This is My Life......

YueN at 6:23 AM

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Day 7: 14 dec 2007

All of us woke up early and were looking forward to the theme park. But before that we had the bestest breakfast we ever had for the past 7 days. It was indeed a 5* standard. There were croissants, bacons, French toast, sausages, salad bars… wow… Worrying that the thrills rides may unset our tummy, we ate only the minimum.

Inside the park, there were some rides that frightened my younger cousins, while there were some that were suited for all… like the bumper car… all of us, including my uncle and aunties came in and played with us… welll, all I can say is that everyone is a child at heart… haha.. I would say that the rides and the theme park isn’t as fantastic compared to genting… Nevertheless, it was the time we spent together as a family that matters…. While we were having so much fun.. I spotted 2 suspicious guys following us around… My gut feeling told me that they were pickpockets. Then I told my uncle and aunties about it and told them to look after their valuables. Then, my uncle did a clever job, he pretended to video cam us, but he was actually videoing the 2 suspicious men.. Then he said loudly to us to look after our valuables as there is lots of pickpocket around. This seemed to work as the 2 guys quickly left us alone… hahaha…

Due to our tied schedule, we had to check out of the hotel at 12noon, we actually overshot the time stipulated by 小刚. In the end we had to run back to the hotel and hand the hotel card key to the reception counter. My younger cousins complained that the time stipulated of them to play was way too short.. we didn’t managed to try out all the rides… but it was fun.

It was then another long bus ride from Guilin all the way back to Nanning. We slept throughout the 5 hr bus ride. We did pull over for our steamboat lunch.. and I also had my first take of dog meat.. it tasted like mutton but very tough.. I’m kinda surprise that I actually ate dog meat. They claimed that it’ll heat up our body, well I dun noe whether it’s the steamboat or the dog meat that made me feel warm after that… However, by that time, many of my cousins felt really sick and started to vomit…

The last tourist spot we went to was 冰川灵佛洞. We had took a little boat ride into the cave and saw different limestone that look like Buddha and myth figures. There was one that looked like breast.. and we took lots crappy pics with it…. Lol… M18…

U guys should noe these are.....>>>> Lime stones

limestones.

Day 8: 15 dec 2007

Final day of our tour…. It was indeed a enjoyable trip together with my relatives.. it was also a trip where I get to see the true image of my relatives.. some good; some bad…. Furthermore, I get to know 2 tip top tour guides, limin and小刚. The next time round if I get to go the China again… I’ll definitely get 2 of them as my tour guides…..

Li min, our spore tour guide...(with xuan xuan)

Good bye.. Nanning/Guangxi

on our way back home....

Singapore... here we come....

This whole vacation experience was a great chance for me to refresh my mind and recharge myself for the next challenging year ahead. The last time I went oversea (other than M’sia) was almost 5 yrs ago. After this trip, my next vacation spot will be either Hong Kong or Australia….

YueN at 11:57 PM

Friday, December 21, 2007

day5: 12 dec 2007

We check out of our hotel again.... and made our way to guilin. But first we stopped over at 伏波山, where we visited the 千人锅，the big bronze bell, stone carving of Buddha, and the scholar stone.

伏波山's entrance

For the 千人锅, it was believed that during war time , a person made such huge pot to feed the poor and the hungry. So to remember his good deed, this pot was kept... 小刚told us that by touching the pot one round, it will bring us good fortune... Since there were 27 of us, it simply made it impossible for to move round the pot together, but we made it... by squezzeeeee...

千人锅

桂林石刻

Then we entered 伏波山, it was freaking cold... All of us were shivering down to our bones as the wind blew into the cave from the 南湖. However, my relatives and I were determined to visit the scholar stone and the Buddha status. For the scholar stone, it was believed that if 2 person from the same family is able to stretch their hands into the small gap under the stone and touch each others hands, they will have a scholar in their family. Being kaisu Singaporeans, all of us rushed to that stone. When we were queuing for our turn, but ungraceful CHINESE cut our queue, i was so pissed off that i told them off... disgusting acts will not bring any scholar into their families. One lady simply stared back and me and I said: stare wat stare, digusting china ppl... dun noe how to queue... wat a disgust to your country.... hahaha... it was so shiok to see her turning red... haha...

