my feet... bliss

Um, but we got rained out in under an hour and ended up in my Bao. Speaking of which. This was our accommodation for the night. The Mongolian Bao, or yurt. Looks charming right? NEVER AGAIN.

That's my Bao.

And my beds. 

The Bao and its stuff haven't been washed since maybe 10 years ago la. And the toilet only had cold water at night. Almost squealed like a piglet when the water hit me. Later decided to use a small piece of cloth, washed it with cold water, then drenched it in hot water from a thermos flask and then wet wiped myself (tragic). And I think temperatures dipped to under 15 that night (even more tragic).  The guys played SGS till late in my Bao and when everyone was tired and leaving to go sleep in their respective Baos, it took all my willpower not to beg "Nooooooo... don't leave me in this cold Bao!!!"....

Ok, if any of my travel companions are reading this, you know I'm kidddinnggg....

But really, the evening held a number of memories for us: 

1. Something about sunsets make everything just so...reflective

2.  Fireworks never fail to amaze. Even when they are set off super near and are so close you could almost touch them and you can't take your eyes off them even as sparks land on you. 

3.  Disco out in the grasslands with a whole bunch of older, very very drunk Chinese (and some Koreans) is hilarity at its max. There are photos to show but I refuse to put them on my blog cos it involves some half naked fatty man - there, go imagine. 

Ending off the post at Day 1. Just too much to recap and savour! 

(Oh and most photos courtesy of my travel companions! Thanks!)

Xoxo, 

Tracy 

Hol #2: Hong Kong

I am writing this post in Hong Kong but I am not on holiday this time around. What a difference a week makes! Was in HK with the girlies two weekends ago and it was a whirlwind trip man. I can't believe I managed to spend S$1.5k in 3/4 of a day. 

I have to admit that when the girls asked me to go HK, my first thought was "AGAIN?!". And I went only cos I missed their faces. Please see below:

Queens of 自拍

But on this trip, the girls managed to find new fun places to explore, eat and shop, besides our usual haunts at Tung Chung, H&M (yes, yes, Spore has a mega ginormous H&M but we must still make the trip to mecca right?), Horizon South Towers and SPACE (Prada outlet).

The most important discovery has to be COS (Collection of Style) - the upmarket sister of H&M. Sin Yee and I spent almost 1.5 hours in the two-storey shop trying not to go mad (Not Dawn's style and Sanny was broke after her S$1k cheongsam from Livia).   The boutique is grown-up, minimalist, classic and the stuff is uber well-made. Very European, very chic - the antithesis of H&M.

I have this!

The stuff is not cheap though- around S$150 for a dress at least. I bought 3 dresses from the shop, after striking off maybe 100 others that I really wanted but couldn't afford. Last we hear is that COS is slated to open in Shanghai sometime this year. Woo hoo! Cool winterwear. I hope the credit card's magnetic strip doesn't wear out.

Then they brought me to a couple of streets (Staunton & Hollywood) with many small cut-label boutiques. So many things to try and buy except we went on the day that we were departing so it was a crazy dash.  Here's one of the "Marc by Marc Jacobs" dress I bought. Wore it on my work trip this week. So pretty! (dress AND me)

Besides clothes, the street had indie boutiques that sold interesting things like furniture, vintage clothes and bags, decorative things etc.



Messing around in the furniture shop.

 

Watch out for the Cake Crusader

And as always, we make time for snaps!

Sanny's previous fav colour. Not anymore it seems?

It is important to mention that we bought most of the stuff post-stuffing our faces, so that means everything still fits. Ha ha... Take note of the places people, and DROOL:

1. Tim Ho Wan, the Dim Sum Specialists (so it says on their website, and we unanimously concur with a resounding BO LUO BAO!). It is Michelin-starred, 'nuff said.

2. Fuk Sing. If H&M is our fashion mecca in HK, then Fuk Sing is our dim sum place Mt Sinai. We have visited this place on every single trip to HK and we weren't gonna change anything in spite of Tim Ho Wan. And yes, we had another bunch of bo luo baos.



