goodbye korea...hello dalian

left korea on 1 dec 2005...decided to leave korea earlier than planned as i m running outta time...took a ferry from Incheon to Dalian (Da-in ferry) on 1 dec 2005 at 5pm korea time...my student card did get me a ferry ticket at student rate....arrived at Dalian port at 9.50 am china time...dalian was colder than korea...met a korean while at the immigration counter and he recommended me to stay at his north korean's frenz's "minbak"....korean style guesthouse...where communal living is encouraged...at the minbak..i met more north koreans and koreans....n the north koreans can speak both korean n mandarin...when i woke up the next day..it was snowing....it was a beautiful sight....other than langtang, nepal when i saw snow....dalian is the next snow city...they told that it is not cold when it is snowing but it would be very cold when the snow starts to melt....but to me...all is cold...the initial sight of snow and walking in snow was very beautiful...but when the snow starts to melt...arrggghhh....the trouble comes....the road is slippery n dirty...n haf to walk w extra extra care...my trainers become like slippers when walking on ice...so slippery...almost like ice skating...

after 2 nites in dalian...i bought a train tix to harbin...initially i wanna go dandong...which is very near dalian...but due to the snow...the buses had all stopped and i haf to take the train to go dandong...train is oso much safer during winter...but to take a train to dandong involves a big detour to other cities in northeastern china....it take 1 whole nite to reach dandong...so in the end...i decided might as well go the furthest pt...harbin...since the journey time to dandong or harbin is abt the same....so that's y the ticket to harbin....