China Day 4 - Harbin International Ice & Snow Sculpture Festival

Assalamualaikum. Ni Hao!

Previous entry (here).

15 Jan 2016
Harbin, China

So lepas berehat dalam bilik, it's time to go the the venue where they held the Ice & Snow Sculpture Festival yearly. Yesterday, on the way from the train station to our hotel we saw some of the ice sculptures from afar. Masa tu sudah terkinja dalam teksi, excited alkisahnye.

Before keluar hotel, sempatlah tanya receptionist the direction to the festival. Initial plan was to take the public bus. I read online if we already have the details of the right bus number & bus stop, going there is easy peasy. Receptionist as always sangat helpful, sangat details direction dia bagi. Siap tolong kami tulis nama festival & everything we need in a piece of paper (in Pinyin of course).

Maka keluarlah dua wanita jelita with kondifen level paling tinggi. Sampai bus stop, we saw 2 buses with the same number; but going in a different direction. Sudah! Lupa mau tanya receptionist which direction yang akan direct us to the festival. Tunjuk lah cebisan kertas tu sama Ahjussi bus driver. He nodded & bebel in Chinese. Told us to quickly get in the bus. When we reached the 2nd stop, suddenly ada Ahjussi sebelah aku tanya where we're heading because he saw the piece of paper I held. When I told him we wanted to go to the festival, he immediately told u to get off the bus because the bus is going the opposite direction. Meaning that the bus wasn't going TO the festival, but instead coming FROM the festival. Maybe Ahjussi driver tu malas explain panjang (sebab sah ndak faham pun budak dua ketul ni kan) so dia suruh naik jak because eventually dia memang akan pi festival tu pun. Just that kami akan tawaf Harbin City. And that will take almost an hour. Whereas it will only take less than 10 minutes from the hotel to the festival venue. 

And we hopped off the bus; just in front of Saint Sophia Cathedral. Berjumpa lagi we'olls. Cuma kali ni dalam terangnya siang hari. Gitu ayat. Alang-alang sudah depan square tu, apalagi posing lagi sekali depan cathedral ni. Baru nampak design & rupa bentuk sebenar. Fe-feeling gothic pun ada.

#1 Zoom sikit baru nampak ke-gothic-an 

#2 Pun lah sibuk mau posing juga dia

Pastu both blur apa mau buat. Sebab belum tau macamana kesudahan plan mau pi festival tu. So berlegarlah kami depan square tu. Ambil gambar angle sana sini. Then suddenly datanglah 2 perempuan wearing long padded red jacket, complete with flurry hat towards us. Auw feeling foxy sangat kau dek. Dari tadi sebenarnya sudah nampak budak-budak ni distribute flyer tapi malas mau ambil peduli sebab I speak no Pinyin, remember?

Turned out flyer tu pasal Ice & Snow Festival. Sombong lagi kau kan Bie! And they spoke passable English (macam aku juga ler). Lepas diorang explain dengan bersungguh, aku pun rasa macam ni option paling bagus untuk kami. Although both Jea & I dislike the idea of 'ikut tour'. Time is always the issue. But this time kami give up. Malas sudah mau fikir & cari bus stop. Dropping temperature weren't helping either. 

The package is so worthy (for us that is). Basically, it says include return transportation & entrance fee. Tapi bila recalculate, we actually paid the entrance fee for the ice festival only. Bus tu free. 

RMB 300 (RM 170.00+). With this package, we don't have to cari which stop to take the bus, also bus to take us back to the hotel. Memang super berbaloi lah kan. Eventually we agreed to go with the tour.

Lepas settled bayar tour tu, they told us we had another 2 hours before the departure time. Mau balik hotel rasa macam malas mau menapak. So we decided to enter the mall opposite to the cathedral. Just to kill time. Lama lah juga lepak dalam mall. People watching, shops watching & also food-watching. We didn't buy anything as we're already full with breads we bought earlier that morning.

#3 Pandang tepi jaklah

#4 Ni lagilah. Menguji keimanan. Sobs

Around 5pm, we exited the mall & waited at the said place. Just depan cathedral tu juga. Jadinya dapatlah juga ambil gambar si Sophia ni yang baru lit-lit. Terus fe-feeling macam Disneyland pun ada.

