a day in the life of

back then, bali was-

2009-03-07T16:36:00.001+08:00

Bali, Indonesia

11/08/08 - 15/08/08

haven't updated some legs of my travel, though i love them all very, very much. So much more after I sort of settled into this sedentary working life. Sometimes, just wonder if being an adult is about doing things that you don't really like, but do them anyway, just because. Or it being an excuse to be lazy and do much about nothing...

Back then en route to Bromo, someone mentioned that Bali is more famous than Indonesia. Bali is the ultimate holiday island - surfer's paradise, diver's hunt for molamola, beach bums and culture buffs, party goers and shopaholics, singles, couples, families - there's something for everyone. How is that possible?

After Bromo volcanoes i took a crazy 15h public bus to Bali. By public i mean the bus actually stops every ten minutes or so along the road to pick up and drop off passengers. Non aircon. Smoking passengers. The bus that was aptly named Mad Joe (!) madness indeed!

On the ferry crossing - Indonesia has many huge ferry crossings whereby buses and trucks will pile onto the ferry that crosses between islands - the stereo played ONE indonesian love song repeatedly for about 2h. I don't think I could every forget the song it was madness.

When I first arrived in Bali I absolutely disliked it. It has to be the one of the most touristed place on earth. There seemed to be more tourists than Balinese. I was wandering around poppies lane I and II searching for lodging and it screams tourists everywhere.

But Bali grew on me somehow. haha. I miss Bali!

Anyway, Bali is predominantly Hindu, in contrast with Java being predominantly Muslim. They observe many rituals and you can see them daily and many festivals such as this procession that we chanced upon.

Belsan joined me in Bali on the 3rd day. woohoo! :) we set the meeting place to be a certain Fat Yogi in poppies lane, we just found the name intriguingly funny. Being the blur me i woke up at 5-ish in the morning and waited along the lane since 6am - but bel's flight departs at 6am and arrives only about 8am. i panicked by 7am and called up random ppl to find out where she can be while talking to almost half the ppl who passed by-

it's way way to early to be doing something in kuta, bali at 7am!

But bel arrives safe and sound and we settled down her old school deuter bag and my backpack into a pretty reasonable lodging at Jln Legian and headed off to Ubud via public transport instead of the perama bus. Because we advocate public transport.

On day two in Bali i went for some dive trip off Nusa Dua. The dive was unbelievably and unbearably cold; by half tank i made myself surface and shivered and curled up for the next half hour or so (since i did not bring a towel and the staff were still doing their laundry and could only produce a towel after a certain half hour or so).

As usual i would like to be compensated for my half tank and the owner let me go on some 'turtle island' trip for free with this other Japanese couple, but i had to pretend to be his staff. :)

On the 'turtle island' the friendly guides speak Japanese and introduce you to a resident python, resident turtles, resident iguana, resident bat etc and make you take photos with them without your permission. So i had an iguana on my head, a python on my shoulder and a bat in my hands and all these in my camera.

Which on retrospect is ultimate kitsch but still, how often do you get iguanas on your head and pythons on your shoulders (!)

I dig anthony bourdain on discovery travel and living. There was one episode where he ate ibu oka babi guling in Ubud - and proclaimed it one of the best roasted pork in the world: Though a part of me would like to stay here and eat pig until I lose consciousness, there's a lot more to do and see.

I affirm the above.

Belsan and i absolutely cleaned out the babi guling with rice that we shared. Come to think if it, there's nothing for sale except babil guling in different portions. haha :)

I have never liked pork so much - i've never been a pork fan - but this was as near a genius a pig can achieve!

Ubud being the cultural center of Bali, we caught a Balinese geese theater titled 'the white goose trumphs the white goose'. We were pretty amused by that goose, it was really stepping on the other goose mercilessly!

After that we shopped around Ubud, buying random things such as fridge magnets, wooden rings, balinese musical instruments etc. I was on the hunt for the supposedly awe inspiring rice fields-

which we found the enxt day en route to Tulamben. Tulamben is about four hours north of Kuta by car and it hosts one of the best shore entry dive site in Bali. We planned a crazy itinerary for the day, diving 6-3, surfing 3-6. The rice terraces of Tirtagangga where we took photos were amazing.

cowboy outfit - my dive slate lent to belsan and the cowboy divemaster promptly tried to point out the fishies in the ocean. Morish Idols? How about morei eels and GROOpERS? hahaha the buaya part was hilarious!

And this is the Bali bombing memorial, at a corner of Kuta.

Sunset, Kuta. I probably spent a full week in Bali back then. It's an easy-going place and pleasant enough to stay for a long while. ohhh plus. i think I'm going back to Bali this year...

and thanks to belsan for being such a spontaneous travel buddy! you are great fun :) hahaha you probably like the part where three of us went on that surfer guy's bike with the surfboards together rite. ohh and the teh botol of course!

dive! sipadan :):)

2008-10-05T19:25:00.000+08:00

18/06/08 - 23/06/08
dive! sipadan

Ever since we had our dive license we've always wanted to dive Sipadan. And so we did - dith did a Sipadan dive for her birthday :):)

I attempted local public transport again. It was a lil hard to locate the Tawau - Semporna bus as you look above your heading trying to find the destination.

Semporna is a very small town with nothing to do. Had to stay a night because the Uncle Chang boat only departs once a day at 7am. Stayed at a dragon inn which has a 22-bed dorm - i;ve never had that many beds! haha.

And i really dreaded my stay there because i was attacked/swarmed/ate up by mosquitoes. i covered myself with my sweater, dress, shirt and they still won't leave me alone, i slept curled up under all the clothers i have :(:(

The sunset.

Mabul island! It's a pretty small island you can go round it on foot in about an hour's time. Inhabited by the local fishing village and also quite a sizeable population of philippines ppl i tnk. They call them the sea gypsies too.

Stairway to heaven.

hahaha. A broken jetty on the other side of the island. Fret not, they have two other functioning ones. I jumped off from one of them to go snorkeling and then, couldn't really climbed back up. yikes!

but of course i did because i am still alive typing this now.

We did 6 dives at Sipadan and 3 dives at Mabul. woohooooo diving rocks!

There were 2 swiss guys who actually did 6 DAYS of diving at Sipadan and everyday they'd do Barracuda Point. Six times of Barracuda Point!

It's easily Sipadan's best dive site. Full of pelagics. I could rattle off statistics of one dive-

never-ending coral wall. check.
twenty turtles, hawksbill, green and even a leatherback. check.
a dozen sharks, mostly the resident white-tip. check.
tornado of barracuda. check. ohh this was really amazing. The 1st time i see the huge school of chevron barracudas but the 2nd time i found myself inside the tornado surrounded all over by barracudas and cut off from the rest of the divers, for a while. Surreal.

We always stroll over to the Sipadan water village (?) which is the ultimate expensive resort on Mabul and they always greeted us like we were guests. lol. We'll stay there someday.

Beautiful waters :):)

While walking around the island they asked if i'd like to drink coconut. ok. So i thought i'd have to buy some coconuts but no, the guy and his friends just climbed up the tree and threw the coconut down while his friend swung hard at the coconut to break the fall.

woohoo!

But Uncle Chang's the only place that has a nightlife of sorts. Everynight the night band plays and when the boss is around everyone gets free beer. Madhouse!

Everyone seemed really happy with freeflow spirits. haha. ohh well.

They have a makeshift drum set made of pails and stuff which was quite funky. And they sing a Mabul/Sipadan song and they do it when you leave the island :):)

One of the DMs. He braided his beard!

Bromo!

2008-09-30T22:47:00.007+08:00

08/08/08 - 09/08/08

Mount Bromo, Cemoro Lawang, East Java

Took a day train from Yogya-Surabaya. The previous evening a handful of ppl were advising me to buy a direct minivan ticket to Gunung Bromo, but I opted for local public transport.

Train from Yogya-Surabaya, hitched a ride from Surabaya Gubeng-Bungurasih, took a bus to Probolinggo (horrible place!), took a 1h ojek uphill with my humongous backpack to Cemoro Lawang. It was a long, long, long journey.

The hitch was quite funny. I got out of the train station and wanted to take a bemo i.e. bus. Saw a whole bunch of ppl boarding a bus so I went to board as well.

'Do you go to bungurasih?'

'Sorry this is a private bus. We are going to a wedding.' oops hahahahaha.

He gave me a ride in his car 'cause it's on the way. The father of two was very concerned about me going to the volcano alone - he was so worried that he even asked me to join his family for the wedding for the night and he'll send me to the volcano tomorrow.

Wedding crasher again! I really wanted to join but I had a schedule to keep i.e. belsan. Ahhh. So no wedding in indonesia for me. Anyway back to the journey.

While going uphill the horrible ojek driver threatened not to send me to my destination. It was in the middle of nowhere, no houses, no ppl whatsoever, just in the middle of some hills. I was darn upset and was shouting at him to bring me to my destination. He wanted more $$ and I refused. ARGH.

When I arrived at Cemoro Lawang i.e. base camp of those volcanoes, I headed to café lava hostel. It was already dark and i was really exhausted from traveling since 7am :/:/ and -

'Sorry we are fully booked.''Can you tell me where else can I go?' 'You can try hotel x or hotel y.' 'How much do they cost?' 'I dunno.'

In the end I managed to get a homestay deal at 60,000rp plus a free ride up the sunrise peak and Bromo volcano crater. :):) Threw my bag and myself on the bag feeling extremely exhausted. So much for catching sunrise with volcanoes!

The next morning left the room at about 3am, and went up to Bkt Penanjakan on a bike. Had on a thick jacket, my sweaters, gloves and sarong. Brrrr cold. The ride up was quite amazing. It's pitch black, and the galaxy of stars were spread over the sky.

If it was the right guy it'd be really romantic lol.

It was rather shocking at the peak, jammed up with maybe a hundred jeeps and hundreds of ppl. Gotta tiptoe to take a decent shot of sunrise. But it was beautiful. But way too many ppl. I would attempt merapi next time, because you can get lava there!

From the peak you can catch a glimpse of the Sumeru volcano belching out smoke amongst the volcanic structures dotting the tengger caldera. It's like seeing national geographic live.

Volcanoes!

After volcano viewing we moved on to catch a caldera. I think i'd have to be a pretty good biker if i ever attempt Bromo as it's mostly ash, sand and bushes and stones for the roads.

A rocky hole a hundred feet below belching out smoke. More accurately, sulphur. Literally smelling sulphur. The hike up was harder than I anticipated, thought it would be piece of cake. Think I was a li'l unfit or it was a li'l altitude or it was a li'l sulphur. And my converse were rather frictionless for a while I was afraid that I'd slide into the fuming crater :o:o

Smoke and sulphur at the mouth of Bromo.

Picturesque cemoro lawang. Was sitting on the grass patch enjoying the breeze and shot some photos of the little boy scouts who were playing football and swarming around me excitedly when I started showing them their own shots.:):)

Next stop, bali!

A cup of Java?

2008-09-27T20:43:00.009+08:00

05/05/08 - 08/08/08
Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Borobudur

Arrived in Jakarta only because it's the cheapest flight. At the customs they asked if i have a return ticket. No, i didn't. They won't let me enter Indonesia at the Jakarta airport. !!!

So i made a phone call to dad and while he took 10,000 years to buy an online ticket, either they were tired of waiting for me (i was miserably stranded at the airport customs for 1h+), they let me thru without a return ticket. Woohoo!

This is Monas - Monumen Nasional. They joke that it's the last erection of sukarno. haha.

Ojek is my usual mode of transport i.e. the motorbike. Jakarta's traffic is really crazy, i'd rank it crazier than Ho Chi Minh City's notorious traffic! I was on the ojek with my huge backpack and the guy was jerking his brakes and zipping thru the traffic, and cars are honking at us and at others all the time - for once i was really scared that i would lose a limb or topple off the bike or get scarred by some exhaust OMG :/:/

This was my 40,000rp (S$6.50) dirt cheap barebone room in Jakarta's Jln Jaksa. Thereafter i set this standard whenever i bargain for rooms - i am quite determined at not getting ripped off (one of my greatest fear in indonesia?! hahahaha)

Took a night train from Jakarta to Yogya. What a train ride!

Opted for bisnis class - yes it is business and no it's not - it's non-aircon and has green non-reclining seats for the night! I was initially very afraid of getting pickpocketed - i'm carrying my red slingbag (come rob me!) and heard many stories of pickpockets but the passenger next to me has a newer phone than i, so all was safe.

