Oh how I miss the cold season. Perhaps it’s because I’m from a tropical country where it’s perpetually summer time that my favorite travel period is during the winter season. I am a happy wanderer so long as it’s cold because I get cranky when it’s hot. I feel uncomfortable when the sun is glaring down at me causing me to feel the incessant sweat trickling down my face. I can’t think well when it’s too hot, period. Thus I rarely willingly agree to go on trips abroad if the climate is just the same as in Manila. Of course, trips to the beach are different. But that’s for another post.
OH HELLOOOOOOOO! Look who’s back!! Hahahahahaha I was deleting useless mails in my account over the weekend when I saw some email threads pertaining to this blog. I was about to embark on a boring photo-less trip down the memory lane when surprise, surprise, I saw that my photos are up again! Thank you, Photo Bucket. You’re such a reliable partner!! (I’m still not paying though hahahaha).
Ever the lazy narrator, I have missed plenty of opportunities to collate my thoughts into written words just because I succumbed to the tempting nudges of laziness. For this post, there won’t be any “ideas” or whatever term you can coin my “thoughts”. I’m just going to tell stories and snippets from a travel that has set the tone of 2018 for me. Call it my sentimental musings, if you will. To begin with, others say I’m not sentimental although I’d like to believe that I am considering that I have this online blog and my mostly forgotten diary just to talk about a particularly memorable memory. Oh well. Anyway, today’s lengthy post would be about the joint-birthday trip last January 2018 with my college best friend. What better way to revive this blog than to share photos from one of probably the most magical, if not the most, place I’ve been to by far. Lina and I spent a 5-day (6 if the transit would be counted) trip in Harbin, China.
Rumi’s words, which I entitled this post with, surprisingly became true while we were in Harbin. It seemed that the universe conspired towards bringing Lina and I to that resplendent cold place. We’ve initially booked tickets going to Shanghai 10 months prior to the trip. However, unfortunate circumstances demanded that we change the itinerary abruptly. We were geared towards booking tickets from Shanghai to Guilin (we’ve even semi-drawn the itinerary too) but alas alas, I came across photos (not even an article!) of beautifully lighted ice sculptures taken from Harbin. 7-8 days before the flight to Shanghai, Lina and I booked domestic tickets to Harbin. 6 days prior to the trip, we had to scour for hotel accommodation as it’s among the requirements in obtaining the Chinese visa. 2-3days before the trip, our visas were released. 1 day prior to the trip, we were still doing last-minute booking of accommodations as we finalized our itinerary. It was only then as well that we’ve realized that Harbin is not like the other places we’ve visited during winter time. Winter in Harbin is another story altogether. With only hours before the departure time, we were still trying to pack as much thermal clothes as we possibly could find. (On a side note, this is where Zalora saved the day. Lina and I were able to buy our matching faux fur jacket, and have it delivered to us on time). So you see, it was as if the universe wanted to take us to Harbin.
Of course it’s not a typical Gellie-travel if there won’t be a problem at all Hahahaha perhaps too much excitement caused the oversight but Lina and I forgot to exchange our cash to CNY prior to the trip. Worse, we’ve booked our hotel accommodation 30 or so mins away from the city proper that the banks near our hotel strictly followed the no-work on Sundays rule. We were completely without money for an entire day. An entire day was wasted but oh well. On our 2nd day, we’ve been wiser and richer than the day before that’s why we were able to embark on an adventure. Harbin is geographically nearer to some cities in Russia than Shanghai or Beijing and so the Russian influences were all over the city. Our first activity was to roam around the central district where the Saint Sophia Cathedral is located. It was there that lines of shops selling winter gear including our Russian-inspired hats were sold.
Don’t be fooled by the big smiley faces. When the temperature began going down to -15°C, so was our patience thinning. Put 2 hot-tempered, mostly-self-centered, and headstrong girls in a battle of wills and you’ll have the depth of friendship between them really tested Hahahahaha Suffice to say, I have declared Lina as my college best friend after this trip. Our friendship surprisingly, albeit much-appreciated, surpassed the test of patience. See these following photos? They were taken by random strangers because we were in different coffee shops by then (is this too personal to publish here, Lins? HAHAHAHA)
My favorite day of the trip was when we went to both Sun Island and Ice and Snow World. I love how beautiful and cold and mysterious and deep snow seems to be. There weren’t too many tourists in Sun Island when we went there. In fact, there were areas where there weren’t anyone at all save for Lina and I. Towards night time, we transferred to Ice and Snow World in time to see the ice sculptures lighted up. Believe me when I say that I have been overwhelmed by the entire place. Everywhere just looked like a feast to the eyes. It was also then than the temperature went down from -30° to -35/40°. I found out that despite the layers of thermal clothes, my bubble jacket, gloves, and ear muffs, I couldn’t last more than 2hrs outside without making my fingers freeze. All thanks to iPhone’s BURST for capturing hundreds of photos in one go because otherwise, we wouldn’t have much photos given that we couldn’t feel our fingers anymore.
To summarize how Lina and I fell in love with Harbin, let me copy one of my posts from my Instagram account:
“Just to reach Harbin, it took us both international and domestic flights, an excess baggage fee of 350CNY, barely used VPN subscription, and 2 traumatizing cab incidents (1 charged us exorbitantly and smoked inside the cab the entire time without letting us open the windows while the other left us stranded in the middle of who knows where). But surprisingly, the city also has among the most accommodating locals to tourists, from the staff at the hotel down to the police officers who approached us whenever we’re trying to haggle with the cab drivers and the locals who randomly joined our conversations just to translate for us. I will return (with thermal shoes, now that I know better), if only for the warmth welcome from such a literally cold place!”
