20.07.100 - Shanghai to Xiamen

I woke up and did some last minute packing. After my last minute breakfast at Wagas, I did some last minute research and made a couple of last minute requests on the couchsurfing website, hoping to get a bunk at Xiamen. When I realised, it was getting late at 11:36am! I quickly walked to the Weining road subway to catch my fast train from Shanghai Hongqiao to Xiamen at 12:20pm!! Alas, left my subway card at Yap's place. Wasted some time getting the ticket at the machine. Then, I realised I had forgotten my earpiece too. Thought I might have time to buy one at the train station, but I would almost had to stay at Shanghai for one more night, if I did not run for my train!!!

Though panting, I was glad to be sitting inside the train. Now, I realised I didn't had my water bottle with me as well. Although the trip was supposed to be as unprepared as possible, I thought I was rather too slack this time. I wondered what else could I had left behind!!

Since my last journey to the 9 mountains in China, it had been unrealisingly one month of slacking around at Shanghai and Hong Kong, although there was a short trip to Guizhou in between.

I lost my iPhone recently, but it could be a blessing in disguise since I could finally use my sister's notebook to write now! I was naive to think the train would not be full in China! As soon as the next stop came, a mother and her son sat next to me. I knew my backpack was going to attract a lot of attentions and the subject of topic, since it was so huge!! I knew I had overpacked again for just a month stay in Taiwan. My boots were hanging besides my backpack.

Without my earpiece, there was sadly no entertainment throughout my journey in the train! I could had just on the volume loud like the lady in my front seat, watching her show on her laptop, but I didn't. I regretted not bringing along Yap's mobile on broadband. I just slept like a lazy panda for half of journey, except having my lunch in between for an hour, until my head was spinning!! I missed O'Malley's!! Should have had a lst pint of my favourite Guinness before I started my adventure again.

After struggling for more than 7 hours, I finally heard the announcement for the final stop, Xiamen! I was the only passenger left in my cabin! I was reminded again that opportunity came anytime, but didn't wait!! One had to grab it fast!!!

It was about 8pm when I reached Xiamen North station. It was like a deserted area. Walked to the bus stand and caught the bus number 953 to the main train station (the town area) Thought it was a short ride, but took almost an hour to reach! The bus announced in Hokkien as well and reminded me that I was at Fujian province already.

I started to regret not having a lighter backpack. Everyone was looking at me like I was from outer space!! After just an hour, I already felt so dragged down!! I wondered if I could hike like that at all!!

When we alighted at the terminal station, it was already 9 plus. Too hungry and tired, I just popped into MOS burger for dinner without looking further! Rested for a while and my watch showed 9:30pm! Felt a little panic for just a short while since I had not had any accomodation yet! I thought how worst could it possibly get!!

I walked like 5 minutes and saw a decent hotel. Asked the reception and the price looked ok at RMB208 with internet. I checked in immediately. The room was very clean and nice. Surfed the internet for a while before I realised another "good" news! I didn't disappoint myself and really found out more one missing items in my lugguage!! My contact lense's casing!! I walked and asked around the area but had no luck. Back to the hotel after almost an hour of wasted trip! My creativity then surprised me when I found a way to use some cups to keep my contact lenses temporarily.

After my shower, I did some research on the hiking sites that I could try. Found a great webite by some westerner, sharing his hiking experience. His blog made mine looked like an unborn baby!!! I didn't feel like completing my blog on the 9 mountains journey in China!

Around 1am, I could not resist but went down to the street for my bbq supper. The small stall was at a quiet street but the business seemed very good! I waited for some 20 minutes and I heard there were orders coming through the mobile phone! Eventually, I got some customer service since they remembered not to have chilli on my bbq. But, that wasn't very good afterall, since it made the food very salty!!

Somehow, I managed to resist the beer temptation and had a coke instead. Went back to my room and continued my research. Saved up some of the information on my Opera browser, wrote my adventure today on the notebook and went to be almost at 3am, hoping for a great day tomorrow to Taiwan!!

