photo takin

back to sg, back to reality... it'd been a total diff experience... a 180 deg change fr d life in sg or mayb i exaggerate. anw, d trip was really cold & quite tiring & tedious.

early day 1 (8/1/12) mornin, b4 day break, cx in at airport & at 8 plus, flight took off & only landed at ard 12. we dragged d big & heavy lugguage (~24kg) ard till we cannot take it & find a nearby fastfood (KFC) to for lunch & rest & drag our time b4 headin to d train station whr we found place to deposit our lugguage. den we walked ard till no whr to go & sat outside a quieter road side beside d train station for hours w our iphone & ipod touch game s our leisure. we den search for dinner & drag time more before gg back to d train stn to collect our lugguage & cx in for our night train. anw, d temperature was ok initially. it feels s though like at genting highland. nice n coolin but s day goes, it became colder. d queue was terrible.

aft tryin to head on to board d train, it gave me a knock in d head & tt i would oso give an advice to all those who travel to country they nvr been b4. d advice is 'nvr to stuff everything into a big lugguage thinkin tt thr would be wheels to drag & so it would b easy.' 'RMBR NVR DO SO'. cos unlike sg, thr is no escalator or lift. & we or rather dear had to carry d bulky & heavy lugguage down flights of stairs packed w many ppl & so, his steps r oso restricted cos of ppl in front. though i ended up carryin d handcarry bag w shawls, gloves, caps, umbrella, water, laptop, etc, at least all r hangin on my shoulder where my body support d whole weight rather than only usin lower arm muscle to carry at an odd angle cos of d bulky-ness. tt's not all. in d train, thr r stairs too... d cabin r not all in 1 plane... thr is upper & lower lvl. & d corridor is v narrow oso.

though i booked luxury class cabin w soft cabin for the train, d cabin is still small & d bed is oso hard. w habit of not comfortable slpin w strangers, i had no choice cos it's a 4 pax cabin. anw, jus for d night & chances of bumpin to d same pax b super slim. but i still don like d idea tt a guy got d opp upper bunk while i'm below. anw, cos of d stairs experience, i exchanged out some heavier items into my backpack worryin tt it would be d same situation or even worse when reached esp if this time we would ve to climb up d stairs. but in such a narrow n small space w strangers, i didn't quite manage to pull out more items.

well, d train was quite jerky & duno y, it stopped a couple of times. thr is a time whr it stopped for ~30 min or so. though stopped for so long, it still reached on time. anw, my head was near d window & so i could see d stars clearly. i always love to see d glittery stars in d dark sky & it's definitely much more beautiful when in such a brightly litted sg.

when reached (9/1/12), we ended up gotta climb down stairs but this time, we waited till most ppl go down b4 we go so tt at least our path is not restricted but in d end we found actually thr is another way down which is a slope. @@

d time was 7 plus but it was still dark & d wind is really cold. d sky only brighten aft 8 & by den, we alrdy reached whr we stayed. it's at d shop itself which is oso their house which oso d accomodation of their employees. d boss picked us up & helped us carried d lugguage. d boss had 2 gals & they r twins. 2 yrs plus only but elder sis looked smaller size than smaller sis. for d 1st time, i feel tt it's so lucky to b d younger sis cos she would wear new or newer clothes den pass to d elder sis cos usually it's d opp. haha.

d place was so cold tt for d 1st time, i could breathe out vapor. a total new experience. d rm is quite small. jus a platform queen sized bed w tv at a corner & jus some walkin space. d bed is equiped w heating underpad. but cos of their plug, we could only choose either tt or to charge our electronic devices. so another things to note is to bring more universal plug adaptor. anw, we were given 2 nights of stay but we would need another 3 nights thr & cos of d coldness s thr is no heater in d rm, we did ponder of gg another place to stay but d price diff made us cont'd stayin.

tt day, we walked ard & we could catch d glimpse of d snow mt which we wanted to go. a place which dear found out & KIV for more than 2 yrs. but d followin day, while i was havin my hair-do & make-up, thr was changed of plan of swoppin day 2 iternary w d day 1 cos d snow mt is too foggy.

so on 'day 1' (10/1/12), we had 5 sets of costumes & took photos fr mornin till night cos we took d night shot. surprisingly, dinner was provided cos it's not stated in d contract, mayb it's included in d night shot but not stated. d day shot were bearable initially till when at d open space but still alright. d night shot was really cold & tirin cos we were walkin a long way. n ppl oso snappin pic of us like we r celebrities. well, it's cos we braved d coldness by wearin so little for d photo takin.

tt night, s i slp, i felt my throat givin way but i was too tired to bother & d followin mornin (11/1/12), i woke up w a terrible sore throat. luckily i brought anti-swell med for throat. i'm glad to ve been trained in st john & oso previous experience to bring s many necessary emergency items & tt is oso y our lugguage is so heavy. 出门在外, better to b prep.

