Finally my travelogue for China trip has come to The End.

Thinking back, it was just happened a month ago but I feel like I wanted to go Holiday again! My next trip to Melbourne has been called off, heart pain, very pain! Don’t sob so much, let’s continue the final day in China. As we will be departing from Hang Zhou airport, so we need to depart Shanghai in the afternoon.

For the morning session, we went to 七宝老街 which is  also an old street that sell a lot of food and local products.

This street is more localize, according to the tour guide, most of the tourist would not have visited this place. As this is one of our add on places of interest, so we have the chance to see some different culture here again. From the street, beggars were a lot, but the most pathetic could be seeing a lady carrying a baby begging on the street.  That’s really a sad side of China.

It is surrounded by a river, and we need to cross a bridge in accessing the stalls.

There’s a lot of food stall that sells varieties of local delicacies. By looking at it , all looks yummilicious, but when eating it, I found the taste could be so out of my taste bud. =(

Most of the stalls are selling similar products, such as intestine , smelly tofu , rabbit meat, which is a never in my list!

The only food that could attracted me, the candy, the glutinous rice balls, and beverages.  The glutinous rice balls were so big and hot, you have to be extra careful while eating it.

And I found a cute lion like dog! The owner just carry him around, and he is so friendly!

Ding ding ding, it’s lunch time Last lunch in Shanghai, and the soup is super HOT but NICE!

Then we depart to Hang Zhou, another 3 hours road trip. Still in time to have to do some shopping before the dinner.

Final dinner in Hang Zhou before we proceed to the cultural show.

西湖之夜  , the show is fantastic, worth for the price for what we’ve paid

Lastly, the end of the trip. Reaching Hang Zhou airport, and we’ve to ensure all of our luggage are not overweighted! The check in progress was quite smooth, as we were there on time so we still have plenty of times buying some food from the airport terminals.

The flight back to Kuala Lumpur will take another 5 hours to reach, so we must have a good sleep in the flight. Reaching KL around 4 am in the morning, and back to Miri at 7am flight. The overall journey was really meaningful, we really had a lot of great moments hanging out with friends.  Hopefully, there’s gonna be another chance to travel again with a bunch of friends. Till here, the end of my China Travelogue. Hope you enjoy reading the journey with me.

Everyone knows Station One has finally arrived Miri, so have you try yet?

Again, it was my late lunch yesterday, it wasn’t on my list to eat, but since its newly open I don’t mind to give it a try.

The new Station One is located at Bintang Megamall, at the old wings main entrance. Previously it was Delifrance on that spot, but too bad it doesn’t survive long enough. The concept of  Station One are meant to be a Leisure Cafe, meaning that you will get entertained instead of eating. Not a bad concept, but maybe it would be livelier environment if I’m going at night. I heard that there’s gonna be live band, which is more or less like Halo Cafe.

Excuse me for the low quality pictures, it’s all taken with my lousy 3Gs =(

Location wise, good. Environment wise, not bad. Ambiance, a bit dark but it’s too hot during day time!

The indoor seats were quite limited, because the layout plan is the narrow design, if you sit further away, I’m sure you could be very far away from the stage. But it’s okay, you use your ears for music, not your eyes right?

Or you can choose to sit outside, open air, hardly access to aircond but it has a lot of water cooling fan.

Now, take a look at the menu. Okay, being the first time I would allow myself to dine slightly more expensive meal I thought. But when I browse through the menu, I’ve been imagine how could I spend so much just for a lunch? Luckily I have Mr Ling with me to pay the bills, so I didn’t bother much about the price . Teeheheee…

Hey, I’m the #539 customer of Station One. Hehehe

Ordering system is good, you write what you want, but this is always a big trouble for the elderly and some waitress would not double confirm on what you’ve written.

My drink, Hot Honey.

His drink, 3 layer tea.

My meal, chicken chop rice.  Thumbs up, I finished the whole plate.

His meal, err, should be Nasi Lemak.

It’s all about Fusion, and that’s the trend going on nowadays. Although the price is slightly expensive, but I’m pretty sure it’s a good hangout place with friends and family.

Last but not least, it SERVE NO PORK. Don’t wait, go ahead and give it a try today!

