A Journey Called LIFE...

Yellow is the new Black

2011-07-16T12:07:00.003+08:00

Yes... Yellow is the new Black. I love yellow, don't you? ;)

Autumn.. in my Heart

2010-06-02T14:17:00.004+08:00

The chill of winter is on the horizon...

Fresh Figs

2010-03-25T15:50:00.000+08:00

Finally I get to taste the "legendary" fresh figs which i had heard and read so much from LB.

I saw the fresh figs when I did my marketing at Queen Victoria Market two weeks back and how can i not buying it? And.. I'm lovin' it. ;)

Who is the King?

2010-01-16T13:17:00.000+08:00

The Lion and the ~~lamb~~ Tiger, who is more qualified to become the King of the Jungle? :)

Although the lion's mane resembles the king's crown...

But the tiger's face is so scary.. No doubt we will all freak out if we see this fierce looking jungle inside the jungle. :P *Touch Wood*

Boysenberry

2010-01-06T14:12:00.004+08:00

Are you familiar with the name boysenberry? At least not me (in the past). The first time I came across the berry, my impression is... What a cute name. Yeah, it is related to blackberry and rich in Vitamin C and anti oxidant.

And watch out.. it can stain your clothes if you are not careful. :P

2.0.1.0

2009-12-31T08:51:00.002+08:00

I'm now in Melbourne. Sorry for the lack of update recently. I will do the countdown and watching the fireworks at Federation Square at Melbourne tonight. Hopefully 2010 will be a better and more promising year. Happy New Year 2010. :)

Pinky stuff

2009-10-15T14:57:00.003+08:00

Just realised i haven't update my blog for ages already. Wonder if anyone still drop by here? :)

I was in Miri few days back and saw this in the Iban market in town and bought some back home. Can't remember when was the last time I ate the "fruit". I think that was more than 20 years ago. I don't know what is the name of the "fruit" though. Love the "lemak" taste. :)

**Update 16/10/09**

Finally i found the name of the fruit - Engkala (Thanks to Sarawakiana for enlightening me). :)

What Am I?

2009-07-31T23:00:00.007+08:00

Another round of guessing game. What am I? :)

Updated 8th August 2009
Yeah, this is the Cannon Ball Fruit. Photo taken from the Cannon Ball Fruit tree in Penang Botanical Garden. Those who are interested to know more or see more photos about the fruit or the tree, can read my previous post on Cannon Ball Tree.

Oyster Omelette

2009-06-12T23:24:00.004+08:00

I love the Oh Chean (蠔煎) or oyster omelette I had tonight. The oyster are so ~~gigantic~~ big and juicy. Tua-tua liap. Think about it also I can salivate.

*Slurp*

Who Am I?

2009-06-01T22:12:00.002+08:00

I'm cute, I'm adorable. Who am I? :)

Bak Chang

2009-05-28T20:43:00.000+08:00

It's the time of the year again. Just in case if you "catch no ball", I'm talking about Bak Chang Festival or Duan Wu Jie (端午节) or Dragon Boat Festival. Today is the 5th day of the 5th month in Chinese Lunar Calendar. Actually hoh, I just realised Bak Chang festival was today two days back, after I take a look at the Chinese Lunar Calendar on my iPod Touch. :P

Which one do you prefer?

The ~~healthier~~ mini kee chang or kan sui (alkaline) chung?

Or the bigger bak chang or ham yuk chung?

Regardless which ever chang u like, home made chang is still the BEST. :)

Queen of the Fruits

2009-05-24T23:50:00.004+08:00

It's now the beginning of the seasonal tropical fruit season again. Hence, we can see the seasonal tropical fruits such as rambutans, langsat, mangosteen and durian starting to flood the local market.

One of my favourite is the Mangosteen, aka the Queen of Fruits. (The "wife" of durian? Since Durian is known as the King of Fruits. Hahaha). Well, well.. One is "Cooling" whilst the other one is "Heaty". Hence they can become good and loving couple. :)

Even my dog loves it. Ya, my little Min Pin eats almost everything, be it meat, vegetable or fruits. :)

Sibu Night Market

2009-05-14T23:45:00.008+08:00

Besides the ~~piggy head and chicken head and neck~~ exotic foodstuff in the Sibu pasar malam @ night market, there are several other yummy mouth watering foodstuff at ~~cheap~~ affordable price.

Setting up and preparing their stalls for the night market.

Wow... they even sell pre-packed economy rice or chap fan. If you are not a fan of those exotic foodstuff, u can buy whole grilled chicken or chicken thigh/drumstick here too. :)

Gigantic meat roll. Frankly speaking, this is the first time I see such gigantic and fat meat roll. Looks yummy though.. I should have buy one lah that day. *Regret*.

Colourful pao or steamed bun. :)

Soya bean drinks and other drinks refilled inside mineral water bottle. Not only that, the mineral drink labels ~~not yet removed~~ are still intact.

The most yummy foodstuff in town... Siew Mai. :)

Deep fried bread or roti goreng daging.

The meat-stuffed kompia, also known as the "chinese burger". Good stuff. Only 40 cents per piece or 5 for RM 2.00 :)

The mouth watering siew mai again. The siew mai here are gigantic with different shape, enable more fillings. :)

Everything is huge here... including the steamed cake. :)

And last but not least... wanna some?

Exotic !!

2009-05-12T23:56:00.003+08:00

Grilled chicken head & neck. Dare to eat this? Fear Factor foodstuff. No way. I will give this a miss. Too gross :P

Wah.. This is even more interesting. Piggy head. Btw, this has nothing to do with Swine Flu.

Good to see, but I won't eat it too. Too exotic to be consumed. :)

*Photos taken at the Night Market (or Pasar Malam) in Sibu, Sarawak.

Chicken Market

2009-04-27T23:55:00.000+08:00

After bidding farewell to the wrapped chicken & ducks in the market, now we continue our "chicken talk", by paying a visit to the nearby chicken market.

Hundreds of hen available here in the market. I will refer them as chicken instead, although these are "grown up chicken" :P Most of the chicken here are awaiting to be slaughtered few meters ahead. And the poor chicken have to witness the slaughtering of their own kinds. So traumatizing for the poor kokokai..

I won't include in the bloody scene of slitting the chicken throat. Too ~~scary~~ bloody to be included here. Anyone knows what is this black cylindrical container with a wider white container underneath for? Yeah, the slaughtered chicken will be placed here, and the narrow black container will prevent the chicken from moving around ~~prevent the headless chicken from running around hence thrasing the blood all over the place.~~ The white container underneath collects the drained blood.

This scene is not suitable for those who are phobic of blood as well as phobia of chicken. Notice the pool of blood on the floor? And the blood stained chicken feathers were all over the place.

I haven't see such scene for quite some time already. Reminiscing the days seeing my parents slitting the chicken's throats, draining the blood and plucking and removing the chicken feathers in the backyard in the 80's. I believe kids in big cities won't have the opportunities to witness such scenes.

Cleaning the chicken after plucking and removing the feathers.

Notice the slit mark at the chicken's throat with clotted blood stain?

Uncle is cleaning the chicken and plucking the remaining fur with scapula prior to ~~marketing~~ selling the "manually processed" chicken.

Happy 4th Blogiversary

2009-04-25T15:01:00.000+08:00

Although I didn't blog much for the last few months, but I haven't abandon this space of mine yet. Today (25.4.2009) marks my weblog's 4th birthday. Time really flies. I have get to know many of you all out there throughout the year, and quite a number has become my friends in real life, not only virtual acquaintances. Although quite a majority of people that i know of via blogging have stopped blogging as time goes, but I think I won't join their bandwagon yet. With this 4th blogiversary, I'm planning to revive this weblog again.

Happy 4th Blogiversary to http://chen22.blogspot.com aka A Journey Called Life... Should i give it a new home? I meant getting a new domain?

And last but not least, I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for spending your valuable time on this little humble space of mine. Terima Kasih Banyak-Banyak :)

Chicken & Duck Talk

2009-04-22T23:59:00.000+08:00

Is this something new to u? Why all the chicken being tied up? Did they do something wrong, hence being punished? :)

These are common scenes seen in Sarawak Market. The chicken & ducks are rolled and tied up with newspaper and raffia string for sales.

Some sellers even write the weight and the price on the wrapping newspaper, as in the photo above.

Duckie praying.. "Anyone wanna bring me back home? But please bring me back as a pet duck, and please don't cook/eat me" :P

Sarikei Jetty

2009-04-18T16:01:00.004+08:00

Many might just ignore those small "insignificant" details in life, but I don't. I love to observe the happenings and little details around me, unless if I'm rushing for time.

This was taken at the Sarikei jetty in Sarawak three weeks back.

The wooden plank or footbridge.

Watch out your steps. Look at the "holes" or missing wood in between the plank.

If you step wrongly on the plank, u might drop into the river instead. By the way, what is the girl doing here?

The filial girl is waiting for her granny. Her granny's boat had finally arrived.

Granny or Nenek walking bare feet on the boat toward the connecting wooden bridge, which is a piece of wood.

Granny started to walk on the little wooden bridge.

Granny passing her slippers to her grand daughter.

Scary lah seeing how the granny cross the bridge. I don't know whether I dare to do that or not as I scared I might lost balance and fell into the river. :P

Granny managed to cross the bridge, safe and sound. :)

Poor Cat :(

2009-04-11T23:25:00.002+08:00

I took this photo while walking on the street in Sibu, Sarawak.

What u see in this photo?
Electric pole?
A huge flower pot with green plant?
An old tree trunk?
or A kitty cat?

Yeah, a poor kitty cat being TIED UP to the electric pole. This is the first time I see a cat being tied up leh. Poor meow meow. Why your owner tied u up? :(

Gosh...

2009-04-02T14:20:00.002+08:00

Time really flies. It's already April 2009. Sorry for the lack of posts lately (till I kena scolding by someone for ~~neglecting~~ not updating my blog) :P

I'm now in Sarawak, went back for Ching Ming Festival (to pay respect to my beloved late daddy in Sarikei), and had a good time catching up with some old friends (old classmates) whom I haven't meet up for ages. Reminiscing those good old days. It is amazing how time flies. Everything seems like just happened yesterday. I went back to visit my old school too (my kindergarden, primary school and secondary school). Will go back to Penang this coming weekend. Will post up more pictures soon.

Fishing Boats @ Gurney Drive

2009-03-17T19:49:00.000+08:00

Do you ever wonder how the fishermen reach their boats which are placed quite a distance away from the beach?

This is how they reach their boats.. :)

By using another "mini boat".

Or to be exact, it's more like using a piece of modified floating wood/plastic?

Another fisherman rowing to his boat :)

Both of them have reached their "destination" :)

Thaipusam 2009

2009-02-26T21:52:00.000+08:00

I'm kinda lazy lately, hence the delay in posting. The following are photos taken during the recent Thaipusam Festival (earlier this month, on 8 February 2009) at Waterfall Road, on the way to Botanical Garden in Penang. I have taken a total of 600++ photos but I will only post a few here due to space constraint.

