The Wonderful World of Ice

 Last week I ventured up to northern China to take part in a wintery wonderland in Harbin, China. Every year they hold an Ice and Snow World. Its known all over the world, there are only 5 other ice parks in the world. Harbin is a 12 hour train ride north of Beijing or an hour and half plane ride away. (I choose the plane!). The temperatures in the winter gets below 0 and is quite frigid. I was fortunate when I went that the high was 9 degrees and the low was -20. (without factoring in the windshield!).

Harbin offers many winter attractions to visitors. I took part in several of these activities. The first was the Snow Exposition. Here they create sculptures out of snow!


This is a snow cathedral!

The year of the horse!










These snow sculptures were larger than life! Truly amazing! However it was very cold walking around the snow park. We were there for about two hours. After two hours I started to lose feeling in my feet. We also got lost wandering in the park. Then we walked a mile back to the beginning.

Next on the agenda (after warming up!) was heading to the Ice Lantern festival. The Ice lantern festival is a smaller version of Ice and Snow World. However instead of focusing on the world (like Ice and Snow World does), it focuses on China.

Apparently all the ice blocks are taken from the frozen river in Harbin. All the ice is hard wired with beautiful lights that light up the night!

 Titan men Square

 Not sure what this is suppose to represent!

Typical Chinese garden style wall.







We spent about an hour and half at the Ice Lantern Festival. The Festival was cool because it was interactive. They had games you could play, ice slides, and you could walk on any of the sculptures. However it was very slippery! At night temperature drops without the sun. My feet were starting to get very numb despite all the warmers I had on!

The next day we went to the Siberian Tiger Park. The first part of our tour included a bus ride through the tiger cages. It allowed us to get close to the tigers while in a safe vechile. (ok maybe not that safe...but I didn't get eaten!)

This tiger was literally laying right next to the road we were driving down!

 All that separated me from the tigers was this cage! At this park you could feed the tigers live chickens. You basically put the chicken down a shoot and then the chicken pops out into the tiger cage. There the tigers fight over the chicken. This cost you about 25 dollars. I really had no desire to touch a chicken or feed it to a tiger..

Of course this is China so people were feeding the tigers things like sausage through the grates. They put the sausage through the hole and then the tiger jumped out and grabbed it. Obviously these people didn't care about their fingers...

After the tiger park we warmed back up and then went to Ice and Snow World. We arrived just in time to see the sunset. The second day was a lot colder than the first day. I was bundled up to the max.

 At Ice and Snow World you can walk around on all the sculptures. They are all created out of ice! There were two ways to get off this.. walk down or slide down. I choose the slide. (not the best way, the slide was full of people and then my butt got stuck halfway done...not enough traction. So I had to scoot down the rest of the way..which was not easy!)

 Standing on top looking down!

 Disney had a castle built! Typical Disney pose..except I am wearing a hundred layers!

Temple made of Ice! Walking around on ice is very cold. I never knew how cold it was until I did it. My feet lasted about an hour. Then they started to get numb. Feet warmers and hand warmers did absolutely nothing to help the cold. The air was so cold that the battery in my phone died and my camera battery started going on the fritz. While the Ice and Snow World was breathtaking I got too cold to appreciate it anymore. I also was too cold to take a lot of pictures. I took about 30-40 pictures then I was so cold I started losing interest. Even with gloves on my hands were cold. My fingers were hurting from the cold inside my gloves. I had hand warmers on inside my gloves.  I have never been that cold before.

I would highly recommend going to Harbin if you happen to be in China next January and February. It is a once in a lifetime experience.

Singapore

 During the spring festival I went to Singapore with my friend Alejandra. While Singapore has never been on my list of places to see, a friend was going and I thought hell why not! After 12 hours in Singapore I fell in love with the country.

Singapore was discovered by a man named Raffles. He wanted a port that would be in between China and India. It was  a small fishing village and he transformed it into a bustling urban city. Singapore was ruled by the British until WW2 when the Japanese occupied the city. The British claimed it back and then Singapore sought their independence in 1962. Singapore is a city full of rich history and diversity. It has four official languages- English, Mandarin, Tamil and Malay. Almost everyone in Singapore speaks English. All the signs are posted in English. They also have very strict laws. These laws are enforced with canning or heavy fines. Some of the laws include- no jaywalking ($500 fine), no eating or drinking on public transportation ($500), no spitting, ($500), no durians, and no littering ($500). These law create a very pleasant and clean atmosphere that is lacking in so many Asian countries.

I spent 5 days in Singapore. Some cities around the world have must see attractions. There are really no must see attractions in Singapore. So I just spent 5 days exploring the city.

The first day I went on an open air bus tour. It took us all over the city. We explored parts of Little India, Chinatown and the Marina area. We also went to a Hindu Temple and the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple. At the end of the day we went to Marina Bay Sands and saw a laser show over the bay.

Little India

Hindu Temple

 Buddha Tooth Relic Temple









On the second day I went to Universal Studios Singapore. Previously I have been to Hong Kong Disneyland and comparing it to theme parks at home they are a lot smaller. I have never been to Universal in Orlando but I would only assume it would be bigger than this park. Overall though it was nice to be at the park and go on the different rides!

 On the third day we decided to hop over to Indonesia. I figured why not say I have been to Indonesia too! Indonesia seemed poor with beautiful beaches and resorts. We show up and basically they said oh go to this resort that is where all the foreigners go. The beach was beautiful. However we couldn't swim in the water due to high algae.

On the fourth day we spent more time exploring Singapore. This included a trip to the Garden by the Bays, Singapore Flyer, Arab Street, and a river boat cruise. A very busy day!

The Garden by the Bay is a beautiful garden that has lush greeny. There were artificial trees that did the exact same things as regular trees only better. The gardens also had a lot of education that explained the importance of trees.






The last day in Singapore we walked around the city for the majority of the day. We explored along the river and saw a fort as well as old buildings. We stopped at the Raffles Hotel and had a Singapore Slinger.






This is a photo of the Merlion. The Merlion is half lion and half fish. He protects the city.


Singapore is a beautiful city. I enjoyed my vacation there and would highly recommend it to anyone thinking of going.