Bus departed on time. Tapi kami tunggu lama at the 2nd stop sebab ada participants yang belum sampai. Adalah dalam 30 minit menunggu. Orang lain dalam bas ada start berbunyi sudah. Konsep aku senang, mau marah siapa? Driver? Dapat apa kalau marah dia? Bukan orang yang lambat tu sepantas kilat sampai. So biarlah duduk diam-diam layan phone. Mesti ada sebab orang tu lambat pun. 

#5 Pwetty

And we arrived at the festival after an hour. Orang pun belum ramai. Turun bas, kena walkertapaki lagi. Bila semua sudah ada, tour leader bagi briefing. We have to be in one line at the entrance. We cannot join other line else the ticket will be invalid. Gitulah lebih kurang yang aku faham. We can go on our own; explore the festival once we're stamped by the ticket inspector. 

#6 We entered the festival area via that 'tent' (left side)

Macam biasa, once inside...blur lagi. Both bingung which way to go first. Sebab bijak, we didn't even bother to take the festival map. Bagus kan perangai berdua. Jadinya pasrah jalan tanpa arah tujuan. Janji sudah sampai. Insha Allah jumpa jalan keluar. Oh by the way, we're given 2 hours to explore & we have to gather back with the rest in front of the exit gate. When you join a tour, ni lah benda paling aku gigit kuku. Time. Limited. Tapi sebab kau sendiri yang malas kan, so sila simpan segala complain.

Malas bebel banyak, kita layan gambar jaklah. You can read more about this festival here.

#7 These represents the temples in China (I don't know which temple though).

 

#10 Some famous building I guess but couldn't recall which one

#11 This sculpture is among my favourite. Especially dedicated to those in the kitchen. 

 

#14 Alhamdulillah. Thank You Allah for this opportunity. Dream came true!

#15 Struggle juga ambil gambar dalam ni. Almaklumlah camera bukan canggih. So dapatlah silhouette jak regardless how you pose nor smile widely. 

#16 This represent some Chinese tale story. I read on the plaque & it says Dandelion. Nasiblah yang tu ada Ingrish

#17 Very the beautiful & intricate carving

 

#19 IP Man?

#20 Yup, those stairs were made from ice. So you can imagine how cold it was in Harbin right? Boleh maintain tangga tu from Dec to late Feb.

#21 Went up just to get this view

#22 View from above. Sis cuba ambil gambar yang stable & less shadow; obviously failed. 

#23 Sculpture tribute to their athletes who participated in the Olympics 

#24 Another Olympics-theme sculpture

#25 Paddle pop, anyone?

 

#27 My MOST favourite of all the sculptures that night. Those dangling diamond-like ice cubes are connected with each other via some string (I don't know what kind)

We did play some of the games but because all the pictures turned out super blurred, I decided to just keep them for my sake. Ndak payahlah beria tunjuk sini kan. 

#28 Yup, those are sculpture of the Great Wall China

This place is massive. Like, every corner we went aren't the same. Nasib jumpa jalan keluar & we completed the exploration in 2 hours. We skipped some places (had to) due to time constraint. But we enjoyed nevertheless. Tu yang penting. Berbaloilah bayar entrance fee mahal. 

For your information, day & night ticket are sold separately. Of course the night ticket  (starts at 12pm - 9pm) cost more than the day ticket. 

#29 One for the album

Actually lama juga melepak di exit gate tu. Tunggu jemaah lain yang belum jumpa jalan keluar. 

"Kalau tau ada je yang lambat, baik kita main lama sikit kat dalam tadi"

Gitu luahan travel partner. Tapi apa boleh, kita sudah selamat di luar. And mau masuk balik, kena beli tiket baru pula kan. Hence bertabahlah redha, menunggu sambil kuis snow.  

#30 And terhasil lah yang ni dalam kebosanan menunggu tu. 4 tahun sudah berlalu *hahahaha*

Bila semua jemaah lengkap, maka walkertapaki lagi pi parking untuk naik chartered bus. The bus dropped us at Saint Sophia, then kami walkertapaki lagi pi hotel. Penat gila memang dinner di bilik jaklah. Masak maggi. Paling senang untuk sang pemalas macam kami. 

End of Day 2 in Harbin. The next day would be our last day in Harbin before we departed to Beijing at 3pm. Being said that, we still have time to explore the city in the morning.

Yang tu sambung next entry. 

Till then, wassalam.

eryantierdabdulkarim