sunday (11/12)
dat morning we visited one more place b4 arriving at the guangdong district. it was a hilltop temple-like area wif all sorts of brass(?) urns n such. there was also a great bell dat we can strike (for a fee). my dad took a video of me striking the bell but sumhow the vid was deleted :( anyway after dat we reached guangdong n checked into the hotel (darn, forgot the name d). then we all split up to wander beijing street, the busy street rite outside the hotel. since it was sunday, the number of ppl on the street was staggering....its like a sea of heads when u look at the street from a higher vantage point...we had to literally push our way thru the street most of the time. so anyway we spent the whole afternoon browsing around the shopping places in the area which included shops, bazaars n shopping complexes...that road alone wud hv satisfied the craziest shopper i think. dat nite we took a taxi to another part of the town for a latin-style bbq buffet. there was even sushi n sashimi offered! n the waiters carried around long skewers wif meat on them n will cut u a slice on ur plate when requested. very satisfying meal it was :P
monday (12/12)
nothing much to say bout this day cuz i practically juz spent the whole day walking around the streets. i think dat was the longest period of shopping i ever did in my life....n got quite a bit of stuff to show for it too. failed to find martial arts equipment tho. there was only one shop selling kicking pads n other stuff n they were too low quality. oso tried a lot of different food throughout the day including a type of desert called shuang pi nai (double-layered milk..?) n the super-spicy hunan roast duck.
tuesday (13/12)
around midday a bus came for us n drove us to the airport n we departed from china without incident....reached penang around 10.30pm. so endeth the china trip 2005. *sigh of relief*
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Monday, December 26, 2005
A Long-overdue Holiday Journal...part 2
thursday (8/12)
early morning we set out for kunming airport. it was a looong car drive n i was green in the face most of the trip cuz there was no toilet along the road :P but anyway we reached the airport n boarded the plane without much incident, n sed goodbye to our kind yunnan hosts. we then flew to guilin for the 2nd 'part' of our trip. oh, n i managed to get my wooden taichi sword thru the customs this time! it had to be packaged up (rather awkwardly i mite add) at the airport packing counter tho...anyway at guilin we were greeted by our appointed tour guide, one xiao yuan (xiao = small, not crazy) who took us to the waiting tour bus n off we went for lunch at a restaurant in the town of guilin. a sad note: i forgot to bring along the bead circlet presented to me by one of the company ppl in yunnan..left in in the hotel room back there :( anyway, at the restaurant in guilin we got to eat more familiar food...more like wat we had back in penang, that is. that afternoon xiao yuan took us to see 3 places...a lake wif a glass bridge spanning it at one point, a small rocky mountain wif a cave forming an arch dat looked like an elephant trunk n sum historical mountain wif caves (its all mountains n caves in guilin :P) not to say i din enjoy the sights but u noe how bad i m wif names :P dat evening we checked into our 4th hotel so far (every nite we hv been changing hotels) then went out to visit the bazaar in the neighbouring street. bought a bunch of trinkets there. n man was it cold dat nite! apparently it wasnt usually that cold in guilin tho...
friday (9/12)
woke up early to catch a ship sailing on lijiang. not li4 jiang1 tho, its li2 jiang1, a river in guilin. the mountains along the river were in all sorts of weird shapes n almost all of them hv sum special name (cant remember any tho :P) spent the morning on the ship snapping pics till my mom's digicam ran out of battery. there was a ship photographer who offered to take 15 'professional' pics for 150rmb...the sucker....dunno y so many ppl took that up...after disembarking we had lunch n then wandered the streets. later in the evening we visited the 'silver caves'...the most colorful cave i've seen so far, n the rocks inside had all sorts of weird shapes (one was like a phallus....serious!) now i relly regret depleting the digicam's battery cuz i cudve taken a lot of great pics inside. at nite after dinner there was a 'cultural performance' at the hotel we were staying...n me, my bro n my sis all participated in their 'mariage ceremony' n got 'married'...the catch? we had to pay 50 rmb each for a 'present for the bride/bridegroom' during the gift-exchanging ceremony -_-"
saturday (10/12)