A group of Hindu devotees assemble in front of Waterfall Temple.

Devotee carrying pot filled with milk as offerings.

Devotee receiving blessing as well as a dab of ash onto the forehead, by the Hindu priest.

Milk overflowing..

Small kid drinking milk while the adult devotee carrying pot of milk as offering. :)

Parents carrying a small boy/or girl to the temple using sugar canes.

"People mountain people sea" aka human traffic jam, definitely not for those with crowd phobia.

A young kavadi bearer, I wonder how old is this little boy?

A group of devotee coming out from the Hindu temple. What u notice in this photo? Besides the body piercing and the colourful Hindu God statues on top of the milk pot, the second guy in the picture walked with closed/covered eyes.

Extreme body and face piercing with mini pots hooked to curved needles.

Oucchhhh...

Piercing the cheek with skewer.

Close up shot of the back piercing.

Huge hooks with the gigantic heavy weight pot..

I can feel the pain by just looking at the gigantic hooks piercing the skin and muscle, but it leave no pain to the person in trance.

Chinese devotee. Not for the faint-hearted.

*Gulp* I can't help but to think of... Will it leave behind a big hole on the cheek when the skewer was removed subsequently?

Devotees along Waterfall Road.

Till we meet again next year :)

Pineapple

2009-02-16T21:40:00.002+08:00

I saw this ~~Pineapple~~ Ong Lai joss stick or incense last weekend (on Chap Goh Mei/last day of CNY when I strolled along the Pitt Street (aka Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling). We are so used with the Gigantic Dragon joss stick but pineapple joss stick? Interesting... First time I came across such a scene. Hence I can't resist but to take one snapshot. :)

Chap Goh Mei

2009-02-09T18:59:00.004+08:00

So fast time flies, today is Chap Goh Mei, aka the last day of Chinese New Year. Have you had enough lokam or tangerines? I haven't have enough yet. Since today is also the Chinese Valentine, anyone throw any lokam into the river/lake/sea? If u have any extra lokam or tangerines, don't waste it by throwing into the river but pass it to me. But NOT the rotten one, please ... the edible one, of coz. LOL

Arrowhead

2009-02-03T23:59:00.001+08:00

I had read about chinese arrowhead (also known as nga ku or chi ku in Cantonese) but never get to taste this little ~~bugger~~ waterchestnut-like thingy in the past as it's not available in my hometown. ~~Poor me~~.

Finally I get to eat the thick arrowhead chips this year. My goodness.. It's so yummy and addictive. Chomp... chomp... chomp... and within minutes it's all gone. Forget about my favourite potato chips. :P

Too bad.... Arrowhead chips is only available during Chinese New Year period. Sigh.. :(

Happy "Niu" Year

2009-01-24T11:33:00.005+08:00

I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a blessed and prosperous Chinese New Year, and enjoy your gathering together with family members, relatives and friends, either physically or virtually.

祝新年快乐，万事如意，身体健康，恭喜发财.
Gong Xi Fa Cai

MOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...
Mooooooooolaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Red Durian

2009-01-20T23:04:00.001+08:00

I have read about the exotic RED-coloured Sabah jungle durian and have always wanted to taste it. (Curious mah, since we are so used and so accustomed to the white and yellow coloured durian flesh. But RED? Interesting). I believe many of you have never heard about the red durian. I don't know whether it's only available in Sabah? At least I have never see it in Sarawak, nor Peninsular Malaysia.

My dream finally come true when we passed by the local market in Beaufort, Sabah. I was so happy when I saw those red-flesh durian. Kekekekkekekke... Words cannot describe my feelings at that time. So of course I won't let go and buy some. The taste is similar like the wild jungle durian in Sarawak, just that the colour is different ( The local version in Sarawak, the flesh is orange or yellow instead of red colour).

Yeah, now I can proudly proclaimed that I have tasted the RED DURIAN! :D

Potato Talk

2009-01-07T11:22:00.002+08:00

Mmmm... First post in 2009 and I'm talking about Potato? Nope, this has nothing to do with Couch Potato. :p

Nothing to do with my dying Potato Plant either, which had already RIP :(

But my favourite potato snacks, presenting...

Lay's Potato Chips. (Used to like Pringles in the past, but that was way back in the past = in the early 90's).

And the Pik-Nik Shoestring potato crisps (original flavour) :)

p/s: Potato, u are still the best, if not the best-est. :)

2.0.0.9

2008-12-31T21:00:00.000+08:00

Ah Boy & I wish everyone Happy ~~New~~ 牛 Year 2009.

p/s: Ah Boy wants siew pai kuat :)

2008

2008-12-29T19:55:00.004+08:00

Two more days and 2008 is coming to an end. Too many things happened this year. My younger brother just get married recently in Kuching, Sarawak. I had done the Silk Road Tour and visited Western Australia. Not forgetting to mention I managed to meet back online with lotsa long lost classmates, schoolmates, coursemates, uni friends, ex colleagues via Facebook. I have also bought few lenses this year ~ Tamron SP AF 90mm f/2.8, Sigma 18-200 mm f/3.5-6.3 with OS and Canon 50 mm f/1.8. Get myself an 8Gb Ipod Touch too & I love it very much. However, just recently, my ~~MacBook~~ Mackie had a "heart transplant" due to hardware failure. :(

Two most heart breaking events that happened this year were I lost two dear close friends and colleagues, Dr Tan Bee Hooi and Dr Alison Lim Yee Hoon within few months this year. Their passing is really shockening but their presence will always remain in my heart. I'm truly glad knowing them and to have them as my friends. Their passing reminds me that I shall treasure and cherish what I have and and do not take things for granted nor procrastinate as life is short. And to those who loves to complaint about small matters in life, I want to tell u that "Just being alive is such a lovely and wonderful thing". Some unfortunate ones are denied of that priviledges. I miss both of you dearly, Bee Hooi and Yee Hoon. Although both of you are no longer here with me physically, your spirit will continue to live on...

Hopefully 2009 will be a better and more promising year...

Winter Solstice

2008-12-20T20:30:00.001+08:00

I have totally forgotten that tomorrow is Winter Solstice @ Dong Zhi (冬至/过冬) till I visited Air Itam market this evening (for ~~few bowls~~ a bowl of pipping hot mouth watering delicious air itam longkang laksa) and saw several road side stalls selling the colourful GRB (glutinous rice ball) or tang yuen next to the market. Time really flies. It's the time of the year again...

I haven't made any ~~fish ball~~ tang yuen yet. Will only do so tomorrow (I still have half a packet of glutinous rice flour). The above glutinous rice ball or tang yuen photo was taken during my brother's wedding end of last month, and yeah, I made those tang yuen. ;)

Coconut Jelly

2008-12-13T16:36:00.003+08:00

Yeah, Coconut Jelly. I'm not talking about Nata de Coco, but this....

I get to know about the Coconut Jelly (aka Manjung Jelly) from CK Lam's post few days back :)

Bought few coconut jelly back home since I love coconuts at the price of RM 3.70 per coconut (from the coconut shop in Dato Keramat Road, nearby the Patani Road Police Station). Instead of coconut water, u get the smooth and yummy coconut jelly. I'm lovin' it. :)

Marmite Breadstick

2008-12-08T18:28:00.000+08:00

While buying my groceries @ Cold Storage today, I saw packets of Marmite Breadsticks on the shelf. I remember reading it somewhere (Can't remember whether is it from Fibrate's blog or somewhere else?). The product is pricey, one small packet for RM 6.99 (product from UK). But since I never tasted it before, and out of curiosity I bought one packet back home.

Errr.... My verdict is... I won't buy it again cos I can hardly taste the marmite. :( I rather have marmite on my bread or toast instead of eating this. Btw, that's just my own personal opinion. Anyone here tasted it before?

It's Durian World

2008-12-04T22:25:00.001+08:00

It's ~~liulian~~ durian season again... not in Penang, but in Sarawak, the land of hornbills.

I have no idea what is the English name for this species of jungle durian, but so far i haven't see it in Peninsular yet. I haven't tasted it for almost 10 years already... This time I was lucky, since it's durian season :)

Yeah, the fresh is orange and the seed is dark brown in colour. There is another different variety (yellow in colour, and the fresh is more sticky and tasty, with thinner but sharper thorns but I didn't manage to find it in the market) :(

Next, back to the "normal" local durian.. Unlike those durian with names or grades from Balik Pulau, Penang.

The white flesh local durian, which is equally tasty. :)

Congrats Brother

2008-11-26T23:55:00.001+08:00

Something Sweet & Juicy...

2008-11-11T01:12:00.005+08:00

The Cameron Jagung which needs no further intro ~ so sweet and juicy that it can even be eaten raw. I need to re-emphasize it again ~it's SWEET and JUICY!! Satisfaction guaranteed. Something not to be missed out if I visit Cameron Highlands (but I don't think I will visit Cameron Highlands in the near future lah). And that also means.. if u happened to visit Cameron Highlands, don't forget to buy some back for me :P

Gooseberry

2008-11-04T23:15:00.001+08:00

Lazy to post about the Fremantle Prison. Hence I will sidetrack with something else...

The first time I ate Gooseberry was in Beijing, China. And that was in 2002. I didn't know the name of the fruit at that time. Only a year or two back, I found out the name. Frankly speaking, I have no idea why it's called GOOSEBERRY. Which portion of it resembles a goose? :P

The gooseberries are also available here in Penang (import wan lah of coz). Saw it few times in the supermarket. Tastewise, it's sourish with tinge of sweetness. ~~The sweeter version of tomato.~~ I can imagine Misti's expression when eating it :)

Of Horse & Grapes

2008-10-30T00:30:00.000+08:00

The budding grape flower in Swan Valley but no fruits yet. Yeah, grapes is not yet in season.

I'm so used to seeing Dalmation dogs, but this is the first time I come across a Dalmation Horse. Should we call him Mr Pokka ~~Dot~~ Horse? :)

And Brownie is hungry... Nope, the kids were not feeding the brown horsey with grapevine (in case if u wonder) :P

Lok Lok @ Padang Brown

2008-10-26T01:00:00.001+08:00

Nowadays I seldom take food pictures when dining out at hawker stalls nor restaurants in Penang. But today I decided to bring my camera again. The highlight for the day is none other than my all time favourite, Lok Lok.

Had it together with a colleague of mine at the old hawker stall at Padang Brown, Penang.

The difference of having lok lok here is one can actually sit down and enjoying the lok lok instead of the norm.

A pot of boiling water in the middle of each table, and the boiling water was clear initially...