The train ride was sooo entertaining. All the time there're ppl going down the aisles shouting 'aqua aqua', 'mis-son mis-son' (?!) - those are drinking water brands in indonesia! Tons of ppl selling packed rice, sate, cigarettes, mats, hankerchiefs, and even transvesites bursting into songs at like 2am?? Goodness. He. She. was singing some indon song and waving his/her tambourine around, and you can tip if you like. Then there were dozen other guys playing guitars and singing love songs. hahaha.

The guy next to me offered to sleep on the legroom i.e. on the not very clean floor so that i can sleep on both our seats? Either he is really really nice or he is mental. MENTAL. I wouldn't sleep on the legroom under our seats even if you'd paid me!

That was a batik gallery in Yogya, with beautiful pieces. They run about 50,000rp to 1,000,000 or more rp!

So i arrived at Yogya at dawn and walked by instinct to Jln Sosro, the backpackers' area and everyone starts talking to me 'Where you going!' 'What you looking for?' 'You want accomodation' 'hey you!' 'Come here!' 'Where you from!' ohhhhhhh no! Walked straight ahead, ignored everyone, came to the end of the street. yikes i had to turn back.

But finally i let someone helped me find a room, thought he was some travel agent but he was just a friendly soul. Which is what Yogya really is - a really friendly place. Everyone is so nice and friendly i felt much relaxed here compared to Jakarta!

Jln Sosro has lotsa small alleys and lanes and you are supposed to get off your ojeks in some lanes :):)

Went to explore the kraton which is some palace complex of the sultan. I tagged along the tour with a friendly family from Kalimantan and they insisted i joined them on a becak tour - it was unbearable as i squeezed terribly into that tricycle with another girl and boy!

Made my way to Borobudur on an ojek, about 1h on the bike. Borobudur - comprised of 9 terraces and is decorated with 2,000+ carved relief panels and 500+ buddha statues with 72 stupas on the topmost terrace.

Apparently it was believed that borobudur was built in the middle of a lake such that it represents a floating lotus!

Sunset at the borobudur gives a yoga-esque feeling. Just lean against a stupa, put on your shades, and look into the horizon. There were many tourists there, but it was still as peaceful as you can imagine.

There was a group of buddhists chanting prayers there too. I always imagined buddhist chants to be in chinese or some sanskrit-sounding lingua but in bahasa indonesia! hahahaha.

In each and every bell-shaped stupa there is a buddha inside. However many are headless. There are also some buddhas that had the stupa removed.

The classic borobudur shot. :):)

backpack Indonesia!

2008-09-07T14:13:00.005+08:00

05/08/08 - 25/08/08
Three weeks across parts of Indonesia

Finally i am doing this. Updating on my last leg of traveling, probably for the year. wow. On retrospect, i find it rather unbelievable that i was on the road for so many days in this year.

Anyway, indonesia! It was a blast :):)

Line of becaks along the Malioboro street in Yogyakarta. A very relaxed, and apparently most visited/touristed/nicest? city in Java.

The Borobudur. Shrines and buddhas and terraces and panorama.

Watched national geographic? Seeing a real, live, active volcano with your eyes at Tengger Caldera. And hike up the volcanic crater of Bromo.

Bali, the island that has more fame than Indonesia. lol. Surfer beach at Kuta, Bali.

Breathtaking terraced rice fields at Tirtagangga, Bali. They were really really beautiful, albeit a little hard to reach, imho.

Komodo dragon lurking among dried grasses on Rinca island in the Komodos National Park area. Their saliva can kill! hahaha.

En route from Labuanbajo, Flores to see the komodos. Stunning scenery don't you think. :):) I had one of the best dives in my life (ok i admit i havnt dived a lot, but still) around the area as well.

Three coloured lakes of Kelimutu, Flores. Be intrigued by the different hues of the lakes, which changes from time to time.

My 1,000 passenger-44 hour Pelni ferry! hahahahaha. I always like to mention this to everyone, it's like the highlight of my indonesia trip?? (hmm i'm just a kid at heart!) i will absolutely dedicate one post to pelni. The journey was a test of faith of sorts!

ok the end of sneak preview. hahaha. i did this just in case i;m too lazy to type out the details.

september arrives -

2008-09-07T13:23:00.004+08:00

berWhich spells the end of my traveling spell!

This year I've been really blessed, to have been able to live out things that i really wanted to do since young. I am also very thankful to my dad and mum who've been very supportive of my (rather crazy) backpacking stints, to dearest dith and da who dived together and tried the 'disco in the jungle' in the Philippines, to random kind strangers i met while checking out various parts of China, to dith who actually braved thru Sichuan and Emeishan with me, to the many friends i met during my exchange stint in HK, to rower Ong, Red, Alibaba and yy who came over to HK!, to Su and Hyojin who backpacked Laos and Thailand together, to the very friendly monks, Hmong villagers, the kind lady who made us really delicious Laos style baguette, the dozens of fruit shakes, the smiling people who said sabaidee! to us, to Su, Hyojin and Jang who hosted me in South Korea, to the crazy bunch of people at Uncle Chang's over at Sipadan (i thought it was way over the top but it was real fun anyway, and the diving rocks!), to Youie who dived Perhentians with me (Cepat Ekspres! omg. hahaha :):) and the wreck was pretty cool yeah!), to the friendly (too friendly?!) people i met in Indonesia, to Bel who dived Liberty wreck and surfed Kuta waves with me (and got me addicted to Teh Sosro?? and ohhh we love babi guling!), to Sebastien, Emma and Vincent who did the Flores and Komodos stretch together with funny memories of staying over a local's hillside house, a police station and a Catholic hillside seminary...

I could go on and on.

Sometimes I feel like I am a changed person, but I am not so sure either. Everything falls back into the same square, now that I am back in Singapore, as a working adult.

Well, my first week of work is alright, had some hiccups over applying for PR, but otherwise the pieces fall into place. First week of work consists almost entirely of orientation and training, so things weren't tough. I am actually quite positive about work now lol :):)

Many thanks to Bel and her dad and mum for holding me up tho! And thanks to hanwen for helping me out with my luggage. :):) And goddess and jojo for holding me up randomly that night, and to my sis for listening to my rubbish all the time lol. :):)

At the same time, it was really unbelievable, it is impossible, to hear the news about you. We are all so young, this is the time of our lives; i can still remember your smile and laughter and you sitting in front of me in the boat, this is not the time yet, to hear these news. Rest in peace, dear friend.

I want to show off my crop of beautiful pictures from all of my travels but I am so lazy lol. But i will update randomly eventually. I am so ruined by the travel bug!

***

ong: heyyy i thought we look very happy in the picture! And WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO TAKE THE DIVING COURSE WITH BEL! lol :):)

jojo: ok for your sake i will revert to larger pictures. hahahaha i love some of them anyway! heehee :):)

***

the day in july

2008-08-03T23:11:00.002+08:00

convocation

22/07/08

And so officially the closure of one chapter - collected my dress robes in the morning for the ceremony in the afternoon. The receptionist was rather surprised that i came so late i.e. on the same day. Amazingly (to me) today was the first day in 2008 that i stepped into nt*u again. changed quite a bit!

Family photo :):) thanks for travelling all the way for this small thing. Again, sans my little sis. I shd put up the only photo i have of her again. haha :):)

Followed by tonnes of photos! really. i'll post them up someday maybe my blogger uploads are so erratic i quit trying now. These random shots are funny, not so formal and goody goody-

With ong attempting at throwing mortar boards :):)

Making funny faces hanwen, amin, yitian :):)

We took tonnes of throwing and jumping shots where are there??

come to think of it i'm really glad to have known u all and everyone :):)

randomly-

rs we used to go for late night runs rem and u got me addicted to the vending machine sandwiches for a while! haha rs yitian we shd meet up for random lunches n dinners again like we did 'cause we werent in the same class! amin run waayyyy too much imho hahaha but good for u! really :):) haha n hanwen n gary always lent me their work u guys are so nice. gary is also the best person ard to cheer u up because he can make u laugh so easily :D hanwen you are the risk free person tt i termed hahaha kidding :):) phyllis and kevin are the smartest cutest pair ard and also really generous with sharing your own notes pre-exams! irene we can always talk abt everytng haha rem tt time when we were trying to decide where to go! wanyu also the best person to talk to haha because u are so fast with all the happenings ard! :):) and we had quite a few projects tgr too. meifeng is the nicest person tt i know you are so nice you even sent sms to tell me tt class schedule changed because everyone knows i'm extremely horrible at checking edventure and attending classes.

ok i could go on and on i know i still havnt mention you and you and you but to everyone i got to know i'm glad we shared something together at somepoint in nt*u -

last but not least bel is going with me to bali!

we are gonna surf and dive! woohoo :):)

***

ong says all i write about is laos! hahaha ok laos totally had me but i will take a break now. i think i will update my dive trips- sipadan with dith and perhentian with youie! also i'm off to indonesia by tmr i tnk. so yes, where am i next few weeks - indonesia!

***

we met in luang prabang!

2008-08-02T01:31:00.002+08:00

Luang prabang, Laos

14/05/08 - 16/05/08

Luang prabang is the picture perfect temple town of Laos! It was the royal capital of the kingdom of Laos before it became communist. Set at the confluence of the mekong and khan rivers, with phousi hill in the background, trees lining its riverbanks, french colonial architecture along the streets, laos style wats dotting the town...

Unesco calls it a well preserve town, fusion of cultures etc. It is actually quite touristy, there are so many western tourists and so many western cafes and bars. Luang prabang is still charming and lovely but sometimes i wonder.

Arrived Luang prabang at night and headed straight for the Viradesa, a guesthouse down a quiet alley, our meeting point in Luang prabang, hyojin and su werent there yet! Worried and walked across the town hoping to bump into them somehow, finally we found each other in Viradesa! We were really really happy and glad. You girls had even crazier bus rides than i did! We stayed at the Viradesa the next few days. We bargained it to 45,000kip which means abt 1.50USD per person per night!

Every morning we strolled along the river and have brunch at a riverside joint. We had sticky rice, curries, fried noodles, omelette haha and very memorable fruit shakes and laos coffee!

Luang prabang is home to hundreds of Wat, i.e. temples. You can walk into most of them while some of them require a small entrance fees.

I remember the art school wat- probably wat xieng mouane, where monks and novices learn arts such as painting and sculpture there. Their artworks are available for sale and it was in the art gallery where we talked to this young novice. Apparently they only learn one particular artform, and he happened to be painting, so he showed us one of his pretty paintings. And his inspiration- it was the temple's wooden window pane carvings. We actually exchanged email addresses!

We briefly hijacked a primary school haha just kidding. School just ended and they were waiting for their parents!

The main street is Sisavanvong, he was a former king, but i like the sound of the name. Sisavanvong!

At night Sisavanvong St tranforms into a charming night market where hmong villagers sell their wares. Things were finely crafted and handmade ranging from fine detailed embroided pouches, bags, rugs, ahhh i remember the cloth books! Unfortunately i do not have a picture, they were so fascinating. There were also silverware, paintings, figurines, clothes and other Laos crafts, but also a degree of chinese or thai imports i think. We spent everynight cruising the night market.

The best part was there werent touts or shouts, you had to bargain but everyone smiles and nobody forces you to buy anything, unlike say bangkok. It has character imho, some find this kitsch because this is the place to go if you want to transform your room a la Laos style haha :):)

Luang Namtha II: a mountain bike, a wedding and bans

2008-08-02T00:12:00.010+08:00

Luang Namtha, Laos

11/05/08 - 13/05/08

After a nice fruit shake on a hot sunny morning (i'm obsessed with them i drank one everyday in laos! only 5,000kip) i rented a mountain bike at 10,000kip (1USD) per day. Feeling really apprehensive as this is my 4th time cycling, i cldnt start off properly as usual and i circled around the shops for a while before i decided, wth, and set off.

As i left the main town the roads turned from asphalt to unpaved and finally i went into the bans. Woohoo! Had to do a river crossing over a fragile looking bamboo bridge and i was thinking what if i fall thru the huge gaps in between, what if the bike and i crash the bridge...

Sometime later i got stuck at this river crossing, the map says i shd cross a bridge to get to another village but i cycled the length of the river there is simply no bridge! It was noon and i had cycled a few hours so i wondered if i shd call it a day but i saw-

Them crossing the river!

