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.

Day 4 of my China Trip.

It also recorded the day of I’m not able to login to FB and also days of running nose. Achooo! Luckily, Mr Sunshine seems to protect me in Su Zhou.

The weather has turn better, roughly around 15′c daily. So we’ve actually took down a few layers of clothing, and look less bulkier from now on.

The Liverpool hotel does give a better standard of breakfast compared to previous. Seems like our hotels are getting better day by day.

Although we have a tour guide with us, somehow when we reach to Su Zhou, the tour agent arrange another local tour guide to bring us around. Met Xiao Liang, which I think he is quite professional. He actually brief us a lot of Local Cultures, the place where he grown up.

The first stop that we visited was the 耦园 , Couple’s retreat garden. Sounds cool right?  Personally I love this garden compare to the next one.

All these are so movie scene, isn’t it?

There’s a lot of flowers and rocks inside the garden. So just take as much photo as I could. :p

We were actually too happy to see the sunshine, it makes the whole garden lighten up! So do our mood!

We spent about 30 mins in this garden.  We took a boat ride back to the main entrance. It’s purposely arrange by the tour guide, he says he want us to experience their cultural. The old nanny will sing us some oldies, such as Teresa’s song and we will give some tips for her hard-work.

The boat ride was intent to be short, is just giving us a chance to take a look of the river view. There’s also a nice sakura inside this garden. This is the 1st time in my life to see sakura too!

The next garden we’re heading , would be 狮子林 Lion Grove Garden.  Sounds like a zoo more than a garden to me.

This place is over crowded compare to the previous garden. Maybe it’s smaller, and its located near to town area so there’s more visitor going into this garden. There’s a lot of street hawker trying to sell us some preserved fruits. Basically they are targeting tourist,  and they will sell you the fruits at a ridiculous price as if you have never seen fruit before.

So what to see inside this Lion Grove? It is famous for its large and labyrinthine grotto of taihu rock at the garden’s center as cited from Wiki. For me, personally, due to the crowd, seriously I can’t find any good spot to observes the rock. So , forget about it. Just take a few photos for remembrance.

That has been very kind of the tour guide, for arranging us to both of UNESCO garden of Su Zhou.

Before he ended the tour of Su Zhou, we were introduced to the Silk Factory. They said, this is government run organisation, so that the tourist should not have worry about purchasing their product.  The silk product that was being introduced by the tour guide does sounds so good somehow the quality of the product could only be justify after a few years of using it.

Again, the whole group, only the elderly couple bought a few products.

So cut the crap, let’s go to Can Ting. Anything wrong? Ya, it’s call 餐厅.   That was the pinyin translate.  Hmm, or why don’t they name it Canteen, it’s more similar to the translation.  Anyhow, the meal from here are consider good. Not too oily, which is more suitable to our taste bud.

Look at that huge pork leg, oh… that’s William’s favourite.

This conclude our Su Zhou, garden tour in the morning.  I will update more on shopping is Su Zhou in my next post

This is the first time I visit to Hang Zhou 杭州 , China. Like I mention in my previous post, by judging it’s Airport Terminal, I’ve already have some high expectations over the development of this city.

Our tour guide, Xiao Yuan tells us some great stories of china. I cited up here one of  the Chinese sayings, 生在苏州, 活在杭州, 吃在广州, 死在柳州.  I roughly translate it, born in Su Zhou, Live in Hang Zhou, Eat in Guang Zhou, Die in Liu Zhou. So why is that live in Hang Zhou? That’s because Hang Zhou is popular of its beautiful scenery. A lot of them find it peaceful to stay here compare to other developed city. In fact, they are very proud to be part of Hang Zhou.

The main tourist attractions in Hang Zhou would be the Westlake 西湖。It’s not only attracted tourist but during the public holidays and weekends the locals would get around. The city is build around the lake, which is around 600 hectares and there’s a lot of scenic place around which are worth for visits.

Our 1st destination of the day will be taking a boat ride around Westlake. It’s around 4′c and everyone of us were challenging the coldness with the rain!