Buddha's carvings

Inside the cave there were lots of Buddha carving which my uncle and aunties prayed too... I prayed too... hoping for the best for my family and myself.... When we were outside the cave, 小刚 reminded us that in China, we are no allowed to take photographs of and god and goddess status... oppssss.. me and my cousin had already took dozens of the unique status.. but then 小刚 said: 不智者无罪.

When we were leaving groups of beggars came to us for money. Some of them look really pitiful with no legs and there is one old man that had no eyes... 赤子之心... we gave them some money... but then 小刚 told us that some of the beggars are under some groups that purposely cut off their limbs to make us pity them.. But in the end, the money we gave them will only enter the pocket of those evil group leaders and not the poor beggars.

Our next destination was a factory selling silk products. They showed us how the obtain the silk from the cocoons and process them into pieces of blanket... Well, those silk blankets were freaking expensive.. cost RMB1400=S$280 each.. wow... Altogether, we bought 13 sets and my 2nd uncle bargained for more free gifts.. While we waited for my uncle to bargain, ppl start to notice my swelling eye.. then 小刚 told me that the traditional chinese believed that by using other ppl's needle to poke the swelling pus, it will heel faster.. but then he told me not to do it as the needle here isnt very clean... Well from his little acts, i realised that 小刚 is pretty observant, 细心 and very concern toward his group members. This truly, made him a 5-star tour guide...

The life cycle of silk worm

Our 5* tour guide, 小刚

The tub to process the cocoons.

We had 米粉宴 for lunch that day... a local delicacy for guilin.. Their bee hoon is quite similar to our thick bee hoon, but "Q"er.... They also served us fruit wine to warm up our body... as the weather was way too cold (only 8 degree during noon time).... we took a sip and the burning sensation was felt immediately.. then we realised that the wine had 30% alcohol.. my younger cousin mixed the wine with 7-up which made it taste a little better...

We then went to 象鼻山 and 爱情岛. There was a poem to describe the 象鼻山 which goes like this: 水底有明月，水上明月浮。水流月不去，月去水还流。 This describes how the hole in the mountain cast a shadow during the night which look like a crescent moon on the water surface. Over there, when we tried to take a group pic, some china ppl will secretly take our picture too.. then they will print it our and make us buy their pic.. it was pretty nice with the date and the poem printed on.. but it costs RMB25... i could do the same thing myself which will cost less than a dollar..... too bad my camera seemed to catch a cold in the chilling wind that it failed to take some pics for the whole day...

Next, we made our way to 爱情岛, which was a great dating spot for couples. There were a few cute scriptures over there which symbolises LOVE... We also saw a few signs that reflects the English standard of the Chinese.

Oppss.. am i disturbing???!!!

Their standard of English....

Following that we went to a well known tea- house, 茗坊国艺馆 or i should say a tea house that cheat off money from tourists like us. They prepared different types of tea(桂花王茶，普洱，田七茶，八桂珍) for us to try... the one i like most was the 桂花王茶, which has a unique smell and very smooth texture... Then they claimed to give us a discount for every 2 big bottle of tea leaves we buy, we can get a small bottle of tea leaves for free. But then after our bargain, we get a middle bottle of tea leaves for every 2 bottles we buy... Then when we made our payment and went down to their retail shop, there was a buy one get one free promotion... WTH... The tealeaves were not cheap... every 100gram cost RMB200... so angry with those cheater bugs.....

Look how happy she is... bcos she cheated our money..

After a walking so much for the past few days, we went for a foot and back message. Again, we had a pretty unhappy incident with the in-charge... they overcharged us and deemed for tips... The foot reflexlogist were did more talking then messaging.... no way we would give them any tips...

Lousy foot message.. talk tooo much..

After dinner, we stood outdoor to watch a water fall performance at one of the hotel.. The wind was blowing strong and my grandma was shivering pretty bad.. then the few of us decided to take off our jacket and wrap my grandma... Then the performance started, the magnificent view of water pouring down the hotel building seems to draw all the chill from me... We wondered how many gallons of water was wasted for every performance??? do they recycle the water???

Waterfall coming down the hotel building.

Along our way back to the hotel (City garden Hotel, our third hotel), we saw the night scenery of guilin. 小刚 told us that the large power consumption used to light up the place has caused many families to have no power supply during night time.. All this was because of Bill Calinton who visited guilin in 1999 and claimed that guilin is a heaven during the day, and the only regret is that there is nothing to see during the night.