The way to do it: roll up your pants, wade across, push/drag your vehicle along if you have one, done crossing, wash your feet, unroll your pants, continue. As i found it highly amusing half way thru in the middle of the slightly-above-knee-deep crossing i started taking unsuccessful photos my myself and suddenly these villagers popped up and stared at me like what am i doing in the middle of the river??

incidentally i miss my red shoes. they were rendered beyond repair out of luang prabang :/:/

While cycling thru bans and bans you get a Big Fat Laos Wedding (party)!

It was really pleasant cycling there are always ppl who say sabaidee! with a smile. Girls walking to school, kids playing in front of their houses, men and women on the way to work in the fields. Saw a crowd at this corner, i was curious, left my bike off the road and said sabaidee?

So i was invited to join the table and was offered a free lunch and a laos food identification course and rounds of drinks- someone passed me a clear glass of water in a plastic cup and i happily guzzed it and it wasnt WATER it was LAO LAO, also known as laos whiskey. yikes! haha :):) While beers stay in the very recognisable Beer Lao bottle, the whiskeys are probably homemade and are disguised in beer bottles, glass bottles and mineral water bottles - it's water, it's not water!

It was tradition that everyone drinks, again from the same cup, and everyone takes turns to finish, everyone pours for everyone, so i drank, and poured and drank and poured. I still wonder how to say cheers! in Laos because they didnt so everytime i drink i say hello!

Singers for the merry occasion belted funny cheesy laos karaoke tunes. There is a tree in the middle of the empty space in front of the stage, so there is a funny dance where you basically walk around the tree uh, stylishly according to the music, and do a turnaround walkaround thing when the singers say turn! (or so i imagine?) - i didnt know of course so initially the whole circle of maybe 20 dancing ppl did the turnaround thing i obstructed whoever's near me and they started laughing.

After several rounds of lao lao, beer lao, food, and dancing, if you call that dancing, it's time to move on and i'm lost again on a dead end at the river. At the nearest corner village hut i asked for directions and was pointed the way, one friendly guy waved and beckoned me to join their lunch.

Another round of free laos lunch! I've met many friendy and hospitable Laos ppl. They do not eat much, perhaps because Laos is a landlocked hilly country so there isn't an abundance of produce. Eating feels communal to me, sharing sticky rice from a basket where everyone pinch off bits to eat, in this case i was given a spoon and chopsticks and everyone just eat together from the porcelain pot tt resembles a basin, you don't have your own plate or bowl!

Near the end of the day i met this group of charming kids :):) They were all standing above a tiny slope and were saying sabaidee! happily so i climbed up the slope and was perched on a tree trunk taking pictures while one little guy who had a watergun was shooting at me randomly. haha :):)

They started falling off the slope i was so worried at first but i guess it's their daily game they went down and up and down again and finally fall into a pile haha :):) It was really funny when they were trying to vye for the camera spot.

When i finally left it was really unforgetable, i was on my bike and said my kopcai and lakon and they actually said thank you in English! As i cycled away they ran after my bike, it was amazing, i couldnt stop looking back!

Luang Namtha: on foot

2008-07-18T01:04:00.000+08:00

Luang Namtha, Laos

11/05/08 - 13/05/08

Laos is one of the most bombed places in the world. During the civil war in Laos the amount of bombs dropped in Laos is more than the total amount dropped all over Europe during WWII!

Luang Namtha is one of the northern most provinces of Laos, bordering Myanmar and China; in fact there are daily buses to China. Luang namtha province supposedly is home to 39 minorities, but i wasnt too sure because i went trekking and mountain biking solo -

Wanted to sign up for a guided bike tour, as i'm quite whacky when it comes to cycling. However after inquiring at several tour offices, none had a one day cycling/trekking trip and i'm not about to fork out >30USD for a guided one day trek. This guy in the office told me to cycle about 7km to the airport, turn left for a village, turn left for another village, turn left, and turn left. just turn left?

Out of curiosity i decided to trek to the nearby villages on foot. Had no map with me so i took a few wrong turns before i found the bridge to Ban Thong Jai Neua. Ban is village in Laos.

There was one sandy road flanked by rice fields and the villagers were working on the rice fields. Friendly and cheerful villagers saying sabaidee (hello) and posing for pictures :):)

They are so pretty :):) There are many children in the villages, and they gather together in the evenings to play.

As i was trying to find a shortcut gone wrong, i happen to say sabaidee! to this group of kids playing in front of a house. And the rest is crazy photo taking time :):) somehow we managed to take jumping shots when i have no idea what they were saying and they had no idea what i was saying.

The boy voluntarily grabbed his pet dog, 'poppy' he calls him, for some photos as well. poppy was scrambling all over the place so he had to grab him for a still photo shoot. After playing quite a while i feel the sun setting and decided to retreat before it's dark.

Took a wrong turn and stumbled into a deserted looking path with rather dense forest growth. On my left there is a funny looking shrine and i guessed it's a funeral shrine of sorts! Didn't take pictures coz i'm superstitious that way and freaked out and doubled back because there were a swarm of insects buzzing around me relentlessly yikes.

Thereafter i stumbled onto a few more dead ends leading to the river and doubled back and arrived back to Luang Namtha. Wish i have a better sense of direction!

***
babasan: hey! you are missed too! can't believe you are working alrdy... u look so happy back in hk hahaha :):)

***

overdue: phoenix in hk and macau!

2008-07-16T23:23:00.011+08:00

HK and Macau

28/04/08 - 02/05/08

Way back during my exams week in hk (seems like another era ago), ong, red, alibaba and y dropped by for a visit!

ong actually had a wish-list of sorts and as the chief itinerary planner i crammed everything for her into a 4D3N hk-macau thing. whereas alibaba and y are more relaxed, they've been here a few times so its like a major shopping trip for them :):)

In hk you ALWAYS go to the peak! (due to my lack of photos) you can see that we are really excited about the tram ride.

The day before we hit the peak, the peak tram had a 100-year anniversary celebration and the tickets were only 20cents! (we paid 35HKD mb? my memory is wozzy now) but due to the dirt cheap tickets pple queued for EIGHT hours or more. It's definitely good that we avoided that massive mad queue.

Dropped by lankwaifong and wanchai to check out the great hk nightlife. hahaha ong and red, now you know what i mean by everyone gets free drinks and compliments :):)

After some watermelon based vodka shots (? haha sweet and nice) , red and i remembered that there is a chelsea-liverpool champions league match on that same night! We watched the match in some bar. We were rooting for liverpool so that man utd can have an easier opponent, but the liverpool supporter in the bar, some british guy was happy - knowing our front but not our cause. hahaha. he sat next to red 'cause he claims that the spot makes liverpool lucky. anyway man utd won champions league hahaha :):) yes we dont care abt liverpool -

Other than that y shd be commended on her extraordinary zi-pai skills :):)

red and y ventured into madam tussaud's at the peak and had a roaring good time as you can tell :):)

In hk you always go to the avenue of stars and catch the symphony of lights :):) Kudos to alibaba and ong posing with andy lau's palm print.

In hk you always go to mongkok and shop and shop and shop. Kudos to alibaba and y posing with their loot! y is alrdy wearing stuff that she bought like few days ago haha :):)

ong and red bought lotsa stuff as well. i remember red happily buying bags and shoes. ong was coerced to buy a dress, in black, and sandals, in black. ong pls wear some rainbow someday you have the great love of your life alrdy! hahaha :):)

I do miss hk shopping. I was pretty obsessed with h&m. Thank goodness its presence is not felt in msia or sg haha :):)

In hk you always have food :):) I like the wanton noodles in hk, they are much nicer than the rest that ive ever tasted. I like the iced milk tea too, if they are done properly, but otherwise i tnk the teh-bing in msia and sg give 'em a good run for their money. In hk ppl go for dimsum and yumcha - and lots more -

To macau you always take the first ferry :):)

In macau you always go thru the colonial-chinese mix of alleys and buildings. I always go to macau, for the weirdest reasons. Macau is my transportation hub. Nevertheless i like macau, it is charming in its own ways.

In macau you always go to st paul's ruins. One of the few pictures that we took together as a trio! Unfornately st paul's ruins look really ruined as the photographer chopped off the top and kept the stairs instead.

Surprisingly we went to visit the musuem in macau, perched on top of the old fortress. :):) red's idea. hahaha. i tnk ong was bored. hahaha.

In hk you always take the star ferry crossing between tst and central. Incidentally there was a flurry of activities near the pier due to the olympic event. y was hitting the lenovo box/guy before we posed for a picture. it was really hilarious!

welcome to indochina

2008-07-05T22:46:00.010+08:00

Hoayxai, Laos

11/06/08 - 12/06/08

After the Welcome to Indochina gate there's border crossing by boat.

Happily paid 30baht and prepared myself for the river crossing, which lasted 3 minutes. I was expecting an hour cruise on a sampan...

Idyllic notions aside, Hoayxai is a small town. There is only one main street lined with shops on both sides, 1/3 are guesthouses, 1/3 are eating shops and the rest are the rest. Venture further you get a chinese market (chinese from china always trying to do business) and villages where i had 2 bottles of Beer Lao on an empty stomach, they say it's customs.

faints. i puked.

My destination is Luang prabang and to get there i have to decide

- 2D1N on a slow boat direct to Luang prabang (~220,000kip)
- 4h bus to Luang Namtha(~50,000kip) & 12h bus to Luang prabang(~70,000kip)

The national currency of Laos is kip :):)

10,000kip is roughly 1.1USD. You can't use kip anywhere BUT Laos. Seriously. At the Thai bordertown Chiangkong i wanted to change baht to kip and they told me to cross the border!

I had no idea what is Luang Namtha as i intended to take the 2 full days of boat but i was stung by the price difference. Just about USD12, but when it sounds like 100,000kip it feels like 1,000bucks! to me, anyway. So i opted for the long bus rides, plus i get to see a new place.

Sunset at the Mekong river.

After i had enough of sunset by the river, i went to the Hoayxai temple. Had my first encounter with the friendly monks in Laos.

In Laos the lifestyle is still pretty 'intact', in a way it's not westernised yet, but at the same time there are developments in Laos that will slowly but surely change its landscape and lifestyle...

In the morning the people usually rise and shine by 5am and offer alms to monks about 530am. The people will often prepare 'sticky rice' and other items and offer to the monks.

Usually, but perhaps not always, the monks are children of poor villages, and most of them enter as novices and learn scriptures but also English, sculpture, trade skills etc it depends. So those who are learning English will be eager to talk to you :):)

There are 9 monks in the temple of Hoayxai and they only collect alms in one direction... (?) I recited verses in Lao, repeating vaguely after one young novice and then we were all laughing a little. A monk has a cellphone (more advanced than my battered phone!) and he was playing Lao pop music on it, and then Buddhist chants, and then he gave it to me. His fellow friend told me jokingly that he is crazy. haha. And one told me that we are friends.

The next morning i reached the bus station about 7am to catch a 930am bus. In Laos i tend to reach 1-2hours early for my intended bus ride. The bus of Hoayxai-Luang Namtha is just a minibus, fit for 20+ ppl but they squeezed 30+ppl in the minibus, all seated, so it was like being in a pot of stew. There's no space for luggage at all, everyone throws everything on top of the bus -

and you retrieve your luggage from the top of the bus at your final destination!

backpack southeast asia!

2008-07-05T19:55:00.007+08:00

Highlights: Chatuchak market and Chiangkong
09/05/08 - 11/05/08

Due to the arbitrary chinese visa rules - they told me in HONGKONG that as i'm holding a malaysia passport i have to apply for a bloody china visa in MALAYSIA. hello chinese bureucrats! You are dead worried that more anti-china-protests are gg to reach the great motherland before olympics, but still.

Anyway, i'm not giving up backpacking! Decided to fly from Macau to Bangkok and make my way to Laos to meetup with sue and hyojin in Luang prabang. good plan... :):)

Arrived at bangkok after two sleepless nights, because i missed my flight. heartbroken.
Anyway Bangkok! Took a free shuttle to a public bus terminal instead of the direct coaches to Bangkok. There's no tourists and not much English, I had a passenger to act as translator between me, the minibus driver and the ticket counter lady. Thai ppl are friendly and helpful, i accidentally interrupted on my translator's phone call and she actually answered me before going back to her phone call!

After switching minibus, arrived at mohchit, the northern bus terminal of Bangkok. The famous chatuchak weekend market is nearby, and as i am always attracted to take the local public transport, i tried my luck at the 7-11 (EVERYWHERE in bangkok!)

me: hello, how do i take a bus to chatuchak?
cashier: (in thai) ---
me: uh, bus? chatuchak, bus? (gestures wildly about a rectangle and points outside)
cashier: ahhhh, (in thai) ---
me: (utterly confused) uh, bus. number? number? (trying to count)
cashier: ohh, bus, seventy-one, seventy-one. (shows fingers)
me: (repeat in fingers) thank you, thank you!

pretty much how i got around Thailand and Laos.
Essentials: hello, place name, emphasize place name (for confirmation!) and thank you!

