Singapore II

After spending three days with Sven from couchsurfing we had to move, because he had another friend coming to his place. Luckily we found another host via couchsurfing so we moved there. We stayed quite close to the beach which was really nice. Apart from the beach we also visited some other sights in Singapore.

Chinatown was lots of shopping and food. The place was extremely crowded but there were beautiful lights because Chinese New Year is coming soon. What I especially liked were the old and colourful buildings there and thaqt you could try lots of new food.



Little India wasn't as spectacular as Chinatown but still had its own charm. You can find some super delicious Indian food there and afterwards go Sari-shopping. I find Indian cloths extremely beautiful and in little India you can find all kinds of different styles and colours. There is also a small Hindu temple that you can visit.

I didn't spend much time in Arab street but there was a great mosque that would definitely be worth visiting. Apart from this I've heard that they sell some of the best food in town there.

We also went to the beach at East Coast Park. You could rent bycicles and roller blades there, it has a beach volleyball field and you can also go swimming, even though the view was not that nice, cause you couldn't see the horizon due to the fact that the sea was full of ships.



We had already visited Marina Bay Sands during our first stay but the downtown district is still one of my favourite places in Singapore, especially at night you have a great view with all the lights. On my last evening I went with a friend to the Grand Theatre there to watch the Musical wicked, which I totally recommend. Even though this Musical is only there for a couple of weeks, there are definitely other interesting shows coming to town soon.

For New Year we went to Clark Quay, which is the party and bar area in Singapore. It was extremely crowded but still fun. I especially like hanging out at "the bridge" which is very famous in the couchsurfing community. For New Year people were bringing spraying foam at each other there ant in the end everyone smelled like the spray you use for toilets.

Christmas in Singapore

About a week before the holidays we decided to go to Singapore for Christmas and New Year. Because Singapore is one of the most expensive countries in Southeast Asia and since we wanted to meet some new people, I decided to try couchsurfing. This is a website where people from all over the world offer their couch or a spare mattress to travelers. After sending about 40 messages to people in Singapore, we were lucky that Sven (from Norway, but living in Singapore) offered his couch for the first couple of days of our stay.

We arrived there at the 23rd in the late evening and apart from sleeping we didn't do much. But the next day we prepared for the Christmas party that took place in the evening. I cooked a curry while Sairozi and Sven made 2 different kinds of cookies and a cake. It turned out super-delicious and I ate way too much during the party.



The next day some couchsurfers had organised a tour through the city. At the moment there is a campaign to protect elephants in Singapore and you can find elephant figures all around the city. The aim of our tour was to see as many different elephants as possible. Here you can see my favourites:

Koh Phi Phi – "The Beach"

After the orientation asiaexchange had organized a trip to Koh Phi Phi, the island next to where “The Beach” with Leonardo diCaprio was shot. If you are now thinking about the quiet paradise island that you can see in the movie – forget it. The place was so crowded that it would be impossible to build another small shop on it and even though it was low season, the whole island was full of tourists. At night the beach turned into a dance floor and you had to keep a distance of at least 70 meters to the bars to be able to have a normal conversation. If you are into partying, don’t mind being surrounded by other tourists and want to spend a couple of Baht more on food & accommodation compared to other places in Thailand (we stayed at the Harmony House and paid 400 Baht per night for a very basic room with bathroom, fan and cold water), Koh Phi Phi is THE place to be. However, even if you’re not a party person, Koh Phi Phi offers beautiful scenery and if you charter a boat for a daytrip you can go to less crowded but still very beautiful beaches.

On Saturday we all went on such a trip and it was definitely worth the 250 Baht we paid for it. First we went to another island and spend some time at the beach. We could also go snorkeling; however you could hardly see anything (i.e. nothing at all) due to the recent rainfall and the rough sea. Hanging out at the beach and playing in the water was lots of fun though. Afterwards we went cliff jumping and some of the asiaexchange students were brave enough to try it… I wasn’t one of them. In the late afternoon we arrived back in Koh Phi Phi.

That evening Sairozi and I had a nice dinner at the beach to celebrate our 3^rd anniversary. Even on Koh Phi Phi we could find a quiet place and we had a wonderful evening. The next day it was already time to return to Phuket, because the following day university started.

Singapore

After we had collected our visas on Friday we decided to visit Sairozi’s aunt in Singapore. On Saturday we went to KL Sentral to buy our tickets. Two 2^nd class tickets for the 6 hours journey from KL Sentral to Woodlands ciq cost us 68 ringgit (34 each). We also bought the return tickets at KL Sentral because tickets bought in Singapore are more expensive than those bought in Malaysia (even though for the same train!!). It’s also more expensive to start your journey in Woodlands, Singapore (34 Singapore Dollars/ 88 ringgit/ 20 Euro) than in Johor Bahru, Malaysia (33 ringgit/ 8 Euro). That’s why we bought our return ticket from Johor Bharu to KL Sentral. We took the night train at 11pm and reached Singapore in the morning at around 6.30am. The train station in Singapore is located right next the border to Malaysia so we had to take a bus and the LRT to go into town which took around 40 minutes.

Sairozi’s aunt met us at the LRT station and took us to her employer’s house. We received a very warm welcome and they had already prepared some maps, public transportation tickets and even food (Sushi… yummy!) for us. Then we headed into town to see Marina Bay. However, it was a bit difficult to go around the city because the Formula 1 race was held in Singapore that evening so many roads had been closed. Luckily, we still managed to find our way thanks to the security staff that was everywhere around the F1 track. Singapore and Marina Bay left a very good impression. It was extremely modern, clean and everything was well-organized. In the evening we went back to meet Sairozi's aunt and have dinner together. She had prepared some delicious Chinese-Indonesian food for us. Unfortunately we only had one day to visit Singapore because the next day we already returned to Kuala Lumpur to catch our flight the following day.