My all time favourite and something not to be missed out ~ the bloody cockles :)

Next on my list is the sotong + kangkung skewer :)

I don't really fancy the "balls", be it fish balls, meat balls, sotong balls or whatever bola :)

~~Minum bola, makan bola, tidur bola...~~

Chili sauce is a MUST :)

Satay sauce ~ Err, not really my cuppa ~~tea~~ sauce

Wantan is available too...

And not forgetting the fried wantan :)

Sotong oh sotong... (no wonder Sotong missing in action for ages...)

And many other varieties which I lazy wanna take photos d, cos I wanna makan :)

And btw, this is not on the menu. The cat was sleeping underneath the table next to the gas tank. I was joking with my colleague, whether the cat is still alive or being "cook" already...

At the end, our pot of clear boiling water changed colour, just like chameleon.. One of the main contributing factor is the bloody cockles :)

And not forgetting, a plate of nyonya beehoon from the nearby stall.

And last but not least, presenting the "backbone" of the dishes, aka the skewers. Nope, that was not the total number of skewers I had. I don't have such a huge stomach :P

Cicerello's Fish & Chips

2008-10-22T21:46:00.000+08:00

A visit to Fremantle won't be complete without taking the famous Fish & Chips meal :)

After an eye opening and interesting tour to the Fremantle Prison (will post that up later on), it's time to fill up our tummies... with the Original & Still The Best Fish & Chips @ Cicerello's.

It's time to help ourselves with one set of Seafood and Chips and another set of Fish and Chips. Serving was huge. The above photo was taken after i ate halfway. There are calamari rings, crab sticks, prawns, fish, chips, pineapple and coleslaw. Salt and Vinegar is free of charge. Each sachet of tomato sauce or chili sauce costs 40 cents Oz dollar...

There are ample seagulls around the corner. But if u want to feed them.. think twice. Why so??

Cos hoh, they might S.O.Y. as warned by the signboard. It took me a while to figure out what is S.O.Y., which I presume is "Shit On You" :)

Yeah, this is the place where we sat and had our meal... for almost an hour.

Yeah, we get to enjoy the nice view while having a "hard" time finishing the food... Food was nice, just that the serving was too huge. LOL

Australian Black Swan

2008-10-18T15:35:00.001+08:00

We are so used to the White Swan in Malaysia. But Black Swan? I can't remember whether I had seen one in the past or not. Might be I had...

In case if there is any blur sotong out there, these are not swans. Sweet leh seeing the mother duck with her 7 little ducklings. Only 5 are seen in this photo, the other two are behind the mummy duck.

Yeah yeah yeah, this is the Black Swan.

Ugly leh the little cygnet.. But when it grows up, it's the contrary. Remember the Andersen's Fairy Tales "The Ugly Duckling" (丑小鸭) ? :)

The birds here are friendly and sociable, including the cygnet.

The duck caught my attention again. She is searching for something yummy inside the pond.

I presume she found something already since she lifted up her head from the water. Or.. might be she needs to breath? :P

Cute duckling (in comparison with the cygnet) :P

The poor little duckling is hungry... So everything also she sapu.

Okie, okie.. back to the black swan :)

I can sit here for hours looking at the black swans, ducks and other birds... But I can't do so cos we need to catch the flight back home in few hours time.

Quack Quack (Duckie way of saying good bye). Bye bye lah little ducklings. Goodbye Vincent. (Btw, Vincent is not the name of the ducklings, it's the name of the town where the lake is located :P)

Baby Kanga

2008-10-14T00:55:00.000+08:00

I didn't include in the following photos in my previous Caversham Wildlife Park as I had posted too many photos there. However I decided to change my mind after reading some of the comments.
Presenting the little baby kanga, Ah Roo being wrapped up and carried by one of the rangers. The way she carried it was just like holding a human baby. So cute. And summore she wrapped up the baby kangaroo with clothes. If u looked at the photo carefully, you can see that Ah Roo is crossing her hands and her "right hand" is holding some yummy snacks aka leaves.

Baby kanga Ah Roo is hungry, hence she started munching to fill up her tummy.. Yum yum.. So cuteeeeeeeeeeeee...

p/s: Ah Roo is just the saja-saja nickname for the baby kanga :)

Caversham Wildlife Park

2008-10-11T12:40:00.001+08:00

A visit to Perth, Australia is incomplete without visiting The Caversham Wildlife Park, which is located inside the Whiteman Park. A place where you can get upclose with the animals, petting them, feeding them food, riding camels, etc and not forgetting the farm show. Entrance fee AUD 20 (adult) :)

Yeah, no running around in the park, else u might upset the kangaroo. And yeah, no touching the Ms Roo's pouch or disturbing her little babies too :)

Yes, kangaroos need to rest too. They get tired too after entertaining the tourists all over the world :)

Someone trying to take photo of the baby kangaroo :)

The ~~sleeping~~ "Drunk" Kangaroo (Too much wine, perhaps?) LOL

White Kangaroo woh :)

Itchy lah. *Scratch scratch*

Someone ~~disturbing the kangaroo~~ lifting up the kangaroo's tail.. :P

This kangaroo is even better.. scratching armpit openly with so many pairs of eyes staring at it :)

Cute leh the little kambing inside Molly's Farm

Bambi is here too? o.O

Wah, this rooster looks like a white & furry feather duster :P

Baa Baa ~~Black~~ Brown Sheep have you any wool?

Little boy admiring the cute little sheep, who is busy sniffing ?? :)

Meeeeeeeekkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

Camels in Oz are single-humped, unlike the double humped camels in Silk Road, China.

Yeah, u can ride the camel too (at AUD 6 per head)

~~Sheepish~~ Camelish grin :)

Pigs can BITE. Hence, don't play-play :)

Cute leh the piglets :)

First time I get to see and pet a Wombat. Nice to cuddle :P

*Yawning*. Btw, The Dingoes are kept inside the "electric fence".

The Sleeping Beauty. Koala sleeps 16 to 20 hours a day. They really know how to enjoy life, huh?

Koala Bears enjoying the Eucalyptus leaves.

This resembles a huge, gigantic rat !!! o.O

Last but not least, ~~another rat~~ the Tasmanian Devil says Hi to everyone :)

Size Does Matter

2008-10-08T23:05:00.002+08:00

I loves the Aussie Strawberries. Not only they are SWEET, they are HUGE too !! This pack of gigantic strawberries cost me AUD 5 (There are cheaper wan but much smaller in size lah).

First time I eat such a gigantic strawberries... Tua-tua liap. Sweet & Juicy

This one is even better... What shape is this ah? (Actually hoh, this is a "conjoint twin" strawberries). I LOVE Oz strawberries. Now I dowan to eat the small & sour strawberries in Malaysia already lah...

*Photos taken with Canon Powershot S5IS

Who Am I?

2008-10-06T19:30:00.000+08:00

Can u recognise who am I? :)

Don't cha think I'm cute? Geee....

*Photos taken with Canon Powershot S5IS

Kuih Wajid Temburong

2008-09-27T06:51:00.000+08:00

I was in Ulu Temburong National Park, Brunei several months back. While walking around in Temburong Market, I came across the Kuih Wajid. Kuih wajid is one of the delicacies in Temburong District, Brunei. The kuih wajid there is different from the local kuih wajid in Malaysia.

From external appearance, it resembles the Malay kuih we have in Malaysia.

Kuih Wajid was made from biji Wajid, cooked with palm sugar. Didn't come across my mind to take photo of the biji Wajid (yellow in colour) which was sold in the market. :)

Moon & Mooncake Festival

2008-09-22T00:29:00.001+08:00

This year, I was in Penang during Mid Autumn Festival or Mooncake Festival (which falls on Sunday, 15/9/2008), but I didn't really celebrate it.. In fact, most of the time I was outside Penang during Mid Autumn Festival

2001: can't remember where was I..
2002: Kelantan, Malaysia
2003: Germany
2004: Jingzhou, China (taking the Yangtze River Cruise)
2005: Penang , Malaysia
2006: Brunei Darussalam
2007: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (had dinner at Thai Restaurant in MVM together with Angeles)
2008: Penang, Malaysia

When I looked out of the window, I saw the full moon.. Just as I started shooting, the cloud started blocking the view.

Within few minutes, the cloud blocked the view of the full moon.. Such a gloomy Mooncake Festival in Penang island. How's the weather elsewhere?

Happy Birthday Yee Hoon

2008-09-18T19:03:00.008+08:00

(Memorial dedication by James @ The Star newspaper Page N49, 18/9/2008)

Happy Birthday Yee Hoon
May God continue to bless your soul richly,
Your beautiful memories will always remain in my heart, forever....

p/s: All the cowie soft toys wish u happy birthday too, with Flatie Cow & Cutie Cow accompanying u in heaven...

In Loving Memory of Dr Alison Lim Yee Hoon

2008-09-13T12:55:00.005+08:00

One week plus had passed, or to be exact, 10 days had passed since my dear friend Yee Hoon left this cruel world suddenly. Thanks everyone for your words of comfort over the last one week. After grieving, I still have to move on with my life. But as the day goes, I'm reminded of all the things that she had said or done in the past. I still think of her every now and then, when I was at work, when I was driving, when I am back home. There are too many things that I can associate with her or that will remind me of her. Her voice, her smile, her laughter, her facial expression, her gesture are still fresh in my mind. Many times, I try to distract myself but making myself busy or occupy myself with some other stuff. It is just too painful and heartbreaking, beyond description... :(

The photo above was taken 2 years ago during my birthday, inside Coffee Bean in Island Plaza. We spent more than 2 hours yakking and laughing while sharing our stories inside there. Now all these will become my fond memories. Although she is no longer around, but her fond memories will live on forever in me. Life won't be the same again after the passing of both my dear friends, Yee Hoon and also Bee Hooi.

Yee Hoon is an active person and also a gym freak. She can spend hours and hours work up inside the gym (at least 2 to 3 hours a day, or at times) almost daily if time permits, unless if she is extremely busy or if she is on call in the hospital. I even joked with her in the past saying that the gym can become her second home. We had talked about going kayakking together in the past but aiyh...

Both of us used the same route to go to work each morning. Seeing the red Myvi reminds me of her. There are several occasions that we sort of 'bump into" each other on the road, err.. I mean met up on the road while driving. I still remember the occasions when I looked at my rear window, I saw her driving behind me. We will greet each other when we stopped at the traffic light. And not forgetting the green scooter which she used to ride before she bought the red Myvi.

My love for cow soft toys are also inspired by Yee Hoon. I know she loves cows and have quite a collection of cow soft toys and related products. One afternoon many years back, I visited her room and she showed me all her cowie collections. From then on I also started loving cows. I had bought 2 cow soft toys for her in the past. One of the cowie, she kept it inside her car and named it as Samseng Cow as the cow's hair style resembles samseng. The other cow I bought in pairs, and I gave her one and another one I kept myself. She said the cow was polycythaemic and flushed as the mouth was pinkish in colour. All these while I will think of her when I see any cow toys. And now, it's heart breaking looking at the cow toys again.