When i arrived at chatuchak i saw a crowd echoing excitedly over something. So i squeezed into the crowd, and started taking random photos and realized that it's an all male crowd. Cock fighting in action! There's real blood and i think it hurts. The chickens of course, not me. More feathers than blood, and the cocks flap about and try to out-peck each other. Somehow it reminds me of bird flu, i dont know why.

The amazing array of street vendors in chatuchak. Apparently there are over 7,000 stalls here, selling anything that you could ever want to buy, sort of. It was a little overwhelming but i had fun - a really delicious coconut ice-cream, a pair of flipflops (which failed me in the middle of my trip! faints), a really cheap 80baht beach dress ( i love buying things thinking i can go diving in them), some postcards...

Lost track of time and panic struck as i need to rush back to mohchit in 15minutes! I ran to one of the chatuchak entrance/exits and spotted a row of tuk-tuks - and - a lady who said mohchit to a tuk-tuk driver.

Immediately ran over to her side and said 'mohchit???'

So we shared a tuk-tuk together, and she told me that the tuk-tuk driver is her friend. As we were talking i was praying for the traffic jam to part like the red sea. Anyway we arrived in mohchit in due course, and the lady was really nice and i got a free ride. Most importantly caught my nightbus to ChiangKong!

I slept like a dead log. Woke up next dawn and saw amazing landscape, I think they were the fields of Chiangmai perhaps? Really beautiful and stunning scenery, I think I will go back just for that, but i rolled right back to sleep, being too lazy to capture those sights.

ppl were getting down all the time, in the middle of nowhere ie some rice fields, some small villages and finally we reached the last stop - Chiangkong. Was a little shocked because the bus 'terminal' is nothing, just got droped off right beside a row of shoplots and no shelter, not even a bus stop sign, not that i noticed anyway.

Was thinking how do i get from Chiangkong to Laos by public transport - or any transport -

And ppl approach you and say 'Hoayxai?'

I took a 10 minute tuk-tuk ride to the thai-laos border,feeling really excited.
Laos! Here I come!

haha this is how the border looks like. real simple. it doesnt even feel like i'm crossing borders!

the immigration is fuss-free on the thai side, just stamp your passport and walk to this gateway - it says Welcome to Indochina.

---
Laos is definitely one of my favorite places!
Initially I wondered a lot about going to Laos because, there's nothing in Laos (her neighbours have Halong Bay, HCMC, Angkor Wat, Grand palace, not to mention nice beaches and islands) and why is it listed as the top destination to go in NY Times etc etc. And vainly because i thought it is quite cool to have been to Laos. haha.

But Laos is absolutely worth it!
---

phoenix! always

2008-07-04T19:27:00.011+08:00

june race
28/06/08 - 29/06/08

back blogging! actually my hiatus is much ado about nothing at home - the weather is a lil too hot and i didnt feel like i had any constructive energy. but granny is getting so much better :):) and i've finally met everdearest phoenix mates back over the weekend so life is good!

incidentally i also attribute my doing-nothingness to a mild post-travel syndrome - i always succumb to a brief spell of doing nothing after travelling.

action packed weekend. phoenix sah!

warming up for race

serious in action!

not before some photogenic opportunities :):)

xiaoting has a timeless expression, don't u think :):) with gekky n nicole.

so does the elusive, weishan the pacer -

yay! haha. we look so, normal? as compared to those days -
it never fails to crack me up, those photos tt we took. mb someday i shall post them all up. they were supposed to be top secret but. haha :):)

batch photo! three years together in ntu. time sure flies.

i am still very proud of phoenix who rowed in that strong team spirit over the weekend, and i will miss those days when i was rowing together with everyone...

thereafter the dinner at merchant court was not bad, red and teddy had truckloads of oysters and everyone seemed to had their fill of durian paste. :):) and the live concert and the video! rocks my socks. you guys totally rock, i still have that song ringing in my ears -

and thank you, so much, for the scrapbook! i heart it so, tho it's not with me now, but i really love it.

(let's) go!

because i'm really lousy at taking videos this is a GO! which lasts for a few seconds. faints. anyway.

thank you phoenix for everything!

seoul, so good, so good :):)

2008-06-17T01:56:00.000+08:00

seoul, south korea

03/06/08 - 12/06/08

some highlights of seoul from my memory :):)

Sinchon, at night. On the first day in Seoul we visited hyojin's university, the Ewha Women's University and the nearby shopping streets, and thereafter Yonsei University, where sue and jang studies. And most ppl hangout in Sinchon at night due to its proximity. Lots and lots of shops, restaurants, cafes, bars, dorebans (karaoke!) etc. It was raining cats and dogs that day tho!

They say you must eat samgyeoksa :):) and it was a pretty nice dinner! Korean bbq with pork belly, barbecued garlic, kimchi and the traditional way is to eat it wrapped in lettuce or kennip (?) and soju. Korean food is amazing - let's just say it is so under-represented out of korea. We had so much good korean food in korea, so much i think i probably gained weight haha. Thanks to Jang for dinner anyway :):)

South Korea is a pretty good place to shop i think. The living standards are definitely quite high, unlike my previous china and southeast asian trips. But yeahhh plenty of shopping choices here - Myeongdong. Sis and i bought a number of items from faceshop and skinfood because they are really well priced in Korea. i.e. a skinfood eyeliner at just 3,500won! Even sue and hyojin bought one lol :):)

From Myeongdong we walked to Namdaemun Market-

Namdaemun - literally south gate of seoul, under construction from a fire in february this year. It was a crazy fire, some guy actually burned it down, and this gate had apparently stood in seoul for about 600 years since the Joseon dynasty...

Thereafter we walked to Sichon - literally City Hall. If you dont know better you will mix Sinchon, Sincheon, Sichon - i did, and i still cant distinguish two of 'em. Anyway, it looked like a festival to me!

It was the peak of the demonstrations, according to hyojin and jang. So it was a really unique and unusual time to visit seoul, because of all the demonstrations. One of 'em being you won't ever get a chance to walk on this main road in the CBD, but it is blocked just for the demonstrations lol. For those who are unaware of it, there is a case agtainst the south korean president and his US beef import deal, which may expose the ppl to mad cow disease. Together with a host of other issues e.g. rising fuel prices, worsening economy etc, he isnt very popular at the moment and -

ppl are holding candle-lit demonstrations demanding for his resignation. Apparently candle-lit vigils had a long history in South Korea, and it is peaceful and not violent, i could not see any violence anyway. And there are families with children who are also part of the demonstrations! And many ppl are taking pictures - of themselves and also of the demonstration. I think koreans are pretty professional amateur photographers! - the other protests i know of are in Malaysia, and they definitely are not similar...

Cheonggyechon - the famous stream in seoul. It was the south korean president's lee myungbak one great project for restoring it in seoul, back when he was the seoul city mayor. So it is rather ironic that Cheonggyechon now is one of the focal points of demonstrations against him...

It was also sue's birthday on the night when we were visiting cheonggyechon! haha we tried to borrow a lighter for candles on the cake but to no avail for almost 20minutes i think! So a mini conclusion that maybe korean ppl dont really smoke, or they dont come down to cheonggyechon lol. There were so many candle lights previously but none when we wanted one. Finally we got fire and sang a haphazard birthday song in various languages!

almost a festival, the seoul that i visited :):)

***
irene: hey! haha you travelled further than i did anyway. lol. i will probably be back by last week of june, latest 27th. let's meet up then!

***

2008-06-16T02:22:00.003+08:00

it's been ages since i last updated!
kinda just got back home from korea but having a little flu now and also granny is hospitalised for shingles... :(:( so i feel like doing nothing much at the moment.

anyway i think i should be posting up some stuff, because i had a very good time over the past month of hiatus, including the time when ong, red, alibaba and y came to hk!, a mad southeast asia trip and also my family in hk finally and travelling in korea with sis, sue, hyojin and jang.

sometimes i think i travel too much.
a few days later i will be flying to sipadan for diving.
and a few days after my diving trip i think i will head back to singapore!
and i miss hong kong a little and i miss singapore a little - can't believe exchange is over and can't believe i havnt seen everyone in singapore for ages! :):)

huashan

2008-04-23T17:23:00.001+08:00

Huashan

29/03/08 - 30/03/08

Huashan, one of the five sacred mountains of china. I was tempted to hike this mountain because i've always heard of huashan in movies, martial art stories etc haha. Took a train from Xian, 2h and 18yuan; feeling a little apprehensive having to hike the apparently 'dangerous' mountain alone. Saw a group of guys who looked like they were going to Huashan and got a free lift to the mountain foot, but was alone again, because they decided to take the cable car instead of hiking.

So abt 10pm i left the inn that i was staying at (40yuan) to start the hike. There are many interesting names i.e. thousand-feet-climb, ladder-to-sky/heaven etc and passes on the way up, but i cant see most of them because i didnt have a torchlight (!) so i was just following some ppl that i met. lol. Can't imagine i actually climbed thru all these in the dark!

Finally after a 6h hike with many rest stops in between, we reached the East peak, offering the best view for sunrise. It was freezing cold. There were snow and ice and the last part was so difficult for me because i almost slipped quite a few times, which was no joke, i was moving at tortoise speed for the last stretch to the peak for fear of falling!

But due to the weather there is no beautiful sunrise because it was cloudy. Haha oh well.

There are 5 peaks in Huashan, north south east west center, with the South peak as the highest at about 2160m. There are different stories and 'temples' at each peak. Rather scenic with excellent views of valleys and slopes and adjacent peaks from each peak. I think this is the West peak, viewed from the North peak? :):)

Huashan reminds me of 'The Return of the Condor Heroes', 華山論劍, 玉女峰 etc. This shot captures the essence of Huashan, steep and solemn, kinda. Dangerous stuff, perhaps.

haha but strictly speaking this is hiking and not mountain climbing, because there are trails, and for steeper parts they have metal chains. Though there was one stretch, i really thought i was gonna fall off and die (maybe not lol) because that was a near 90degrees vertical climb, and the steps were extremely narrow accomodating only half my sole, covered with ice so it was extremely slippery, and i had to climb up somehow.

Lots and lots of stairs, steep and narrow, and never-ending. Haha it was good that i climbed up at night because we had no idea where we were going, just up and up. When we hike down in the day, we were simply surprised at what we went through.

Also really amazed at the people who actually carry all the foodstuff uphill! It is so narrow and steep just for a normal hike, what's with a whole carton of instant noodles or even bottled water! Salute them.

So that was my Huashan hike :):) and also the last stop of my china trip. I was so exhausted after the overnight hike, and had to take a taxi back to Xian to catch my flight back to Shenzhen to return to HK. If i did not have a flight booked, i think i would have continued to roam around china, because there're so many places that i wanna see lol.

Travelling is a dangerous addiction.

But when i arrived in hk i was really glad too, i felt like i have been in china for so long haha. Very appreciated: a clean and fully functioning toilet, i bathed for ages... and i didnt unpack till a few days later because i was so, worn out.

My roommate emily was so shocked initially, she thought i was going off to travel again because i didnt unpack! hahahahaha

***

ong: hahaha finally coming to hk yeah! good itinerary i have for you guys right! will post about it if i feel like it. hahahah :):) and i am no history buff ok i feel so inadequate. hahaha.

spitzberg: yes i am gg to korea! are you coming to hk!!!

peacefool: you marathon madness...! hahahaa i dont tnk i will ever like marathons tt much. but i am jealous of your europe plan i wanna go too...!

y: documentary yeah crazy! actually i didnt travel THAT much ya... just a little here and there hahaha. yeah u can travel a lot more than i do when in china! cant wait to see ya all. hahah like i said i have itinerary for the hk days hahahaha! just come! u can see pandas in ocean park which we are going!

and i tnk teddy?: really wish u can come hk too! haha dont worry abt your exams n fyp yeah you always do well one ehh. and my running shd be quite cui by now hahahaha :):)

***

you are what you eat

2008-04-23T16:55:00.000+08:00

In china, i was really blessed because i eat off the streets and did not suffer from diarrhea or anything. Good digestive system! So here are some random pictures of some foodstuffs that amused me.

purple corn, hangzhou westlake, 5yuan. It is naturally coloured, or so i believe. Dry and not nice, common (purple is a little harder to find than yellow) and popular all over china.