Finally , it reach Day 7 of our China Trip. I’ve recovered from Flu, weather has been turning hotter, wallet has gone slimmer and tummy has got bigger. Phew!

So we’ve seen all the landmark in Shanghai, so today it’s time to EMPTY our wallet. Hurray! Whenever the tour guide says “Shopping Time” the whole group will automatically wake up.

The morning tour begins with “Chinese Traditional Massage”.

I keep wondering, it’s not listed in our itinerary, but how come the package so good bring us to massage. As what I thought, it was like in Thailand, where they bring you to massage and you have to pay tips to the masseur. Anyway, XiaoYuan the tour guide insist the massage is FREE, no tips allow. That’s bring more suspicious to us, where got FREE lunch in the world?

So when we reach the massage place, the tour guide will start telling us this is a Medical Hall run by the government called 同仁堂 .  Finally, the real faces come out, they use “Massage” as an excuse to get closer to you then the master will start telling you which part of your organ is dying, you should buy this , take this , and eat this to cure your sickness!

By now, you should feel that it’s a SPAM right?
See, we Chinese very “kiasi”. We can accept whatever cursing they made, and agree that we should take precautions in that short 30 minutes. All brain washed, by CLOROX!. Almost the whole group of us did purchase at least something from them. A little tiny bottle will cost RM200+, nothing is cheap here.  Yet, they will have their ways to persuade you to buy in bulk, at least for 3 months supplement , so the amount ended up to be very BIG.

Really, no free lunch in this world. Now you believe?
You only get to eat such a great meals after spending a few thousands of Ringgit Malaysia at their shop.

See la, next time, don’t bring credit cards. You have cards, you have excuse to simply spend! Dangit!

So where’s the medicine now? Inside the drawer, growing mucus soon.

Enough is Enough. Lesson learnt. Let’s continue the entire trip.

The next stop after lunch was at 新天地 Xin Tian Di, a western street where you could see a lot of westerner having lunch here.

The building are nice and unique. I felt that I’m stepping in London Street!

Next, we went to 城隍庙 Cheng Huang Miao , it’s not a temple but it’s actually an old street that consist of a lot of shoplots selling local products and handicraft.

We get to see a lot of new things here, especially in FOOD.

If you are thinking to get souvenir, then this is a great place to buy souvenir. Somehow, you must remember to bargain very HARD. As this is a tourist area, you can’t avoid they might slaughter you anytime.

As for the food, the most popular Shanghai Dumpling Bun  上海小笼包 sold here too. They have a lot of stalls selling it but the one called 南翔 is the best. But make sure you are ready for the long queue. I did not manage to try that bun, but my friend who had tried it says it taste just like what we had in the restaurant. So why does so many people still queuing for it ? Because it’s Famous la!

There’s a lot of side food, along the streets. There’s the pigeon, I really don’t dare to eat. Ya, i scare “bertflu”. Hahha

I’ve bought some souvenirs here while others bought a lot of “Cheong Sam”. It’s relatively cheap compare to what we could get in Malaysia. It’s just selling at RM80 per piece.  Price varies by quality.

We spent about 2 hours here, and the next station before dinner is another shopping station. But it’s yet another SPAM place. It’s the place selling 貔貅, Brave Troops. If you are superstitious, then you may consider buying one. They will tell you your luck, and let you know which colour of the troop is best suitable for you.

The lousy dinner, reason: because we did not purchase enough 貔貅 so he can’t earn more commission.

For the rest of the night, we were given own leisure time. Since our hotel is very near to 城隍庙, so we decide to go there again at night. The buildings were light up at night, looking real nice! We came back again to do last minute shopping, and I get my mom and my niece some Cheong Sam.

This would be the final night in China. Heading back to hotel, and start packing again. Tomorrow we will be heading back to Hang Zhou , and flying back to Malaysia.

Yes, I’m back to my travelogue again. Lately has been very very busy, but I’m happy over the hectic weekends at least it’s fruitful! Since today I’ve set myself a day off in office, so I grab the chance to continue blogging before I kick off at 6.30pm.

Back to my journey in China, we are going from Wu Xi to Shanghai on Day 6.

Went around a garden which I’ve forgotten the name, but it’s raining in the morning so it’s too hazy to take picture of Lake Tai Hu.