Night scenery of guilin

Later that night, me and my aunties walked 15 minutes to the night market and had another shopping spee.... Despite the chilling wind, we had a fun time bargaining till 1 am.. i love shopping in China's night market.... everything is so cheap...

day 6: 13 dec 2007

People start to fall sick.. my grandma, my 2nd uncle and 3rd aunt.... my grandma and aunt were hospitalised for half a day... In order not to disrupt our tour, only Milly gugu accompanied my grandma to the hospital, while the rest of us went to the 榕湖，九曲桥，古南门(the most important gate to the city during ancient time)，a 1000 yrs old 大榕树.

古南门

Then we went to a chinese medical center, 宝树堂 that sold freaking expensive medicine. The old sensei claimed that we had some weakness in our body that requires 保健 products. I kinda suspicious about his words as he kept asking how are we related to one another. If father and son, he would say like the so inherited some medical conditions for the father.. as for me, he said that i was too 寒, should avoid eating cold stuff and tea... my uncle being very concern of our health conditions, wanted to buy all those stuff that sensei recommended. Then when the bill came, we had a shock... it summed up to S$20K!!!!!! My uncle credit did not have so much so he only bought the products for the more serious ones.... but it still cost him S$15k...

Unhonest sensei.

After that we went to another medical shop selling 西瓜霜 products and some chinese herbs. First The HK prof did a briefing about the different herbs they were selling. Being too tired and sick, most of us fell asleep during the "lecture", but i wasnt sleeping... hehehe.. then the Prof said: "i shouldnt speak anymore, since all of u are sleeping..." We were total embarrassed... haha... Then my uncle decided to buy only a few cheap stuff from that shop and leave.. but the generous act of the HK prof touched my uncle and he decided to buy more herbs from her. The HK prof seems to be more concern of the health conditions then the money she earned, unlike the previous sensei ( so $$$ eyed). In the end, the bill turned up to RMB3000....

After that we went to fetch our grandma from the hospital, Milly gugu told us that the hospital charged by the number of time, the nurses entered the patient room. According to her, the nurse only came in 10 times, but the bill stated 50. Each time, it's RMB20 and they did nothing.. only came in and ask how? Furthermore, the total amount of the bill did not tally with the sum stated. My uncle then went up to confront the doctor and they pissed off when they couldnt justify how the 50 visits came about... I can t believed that even the doctors are there to cheat our money.

Finally, we made our way to our 4th hotel, Merryland hotel(5** hotel). The journey took us 3 hours and all of us had a good nap on the bus. When we reached the hotel it was already 10pm. We were then served with yummy food and excellent service. We turned in to bed early as we need to recharge our body for the theme park the next morning.

YueN at 5:25 PM

Monday, December 17, 2007

Despite the beautiful scenery, i still miss sinagpore sooooo much... especially the local food...... Today, I shall write a review of my holiday trip..

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

day1: 8 dec 2007
time: 1615

Reached Sinagpore Changi airport with my bro and met up with the rest of my relatives. All of us were happy and excited as it was the first time for so many of us us to go oversea together... 27 of us..... WOW... A holiday 3 trip for 3 generations..... *0*

My big family

My ticket to fly...

My grandma, grand aunt and Milly gugu

We waved good bye to spore at 6.15pm. To some of my relatives, it was their first time taking a plane.... a few were a little confused by the new check-in system, and the new regulations for bringing fluid on board.... I had to run around the airport to get 27 zipper bags for them to keep their lip balm, hand lotion, medication oil, etc....

It was a 4 hr flight to Nanning.... On the campy, little plane, me and my cousin chatted and took lots of pics. A local tour guide, li min accompanied us during the whole trip. She's also chinese, but she is a very sweet and soft-spoken lady and very helpful too....

My cousin, Shi Li & me

My first meal on plane.

