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!

416, the long awaiting day for most of us in Sarawak was finally over.

Too much controversy, too much propaganda, which I don’t think with my little knowledge of politics could do much explanations here. Somehow, as a citizen of Miri City, I think I’ve done what I should have done.

Few years ago, my mom asked, “Why didn’t you come back to Miri for vote?” I replied, it’s non my business. With me or without me, the result will still be the same. SUPP will always be Mirian’s leader. That was 4 years ago, when I was still totally a noob.  After years of rolling in the society and being brain washed by either party, I know that’s my responsibility to cast my vote.

Well, on 16th of April 2011, I’ve done it.  It’s my “Virgin Vote” but I believe there’a lot of you who are still holding the “Virgin Vote”.

My assigned polling station was at SM PEI MIN , Krokop.  I saw a lot familiar faces here, this year I think Mirians are really looking forward for a change. Is either a threat for SUPP or it could be a room of improvement for them.

My voting area is under N64 PUJUT , SUPP -YB Andy Chia vs Fong Pau Teck from DAP.

Over the past few days, DAP has been working very hard on the election campaign every night and they’ve attracted massive crowds. These people who attended, might be those who are seriously supporting  a change or they are just being an observant?

Messages has been spreading over internet, advise and warning all the voters to take a clearer looks on our voting tickets. Rumour says, some dirty tricks could be played on our tickets. I did not bother much. I know it’s always ended out with some black magic which is out of my control no matter how hard we try to prevent it.

It has been the most aggressive weeks I could see Mirians posting up in their facebook & twitters.  I’ve been trying hard to stay neutral, but it’s pretty hard to make a decision.

I’ve crossed on the column whom deserved my vote.

It’s the most crucial day for both parties, but it’s also to all the Sarawak people. Even my friends from Johor would drop me a call and message to concern the situation over here.

Results were slowly being announce through the Internet and also live report from TV 1.

In Miri, both Rocket flies defeated Datuk Patinggi George Chan & YB Andy Chia.  Honestly, I have mix feeling, not sure I’m happy or I’m sad. But I want  to see a change at the same time.  I can’t deny that SUPP did a lot of contributions to Miri but there’s too much of dark side stories too at the same time. It’s really awful to know that.

Meanwhile, in N65 Senadin area faced some difficulty in their vote counts. It has been announced that SUPP YB Lee won by razor thin margin of  58 majority.  PKR side request for recounts. Riot happened at the Miri Indoor Stadium until late night and ended up in Police Stations. This is going to be a never ending story I bet.

Now we are looking forward for the Parliament Election. I’m not sure when that’s gonna be, but if you haven’t done your registration as a voter, please do it now. It’s very easy, you can just do it at any post office nearby. Our future is control by our own.

All the best Miri, we hope to see a better change from now on!

Yada Yada,  we’re heading to Shanghai today.  Will be back with my wonderful travelogue.

XoXo. Don’t Miss Me.. :p

I was sitting by the coffee shop, taking my late lunch. Then I saw 2 ladies carrying her own box of paper containers to buy some Nyonya Kuih.  I was wondering, since when Miri people has start to practice to use own container rather than wasting plastic bags or the hazardous polystyrene food packing?

Source

We all know that polystyrene or styrofoam is really bad for the whole environment, harmful for you and me. But did you really start prevent using them?

As a consumer, we only want conveniences. If you ask me to bring a container to buy some food, I might end up not buying the food but to eat there instead.  Somehow, in certain situation you still need to take away or tapao the food.

Great thing that I found out from my take away chicken rice , they use the paper container. This is more environmental friendly. I like it. I’m not too sure about the cost of this packing but one thing for sure, it’s better than Styrofoam. Right?

Somehow, this could only use to put some dry food. Imagine you put some food that consist of gravy or soupy type,  I don’t think the paper container can support.

=) I’m happy with this kind of new invention.  Hoping that there will be more eatery place start using this kind of packaging.

I’m just trying to blog from my iPhone. Sometimes not that every post need to be long, but some good things must be shared instantly.

Have been using mobile Internet for a few years but never fully utilise it on my blog. Since I’ve install this app on my iPhone , I hope it works!

Let’s make it simple, with a picture of the day….

Previous related links:

Mulu World Heritage – Day 1: Getting There
Mulu World Heritage – Day 1: Moonmilk Cave
Mulu World Heritage – Day 2: Penan Settlement
Mulu World Heritage – Day 2: Wind Cave

Right after the Wind Cave, we are eagerly waiting for the Clear Water Cave.  As told by my friends who ever came here, the water are very cold and very nice to swim. I’ve put some expectations looking forward this cave, not for the cave but for the river.

The long boat will be parked aside waiting for the tourist to finish the tour.

The barrier after the boat are the safety zone for swimming.

Before we could proceed to swim, we need to take 200 steps upward to the clear water caves. 200 only… but it’s really tiring too.

I was here , at Clear Water Cave =)

The view from top of the cave, and we need to walk down into down the stairs again. Really , this time I feel that my legs getting heavier taking every steps.

I’m not sure how these rocks are form, but they are very unique.

Views from from the inner side of the cave.

Sunlight inside the cave

In the clearwater cave, it is link to Lady Cave.

Some people thing some of the formations here look like ladies.

Seriously, the shadow looks like a lady!

And this lady, finish her tour in the Clear Water Cave.:P

I did not manage to get much pictures in the cave as I did not bring my DSLR , yet my compact not giving me a nice exposure.

Let’s put the highlight into the clear water!

They warn us, not to drink the water!

There’s a group of Spain family who were here for vacation. They are bravo, the whole family just jump into the water without second thought.

But for us, we were freezing and feels reluctant to go down. Now you see the difference. Haha!

By looking at this water level, it looks like the water are quite shallow, but for the real, it’s deeper than my height.

We stay there until 12 pm and we proceed back to the hostel. Took a short nap before we continue our afternoon tour.

Coming up next, Deer Cave & Lang Cave.

Not again, another random post! Still not in the mood to continue my travelogue, and lately didn’t dine out at any interesting place so I’ve gotta continue it with my so random craps.

The weekend is here again, another week is spent unmeaning-fully. Why? Other than work, eat then sleep i can’t think of any special things I’ve done to make myself happy.

Oh ya, yesterday I was still doubting about the coming outstation week, but My passport were sent for Visa application so I can’t go anywhere but stay at Miri. Okay, another week for me to continue my day dreaming.

Went to site checking on the house renovation progress.  Everything looks so confusing and messy, I don’t even have the mood to plan it how I actually want it to be. Probably it takes another 2 weeks for them to finish up the interior then only they will start the car porch and my gate. Initially, we thought everything should be simple and control within our budget. Phew, it’s really a big project in the end.

Now I have thousands of things to do in my list, but everything cost a lot of money!

This is the wall near to the dining room.  Took down the existing tiles, as we found it not so matching =)

This is the ceiling , dont panic looking at it, cos I’ve fainted once when I saw it at first. Due to some extension work are done, therefore the ceiling have to be cracked. Not a big problem, it can be conceal back.

Both of us were really stress up during this moment, can’t really concentrate on the work due to the thousands of miscellaneous thing to plan and do.  But for our future lovely and comfy home.. it’s worth to sacrifice this much <3.

Alright, I should finish up my work and pamper myself at the hair salon. :p

XoXo