there's been a lot of long car rides in china but this one takes the prize. we sat in the bus from 9am to 7.30pm! well, not entirely lah, there was still lunchtime n toilettime...hehe....anyway, on the bus my whole family got hooked on a cantonese drama about a couple who got married on a luxury cruiser but broke up cuz the woman had a streak of 3-years' bad luck :P its a romantic comedy actually. anyway we arrived at a town sumwhere near guangzhou dat nite (its near guangzhou becuz the ppl were now speaking cantonese). we spent the whole nite browsing around the streets n i checked out a cc there but it super-sucked...none of the games we noe over here (all chinese games) n cant access many international websites...so i left it after half n hr. luckily dat only cost me 1 rmb :P
early morning we set out for kunming airport. it was a looong car drive n i was green in the face most of the trip cuz there was no toilet along the road :P but anyway we reached the airport n boarded the plane without much incident, n sed goodbye to our kind yunnan hosts. we then flew to guilin for the 2nd 'part' of our trip. oh, n i managed to get my wooden taichi sword thru the customs this time! it had to be packaged up (rather awkwardly i mite add) at the airport packing counter tho...anyway at guilin we were greeted by our appointed tour guide, one xiao yuan (xiao = small, not crazy) who took us to the waiting tour bus n off we went for lunch at a restaurant in the town of guilin. a sad note: i forgot to bring along the bead circlet presented to me by one of the company ppl in yunnan..left in in the hotel room back there :( anyway, at the restaurant in guilin we got to eat more familiar food...more like wat we had back in penang, that is. that afternoon xiao yuan took us to see 3 places...a lake wif a glass bridge spanning it at one point, a small rocky mountain wif a cave forming an arch dat looked like an elephant trunk n sum historical mountain wif caves (its all mountains n caves in guilin :P) not to say i din enjoy the sights but u noe how bad i m wif names :P dat evening we checked into our 4th hotel so far (every nite we hv been changing hotels) then went out to visit the bazaar in the neighbouring street. bought a bunch of trinkets there. n man was it cold dat nite! apparently it wasnt usually that cold in guilin tho...
friday (9/12)
woke up early to catch a ship sailing on lijiang. not li4 jiang1 tho, its li2 jiang1, a river in guilin. the mountains along the river were in all sorts of weird shapes n almost all of them hv sum special name (cant remember any tho :P) spent the morning on the ship snapping pics till my mom's digicam ran out of battery. there was a ship photographer who offered to take 15 'professional' pics for 150rmb...the sucker....dunno y so many ppl took that up...after disembarking we had lunch n then wandered the streets. later in the evening we visited the 'silver caves'...the most colorful cave i've seen so far, n the rocks inside had all sorts of weird shapes (one was like a phallus....serious!) now i relly regret depleting the digicam's battery cuz i cudve taken a lot of great pics inside. at nite after dinner there was a 'cultural performance' at the hotel we were staying...n me, my bro n my sis all participated in their 'mariage ceremony' n got 'married'...the catch? we had to pay 50 rmb each for a 'present for the bride/bridegroom' during the gift-exchanging ceremony -_-"
saturday (10/12)
there's been a lot of long car rides in china but this one takes the prize. we sat in the bus from 9am to 7.30pm! well, not entirely lah, there was still lunchtime n toilettime...hehe....anyway, on the bus my whole family got hooked on a cantonese drama about a couple who got married on a luxury cruiser but broke up cuz the woman had a streak of 3-years' bad luck :P its a romantic comedy actually. anyway we arrived at a town sumwhere near guangzhou dat nite (its near guangzhou becuz the ppl were now speaking cantonese). we spent the whole nite browsing around the streets n i checked out a cc there but it super-sucked...none of the games we noe over here (all chinese games) n cant access many international websites...so i left it after half n hr. luckily dat only cost me 1 rmb :P
Sunday, December 25, 2005
A Long-overdue Holiday Journal...part 1
sigh..i guess i had to get down to this sooner or later....wat better time to do this then when i'm sick at home n unable to go out? anyway, for the uninformed, the ravenlord went on a trip to china wif his parents sum time (2 weeks n 6 days to be exact :P) ago n has now decided to share his experiences wif his faithful followers. heh.
the trip was from 5th to 13th of dec...dats a total of 9 days. phew...dats the longest i've ever been away from home...n certainly the longest holiday i ever had b4. i guess it has sumting to do wif d fact dat next year onwards it'll b pretty hard for my whole family to go on vacation together since me n my sis will both b going to university. so anyway....