By 10pm, we landed safely in Nanning Airport. The China personel gave us a black face at the custom check point. In return i gave her a "Extremely unsatisfied" feedback. As the ground temperature was only 18 degree, we were all shivering as we carried our luggage to the coach. From the airport, we took another 40min bus ride to our first hotel, Hua Xing Hotel. On the bumppy journey, our China tour guide, 小刚 introduced himself and our 2 professional drivers. 小刚 is a humorous guy, he shared with us his experience as a tour guide and the funny incidents that he came across. He also told us a way to avoid falling sick during the trip: That's to drink a glass of water every morning and every night. 5 minutes before we reached the hotel, 小刚 briefed us on the next day's schedule. This was when everyone gave him all our attention.

our friendly tour guide, 小刚

By the time we checked into our rooms, it was already 12 midnight. We had to stay in that hotel for 2 nights so i did a little unpacking before i turn in to bed with my Milly gugu.

day2: 9 dec 2007

Morning call rang at 6.30am. Breakfast at 7.15pm. Well, it wasnt a wonderful breakfast. The century egg porridge taste weird. The fried guo teow is freaking oily. The tea taste funny. Only edible thing was the hard-boiled egg.

We set off from the hotel at 8am and took a 4.5 hours bus ride to 德天瀑布. Along the way, beautiful scenery filled my eyes. Spectacular mountains, seas of orange, sugar cane plantation..... After an hour, we had our first visit to the china toilet. As we expected, the toilet stinks and there was no toilet paper. Luckily, Milly gugu brought 6 rolls of toilet paper from spore, which we had to use sparely. Then, the journey continued.... After some time, all of us dozzzz off, as the journey was really very long.

A rocky mountain captured along the long trip.

After some time, the bus began to wind up the mountain. On one side, it was the cliff of the mountain, leading to the 黑水河（the river that separates china and Vietnam). We stopped for lunch at a restaurant before we proceed to the 德天瀑布. It was a feast of china tribal and Vietnam Cruise. The quality prepared was sufficient to feed 50 people, where there was only 27 of us.

By the time, we reached 德天瀑布. We had lots of energy the conquer the endless stair-climbing. Most of my relatives took the chartered tram to the top of the waterfall, while the younger ones proved to the rest that we were still young and fit to do all the climbing... It was indeed a fruitful climb as the view was undescrible. By the time we reach the top, we were all breathless. Luckily, there were horses which we could ride down the mountain. Then, it was rounds of photo-taking and shopping for Vietnam products.

德天瀑布's entrance

Things ppl do to capture the amazing waterfall.

Closest waterfall i can get to.

We made it.. After all the stair-climbing....

The journey back the hotel took us another 4.5hrs. We returned to the hotel for dinner, which served similar dishes as our lunch(boiled meatless chicken, roasted duck, omelets, 15cm long vegetable, steamed fish....). After dinner, we returned to our rooms to packed our stuff as we need to go to another hotel in 阳朔 the next morning.

day3: 10 dec 2007

After breakfast, we took a walk in the local park. The air was fresh and the weather was just perfect. In the park, we saw some of the locals practising the qi kong, while some were dancing folk dance. We were told that the in month of june and july, the park will be filled with peach and longan. But we did manage to pluck some star fruits off the trees... haha... There were some unique tribal pieces in the park. One of them was the 8 big pots cum gongs, which will bring us good luck as we hit them.

Pot cum good luck gong

status that significant the chinese fight for freedom

After the park, we proceed to a conference center that holds a conference for 10+1 countries, including singapore, m'sia,china, vietnam, etc. We thought that a international conference center should have a clean toilet. BUT>>> we were WRONG.... The toilet stinks like hell... before reaching the enterance, we nearly puke.

The conference center with stinky toilet.

Later that night, after we check into our 2nd hotel, 阳朔漓江 hotel, we had our dinner in the hotel restaurant, where we were served with 啤酒鱼，a local delicacy. It taste pretty good only that the fish they used has too many bones..which make it a little fussy to eat.... After dinner, my uncle paid RMB 500 for everyone of us to watch <<印象刘三姐>>, a performance that is held on the landscape of guilin. The performance is done on a river using the mountains behind as the backdrop. According to 小刚, the area ratio of the stage and the audience area is 1:1. That night, there was a total of 4000 audience watching that performance. U can imagine the crowd over there. Being the older kid around, I've to keep a close watch on my younger cousins. The performance was visual fantastic, too bad i couldnt figure out the storyline which was written by 张艺谋.