The lake itself is very big, but by taking the boat, we can view up all the scenic spots and the tour guide will give us a little knowledge of the love legend of Westlake.  Seriously, I can’t recall of what I’ve heard.

By walking distance, we reach another attractions, 雷峰塔  , a pagoda which is built along the Westlake. There’s of course another historical story of this pagoda, but cut the crap, we are taking the lift and going up to the 4th floor. The great scenic view of the lake  was really awesome.

Shortly, it reach lunch time. I’m a bit worry of the food in China. You know, there’s always article saying that food in china were processed by unknown materials. We shouldn’t bother much, and I have faith with the travel agent they don’t dare to play fishy here. Isn’t it?

We were brought to this restaurant which is also located by the lake. The eating hall looks grand, but dishes ain’t giving good appetite.  Maybe this is our first meal in China, we haven’t get used to the food.

1. It’s too salty

2.It’s too oily

3. Food ingredients are weird

4. The portion are damn HUGE

5. Their fish has a lot of BONES

Out of the above, actually we do enjoy the meal. Every meal, we would have at least 8 dishes on the table. Non of the meal we could finish up the whole portions.

Let’s continue our Westlake journey to the long bridge 长桥. According to Xiao Yuan, this is a lover’s bridge. So he advise us to cross the bridge by holding our partner’s hand tightly. Sweet & Romantic right? Not only that, it was still raining, we were walking under the rain and crossing the bridge. <3

After the heavy lunch, Xiao Yuan told us that the afternoon programs were mostly by foot and there’s a hill to climb.  What? In such cold weather, you expect us to climb hills?  He must be kidding right?

We did take a 40 mins walk around the lake, surrounded with beautiful peach blossoms.. I’ve almost forgotten the cold. Do you like the flowers? Let’s have a closer look

Hope you like it

The whole group of us refuse to go up to the hill, in fact we ask the tour guide, what could we see from the hill? He answered us, “West lake”. Enough, we had enough of westlake. So just take a photo at the entrance and we proceed to other places. At least we’ve been here, Gu Shan 孤山。

The next destination would be the “岳王庙” , the Temple of Yue Fei.
There’s some old folks story, but I’m totally blank of these. Alex knows better, he’s interested with all the historical stories.

It’s almost 5pm. Near to closing time.

Before we proceed to Dinner, we have a little street walk again by the lake.  The whole day program was totally all about the West Lake. There’s nothing much here, just crossing some streets, and take some pictures. Our dinner were somewhere nearby, so around 6pm we proceed to have dinner.

This time, the restaurant looks a bit classy. It’s on the 2nd floor inside a building.

As what we’ve been told, the signature dish in Hang Zhou are the dong po rou 东坡肉 and Jiao Hua Ji 叫花鸡。 However,  Xiao Yuan says that tonight they are unable to provide us, I don’t know what’s the reason behind. What to do, just eat what is provided. The size of the prawn are really pitiful. In Sarawak, we don’t eat such a small prawn, we’ll put it into dishes as side ingredients.

After dinner, we were given self activities hour. Of course it’s shopping time.

I did not get myself anything, I don’t know why, perhaps its just not my shopping mood?

We were back to Hotel around 8.30pm. The night is still young, but someone will grow older over this night.

We celebrated Robert’s birthday in his hotel room. It was suppose to be a birthday surprise, but so sorry, I spoiled their initiatives :p

Nvm, as long as everyone is happy, we did enjoy the moment!

Lastly, a closing to this post.

Our late night supper. This is is a Muslim Beef Ramen shop. Unbelievable that we found out Muslim shops in China.

We’re going to visit the most popular Long Jin Tea 龙井茶 factory tomorrow. See ya!

Seriously, I meant it.

If you are a big fans of 阿贤人情味 Taste with Jason, I guess you did follow his series of Food introductions around Malaysia. One of the place that he ever introduce was the Ah Tao Seafood Bah Kut Teh which is located at Klang. Amazingly, we’re fortunate enough to have it in Miri too! Don’t get me wrong, they are not franchise, but they mastered the skill from them too.