monday (5/12)
my abs hurt!!! went for my 1st tkd class in 3 months yesterday n ms looi put us all thru a super-intensive physical training routine as a 'welcome-back'...as a result my whole body was aching when i woke up on monday EARLY morning (around 5.30am...thats damn early for me k..) n my abs kena the most. went to airport, checked in, boarded the plane. we took thai airline so dat meant a stop in bangkok. (hehehh ;p) fast forward to late afternoon: we arrived in kunming of yunnan, china. ppl from the 'host' company welcomed us wif bouquets of flowers -_-" later that evening saw us visiting the streets of kunming n i went to a mcd n bought their 'special'...sumting they dun hv in malaysian mcd outlets...sum sort of triangular pastry stuffed wif slices of spiced beef...not bad at all! kunming was less hazy than during my 1st visit 2 years ago...n i actually saw dogs on the street...most of them short-legged, furry furry types (i was under the impression there were no dogs in china's cities..due to the cold weather n the chinese's appetite for dog meat...) another thing about china is dat their car engines seem to be a lot less noisy but the pedestrians talk a LOT louder. n their cars come in all sorts of sizes n shapes...like the 3-wheeled trishaw-like thingy dat runs on electric motor. dat nite we went to sum restaurant dat specializes in fungus...yeah, mushrooms n stuff...n had a 'fungus steamboat' (it sounded a lot better in chinese k..) the night was cold. end of day one...
tuesday (6/12)
morning we visited a lake where there were hordes of migratory birds...it was cool seeing the way the snatched the bread we threw at them rite out of the air...n some of them came close enuf to grab the bread out of out hands. then it was basically one long car ride to the town of 'ge jiu'. lunch was at the hotel there n it was huge....i counted around 12 main dishes n 3 or 4 side dishes...by the time i sampled everything i was full...n basically that was how i ate for the next 2 days...cuz the hosts treated us like kings n every meal was a feast :P (i put on 4kg at the end of the 3rd day...!) we got to stay in the presidential suite cuz the hotel is owned by the company my dad's dealing wif..n man, was it big...living room, 2 bedrooms, a study wif a bookcase of all the major chinese classics, n jacuzzi bathroom. dat nite we ventured out into the 4-degree celsius night air for a walk by the lake of ge jiu (the town was basically built around the lake). my nose n ears actually became numb :P later we visited a sort of hawker center where they sell skewered roast meat. among the 'delicacies' found there were dragonfly skewers...unfortunately we were all too full from dinner to try that out...hehe....
wed (7/12)
changed my tshirt for the 1st time since arriving in china :P its not as disgusting as one mite think cuz wif all the cold, i havent sweat in these 3 days at all...anyway, we went to visit the company's pewter factory n tin mine. i felt like papparazzi, snapping pics everywhere wif my mom's new digicam :P the roads in that area were ultra bumpy n i nearly cracked my head a few times when the van shot into the air after hitting sum one-foot-tall bump...dat afternoon we visited the pigeon caves. it was a guided tour n near the entrance of the cave there was a performance where a pigeon's nest collector climbed across the rocky wall without any safety equipment...very keng...tho i probably cud do dat if i had been doing it since young :P anyway i wun b describing the caves in any detail here (or any of the places i go to in the following places) cuz u relly hv 2 b there to see it for urself....China Trip 2006 anyone? dat nite after a long drive we stopped by a lake to hv a 'seafood' dinner. the rice was special wif chunks of potato n nuts inside (my mom learned how to make it after dat) n there was sum very nice wild veggies which were a welcome relief from the heavy meats we've been having these few days. but d most special of all were the 'drunken prawns'...LIVE prawns immersed in wine n spices..live as in still wriggling...dun ask me wat they were like tho cuz i only tried 3 of them n ate them wif lots of rice to cover the taste....:P there were also raw fish but its basically the same as the salmon we can get at sushi king so thats nothing new....
(to be continued...)
[edit: the way the caught the fish fresh out of the cages was rather...unsettling...1st they netted the fish n took them out of the water, then cracked their heads wif a block of wood. ah well, guess dats better than let the fish 'drown' in the air....]
the trip was from 5th to 13th of dec...dats a total of 9 days. phew...dats the longest i've ever been away from home...n certainly the longest holiday i ever had b4. i guess it has sumting to do wif d fact dat next year onwards it'll b pretty hard for my whole family to go on vacation together since me n my sis will both b going to university. so anyway....
monday (5/12)
my abs hurt!!! went for my 1st tkd class in 3 months yesterday n ms looi put us all thru a super-intensive physical training routine as a 'welcome-back'...as a result my whole body was aching when i woke up on monday EARLY morning (around 5.30am...thats damn early for me k..) n my abs kena the most. went to airport, checked in, boarded the plane. we took thai airline so dat meant a stop in bangkok. (hehehh ;p) fast forward to late afternoon: we arrived in kunming of yunnan, china. ppl from the 'host' company welcomed us wif bouquets of flowers -_-" later that evening saw us visiting the streets of kunming n i went to a mcd n bought their 'special'...sumting they dun hv in malaysian mcd outlets...sum sort of triangular pastry stuffed wif slices of spiced beef...not bad at all! kunming was less hazy than during my 1st visit 2 years ago...n i actually saw dogs on the street...most of them short-legged, furry furry types (i was under the impression there were no dogs in china's cities..due to the cold weather n the chinese's appetite for dog meat...) another thing about china is dat their car engines seem to be a lot less noisy but the pedestrians talk a LOT louder. n their cars come in all sorts of sizes n shapes...like the 3-wheeled trishaw-like thingy dat runs on electric motor. dat nite we went to sum restaurant dat specializes in fungus...yeah, mushrooms n stuff...n had a 'fungus steamboat' (it sounded a lot better in chinese k..) the night was cold. end of day one...