9 mountains - 12.6.11 (Day 26 - The end of the journey with Mt Putuo)

Part of the path..

A red door!

The train arrived 10minutes earlier at Ningbo. The staff had already awoken us at 5am! Cuddled under my blanket for another 15min before I got ready.

Start point of the trail..

It was raining as forecasted by the weather report I checked earlier. I came out and saw mcD the very first thing. Immediately went over to cure my stomach while planning for the next move.

I looked out from the entrance and saw the rain in depress. I checked the next schedule to Shanghai and thought I could catch the earliest train at 7:30am back home!! Of course I didn't!  How could I possibly skip the last mountain, Mt Putuo, of my Nine Sacred Mountains expedition!?

"Young Lady"at the shore

Eerie creature...

Couldn't find anyone to ask for direction. The ticket officers were very busy. The policeman was on the phone, with his girlfriend probably. And I ended up asking the wrong person. The bus company staff. Was directed to another town, Shenjiamen instead. She said there was few ferries from Ningbo to

Man at work!

Putuoshan Island. I could only believe so. Somehow I had this feeling that Seremban has few bus to Malacca and was told to take one from KL instead!! So, I was taken to the south bus station to catch the long distance bus. The information center there told me there was no ferry from Ningbo!! I guessed I'd probably misjudged the bus company staff. I think my Chinese look helped a lot during the whole trip. Many thought that I am a local from Guangzhou. I really felt sorry for those foreign travelers who doesn't speak Chinese.

The final destination.. Nanhai Guanyin
Temple at Mt Putuo

The trip was exactly 2 hours. As directed by the information center, I had to take a short cab ride to the ferry terminal. Bought a ticket and waited for the ferry.

A monk and a temple along the shore.

Getting closer to destination..

A temple along the shore

Around 10:30am, the ferry arrived. I waited patiently for all to board. Only to be stopped later because the ferry was full!! Luckily the wait for the next ferry was only 10 minutes. The boat ride was roughly 15minutes.

I reached Putuoshan Island around 10:45am. The island was pretty huge with many attraction. Spending a night there would be a good option to explore all the places in ease. But I didn't since I missed my "home" so much!!

I started off at the southern gate. The area was quite without any tourist.

Finally here at
Nanhai Guan Yin Temple

Sneak preview of
Nanhai Guanyin Temple

Pray with the heart...

Saw a very beautiful green bird with white head. Near the shore, there was this weird creature that looks like centipede. The sound of the waves near the beach was great.

I realise if we slow down, we can actually see and enjoy a lot of things. The same goes for your life!

Suddenly two girls was jumping in front of me when I saw them. I remembered I didn't have my Joker make up on! It was the frog instead!

I kept walking towards the peak direction. Taking my own sweet time. Passed by a nice beach called 100 steps beach. There was another one called 1000 steps beach, I did not get into there!

A zoom in view of the
Nanhai Guanyin

The famous site where Guanyin
left her fingerprints!

I visited a place where you can see a huge Guanyin statue and the site where legends said the Guanyin left her fingerprints while she leaped and crossed over the ocean! Also came to one of the big temple along the way before I finally reach the path going up the peak. It was only 300m asl! I was still taking my time but the steps seemed to be tougher than I expected. And then I realised my time management was getting worse and I started to rush up! I had to stop many times to catch my breath.

An uninvited plastic bag!

Had a little snack I bought and moved on. Finally I came to the peak where the famous temple was. Paid the entrance fee and did my prayer. There were quite a lot of people too. At the second floor, I saw many statue. Each donated by different people from all around China and other parts of the world. I saw some Phillipines and a couple of Singaporeans too.

Getting close up on
the craft work

Nice craft work at the main temple.

