May Holiday Trips (29th Apr-4th May) - Part I: Suzhou and Shanghai tour

My May holiday started from the Last Sunday of April (29th) when i set off to Suzhou with roomie - was quite last minute decision , cos on Sat we went to the Coach terminal to buy the coach tics thinking if there are still seats, we would go. Best thing is that Yanni in suzhou had managed to help us got return tics on Tue by coach.

Sunday , we took the 6.40am coach . The bus was quite vacant . Whole journey took about 1.5 hrs. After we reached , took a cab to Yanni's hostel at Suzhou University (costed abt 16rmb). Saw nice scenery along the way. Discovered that in Suzhou, most houses are built in low levels ie. only short storey with those ancient designs.The first attraction we went to was 拙政园 - a well-known tourist attraction.The tic costed 70rmb (but we bought our tics @ 60rmb as we shared the numbers with another grp). The disappointing thing was that it rained. And we got to take pics with umbreallas. Overall the place was awesome. Saw alot of historical trails - nice gardens , bridges etc and bonsai etc. Moreover , caught a half hr opera show. *** The pics shall depict better. We toured the place in 3.5 hrs.


After which, Yanni brought us walk to 观前街- a street famous for shopping. Have all brands and major shopping branches. Entertainments like arcades and KTV can also be found here. Ended the day early. Slept in Shuqing's bunk bed - those double decker bed (juz a single size bed) but managed to squeeze two bodies.

The next day went to have breakfast at a wanton stall outside the campus. This stall sells all sorts of dumpling with various fillings. I had the蘑菇鲜肉饺子 (10 big sized dumplings for 7rmb) , ate until my stomache bloated. Then met Allan, Yanni's friend, he joined us to tour Suzhou. along the way to 观前街 ,Allan introduced us to have this bubble tea named COCO - a taiwan brand. We walked past 十全街 which is also a shopping street. At 观前街, we walked ard and toured this temple street with local handicrafts.

(***Tis uncle is v enthu in introducing us his handicraft ... )

Then we settled for KTV session. The KTV place have better decor than SIngapore's and it's cheap. Like 38 rmb for 3 hrs with a medium room. Enjoyed the singing session. After which, Allan brought us to this chinese restaurant which is famous in Suzhou named 洋洋. The sweet sour pork rib tasted heavenly and i loved the Crispy Tou fu too.



The very next day (tue), Set off to the coach station and boarded the 6.30am coach while Yanni took the railway train to Shanghai. Met Yanni and her 2 friends-xiuhui & jing yuan at East Nanjing road station at ard 8am. Brought her first destination to 七铺 road - a shopping paradise for us ! Haha ... can you imagine that we spent 6.5 hrs ther???? haa... yanni had the most catch amongst us. After the shopping spree, took a bus and set off to Old Shanghai street. Din walked long here as everybodi was carrying alot of stuffs and were tired. Brought them to people square to have STEAK KING . then we walked off to THE BUND. as it was the 1st May(Labor day), thewhole street to the bund was flooded with people, even cars had to give way to pedestrians. We managed to squeezed thru the crowd and arrived at the 外滩 ther to enjoy the breeze and the magnificient view of the oriental pearl tower.



Ard 9 plus, we set off for home. the very next day, me n roomie brought them to a sports warehouse named "the decalthon" located at Long Yang road. Bought quite some sportswear.
set off from home to have lunch at Coco Curryhouse @Jing An Si station. the meal cost abt 40rmb, missed the curry in Singapore.


Sent them off at 3.40pm. roomie n i went home to have a short rest before the next trip.