 3. Sin Hoi San. Have to explain ah?

 4.  Agnes B cafe. So French chic except we were in shorts, perspiry and in a total hurry.

Anyways, it was a very fulfilling 2 days. We have made another date with HK in Jan 2013 and there will be new places explored because the promise is not to have dim sum and mango desserts (but maybe we should go Tim Ho Wan. It is after all Michelin-starred righttttttt???).

Thanks girls again for the fun. See you in like 3 days!

Xoxo,

Tracy

Explore #2: Fuzhou, Fujian

I am such a fan of Chinese history sometimes I surprise myself. The Yuans, Mings, Tangs are all a blur to me.  But my real interest is in Chinese modern history that starts from the Qing dynasty onwards.  I don't confess to know many details and persons but when I hear about someone being from a place I happen to be standing it, it gives me a nice little thrill. This was what happened when I was in Fuzhou recently. Fuzhou is a relatively unknown city to Singaporeans I think but it is the capital city of Fujian (yes the place that invented the ultimate curse-phrase "knnbccb!!"). 

The city used to be a water-town too, same as ZJJ in my previous post. But I dunno what happened la, but there isn't much water there anymore and certainly no sampans.  So we were hanging out in Fuzhou, in between meetings and our flight back to Shanghai and a native decided to bring us to Sanfang Qixiang (三坊七巷 - Three Lanes and Seven Alleys).  This place is a conserved cluster of ancient residential buildings dating from the late Jin Dynasty.  Er.. a bit like Clarke Quay but X a few thousand years. 

So this city is home to many famous people. And I mean MANY. And all very rebellious, chood pattern kind. What do I mean? One of the most famous is Lin Zexu, the Qing dynasty official who kickstarted (literally) the Opium War. Another one is Lin Jue Min, one of Sun Yat-Sen's 同盟會and part of the uprising against the Qing dynasty.  And then there is Ms Bing Xin, "a distinguished contemporary writer, poet, translator and social activist" who led a student movement against foreign aggression in the early 1900s.  Dunno what is with this place and activists but they sure left their marks on history.

The wall of fame.

So back to Lin Zexu. For those who are not as siao about Chinese history, here's an abridged version. So one day, the ang mohs realised - hey we have been buying so much tea and spices from China and bringing them back to ang moh land, we are giving away money instead of earning it! And the Chinese are not interested in our stinky cheeses and rotten grapes that we make into liquor, so we better find something that they wanna buy so we don't have this imbalance. What can we sell leh? AHA! Opium! It is evil for sure, but earning money is way more important. 

So the Chinese suck it all up literally and Lin Zexu, the one Qing dynasty official with morals, saw his fellow countryman falling prey to this terrible addiction. He wrote an impassioned letter to Queen Victoria, telling her to wake up her idea and to stop this evil business perpetuated by her "barbarians" subjects. Not sure if she ever read the letter but he finally buay tahan and confiscated all the opium in town and kicked it (see earlier reference about "kickstarting") into the ocean. His actions led to the outbreak of the Opium War which did not end well for China. This patriot was then sent to Xinjiang as an outcast of the government.


A wall outside Lin Zexu's memorial in Fuzhou.

Another famous Lin from Fuzhou is Lin Jue Min who fought for China to be free from the shackles of the Qing dynasty and the Manchus and to revive China. Very moving was his farewell letter to his wife before he joined the uprising.  Here's a translated excerpt:

My beloved YiYing:
I am writing this letter to bid you farewell forever. While writing this letter, I still belong to this world, but by the time you read it, I will have been a spirit in the after world. When I write this letter, my tears blend with the ink, I can barely continue. But I worry you would not understand my heart, and think that I abandoned you to die needless for a cause...I love you so much, because of this love, I now have the courage to face a certain death. Ever since we met (and fell in love), I have so often wished that all lovers will live and grow old together happily. Yet, we live in a time when the air is permeated with the smell of blood, and vicious thugs roam the streets - how many families can in fact lead happy lives? The bureaucrats hardly care while leading their decadent lives. I cannot feign compassion but assume no action. I will use the love I have in my heart for you to help all the people under the sky to have the chance to love whom they love. Because of this, I am not afraid to die and go before you...

Lin Jue Min died in the uprising in Guangdong. He was 24.