On my way down, there were huge groups of tour. I walked down very fast and back to the main entrance of the island again in lightning speed!! There was a guy offering bus to Ningbo. I was tempted but worried they would delay and I would miss the last train back to Shanghai. So, I bought the ferry back to Shenjiamen again and the staffs at the island informed that there were direct buses going to Shanghai!! I was delighted and managed to catch the 5:30pm bus. It took about 3 hours to reach the Shanghai bus terminal at Huangpu.

Some ritual at the main temple

Glad I managed to catch a cab not long after that and back to my "home sweet home". No! It was my buddy's house actually who worked here since many years ago.  It was really nice to be back to idling state again after a tiring but enjoyable 26 days excursion around the famous nine sacred mountains of China!!

Thanks a lot for reading everyone and I hoped you enjoyed my unnatural and implausible sense of humour! =]  Check out the rest of my journeys too!!

9 mountains - 11.6.11 (Day 25 - Hiking to the peak of Mt Jiuhua)

I remembered very clearly that I had switched off the TV but I was awaken at 2:30am by a match-making TV program that I had seen before!! This was too real to be a dream either. I just off the TV again and went back to sleep, too sleepy to think of anything spooky!

At 5am, my alarm rang. But the heavy rain outside didn't encourage me to wake up at all. Eventually I struggled up around one hour later.

The rain never seemed to die off at all. I had to gear up my poncho.

Hiking up to the trail

A waterfall along the main road

After some navigation from the local, I started of my hike up around 6:40am. First I asked the food stall owner. Then, I confirmed again with the souvenir shop owner. Both were suggesting not to walk up because it was a very long walk of 15km!! They suggested to take the free bus to the cable station and hike up from there. But according to the map and the guide book, I should be able to start from Jiuhua street, which was already half way up the mountain.

A "friend" I met at the road side.

Rainy view from the side road.

I checked out the sign and it mentioned 7km to the peak. My confidence was boosted. I followed the main road up and reached where the bus stops about an hour later. The view on my right along the way was great. But the rain was making it very difficult to snap a shot.

Very very old tree at the mid point of the hike!

Reaching the mid point rest
area

After the main road, it was stones steps all the way up, passing through many temples and restaurants. It was only 4km hike up from 800m to 1301m a.s.l. but I was caught catching my breath numerous times. After 6 slack days at Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Shenzhen, Jiuhua Shan made me looked like a novice once again!! The wet weather was making it worse. That why they said cheap stuff ain't good stuff. My poncho seemed to have holes everywhere that I was soaked like a sponge!! I even doubted my Goretex pant I bought at Chengdu because my lower body was wet too!!

Heaven Bridge Temple

Devotees with flower head
bands

After 3 and half hours, I finally reached the peak! And the crowd was huge. I noticed some worshipers wore flowers band on their head for their prayers.

Did not stay for long because there was nothing much to see with such heavy mist in the rain!

View from the Heaven Bridge Temple

I started to descend at 10:07am but was too hungry to continue and stopped for breakfast near the peak. The rmb30 meal for an instant noodle and a Red Bull was daylight robbery!

I was basically on the exact track that I came up. The rain stopped very briefly when I reached the bus stop about 4km away from town.

Around 12:50pm, I was at the Jiuhua town and took the free shuttle to the long distance bus station downhill.

Path to the temple main hall

I was just on time to catch the last bus to Wuhu at 1:30pm. There were only 7 of us in the bus. Along the way, the bus picked up more passengers. Exactly 3 hours later, we reached the Wuhu train station! I walked over to get my ticket to Ningbo where I was supposingly able to get a ferry transfer to Putuoshan, the last stop of my trip!

The queue was short. I was done in minutes. Stink like a toilet bowl, I couldn't wait to get my shower. I walked over to a hotel and noticed rmb50 for 2 hours rest. I checked the next door. It was 4 hours for the same price!! I took the offer and regretted. The bed wasn't really clean. The staff offered a towel but I ended up using mine instead. Luckily the hot water was still ok to have a decent shower.

Awaken!

After that, I was very hungry and had some local food at a restaurant nearby. Nothing fancy at all.