Duck head, Hangzhou Wushan Food Street, 7yuan. Fear Factor material! Seriously i am not that adventurous, i don't even eat prawn heads ok but the very friendly xiaoxiao bought one each for us so i couldnt refuse. And as i kinda ate the surface of the duckhead she said "ohh but you havnt even finished eating the duck head!" so i really had to bite and eat the duck head. But it's really quite delicious, it has a herbal sauce of sorts. But no, i dont think i will eat it again...

Lanzhou beef noodles, Lanzhou market near train station, 3yuan. Very cheap and very little beef, but i dont think i can complain. Nice handmade noodles and nice spiced soup.

Sweet fried filled dough, Xining Shuixiangjie street, 0.70yuan. This is really good. I think i enjoyed the qingzhen hui food in China, literally chinese islamic cuisine of the hui people.

Niangpi/Liangpian, Xining Mojiajie street, 3.50yuan. How do i describe this. Its like chewy textured thick noodles, served cold, with an intense mixed sauce, sour spicy slightly salty, topped with chopped parsley (which i hate, but somehow it goes well!). Good stuff.

Longchaushou, Chengdu, 10yuan. Literally dumplings. Famous in chengdu, they have many variations of it, and this plain looking one is the original in soup. Very filling with lotsa pork filling.

A variety of snacks, Chengdu JinLi Food Street. I tried a mini yellow thing, ye'erpa, salty and chewy, not to my liking though. Chengdu has tonnes of unique food: street food, desserts, hotpot etc etc. Didnt take pictures of the hotpot dinner dith and i had, it was not the best but there must have been TWENTY or so WHOLE CHILLIS swimming in half a pot of pure red soup. A rare sight indeed!

Yang2rou4pao4mo2, Xian Huiminjie street, 9yuan. Another chinese islamic cuisine. Literally mutton with soaked "mo", which is a kind of qingzhen bread of sorts. I ate this at an apparently very good shop, the chopped "mo" did not dissolve and melt into a mess but remain kinda intact thruout. Definitely interesting and very good.

Xianbing, Xian Huiminjie Street, 3yuan. It is a pan-fried filled savory crispy uhh, thing. Hui2min2jie1 literally means "hui" people's street i.e. chinese moslem street. Lots of chinese moslem food here and i didnt take pictures of everything but this was pretty good, the lady actually makes the pastry from scratch and handles the hot pastry with her bare hands right out of the hot oil.

A glimpse into the typical chinese airline food. Hainan airlines, a rice meal with fish, a cut of fruit, some chinese meatcut, a bun, a drink. Just passable. Bon voyage.

the ancient capital

2008-04-19T13:25:00.009+08:00

of xian

21/03/08 - 23/03/08

Xian, current capital of Shanxi province, was an important capital city in china; it served as the capital for 13 different dynasties. Also, it was an important stop on the silk road, so xian is steeped with lots of history. (but i am not very familiar with chinese history besides the basics...)

The bell tower in the center of Xian. Xian city is a walled city, just like an ancient fortress. You can cycle on the wall around the city. The bell tower was used in ancient times for time reporting i.e. every "geng" they will sound the bell, but that was very long ago. I thought it was interesting, to see this picture of the bell tower, circa 1910. Now it is dressed up for the olympics.

And its sister tower, the drum tower, about 200m away. Incidentally, this served as the alarm tower in ancient times, to warn of dangers and enemies. But of course the original drum(s), if they still exist, lie in some museums, and these are all for tourist purposes, and they charge you 20yuan if you wanna strike the bell. China, china, money, money.

The next morning i left early for the terra cotta warriors. It's a one hour bus ride away from Xian at about 7yuan, and the entrance ticket is 65 yuan. The modernity took me by surprise, it looks just like a hi tech museum. I was, as usual, expecting an ancient chinese historical setting, which i should learn by now, if it's famous in china, don't expect it to be original.

Still, the terra cotta warriors are a sight to behold. There are currently only 3 pits opened to the public, due to the lack of suitable technology to excavate and preserve the ruins. The tomb of Qinshihuang was commissioned almost as soon as he ascended the throne (it must have been really important to him haha) in B.C.246 and involved 70,000 ppl to build his tomb for his afterlife.

There are complex arrangements for almost everything he had in real life i suppose. pit 1 was the grandest, with the army formation in sight, different ranks of soldiers, horses, corridors... it was said to contain up to 6,000 soldiers.

There is an ongoing process to restore the terracotta figures, which are very much in ruins, and the archaeologists will piece them back. When it was first discovered, they were actually in full colour, but once exposed to light they fade away. I simply cannot imagine, if we can see the whole tomb, intact and in colour...

pits 2 and 3 are literally, in ruins. pit 2 is actually the military guard, you can see weapons and chariots in heaps of ruins, and pit 3 is supposed to be a command post, all i can see distinctively are rows and rows of rooftops. and ruins.

Incidentally, though it was left undisturbed for many years, the tomb is not exactly intact, as it was plundered and burnt after the downfall of the Qin dynasty. Nonetheless, it is still one of the grandest tombs on earth, that is still undiscovered totally.

currently: cheung chau

2008-04-18T12:20:00.005+08:00

Rural School Teaching, Cheung Chau Sacred Heart Primary School
20/02/08 - 16/04/08

The closing ceremony for the rural school teaching project is scheduled to be held today and we were looking forward to seeing the kids again, simply because they are so so cute (frivolous me).

But unfortunately there is a typhoon warning 3 (?) so the event is canceled :(:( there's no typhoon but it's raining, so now i'm back in my room, gloomy weather, nice day to sleep, one day to waste. living in sg/msia has made me so insensitive to the weather, things can always go on, but for the rest of the world, weather can dictate what you do (typhoon, snow, real storms... ok sg/msia have real storms too haha) Raining cats and dogs as of now.

anyway, some pictures from my weekly trips to cheungchau,7x in total. i've posted more pictures on facebook, but here are some of my favorites :):)

School entrance of sacred heart- it has a sea view because its next to the beach! Small school with about 300 students i think. And it is also probably the only school (with the rest in outlying islands too) where kids in hk have real childhood: here after school instead of going for tuition/going home for tv, they play basketball, go cycling, fishing, swimming or playing on the beach :):)

My putonghua (i.e. chinese) class consisting of 3rd and 4th graders. The English class has 5th and 6th graders. I.m.h.o. the younger kids are more fun because they are livelier but the English class gets the basketball court!

This kid is soo cute! haha jun and the kid. the kid has a sister in the same school and they are both vegetarians. interesting.

They were waving flags that says "jiayou!" haha and the girl on the right, she's the sister of the cute vegetarian boy. haha.

Happy faces! And the final picture on the final day, which was last wednesday. Lina and i with the teachers and the rest of the class. I will miss cheungchau.

And i think i will bring alibaba and y go to cheungchau coz its a nice place! Good food, nice hike/cycling, laid back atmosphere...too bad ong and red, no time for you to see this gem.

***
irene: haha chinese trains are crazy this is one of the not too bad but not great ones... yeah 23june is way too early! you have to change it. i heard it's difficult to change, so wish you luck! also, i think, i am starting in sept. because i missed deadline to submit forms. but i really dont know...

samantha: hey! haha i'm actually on exchange in hk now, so i travel to places nearby now and then! :):) when i get back to kl we shd meetup or something yeah its been ages since i've seen you!

jojo n pang: hahahahahahahahahaha ohh boy so funny tt part abt my sis faints. i havnt asked her about it yet. haha. hmm i dunno when i'm gg back to sg yet. haha. plus i am not sure when i;m starting work but maybe sept??? haha

***

2008-04-17T02:06:00.008+08:00

Of all the places i've been in China i like Sichuan the most, but then again i havnt really been to many places in China i guess. haha :):)

Here's a lil of CHENGDU, capital of Sichuan and my transit point to the previously-mentioned places. There's a saying tt goes that ppl dont leave chengdu because it is such a pleasant place, and i can relate to that: i almost wanted to stay here and continue to other places in sichuan (spent about 7 days here!).

City center - ChunXiLu. Chengdu is actually a very modern city, you get starbucks and stuff (starbucks as a measure of modernity?? haha) and its crazy but within a 5 minute walk i saw about 8 nike/adidas shops? As in real shops not those fake 10yuan-goods shop. How do the people afford it? (and why do they like it so much...)

The amusing traffic light. red, green man, green bike! Reminds me of hochiminh city- in HCMC u have to cut across the bikes, but here u cross together in the same direction as the bikes, which isnt really as dangerous, but i finally got hit by a bike (OUCH) because i stopped in the middle of the road to take a picture of the traffic light. What was i thinking?

And the roads are wide - i counted 7 lanes in one direction for one of the main roads! That's a total of 12 car lanes and two wide bike/bicycle lanes! Dith was saying it takes soooo long to cross the roads lol :):)

A 'Chinatown' in Chengdu, JinLi. It is connected to a 'WuHouCi', literally the temple of the general, in this case ZhuGeLiang of the three kingdoms. Anyway i didnt pay to enter the temple complex. If there is one thing i learn from China, it's that the Chinese really squeeze money out of EVERY possible (and impossible) thing, so dont pay to enter EVERYTHING, there's NOTHING most of the time!

In JinLi i saw the exact same monk dith and i met in Mount Emei! He was chanting nonstop on the bus in the mountain (!) and then he didnt have ticket as well (but then he stayed on the bus, which made us wonder, do monks get to the mountain for free??) And here he tried to snatch that person's paper fan (don't ask me why!)

Random food: San1da4pao4, literally three cannons? pretty nice sweet glutinous rice balls. They really "shoot" the stuff out and there's three BANG noise for each order. ok i dont think anyone is gonna understand this. pls ignore. haha :):)

Leaving Chengdu for Xian, my train journey on a upperbunk bed. 16h and 170yuan i think. Just to let you know how stuffed the trains can be, 3 beds per column and 20 columns per cabin - that's SIXTY ppl per cabin. And there's about maybe 8 sleeper cabins? And maybe 8 seater cabins (about 100ppl per cabin i reckon?) And there are always ppl with no seats. A lot of ppl.

And if you thought 16h is crazy, i actually took a 27h (one WHOLE day and three hours) train from XINING to CHENGDU! haha i boarded the train at 8am and didnt eat for one whole day and only drank three small sips of water for fear of the need to pee. Arrived the next day in noon! Almost drove me crazy.

Mix Hostel in Chengdu :):) where i stayed 15yuan per night. It is popular with backpackers, met many ppl who were travelling around all e places in Sichuan and China (and also ppl who like me cldnt make it to tibet). The hostel has a very nice tibetan touch. I like hostels, they make my travels possible!

***

peacefool: ehh i did wiki and they say red pandas are closer to pandas than raccoons! i think. haha. ohh well exams are ending n u r gg europe ya!

jojo: haha didnt know i have entertainment value! :):) but yeah seriously the pandas are sooo cute its really cuter than this! apparently u can watch them online, cctv on those hk/us zoo pandas are 24hours?? hahaha

rach: i heart the pandas too! but i wonder why everyone loved the standing one it barely stood for a second! hahahaha :):) if my camera was slower u'd never have seen a standing panda haha. i liked one where i shot a young panda climbing down stairs, and one where it bit another panda (!) hahaha :):)

***

CUTE!

2008-04-13T21:57:00.017+08:00

Sichuan panda reserve

27/03/08

Sichuan, also known as the home to the pandas. After crazy trips to Jiuzhaigou and Emei, decided to cut some slack and visited the CHENGDU panda reserve, which is accesible via a direct public tourist bus. The famous WOLONG panda reserve is a 5hour bus ride away.

Incidentally, my bus broke down (!). I got mangled directions from the bus driver: in Sichuan they speak accented chinese that can be hard to decipher. Anyway apparently the suggestion was bad so another passenger told me to take a bus XXX to some bus terminal ABC outside the city, walk to another terminal DEF and take bus XYZ to the panda reserve. Turns out she gave me the wrong bus number, but with a little common sense and Q&A i got on the right bus anyway.

What amazes me: non-chinese-speaking ppl travelling alone in China. I would say it is highly inconvenient and also easily ripped off by ppl. It helps when you can switch between fluent chinese and i-dont-really-know-chinese. :):)

First up, some really cute red pandas! Yes, they are pandas not raccoons. I do not know why, but they eat bamboos like the black-white pandas and they live in the same place, so.

so cute. so cute. Baby pandas, almost a year old.

