Finally after the 2 hours “pee holding” road trip, and shortly we arrived Wu Zhen 乌镇. I’m proud to tell you that this is my 2nd visit to this beautiful scenic town. Somehow, I’ve lost my memory for the past 10 years, so now I’m here again to recall it back!

Although this place has been one of the most popular tourist spot, somehow, the historical & cultural scene within this wall are well kept & maintain. Believe or not , it has last for more than a thousand years. There are still residents living in this water town, living on a simple life and doing some small business for living.

Take a look at the whole structure, its very classic with historical interest.  There’s only one best word to describe Wu Zhen, a peaceful water town.

Our tour guide, Xiao Yuan brief us some chinese beliefs in the olden days. In all the architectures built, they have their own reasons behind.

This little girl who also grow up in this town, earning by selling the handicrafts for living. Some of the houses are selling some local desserts.

The classic windows and doors which you only found in Chinese Ancient movie, but now the modern “us” are standing inside.

The structures of all the building are almost the same, but the most similarity would be their roof & tiles.

We enjoyed photo taking.

I love the street view.

I love the water town scene.

I love the old buildings.

It’s really a great place for visit.

At least for me, who has never grown interest with Chinese history, would gain a chance by witnessing by my own.

Somehow I dislikes the dinner provided. I think they purposely want us to taste what the locals are having. It looks so home cook right?  That’s absolutely right, the restaurant name were also very classic, it’s call Grandma’s Home, 婆婆家·  See, non of us appreciate the dishes, seriously I can cook 10x better than this.  Hahaha, don’t challenge me. :p

Sky is getting dark, we departed Wu Zhen around 7pm, and reaching Su Zhou 苏州 by 8pm.

Su Zhou welcome us with strong winds, I believe it’s reaching another 4′c coldness. We went to the lake side to have a night view of Su Zhou industrial park which is a project cooperation of  China & Singapore. No wonder, the buildings does resemble a bit like Singapore’s!

Then we witness the biggest LED Screen in the world , which is located at Su Zhou.  It’s located along the street and it’s outdoor type. Once again,an eye opener for me, woah, that’s really awesome! I truly understand, why people classified China as the fastest growing country.

We were staying at Liverpool hotel, where MU fans were also have to stay here. Ahaks! This is the hotel room that we’re staying. Although the TV program is not as good as previous, but its located so near to the Universities. We can access to all kind of student’s night life, and this is a great place for us to hang out.

Having our mid night supper at one of the restaurants. We’re not alone, there’s still a few student hanging out although it’s getting late.  Feels like we’re back to 18 again.

That’s conclude a long haul journey. Pretty tiring with running nose with me. Took a good rest and we’re going to visit lot’s of Su Zhou classical gardens tomorrow. Stay tune ya!

After staying 2 nights in Hang Zhou, today we will be heading to Su Zhou.

The weather is good, about 13′c, it’s still cold but at least it’s not raining.

The last destination in Hang Zhou will be visiting their most famous Long Jing Tea Factory, 龙井茶. Honestly, I think our Cameron looks better, but the tea leaves I’m not the expert to compare. According to the experts from the tea factory, whom so called himself as Tea Expert saying that Long Jin Tea is good for health, and that is what Japanese call it Green Tea.

This is actually a shopping stop, which is compulsory included by the tour. The expert is trying very hard to sell off his product, telling us jokes and do so much demonstrations on how great the tea is.  I believe that the tea is really good but well, non of us purchased except Uncle & Aunty, the only elderly in our tour whom are the parents of my best friend, Yen.

Initially Alex thought of getting me a can, which is about 125g only. Somehow they are  selling in bulk, which cost ranging from RM600 to RM1200 for 500g. This is way too expensive for the people whom don’t know how to value the tea. It’s a waste, I thought. Somehow, I think that Long Jing is actually smell very nice compared to other tea that I’ve ever taste.

According to the expert, everyone in China loves tea, especially Long Jing Tea. It can be drink even its cold. Alex keep emhasizing to me, it can helps to reduce fat! OMG, that’s the thing that he actually wanted me to have this.  Still, I said it’s too expensive, so he ended up didn’t buy any. Hahahhaa , evil is laughing!
Since nothing is bought, let’s take some photo for remembrance. Yay! =)

Finally we had a better lunch somewhere nearby the Tea Plantations.