I realized I hurt my right knees. I could hardly walk without limping slightly. I went to look for a foot massage and found a huge place!

The 70minutes session was not too bad for rmb58! With hot tea and some fruits, you could also stayed as long as you like to rest.

I decided to walk back instead. The hotel staff chased me out half an hour earlier!! I walked over to the Internet cafe but was rejected for the first time in China for not having an identity card!! I walked to another closer to the train station and almost got rejected although I explained that I was a foreigner. Luckily another staff managed to sort things out and gave me a password as usual in other outlets. Spent the next two hours checking emails and chit chatting. At 10, I walked over to the station and waited to board the train at 11pm.

Today, I was a lucky man to have three girls sharing with me in the 4-berth coach!!

After updating my blog for a while, I slept an hour later.

9 mountains - 10.6.11 (Day 24 - Reaching Mt Jiuhua)

Woke up one minute before the alarm rang at 6:45am. After struggling for 10minutes, I got out of bed and prepared to alight. At 7, the staff wasn't around to exchange the ticket yet! I thought something must be wrong. Around 8, I was told the train would only arrive at 8:50am. So I went to have my breakfast. Eventually, we were only at Huangshan station at 9:45am, more than 2 hours of delay. After taking the train for so many times, I encountered my first delay. Wet said it was common for delay actually.

I asked the staff at the train station and was directed to a bus stop just outside the station to catch a bus No 9 to the terminal stop where the long distance bus station was.

After a short wait, the bus came. It was only a 15min ride to the terminal. The next bus to Jiuhua was 1:30pm! In fact, there was only one bus everyday!! I was lucky I did not miss this.

I walked around the station. Nothing much that could keep me entertained for 3 hours!

Egg-yolk-less dumpling =[

I came to a food stall at the waiting area and noticed egg york dumpling!! Decided to have my belated dragon boat festival dumpling. But sadly there wasn't any egg york in mine!! Maybe they got my order wrongly.

The first hour was a struggle. Wang Xiao Hu (the singer of a recent 2011 famous song) kept repeating to me "xiang ai bing bu na me rongyi..." over and over again in the station until I almost gone mad.

I walked over to the same restaurant to order a soup noodle for lunch. After 15minutes, nothing seemed to happen. I checked with the staff again. I knew I had been forgotten. A couple of minutes later, there was an electricity cut!! The stall owners said they could only serve rice now. I wouldn't mind either. But the old lady told me I was lucky. "Your order had just been made on time!" I just smiled and thought "Ah Yee, I've waited for a long time already!"

When I paid, the staff apologized for the delay. I thought that was what bring customers back!! I always thought I would make out to be very good and customer oriented staff if I were to be in the service line!!

The bus departed exactly on time. There were only 6 of us in the big bus. 2.5hours later, we reached Qingyang town and was transferred to a minivan.

As expected, we were all brought to the preferred hotel of the driver. It was another hour of ride before we reached the Jiuhua Shan scenic area.

The owner charged me rmb210 for the entrance fee and hotel room! One must wondered it was bargain because the entrance was rmb190! But instead I was actually given a concession ticket and the owner tried to convince me that the staffs would not check the ticket.

The rain got heavier when we reached the hotel. Stuck with no way to go, I had my early dinner at the lodging.

After shower, it was still only 7pm. I kept switching the channel from 1 to 70 and then back to 1 again until my eyes went blur!!!

Watched a competition to imitate the Hong Kong famous singer Andy Lau. Saw a few impressive one whom not only sing like him but looked like  the singer as well!! Nothing much on CCTV5 after that. I was looking for match-making program again until finally I found one around 11pm. This 郎才女貌 is a new program that I had not seen before. Only now did I realized that almost all the girls in these programs were very pretty and I started to doubt if all these were just the gimmicks of the TV producers. (In fact, it was! Later my friend who works in a modeling company told me that all the girls were models from his company!!)

