Day 6 – 8

Day (6): Wu Han (Sis-in-law’s place)

The day began after a rough night tossing and turning beneath the blanket trying to find a comfortable position to fall asleep.
Preparations for the wedding began and her neighbours and relatives started streaming in to help out with the cooking and all.

Drove out to town (2.5km away) get our hair washed and styled.
Opps! Out of bed look #1 (more to come because I’m just too cold to even think about bathing)

Requested for my hair to be straightened but it ended up looking just like how it is all along. -.-”
Anyway, that’s me with our favourite 冰糖葫芦 again.

While waiting for my bro to get some of the stuff required for the wedding.

Look at all that meat!!!

What laughable brand man. Makes you happy just by reading it out loud.

Then, it’s back to the house for more R&R…
The source of entertainment? My brother’s dog! 米菲 (Mi Fei)

Because she looks so bored and cold (like us), we took her out for walks! Loads of them in fact

The fight between the scaredy dog and the cow/bull.

What a postcard worthy shot.

And the celebrations began…
The family actually invited professional singers and emcees to perform.

Performance lasted all the way till night falls…

Day (7): Wu Han (Day of wedding)

Woke up in the morning again to get myself made up for the wedding ceremony.

Laying out the firecrackers

My Mom and I in matchy matchy trench coats! (:

And finally, here comes the couple!
And there goes all the fireworks and firecrackers that totally deafened all of us.
Not only that, we were also hit by the the wrappers of the firecrackers as they go off and I tell ya, it is super painful!

Distributing red packets the first thing they reached their rooms.
That’s when you start seeing all the kids (and parents carrying babies) rushing into the room.

Settling for lunch and more demands for red packets/cigarettes.
It was really interesting to watch how the helpers from the kitchen would come out after every 2-3 dishes asking for rewards from the couple and in return, they would give them a carton of cigarette packs. This goes on for about 3 times before we all can finally eat in peace.

Sis-in-law’s dad bought this for us the previous night when he brought us out to a nearby mahjong centre to watch people play Hu Bei Mahjong.
Speaking of which, like I’d mentioned in the earlier posts, Hu Bei Mahjong is really interesting to learn though playing it in the house is a whole lot more comfortable than going to the mahjong centre because it is totally smoked! Everyone in there has got a lighted cigarette in their hands and gosh, that was really the first time when I got choked on cigarette smoke. Was telling YS that if I were to stay in that room any longer, I would have died of suffocation. Arghs!

After resting for about 2-3 hours, it’s finally the wedding ceremony.

Couple up on stage.

Taking their vows in the most humurous manner ever. Darn! Should’ve taken a video of it!
It was super funny!

My dad making his speech and my mom looking really nervous cuz it’s her turn next. Haha!

Neighbours, relatives, helpers…. downstage gracing the ceremony

And when it all ended, GROUP HUG!!!

Followed by my tone deaf brother’s duet~ major ROFL!

And well, thereafter, we went back to the living room where we hog our place in front of the heater to warm ourselves up
In the meantime, YS entertains himself with the 2 lil girls who ends up calling him “乌龟” for some reason or another.
What to do? YS and his charm on kids… Paedophile!

Day (8): Wu Han

Nothing much happened apart from us hanging around the house watching tv and keeping ourselves warm (and alive) in front of the heater…
Sis-in-Law’s dad taught us Hu Bei Mahjong and we spent the night gambling!
Paired up with YS and we started out brilliant with a streak of beginner’s luck but soon it weared off with us losing approx. 8RMB, which is really little compared to my brother who lost approx. 125RMB to his mother-in-law. Haha!!!
But it’s great fun. After all, there’s nothing else we can do!

Continuation….

Day (4): Shen Zhen

This is kinda like the only highlight of our trip (apart from my bro’s wedding)
Went online to search for places to go in Shen Zhen and topping the list is Happy Valley!
Entrance fee : 180Yuan (approx 40SGD) each

On board our first ride. Maximum kiddo. Haha!

They’d even got a Water theme park in here too!
Too bad it’s winter so it’s closed. I mean, it’s just logical la, who in the world goes playing around in water themeparks in winter. Haha!
But still, it looks really fun!

