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....]