At 12am, I finally willing to switch off the TV and went to bed. The rain had never stopped until now.

9 mountains - 9.6.11 (Day 23 - On the Road to Huangshan Train Station)

Had my breakfast and one last foot massage before I had my shower and left the paradise at 10:30am!! Summing up a total of 38hours marathon in a spa!!

Took the subway to the Shenzhen train station and bought the next train to Huangshan station at 12:30pm. Previously, I did some research that I could go to Jiuhua Shan from there as well. My initial plan was to go to Wuhu but that was further up north and Jiuhua was actually between Huangshan and Wuhu.

Great view from Huangshan!

Met a youngster in the train going to Nanjing to meet his girlfriend. He studied animation but worked in the properties line. He gave me his name card and I thought his English name, Wet, was pretty cool!!

We chatted for a long time, although he talked most of the time! Around 5:30pm, I took a nap and woke up at 8pm to have dinner. Nothing as fancy as I had before in the train. Surprisingly, no one chased me away from the dining booth this time and I sat there for a long while. Soon Wet came to join. He had his dinner and offered a beer for me too.

Yet another great view from Huangshan!

Another great view from Huangshan!

We went back to our bed around 10pm and met our new mates. The two uncles were from Jiangxi. They were going to Nanjing as well for work. They were Hakka and seemed pretty excited to know I'm Hakka and speak the dialect too.

We chatted till 12am before going to bed.  Spending all day in the train, there was obviously nothing much interesting to take any picture.  So, here's some pictures of Huangshan which I went last year.

9 mountains - 8.6.11 (Day 22 - Day Off at Shenzhen)

Woke up at 8am to have breakfast. My train to the next destination was at 12:30pm.

Still early, I rested on the couch at the big hall and caught NBA final game 5 lived on CCTV5!! After the match, I was getting lazy to get out of the comfort zone!! Instead of just a night stay, I spent the longest time in a spa when decided to spend another day at Shenzhen.

And for the first time as well, I spent more than 38 hours indoor having supper, breakfasts, lunch and dinner at the same place!! And of course not to mention, numerous great massage sessions!! =]

Let's recall the great time in HK!

Hmm...yummy yummy!

Good time passed very fast. It was time to sleep again. This time, I only needed an hour of massage to spend the night in the room. The bed was bigger too. Initially they wanted me to add another hour but when I asked them the next morning, I was exempted. The service was pretty good. Too bad I was too relaxed to remember taking any picture!  So, why not having a good memory of my beef noodle at Hong Kong again?!

9 mountains - 7.6.11 (Day 21 - Stop-over at Shenzhen)

I'm a stray dog, wandering
around the street alone,
taking pictures wantonly!

Woke up pretty early at 10am. Michelle had gone to work. Horace was preparing. He left around 11 plus. Craving so much for Wah's Sister beef soup noodle again, I checked it out using the iPhone's Maps application. There was a direct bus no 23 just outside my friend's apartment which took only half an hour! I quickly packed up feeling excited to feast on a great meal again.

When the bus arrived, I realized I didn't have any small change! Unfortunately no one I asked had enough to exchange my 100 dollar bill. Eventually I gave the bus driver Chinese Renmingbi. Luckily he still accepted them without much fuss.

Perfectness is never too
much to show again!

Oh my BBB!

Half an hour later, I thought I missed the stop. Alighted immediately and realized I was just at the right place. Wah's Sister wasn't difficult to locate at all. I satisfied myself with the signature bowl of beef noodle soup again with, just the right quantity of two extra beef balls!!

Seriously, what more could you ask for in life when you have great beer and great food like this!!

Mak Kee's wanton!!

I hopped over to Mak Siu Kee's for a bowl of prawn wanton!!! Orgasm again!!

After that, it was time to get back to China to continue my 9 mountains adventure! I took the subway all the way back to Shenzhen again and went to a very nice spa recommended by Sam, to spend the night!