Shanghai

After the summer university had ended, some of the students decided to visit Shanghai before returning to Germany. Since my flight to Kuala Lumpur departs from Hangzhou, which is only 1-2 hours by train from Shanghai, and the weather was getting colder in Qingdao, I joined them. On Sunday morning we took the train and after a pleasant 6.30 hours journey we finally arrived. The first impression of the city was very good… 26 degrees! The hostel we stayed in turned out to be more like a hotel and it was definitely one of the best (if not THE best) hostel I’ve ever stayed at. It’s called “Shanghai City Central International Youth Hostel” and room rates start from 60 RMB. It’s located within 5 minutes walking distance to the Cao Yang subway station (line 4).

The next morning I went to Huangpu bus station, from where a daily shuttle bus to Xiaoshang airport (Hangzhou) leaves. The ticket cost me 100 RMB, which is a little bit more expensive than taking the train, but has the advantage that Huangpu bus station is located right next to the Nanppu bridge subway station (line 4), which means I didn’t have to change lines (which can be quite a hassle due to the lack of elevators in some stations). The shuttle bus takes around 3 hours to Xiaoshang airport and drops you right at the international departure terminal.

After I had purchased the bus ticket I went to Shanghai’s main tourist attraction – the Bund! I went there at 5 pm to take some photos of the skyline while it was not dark yet. Then I went for dinner in a nice and small restaurant, where only Chinese were eating. The food was quite cheap compared to other places in that area (even though pretty expensive if you compare it to other cities in China). But 15 RMB got me a great dinner… at least that’s what I thought then. At 6.30 pm the sun had set and I went back to the Bund to take more photos of the skyline at night. It’s amazing how different the place looks at day and night.

Pretty exhausted I decided to return to the hostel, but somehow my “not-so-good-anymore dinner” didn’t like that plan and got me desperately looking for the nearest restroom. Luckily I was well equipped with the most important thing that everyone needs to bring when travelling in China… tissues! It’s fairly easy to find a restroom but 99,9% of them don’t have any toilet paper. So always have some tissues in your pocket. What’s even better are “German quality tissues” (deutsche Qualitätstaschentücher) which soon became a rare good in Qingdao. In the end of the summer university they traded 1:4 against Chinese tissues.

On my last day in China I went to an underground “fake” market (of course, the shop owners insisted that their products were not fake at all). “Wanna buy a watch? Rolex? Cheap, CHEAP!”, “Chopsticks only 40 RMB (4,2 Euro… that’s more expensive than in Germany!), very cheap!” … even though it got quite exhausting at the market I still had fun and got some great bargains. It might be a good idea to bring a friend though, because having someone on your side when 4 shopkeepers are yelling at you simultaneously can be very helpful…

Jinan, Taishan and Qufu

After having studied Chinese for 2,5 weeks a reward was waiting for us. This weekend we went on our 4 day trip to Jinan, Taishan and Qufu. On Friday we left for Jinan which is the capital city of Shandong province. Even though we didn't spend much time there we had quite a lot of fun, because a meeting between the participants of the summer university and local students had been organized. After they showed us their university and had some singing performances we had a large "hot pot" dinner together. It was super-delicious and the Chinese students were lots of fun. The next day we left early to climb the Taishan mountain. It's a holy mountain with lots of shrines and temples. But before we could visit the temples 2 hours, approximately 1 million stairs and even more Chinese tourists awaited us. But it was definitely worth climbing all the way to the top of the mountain as you can see on the picuters.

Our final destination was Qufu, the birthplace of Confucius. We stayed at a nice traditional chinese-style hotel which was located right next to the Confucius temple. The temple was really nice but unfortunately I didn't learn much about the history of that place due to our tour guide. In the beginning I thought he was speaking Chinese but when I asked a Chinese friend what he was saying she told me that she had no clue either... because what had sounded like Chinese was supposed to be English! It could have been a nice tour but since I didn't understand a word of what he was trying to tell us it got really boring in the end. Afterwards we went to Confucius' grave which was a really cool place. It's in the middle of a huge graveyard where only his family members are buried. The place could have been out of a horror movie cause it had a really eerie atmosphere. It's definitely worth visiting!

Beijing

Last week I finally left Germany to attend the BayChina summer university in Qingdao. However, before my classes began I had two days to explore China's capital Beijing. I stayed with three friends in the Happy Dragon Hostel, which is a nice and affordable place. The staff was very helpful and their English was quite good too. For a bed in a four bed dormitory we paid 80 yuan (around 8 Euro). The hostel was quite close to the Dongsi subway station so we could easily go around the city. The first day we visited the forbidden city (palace museum, entrace fee 60 yuan). The whole area was larger than I expected but what impressed me the most were the people. We were surrounded by thousands of Chinese tourists and I think I have never seen that many people in one place before.
For the next day I had booked a tour to the great wall. My hostel offered different packages starting from 180 yuan until 260 yuan. The cheaper tour was to the Badaling wall and included shopping. This part of the wall can also be reached by public transportation which is a lot cheaper than taking a tour. Some friends of mine visited this place and said that it's full of tourists and that it's quite difficult to get a nice picture of the wall without heaps of people. I decided to visit the Mutianyu wall (260 yuan). This part of the great wall is further away from Beijing and there are less tourists. For me it was the right decision. The wall was not too crowded and the landscape in that area was breathtaking.



The next day I had to leave Beijing to catch the train to Qingdao were the summer university will be held. My hostel had booked the ticket for me and I paid 250 yuan for the 5.30 h long journey. The train was new, the seats very comfortable and all trains were on time. The only difficulty was that noone spoke English. But I arrived early at the train station so I had enough time to figure things out. After this experience I can really recommend taking the train in China.