Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Culture Shock

China was awesome, I especially enjoyed the noodle breakfast every morning :) foot massages and peach egg tarts from KFC! In any case I'm glad to be home. The toilet situation was rough (a hem ..trough) and the people ... aggressive. They can smell a foreigner from a mile away. But it was fun and I wanna go back! So many sights we haven't seen yet ...

Kunming was like any developing city. Suprisingly there was mad infrastruture with roads going out for hours. It also felt very safe, perhaps because the foreign tourists haven't invaded the place yet. We visited a business started on microcredit. The owners were really sweet and J made out (well traded) for a free sweater. Wish we brought more gifts with us!

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Dali was aight, not really worth an overnight train ride on the Chinese train there, though it was quite an experience! At least we got to share the cabin with my fellow classmates and fully savor the cigarette smoke emitting vents.

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My favorite was Lijiang. It's set in the mountains and gorgeous! Interestingly Singaporean business men have already discovered this place. There is a Banyan Tree Resort in Lijiang (we headed out there when we got tired of roughing it out and needed some 5* luxury). A Singaporean business men also has a private ranch out in the country side .. middle of nowhere but it's beautiful!! And apparently NUS donated money to start a school in one of the little villages we visited.

Walking beyond Yuhu village. Got to experience star status with the crew from CCTV following us. Wonder how they will spin our visit!
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But now its back to the real world and studying for midterms booo.

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2 comments:

~e~ said...

wow... sounds like a whirlwind tour...

but so cruel... midterms straight after the holiday... All the best, babe!! :)

mini said...

i know brutal right? we tried postponing it but some b**** objected??!? who are these freaks?