all in the gym

My original plan was to end gym at 9pm, reach home and bathed by 9.30 and start blogging about my return to Singapore but while I was leaving the female staff pulled me over and wanted a chat.

She went on and on about how awful her neighbours were treating them, her encounters with the robber on the street a few times, her hometown story about a murder because of a ring, her friend's experience in the jail and her dreams to travel around china, occasionally taking about how love is very important.

All that for an hour, until I said I needed to go off.

I have no idea why she was sharing so much. haha

Accelerated plans

When I came back after the China National Day Holidays, we had completely moved to a new building which was owned by LVMT and a HK Tycoon, just beside our old building. 

Within 3 days, everyone was sent back to work from home. The environment was too poisonous to work in, people had breathing difficulty, headaches, eye irritation etc, but I was still alright maybe because I had a minor flu from Inner Mongolia so I didn't feel anything weird. Even the President went back to the old building to work. My manager had to force us to leave earlier to avoid breathing in too much harmful gases.

It was until the third day then I realised that it wasn't the flu that made my throat irritated and breathing difficult, because I didn't had any symptoms in the gym or at home. 

Work still have to be done but the floor was empty so progress was slow. My manager had succumbed to working at home because she had headaches. 

I had planned to go back to Singapore to do my visa at the end of this month to make full use of my visa extension so because of that, she told me to fly as soon as possible. 

One, because there is nothing we can do with everyone home-based. 

Two, to avoid the harmful substances in the building. 

Three, I can work from Singapore office.

My plans have accelerated. I bought my tickets on Monday night to fly off on Wednesday night. Although I was two week early, I had more time in Singapore! I get to spend 1 more weekend and a few more days there! 

Thinking that I have to work from the local office makes me feel like I'm more on a business trip. 

Oh wells, beats breathing in harmful substances. And I had to stop my gym-and-spinning-class everyday routine. Looks like something is gonna come back.

Inner Mongolia 呼伦贝尔

First day - SH to BJ

The whole office had to pack all our stuff into boxes because we were moving to the other building so after packing I was released early to catch the 6pm train to BJ. Bought bread, picked up my stuff from home, ate subway and I was on the 5 hr ride. I was bored for the 5 hours so I was thinking how to survive the next train ride. Somebody came to pick me up at the station, met some crazy Holland guys and was at home to celebrate Jiani’s bday. Packed a little bit for tmr’s journey before hitting the bed.

BJ- Hailaer

30 hours train ride to Inner Mongolia, Hailaer. On hard seats. How to survive that? It was the peak season and we couldn’t get any beds for the train, but at least we got seats. It wasn’t as bad as I have expected, but it was cramped, the toilet was bad, there was no drinking water except boiling water. It was the travelling party of 7 which made the whole ride more bearable, eating snacks, bread, playing bridge, origami, mindless games etc and the night was quickly over with very little sleep. By the morning, buildings were gone and we were passing fields of green and gold, mountains and clouds. There were few left on board so we managed to catch some sleep on rows of seats. Yeah, it wasn’t that bad but I don’t think I wanna take the seats again.

Welcome to Hailaer!

The tour guide took us to the city center, the biggest mall in Hailaer is like a heartlandmall in Singapore. Dinner at a very authentic Inner Mongolian restaurant which was quite cheap and then we bought drinks to chill at the hotel while continuing bridge and watching the finals of The Voice China. Also stocked up on water and snacks for our trip.

Day 2
Another guide picked us up in the morning and it was colder than I’ve expected. The car was big enough for all of us and the dry weather generated a lot of static electricity on the car.

Horse Riding, Religious structures, Mongolian camps

We arrived on a mountain with breathtaking views and a river among the golden trees.

Adventurous party brought all of us down to the icy river waters for a lot of jump shots.

A jungle of white trees

We rested at a town, tried to take pictures of the stars but the moon shone like a spotlight and the night was too cold.

Day 3
The morning was very cold too, we set off along the Russian borders.
We had some Russian bread and went horse riding again, this time cheaper and we were able to ride on our own up and down the hills

Watched the sunset

We warmed ourselves with some 50% alcohol and got ready for the stars at night. It was too cold, I think it was 0 degrees at night when we went up to the wooden hut on the hill. I was shivering all the way and I think I caught a cold.

The place we stayed had little hot water and in the morning some of the water was frozen so the girls didn’t had water in their room. The room was quite comfortable with heater.

Day 4

Driving past golden flat fields, we took pictures at a field with rolled up hay which were very prickly but very beautiful. We also saw the start of a mini tornado which I thought was water sprinkler.

We then arrived at a very Russian Manzhouli, which doesn’t look like China at all! The traffic, roads, people, the deco are much much nicer.

Very heavy Russian influence because it’s the city just beside Russia. Bought some Russian chocolates.

Went to hulun lake and finally had fish for lunch

Our last stop at the supermarket to get provisions for the 30 hour ride back and this time we had beds and I had a private cabin bed. Luckily there was only another student in my cabin so I got very good sleep on the train. It was much better than the hard seats, the rest got 6 beds on their own so we owned that section of the train but it was polluted with smoke coming from the lounge. And again, playing bridge all the way till BJ.

Overall, it was a very good retreat for me (a working class) and to hang out with some very adventurous and crazy party. Nature was good to us and it would have perfect if there were waterfalls.

Nature, culture, experience.

Day 5

We arrived very late in BJ, took cab back home and had dim sum for supper. After washing some clothes, finally slept at around 4am to prepare to tour BJ the next day.

Tian’an Men

Gu Gong Palace Museum

People’s Square

Café Bros

The largest Pizza in BJ

The air quality was horrible, the people (or visitors) are horrible, if it wasn’t for friends it would have been a very bad trip. But it wouldn’t be the last; I still want to climb the great wall.

The Golden Week

Experienced the first one-week holiday in China, its like recess week in Uni.

We went to Inner Mongolia, which was really beautiful and coupled with very nice weather. Vast golden grass fields, sheep horses and cows, fluffy clouds and crystal rivers and lakes.

Then we went to Manchuria, which has a very heavy Russian influence and it was a really nice cross cultural town on its own.

Overall a very good nature trip, can be considered my 4th grad trip. Haha.

It would be a perfect if there were waterfalls. It would be just like New Zealand.
Photos will be posted up later!