With a couple of hours of massage, I got to sleep quietly in the massage room, with a blanket as well, instead of the "Snoring Zone" at the main hall!! The service was so good that they provide you with iPhone charger too!!

9 mountains - 6.6.11 (Day 20 - Great Food at Hong Kong)

Sister's Hua Beef Noodle!
One word two syllabus "Perfect"!

BBB! (Best Beef Ball!)

I woke up pretty late at 12pm! We got ready and off for lunch. The couple brought me to this place at Electric Road, near Tin Hau subway. They were many nice food around. We started off at Wa Je (wah's sister) beef noodle stall. The beef was so tender and juicy, the soup was wonderful, the noodle was great, and I had the best beef balls in my life!!

Nice chill out with great buddy

We continued our eating spree at a famous Guangdong wanton noodle shop. Horace could still eat another bowl of noodle. I could only fit in a couple wanton only! And they were amazing!! Definitely one of the best meal of my trip so far!! I am always very fond of the country. Grown up with TVB Series and the Cantonese music industry from Hong Kong.

After that, we went windows shopping at IFC. Had a tea break and then more beer at a nice bar at Jaffe Road, where you can sing. We did not sing but had long great chat with a great buddy!!

HK night view from the Peak

For the last two days, I realised I had not seen any Japanese or Korean cars in HK at all!! There were only sports cars, BMW, Mercedes and luxury automobile on the road!!!

Around 7 plus, we went to look for dinner and decided at Tsui Wah restaurant. Had a wonderful XO sauce prawn noodle!!

Christmas is near.. at The Peak

Horace then suggested to drive up to the peak! We had a short walk around and took some pictures of the Hong Kong night scene before headed home.

One more HK night view from the Peak

Rested for a while before Sam reached, and it was time for more drink again!

A great supper at Tsui Wah again to end the perfect day!

9 mountains - 5.6.11 (Day 19 - Detour to Hong Kong)

Reminded me of Yip Man's
training ground for his disciple (taken outside my hotel
room at Guangzhou)

Woke up once at 8am. Went back to sleep till 11am. Got ready and checked out. Had a bowl of beef noodle and back to my favorite cafe for the milk tea. Thought of having my favorite local dessert, peanut paste at a stall but they didn't have that already although there were still pictures on the wall.

After my meal, it was time to say goodbye to Guangzhou and hello to Hong Kong. It was unbelievable that I had stayed in China for almost 2 months and had to leave the country before I could come in again (My visa was a 60 days stay only)! I walked to the subway and took a ride to the east train station. It was very convenient. At the station, I immediately saw huge signs directing passengers traveling to Hong Kong. The single trip was rmb159. The next train timing was perfect. After immigration clearance, it was time to board. The train was pretty empty. They even served you a bottle of mineral water!

The signboard at the subway

An hour plus later, I crossed over to HK and lost my phone signal. Around 4pm, I was at Hong Hum station, the terminal stop.

Got a sim card and called my friend, Horace. He directed me to Kam Chung station to cross the strait and caught a cab there to his apartment. Met Michelle for the first time after more than 10 years in the university!!

Sai Kiung's tranquil

We hanged around at home for a while before heading to Sai Kung for seafood dinner. We were pretty early and had a delicious bowl of La Za Min (literally means dirty noodle), famous for its history as a street stall noodle.

We tool a stroll around the coastal area after that. There were many people. And I saw a lot of sun tanning enthusiasts too!

Great seafood at Sai Kung

Around 7:30pm, Ada reached. Sam and his wife, Tiffany, soon arrived too. We had a feast!! Many of the seafood I had not even seen before! After the splendid dinner, we continued our strong appetite at the famous Moon Kei dessert shop. The durian pastry was really very tasty!!

Great company of friends from Hong Kong...

Everyone was very full after that. We went to pay Sam's house a visit, before sending Ada and Michelle home for a men only outing!!

The rest of the night was drink, drink and more drink!!! It was really nice to catch up with old buddies again.

I had forgotten what time we came home!!