Spot the uncanny resemblance

The insane ride!!! Too bad it’s closed for maintenance.
See that gondola midway up the arc? =)

Took this ride instead.
Ended up with a really bad concussion.
It’s fun, but really rough ride.

When he found out that the playground is only limited to children between 3-12 years old.

Our favourite of all! 冰糖葫芦!

The sky started to dim….
We slowly made our way round the park again, snapping photos before the sun sets totally.
Loved the dusk lighting…

Dinner at KFC!

Loved their peach egg tarts though I’d only got half of it left.
*glares at YS*

Then it’s shopping at 老街 again!

PS: We had to spend as much time away from our hotel as possible becuase our hotel room’s freezing!
It’s colder than the temperature outside!!!

*Glares at YS again*

Day (5): Shen Zhen – Wu Han

Woke up in the morning to make our way to Shen Zhen Airport where we will be meeting up with my parents before flying to Wu Han together to attend my eldest brother’s wedding.

New boots from Shen Zhen (only 129 yuan!)

Touched down in Wu Han airport and waiting for the driver to arrive. (subsequently found out that he’s actually my sis-in-law’s cousin)
Took him approximately 45mins to get to us!
OMG was totally freezing our asses off…

Look at the mist coming out from the car’s exhaust !

The journey to the house took us another 3 hours and gosh… I have to reiterate this.
IT’S FREAKING COLD!!!
To think that just when we were hoping that the house can be a little warmer but NOOO!!!!!
Apart from the heater that warms the toilet, the entire house is naturally ventilated. Faints!

HongKong/ShenZhen/WuHan trip 2012

As promised, here’s some photo updates from my recent trip to Hong Kong/Shen Zhen/Wu Han.

Day (1): Singapore – Hong Kong

Checked in Shamrock Hotel located right next to Jordan MTR Station.
Temprature then was approximately 17 degrees.
For someone as afraid of cold as I am, it’s like living in a perpetual air-conditioned room.

First up! Time to fill our tummies up after the 4hr flight.
Thanks to Winnie’s wonderfully detailed itinerary, we managed to find ourselves some good food in at the most unthinkable places.
Check out the dodgy entrance to the restaurant!

The famed tomato base beef noodles.
Taste heavenly! Loved it!

Next up for dessert, we head over to iSquare further down Nathan Road.

The classic : 杨枝干露
Which doesn’t really taste all that fabulous

Double boiled papaya soup which really aint my cup of tea.

Bought our tickets to “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” for the night as well.
Heard great reviews about the show.
As you can see from the tickets, it’s HKD 80 (SGD16) per ticket.
Pretty pricey for movies but oh wells~ for the new experience, why not!

While we wait for our movie to start, we headed over to Avenue of Stars instead.

My dear boy and his favourite cuttlefish!
I must say, it smells really good!

While waiting for the lightshow to start (8pm).
Look at the crowd along the promenade!

I must say the lightshow was super boring and totally not worth waiting for.
Might as well spend the time shopping or eating elsewhere. Haha!

Anyway, after the lightshow, we settled for a simple dinner at Pho 99 before heading for our movies.
Thank goodness it’s simple enough, otherwise I would have vomitted my dinner out during the show.
Go watch it and you’ll know what I meant.

Back to hotel to settle for the night.
What’s travelling without my sleeping buddies.

Day (2): Hong Kong

Woke up early in the morning for some local breakfast seeking.

After which, it’s all the way straight to Lantau Island!
Totally regret wearing my leggings that day.
It was super cold!!!
Thank goodness I brought my pullover with me that day.

Check out our glass bottom cabin!
Super cool!

The iconic Buddha Statue atop Ngong Ping 360!

Super cute!!!

Been craving for subway for ages.

On our way up to the giant statue.

Act cute max.

Some vegetarian food which tasted great. Especially the tauhuay.

New watches!

Shopping at CityGate.
Bought 3 new pairs of jeans and ran straight into the washroom to change into one immediately.

Head off to Causeway Bay for more shopping!
Went past Swarovski and was totally captivated by the displays.
Lovely huh~

Dinner : Wanton Mee!!! (once again, thanks to Winnie’s superb itinerary)

Day (3): Hong Kong – Shen Zhen

Decided to venture for a light walk around in the morning.
And we burst out laughing when we saw this.

