So anw, I was at the airport early and had breakfast with my mummy! We ate at the Coffebean and I actually ate half of my mum's food haha! It was really tasty and honestly, the idea of not being able to have western food for the next week probably made me eat more that morning.
Moving on, my group started to get to know one another and I'm sure we all won't forget what happened that day at the airport. I can't blog what it is about cause we all promised not to tell anyone but basically smth really embarrassing happened to one of us hehe. The funny thing is, at that point of time, we weren't that close to each other but alr, smth embarrassing had happened to one of us. We spent the whole plane ride laughing about it but that kind of made us closer.
On the plane, I was seated with Hui Jie and Wei Ling. I didn't really talk to both of them much prior to this trip but now we're all really good friends and we make fun of each other a lot haha! Throughout the plane ride, I was pretty much asleep most of the time. Wei Ling too cause we didn't sleep much the night before. Hui Jie on the other hand, was laughing like there's no tmr on the plane cause she was watching runningman. Can you imagine how creepy it is to sit next to someone who randomly burst out into laughter haha! At one point, she laughed so hard, she woke Wei Ling and I up... Well long story short, the plane ride was filled with laughter, sleep, judgmental stares from WL and I and photos.
Upon arriving, we all had KFC for lunch. You know how KFC is known for their chicken? Well, the one at Shanghai doesn't sell the normal chickens we have in Sg but instead, chicken burgers. We all had chicken burgers and it was ok I guess. I still prefer the KFC in Sg simply because chicken thighs are so much tastier haha!
The temp was actually 17 degrees when we arrived so I wore my thinnest jacket for the day. Not a smart idea but more on that ltr. The first thing on our itinerary was to take a Maglev Train to Shanghai City. It was quite a cool experience and it kind of reminded me of the Bullet Train I took in Japan. It's basically a really fast moving train which takes you to different places. It actually reached 431km/h at one point and that's the fastest speed the train can go. It was quite a cool experience and soon enough, we reached our destination.
Heres a little funny story that happened on the train. SR wanted our group to do a walking video so that at the end of it, they can make a collage of videos. Ms Leow asked me to walk in the train and I ended up having to go to a further cabin to start the walk. Yeah... the further cabin was full of ppl I didn't know so it was really awkward. While I stood there waiting for the cue to start, everyone was staring at me as if I was a tour guide or smth haha! It was super embarrassing because it felt as if they were all expecting me to say smth. I actually think they did expect me to start talking but I ended up just walking through their cabin(while smiling) after standing there awkwardly for a minute.
We then went to XianTianDi for a visit. We only spent a short 15mins there because of our tight schedule. To make things worst, it started to rain and I'm pretty sure the temp dropped a good 5 degrees. Our group had 8 ppl and 3 umbrellas so you can imagine the chaos happening there haha! We were all running around trying to make the best use of the time we had there.
The rain got worst at night but that wasn't going to dampen our spirits. In fact, up till now, my group still talks about the very first day in Shanghai - how we braved the rain, got blown away by the wind, got our shoes wet, froze but luckily didn't fall ill. We had about an hr of free time at a shopping street in Shanghai. We decided to buy another umbrella cause there was no way we could all squeeze under 3 umbrellas with the heavy rain. So we ended up walking 2 by 2. It's funny cause whoever I walked with have to hold the umbrella cause if I held it, it would have been hitting their heads haha! Good for me I guess :D
I shared an umbrella with Krittin and the first thing that came into my mind when he spoke was he acts like he's a girl HAHA! I'm sorry Krittin if you're reading this haha! I still love you but hahaha really? The whole time, we had to dodge puddles of water cause he was afraid his shoes would get wet. His exact words were "I'm not walking on that. My shoes will get wet!" Imagine it with a little attitude and sass. Even I didn't really care about my shoes haha!
As you can see from the photos, the rain was really heavy. We were all saying how it kind of looked like it was snowing. The streets of Shanghai kind of reminded me of Hong Kong. All the street lights and signboards made me think about Mongkok. Not sure if it's only me but that's what I thought.
The happiest part of the night was definitely when we got to try bing tang hu lu! Before gng Shanghai, Rifdi and my sister were telling me how I must try it. When they were in Shanghai, they ate the grape one and they said it was really tasty. On that day, I bought the strawberry one and I'm so glad I did! It was really sweet and tasty. Just a little fun fact but the traditional bing tang hu lu has loads of seeds in it so that's a little more troublesome to eat.
We then went for dinner and we started our group 1 custom. Before anyone ate, they had to first let Jo and I take photos of the food. In the meantime, we would all pass our cups to the guys so that they can pour tea in it. Kai Jie also became our 'call the waiter' guy and now he can say fu wu sheng really loud like a typical Shanghainese haha!
The funniest part of the day came after dinner. We all headed outdoors to see the night view of Shanghai. I'm pretty sure the temp was about 0 degrees that night cause of the rain. I was dressed for 17 degrees so you can imagine how cold it was haha! In fact, most of us weren't dressed for that kind of weather.
After awhile, we gave up walking in 2s and the girls decided the guys should just sacrifice themselves for us haha! We formed like a circle formation with all the girls in the middle and the guys at the perimeter with an umbrella over our heads.
As you can see, the weather was pretty bad... But oh well, we made the best of it and had loads of fun together. I'm really glad I brought my beanie that day cause it kind of protected my head. Poor Jo started to get a headache after awhile cause of the strong wind so we all protected her by sacrificing our umbrellas haha! Our group was the first group to get on the coach actually cause we were all freezing. We then went to check in at our hotel - Ramada Plaza.
No idea why but for some reason, all the girls had 2 queen size beds whereas the guys had 2 single beds. Jo and I ended up sleeping on the same bed and dumped our clothes on the other. All our group mates will know that our room was pretty much a pig sty. Hahaha! That's what happens when you stay with your bestie. You don't have to care about being neat and whatnot. We just threw out things everywhere hehe.
Jo and I recorded some vids and we actually spent about half an hr dancing and jumping on our beds. Yeah... I have no idea how that idea popped in our heads but it was definitely fun hehe. We were blasting music and dancing shamelessly haha!
Well that's pretty much it for the first day. On a side note, I'm currently down with fever so that kind of sucks. At least I'm back in Sg now haha!
"I certainly gained a lot by reading about Shanghai."
Ralph Fiennes