Yee Hoon loves fruits and she can take just only fruits for meals. Papaya, guava, pineapple etc.. She can bought few ringgits of cut fruits, from one fruit stall that she usually frequently. I always joked with her that she is overdosed with beta carotene as she consumed too much papaya, as her hands become yellowish.

Both of us enjoys going for shoulder and neck massage. She introduced me to the one of the massage and reflexology centre in town, and we went there together for shoulder massage after work. I get to know about Sudoku and learn how to solve the puzzle from her. She was a big fan of Sudoku in the past.

Nowadays, when I go and buy food in the Rawther Corner opposite the hospital, I will think of her (as we used to have cuppa tea and chit chat over there all these while)...
When I go & buy fruits from the chinese uncle, I will think of her...
When I eat at Medan Selera, I will think of her (We used to have lunch over there & she loves eating fishes)...
When I bought food at the Pasar Ramadhan outside the hospital, I will think of her too.. (We went to the pasar ramadhan to buy food previously when she was on call in GICU. I still remember she bought ayam percik and some weird vegetable which she loves but i dunno what's the name)...

Yee Hoon, u told me several times in the past that u remembered how I approached u and introduced myself inside the Operating Theatre (OT 5) when u just joined the department in October 2001, and also reminiscing the good old days, including the Saturday morning at Rawther's corner after the Saturday CME. I remembered that too, my dear friend... It was still fresh in my memories although that was almost 7 years back. Just few weeks back, you mentioned that I had taught you how to insert subclavian central venous lines when you first joined ICU (which I had totally forgotten).

I can continue writing for pages as there are too many things that I can relate to her. But it was just too painful thinking of all that. Now I can only wish her peace and happiness, and hope she won't suffer anymore. May God bless her kind soul and give strength and comfort to her family members and everyone who loves and misses her. Rest in Peace my dear Yee Hoon, until we meet again, someday..... God bless you always. You are truly missed...

Rest In Peace, Dr Lim YH

2008-09-03T18:50:00.004+08:00

I will be away from blogsphere for the next few days,
As my heart is aching,
and I'm now in the grieving stage.
Few months ago, a close and dear friend cum colleague of mine, Dr TanBH passed away
And this morning I got another shockening news regarding my another dearie old friend cum colleague who left us suddenly in a tragic way, inside the hospital on call room.
I still find it hard to accept that she is no longer with us...
My heart is even more painful when I saw her car still parked inside the hospital car park when I came back this evening.
Recalling the moments that we shared together over the last 7 years...
Her smile, her laughter, her voice, her face, her expressions, her gestures...
The last time I saw her was just few days back, and we still yakked and laughed over things..
Never expect things to happen this way.
Why is life so cruel, unfair, fragile and unpredictable????
And now, the past will become memories that I treasured.
My dear Yee Hoon,
Rest in Peace and I will miss you deeply...

On This Day...

2008-09-02T10:10:00.002+08:00

Lately I'm lazy to write post. Hence I curi-ed the Moo birthday greetings from Angeles Moo , Misti Moo and Doreen Moo. (psss.. I've Moo-ified Angeles and Doreen btw :P)

Thanks Angeles Moo

Thanks Misti Moo

Thanks Doreen Moo

Thanks everyone for the birthday greetings and wishes on my Cow One aka 牛一. So many Moo-s, sure lotsa Moolahs liao. Kkekekekek... Btw, anyone has any idea why in Cantonese, birthday is also known as 牛一 (Cow One)? They murder one Moo Moo for the birthday celebration ah? o.O Hopefully not.. Actually hoh Gua tak tau the reason behind it... :)

The Giant Buddha Temple

2008-08-28T20:12:00.001+08:00

There are numerous Giant Buddha statue in China. The most memorable one is the LeShan Giant Buddha （乐山大佛), which I witnessed in February 2006. Another one would be the Giant Buddha inside the Mogao Crottoes 莫高窟 /Thousand Buddha Caves. And the trip for the day is the largest reclining sculpture of the Nirvana Buddha in China, placed inside The Giant Buddha Temple (大佛寺) in Zhangye (张掖), Gansu Province (甘肃省), China.

Even the road is known as the Giant Buddha Temple Lane in Chinese language (or DaFoSi Xiang)

Peaceful street.. Any idea why they painted the bottom part of the tree trunk white?

Wall painting of the 八仙过海 (Eight immortals crossing the sea) opposite the temple :)

Entrance to The Giant Buddha Temple

Part of the temple is still under renovation, hence dusty. But the place is still open to visitors, with the condition "Enter at your own risk" ;)

I didn't take any photos inside the temple since photography is prohibited. But many still busily snapping away (as there are no guards watching), but I didn't snap any photo inside. The above picture is the photo of the Giant Buddha placed at the entrance. The whole Buddha is 34.5 meters in length, width of 7.5 meters between the shoulders, feet of 4 meters and ears of 2 meters. Huge leh... We are like midgets when standing next to it :)

(Photo courtesy of Gansu Tourism Site).

The above picture showed how huge is the reclining Buddha (in comparison with the person standing next to it). One interesting fact is that the reclining Buddha can be awake or sleeping when viewed from different location. When u look at the Giant Buddha straight at his face, he is fully awake with both eyes opened. When looking at the Buddha's face from the waist region, he is partially awake, opening one eye and closing the other. When viewed from the feet region, the Buddha is sleeping peacefully with both eyes closed. And one amusing thing is... the foot of the Buddha was broken and the foot region is now protected with glass panel to prevent visitors from rubbing the foot. Cos according to our tour guide, the Buddha feet was broken as too many rubbed the Buddha's feet in the past especially by students who are sititng for exam and not well prepared. (as the Chinese phrase 臨時抱佛腳). LOL

Part of the Temple.

I like to zoom in when taking photo, for a better view of the workmanship of the little sculptures on the roof top.
Can admire every fine and single details of the perfectly done craftwork, which are oftenly overlooked and neglected by many.

And *ahem*, not forgetting my obsession with doors and door knobs :)

One more... I promise it's the last one for the day :P

Jiayuguan Pass/Great Wall

2008-08-26T02:22:00.001+08:00

I think everyone is familiar with The Great Wall (one of the seven wonders in the world) which needs no further intro. The mostly visited great wall area would be the Badaling Great Wall in Beijing. :)
But not many knows regarding the Jiayuguan Pass or Jiayuguan Great Wall (嘉峪关) in Gansu Province.
Taken at the Jiayuguan Museum ~ the plan of the miniature Jiayuguan Great Wall prior to visiting the real place.
Among the passes on the Great Wall, Jiayuguan Great Wall is the most intact surviving ancient military building. It is the last pass at the furthest west of the Great Wall of China. On the other hand, you can consider it as the first pass at the west end of the Great Wall.

Jiayuguan Great Wall, here I come :)

Those who are interested, can rent the plated armour suit :)

Majestic architecture ~ The wall and tower of the Jiayuguan Pass.

Mystical creatures (?dragon) on the roof top.

Jiayuguan Pass or Great Wall was built during Ming Dynasty in 1372. The pass is also known as "The First and Greatest Pass Under Heaven" (天下第一雄关).

Entering the interior of the pass :)

Two different pathway leading to the tower (Steep pathway vs staircase). Those who are adventurous can walk up via the steep pathway (with the risk of falling down).

*Trying to imagine the ancient days*

And this part of the great wall is not as crowded as the one in Badaling, Beijing. :)

If u wanna lepas geram, u can do it here... The Archery corner. *Shoot* :)

It's kinda hot walking under the hot sun.. I wanna drink iced lemon tea.. or Cola :P

The pass covers an area of more than 33,500 square meters.

Majestic leh the architecture :)

Part of the ancient Great Wall :)

The tower taken from different angle.

According to legend, when the Jiayuguan Pass was planned, the officer asked the designer to estimate the exact number of bricks required and the designer gave him a number. The officer questioned his judgment, asking him if that would be enough, so the designer added one brick. When Jiayuguan was completed, there was one brick leftover, which was placed on one of the gates where it remains till today. Did u notice the extra brick? If u didn't see it, look again closely at the above picture (or u can enlarge the picture by clicking on it). Give yourself a pat on the shoulder if you manage to find it. :)

Another shot of the mystical creature on the roof top.

Cantik leh the wall. Time to bid farewell... :)

Addendum :

To those who still cannot see the extra brick in the above picture, hopefully u can view it here. If u still not able to see it, then i dunno what to say liao :P

Photo Hunters : Wrinkled

2008-08-23T07:48:00.000+08:00

Today's theme is WRINKLED. Since I had posted several photos of the older generation with wrinkles during my recent Silk Road Trip, I will gather the wrinkled faces of those wise men and wise women photos into one post. Misti surely will love this.

A centenarian @ elderly aged more than a century taken at The Grape Valley in Turpan, XinJiang Province, China.

Donkey cart owner taken at GaoChang Former City in Turpan, XinJiang Province, China.

Hami Melon stall owner taken in the desert, on the way to Hami in XinJiang Province, China.

Horse owner taken at Balikun Grassland near Hami in XinJiang Province, China.

Worker at Mt Mingsha Desert and Cresent Spring taken at DunHuang in Gansu Province, China.

Taken at DunHuang wet market in Gansu Province, China

Taken at Lanzhou Water Wagon in LanZhou, Gansu Province, China.

Cute Dogs

2008-08-21T20:50:00.003+08:00

These are the cute, friendly and playful doggies in the neighbourhood. Everyone who sees them love them (except those who dislike doggies lah). They are so adorable. They can even play with strangers cos of their mild, gentle and friendly nature.

Chubby but friendly puppy who likes her tummy to be rubbed

And this is her little sister. Equally adorable.

This is not the mother, but she plays and take cares of the two puppies, together with the puppies' mummy. The mummy dog is photo and camera shy, hence I didn't have her photo.

The puppies always play with each other and enjoying each other's company. Aren't they cute and adorable?

But sad to say that.. 2 out of the 3 dogs were poisoned by some heartless morons few days back (and I presume they are now in Doggy Heaven). Why want to harm and murder those friendly and harmless dogs? Really &*^%$#@. I miss them... Rest in Peace, doggies. :(

*SOB*

p/s: The above photos of the doggies were taken 3 weeks ago..

Thousand Buddha Caves

2008-08-19T23:56:00.001+08:00

The visit to DunHuang, Gansu Province is incomplete without visiting the famous Mogao Crottoes 莫高窟 (also known as Thousand Buddha Caves). Mogao Grottoes is the world largest, well preserved treasure house of Buddhist arts, paintings, scriptures and murals. It is listed as one of the UNESCO World Heritage in 1987.

The surrounding area of Mogao Grottoes . The background is part of the Mt Mingsha.

Resembles a gigantic bell :P

Sorry leh, i dunno what is the name...

Guess what? This is once a river, which had dried up due to the hot weather...

The Big Arch. Entrance to Mogao Grottoes.