Settled for lunch at 稻香 located near MongKok MTR Station

After lunch, we made our way to Shen Zhen~
Didn’t do much for the day apart from settling for dinner at Ajisen near our hotel in Shen Zhen and to travel to 老街 subway station for some light window shopping.

 

Abroad once more

Finally I’d managed to get some Internet connection after days of complete disconnection to civilization. If you are guessing where in the world I’m in, well, I’m currently at WuHan Airport right now waiting for my flight back to Shen Zhen. And if you are wondering why I am in China right now, that’s because I’m here to attend my brother’s wedding.

The wedding was pretty alright though it was kinda draggy with it lasting throughout the 4 days we’re there. But the real major killer was the weather though. The time now is right smack in the middle of winter and imagine sleeping/living with no room heaters for 4 full days (and nights). Couldn’t even get myself to bathe or even change my clothes while I’m there. But one thing that I’d enjoyed myself most was to be able to play with my brother’s dog. Shall upload its photo when I get back home (writes down mental note). And oh! Another thing that was fun was that we learnt Mahjong (the HuBei version)! It’s pretty different from the usual mahjong that we play back home and so it definitely took some time for us to get used to it. But thank goodness that lady luck was shining upon us then so we didn’t exactly lost that much compared to my brother and my Sis-in-law who lost about 120RMB in total. Haha!

I know it’s kinda abrupt to end a post this way but oh wells! Shall blog again next time.

Yet another lengthy travel update.

The last time I blogged, I was in the airport’s boarding gate waiting to get on the plane to Hanoi. Now, I’m in my hotel’s restaurant over in Sapa, waiting for dinner time to reach before we head out to the train station for a late night train back to Hanoi.

In all, our time in Hanoi had been great, well… Except for some unhappy moments because of the horrible taxi driver that cheated our money and some freaky moments when we almost got robbed by some self-proclaimed Abu Dhabi guys. Apart from that, it was fabulous! Our guesthouse has the best service ever! Took the more expensive room in the end because well, it was fully booked but the room was the best! We’d even got a bathtub and a super nice balcony for our room!!! Talk about going budget. Hahaha!

Anyway, we’d booked both our Halong Bay and Sapa tour from the hotel cuz the rates were really reasonable compared to the ones we found online. The Halong Bay was fabulous! Did some limestone cave exploring as well as some canoeing into sea cave which opened up into a massive hollow in the middle of a huge “mountain”. Freaking nice! And so were the rooms and the food too! The only sad thing that happened was that a storm struck Halong Bay that day and we were forced to stay a night at Cat Ba island instead. Thank goodness the room and the food’s great. Otherwise I would have asked for compensation. Missed out on my star gazing on the sun deck and my cuttlefishing!!! Ahhh! Haha! Oh… Made some really nice friends on the boat though. Really friendly and fun-loving. Let me recall.. What’s their names… Weihao Xiaowei and Sophia. Nice people!

Our trip to Sapa was great as well.. apart from the chilly weather which I dreaded though I’m prepared for it, and the fog that never did clear throughout our stay there. So yea… No nice photos for me then. Haha! But the trek was pretty alright though. The first day was pretty easy when we visited cat cat village and what’s not but the walk up was tiring though. I mean it’s alright bit our guide walked damn fast! She’s a local there and so I suppose she does that same track over and over again until she’s like freaking fit. Walked uphill for like 45mins and she ain’t even panting! Gosh. Feel so paiseh to let the whole tour group wait for us though. Heehee! The second day, which is today, was a lot more trecherous. Did a 6hour trek in total and we walked through crazily muddy paths, steep hillsides and what’s not. Thank goodness there were some locals there else I would have fallen umpteen times! Oh! The scenary Was fabulous! It’s like a painting on it’s own. Super nice! But one thing bad is that the whole place was so touristy that the locals will bug you like crazy to sell their handmade products at every corner that you turned.

Traveling updates.

The last time I wrote in was when I was about to travel from my very first destination, siem reap, to the next. Now that a week had passed, let me just do a brief update on my travelling thus far.