So let me introduce you the Ah Tao Bah Kut Teh in Miri.

Ah Tao Bah Kut Teh would be slightly different from others. Uniqueness in the taste, ingredients & way of cooking too!

It was just newly open since December 2010.  Located near to Airport Road, next to Telang Usan Hotel.

Although the location is quite far away from town, however I think the great food will attract a lot of customers from far away!

This is a family run business. When I first walk in,  the concept, the people, all makes me feels like I’m at home!

Take a look at their menu.

Their specialties are the Bah Kut Teh. Dry & Wet.

Now take a look at the Dry Bah Kut Teh. RM 10

Seriously, this kind of Bah Kut Teh mostly available in Klang or West Malaysia.

A lot of people in Sarawak has never come across this. It taste real good, *my saliva is dropping*.  Awesomeeeee!

You may choose which part of meat you prefer. As for me, of course I will go for lean meat. In this bowl of Bah Kut Teh, other than meat, it comes with Fu Chuk – Bean Curd Skin and with a few slices of sotong to add up the taste of it.

This is the very common type of Wet Bah Kut Teh. RM 9 per bowl.

Honestly I think they are very generous in putting in the ingredients. At other places, I won’t see the bowl to be so full of meat, instead of soup. If you are running out of soup, you can get them to refill for you.

Or if you think you might not finishing the portion, in a more economical way, maybe you can order for 1 bowl and get 2 plates of garlic rice.

The 2nd specialty of the restaurant is their Garlic Rice.  Really double thumbs up!  RM1.50 per bowl.

You can choose your own selections of Vegetable depends on their availability.

Or if you think Bah Kut Teh is too heavy meal, then you can opt for Fried Kuih Tiaw too!

So are you ready to give it a try?

View Larger Map
Operates daily, off on Tuesday. 6.30 till late.

Contact Number : 0168781638 to make any bookings.

I heard that they are going to introduce Seafood Bah Kut Teh very soon. Arrrgh I can’t wait to go there again :p

A short introduction of this trip to KK.

I was leading a group of colleagues to KK for our target achievement trip.  Everything were paid by company, and the only thing we should do is sit down and enjoy the holiday.  There were a  total of 10 of us in a group taking Air Asia flight from Miri to KK for a 3 days 2 night trip.

Our group photos before heading to KK.

And we arrive at KK terminal 2.

I’ve rented a van that can accommodate 10 of us and of course a driver

So before the journey begins, let’s have show off the pocket money given by the company. Everyone were so happy

So basically, the trip were meant to be short but intensive. I’ve made all the research and asking around for HALAL food before the trip.  One of our colleague is Muslim, so I have to double confirm that place is edible by her. Hmm.. But the good thing, there’s a lot of “serve no pork” place in KK.

Before we proceed for the afternoon Kundasang tour, we need to fill in our stomach first.

So we chosen Apiwon Restoran which is located at Luyang for our lunch stop.

I chosen here because :

1. It’s edible.

2. Suitable for muslim.

3. It’s recommended by a friend of mine.

So here we come, for the beef noodle.

Found out some specialty in this shop, or should say in KK, they provide 1 utensil box for all the chopsticks and other necessities.

You just have to chose what you want to eat from the pictures.  There’s no other menu.

Quick and Simple.

Since there’s 10 of us, so the “tau ke nio” is very busy taking order one by one.

Beef Kuih Tiaw for Mr. Ling

Beef Bihun for Mrs. Ling. That’s me! :p
Beef slice and Beef Balls, great combinations!

Bestttt served with Hot Chili!

I really enjoy the food, the soup, the balls, the beef , the chilies…. not until….

Someone throw this out from his mouth and  say this thing very hard to chew …

Take a closer look, it’s a Cigarette Butt!!

No kidding,  it’s not suppose to be part of the ingredient, isn’t it?

It’s from this bowl of Beef Kuih Tiaw.

Alex totally lost his appetite, somemore he is on fire! Imagine, you keep chewing something in your mouth which you expect it should be edible, and it ended up to be a Cigarette butt??