The FeiTian statue (飞天) welcomes us near the entrance area :)

Distracted by the flower.. since this is the first time I see such plant bears flowers :P

Sketch map for ~~those blur sotongs~~ the tourists.

The Thousand-Buddha Caves has so many ~~caves~~ rooms.. Today, 492 caves remains.
Finally... the Mogao Crottoes/莫高窟 (or Thousand Buddha Caves). The inner walls of all the caves are decorated with dignified Buddhist art in the form of paintings, murals, scriptures & statues. Only few "caves" are opened for public/tourists each day.
I will stop here since we are not allowed to take photos inside the caves. :P

A Night in DunHuang

2008-08-16T20:58:00.000+08:00

Yeah, I admit I had abandoned the Silk Road Tour series for quite some time and today I decided to continue on with the series. After getting ourself ~~charred~~ sunburnt at the Mt Mingsha Gobi Desert & the Crescent Spring and the camel ride, it's time for dinner (including eating the exotic camel meat).
It's Free & Easy time after dinner & checking in hotel. Since the night is still early, hence we took a stroll in DunHuang town. Well, the sky only gets dark at 10 pm at night. Hence we have ample time to walk around town. Presenting the famous FeiTian statue (飞天) and the 2008 Beijing Olympic mascots ~ BeiBei, JingJing, HuanHuan, YinYin and NiNi.
There are at least 15 to 20 stalls selling similar DunHuang products. I wonder how they make money since almost everyone selling the same stuff at the same place?
Yeah, remember the gigantic red dates? They are everywhere. LOL (Sounds like talking about spirit, and summore now is 7th month aka Hungry Ghost Month in Chinese calendar).
Mmm... Let's see what's available in the stall. Raisin, dried figs, pistachio, nuts and.. guess what's that elongated stuff in the upper left hand corner? Hehehe...
Red dates, almond and several different varety of nuts. From this photo, u can see how huge is the DunHuang red dates (in comparison with the normal-sized red dates next to it)
After riding the cute camels and err.. eating the exotic camel meat (Oops..) It's time to buy some cute and adorable camel soft toys back home. Besar kecil semua pun ada. Wanna wanna?
Following that, we visited the wet market nearby. I noticed the vegetables in DunHuang are huge in size !! Just have a look at the size of the chinese cabbage and the lobak. There are several other huge vegetables such as tomato, turnips, cucumber, chilies etc which are not shown in this photo.
Remember the famous 开朗裤 trousers (trousers with opening in the genital area) seen in the movie or tv drama series from China? Apparently the kids in China are still wearing them in this modern world, instead of wearing pampers. Hehehe, I need to censor this photo.. Dowan kena sue by the little kid in future for showing her partially nude photo :P
*Ahem*.. Elderly man with wrinkles ~ I posted this up specially for Misti :P
Shop selling groceries, herbs and spices. I bought the famous Szechuan 麻辣 spices with the spicy and numb properties from this young man.

Dunno what is this leh..

A stall selling economy rice or chap fan.

After see-see look-look and taking photo, it's time to sit down for cuppa tea. And err.. we didn't drink tea lah. Instead we had beer by the roadside and this is the place I had beer with my hubby.
Beer was served with paper cup. Unique leh? Beer in China is cheap, and the alcohol content is mild. One large HuangHe bottle beer only costed us RMB 4. I confess i had been drinking beer like drinking water over there. (Beer is even cheaper at the local grocery shop, to the extend of RMB 2.50 per bottle (depends on brand)).

Little boy eating bread while strolling on the street.

Cute boh the little boy's "vehicle"? :P

After 2 bottles of beer, it's time to move on. This particular stall sells dried gourds (different types, sizes and shapes) with paintings and writing on it.

The Desert Rose?

Young gal buying jagung/maize from the roadside stall. I put this up cos i like the photo. :)
And yeah, there are several stalls selling grilled lamb satay. We stopped by, but at another different stall for supper, having grilled lamb satay and naan bread.

The China version of wayang kulit or shadow muppet show? :)

And before we went back to the hotel, we stopped by this stall, and had our name written on a grain of rice. Very geng leh, to write several alphabets (can opt to write in English or Chinese character). A fruitful night indeed :)

Gold Kiwi

2008-08-14T00:20:00.000+08:00

We are all familiar with the green kiwifruit, but I just get to know the other variety, the Gold kiwifruit from my staff one week back. Dunno it's available in the market for how long already leh. When I bought my groceries in Tesco last weekend (after snapping the ternak cacing photo), I came across the gold kiwifruit in the fruit aisle section. Hoo-lah-lah, of coz i won't let go the chance to buy one packet back home. :)

Presenting the ZESPRI GOLD Kiwifruit, from New Zealand.

The external appearance is slightly different from the conventional green kiwifruit ~ with smoother skin and a flat, hard pointed crown at the other end.

The fresh is yellowish in colour and it's much sweeter than the green kiwi. Do try it out if you haven't. This is a community service brought to u all free of charge by yours truly :P

Ternak Cacing?

2008-08-11T22:10:00.003+08:00

I went to PC fair (@ PISA yesterday noon) and on my way back, I planned to stop by TESCO for groceries. On my way to TESCO (after the roundabout), something caught my attention... Hence I snapped a photo using my mobile phone N73 :)

Kursus Penternakan Cacing? *Ahem* Attending course in order to learn how to rear worms??
Mmmmmm.... Something new to me. Thanks, but no thanks :)

Photo Hunters : Dark

2008-08-09T14:12:00.000+08:00

I haven't posted up photos for Photo Hunt theme since early this year. Today, I feel like participating again :)

Today's theme is DARK.

What are the dark stuff i have with me? None other than the bitter Beryl Dark Chocolate (80% Cacao). Mmmm... I still prefer using the word Cocoa than Cacao. Cacao just sounds... weird. Might be cos i'm too used with the word Cocoa since childhood time :)

p/s: Photos are fresh from the oven, taken few hours ago. To all the Malaysians out there, do try out our local product, the Beryl Chocolate. Good Stuff and value for money, and this is not a paid post. :P

Eating Camel...

2008-08-08T00:05:00.000+08:00

I consider this as one of the delicacies in DunHuang, but kinda cruel.. as we were riding the cute camel at Mt Mingsha Desert in the afternoon and eating the camel hump at night time (although different camel). I dunno how to describe the texture.. It's slightly chewy. Err.. u gotta taste it yourself :P

Washroom for Crocs

2008-08-04T23:59:00.001+08:00

The photos below were taken inside the toilets in the Crocodile Farm in Miri :P

What is/are your response(s) when u see the above signboards? So farnie, and I can't deny they are very creative to come up with such a drawing.

Washroom for the ~~Buaya Darat?~~ Male Crocodiles??

And another one for the female Crocs :P

Sand

2008-08-02T00:02:00.001+08:00

The sand on the beaches at times mimic creative pieces of artwork, thanks to the bugs and mother nature :)

Cute leh the biji biji. Resembles mini marbles.. or might be white pepper. LOL

And the little sand balls are being dragged...

Ini siapa punya kerja? Korek lubang besar-besar pulak?

And I love this... The awesome work of mother nature which resembles tiger stripes :P

God's creation is indeed awesome :)

Gigantic Red Dates

2008-07-31T09:20:00.000+08:00

I took the follwing photos from the stalls nearby Mingsha Mt Gobi Desert in Dunhuang, Gansu Province in China.
The Red Dates here are huge !!! Tua tua liap :)

The above photo will give u a better idea regarding the size of the gigantic red dates (in comparison with the surrounding stuff). Huge leh? The red dates here in Malaysia are so mini and minute :(

Apple Vinegar Drink

2008-07-28T10:10:00.000+08:00

I kinda love this packet drink in China ~ The Apple Vinegar drink, which I have yet to see in Malaysia. (This is different from the bottled apple vinegar :P). Not only there is apple vinegar drink, there's packeted red dates vinegar drink too. Can't remember the price, I think it's around RMB 5 or RMB 6 per 500 ml packet :)

Grilled Lamb Satay

2008-07-26T09:36:00.001+08:00

Does skull = eerie stuff? Not really. We are going to have grilled lamb meat/satay aka 烤羊肉串.
XinJiang and Gansu Province is famous for grilled lamb meat, hence there are several stalls selling similar products at the night market.

This is the place where we had our 烤羊肉串 (grilled lamb meat).

Naan Bread (RMB 2) ~ to be eaten together with the satay

We ordered 10 + 10 skewers of spicy grilled lamb meat (Can't remember whether it is RMB 0.5 or RMB1 per skewer, but it's cheap).
We chatted with the shop owner while enjoying the yummy grilled lamb meat. He is a Muslim Chinese from the Wei ethnic and had been operating the grilled meat stall for more than a decade. He even gave me his name card. This one in the picture above is his son, preparing our additional order of grilled lamb meat :)

The ~~more expensive~~ better quality grilled lamb satay (RMB 5 per skewer). I'm lovin' it :)

Mt Mingsha Desert

2008-07-23T23:25:00.005+08:00

The silk road tour continues... The highlight for the day is the Mt Mingsha Gobi Desert (鸣沙山沙漠) and Crescent Spring (月牙泉) in DunHuang (敦煌市), Gansu Province (甘肃), China.
We were now entering the sandy world ~ and what welcomed us was the sand dunes in Mt Mingsha Gobi Desert.

Ada Desert mesti ada Camel lah...

Cute boh the camel? I think it resembles ~~"Misti"~~ Ostrich. And the camels are not that smelly...

Wah.. Camel with ~~alopecia~~ "skin disease"? Nope, some of the camels do shed fur at certain time of the year...

These two camels are cuter and more photogenic :P

And since I'm here at the desert liao, a ride on the camel is a MUST. Some of my tour group members opt to take the 'car ride' instead of camel ride in the desert. What a waste woh...
Syiok leh riding the camel... Dunno when is the next time I will ride on a camel again?
And the camel brought us to the "centre" of the desert. The little figure in the above picture is my husband. He was busy taking photo of the Crescent Spring from above ;)
Water Springs and Deserts can hardly be related to each other, but the Crescent Spring and the Mt Mingsha Gobi Desert is an exception. And yeah, the sand and and water can actually "live together". And the water is crystal clear and the sand never gets into the spring water, and the spring never dried up. Both the Crescent Spring and the Mt Mingsha Gobi Desert have existed for hundreds or thousand years already (i lupa the exact duration liao :P)
The scene is kinda spectacular and unique huh? Healthy looking grasses, trees and the desert coexist together.

Those interested can enjoy the sand sliding and the dune surfing :)

Signboard taking the shape of Camel reminding us not to waste even a single drop of water.

Saja saja.. Since Misti loves pict of man or woman with wrinkles :P

For those who are interested, u can buy some 'colourful' sand from the Gobi Desert back home as souvenir ;)

Ah Boy & Mangoes

2008-07-20T23:59:00.004+08:00

Cleaning and drying up the mangoes on the floor...