These playful pandas are about 1-2 years old. pandas mate ONLY in january and hence give birth ONLY in july/august, so you wont get to see new-born baby pandas even if you go to the nursery now. pandas are most active in the morning - i woke up 630am hoping to reach by 830am but arrived almost 10am i was so worried i'll see sleeping pandas. lol.

I caught feeding time for the sub-adult pandas!

panda#1 gave a rare show- a standing ovation!

Meanwhile, panda#2 is oblivious to everyone and everything, i kid you not he/she just eats in his/her own world. But hey, that's what pandas do, eat, sleep, move as little as possible...

So it is no wonder that pandas are an endangered species: they are black-and-white, offering zero camouflage in their natural habitat (read: lush forests/highlands of sichuan). They only eat bamboo (90% of their diet) and they cant run or fly and they really like to enjoy life.

Extremely adorable nonetheless! Somehow i felt happy and cheery just watching them. I must have took about 200 panda photos.

Then on my last leg of the panda reserve i saw adult panda JINJIN who is depressed. I guess it's mid-life crisis-

panda: what is existence. why am i here. am i born to eat bamboo. i dont care about the visitors anymore. they think my offsprings are cute. i am not as cute as i was. give me socrates. maybe confucianism works better in sichuan.

OK. haha. ignore my ramblings. enjoy the cute pandas!

Oh yes some fun facts about pandas.
Do pandas have tails? Yes!
What's the colour of the tail? White!
Did i hug a panda and take photo with it? Well if i was willing to pay 400yuan.

***
anon: i always take motorbike rides, they are cheap n good. haha. no worries!

ong: hey:):) haha i dont think anyone can repeat my emei trip its way too crazy even for me. haha. actually we were pretty freaked out but we got lucky finally. we didnt dare to speak chinese thruout the entire mountain journey. lol. and yes will see you soon!!! will do up the itinerary soon! :):)

***

scrambled eggs

2008-04-10T17:33:00.020+08:00

Emeishan and Leshan
25/03/08 - 26/03/08

After we left JiuZhaiGou, we had a day-long bus ride ladden with stopovers at chinese shops selling possibly everything: jade, processed yak meat, tea leaves, KNIVES (??). Our bus broke down and we were stranded for an hour or so, and we turned vegetarian for two days. Finally we were back at in Chengdu, dropped our backpacks in the hostel, and hauled ourselves to Mount EMEI.

EMEISHAN, one of the four sacred mountains of buddhism in china. It peaks at about 3000+m, with a golden buddha at the peak, so they call it "jin1ding3" literally golden peak. The mountain and forests cover a large area that takes three days of trekking, ranging from green subtropical forests to temperate forests- there is a very peaceful and refreshing air about EMEI.

EMEISHAN is also famous for yun2hai3, literally sea of clouds. It was really what you would imagine a sea of clouds to be, breathtaking and awesome; it's different from the stunning beauty in JiuZhaiGou. Here, somehow, there is a worldly element of peace. Haha gibberish from me, but it felt so good like all my troubles seem so faraway.

We had a mad journey up the mountain. Arrived at the foot of EMEISHAN late in the evening, they stopped selling entrance tickets, so we just walked past the huge gate complete with gantry barriers and nobody stopped us! Thrilled at our luck, we walked aimlessly uphill for about an hour while it got dark. A guy offered us a motorbike ride for 30yuan and got us to low/mid mountain and we stayed overnight at next to QingYinGe.

The next morning we bought bus tickets to go to the peak and were rather happy that we saved 120yuan of entrance tickets but were sad that we missed sunrise- and at a checkpoint before the peak they asked for tickets- oh no! We were kinda forced off the bus, tried to hike up but got called back, then we boarded another bus and got asked for tickets consecutively by four different guys. pretended we couldnt speak chinese, smiled innocently and insisted to go to the peak- and by luck we really got away with it!

There are many temples and monasteries and stuff in the emeishan area, it being a buddhist holy place. Very chinese i suppose. It's also very clean and you can say it's well managed, but don't expect a forest here, it's pretty built up. Maybe i missed the rural jungle trail lol.

Amazing sea of clouds :) All the hard work to get to the sea of clouds is worth it.

And of course, the colossal giant buddha at the peak. Initially i thought it looked a little out of place, such a gigantic glittery gold statue (read: extremely man-made!) perched in the sea of clouds, but in a little time we kinda appreciated it a little. It does look like it belongs to the skies :):)

Thereafter headed to LESHAN which is about 30km and 10yuan away from EMEISHAN, in between we got a short free taxi lift. LESHAN is famous for the giant buddha, it is the world's tallest sitting buddha carved out of the hills. A rather nice river town with the big buddha sitting at the confluence of three rivers.

The giant buddha was built in the tang dynasty by a monk to calm the river. It also spans across three little hills forming a buddhist complex of sorts with temples and gardens. Unfortunately i got there too late and missed the boat ride, it is supposed to give the best view of the giant buddha upclose. If only i was an hour earlier, but anyway it was still a good visit!

You can actually see the reflection of the hills forming a sleeping buddha on a good day, but i couldnt because the tide is too low and the sun is setting.

Bizarre- i saw a group of people swimming/going to swim right in front of the big buddha. And the river is not crystal clear, mind you. Felt funny shooting them stripping haha. But it must be pretty interesting, when you do your strokes and see the buddha...?

Then i rushed to the bus station in leshan town and by luck caught the last bus back to chengdu at 7pm (i reached at 650pm and panicked because taxi drivers and guesthouse owners were all harassing me outside the bus station saying no more bus! If i missed the bus, i have to stay in leshan which i have NO plan whatsoever, no map no nothing, and my whole backpack is in chengdu so i only have my wallet, passport and uhh camera with me? haha)

More about chengdu and the rest in the next post!

***

jennifer: so surprised you drop by! hahaha it's great tt we are in the same group ahh have so much fun laughing about everything lol. you don;t have to be jealous ahhh you will be going europe trip so soon!!!

youie: hahaha like i say i am so not pro in phototaking but glad u like it hehe. we go diving soon ya mb?? wish u cld come hk!

goddess: haha i think of you on the peak... ok just kidding. yeah go visit jiuzhaigou sometime!

irene: ehhh i envy your trip soon too! cant believe we r gg to grad! haha i dunno abt grad trip ahhh update me your plans!!! haha. when r u starting work i wonder.

pang: haha cool u r gg to jiuzhaigou! are u gg in 1st wk of may, coz i highly NOT recommend tt period, otherwise it'd be fantastic! it wont be snowing anymore in may, so it wont be cold, but you'll still need a normal jacket/sweater i think. check weather forecasts to be sure!

and pray tell who asked me to drink soup...

***

picture perfect

2008-04-07T14:15:00.036+08:00

22/03/08 - 25/03/08
JIUZHAIGOU, ex-chengdu, sichuan

i watched brokeback mountain in SICHUAN-

ok i was kidding:):) Anyway dith and i took a trip to JIUZHAIGOU, a nature reserve in SICHUAN. we actually followed a chinese tour and it costs ONLY 400yuan (about S$80!) for 4D3N, including transport to/fro chengdu, accomodation, meals, entrance tix, we couldnt believe it its so dirt cheap! Of course there are caveats but this short story another time.

JIUZHAIGOU is about a 10h drive away from chengdu, and it lies in the ABA province which has a significant tibetan, qiang and hui minority population. Jiuzhaigou actually has three 'gou' i.e. three valleys that formed a Y shape, however during ancient times nine tibetan tribes dwelled in that area and hence the name jiuzhaigou instead of anytng else. On the long and winding road there we had pretty amazing scenery including that shot that reminds me of somehow of the movie ;p;p

Stayed the night at a fair enough hotel abt 15min drive away from JiuZhaiGou. It was freezing cold at night we almost couldnt sleep :/:/

The next morning we arrived at JiuZhaiGou about 730am and began our entire day there! What surprised me was the crowd- i kid you not there were so many tourists and they call this offpeak season! I will definitely not come here during peak season no matter how beautiful it is, crowds turn me off and chinese crowds are no joke. haha.

Tranquility - we walked along the ShuZhengGou in the morning and enjoyed the fresh air, forests and waterfalls. Reminds me of those family vacations we used to take to Cameron Highlands in Malaysia :):)

Thereafter we wanted to go to ZeChaWaGou but we couldnt find the bus, park rangers got us to RiZeGou instead, they thought we were koreans. In China, you are either Chinese or Korean or Japanese... So we ended up at RiZeGou-

There are probably a hundred lakes of varying colours and intensities and depths in jiuzhaigou and they are all unbelievably clear and rich in colour. you can see reflections amazingly captured in the lakes. There are many many lakes: panda lake, five colour lake, peacock lake, pearl harbour, tiger lake, fiery flower lake etc etc. Tibetan people dwell in the highlands and long for the sea and the ocean, so they call the lakes 'hai3zi', literally sons of the seas :):)

We had on some qiang costumes for fun at the panda lake :):)

Look at those blue- beyond blue and beyond words!

In the afternoon we took a flight to switzerland.

Of course i am kidding. In the afternoon we finally made our way to ZeChaWaGou and were really surprised: five minutes ago we were in spring seeing trees and leaves and blue waters and suddenly it was SNOWING- it wasnt 'i see snow on the montains' but 'snow is falling on me'! haha ok gimme some credit it's my first snow experience afterall. The snow white scenery was really pretty too and so we were jumping up and down on some cliff-

And amazingly the five-colour lake wasnt frozen so we could see the amazing turquoise/blue lake wrapped in snow.

After we left the snowland we found ourselves again back in spring and marvelled at the amazing lakes in ShuZhengGou again- this is probably my favorite lake, it has a big area and is bisected by the plant growth into several small little lakes, dotted with miniature waterfalls, and of course the colours are amazing-

Even though its not the prime season, i was truly awed by the beauty of jiuzhaigou.

Everything is worth it for this trip, you have to see this to believe that such places exist:):)

***

debbie: debbie!! hahaha havnt heard from u for ages! dont u tnk those colorful chicks look crazy i was stunned! hahahaha they dont survive anytng... and haha yeah u can check out my travel pics here but actually my travels were so crazy sometimes i wondered what i was doing? haha anyway bet u r having lotsa fun at caas!

peacefool: hey crazy runner! haha didnt know u were into yaks! they are... not very intriguing to me but interesting indeed. and yes i agree in full tt chinese toilets invoke nightmares of nightmares...

***

a day in the life

2008-04-05T01:11:00.014+08:00

maybe you think that i live on a chinese roller coaster of sorts, i don't, haha i do live a pretty normal life as of now, i went for class, had project meeting, shopped for groceries (i think i screwed up my system a little in china so now i've been buying apples and chocolates haha!), and watched this amazing movie with dith:

Across the Universe! A musical film of sorts, its storyline is set against THE BEATLES songs. This movie is really a genius (to me, a beatles fan of sorts hehe) it is so good i think i wanna watch it again, it's only on limited release in HK now i.e. only one cinema AND only one screening per day.

They had BONO, U2 who did a cool and whacky rendition of 'I am the Walrus'!

So loved this part hahaha- i am he as you are he as you are me as we are all together -

They even had a whacky circus scene with the song 'Being for the benefit of Mr.Kite!'

Strawberry fields forever -

let me take you down coz i'm going to. strawberry fields.

nothing is real.

nothing to get hung about. strawberry fields forever.

living is easy with eyes closed.

misunderstanding all you see.

its getting hard to be someone but it all works out. it doesnt matter much to me.

And they had a rooftop concert! Before the beatles separated they had a rooftop concert, and they sang 'Don't let me down' - i heart that song. And ends with All You Need is Love. woohoo! On a side note, Dana Fuchs is a really captivating singer, she's the one in the hippie tunic in this picture she sings so well i especially loved the 'Why don't we do it on the road'

And many many others by the beatles! if you havnt hear any beatles, you have to. at least watch this movie for its amazing songbook and the creativity in getting the story across :):) watch trailer and clips here. http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809233810/video

ice!

2008-04-04T13:30:00.033+08:00

20/03/08

After spending a day in xining i decided to go to QINGHAIHU, about 150km away from xining. The hostel ppl were saying this is not the right season; anyway i went ahead, which was pretty nice (to me) because i've never seen so much ice in my life.

QINGHAIHU, also known as kokonor lake is the largest saltwater lake in china, about 360km in perimeter and 3000+m above sealevel. Took a one day tour there with a tour guide who was talking about QINGHAI province as well as folk stories about qinghai lake. The story goes about a princess wencheng who is married to a tibetan king in tang dynasty, and how she missed home etc etc.

