Shanghai-Suzhou-Nanjing-Wuxi-Hangzhou-Wuzhen Trip (1st June to 9th June 2009)

This was my third visit to China, and I was pretty contented to see how the government had made tremendous effort in refurbishing the basic amenities such as washrooms, or WC (water closets) which the people uses this term widely because it simply means "Welcome China". The number of public toilets has increased a lot, and surprisingly they are clean and free-of-charge. Anyway, I guessed this was mainly due to the Beijing Olympic held last year, and all the facilities provided seem to improve by leaps and bounds. But some of the China citizens still hold a bad habit – spitting on the road, which is a practice I abhor the most. And if you think that Penang drivers are crazy, well, take a look at China drivers; they do not obey traffic rules. The zebra crossing is simply meant for "zebras" because they never give priority to pedestrians and to some of them, red and green light does not differ from each other. There was even one time when I saw a law enforcer beating the traffic lights, squeezing through us when we were on the zebra crossing!!! Another thing is that they simply love to sound their vehicles horn and you can hear honking everywhere, at anytime......@_@

My trip this time covers the Jiangnan (江南) area, which encompasses Shanghai Municipality (上海), Jiangsu province (江苏) and Zhejiang province (浙江). The cities involve were Shanghai, Suzhou (苏州), Nanjing (南京), Wuxi (无锡), Hangzhou (杭州) and a small town - Wuzhen (乌镇). The tour group consists of 18 people.

Shanghai - The Night is Alive

Shanghai is best viewed at night, because the city with its skyscrapers will be brightly lit-up. Its famous landmark includes the Oriental Pearl TV Tower (东方明珠塔) overlooking the Bund (上海外滩) which is a famous financial centre that holds numerous banks and historical British buildings. Looking down to the city from the tower was even more spectacular. The construction of the tower itself was pretty amazing and it's the third tallest tower in the world. One of the observatory levels has a transparent sightseeing base, which means you will be experiencing "walking-in-the-air". It was pretty scary on the first thought, but when you were there, it's just too awesome to be embrace with fright. There is also a wax museum at the bottom of the tower and it's totally different from Madame Tussauds. While the latter flashes superstars and political figures, the former tells the story of Shanghai, the old Shanghai. The first day in Shanghai was really unforgettable. Never in my life would I have the chance to experience so many different modes of transportation in one day. A car ride to PIA (Penang International Airport), embark on the plane to Pudong (浦东) Airport, transit at HKIA (Hong Kong International Airport), then took a ride on the Maglev train (train that uses magnetic levitation), followed by a cruise on a ferry and finally to a hotel on a bus. Land, air and sea; what more do I have to say......I don't think I will encounter another opportunity on this one for the rest of my life!!

Of course there were other places visited in Shanghai, which include the Cheng Huang temple (城隍庙), took a walk on Nanjing Street and Xin Tian Di (新天地), travelled to Soong Qing-ling Mausoleum and enjoyed a sensational and superb acrobatic performance known as ERA (ERA 时空杂技表演). This show was the best I've seen so far, an indescribable stunning piece of work and remarkable efforts put in by the performers.

Suzhou - The Land of Silk

The third day kicked off to Suzhou, which is the hub for silk-making in China and we have the opportunity to visit one silk factory there. We started off with a visit to Suzhou Science and Cultural Arts Centre (SSCAC). This is the second bird nest-like building in China after the Beijing Stadium. We then proceed to the Suzhou Museum followed by Hanshan Temple (寒山寺), a Buddhist temple famous for its bells and a visit to the Lion Grove Garden (狮子林), a garden made famous by its rocks said to resemble lions which I don't see anyhow it is related @_@....... The day ends with a view on a Taoist temple known as Xuanmiao Temple (玄妙观) and some shopping done at Guanqian Street (观前街).

Nanjing - The Original Capital of China

Nanjing was the official capital of the Republic of China before the Chinese Civil War and now is the capital of China's Jiangsu Province. The history of how Beijing took over to become the capital city of China was really complicated and I have no interest to get my mind wandering about the matter. Our next stop was the Soong Mei-ling Palace (美齡宫), a villa for Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mei-ling. There lies a backyard which has its pillars with phoenix carvings made from precious stones. It was said that luckily the stones were not recognizable as precious because of its rough surface and dirty looks; otherwise the Japanese would have taken them away during the invasion. After that, we visited the Presidential Palace (总统府), which was the office of the President of the Republic of China back then that housed prominent leaders like Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek, but now is a museum open for public. The day ends up with another shopping at Fuji Temple (夫子庙) Street, where the Confucius temple is located. It was quite a busy street, lots of people strolling after dinner, and it attracts many local tourists as well. The next day, we were brought to the Nanjing Changjiang Bridge (南京长江大桥). It is a double-decker bridge consists of road and railroad, built over Changjiang River and the Chinese took pride of this bridge because it was designed and constructed entirely by their own, without foreign aid and technologies.