The special dishes are finally here, 东坡肉 and 叫花鸡 . Taste absolutely great! Compared to what we had yesterday, this is heaven privilege.

Not only the food is great, the whole surrounding are with great views of Hang Zhou.

The remaining afternoon, we shall not drink too much. Have to make sure the bladder is empty, because we are taking another 2 hours journey to Wu Zhen before we could reach Su Zhou.

After 2 hours ride, we reach this little town, but it’s not Wu Zhen yet, it’s a Chrysanthemum factory, another shopping stop.  I get frightened by the toilet, which make me lost confidence with whatever product sold from this factory.  The toilet trauma is still deeply remembered.. its better not to share here.

About the Chrysanthemum, it’s consider very cheap, it sells in bulk as well, RMB100 for 4 boxes. Still, you can’t get my business le!

Alright, enough of shopping, enough of the eerie toilet, we still need to take another hour ride. We will be reaching Wu Zhen 乌镇 shortly, kindly follow the next blog post.

Before that, let’s enjoy the wonderful country side view. I’m hearting it! =)

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!

I’m back updating my blog, just because I would love to share something out of the politics topic which is so HOT in town these days.

This China Trip were planned in July 2010, we grabbed the cheap tickets from Air Asia and the travel date was actually 10 months ahead. Initially we have 16 travel members, however, 2 of them did not manage to join in, hence we ended up 14 people in a group.

Honestly, going travel can be very tiring, especially when you are going in a big group. The lucky and sweetest thing is, all the travel members are all working adults, we ain’t the 1st time traveler, we don’t need a leader as all of us can take good care of our own. Some of us were close friends, friends of close friends and family members. We could get along very well and give the most co-operation all the time.

Here’s a brief summary of our Travel Itinerary before we start this Travelogue.

8 days 7 night – Go around China Trip

• 2nd April 2011 – Kuala Lumpur to Hangzhou. Arrive around 10 pm.
• 3rd April 2011 – Hangzhou day tour
• 4th April 2011 – Hangzhou to Su Zhou
• 5th April 2011 – Su Zhou day tour
• 6th April 2011 – Su Zhou to Wu Xi
• 7th April 2011 – Wu xi to Shanghai
• 8th April 2011 – Shanghai day tour
• 9th April 2011 – Shanghai back to Hangzhou , Flight from Hangzhou to Kuala Lumpur
• 10th April 2011 – 4AM arrive Kuala Lumpur LCCT

Prebook Meal from Air Asia. Asean Meal & International Meal

Air Ticket price : RM 540 (Kuala Lumpur – Hangzhou) by Air Asia not inclusive of baggage fee & food.
Travel Package Fee : RM 900 per person – Include of 4-5 star hotel accommodation, food & transport.
Ticket & Tips : RMB 350 / RM 175 – Extra tour fee for ticket entrance and some other tourist spot.
Cash money to spend : RMB 1000/ RM500 per person

Arrive Hang Zhou Xiao Shan Airport

After 5 hours flights from KL to HGH, finally we arrive Hang Zhou Xiao Shan International Airport. According to the tour guide, this airport was newly renovated 2 years ago. Basically it looks grand, far more improve than the 10 years ago when I firstly step into China. Very impressive, really impressive! By judging by the airport, Ive already put some expectations on the cities.  Let’s follow me!

China welcome us by rains. It is spring season now, which it is suppose to be around 11-17c daily. However, it welcomes us with 8c… this is really awesome when you see your own smoke while talking!

The travelmates, greeted by the young tour guide, Xiao Yuan

The one holding mic is our tour guide for the whole trip. In China, they will prefer people to add “小” xiao in front of their surname for us to remember them easily.  So as our tour guide, we call him 小圆, but of course this is not his real name.

Ramada Hotel

We were staying at Ramada Hotel. The hotel distance from the Airport took around 30 mins. This hotel locates quite far away from the city center, but I like the environment, it’s quite and peaceful. A great place for us to rest after the long hour flights.

The average rate for this hotel cost around RMB 890 / RM 445 per room, dividing into 2 person, its RM222.50 per person.

Remember, we only paid RM900 per person for our travel package. It’s worth right? We are able to enjoy the 1st class facility by paying little affordable amounts. Another credits the travel agent

Our Hotel Room, clean and modern.
The best thing, it comes with the  network TV, which acts like PPS. You have all the latest drama and movie from the list.  I’m loving it!