Our driver, Mr Four Eye, with full of Tattoo, called the “tau keh nio”.

She’s nervous when we showed her the ciggie butt.  We didn’t made much noise at the shop, I don’t want to spoil their reputation. So we let her investigate and give us an explanation.

She turned back and told us it might be from the factory that produce the 冬菜 preserved vegetable.

She discount RM7.50 for a bowl of beef noodle.

She looked panic.

Ok now, by looking at her explanation, we definitely won’t be very satisfied, but it’s happened and it’s over. Somehow as a blogger, I think I still need to report out the truth here. At least when your next visit, you gonna be watch out for any special ingredients in your bowl.

This is how KK welcomed us, in such a special way, treating us a free cigarette butt! It’s still a nightmare for all of us. Luckily, the entire trip were smooth so it compensate back for what is bad. =)

p/s: No.. don’t try to sue me like what others did because I have all the supporting evidence and hopefully when people search on Apiwon I won’t be on the 1st page of Google Result. :p

Have you heard of Ajisen Ramen or in chinese 味千拉面? Well, courtesy to some big tycoon in Miri and now we can enjoy another variety of Japanese food.

Since it’s located so near to my work place, it has caught our attention since the close down of the previous Shiki Japanese Restaurant. Initially I was thinking Shiki was doing their renovation job but not until I saw this new and striking signboard up, I know, a new eating place is going to bloom up at this area.

Okay, so there’s no more Shiki but Ajisen Ramen now. =)

There’s a lot of discussion going on the I love Miri City facebook page of their opening.  The only thing I must clarify, it’s 100% not halal.

1. They serve pork.

2. They serve Japanese Wine.

Sorry again muslim friends.

So here you go, a food review for all my readers out there.

I visited Ajisen Ramen yesterday afternoon around 2pm. I knew when it’s newly open I don’t have to expect everything in order, so I’ve cut down some expectations before entering it. Somehow, to my surprise, my friend was helping out there, so everything was well entertained. Thank you kimmy!

RM1.90 for a glass of greetea – ocha. Free refill of hot water.

So, in this picture, you see there’s a pair of chopstick. I think I would like to gain your opinion of using chopstick while waiting for the food to be served.

• So you prefer disposable or reusable chopstick?

1. Personally, I will be more enjoying the meal if it’s a clean reusable chopstick. Ok, I expect in such restaurant their hygienes must be good right?
2. I don’t mind having a disposable chopstick if it is a better grade bamboo, right? Not the smelly type.
3. To conclude, I suggest if they could change the quality of the chopstick. This is just my humble opinion

Now. Let’s take a look into the available Ramen’s Choice.

My friend introduced Paiku Ramen but too bad by the time I arrive, it’s sold out.  So we try out some other ramen in the menu.

This is Curry Cha-Su Ramen RM16.90. spicy soup. I’m not a big fan of Curry… but my bro chosen this.

Volcano Cha-Su Ramen RM17.90.  - spicy soup

If you love spicy soup base, then you can try Volcano, I’m sure you explode like a volcano too!

Kimuchi Ramen RM15.90 , sour & spicy.

Alex is a big Kimchi lover, err, now only I know Japanese have kimchi too. Good invention huh!

Miso Cha-Su Ramen RM15.90 , salty miso soup.

As for me , I heart Miso Soup so I try miso ramen.

Overall, the portions are very big, I can’t finish it alone and have to share it with Alex. Somehow, personally I don’t like to eat pork especially this type of  ”white” looking pork. But since beef are running out of stock so I try out the Cha-Su. Sometime I think I better name myself as Fatimah.

You can have some other Japanese Food as well.

We got this grill salmon fish head, RM19.90.

He looks so sad, not because we eat him, but because of the 311 Tsunami happened in Japan. =(

By the time we finish our lunch, the crowd is getting lesser. It’s almost their rest time. Time for them to replenish new stock for dinner.

Total spending for 5 of us , RM123.10. What a nice figure!