Remember what I told you about Wuxi in my previous post, it’s all about the “Lake of Tai Hu, 太湖”. So the local tour guide, a very pretty and confident lady called “xiao zhu” guided us to the Pearl Factory in Wu Xi. They have invent and planted this Pearls for years in the Lake Tai Hu.   It’s actually a shopping stop, which I would like to remind all the tourist, you really need to control your urge of buying when you reach this kind of shop.

• They will do demonstration, and tell you how GOOD is their PEARL.
• Pearl powder for health
• They will show you their Facial Product
• Pearl Accessories for ladies

Honest speaking, in olden days my mom say Pearl Powder are very expensive. Well it’s true enough, a small pack of 10 boxes cost around RM270. Yet, you need to buy in bulk. I bought it for my in law, I think they needs it more than we do.

For the facial cream, I will say big NO NO. Looking at the packing,does it worth for RM250 for that little bottle of pearl cream? They name it as BMW to indicate it’s quality assurance. As for the Pearl Jewellery, personally I did not spent a single cent buying it,  and if you are not interested please don’t ask them to take it out for u else the salesgirl will haunt you like a GHOST!

Okay, shopping done. We are going to take the a long road trip to Shanghai now.

On the rest station, at the Highway.

I’ve been wanted to try their “Sweet Corn” especially when I see it’s hot! Best on the cool weather.  Alex bought his favourite 关东煮 and I had my Sweet Corn which is tasteless, not crunchy and not sweet at all. Then only the tour guide tell me, all their “corn” are born that way !?!

Reaching Shanghai around 12, accessing all the great foods again. Dishes are more or less quite similar but still consider as edible

The afternoon tour is to visit the National Museum, but since it says No Photo allow so I’m also lazy to take photos there. It’s really a boring place, nothing much to see and it’s quite small. The one in Taiwan is more interesting.

After the Museum, we went to the most remarkable landmark, Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai.

This is my 2nd visit to Pearl Towel, still looking the same great after 10 years.

You need to go through a long queue before accessing the lift that brings you to the observatory sightseeing floor at 263m height.

Going down to 90M height to experience  the adventure of outdoor walking on the transparent floor.

Inside the pearl tower on the lower floors, there is a Wax Museum which contains of Shanghai History.

Amazingly, the wax museum are really unique. They must have spent a lot of time building this thing. All looks very real, and it does have a little creepy feeling too!

It’s getting late, and we are heading to 外滩 . It’s by walking distance from Pearl Tower to reach here. Wonderful views of the Classic and Modern Shanghai. Just capture a few pictures, then we are going for our dinner!

Again, I’ve no appetite with the dinner here. Too oily, salty and taste weird to me. Most important, it’s not hygiene at all. I bought myself an instant noodle again, and that’s for my supper!

After dinner, we have a cruise ride at 黄浦江, along the river. It’s very cold at night but luckily we all are well prepared.

Last and Final stop for the night at Shanghai, 南京路 where lots of 1st shop in Shanghai was founded here. Definitely it’s not a shopping heaven for me, all I need was FOOD.

Finally, 10 pm we were all back to Hotel. Overall I love this hotel, probably because it has a transparent toilet that makes me feel like it’s an honeymoon suite. :p

In my own opinion, I would say Shanghai is not a great place to stay, but a great place for tourist. I could see that most of the people here are very stressful surviving for their works. Compare to the previous cities that we’ve been to, Shanghai is the most developed but it’s also the most crowded.  Everything in Shanghai are slightly more expensive than other places.  I will never love to stay at the place with high cost of living. A simple life in Miri, isn’t it good enough?

Stay tune for Day 7!

For those, who are still waiting for a better iPhone 4 package, a better and affordable deals. Here comes the Celcom iPhone 4 !
Finally 5th May , the launch of retail iPhone 4 package in Miri. As it’s part of my job to understand into the plan, I think I could be the best person to elaborate the plan to you, who is interested to know it more Please don’t say I’m bias over Celcom, but seriously i think it’s worth to sign up.

Celcom Biz offers 3 package, iBiz 98, iBiz 148 & iBiz 248 . The value of the i , indicates the monthly commitment of the plan. For contract wise, you can go for 12 months or 24 months. By looking at the plan above,  you can actually estimate your personal usage per month.