Wuxi - The Home of Lake Tai

Lake Tai (太湖) is a freshwater lake popular for breeding freshwater fish, prawns and oysters (to produce pearls). Needless to say, the locals have fishing industry as their main livelihood. The pearls produced were naturally formed, not induced. It takes more than 10 years to produce large and high quality pearls, while those below 10 years are considered slightly lower grades. Those pearls that are deformed are usually crushed to produce pearl powders that can be taken orally and to make cosmetic products. Wuxi also home the largest, tallest (88 m) and heaviest (700 tons) open-air bronze statue in the world, known as Ling Shan Buddha (灵山大佛). There was supposed to be a dragon fountain display of the Buddha's birth (九龙灌浴) but unfortunately the event was cancelled due to heavy downpour on that day. In fact, according to the local tour guide, there was actually hailstorm before we got there. We checked into a hotel, and later took a 3-minute walk to a nearby Parkson Shopping Mall to get some local products at the supermarket. The next day began with visits to a Pearl Factory and a Tea-pot Making Factory, followed by a stopover at the Three Kingdoms City (三国城). CCTV (China Central Television) built this place for the filming of the Romance of Three Kingdoms (三国演义) - a historical TV drama, and has since became a television base for other film productions and a tourist attraction as well. We got to enjoy a performance that narrate part of this drama, so there were soldiers and heroes on horses battling against the rivals. I haven't got the faintest idea who is against who, roughly like the heroes (关羽, 刘备, 张飞) against 吕布......whoever they were........And there's a cruise on Lake Tai to view the scenery. The whole place is so huge that it'll take at least one whole day to visit every nook and corner of it. Of course, time was limited. So, we took a tram, dropped by at a few more favorable locations, snapped some pictures and continued our journey heading towards Hangzhou.

Hangzhou - Where Women Rules

Hangzhou is known as a Historical City, City of Love, City of Leisure, Land of Tea and Buddhism Practice. No wonder it became one of the most renowned and beautiful cities in China. Interestingly, Hangzhou is a place where women have priority and power more than men. Married couples usually must have their money kept by the wife!! Ladies should love this city quite a lot, I guess......

Our first destination began at the Lei Feng Pagoda (雷峰塔), where we could get a nice view of the beautiful West Lake (西湖). It is a five-storey tower (the rebuilt one) constructed over the ruins of the old one and this pagoda is strongly related to the Legend of the White Snake (白蛇传). There are ten scenic spots on the West Lake, but we only visited three of them, which includes Hua Gang Guan Yu Park (花港觀魚), Liu Lang Wen Ying Park (柳浪聞鶯), and Nan Ping Bell (南屏晚鐘) at the Jingci Temple (净慈寺). Also, another show was provided for us, known as the Hangzhou Xi Hu Show (西湖之夜表演). This show actually describes the whole of Hangzhou, not only famous for historical and cultural heritage, but also a place with natural beauty for relaxation. The props and backdrop settings were nice and magnificent, but I will still prefer the ERA performance over the latter.

Wuzhen - A Peasant Town

Wuzhen is a small ancient town, also known as "Little Venice", where the people there have agricultural as their occupation. Only the old folks lived there, most of the youngsters have moved out to the city. There, we boarded a Chinese-style gondola to cruise the canals and view the traditional houses along the way.

The whole trip of 9 days and 8 nights finally came to an end when we went back to Shanghai and visited the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, which was the last pit-stop in this journey. Actually most of the time was spent travelling from one city to another on the bumpy and potholed roads, and getting trapped in massive jams. Seriously some of the time I felt like as if it was a roller-coaster ride!! But, overall, it was still an enjoyable trip.........:P

Oh ya, I forgot to mention one thing. Interestingly, when we arrived at Pudong International Airport, we were not allowed to disembark from the plane......ahh, that was not a quarantine. Officers wearing in those space-like suits boarded the plane to check for every passengers body temperature. Just a precaution taken against Infuenza A (H1N1). Luckily no one was affected. Phew!

The Waves of Bali (3/5/09 ~ 6/5/09)

I was pretty excited when this much awaited trip to Bali was finally happening. 18 of us embarked on Air Asia (for the cheap tickets, of course), arrived at the Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar around 9.30 pm, and headed for our first and most ridiculously expensive dinner in a restaurant called Furama, which I don't find any specialty or anyhow delicious the food might be. That really caused one big hole in our pockets!! Anyway, we checked into Ida Duta Hotel, which is situated hidden from the main roads, and required a walking distance across some streets and down an alley just to get to it as the bus was too big to enter. By the time we reached the hotel, most of us were pretty much exhausted and tired after a long and weary journey.