Okay, so tell me when is your next visit? Please bring me along, I wanna try out their beef ramen. Or if they are kind enough to invite me to fully feature Ajisen Ramen in my blog again also can. hahaha!

Apparently, this Chinese Delight located very near to my workplace. I’ve always tease the name, “Why so lame?” and finally I stepped into it last weekend, and I finally get myself a proper answer.

中国饺子王  is China Dumpling King for a direct translation.

If you always hangout around Boulevard Area, you might have noticed this place as their signboard are quite big and blinky at night.It’s just on top of My Store department store.

Right away you walk into the staircase, you will see another blinky area, Very China Style.

From the signboard and the staircase, I swear I won’t go up by my own if it’s not being invited.

The whole surrounding make me really feel I’m in China now. *I’m going Shanghai next month* Woot!

They even have China Drama on a 21″ LCD screen for the customers.

The seating area. The hygienes more or less can compare what I’ve ever come across in China.  It’s clean, but just not the way that we are used to in Miri.

The set up is totally simple, or in other word, messy?

Serving tea, in a very classic way.

Now, I start to think, why does people recommend me to try out if it’s so un-appetite-ting?

Forget about the look, forget about the blinky staircase, I’m here for FOOD. Okay?

The Cabbage Dumplings RM6

Another vege + meat dumplings also RM6

This is 3 special dumplings in 1 plate.

Honestly, it taste GOOD.

Generous in Ingredients.

Dip with the China Chili Sauce , 麻辣酱.

There you go, you going to eat one after another.

When it get too spicy, you would need Sour Plum Juice to cool down.

Other than dumplings, they have other China delights.

This is Beef Noodle. I personally like the noodle, it’s springy. The soup also not bad eh..

Despite of the outlook seems strange to the local, they do have their own regular customers as well. I assume they are very authentic China delights as the waitress are from China also.

Total spent RM34 for all the dumplings and noodles.  What do you think, reasonable?

I will go there again for the rest of the menus, if you are going, let me know how’s the review. =)

Really, don’t judge the book by it’s cover! Hahaha!

So sorry to all muslim friends, it’s not HALAL!. I get you other place next time =)

If it’s not the lost of Happy, I think I won’t have the chance to try out the Vegetarian Food in Miri.

Oh well, why does it relates to Happy the dog? Ya, previously I’ve blog about the missing dog, Xuer, whom is the dog owner swear if she could find back her beloved dog, she is willing to be 1 month Vegetarian. Ya, her wish is granted. She’s now already 2 weeks of Vegetarian!

Let’s get back to the topic, I’ve visited 2 Vegetarian Cafe in the last few days.

1. CGS Vegetarian Cafe , located at Faradale Garden Shop Lot (Near to Shabu Shabu)

There’s a lot of customers during the lunch break, we can’t even get a comfort seat but to squeeze among to stock piles. That is really too bad. But they have varieties of Vegetarian Food that you won’t get bored.

Vegetarian Chap Fan looks the same like the ordinary Economic Rice. RM4

And of course, you can’t miss out the Mushrooms.
They have full menus of mushrooms , and I ordered Butter Milk Mushroom. RM8.

2. Qing Xiang Vegetarian, located at Boulevard Commercial Centre (Opposite Family Pharmacy)

This is so near to my office, but this is the 1st time I step into it.
My first impression, the shop is too dark from outside, I always doubt to go in and I always say this is “Dark Shop”.

Since Xuer highly recommend us the “Salad Mushroom Rice” so I don’t mind to give it a try.
RM5.50. Yeap, I love mushrooms, i’m loving it.

Pris had the Nestum Mushroom, again its mushroom. Don’t expect meat okay?

Yen had Claypot Rice. Sorry for the blurry pics, i’m too greedy to finish my mushrooms.

Our drinks.

For a short comparison, I would slightly prefer Qing Xiang.
Maybe it’s less crowder compare to CGS. Somehow their menu is more organized and with pictorial.

Oh ya, I heard that Muslim Friends can try out at Vegetarian Cafe too. Is that true enough?