For my own, I will go for iBiz 148 that’s because my monthly call usage is roughly around that.

• I can have 250 minutes of call to other networks (other than Celcom), which is equals to RM30.
• Most of my contacts are in Celcom networks, which i can enjoy 6000 minutes of Free Call. (Worth for RM720 as per 0.12 sen/min)

How about Data, seriously a lot of people come and tell me, I don’t need a “Data Plan” on my phone because I’ve “Wifi” almost everywhere I go. Think twice before you say this next time, it will be lots more convenient to have a Data plan on your phone.

• For i148 , I can have up to 4gb Data Quota with the speed up to 3.6Mbps.
• If you reach the Quota, you don’t have to pay more, but just the speed will throttle to 128kbps.

Seriously, not everywhere is “Wifi” friendly. Some people when you ask for “Wifi” access code, they are still considering to give or not to give. Certain cases is , even if you are connected to it’s Wifi, come’on it’s totally not moving. With Data plan, you can twit, you can FB, you can FourSquare, you can Blog, you can do whatever , anytime , any place you like.

So, What to pay during the 1st payment?

• Device payment + Upfront Payment
• Price varies by package and contract terms – (Refer to Chart)

What is Upfront Payment for?

• It’s not deposit, it’s just paying in “ADVANCE”.
• No, it doens’t mean on the 1st month you get it all rebate back on your 1st bill.
• It actually divides by the months of your contract terms.

EG 1 : Biz i148 – (12 months) : Device RM1288 + Upfront RM 300 = RM1588

• Upfront RM300 / 12 months = RM25
• Monthly Bill : RM148 – RM25 = RM123 ++

EG 2: Biz i148  - (24 months)  : Device RM848 + Upfront RM600 = RM 1448

• Upfront RM600 / 24 months = RM25
• Montly Bill : RM148-RM25 = RM123++

Now you get the whole picture, actually 12months or 24months does not give much difference. So what’s the point to get you stay for 24 months?

• Extra Warranty ! Yes, you don’t have to pay more but you get extra 1 year warranty for your lovely iPhone4

Or if you really love your iPhone, and you scare of losing it, then get an Insurance for your phone. HOW?

• Subscribe iBiz 248 plan, then you can enjoy FREE 12 Months Insurance Coverage for Attended Theft, Accidental Damage or Liquid Damage!

http://www.hyperlabs.net/tree/iphone.html

So now, what are you waiting for? Go to your nearest Celcom Center to get your Iphone 4.

It comes in Black and also WHITE!!!!  But the WHITE one is always very limited units so grab it when it’s HOT!

http://www.emoiz.com/white-iphone-4-launched

The only drawback I found out in this package, it takes 2 weeks to deliver your iPhone even after your line is active. 2 Weeks only , it’s worth to wait!

So are you ready to grab one for yourself or for your love one?

If you are from Miri, you may go to any TT ART outlet to enquire about this package too.

We’ve departed from Su Zhou in the morning around 10 after our breakfast from the hotel.  The road trip to Wu Xi would spent nearly one and half hour. It’s consider quite near. Somehow, the most shocking news we learnt from Xiao Yuan the tour guide is, our lunch is ready at Wu Xi and we shall be having our lunch as the first stop of Wu Xi. Freaking early lunch, its only 11.30am. It’s not even noon time.

Since we were here already, definitely we need to try some else it’s going to be a long visiting the whole afternoon.

Wuxi city is located at the shore of Lake TaiHu 太湖, it is known as the 3rd largest lake in China.  All the tourist attractions that we are going to visit in Wuxi are all related to the lake.

The 1st destination of Wu Xi will be the Ling Shan Grand Buddha 灵山大佛.

It is known that the Grand Buddha here are huge, which is the most spectacular thing among the tourist. We rented a tourist car, to cut down the walking distance. Ya, we are lazy people who are willing to pay RMB20 for transport but hesitate to give tips! Hahahaha!

Ticket entrance were included in the tour fee, so we just need to sit down and enjoy the scene!

The car stopped us at the inner entrance, where we still have to walk for 200 over steps before accessing the Grand Buddha which is 80 meter height.

We had a chance to take picture, made a wish and performs a simple praying. Although we are not Buddhist, but at least we need to show some respect to the Buddha right?

On the both side of the stair case, there’s a statue for us to take pictures.