On the way to qinghaihu, seeing sheets of ice/snow. haha on retrospect it was pretty funny, i saw snow but i didnt know it was snow (faints) because i have never seen snow so i thought snow was ice? The road was rather well paved due to increased tibetan tourism (the road goes all the way to golmud and to lhasa, tibet) and during my trip there was a police checkpoint in the middle of nowhere, which usually wouldnt be there.

RiYueShan, literally sun & moon hill, was the highest altitude reached that day (3500+m). It is a small little hill with a sun and moon pavillion on two little peaks. Experienced a mild case of altitude sickness here- usually it takes no effort to climb a flight of stairs, but i was panting a little when i tried to climb up quickly! Had a pretty fun time taking pictures in a tibetan costume, fur cap and fur wrap and a mao2niu2 i.e. yak.

Had a lunch break where I talked to other ppl on the bus, and got them excited that i am a girl travelling alone and i am from malaysia i.e. a foreigner and how i spoke chinese well (a common misconception in remote parts of china: only mainland chinese speak chinese well! so i am a miracle i.e. i can read and write chinese. haha wait till they know the whole m'sian n sg chinese can read and write chinese!) anyway due to this being the offpeak season we skipped the entrance ticket (50yuan) and went to another side of the lake paying 20yuan... qinghaihu an unbroken sheet of ice, vast and white :):)

The downside is that you can't take a boat ride to the middle of the lake (it's frozen!) but i didnt mind, i was just walking on ice and taking random shots here and there and they kept requesting to take pictures with me (faints haha). And what can you do on a frozen lake- walk, run, sit on a chair-like thing and skate around the lake with two sticks, take pictures with the cute little girl, horse riding on ice and the surrounding :):) i think this is my first time on a horse, it was so rocky to me!

Thereafter arrived at ShaShan, literally sand hill, an area that was previously green pastures but due to overgrazing became the desert today. Desertification! Reminds me of geography. Anyway my first time seeing what a desert is like! The lines were so clean it was just sand and random shrubs and the sky and it was notoriously difficult to climb up the sand hills- they weren't really hills but it's hard to walk on sand, purely sand and very fine sand and it's hard to do so at a 3000+m above sealevel altitude! I liked this picture 'cause it looks like some postcard- it's as though i photoshop-ed myself onto the middle of the road lol.

We passed by meadows as well. They were many yaks and sheep! Yak meat and mutton are the main sources of meat in this region, you get to eat yak meat and mutton everywhere here, much commoner than chicken or pork. The landscape looked dry and yellow/brown now but in summer they will turn a rich, deep green.

En route we also stopped by monuments commerating some atomic/nuclear bomb facility that was set up here (FAINTS) how could they set up something as nasty as that here. And another oddity noted was an extremely new town that sprang up in the middle of these grasslands - the chinese government actually relocated ppl from god-knows-where to here!

When i got back to xining it was already about 6+ in the evening and i rushe to the train station to buy a xining-chengdu train ticket that departs tomorrow (thursday) so that i can meet dith in chengdu on friday.

Incidentally i had to pee really badly when i was at the train station (boohoo!) so i made run for the public toilet - i was so shocked! (for those who don't know i am extremely well used to not using public toilets and especially in china i really only use the toilet twice a day: before and after i leave where i am staying!) The toilet was, well, GRIM and it's just an open area uhh how do i describe this? A line of knee-high wall with holes in between, that's one 'cubicle' and the 'toilet' is one continuous LONGKANG so it's as though you are pee-ing on a roadside longkang. There is no flush but there is a continuous water stream at the beginning. Oh boy. I was stunned for a second wondering how this TOILET works but being really urgent i didnt think twice just pulled down my jeans and used the toilet. haha. Felt so weird 'cause whoever's in the toilet can see your butt 'cause there's NO DOORS!

Anyway haha enough about the toilet i ran away as fast as i could when i was done. And here's a shot of the cute little dog at the hostel that I was staying in xining - Ice Traveller Hostel, only 15yuan (S$3) per night with free internet access! Did i mention that i met a very nice bus driver, both days i happened to board her bus and she dropped my off right in front of my hostel instead of the bus stop! :):)

***

spitzberg: haha it gets crazier! :):)

ong: hahaha you make me laugh like mad FEARFUL? no worries i am back safely in one piece!

***

if hangzhou was crazy this is -

2008-04-02T20:06:00.023+08:00

not sure if this reaches out but i'm wishing everdearest shili happy belated birthday! sorry girl i'm late i just got back from crazy china ;p;p
and also a happ birthday to mr. khor han boon!

After the impulsive hangzhou/shanghai trip i was back in hk on a tuesday afternoon after a horrible flight delay. On thursday evening i was randomly surfing the net to prepare for my tibet trip and i ACCIDENTALLY BOUGHT an airticket to LANZHOU on friday (read: i have to leave within 12hours time) i couldnt believe myself!

i missed my flight and was stranded in guangzhou for three days. will tell this short story another time haha.

Finally on monday morning i boarded my hainan airlines HU7406 GZ-LZ flight and it was the most amazing flight i ever had. Maybe i never noticed but i definitely never had this view in my life- amazing mountain ranges and snow capped peaks and clouds and incredibly blue skies-

I arrived in lanzhou knowing that my tibet trip is cancelled for sure because they stopped trains and flights into tibet. not knowing what to do in lanzhou i went to the train station and bought tickets to XINING, 3h and 33yuan away from lanzhou. ate the famous lanzhou beef noodles before i left and arrived in xining about 8pm already pitch black at night.

XINING is in the eastern part of the QINGHAI province, also the eastern edge of the qinghai-tibet plateau. it was one of the common passing points of the silk road, and also the common entry point of the tibetan road/railway. maybe more than 20 ethnicities living there, including han, hui, tibetan and tu.

The next morning i took a public bus (1h and 5yuan) to TA'ERSI, one of the six largest tibetan monasteries in the gelugpa (yellow hat) sect of tibetan buddhism. the monastery is dotted with temples and halls and pagodas and pillars. the entrance of the monastery is dotted by 8 white pagodas/stupas.

Ta'ersi is also famous for three tibetan buddhism artforms: wooden frescoes i.e. intricate wood carvings, tangka i.e. very fine embroidery that is already a lost artform, there are 18 portraits of the 18luohans in ta'ersi and yak butter sculpture i.e. the monks will sculpt very fine flowers and everything else with bare hands in winter with the hot yak butter, so most of the monks will have arthritis during winter... you can't see all these here because photography is not allowed within the halls.

There is a sizable monk population, who goes around daily life in the neighbouring huongzhong town like you and i. I saw them buying vegetables, taking a motorbike ride etc. But a US guy remarked that the monk population seems smaller than maybe a few years ago, due to the recent unrest in tibet, they are apparently being monitored.

You can hire a tour guide for 60yuan to tell you the history of ta'ersi and also guide you around because it is a rather vast complex but i didnt want to spend the money. Later on i couldnt stand not really knowing what i was seeing so i walked up to these two guys who had a guide and said 'I dont have a tour guide can i join you guys' and just followed around haha :):)

A tibetan lady very kindly told me to turn all the prayer wheels (cylinders) anti-clockwise for good luck and everything. There are many prayer wheels around the monastery and the devout tibetan people turn them all while chanting at the same time. Also there are very devout people who do the full body prostration- they will do TEN THOUSAND FULL BODY prostration, and there are old ladies and also a man who was wearing sleeveless (it is maybe 7degrees only in the morning and -7degrees at night now?) i was just amazed and moved by their belief, so pure it is. didnt take photos because i felt it was rude to do so.

In the afternoon i visited BEISHANSI, initially a buddhist temple carved out of the hills, but due to neglect and maybe mismanagement, it is now a weird taoist complex of sorts, and very much in ruins.

Thereafter i went around the town center to experience a little of local life like. The town center of xining is known as DASHIZI, literally the big crossroad! It is actually pretty modern, with shops and shopping centers lining the road. Go further into little streets and alleys and you find MOJIAJIE which is actually like a market street as well as a night market, it has incredible food stalls lining the streets! The other being SHUIJINGXIANG, also dotted with local food. Anyway along the way i saw-

primary school kids buying little baby chicks! 2yuan each and will die within a few weeks. faints.

stunned. this drove me speechless for a while. a boxful of dazzling colourful chicks.

The local people like barbecued squid a lot. Only 0.50yuan per stick! The lady is pouring chilli flakes on them. When you buy things in xining, usually you'll be asked 'do you want LAZI (ie chilli la4zi)' and to someone like me who thrives on chilli, i give their level of spiciness an A: it is actually quite spicy, just to my liking!

Did i mention the food in xining is very affordable and also of an amazing variety? There is a dominant hui food, i.e. qingzhen i.e. chinese muslim food. nice and interesting. I will actually do a food post another time, but i will post this here for fun. I bought this bagful of mini cakes for how many yuan? Make a guess, answers next post! :):)

***

spitzberg: hahaha yeah half a month in china was not bad for me didnt get robbed/fall sick/get stomachache etc. and ohh no to mum part haha i couldnt let her know she will go crazy! my trip was so crazy haha. and actually i dont ALWAYS go china i only went china TWICE but i stayed long the second time... hope everything's gg well for you do talk to me about it!

ong: heyyyyy! hahaha yes i finally updated yeah! decided i cannot not share this crazy trip of mine! and anyway there are places i went to n things i see that made me feel like i experienced something else haha me gibberish. anyway i am not that brave laa but everyone thinks so? haha :):) and your train is way too ex! and of course yes i would love to have u guys over here cant wait till u all come! and i will continue updating check back now n then when u r bored studying lol :):) the ice part will be next!

irene: you dropped by! hehe don't have to envy me my life is not that happening ALL THE TIME just a little crazy sometimes haha. but you'll be gg travelling real soon too bet it'll be really good!

***

ok and now i have to go back to do my presentation slides- after i got back from a half-month hiatus i had a test yesterday, a test today, a presentation next week, an assignment next week, an oral test two weeks later, a report two weeks later etc. whoa.

but i will watch liverpool v arsenal tonight haha :):)
happy because man utd is great now. yeah red! i miss watching football with you!

overdue: hangzhou and a little bit of shanghai

2008-03-31T17:13:00.026+08:00

07/03/08 - 11/03/08

i spent a whole lot of march planning for a tibet trip during my easter break but of course that wasnt meant to be due to the protests and tibet is closed to tourists.

also i had been contemplating going to shanghai/hangzhou ever since and i suddenly had an air ticket from ju*n so i had to leave immediately to hangzhou...?

packed my bag hastily at 320pm and left for shenzhen, reached shenzhen train station at about 4pm. took a fast train to guangzhou- i'm surprised it's rather modern, travels at top speed of 190km! reached guangzhou about 520pm, panicked because there's so many people buying tickets and i MUST catch a 6+pm train as tickets for the next day and day after etc were all SOLD OUT- but thank goodness i got my ticket just right on time! had to run to board the train, trains in china are very on time (but can also be extremely late!?)

sleeper train to shanghai at 308yuan, three beds per side, about 20 sides per cabin, with seats next to the window- not bad! (on retrospect this applies only of course to the relatively higher standards big cities' trains with sleeper seats!)

i got off at jinhua, a town in zhejiang, i have no idea what is that town, but many trains pass by en route to hangzhou. i had a NO-SEAT ticket i.e. you stand throughout the train journey! uhhhhh crazy experience. the train was one hour late and the journey was delayed for another hour, it stops in the middle of nowhere suddenly and resumes suddenly. i was standing between doorways and it was extremely crowded and- people walk past and spit right next to me (WTH!#$%@^) and the train stinks A LOT (imagine mixture of spit, orange peel, weird instant noodles, trash etc)

i stood there hugging my luggage and dear life for about 2.5h and arrived in hangzhou, rainy and cold and the hostel tt i wanted to stay at is full (!) haha panicked a little and asked for recommendations for another accomodation, took a bus there and couldnt find it but found another place to stay! :):)

the people from the hostel xiaoxiao and xuexue :):) brought me out in the evening, a kinda restored chinese old town. (on retrospect maybe every city in china has a "chinese ancient street"! haha) pretty interesting for a first-timer in china, though it's tourist-y to me.

a man carving plates on the streets, and many other streetware... and also traditional chinese medicine halls in there, apparently established for a hundred over years, they give out free tea.

liu4he2ta3 a pagoda overlooking a qiantangjiang river in hangzhou

pavillions dot the xihu

xihu is a very large and scenic lake, it's bisected into two by a long bridge named after sudongpo, the famous poet. crowded with people on the weekend that i went!