But the most romantic story that was told to us in Fuzhou had to be the one about Lin Jue Min's niece, Lin Wei Ying.  She was also an activist and a very talented individual who was loved by many men because of her beauty and talent. In particular, a man, Jin Yue Lin was so in love with her, he remained a bachelor all his life while she married another man. One day, he invited his friends to a dinner without giving a reason.  When they had rushed to the dinner and were seated, he announced that they were invited to celebrate his beloved's birthday.  She had already passed away by then.

Maybe Fuzhou shouldn't be famous for its heroes but for the love its heroes inspire.


Before I end off, here are some pictures of the conserved old houses we visited while there.


Wooden facades and small lanes.



Love this! Modern neccessities in an ancient setting. ha ha...

 

This house belonged to a rich family who could afford to have private performances in their backyard .

xoxo,
Tracy 
(P.S. Not sure what happened with my crazy fonts, but I'm too lazy to deal with it!) 

Always time for a peekture!



Explore #1: Zhu Jia Jiao

Writing this as I steam in my home. We are almost in the height of summer in Shanghai and the weather is truly overbearingly humid and hot. This coming from a Singaporean who loves hot weather, says a lot. But no matter, summer means shorts, tee shirts, sandals - all light Singaporeany clothes which we all love to wear. And summer also means getting to visit places which could be difficult or pointless in winter. So today I went on a little trip outside of Shanghai with Michelle to a place called 朱家角 (Zhu Jia Jiao, henceforth referred to as ZJJ). What is ZJJ you may ask? Wiki says: "The settlement of Zhujiajiao dates back to the Yuan dynasty, when it was an important marketplace for the surrounding countryside. It was finally granted township status during the reign of the Emperor Wanli of the Ming dynasty. Conveniently placed at the intersection of a number of local rivers, the town prospered through trade in rice and cloth, transported on boats from the surrounding countryside right to the houses of the Zhujiajiao merchants." If this is too difficult to understand, go watch Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon again. A bit wrong dynasty but almost la.

The town is a 1 hr bus ride out of Shanghai and the main sight is the ancient water village with meandering canals and buildings that have existed since the Ming and Qing dynasties. Ok, so the town was formed 1,700 years ago - waahhh!

Reminds you of our bus tix?



The bus ride was icky la. Couldn't help wondering how long the seat covers hadn't been washed, or if there were creepy crawlies living under the covers, or if the sensation on my leg was of something crawling up and if this is the reason why most of the Chinese on the bus were not in shorts - so that bare skin didn't touch the seats?! okok, not the point of the post today.

So, after a somewhat torturous and sleepy ride, we arrived at ZJJ, and promptly sat ourselves down in a ancient-looking kopitiam. The kind where you expect people in ancient Chinese attire to arrive and put their swords on the table, and then to yell 小二！And some fight will break out with swordplay ending up on the water, atop trees - you get the drift (pun intended!).

Adding to the throwback in time, a trio of singers (two aunties, one uncle and one erhu) us and asked if we would pay for them to sing. And so we did - RMB10 for 2 songs. They had a list of songs, including a "hot hits" list. We picked 茉莉花 (Jasmine Flowers) and 小城的故事 (Story of a Small Town).  Frankly, the songs sounded the same but who cares?

Ming Ming specifically warned me not to jump no matter how tempting... hmm..

Took a walk around and crossed a number of bridges. There are 36 ancient stone bridges in total and all are still in use. So beautiful.

To get from one end to another, we decided to take a boat ride at RMB60 for the hire of a boat (a bit like a sampan). As our cruise soundtrack, I played 周杰伦 (Jay Chou) on the iPhone (Ms Woo would approve!). It would have been rather romantic except I was with Michelle. Ha ha..



We took another break along the way at one of the more modern cafes. There are a number of cute little cafes, reminiscent of Jiu Fen in Taiwan. We took shelter in this one that had air conditioning... ahhhh....

When we left around 5pm, the sun was just setting and the scene was so beautiful.  We forgot about the heat, did not care about the lady washing her mat, paid no attention to the trash floating past us and just focused on savoring the moment in silence.  

Reflection of the setting sun on the gently rippling waters of Zhu Jia Jiao - the stuff of ancient poetry .

xoxo,

Steaming tao sar pau Tracy