Our Health Inspector on duty come, sniffing the mangoes. To ensure that the mangoes are safe for consumption.

And yeah, no untoward events occur after eating the mangoes. Many thanks to Ah Boy, the Wonder Dog, for doing such a fabulous job :P

Burping Diary

2008-07-18T18:50:00.003+08:00

Sunday – Met up with my dear sampat partner in crime, Angeles who managed to find her way here. Burping ~~Chicken~~ Porky Hot Soup, stir fried green vege (supposedly we ordered tou miao wan) and curry sotong at Ahekor Hot Soup at Bandar Seri Kembangan. Nope, we were not "in Hot Soup"despite drinking the hot soup :P One of the waitress talked like machine gun and summore take the wrong order, and another one blur-blur tei. Asking tambah soup and she went to tapao our hot soup instead!! Earlier on we thought the shop might chap lap soon.. as we are the only customers there. But then hoh, mana tau, in half an hour time, the shop become full house tim.. Continue 2nd round of burping, this time burping cold chocolate drink, iced plain water and ice cream toast again at Old Town Kopitiam while surfing online and burping at twitters using Eee PC and iPod Touch at ~~dunno wat plaza~~ South City Plaza.

Monday – Gadget moment plus burping chicken, beef and mutton satay plus nasi himpit and coconut water with Sbanboy at Sate Hj Samuri, Bangi. Order too much satay till cannot finish... *burps*

Tuesday – Too much burping already.. So berehat seketika :P

Wednesday – Catch up and continue burping chicken satay and nasi himpit plus coconut water again with few of my good old uni frens (coursemates) who are now working in UMMC, GHKL and PPUKM in Sate Hj Samuri, Kajang.

Thursday – Sampat moment and burping ~~Bakuteh~~ tom yam bee hoon, slices of watermelon and ice lemon tea with Angeles, LB and CP1 at ?Station Kopitiam in Mines Shopping Mall. Feel like kena ti(p)u cos the servings is mini in comparison with the one in the picture, and the waiters there are super sotong. (And not forgetting, we burped Vitamin C too ~ the Vitamin C iced lemon tea drink plus some 38 "no eye see" photo session). Since the food portion is not that big, we continue burping milk tea and peanut butter toast at Uncle John Kopitiam cos no StarBucks mah.. (No flying peanuts, duh). And also iPhone-ing, iPod Touch-ing and Nokia-ing, and almost Eee PC-ing. And the fat koi in the pond didn't get to eat the peanut butter toast crumbs.

Addendum : And also kena ti(p)u by the ?Bangla waiter who said there were WiFi in the Station Kopitiam but in fact there is none. He also dunno what is soy sauce. Fulamak..

Friday – Burping Diet Coke, French Fries and Double Black Pepper Burger at Burger King in KLIA. Can't wait to go back home as I wanna burp Penang Assam Laksa :)

*Burps*

And the Silk Road Tour series will continue after this :)

Cheezels indulgence

2008-07-15T17:57:00.003+08:00

Cheezels ~ ~~The Ring of Power~~ The Ring that Rules... Wanna wanna? :)

"iPhone without the Phone"

2008-07-12T16:45:00.004+08:00

The properly "clothed" iPod Touch...

I was busy playing with my iPod Touch yesterday night.. and suddenly Angeles came up with this one million dollar question...

Angeles : So the iPod Touch is the iPhone without the phone? means it's only the "i"?
Me : err.. and minus the camera too :P

Hahahaha, I really chuckle when Angeles said that.. Only my dear beloved sampat Angeles can come up with such fabulous ocipala and funny idea. How can i not lup her? And not forgetting we have several GMTA moments too :)

The naked iPod Touch (without "baju" loh) :P

And not forgetting to surf online using the built in WiFi. But not that easy leh to "type" on the iPod Touch touchscreen using my index finger...

Addendum : And to those blur sotong out there, GMTA = Great Minds Think Alike.

Frozen Watermelon

2008-07-10T23:50:00.001+08:00

This has nothing to do with the Hami Melon. It's purely coincidence that I posted this up after the Hami Melon post :P
Some of you might have noticed my status last weekend regarding I had frozen watermelon. The idea of eating the frozen watermelon originated from my hubby few weeks back since he ate that at his friend's place and he loved it. Last Saturday, I bought a watermelon from TESCO at a great deal of RM 1 per kilo and I freeze half the fruit overnight inside the freezer.
Presenting the frozen watermelon. I left the watermelon aside to defroze a bit as the watermelon flesh was kinda hard when took out from the freezer. Hahaha, it's similar as eating watermelon ice cream. ٩(●̮̮̃•̃)۶ ٩(●̮̮̃•̃)۶ ٩(●̮̮̃•̃)۶ I'm lovin' it :)

Hami Melon

2008-07-09T00:35:00.002+08:00

Since I kinda lazy, I will write a short post today. Yeah, we were back to Hami town again.
The colourful and fragrant flowers outside our hotel in Hami. Something different from the unhealthy, dull and dusty plants seen in the desert :)
Yeah, we spent our night here in this particular 4 star hotel in Hami. Banyak juga customer hoh check in (or check out?) at the counter. And they were not from our tour group. Btw, did anyone notice something unique in the above photo? ;)
Yeah, the Hami Melon. One fresh, huge Hami Melon was put on display next to the counter. There are many other hami melon related paintings and poems seen in the hotel. Well, Hami town (哈密) is well known for the sweet and crisp muskmelon, the Hami Melon (哈密瓜). Hami Melon is also known as the King of Melons. So cute hoh seeing the hami melon being displayed in such a way inside the hotel. Imagine if Malaysia display our the King of Fruits (aka Durian) inside the hotel??? Hahaha, this is beyond imaginable and I'm pretty sure this will never happen. Else 99% of the tourists will run for their lives :P
The hotel also display several different types and varieties of Hami melons, which varies in shapes, sizes, skin color, flesh color etc. Sorry, the photo was a bit blur as I was in a rush as it was a last minute thing...

Yeah, I did taste the delicious Hami Melon (but not inside the hotel lah) but I didn't snap any photos of the fruits I ate ;)

9th Anniversary

2008-07-07T20:08:00.004+08:00

Many thanks to BabeKL for the advanced Anniversary Greetings posted in her blog few days back. If not I would have totally forgotten my wedding anniversary liao this year. Thanks BabeKL once again. BabeKL and her hubby also celebrated their 10th Wedding Anniversary recently, on 4th July aka US Independence Day :)

Yeah, today (7th July) marks the 9th Wedding Anniversary for me and my hubby. No celebration lah. After so many years, we don't really celebrate birthdays or anniversaries (till i almost forgotten about it this year :P), as long as we love each other and have each other inside our hearts every single day.

Just now, I kaypoh went and read back what I wrote in the past, and noticed the sampat Winn suggested me to celebread by eating bread during my wedding anniversary 2 years back. And the equally sampat Carcar suggested me to cele-bread by eating celery + bread. And since I malas nak tangkap gambar today, so I will use back the same wedding ring photo I posted last year :P ٩(●̮̮̃•̃)۶ ٩(●̮̮̃•̃)۶ ٩(●̮̮̃•̃)۶ ٩(●̮̮̃•̃)۶ ٩(●̮̮̃•̃)۶

And nope, I didn't eat celery nor bread today :P

Related Entries :
* 2007's 070707
* 2006's 777

Balikun Grassland

2008-07-06T11:17:00.003+08:00

We continued our journey to Balikun Prairie or Grassland (巴里坤草原), 90 km or one hour plus bus ride from Hami town.

Spotted few wild camels on our way to Balikun Prairie.

Yeah, there are green nearby the desert, with scenic landscape. Just like entering to a different world.

Syiok lah sitting here enjoying a cuppa of evening tea under the sun.

Pine trees. Feel like rolling on the green grass.. But alas, there cow or sheep or horse dungs on the green.. :(
It would be fun spending a night here at the country side, inside the farm, together with the horses, sheep and the cows. The common toilets here are clean, but doorless :)
Might be even more syiok if staying inside the tent-like rooms.
The air here is nice to sniff. Can inhale and take deep breath here, unlike the sandy and unhealthy air in the desert.This is my horse. Err, I meant the horse that i gonna ride. This was my first time riding a horse leh. It's not that easy to climb onto a horse, unlike climbing onto a camel..
This is the horse owner, a nice man with wrinkles. I presume he is from the Kazak descendant? He only speaks minimal Chinese language. (I know Misti will notice his wrinkles) ;)

Gallop, horsey gallop...

Balikun Grassland or Prairie with beautiful lush pastureland. Say hi to the sheep... and the cows... and the horses... They are all busy munching grass. And this somehow reminds to of Psalm 23 :)
Flocks of ~~sheep~~ Yong meh meh with different "baju", or fur.. Anyone here born in the year of kambing? If that is so, say hi to your distant relatives :)

Say hi Moooo to the Cowie with cute mini, short horns.

The White Stone aka Baishitou/白石头 (a huge white quartz rock in the midst of the prairie) with a sad story behind it..

Ini kuda manyak cantik woh..

Sheep crossing the field in a group... Animals also know the principle "Unity is Strength". Don't play-play :P
Last but not least, a photo of the leng-leng yellow countryside flower :)

Random Thought

2008-07-03T22:00:00.000+08:00

The following are some quotes and phrases that I like.

Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own. (NIV Matthew 6:34)

And there is one Chinese idiom which carries the similar meaning..
今朝有酒, 今朝醉. 明日愁来, 明日犹
Which basically means "Be merry and drink to your heart's content while you still can. Do not worry about tomorrow".

Well, Life is short.
We never know what might happen the next minute.
So, why wanna worry so much ???
Enjoy life while you can.
Cos we only live once :)

Just my 2 cents. What say you? :)

Melon Stall

2008-07-01T22:29:00.001+08:00

Today we continue our journey to Hami (哈密). The road condition to Hami is bad. Bumpy all the way. Although the distance is only 400 km, it took us 7 hours plus to reach Hami town. Sitting in the bus till almost become Momon.. And the interesting thing is.. there are no toilets on the road. When nature calls, u have to do your biz by the roadside. :P

Blue-blue sky. No clouds woh.. U can imagine how hot it is in the desert...
This is the unique scene. One side of the road is the desert (rock and sand) whilst the other side has green trees.