The next day, I woke up with much enthusiasm, eager to know the itinerary of the day. After breakfast, the first stop was the Batubulan village where the Barong and Keris Dance took place. Eventually, that was the most horrible cultural act I've ever seen in my entire life!! Boring and meaningless, I was rather disgusted by some of the insulting and offensive scenes which were not worth the tickets at all. I can't help myself but to leave the place in next to no time. After that, we were brought to see some so-called gold and silver works at Celuk and wood carvings at Mas, which in fact was a gimmick to actually entice tourists into buying its products. Again, disappointment bestowed upon us because there's really nothing interesting and the prices of the goods were extremely cut-throat. Then, we had our buffet lunch at Kintamani hill at a local restaurant overlooking the locally infamous Batur volcano and its lake. I can't deny that the panoramic view was quite nice. The journey continued with a visit to a flea market. Bargains on and after haggling for almost one and half hour, most of us got a handful of souvenirs back. It was pretty early when we headed back to our hotel, and later had our dinner at McD in a nearby Matahari Mall.

The second day kicked off in the wee hours of the morning. With heavy heads and sleepy eyes, we pulled ourselves up from the bed, and endured a 3-hour ride North-West to a place called Lovina, in order to catch a glimpse of dolphins. Surely, we did, and it was merely a glimpse on a school of dolphins. I can barely see the dolphins as on and off they rose only partially to the surface of the water. A huge amount was paid to that, another hole in our pockets. Ouch!! That's not all. The bus that took us to this beach suffered some damages on its braking system and we were all stranded on the beach for at least 4 to 5 hours!! We loitered, strolled, lingered, waited, chatted and even took the most snapshots in that area. In the end, the whole morning, our precious time was squandered away. Feeling hungry and lethargic, we were brought down to Bedugul for a buffet lunch. Within a walking distance, we arrived at Ulun Danu temple, a temple on the Beratan lake. Finally, a place that's really worth going!! The landscape surrounding the area was spectacular and wonderful. We really had a great time there. After that, we set off to another temple. This time it was a temple on the sea, Tanah Lot as it's called. Standing on a huge rock the view was totally breathtaking. I stood in awe of the amazing construction of the temple and also the environment, back dropped by the inspiring and magnificent sunset. Having forked a lump sum of money, we decided to take our dinner in a little food court, which was the cheapest meal we ever had in Bali.

Final day has eventually surfaced. We walked ourselves to Kuta beach, where some of the guys have decided to go surfing, while the rest of us had a walk down the beach. After checking out from the hotel, we moved on to the Ulu Watu temple also a sanctuary for monkeys located in Ubud. The monkeys were agile and quick. Under unforeseen circumstances, they will snatch things like spectacles and caps from tourists caught off-guard. Coincidentally, workers there will help to get back the stolen objects, but they demanded money in return. How pretentious they can be - dressing up like pilgrims, looked pious on the outside but greedy from the inside!! Our last and final destination was a cultural park to see the biggest statue called Garuda Wisnu Kencana (GWK). It covers quite a large area, but it was still under construction, so the statue was only halfway done.

Bali – the treasure trove of natural beauty

That's just about it. What a “wavy” trip!! Phew!!

BBQ Party + Apartment Stay

(18/4/09 -19/4/09) - This was the last gathering, a graduation party before everyone went their separate ways.

In retrospect, the good ol' days that we had, all the ups and downs, fun and laughter, bitter and sweetness that we tasted together, life would never been good without friends, especially true friends. Down memory lane, it reminds me of primary and secondary school when everyone was a complete stranger to me on the first day. Making friends was never an easy job for me. I was silent, quiet shy, not really an outgoing, sociable kind of person, and can never be an ice-breaker for sure. However, through times, I felt a slight change in me, at least not so much of a "recluse-type", I guess...and part of it was because of my very, extremely, tremendously, exceptionally talkative roommate for 3 years. Yup, that's her......hahaha~~~ And also that 4-in-love thing, hmm......how did it came about anyway? But, they are my closest friends here, and I treasure every moment we spent along. Last but not least, to the guys and the rest of the gals, thanks a lot for the great times!!

Journey tears us miles apart, but friendship remains true in heart!! All the best, frenz~~~

Trip to Nature

It took us about one hour journey to reach our destination - a reserved forest, called Bukit Hijau, pretty much a stranger to me actually. It was a good start off, we climbed the stairways where it led us to the waterfall. Awesome! At the first sight, it was simply breathtaking considering the fact that it has been years since my last visit to a waterfall (hmm...sort of being locked up in the city, more precisely a university...duh!!). Anyway, we got ourselves a nice spot in the pool, and started splashing water at each other. Yikes! That was fun enough but the best part was standing right at the bottom of the cascading waterfall. However, it was way too cold to be there for too long. After that, most of us started shivering like never before!! Haha...