On the left there’s a a Big Hand statue.  As what Xiao Yuan told us, we can go around the Big Hand and touch the big hand so that our wish would come true.

On the right side on the staircase, there’s a Laughing Buddha. Everyone is queuing to take photo with it.

We also bought a wishing craft and wrote down our wishes and hang it on the stand. It’s RMB10 yuan each. We saw a lot of people making a wish so of course Alex and I would not miss a chance. Not sure whether it is real, but at least I know, part of my wish is revealing now

Enough of photo session, now we shall proceed to the 200 over steps. This is just peanuts compare to our adventurous Mulu trip.

After the steps, we can take a lift to access to the Buddha’s leg. Not sure if you ever heard of this chinese saying, 临时抱佛脚。 There’s so much people queuing to hug the Buddha’s leg!

Alright , we’ve spent enough time hugging the Buddha and time to move on the next destination, 三国成。

三国城 San Guo Cheng is popular scene that they use for filming. The most popular movie which was taken scene from here are the Three Kingdomes Tv Series 三国演义 .

Unfortunately, the moment we reach here, it’s starts to rain. Weather has been so unpredictable, but the lucky thing is the umbrella is always with us.

Then we witness a live show performance from the actors which last for 15 minutes.

And we took a boat ride, imagine that we are going for a war!

Basically it’s just a site visiting, nothing much and we visited the tea pot factory. They restrict photo takings so sorry , nothing to share here.

We had the best dinner in Wu Xi, very special, and it suits my taste bud!

It’s a tiring day, finally reach the hotel. Took a good rest, and tomorrow we’re heading to Shanghai! Whoohoo!

So we stopped at Su Zhou, so let’s continue the journey after the lunch at the “can ting”.

The weather has turn hot in Su Zhou, it’s almost as hot as Miri although it’s only 18′c. I think it’s the sun that makes the weather tricky. Anyway, the afternoon journey is to continue at 山塘老街，the Shan Tang Old Street of Su Zhou. It attracts a lot of people, most of all, we saw a lot of wedding photo shooting event there. I saw at least 4 couples there. Definitely, its the breathtaking views that attracts all these crowds, which includes us the tourist.

We were actually crossing a river, and shoplots are two side a long the river. There’s a lot of local souvenirs and food to buy, and what did I get here? I actually bought a lot of chopstick from here! No picture taken, share with guys the next round

The shops and houses here are classic, especially the door knob. Each of the house have their own unique sets of door knob.

I saw some of the tourist did took a boat ride, I think you need to pay a minimum charge for it. Our group did not bother about the ride, the only thing that we are targeting are shopping!

It’s a shopping heaven for all.

I saw a lot of food , which I’m not sure whats the name of it. Somehow, by looking at so many locals are buying it, I guess it should be taste so good.

Then there’s a shop selling pastries at the very end of the street,  the aroma smells good so we decided to give it a try.  I got myself a sponge cake, taste good when its hot, and it’s just RMB 1 yuan, that equals to RM0.50 only.

And I spotted a few stall selling jack fruit, buah nangka, huiyo, in Malaysia those few pieces cost only RM1, but here, they are selling RMB20 yuan = RM10. So now you know, not that everything in China must be cheap!

The final stop in Su Zhou was also a shopping street, but now it’s a modern shopping street. It’s called Guan Qian Jie 观前街. I think almost everywhere in China is covered by tourist and locals especially on their public holidays. I did not spotted any special shops that attracts me, no, because there’s not much SALES , no , also because all the brand sound so unfamiliar to me.

So we actually does not have any idea of where to go, so ended up sitting outside of Watson where that’s the best place for me to shop throughout the street.  And taking some silly pictures at the street.

Look carefully at the roadsign above, its 太监弄, “Eunuch” alley. If you are not sure what is Eunuch then maybe you should wiki it

We had a very early dinner today, its just 5.30pm.

Dinner was bad, bad enough that we plan to have instant noodle at night. Somehow, I did not manage to wake up for supper, cos I’ve already fallen coma after the medicine.

Basically Su Zhou could be a really wonderful place, where you could find lots of classical view and even the modern ones. It’s a highly recommended must visit place, so plan ahead if you are planning to go China.

Coming up next, Wu Xi.