Dunno what ~~ocipala stuff~~ is written here.. Although I learn Jawi during primary school days, but 99% are given back to the teacher liao. Only 1% left (I could still recognise some characters) :P

Yeah, this is the "greeny" side of the desert. Eye soothing :)
Yeap, there is one melon stall (the one and the only stall) in the midst of the desert. :)
Hami is famous for the sweet melons. In fact, the name Hami in Chinese = Melons :)

This is the camera shy aunty selling melon :)

Remember the air dry room saw in Turpan in the previous post? The fresh grapes are dried inside the air drying room with the help of the hot and dry airflow for about 2 weeks. There are plentiful of these raisin air dry rooms in the desert on the way to Hami.
This aunty stays here in the desert. Her house is just behind the melon stall.
Our sifu (tour bus driver) bought one water melon from the aunty and belanja us all makan. Thanks sifu for the melon. It's nice to savour the thirst quenching melon in the hot weather, furthermore inside the desert :)

Goodbye Kuching

2008-06-30T14:00:00.002+08:00

This is what I had for brunch today - Kam Pua Noodle (干盘面). Something that I had since childhood time (which is not available over here in Penang) before I bid farewell to the Land of Hornbill. It looks like Wantan Mee but the taste and texture of the noodle is different. I still remember during my secondary school days, the noodles was sold at RM 1.30 per plate in Sarikei. Now the price is already RM 2.80 in Kuching. Talking about those good old days when everything is still cheap and affordable :P

Yeah, I'm leaving Kuching today. This is just a short balik kampung trip but quite an enjoyable one too. Especially I managed to meet up with quite a number of my secondary school friends/classmates and two of them I haven't meet for 16 years. Seems like most of my Sarikei friends and classmates/schoolmates have either migrated or are now working in Kuching. ;)

A night in Turpan

2008-06-29T09:04:00.001+08:00

Roast Lamb is a known delicacy in XinJiang province. Tonight our tour group had the whole roast lamb for dinner.. The photo above showing our whole roasted lamb (together with it's head) before ending up subsequently inside our tummy. Didn't take photo of the dishes as too busy makan-ing :)

It was a long day in Turpan. After dinner it was time to check in the hotel. It's already 9:35 pm at night but the sky was still bright, which was good as we had more time for sightseeing. For your info, the photo in the earlier Flaming Mountain post was taken around 7:30 pm at night but the sun was still shinning brightly.

Yeah, this is our hotel entrance gate. Kinda unique huh? Of course I took photos of the gate door and the knob too but I decided not to post it up this time.. If not Jason will become worried again with my obsession. By the way, did u notice the donkey cart opposite the road?This is a nearer view of the donkey cart if u didn't notice or see it properly in the previous picture. The donkey cart serves like a taxi in Turpan. You can take it to tour around the town :)
More donkey carts on the road.. This particular donkey cart carried greens and vegetables.

We see mainly motorbikes, bicycles and donkey carts on the road. Picture showing one old wise Muslim man riding bicycle on the road (I saja saja call him wise man).

Another wise old Muslim man on the road. This scene somehow reminds me of Kelantan. And he looks like Nik Aziz from afar. Hehehehe

And yeah, this is the hotel that we stayed for the night. Since it was already 10 pm and we had a long day in Turpan, it's time to go back to the hotel and Zzzzz... And the following day we will have a long journey to Hami, the melon town.

Imin Minaret (Sugong Pagoda)

2008-06-27T14:10:00.001+08:00

Let's continue with the series in Turpan, XinJiang Province again... And I'm still stuck at Day 3 out of the 10 days tour.. o.O
Sugong Pagoda (苏公塔) also known as Imin Minaret was completed in 1778. It is the largest ancient tower in XinJiang Province. It is also the only Islamic old tower among the hundreds famous towers in China.
The magnificent Imin Minaret or Sugong Pagoda. The tower is 44 metre in height with a base of 10 metre in diameter.
The pagoda body assumes the shape of a cylinder with a column in the center of the tower and 72 flights of stairs. The pagoda was built with bricks and woods and displays features of Uyghur architecture.

Let's have a closer view how the bricks were arranged. There is an observation room on the tower roof. There are windows on four sides of the tower roof for a complete view of Turpan town.
This is just a saja-saja photo.. Since i like to snap here and there. Nothing significance :P

The door and the door knob again.. My obsession :P

A stone tablet at the entrance of the tower with Uygur and Chinese writing at the bottom. I still cannot figure out what is the drawing on the stone tablet :P

Wooden roof and the ornamental windows..

Praying ground with red carpets. This is a mosque mah :)

Cross sign, which reminds me of hospital. Hehehe, but of course this building has nothing to do with health related service lah :P

And Misti, this Uyghur young chap has smooth skin without any wrinkles.. Unlike the donkey cart uncle and 100+ years old grandpa in the previous two posts . ;)

And.. several raisin stalls outside the Sugong Pagoda with ith different names and colours. There's even raisins for different gender :P

Meow...

2008-06-25T21:07:00.003+08:00

Purrrr...
Guess what?
Meow again :)

Grape Valley

2008-06-23T20:50:00.005+08:00

Yeah, we are still in Turpan. Turpan produces the sweetest grapes and the best raisins in China. And believe it or not, the grape valley is located not far away from Flaming Mountain. And this place is kinda cool in comparison with Flaming Mountain, the hottest place on earth. :P
The walkway to Grape Valley is beautifully shaded by overhanging grape trellises. Too bad the grapes are not in season yet.. Have to wait till July or August loh to taste the seedless sweet white grapes. *Bawl* :(

Grape Valley

Besides the grapes vineyards, there are also other fruit trees, and not forgetting Afanti former residence and Uygur despots residence.
The door of Afanti former residence. Dunno why lah.. I confess I am obsessed with doors and door knobs.. I love to take snapshots of door and door knobs. Can hear the "krakkkkkk....." sound when opening the door :P

The simple furniture and porcelain bowl are kinda cute.

The 100+ years old Muslim Uygur uncle. o.O at the snowy white beard.

The Uygur despots residence. Mmm.. Seeing this remind you of anything?

Mulberry tree with colourful mulberries. We plucked and ate the ripe mulberry there and then.. Syiok habis. First time eating fresh mulberries leh :) Wait, where are the silk worms???

And not to miss out plucking and eating the fresh apricots too. Sedap lah.

Of coz lah. Free stuff are good stuff. LOL

This is the place where raisins are produced, with the help from mother nature. Presenting the Drying Room. The fresh grapes are dried inside the air drying room with the hot and dry airflow for about 2 weeks. Yeah, they are not sun-dried. The walls are built in such a way to provide the best airflow. The raisins here are free from preservatives.
And the huge sweet raisins are available everywhere, since those are Turpan's specialty products :)

GaoChang Ancient City

2008-06-21T15:50:00.003+08:00

The ruins of the Ancient City of GaoChang (高昌古城) is located nearby HuoYanSan or Flaming Mountain about 46 km southeast of Turpan. The ancient city of Gaochang and Jiaohe, are two of the well preserved ruins of the ancient cities in China.

Donkey Cart

Our donkey cart "driver" :D

On the dusty road... Go Donkey Go :)

The ancient city of Gaochang was built as a garrison town in the 1st century B.C. As one of the key points along the Silk Road, the ancient city of Gaochang was also a sanctuary of world religious culture. Xuanzhang, the Buddhist monk in the Tang Dynasty stopped here in the past on his way to India.

The GaoChang city was damaged and burnt down during the war around the 14th century.

After 2,000 years, the ancient city still displays its past greatness and glory. Even though the walls are incomplete with ruins, the magnificent outline still remains.

Some of our tour group members riding on different donkey carts.
Enjoying the ruins of the GaoChang ancient city on the donkey cart.

Another donkey cart trying to overtake us. This donkey very cekap wan. Take a look at his hind legs. I meant the way the donkey runs :D

The local Muslim chubby boy selling keychain.

The infamous toilets.. Although extremely smelly, this is still a "proper" toilet with doors in comparison to the "natural" open air toilet on the road :P

The city, covering an area of 2 million square meters, is composed of 3 sections ~ an outer city, an inner city and a palace city.

And we have reached the inner city of the ancient GaoChang. The ruins and remains here give us a glimpse of the grandeur and prosperity of the ancient city in the past.

In the middle of the city lies the round castle..

Looking up... Mmmm.... Once upon a time...

How nice if there's time machine... (Ok, I'm trying to imagine how's the city like in the past :P)

Sha la la la.. (Of coz they didn't sing sha lalala leh..). If Ah Ben is here, he will start io ka chng.

As we are good citizen, we didn't leave any unnecessary marks or prints on the ancient wall except leaving behind our foot prints on the ground and sweet memories... :P

Frankly speaking, I'm thirsty lah as u can imagine how hot it was. I wanna drink COLD BEER :P

Kereta 3 Roda

2008-06-19T23:04:00.004+08:00

Guess what's my impression the first time I saw those 3-wheeled vehicles in China? None other than.. the infamous and mean MR BEAN. Hahaha, cos prior to watching Mr Bean series, I have never see another 3-wheeled car till I visit Beijing in 2002. I get so excited the first time I saw such a car in real life. LOL
And I saw these 3-wheeled vehicles quite frequently in XinJiang and GanSu province. Everytime I see those cars, it will definitely bring a smile to my face. Cos.. they are cute mah.

See? I didn't bluff you. So many of those kereta-tiga-roda on the road :)

And... there's even 3-wheeled mini lorry. Geng Mou? China BOLEH !!

Flaming Mountain

2008-06-17T23:05:00.007+08:00

Those who read the classical chinese novel, "Journey to the West" (西游记) will know about The Flaming Mountain @ Huoyansan (火焰山). If you are a Chinese and dunno or never heard of the famous novel Journey to the West, then you really deserved to be piak-ed. The novel is a fictionalized account of the legends around the Buddhist monk XuanZhang's pilgrimage to India during the Tang dynasty in order to obtain the Buddhist religious texts (sutras) together with his 3 disciples, namely Sun WuKong, Zhu BaJie and Sha WuJing. Although the character Monkey King (孙悟空) is a fiction, but XuanZhang (唐僧/玄奘/三藏法师), the Tang Dynasty Buddhist monk in the story is a real character and the pilgrimage to India did happen.

During noon time, the sun rays are reflected off the red rocks, as though the hillsides are engulfed by tongues of fire. Flaming Mountain is largely made up of bare rock without a single blade of grass but I saw a "sesat" donkey over there.

Btw I really catch no ball what is the donkey doing there. Don't tell me the donkey survive by eating rocks or sands????? OMS.. Poor Donkey. No wonder he is so skinny :(

Flaming mountain is the hottest place in China and temperature sometimes reaches 48 degree centigrade. During summer the temperature can reaches up to 70 degree centigrade. How to survive woh? So hot can die. I really salute the Buddhist monk, XuanZhang :)

And yeah, this is the weapon of the Sun WuKong, the Monkey King character in Journey to the West ;)

Karez Irrigation System (Turpan)

2008-06-16T19:58:00.001+08:00

Our first stop for the day in Turpan, China was the Karez Irrigation System. Turpan's Karez Irrigation System is among the three ancient major irrigation projects with the other two being Ling Canal in GuangXi and Dujiangyan Irrigation Project in Sichuan Province (I visited Dujiangyan (都江堰) in early 2006 during my visit to SiChuan Province and Jiuzhaigou).
Err? What is the Gigantic Lamp doing here? Have I mistakenly entered the City of Aladdin?