tuesday (6/12)
morning we visited a lake where there were hordes of migratory birds...it was cool seeing the way the snatched the bread we threw at them rite out of the air...n some of them came close enuf to grab the bread out of out hands. then it was basically one long car ride to the town of 'ge jiu'. lunch was at the hotel there n it was huge....i counted around 12 main dishes n 3 or 4 side dishes...by the time i sampled everything i was full...n basically that was how i ate for the next 2 days...cuz the hosts treated us like kings n every meal was a feast :P (i put on 4kg at the end of the 3rd day...!) we got to stay in the presidential suite cuz the hotel is owned by the company my dad's dealing wif..n man, was it big...living room, 2 bedrooms, a study wif a bookcase of all the major chinese classics, n jacuzzi bathroom. dat nite we ventured out into the 4-degree celsius night air for a walk by the lake of ge jiu (the town was basically built around the lake). my nose n ears actually became numb :P later we visited a sort of hawker center where they sell skewered roast meat. among the 'delicacies' found there were dragonfly skewers...unfortunately we were all too full from dinner to try that out...hehe....
wed (7/12)
changed my tshirt for the 1st time since arriving in china :P its not as disgusting as one mite think cuz wif all the cold, i havent sweat in these 3 days at all...anyway, we went to visit the company's pewter factory n tin mine. i felt like papparazzi, snapping pics everywhere wif my mom's new digicam :P the roads in that area were ultra bumpy n i nearly cracked my head a few times when the van shot into the air after hitting sum one-foot-tall bump...dat afternoon we visited the pigeon caves. it was a guided tour n near the entrance of the cave there was a performance where a pigeon's nest collector climbed across the rocky wall without any safety equipment...very keng...tho i probably cud do dat if i had been doing it since young :P anyway i wun b describing the caves in any detail here (or any of the places i go to in the following places) cuz u relly hv 2 b there to see it for urself....China Trip 2006 anyone? dat nite after a long drive we stopped by a lake to hv a 'seafood' dinner. the rice was special wif chunks of potato n nuts inside (my mom learned how to make it after dat) n there was sum very nice wild veggies which were a welcome relief from the heavy meats we've been having these few days. but d most special of all were the 'drunken prawns'...LIVE prawns immersed in wine n spices..live as in still wriggling...dun ask me wat they were like tho cuz i only tried 3 of them n ate them wif lots of rice to cover the taste....:P there were also raw fish but its basically the same as the salmon we can get at sushi king so thats nothing new....
(to be continued...)
[edit: the way the caught the fish fresh out of the cages was rather...unsettling...1st they netted the fish n took them out of the water, then cracked their heads wif a block of wood. ah well, guess dats better than let the fish 'drown' in the air....]
Saturday, December 03, 2005
shit shit shit
since stpm ended, time seemed to hv gone crazy for me...simultaneously flying past so swiftly that i cant catch a moment of it for myself, n dragging by so slowly that everything i do seem to be boring the wits out of me...wtf is happening???
this week, i spent a grand total of SIXTEEN (16) hrs in cybercafes. omg. monday n tuesday went to cc wif my class after practicing for the graduation dinner presentation, 4 n 5 hrs respectively. thursday went again wif my class for another 5 hrs. n yesterday, friday, i went again this time wif dan n the gang, to netcity for 2 hrs, juz to 'spend the time'. shit...