Navigating around Phnom Penh was, to put it bluntly across, a piece of cake cuz well if you ever try googling the map of Phnom Penh you will know what I meant. Everything is so grid-like! Took a quad bike tour around some villages as well as the Choeung Ek Killing Fields on one of the days. The ride was fun but the killing fields… Kinda morbid for me. Freaked me out a little in fact by the bought of all the horror and fear going on amongst the people at that time. Gosh! Who in the right mind can actually be so cruel to kill so many people? Kids included by the way. Geez! Didn’t go to the S-21 prison in the end cuz we forsee it to be too morbid and disturbing for the two of us.

Reached HoChiMinh around the 15th where we stayed over YS’ cousin’s place for another two nights. It was when I sat on a motorbike for the very first time!!! Oh gosh! The first time when I was pillion-riding, I was so nervous that I even broke out into cold sweat! Haha very noob I know but you should take a look at the traffic in Ho Chi Minh before you judge me. It’s insane ok. There are bikes everywhere and people seem to move in all directions regardless of the traffic flow! The part I hated most has definitely got to be the roundabouts. Omg! Everyone’s like squeezing into the tinest spaces just to get through. I was so afraid that I might get burnt by someone’s exhaust pipe or something. Geez! Never felt so stressed up before. Worse still, everyone’s honking at everyone. Can you imagine that??? Oh my…. But apart from the ridiculous traffic, everything’s great! The food’s fabulous and the host perfect. Even their dog and their neighbour’s dog super welcoming too! Oh my… I’m missing Lucky and the cute little neighbor dog already. Will post a photo up when I get back home.

The host booked us a bus the following few days to Dalat and I gotta say, it has got to be the most interesting bus ever. I dont know how to describe it but just try imagining a loft kinda concept in a bus. Sort of like those sleeper beds you get in trains but now it’s in a bus. Can’t imagine nvm, will post pictures of it. Haha! Anyway, the journey took us like 8hours and towards the latter quarter of the ride, my bladder nearly burst! Thank goodness the bus uncle was kind enough to drop me off at a petrol kiosk for an impromptu toilet break. Blame myself for drinking too much. Dalat was fabulous actually. It seems like a cross between Genting Highlands (the coldness) and 日月潭 in Taiwan (the shops and everything). Went for day tours and it was really fun! Especially the one where we hikes down Elephant Falls during one of our impromptu day tours. The hike was trecherous cuz there ain’t a fixed path down and the rocks were really slippery but everything was all worth the while when we got to the base of it and even went “behind” the falls. Got really wet and dirty after everything and even a huge bump on my head on the way up when I knocked myself on the rock while trying to stand up. The bump’s still hurting by the way.

Next up, Nha Trang. The weather’s a complete opposite of Dalat since it’s very much a seaside town. Headed out to Vinpearl Land the very day we arrived and to say the truth, it was pretty disappointing. The water theme parks pretty boring with quite a few slides closed. Even the wave pool’s not working-.-”. The outdoor theme park was boring cuz the roller coaster sucked. No thrill at all! The only super big plus point about the whole trip was their indoor theme park were it featured arcade games… For Free!!! Like yes! You play non-stop for FREE! Mond you, the game’s not those lousy ones ok… They’re actually those which cost damn alot in Singapore one ok. Like the jungle game where it costs like 1.50bucks per credit in Singapore? Now you get to play for free!!! Damn shiok. But one thing to note, there’s damn alot of rowdy and unmannered kids around. So yes… Gotta train up your patience before going. Got so pissed by some of them when I was there.

And yesterday, we went for island hopping tour. The tour was really good apart from 2 things which happened. One, I nearly drowned cthe snorkeling equipment sucked. And second, I got a really bad seasick right before lunch and lunch’s served on the boat itself. Wahhh kill me! But the weather’s good though. Had such a good time tanning that I’m super chao-ta now. told mom about it and she laughed. -_-” How incredibly nice… Not!

Anyway, I’m bound for Hanoi right now. The darn plane got delayed so that explains why I’m having so much silly time blogging. Could’ve informed us earlier right… Woke up at an ungodly hour of 5am (local time) just to reach here knowing that I could’ve slept longer. Haix!

Before I set off to another destination

As I patiently await for my bus ride from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh in an hour’s time, I think I’d better start writing down some of my travelling experiences before my memory starts failing me as the time goes by.

