By Marta | OKdeal Travel
Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things - air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky - all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it.
Dragon boat festival has arrived!
This time we went for a great two day trip in Qingshan lake, Zhejiang province and we experienced all the traditional activities of the festival!
The Crew
DAY 1
On this 2 day trip I couldn't imagine a better destination and activities than this! We got to celebrate dragon boat festival like a chinese person!
On the first day we got the chance to be near water all day...I was so happy, it's one of the things I miss the most about my little country near the ocean! Once we arrived to the lake, we had lunch in a cool restaurant with the views of the mountain and the lake. A lot of fish was served! After that we took the boat in the lake and we realised how different from Shanghai the landscape was, so green and alive! Me and some friends got to sit in the back of the boat, feeling like famous actors in a movie, floating in a metal terrace! We stopped in a very funny island. For the first time I saw trees 'growing' from the water surrounding this huge playground suitable for children and a lot of crazy grownups! We got to behave like little children for awhile, exceeding all the expectations...specially ours...and we did some sightseeing walking in this high wood corridors above water!
The people there were very friendly and let us play in the boats and take thousands of photos...to post on wechat!
After the boat trip the competition was on!!! It was time for dragon boat racing! All equipped in orange vests, we were divided into teams of 20 and with the strong voices as drums, we conquered the waters! Due to an extremely good team work, my team WON!!! We were so happy taking so many photos that we ended up being part of some newly weds wedding photographies!
By night, after a local dinner, we couldn't believe the party that was going out there at 8 pm with 19 years old chinese teenagers! Some of us were invited to join them so by the time of our party we were all 'warmed up'! After some snacks, drinks and marshmallows in the fire, we decided to take advantage of the multi cultural group we had. The night was long but the dance even longer, starting from Bollywood, passing through fitness, zumba and finishing with amazing salsa under heavy rain...what a day!!
DAY 2
On day it was almost like Christmas! We were a big family learning how to make the traditional zongzi and cooking it for our own meal! We had a lot of fun playing with all the material as well as teaching others some of our skills. After lunch we headed up to the mountain. The rain even made it more beautiful, the colours more bright and a relaxing silent that I believe a lot of us didn't have for ages in the busy Shanghai.
In the afternoon we did some hiking until the top and all the way down! Waterfalls, lakes, bright green trees and a lot of funny photos!
After that all of us were KO on the bus on the way back to Shanghai. The silent came with us and the only sound you could hear was someone snoring or me and Bia singing traditional portuguese songs!
Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living
Everytime after a new trip I feel so grateful and excited with all the amazing experiences and all the people I met! Technology is great but nothing replaces the real contact and friendship among people. It was great to meet you all! Looking forward for the next trip!! As I use to say Happiness is a journey...I hope you have a great one! ;)
Reading tenthousands books is not as useful as travling ten thousands miles!
Thanks everybody, hope to see you soon!
谢谢!
Take a look at my website for more pictures and travel experiences! =)
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