while gettin ready to change, was told d snow mt still looked cloudy & foggy & so we decided to push back to another day but 30 min ltr, thr is a knock on d door sayin tt d fog seemed to b clearin, though they would suggest gg up tt day, they still seeked our advice & idea but of cos we follow their idea since they should know d weather thr better than us.

thus, we braved d cold once again while i'm havin sore throat & head to d snow mt. they said we were lucky cos recently it snowed & so d mt had more snow. but when we were reachin, it started to snow. 1st time i see snow. wow... & 1st time i feel d snow esp when it hit on my bare shoulder & hands. well, it's still foggy but we decided to go up d mt cos since we alrdy thr, we didn't want to jus give up. so d photos background r mostly blurry.

d most 辛苦 is d lady lor cos wearin so little, still gotta take off d cold wear 1st to take individual shots b4 d guy took off his to take tgt. & yet dear wearin 3 top & 2 long bottom & yet he still keep complainin it's cold makin me oso hard to 忍. & he's d 1st to say 'cut' for d shots. d photographer actually still wanted to cont'd esp aft we supposed to ve warmed up w coffee & tea but we decided to go down for d snowy forest shots.

thinkin tt aft gg thru d snow mt, d rest of d shots would b much easier & better? actually no. at d mt, thr isn't much wind so d cold is stationary & even. but d other place is really much worse esp all d open space. d wind is really strong plus it's snowin, plus i'm wearin so little esp d last shot w d short dress. d background scenary doesn't look cold but d place & d wind is really unbearable till i cant help but scolded dear when he tried to help me take off my cold wear at our last station. cos we r suppose to b takin tgt & either we took off d cold wear tgt or he should take off 1st since he got 3 layers s compared to me. tt's y i cant help but scolded him when he tried to help me, mayb thinkin tt i too stiff. i guess his mind oso got too stiff by d coldness so mayb to him, he's jus helpin me & tryin to get over.

d next few days, we walked ard, sit at d coffee hse, drinkin tea, etc, & spend time on our ipod touch & iphone games. we oso went for massage on 2 evenin. d ppl thr r really so relax. they can open d shop anytime they wan & closed anytime they wan. thr isn't many ppl in d shop. it's a peaceful & quiet place & really slow paced s compared to d fast pace sg. but we are really not used to d food thr. we went ard to search for jap food, italian food, KFC, pizza hut, american bf, bread, western food but not everytime successful. sg is really so much better. thr r so many range of food like chinese, western, malay, indian, taiwan, HK, jap, korean, italian, etc. & yet we always complain tt we didn't noe wat to eat. haiz...

anw, b4 comin back to sg, we packed our bags so tt d lugguage would b much lighter s compared to b4. on d last day (14/1/12) thr b4 our transit, it snowed again but lightly & shortly. & tt night after dinner, we head to d train station for our night train. seein our bed no & w previous experience, we assume tt once enterin d train, we wont need to carry d lugguage up or down d stairs & yet tt side of d door isn't open so enterin fr another side means to carry lugguage down & up d narrow stairs to d other side of d cabin. @@

in tt cabin, thr is a lady who speaks really loudly & even answer call in mid of d night loudly. @@ & d guy at opp upper bed (i'm at upper bed oso) made me feel even more uncomfortable. cos when everybody laid down, & lights still on, he took off clothes 1 aft another. i cant bear to see how much he took off till at d bottom but his top left singlet. d next uncomfortable experience is tt d supposely locked door keep openin by itself. so it made me feel really insecure so in d end i didn't quite slp & even if i did i didn't slp well. i keep wakin up & looked ard & cx my stuff. initially i did tried to close & lock d door myself den i even throw my pillow down to dear's face so he could help me but we gave up but hw can i slp well if d door is opened. it's so much unsafe.

anw, aft we reach (15/1/12), we head to d airport cos we don't feel like draggin d lugguage ard anymore. tt time, cos i lighten d lugguage for dear, my backpack became so much heavier. when cx in at airport, i found tt his lugguage is lighten by ~7kg while my backpack became 8.9 kg cos when we come, it's jus d coldwear which is really light.

overall, it's really a brand new experience. d coldness, d wind, d road/path r made of stones, d snow, & it's really cold to come out fr shower & d water outside for washin hands r really cold. thr is really lots of walkin & d roads can oso b really bumpy.

however, d photographer & his gang r really professional. helpin us carryin our things, even prep warm water when we go to d snow mt, tryin to warm my frozen fingers, standin at edges to reflect lights, photographer climb tree, laid on ground, stepped into d water jus to capture nice shots for us. he even walked faster in front to cx out d place to find nice spot for photo takin. a thumbs up for their service. & if not cos we decided to stop, actually he still wanted to cont'd takin photos for us & findin new spots for us cos he didn't want to end tt early. anw, i really like d make-up, though patch up aft patch up, it's still looked quite natural & i still can recognize myself in d photos. haha.

d only cons is tt it's external location, certain place might end up be burnt off or so & so would ve to b prep to walk a bit w d photographer till he finds a new nice spot. but d pros means, mayb u wont get same spots s previous customer. :)