After soaking in for about 2 hours when the skins all wrinkled up, we got ourselves dried, had some snacks and revved up to our second destination - a hot spring, in Baling (Actually I'm a bit worried if my body can withstand this tremendous change of temperature conditions...@_@). There wasn't really much to do at a hot spring, except, well, immersed in the hot water ...-.-

After gobbling down some sandwiches, we headed to a nearby fast food outlet to fill our partially empty stomach. Thanks to the "speed racers", we got ourselves back at 12 midnight, just the right time for bed!!

14/4/09 - First trip after graduating. Lots more to come. LOLzzz.

End of Chapter One...

Freedom. That was what I've been longing for after all these years of tertiary education.

From the very moment I stepped into this life, all I can see myself doing were burying in loads of notes, books, assignments, projects and presentations, and all that for one piece of paper at the end!! I haven't got the faintest idea how I got myself into this pile of mess, having to go through various torments every day. Perhaps, it never came across my mind that this would be the outcome. Looking at the good side of it, however bumpy and harsh the route was, with perseverance, I still managed to inch my way through it. Although times maybe hard, I still have a bunch of good friends striving alongside with me. All the good and bad times we've been through was something which will adhere to my mind for the rest of my life. That was the nice part of varsity life.

The terrible part? Having to deal with subjects that I hated, which was none other than Control and Design. From the subjects itself to the lecturers, they were my worst nightmare!! That's an agony inflicted upon me to deal with these even for one or two semesters. Also the implementation of OBE system, which I don't see any effectiveness and the success of it. There are just too many potholes in Malaysia's education system where they expect students to be all-rounder and of course, that only falls for one in a hundred, perhaps. It's pretty absurd to squeeze in so many subjects at one time with tons of work thronging in all at once, I could hardly have my own leisure time.

9/4/09 – my last viva. Graduating finally. Ecstatic and thrilled as I can be, this signifies the end of first chapter of my life, 17 years of education. The most important thing is finally getting rid of exams from my life!!! Looking forward to enjoy my holidays for the time being. Hahaha~~~

A new chapter begins – Work. This is life.

Winning is sweet...

...especially after all the sheer hard work, effort and leaping through various barriers and obstacles. Never tasted this victorious sensation for a long, long time, and I'm proud to say that I treasure this well. This PRESTIGE program (a seminar-cum-competition about health, safety and environment in gas industry) has actually given me some exposure to what industry is all about, although not much, still it provided some revelations. Frankly speaking, I was pretty reluctant to join in the first place, sort of lack of confidence, competency kind of stuffs. However, in the end, I manage to persuade and convince myself that everything will turn out right (still uncertain of what actually compelled me to go for it, probably the cash prize i guess...hahaha!!). Well, it did, in a delightful way, despite enduring a freezing cold environment for hours. The food was scrumptious and appetizing; the stay was quite good, thanks to my lethargic and exhausted mind. Finally, to the team from USM, great job, guyz!! 29/3/09......a memorable day!

Cheers for 2009, Bye for 2008...

New year, new visions, new wishes, new resolutions, new hopes and dreams, and last but not least, a new lease of life ahead......

In retrospect, 2008 wasn't really a good year for me, but I have to admit that there were several joyous moments and unexpected instants that really put me in great laughs. I've actually been through the toughest time of my life, the time that really squeezed every bit of my sweat and sheer hard work, so far, though I know that still coming my way is a long winding endless road, unforeseen on-goings looming ahead, challenges to face and difficulties I'll have to brave.

Anyway, turning on to 2009, it was a great start. My first countdown (yup, my first time ever) alongside with my friends was an awesome experience. It's a good thing we did that in a bistro-like café; less crowded, no traffic jams, but still having the atmosphere around. We got ourselves some snacks, beers and cards, anything that could keep us occupied before the countdown, and even some complimentary party gadgets like poppers, whistles, flickering lights, clappers etc. So, the countdown went on, and we had a blast!!! Popping out confetti, blowing whistles, cheering, toasting and of course a few shots of photos, that was the moment where you'll put behind all your anxieties, problems, troubles, worries and stress. Goes to say that this was the coolest celebration I'll never forget for the rest of my life!!!

I haven't got the faintest idea on what's in for me in 2009......good or bad it's predestined. Nobody wants to suffer a wretched and miserable life, but sometimes things just got out of hand. Still, optimistic is the key. So, I'm looking forward for some pleasant surprises and a smooth ride in the journey of life. Meanwhile, I'll just savour some sweet memories left behind while preparing myself to defy all odds pending in the future.

After all, its C'est La Vie......