After the performance, 小刚 brought us out to 西街，a night market street which look very similar to our Clarke Quake. Along the walkway, there were stalls doing drawing for tourists like us. We had a good laugh at each other's portraits... Some drawing was a great difference compared to the actual persons, while others were an exact imprint of us.... 西街 is really a shopping paradise for us. My aunts bought "branded" luggage which cost only RMB140... It's really cheap.... As for me, i bought several tribal handicraft for myself for my friends. Along the way, we saw how the local girls flirt around with the ang mohs. Their value is just like the luggage that my aunt bought: CHEAP.... As the temperature got lower(below 10 degree), the stall holders started to pack up and leave. We also began to make our way back to the hotels with our shopping bags filled with souviers and tummy filled with the local roadside food... So happy and fulfilling.. and shivering cold...

day 4: 11 dec 2007

After a good night sleep, another 2hr bus ride brought us to 漓江. We then took a little boat ride down the river. The feeling was amazing.... The view was fastastic... The water was crystal clear... The air is fresh... The locals simply enjoying their slow paced life, fishing... kind of envy their pace of life.. too bad we can have that in Spore.. unless i've a freaking rich father... hahaha... As we drifted down the river, a relaxing feeling came upon me.. it was the moment when i felt my mind and body relax, just allowing my 5 senses to take in all....

诗情画意

me on board..

How i wish how could slow down my foot step....

雾里看山.

On the boat, we were offered fried seafood that were caught from that very river... It was pretty tasty... very fresh, but too oily.... We also had 沙田柚子. Me and my cousin, cherylynn had a hard time opening them.. however our hard work was paid off with the sour-sweet flesh of 沙田柚子.

We did it... took us huge strength to peel open the 沙田柚子.

After that we change to 竹排 with 刘三姐. 27 of us split into 4 rafts as the raft will start to sink when there were more than 7 ppl on board During the raft ride, we sang and took lots of pics.. When we stopped for a break on a little platform. My relatives paid RMB15 to change into the trible costume and took pic. Well, they look pretty cute in those costume.. Especially, my 2nd auntie.. the jingling necklance made her sound like walking jingle bells...

Row, row, row the boat....

the 6 beauties...

My cutest cousin, Xuan xuan..

After the photo taking, we watch a little performance done by the locals, where the fisherman fished using this bird known as 鱼鹰. They tied the bird neck loosely so that it can only swallow the small fish, leaving the big fish for the fisherman. The fisherman then force out the big fish that were trapped in the bird's throat. It was kind of gross seeing the way they force the fish out...

In the afternoon, we visited 银子岩 (Silver cave). It is actually a limestone cave, that presents tourist a variety of glamorous stalactites and stalagmites formed in different geological period. The cave is deep and irregular, with a great number of stalactites of thousand charms, which, in lights glint like silver, hence the name of the cave. These majestic, diamond-like stalactites decorate the cave and make it into a dazzling place. The cave can be divided into three sections: upper cave, lobby and the lower cave, with dozens of distinctive scenery. Some of the limestones shaped like waterfall, others like the myth figures. It was really up to our imagination to see all these limestones.

银子岩 (Silver cave)

The reflection on the shallow water made it look like it spans all the way down.

So pretty...

Waterfall made of Limestone

Later that night, we went for a performance known as Dreamlike Li Jiang. The theatre even had TV inside their toilet.. just in case u miss any bit of the show... The act put up by the performer was good and dangerous too... The arcobat acts reflect the hard work and effort they put in for the past years. The storyline reflects the importance of friendship and kinship. After the performance, we spent some time taking pics with the performers.. The lead actress was very pretty.. but they were kinda shy towards us....

Me with the lead actress...

Shall continue the remaining trip in my next entry....

YueN at 12:01 AM

Saturday, December 01, 2007

EXAMS ARE FINALLY OVER!!!!

YEAH!!!!

No more burning of midnight oil and memorising those digusting formulas.... WOWHOO....

Really hope that my hardwork will pay off. This time round, i really push myself to my extreme limit... this is my second last exam, i need to make sure my grades allows me to get into the honous roll.... so yup.... shall wait for 2-3 weeks before i get to see if i achieve my targets.....

For the coming 1 month of holiday, i shall make good use of it to recharge myself... cos i need to make sure that i'm in my tip top condition for my upcoming industrial attachment in A*star. Well, the impression that i give to my supervisior over there will help me in my job-seeking process when i graduate.... Hope that i'll like working in lab... cos for now, lab work with test tubes and pipettes bored me to death...

Holiday is also a good time for me to meet up with my friends.... so pals, let me noe if there is any outings or gathering... k? (P.S. i'll not be in spore from 8 dec to 15 dec)

YueN signing off.... super windy day

YueN at 2:13 AM