All in, the trip’s been pretty fulfilling thus far with us travelling to various places of interest like the world renowned Angkor Wat as well as the romantic little floating village on Tonle Sap. Plus! The guesthouse which we’re staying in is also fabulous. The service’s super good and the room’s really nice (: But of course, things will definitely be a whole lot better if the weather’s less hot. I recall the trip to Angkor Wat on our second day and it was crazy! It was so hot that I ended up with a horrible tan line on my arm and legs that I think I had to spend like the next few months getting it off again. Haix!

Ok! I think I’ll end here for now. No pictures thus far because well, it’s way too troublesome to do any photo editing right now. The most I’ll do is perhaps just to upload some photos onto Facebook, well… provided that I’ve got time (:

So yeaps, till the next time I blog. BYE!

Setting off on a jetplane (once again)

Oh no! I realised that I had neglected this space way too much.
Dear roomie had urged me to write a few blogposts on the various trips that I had went on but somehow, the first post had never reached the stage of “publish-able” material ever since I gave up using Adobe Photoshop Elements to shrink the many photos that I had taken. Omg… Just shrinking them is labourous enough, let alone editing them like what some people do. Sigh!!!

Anyway, I guess this will most probably be one of the last entry that I will be writing before I set off again tomorrow afternoon for my 3-week long graduation trip to Cambodia-Vietnam-Laos.
Not really a backpacker tourist this time round but more of a tourist travelling around with a backpack.
There’s a difference in case you didn’t know but oh wells, go find out yourself ‘cuz I am seriously not going to go into details of it.
At least not now.
Will promise to do an update after I return ‘cuz I myself would love to read and reminsce on some of my adventures (hopefully) once in a while later in the years to come.
But till then, ciaos!

Smuacks!
*Flying kisses to all*

:(

Yes, I am finally back but not for long.
Down with fever, cough and flu so yes… pardon me for the lack of updates. ):

Photos update (:

Here’s some super overdued photos I had gathered over the past few weeks.
Coming up first! My last presentation day!

My group: Cindy, Peisee, Alicia, Fengyi, Me…
Time really flies.
This is the last time I’m ever going to present together with these girls.
I still remember vividly the very first project I did was with Fengyi.
Our sense of place project where we wandered all over the Civic district for our field work.
Too bad my comp crashed and lost all my fieldwork photos for that project. Otherwise I’m definitely gonna post our picutres up =D

Anyway, back to topic.
Here’s a gift my lecturer gave on our last tutorial.

A photo with him.

Our opposing team.
Friendly bunch of people nevertheless.

And yes, that’s us again!
Set my camera on self timer mode this time round.

—-

Next up! It was a weekend when I tagged along my parents to visit my grandparents and greatgrandparents at the columbarium.
It was pretty crowded since 清明节’s just round the corner and we all ended up smelling like joss sticks after it all ended.

YS joined us subsequently and we headed over to SPOM for lunch.
After lunch,it’s karaoke session for the adults all the way till dinner!
Yes, that’s how long they can sing. 

Here’s some pictures I took while the rest were singing.
I mean, what else can I do since I don’t sing.
Haha!

SPOM from the sides

Basking in the afternoon sun.

Was too lazy to twick the colours into black-and-white.
But I think it looked pretty nice nevertheless =D
I mean well… I took it so yes! It’s nice.

My parents came dropping by while my aunts took over the mic.
Loved the colours of this shot. =)

As I said, singing went all the way till night time.
Took some random shots here and there but got bored of it after a while.
So what I did? I went stoning while YS started his revision for his upcoming exams…

——

Last Tuesday, I finally met up with my pretty jiejie!!
Well, along with Cindy and Fengyi for a short dinner date at Vivo.
Dinner was at white dog cafe and then we had supper at this chocolate place whose name I really cant remember.

So yes, here’s my pretty jiejie, Peiwen!
She chopped her hair so short that I can barely recognise her when I first saw her from the back.

And here’s Cindy and Fengyi~
——

And then… fast forward to last Friday!
The ushers met up for Sakura Buffet over at Clementi Woods.
It’s been eons since we’ve last gathered and I must say, the turn up’s pretty impressive~

All who turned up

We stuck through all 21 sessions of Commencement 2009 together!!!

Super duper full from buffet.
What’s YS smirking at anyway?
hmmmm…