I’m still tuning to get back my normal routine of blog writing, but it seems like I could really only start writing a good post after a long long break. Yeah,  since I’ve done my house moving thing, everything settle, and life back to normal routine.

Just the last week, I went to Brunei twice, once up to Bandar and the other day we went up to Seria only. Whenever there’s friends and relatives visit from far, we surely bring them to Brunei for a short trip. Nonetheless, Excapade Sushi would be in the list.

The nearest town to Miri is Kuala Belait, which our friend En keep pronounce it as Kuala Be-Li-At. So we had our Sushi at 2pm and we continue to drive around Brunei. They did not plan to go up to Gadong as they still have more station to go after this.  Hence we drive along to Seria.

Seriously, I think this is my 1st visit to Seria, really don’t have much impression on this little town. Looking at the building and the street, its really quiet and classic. Which does not bring any much attention to us, the passerby. While we are hunting for an ATM machine, we passby this “kopitiam”. The thing that caught our attention ain’t the shop, but the young ladies sitting inside.

To our curiousity, why young girls love to hangout at this old coffee shop, also at the same time for the guys to “wash eyes” so we decided to park aside the car and have  a tea break in this shop.

This shop is actually just located on the main streets, which Seria only have that few row of shops it won’t be hard to notice. It is just the same row as the Maybank or Opposite of HSBC.

It was just about 3 pm, but the shop is crowded with customers.  From young to old folks. Enjoying the afternoon tea time with friends and family.

As for me, I found this Universal Cafe is quite interesting.
It gave me the 60’s feel, very classical feel.

This is their kitchen, where bread and drinks were out from this station.

Their specialties, toast, roti bakar, all about bread.

I get the waitress to get me the best of the best, so she introduce me cheese toast, and roti bakar with kaya .

Somehow by the time we sat down, the girls left. Look at their disappointed faces. So so so handsome

For 3 glass of drinks and few pieces of Roti Bakar, it cost around BND 5.60.  It’s cheap if it’s not converted to RM.  If you have chance to drop by, then do try out their roti bakar. You gonna love the classic feel!

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.

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.

S.O.X. – If you’re over 18, you just don’t get it!

Hate to say this but how I wish I was born 10 years later, at least I still manage to enjoy more benefits as a student. Teeheehee =)

Once again, CELCOM S.O.X  the best prepaid plan for student, is organizing the All – Stars Drum & Dance 2011 competition . It attracted 8400 crowds to the National Stadium last year, I believe it can be even better this year’s Final in KL. If you missed out the 2010, then check out their links.

As you know, I was part of Chung Hua band members when I was young, so I’m very alert when it comes to activities that relates to Band. As for the East Malaysia team, they are choosing 4 teams out of 7 that will be competing in KL for the Final. Since the event was held at Boulevard Shopping Complex Miri, both Alex and I spent a little “wild” afternoon joining this bunch of  young kids. Wahahaha, after seeing them I feel that I’m back to 16.

I’ve took a lot of pictures while Alex helps to do the video recording. Before I start covering this event, I think I better show off a picture here as a motivation to go on the entire post. :p

Gotcha! Yah, the Gotcha man is here.

I dare dare go infront and say , “Hi Ean, can I take a picture with you?”. Arrrgh, he’s so cute and friendly. Luckily Alex did not get jealous because personally I think Ean looks better than Alex. Hahahaha

Ok, Let’s begin with the rocking moment and I let my pictures do the talkings =) Sorry there’s really too much to share with you, so it might slow down a bit loading the pictures. Good things are worth to wait!

The Massive Crowds in Boulevard Shopping Complex, 3rd Floor.

The S.O.X registration booth, for those who are under 18, you get it for FREE!

The Awesome Emcee of this event.

And the 1st round qualifying stage begins with St.Columba Miri.

I love this part, very creative.

2nd Team : From St Joseph Miri.

His face is a bit too tense up. Relax..

3rd team is from Kuching, SMK Green Road.

Their uniform is cool.

Then it comes the 4th team, SMK Chung Hua Miri. That’s my school, proud of it right?

Team in Red. Stunning!

Of course, this girl get my attention, she’s rock with her black lips!

These are the big supporters of CH Band, don’t play play, they can shout off your ears!

The 5th team is from Shan Tao. (spelling might be wrong)

I missed out their performance.

6th Team from SMK Lutong, Miri.

And the final team from Riam Road Middle School, Miri.

Total of 7 teams, and they have put their best efforts. The judges would choose 1 team that will automatically qualify to the Final, while the remain 6 teams will have to battling each other.

The judges are cracking their head, it’s hard to make a decision. All the teams are superb!

While the judges are busy, let’s take a peep at the back stage.

Had a chance to see Ean interviewing the contestants.

The 3 young girls from Green Road Kuching. Sweet young 16. Mandy the one on the right say she only join drum sections for 3 months.

The red feather cap of Shan Tao.

She is Brenda from CH Band. Pretty & Confident

Let’s get back to the stage, and see who’s the automatic qualifier for the Final.

All the teams gathered and waiting for the results.

Their names had been called up.

Eliminate or Qualify?

By looking at their expression…

YES! They are the 1st team which is automatically qualify to the FINAL. Congratulations to CH BAND!

Meaning that 6 other teams would need to battle each other.

Shan Tao vs St Joseph  - The winner is St Joseph

Green Road Vs St Columba – The Winner is Green Road

Riam Road vs Lutong, the Winner is Riam Road.

Although the result has been announce, CH BAND would like to give another performance to all their fans and supporter.

Red team in action again.

Playing with confidence.

Risking for something extraordinary.

Telling the world, let’s BATTLE!

I think CH BAND really deserve to be the winner. Despite of their performances, their outfits are also putting 100% effort. Those parents are really rich to invest in these.

So if you wish to watch their performance, here’s a video from Alexallied.com

The event ended with certificates giving ceremony to all the participants.

Mr. Choo Meng Chung , the head of Celcom East Malaysia give all the youngster a big encouragement.

Thanks to Celcom for organizing this great event in Miri. I’m hoping to see for the Finals in KL. All the best to the teams that qualify to the finals and please make Sarawak be proud of you all!

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!