you can take a boat to two mini islands in the middle of the lake :):)

pretty flowers blooming :):)

sunset view of westlake, hangzhou

the famous westlake hangzhou xihu. pretty scenic. but a little under my expectations- i'm not sure what i was expecting, but xihu is way too commercialized for my liking. it is also overwhelmingly crowded with chinese tourists, due to its proximity with shanghai! and also too much of a park- i just don't know how to appreciate it that much compared to say a beach or a mountain. hehe.

the pretty cosy small little hostel that i was staying at. starlight youth hostel, 45yuan per night for a bunk bed with very friendly people :):) xiaoxiao and xuexue who brought me around and also gave me free breakfast and lunch!and cute little dogs that slept on the table. i fed them milk for breakfast hehe :):)

finale: the xihu musical fountain at night! quite pretty. they had a few shows per night, some has a chinese music background i.e. the liangshanbo zhuyingtai song, and also random music. one of the larger fountains that i've seen in my life (i didnt see the largest one, it's in the big goose pagoda in xian!)

back from hiatus :):)

2008-03-31T00:40:00.010+08:00

hey i'm finally back in hk as of today after wandering around china since 14 march. updates soon maybe but i am so tired now! hehe :):)

overdue: macau unintentional craziness

2008-03-02T01:14:00.023+08:00

the ubiquitous portuguese eggtarts :):) they taste ever soo good! i probably had four of em in my 2D1N macau trip from various different shops. macau is a small charming place with lotsa charming food. take the eggtarts, various pastries, almond cookies made from scratch, some egg waffle pieces, porkchop bun, chinese dessert and the list goes on :):)

we had dinner at a quaint little portuguese restaurant. we had no destination so i asked the bus driver for suggestion and he droped us off somewhere. we had no reservation but luck was on our side so we had a table for an hour and half :):) i have no idea about portuguese cuisine but the african chicken, garlic clams and seafood paella were excellent with sangria! :):)

four of us reached macau in the evening on a saturday right before CNY. so you see the little lanterns on the main square and also cutesy mousey figures for this year. we walked around took some pictures had dinner and headed to the venetian-

i didnt take much pictures of the casino but it wasnt what i've expected. i've never been to a casino (yes i've never been to genting casino!) and i thought casinos were grand and difficult to comprehend but it feels simple and well, nice but not GRAND haha :):) tried one hand at gambling, picked the easiest one something like betting big/small and won and stopped. beginner's luck!

i thought this wall painting was pretty apt for my casino night in macau :):) we visited venetian, MGM and sands, and venetian is better than mgm better than sands. mgm has a nice bar though with an excellent liveband that night and also excellent service from the staff who thought i was korean. haha :):)

the next morning we did a heritage trail of macau. macau is nice and navigable on foot. this is a ah-ma temple it house many deities buddhist taoist and also a seafaring god/goddess maybe?

the weather was so cold last night but today the skies were blue and sunny and we were happy :):)

if my memory doesnt fail me this is some marine office in macau. i can say that almost half of the 'heritage' buildings we visited had this shade of yellow paint. st joseph. st john. soon we couldnt differentiate what we visited it's all so similar! haha i dont know maybe the portuguese liked yellow.

cute! they were shivering though!

the main square and also sort of center of macau i guess. many shops span out from the square selling almost anything that you want to buy, uncannily similar to hk!

the st paul ruins, icon of macau, perched some distance from the square. thronged with tourists. and for the beijing olympics you see the series of beijing dolls lined up along st pauls.

and more ruins i reckon some fortress and some canons and it leads to the museum. which marks the end of our heritage trail! we walked from nine till about four i think, with food stops, picture stops, lunch break, enjoy the scenery breaks etc. good way to see macau!

actually i had a pretty crazy and whacky macau trip due to our itinerary but right now it feels so charming and scenic i am amazed! but i truly enjoyed macau :):)

02/02/08 - 03/02/08

a little more about -

2008-03-01T23:57:00.015+08:00

i just want to post a little more about my FIRST and LAST hk marathon ever! still find it unbelievable for myself. official marathon results were out a few days after the marathon as well as pictures from the marathon photos website. also i got pictures from a fellow runner thanks kyl*e for the pictures :):)

TST starting point. crowded with people! it was kinda cute as they actually counted down to the start of the run! ie shouted ...FIVE.FOUR.THREE.TWO.ONE. i found it funny really haha but i joined in the last three counts. and started walking. haha.

running mostly on highways and bridges and tunnels. and skies are grey, or so to me. but weather was not bad really.

spot the white jacket and red shorts runner :):)

the sharks! in sg i saw spiderman and i cant remember what else, sharks here! they were actually anti-sharkfin - good cause. and they were nice and cheerful ppl cheered me on at one part of the dreadful tunnel :):)

shot at various points of the marathon. you can see me walking oblivious to the world in that picture haha :):) i wasnt joking when i told you i was going crazy later part of the marathon.

youie, alibabasan, mortal chuan, jojo, pok, teddy, ong, pang:

haha i think it is a crazy run too and i dont think i can ever do it again! haha no more marathons man. and gloves are funny i know maybe i'm the only one wearing it haha but it's great it keeps me warm and looks kinda pro! same gloves from back then during gym training good stuff! \

i miss you all too!:):)

hong kong standard chartered marathon!

2008-02-18T21:17:00.009+08:00

17/02/08

the hong kong standard chartered marathon!
starts 7:45am.
the sg marathon starts at a crazy 5:45am! haha:):)

actually this marathon wasnt easy for me at all.
the weather is too cold for me (13degrees)
the route is a complete stranger
i gotta do it totally alone
i didnt train much really

part of me wondered if i can finish it
but part of me kinda know that i MUST finish it coz it's not my first marathon!

ok some marathon logistics
(which will be boring u can skip this chunk!)

---
i actually started a lil fast i tnk
i passed 10km under 1h
and 20km under 2h
omgomg!
haha and i was feeling kinda good and then.

by 25km i wanted to die coz fatigue set in.
i tot i was gonna be DEAD coz it's only 25km and i juz felt like i couldnt run anymore.
my feet and knees started to hurt
the first tunnel was to me enclosed n stuffy it didnt feel so good n i had to run e tunnel twice.
and 25-33km i walked so much i tot i wasnt gonna make it.

i used e same strategy as last year:
pok n teddy: e run till drinks station, drink, walk, rested, run till next drinks station :):)
i drank one cup of isotone at every station.
i ate bananas each time i saw it so maybe 6x!
i saw chocolate but didnt eat it.

actually a lot of wat drove me to finish the run was thinking abt phoenix stuff-
some parts of it i actually had "lai ah" echoing haha:):)
and also how to endure n push forward :):)
without those phoenix days, i can say definitely, i wouldnt have made this marathon!

and also thought about soo, hyoji*n, jan*g, juk*i coz i asked them for lunch after the marathon so i must finish somehow!

and also i dunno why in sg marathon there were quite a lot of ppl walking here everyone's running! so yeah a lil peer pressure to run.

somehow about 33km-36km i managed to run
and felt really good running the tunnel linking kowloon to hk island :):)
but the route on hk island onwards is BAD, to me-
there were so many upslopes i walked thru most of em
i finally decided to chiong up a slope at abt 39km
and kinda pulled my hamstring thereafter
FAINTS
so i walked till abt 40+km
and chionged the last 2+km
but i felt so bad i actually almost cried!
haha silly me :):)
but the crowd at e last part was pretty encouraging so i ran the last part crazily!
---

from topleft:
me about to deposit my baggage abt 7:15am at tsimtsatsui.
me totally shagged out right after the run.
my tag number!
me revived a lil after banana, chocolate n pocari sweat.

happy at the finishing line!
thank you many many to juk*i, jan*g, soo and hyoji*n who came!
i am really happy to see you all after my crazy run :):)

ok to cut a long story short
i am really happy about this marathon now
my timing:
4:36:35

not bad at all yeah!

pre.marathon

2008-02-18T14:45:00.015+08:00

16/02/07

a day before THE marathon!
weirdly this is my 3rd marathon alrdy.
and my 2nd marathon was just about two months ago.

*crazy*

today is also race pack collection day.
the race pack collection is at victoria park causeway bay 10-12 noon.
it is much better than in sg i didnt even have to queue OR wait!

open air race pack collection - what if it rains? :):)

where i have to cross tomorrow-
i stared at it for so so long

my race pack! the sg race tee is much better!

the standard chartered marathon. nairobi.sg.mumbai.hk.
and i actually am going to complete two out of four!
*madness*
the banner for race pack collection.
a corner building plastered with marathon signs.

after collecting the race pack i wandered around causeway bay
and actually spent the whole day shopping and eating ard mongkok till abt 11pm.

firstly ate a nice aftnoon tea of chicken wings, eggtart and iced chocolate at a cha2can1ting1.
then shopped around tai4zi4 and bought a shirt, a cropped jacket, stockings.
i tnk u will laugh but i wear stockings sometimes coz it's cold :):)
incidentally i dont wear plain black stockings but checkered black stockings. go figure. lol.

and i bought new nike socks for running tmr.
last marathon i ran with frivolous socks n burst 3 blisters.
i tnk pok remembers :):)

and a haircut!
last year the day before the marathon i had a haircut too!
with youie waiting for me at marina square. haha :):)
seems like a weird habit, a haircut before a marathon.

omgomg.
i went to bed at about 12:30am feeling guilty.
coz i am supposed to eat healthy n rest early today!

overdue: .F.I.R.S.T.

2008-02-13T15:28:00.016+08:00

my intended first post!
03/01/08

a ridiculously early flight out from sg to hk.
i think i checked in at 545am. faints.

thank you many many to you who came to see me off! i am really really touched.
i dont think i can say it enough but i was really touched that you came to the airport.
:):)

and of course my family but sans my little sis. sleeping at home hehe.
somehow i dont have any pictures of my little sis except for this funny shot. haha. i think she will flip if she knows that i post this here. maybe not. haha.

hope everyone is having a good new year. my life is not bad so far, tho if it's warmer it'll be rather perfect :):)

chinese new year & philippines!

2008-02-13T01:41:00.002+08:00

05/02/08 - 10/02/08

happy chinese new year!

haha tho i am a little late. my classes start tomorrow!

this is my first cny away from home.
alona beach, panglao, bohol, philippines!
together with da and dith.
haha i think this is one of the craziest trip ever and i really miss the sun, sea and sand!

philippines: 30 degrees
hong kong: 11 degrees

anyway some pictures!

dith and i quite stranded at the cebu domestic airport; da and dith at the supercat ferry terminal in cebu.

due to inexplicable reasons we took a whacky route for our vacation.
hongkong to macau by ferry - macau to manila by flight - manila to cebu by flight - cebu to tagbilaran (bohol) by ferry - tagbilaran to alona beach (panglao) by tricycle

omg haha.

the ferry in philippines from cebu to bohol; the ferry terminal at tagbilaran, bohol.

it costs about 400pesos one-way (400php = 80hkd = 16sgd) but it's cheaper round trip but we didnt take that due to time constraints so we took ferries from two different companies, supercat and weesam.

but it is all worth it coz it was so beautiful!
the waters are of shades of pretty blue and the sky is blue (i had weeks of grey skies in hk!)
and it is hot and sunny and there is sand and beach. heart.

anyway i know i have lots more to post but i think that is all for now haha.

random sketch of my akan datang posts:

- sunrise and sunset and what we did on alona beach
- my macau trip (i've actually been in macau twice/thrice already! before and after cny)
- a check out of the just-for-cny flower market at causeway bay
- the crazy cuhk campus (think slopes and slopes and slopes!)
- a day trip to outlying islands po toi and lamma island
- some night scenes of tsimtsatsui/central
- the tourist-y places e.g. avenue of stars stanley etc
- my supposed FIRST post departure from changi!

actually i really wanna post that first post because even tho i didnt have a chance, i was really really touched that you came to send me off so ridiculously early in the morning and also all the well wishes that i received.

ok anyway happy chinese new year again!
good luck for the year and uhh big money and good health!
:) :)

lokshintong

2008-01-13T23:06:00.001+08:00

12/01 (sat) - 13/01 (sun)

i cannot resist not sharing these photos! :):)
haha hence my first blog post in hk is rather unconventional.

***

my roomie emil*y studies social work and she has an anti-family violence event for a lokshintong primary school near lok fu/wong tai sin, kowloon. i happily tagged along for two days as a volunteer for a primary 5A class :):)