All of us were very hungry, we are looking for food but too bad most of the eatery place were close. The only place we could go is the convenience stall. All of us went into a little shop and bought a lot of foods from here. There’s a lot of beverage for you to choose. Variety choices of Instant Noodles that you hardly get it in Malaysia.

Don’t bother so much, the weather was freezing cold outside. It’s better we go back to our room, and grab a hot bowl of Instant Noodle while enjoying the full list of channel.

Let’s call it a night. After a long day of waiting and transit, finally we settled down in the hotel.  Till then, will try to update again by soonest!

Hello from china!

Its been day 5 since we arrive china. Our first destination was at hang Zhou. Follow by wu zhen and soo Zhou. Today we are heading to wu xi before we reach the final or our main destination shanghai!

The weather has been very cold. If it’s raining, it’s about 4-6 c.. Average is about 10c!

The hotels are excellent, we’ve chosen 5 star hotels for the package. For the food, some are quite disappointing.

This has also recorded of days I’ve not been using Facebook!

Great, will be back blogging soon.

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

XoXo. Don’t Miss Me.. :p

It really took me a lot of time to finish up my travelogue. It’s getting near to April, and I’m still blogging the back dated travel. Anyway, I still have to finish up the post, no matter how. For those who missed out the previous posting, then follow the below 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
Mulu World Heritage – Day 2: Clear Water Cave

So today, let’s bring you all to the Lang & Deer Cave.

I believe most of you are quite family with the name of these caves, as its the most popular bat watching caves in Mulu.

This is stick insect. Watch it closely, it moves slowly.

Lang Caves and Deer Caves are just next to each other.  It tooks around 1 hour of walking distance from the park to reach the cave entrance.

The first cave that we went to was Lang Cave.

I would say that although Lang Cave is consider a small cave, but the rocks are quite amazing.

It’s amazing in a way.. you can see a “penis” inside the cave.

Really…  Have some wild imaginations =)

Ok that’s not the main attraction to the cave.  Lang cave is actually popular of its beautiful rock’s formation. Some say it looks like a human’s brain.  What do you say?

The founder of this cave is actually one of the cave explorer back in 70s. And today, our tour guide, Mr. Lang which the surname is the same as the cave , is the son of the founder of the cave. Our tour guide educate all of the tourist to love the nature and not to pollute the caves. He even take up any single rubbish as he seen on the way to the caves.

Next. We are going to Deer Cave.

Before entering the cave, the tour guide give us a quiz question.

What is the name of the deer with no eyes?

If you can’t get the answer, you are not allow to enter the cave. Har!

Deer Cave is known to be the longest cave passage in the world.

But to me, this is also the darkest cave and the smelliest cave in the world!  It’s the home for millions of BATs lives in this cave, we get the chance to access to free natural perfume of the Bat’s shit! So friendly reminder, get a bottle of “Minyak Kapak” before you enter the cave. =)

And of course, the landmark of Mulu. Rock formation and turns to Abraham Lincoln’s face. Awesome right?

Hey, it took me some time to actually realize of the shape. So enjoy the picture despite of standing there and smelling the natural perfumes.

Rocks in Deer Cave

Sometimes I think those founder of the caves are brilliant. You know what do they name these thing ? It is call the shower head. Har!

You will get more version of story if you closely listen to what the tour guide says.

We spent almost an hour plus inside this cave, there’a a lot of things to watch, a lot of stairs to climb, and of course I can’t take too much pictures. Why? I’ve to watch out for the bat’s shit first of all. Second, it’s too dark, my little compact camera can’t do much work here.  ;)

We were back at the Bat Observatory Deck around 5pm. Sky is getting dark, and it’s raining cats and dog.

As it was Christmas Eve, all the tour guide needs to leave earlier for the celebrations. Hence, we were told to walk back to the hostel on our own. We were not alone, because hundreds of tourist will be here sitting and waiting for bats to come out.

While waiting, let’s have the candid cam!

…

5.30pm..

It seems like the bats are not coming out today.  It’s better we depart early to the park. The sky is getting darker as the rain getting heavier and yet its an hour walk back to the park.

To overcome my sadness and regretfulness, I pamper myself by searching the videos from Youtube. Haha, here you go, to conclude this post, I present you the Bat’s from Deer Cave!
Hope you enjoy this post as its almost complete my Mulu travelogue.

Oh ya, before that, the answer for the quiz above is, “No Idea“. =) Have Fun!