(wonder if its any consolation that i discovered both galaxy n netcity hv much better computers than evo....next time i better spend the time there playing the more advanced games like quake 4 or F.E.A.R. IF i do go again. haha....like there's any chance i wont....)
anyway, wednesday was a slightly more meaningful day as i started my day wif a bit of long-overdue exercise at the punching bag n swimming pool in psc. after dat i dropped by dan's hse to pick him up for breakfast n ended up waiting almost half n hr as he's at the barbers...seems like he turned into sum kind of neanderthal during his stay in australia. dan's mom forced a chicken pie on me which filled me up :P later, xinch drove the 2 of us (my car's backseat was totally filled by the organ which i had to drive to the graduation dinner) to a hawkers' center where everything was sold out so dan n i juz had drinks. after yakking away for an hr or so it was about lunchtime so we headed home.
that nite, our class presentation at the graduation dinner was a flop. truth be told, it was expected as each person probably had all of 30 minutes of practice from the 3 days of rehearsal. (compare that to the 15+ hrs of dota we played during those 3 days) tansri n yst's class, u6f2 had the best performance imo, cuz they staged an extremely hillarious sketch that made me n yong shen nearly fall off our seats. "susu segar susu segar its fresh and good!" yst shall henceforth be known as the roti man. the food wasnt bad but a bit too little for 10 hungry youths per table (although my table kurang 1 person so we had slightly more :P)
yesterday (friday) was the 1st time i spent almost the whole day out in a very long time. 1st there was tennis at psc from 8-9 wif my bro n dan, then we went home for breakfast n at chun chun 10am tansri came a-knocking the door (figuratively speaking). after picking up sam at greenlane mcdonald's we were off to the pc fair where we met up wif dan, ghee, xinch n june n spent the morning wandering around getting lost n waiting for each other n wasting our money on IT stuff dat we dun relly need to achieve a harmonious n balanced life ;P me myself bought a 512MB mmc card for my hp plus a card reader to go wif it, as well as 100 cdrs. total spending: 120+30+67 = RM217. sigh...another huge wad of cash gone...
after dat we went to one stop for lunch n a game of bowling where a spree of bad luck landed me 2nd last place :( then we wandered aimlessly around again until it was dinner time, then had dinner n yst n me went to register for japanese language classes at the penang japanese language society opposite pcghs. following that was 2 hrs of dota in which sze ming joined us for a game. end of day.
end of report (boy, its getting boring)
this week, i spent a grand total of SIXTEEN (16) hrs in cybercafes. omg. monday n tuesday went to cc wif my class after practicing for the graduation dinner presentation, 4 n 5 hrs respectively. thursday went again wif my class for another 5 hrs. n yesterday, friday, i went again this time wif dan n the gang, to netcity for 2 hrs, juz to 'spend the time'. shit...
(wonder if its any consolation that i discovered both galaxy n netcity hv much better computers than evo....next time i better spend the time there playing the more advanced games like quake 4 or F.E.A.R. IF i do go again. haha....like there's any chance i wont....)
anyway, wednesday was a slightly more meaningful day as i started my day wif a bit of long-overdue exercise at the punching bag n swimming pool in psc. after dat i dropped by dan's hse to pick him up for breakfast n ended up waiting almost half n hr as he's at the barbers...seems like he turned into sum kind of neanderthal during his stay in australia. dan's mom forced a chicken pie on me which filled me up :P later, xinch drove the 2 of us (my car's backseat was totally filled by the organ which i had to drive to the graduation dinner) to a hawkers' center where everything was sold out so dan n i juz had drinks. after yakking away for an hr or so it was about lunchtime so we headed home.
that nite, our class presentation at the graduation dinner was a flop. truth be told, it was expected as each person probably had all of 30 minutes of practice from the 3 days of rehearsal. (compare that to the 15+ hrs of dota we played during those 3 days) tansri n yst's class, u6f2 had the best performance imo, cuz they staged an extremely hillarious sketch that made me n yong shen nearly fall off our seats. "susu segar susu segar its fresh and good!" yst shall henceforth be known as the roti man. the food wasnt bad but a bit too little for 10 hungry youths per table (although my table kurang 1 person so we had slightly more :P)
yesterday (friday) was the 1st time i spent almost the whole day out in a very long time. 1st there was tennis at psc from 8-9 wif my bro n dan, then we went home for breakfast n at chun chun 10am tansri came a-knocking the door (figuratively speaking). after picking up sam at greenlane mcdonald's we were off to the pc fair where we met up wif dan, ghee, xinch n june n spent the morning wandering around getting lost n waiting for each other n wasting our money on IT stuff dat we dun relly need to achieve a harmonious n balanced life ;P me myself bought a 512MB mmc card for my hp plus a card reader to go wif it, as well as 100 cdrs. total spending: 120+30+67 = RM217. sigh...another huge wad of cash gone...
after dat we went to one stop for lunch n a game of bowling where a spree of bad luck landed me 2nd last place :( then we wandered aimlessly around again until it was dinner time, then had dinner n yst n me went to register for japanese language classes at the penang japanese language society opposite pcghs. following that was 2 hrs of dota in which sze ming joined us for a game. end of day.
end of report (boy, its getting boring)
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