A visit to The Karez Museum. The greens in the photo are grape trees.

Walking pass the trellised walkway, which is ladened with grapes.

Grapes, grapes and grapes. But now is not the grape season yet. Two more months to go..

Illustration of surface construction of Karez Irrigation System. The Karez Irrigation System, with history of 2000+ years, is made up of a horizontal series of vertically dug wells that are linked by underground water canals to collect water from the watershed surface runoff from the base of the Tian Shan Mountains and the nearby the Flaming Mountains. The canals channel the water to the surface, taking advantage of the current provided by the gravity of the downward slope of the Turpan Depression. The canals are mostly underground to reduce water evaporation.
More info regarding Karez Irrigation System. Click on the picture (for a bigger view) only if you are really interested.. :P

Saja-saja ambik gambar ni.. Just for fun :P

The Moo Moo is cute mah, that's why I snap the photo :P

The vertically dug well that are linked to the connecting underground water canals.

The underground water canal. And I'm shocked when I reached the basement or underground, cos it is extremely cool underneath, just like the natural air conditioner. And it's so hot up there in the ground surface. What a relief..

The Karez Well. And yeah, the chinese and jawi writing again ;)

Wanna play hide and seek here? But better ~~Keep Fingers Crossed~~ KFC that you won't See Ghost if u really wanna play hide and seek. :P

Out of curiosity, I touched the water and it's cold. But of course I didn't taste it lah.. I'm not that adventurous :)

The water from the underground canals provide a stable water resource all year round as the weather is hot and dry in Turpan, and it seldom rains. Mmm... What's up next? ;)

15.6.2008

2008-06-15T00:46:00.001+08:00

10 years ago, on this day.. I reported duty to the Sarawak Health Department and started working on the same day in the Orthopaedic Department in Sarawak General Hospital. Time flies and 10 years had passed since then. And today marks my 10th working anniversary :)

During my recent tour to Silk Road China, when some of my tour group members found out that I'm working in the hospital, few of them asked "Are u still doing your housemanship?" or "You just graduated not long ago?" etc... When I told them I have worked for 10 years already, they are surprised cos they think I looked much younger than my age. I really look so young meh? Hahahha... And there are people out there in the street who thought I'm still a college student. :P

Like what Yenjai told me few days back, might be next I can get discount price when buying economy rice by telling them that I'm a student. (Well, certain eating places in KL give discount for students). I think I should get a "fake student card" so that I can get discounts and special price when buying things or going for buffet etc. Hahahhaa..

Xinjiang Cultural Performance

2008-06-13T23:50:00.004+08:00

I thought of omitting this part of the tour earlier on but now I decided to post it. This took place on the second night in Urumqi. We had buffet dinner of local delicacies while watching the XinJiang Ethnics Cultural Show at Mukam Banqueting Theatre, next to the International Grand Bazaar in Urumqi. The entrance ticket for the show was RMB 160 (inclusive of buffet dinner).
Since the show hadn't started, it's time to feast our tummy with the local delicacies. I couldn't help but to stare at the gigantic noodle arranged in spiral shape which resembles you-know-what lah. And the name of the dishes are written only in Chinese language. If you can't understand chinese language, then sorry lah. Just guess what u took loh.
Some interesting food stuff i had, featuring Fried Milk, Spicy slices of Pig Stomach and slices of Fish Skin.. Yeah, u didn't read wrongly. It's fish skin :)

The local waiter serving Roasted Lamb. And yeah, he speaks Chinese :)

*A Big YAWN* ~ Luckily yawning is not contagious in this context... The food in this corner tak sedap lah.. They put vinegar inside the noodle geh? Eeeeeeeeeee.......
And the show started.. I had the itineraries of the performance in Chinese language and I'm just too lazy to type the whole thing out here nor translating it.. :P

A useful gadget for clapping hands when one is busy eating :)

Still hungry and I continued eating again while watching the show.. having the local homemade yoghurt.
This one I'm sure u know what dance lah.. It's the Indian Dance. Err.. How come Indian dance in China? :P
I will stop here since I malas to post so many photos liao, else u all will go Zzzzz too. And yeah, today is Friday the 13th and it's almost over liao.. in 10 minutes time :P

On the way to Turpan

2008-06-11T22:45:00.008+08:00

It's time to bid farewell to Urumqi. The followings were shots taken on the way to Turpan. It was a long and tiring ride on the bumpy road.

Goodbye to the greens.. Entering the rock and sandy area soon.. Say hi to the cow herds :)

Say Hi to the Camels too. I will get to ride on a real Camel soon :)

Entering the Power Station area... Did u notice that the signboard is only written in Chinese language and Jawi? No English words leh...

The biggest Wind Power Station in China

Introducing the gigantic "fan" aka Wind Power Generator :)

Keng leh? I dunno how many of these are available on the road. Thousands? Or Millions?

Now we enter the salt factory region... Ever wonder how's the salt being produced? And the signboard is also written only in Chinese language and jawi :P

Say Hi to the sheeps. Anyone notice the whitish area in the background? Those are crystallised salt at the salt lake surface, which is available abundantly in this area.

More crystallised salt on the way

I kinda like this picture.. The white patch of crystallised salt in between the rock mountains and the greens.

Cemeteries...

Rocks and Sands.. It's time to doze off in the bus... Since there's still a long journey ahead..

Finally we reached the HOT and DRY Turpan (吐魯番).

Btw, most of the shots here were taken using my compact digicam from the moving bus as it was hard to take candid shots using viewfinder with DSLR on the super bumpy road.

International Grand Bazaar, Urumqi

2008-06-10T19:22:00.003+08:00

A visit to the International Grand Bazaar at the Ethnic Culture Street in Urumqi, XinJiang Province, China :)

Manyak Panjang mia Building... I didn't go up lah cos I was too busy and pre occupied with walking and loitering in the compound, trying out the local delicacies and not forgetting taking photos..

Something that resembles ~~Durian~~ Liulian? Yeah, I saw durian being sold on the street, but didn't ask the price since I'm not buying..

LB's favourite food ~ KFC. Since I tarak suka and don't fancy KFC, hence I didn't bother to go inside the shop :P

Apricots.. and we bought some. Can't remember the price. It is either RMB 3 or RMB 5 per kati.

This is the interesting stuff. Guess what's that big chunk of white stuff? You won't believe me. It's local ICE CREAM !! Walau eh.. And it was left just like that in the open air. RMB 3 per cup.

And this is my favourite Pomegranade drink. RMB 5 or RMB 10 per glass? Lupa liao. Good stuff loh :) And Moz told me that his girl friend use Pomegranate to scrub her skin :P

Yeah, most of the local folks here are Muslim :)

Some of the fruit stuff we bought back that night.. Cherries, Dunno-what-fruit which is sourish in nature and Apricots :P
But this is not my first time eating fresh cherries, since I bought some in Tesco some time back ;)

TianChi (Heavenly Lake)

2008-06-08T17:26:00.002+08:00

Our first stop for the day in Urumqi for the Silk Road Tour in XinJiang Province is TianChi (天池) or Heavenly Lake, formerly known as YaoChi. I won't write long and will let the picture do the talking. Since a picture worths a thousand words :)

Taking the cable car ride up. Up up up....

Scenic view of pine trees taken from the cable car.

Finally we reached our destination. The breathtaking Heavenly Lake in Tianshan Mountain, which lies 1980 meters above sea level.

YES !! The snow-capped peaks. Geeee, I don't have to visit Fuji Mountain in Japan for the snow capped mountain liao ;)

And we also took a short tour in the Heavenly Lake ~ half an hour ferry ride.

Pavillion on the mountain

Another shot of the blue sky, crystal clear blue water and the snow capped mountain from the ferry.

It's time to bid farewell to this scenic lake and mountain, which was listed as UNESCO world heritage site in 1990.

Have Mercy on the Green Grass :)

Haha, I cannot resist but to take another shot before I cabut :P

Silk Road Tour (1)

2008-06-07T23:20:00.001+08:00

The tour to Silk Road was tiring, but nevertheless it's fun. It started with the 4 hours flight from Penang to Guangzhou, followed by another 5.5 hours domestic flight from Guangzhou to Urumqi. U can imagine my tiredness on arrival to Urumqi. And it was almost 9 pm at night by the time we reached Urumqi. And the sky was still bright as it only get dark around 10 pm at night, and brighten around 5 sumthing in the morning. Which is good, as we had more time for sight seeing.. How nice if the sky in Malaysia only gets dark at 9 or 10 pm?
Urumqi (乌鲁木齐) is the capital city of the Xinjiang Province, located northwest of China. It is the northern route of Silk Road. The subsequent 10 days of the tour, we traveled from Urumqi to Turpan, then to Hami, followed by DunHuang, then to JiaYuGuan, followed by Jiuquan, then Zhangye, later WuWei, followed by Lanzhou. And from Lanzhou we took the domestic flight to Xi'An. Following that we took the transit flight to Guangzhou before flying back to Penang.

I will upload some of the photos tomorrow since I'm tired and sleepy. And by the way, up to date, I have only go through less than half of the total 8000+ photos taken :P

Tunggu Balik Rumah

2008-06-06T21:16:00.002+08:00

I'm now in KLIA, awaiting for my flight back home to Penang. Was in KL for few hours. So sleepy.. Almost fell asleep inside the cab just now.

And I just found out today I can even check in for my flight from KLIA to Penang in Penang. Hence I check in for my flight from Penang to KLIA and also from KLIA to Penang at the same time. (I don't have any check in luggage lah of course) :P

Happy Birthday Angeles

2008-06-06T00:00:00.002+08:00

From Angel to Angeles and now Rainbow Angeles,
I really treasure and cherish your friendship...
Glad knowing such a wonderful person via blogsphere,
Although I have only get to know u for 2 years plus,
but it seems like knowing u for ages already ;)
I still remember the first time we met up on 6/8/06 @ LCCT..
and the rest are histories ;)

Muacks & Hugs & Kisses...
to a beautiful gal with a sincere, kind and gentle heart

Happy Birthday Angeles

♫ ♪ 生日快乐 ♫ ♪

**Ooops, super paiseh..
Cos I still haven't send out your birthday card yet..
Too tired mah..
Sleep early yesterday night and forgotten to send the card...
Must find a hole to hide liao....
I will send the card tomorrow morning..
If not I will piak myself :P

I'm Back

2008-06-04T09:48:00.000+08:00

Finally I'm back home in Penang. Went for 10 days Silk Road Tour in China. It's tiring but fun, especially riding on a camel in the dessert, riding horse in a countryside farm and not forgetting riding the donkey cart. Just reached home early morning today, reached home around 1 am and started working today. I still feel so sleepy and tired....

Will reply to the comments in the previous post later, and thanks for the sms sent by some of u when I was away :)