OUR DAILY NOODLE

When we were bored...

2009-05-12T12:52:00.008+08:00

This was what we did when we were bored in china.....

First we went to the salon for a hair treatment.

This is what a normal steamer would look like:

And this is what a china-made-UFO-inspired steamer would look like:

From the salon, then we'll practice our hair-styling skill on our dearest hehehhe:

See what see???

Am i cute or what?

Aaron kwok style...

When the fringe meets the brow...

The Mohawk....

When the gravity fails you...

And note that all these were performed on the street-side under the curious gaze of the pedestrians hahahah...

The Country of the Rising Sun - day 6 END

2009-04-27T19:53:00.009+08:00

Well...We did nothing much on our last day except SHOPPING :) Frist they brought us to this shinto temple with the HUGEEE lantern.

Then they brought us to the Ginza street which is like the 'Orchard' of Tokyo. The street was lined with international brands:

Managed a pose while talking to our friend @ the public phone.
ps: wondering wat's that laptop doing over there??? hehehe Japan was so advanced that even such a public area has a free wi-fi :)

Intermezzo: wat a local japanese fast food looked like...

But sadly...we still have to end our tour. Had a GREAT time in Japan. And after exploring the Southern cities of Japan, our next destination would be Hokkaido & sekitarnya :)

Good bye Japan!!! We'll be back again one day....

Note: Many of the things which i've learnt from komik shinchan was actually REAL and thanks to shinchan that i knew what to look for & expect while i was in Japan hahahahha

The Country of the Rising Sun - day 5

2009-04-27T10:43:00.016+08:00

Today...we are heading towards Tokyo! Its like the
climax of the entire journey..the buzzing capital of Japan...here we come!

It took us a few hours bus ride to reach Tokyo and headed straight to Disney Sea (well some other may choose Disney Land tho). These are some of the snapshots of the city which we took WHILE on the bus (so please pardon the quality :p )

It was weekdays afternoon when we reached DisneySea..thinking that if we could use the fast-pass we would manage to try all the rides...but hah! To our surprise...when we arrived, we were greeted by a swarm of people. It was sooo crowded that after spending the whole day in there, we only get our luck on the Tower of Terror (well...of course after 2.5 hours of queueing) and a silly Sinbad show heheheh.

While queueing for the Tower of Terror :p

Interesting mosaic picture made up of millions of small photos.

Intermezzo:

KitKat with 'unusual flavor

My favorite flavor ever!

After returning to the hotel at night, we planned a meeting with our Indo friend who was studying in Tokyo. In turned out to be the best night out around Tokyo (since our tour guide-as unprofessional as it could be - did not bring us around the city.)

We took the train to the city.
ps: Japan has the most complicated subway system i've ever seen! hah...

Interestingly, they implement this rule where no one is allowed to talk on the handphone while inside the train :) Only sms allowed...

We explored Harajuku, Shinjuku & Shibuya that night. Had a great time shopping, trying the local dishes like crepes, Okonomiyaki & ramen!

The busy Shibuya street.

The so called Japanese 'boys-gang' hahaha wat a hairstyle! Ah-beng kia :p

The best meal was when we had a DIY-Okonomiyaki:

All the ingredients were provided and all we need to do was to COOK them...easy, fun & guanteed taste!

Mix the ingredients together...

Put them on the hot pan...

Form the circular shape...

Fry till crisp....

Put the shoju, fish flakes and mayo on top..

Cut into 4...

..and Voila! The original okonomiyaki...

Intermezzo: interesting game we found in Konami ( its like a 5 storeys arcade wowww...).

Last but not least...our supper of the day ( its was midnite fyi)..the famous ramen which taste i'll never forget :p

Out of all the 6 days in Japan...this night is voted as the night! yay...

The Country of the Rising Sun - day 4

2009-02-18T11:00:00.011+08:00

The next morning...we were greeted by the falling snow. The view was stunning...and the best part was we get to enjoy the scenery as we walked to the nearby traditional market. Stopped every few meters to take pictures hahahha.

The interesting part was...altho it was snowing oh so heavily (that each of us was given an umbrella from the hotel)..the temperature was pretty much comfortable, not freezing cold.

In the afternoon, they brought us to a ski resort..not to ski (unfortunately hikss) but to enjoy their sulfur hot & cold spring ")

Our part time job while in Japan...(lumayan buat uang saku d sana hihihi)

It was snowing heavily.Tempted...we had a snow fight :

We visited the wasabi farm too. Never know that it looks this weird before...

Each wasabi was graded and given different prices.

Every product sold here was wasabi flavoured. There were wasabi ice cream, wasabi tea, wasabi biscuits, wasabi crackers etc..

Wasabi seaweed....the best i've ever tried so far (since this was the first and the only time i've tasted such a thing hahahha)

After being pampered with the cozy, spacious hotel room, tonight we were back to the small, crampy room. Imagine 3 tatamis + 3 suitcases + 3 grown ups in this tiny room = "-"

We had our first 'real' shashimi during the dinner (at our own expense fyi! ).

Our hotel was located at the lake side. It has a great view of the Mt Fuji:

The Country of the Rising Sun - day 3

2009-01-16T12:22:00.013+08:00

Day 3 started with another bento box as breakfast...not really used to the cold food these days :$

Afterwhich we proceed to Omicho Market - a busy and colorful market with 200 over shops selling seafood, vegetable, fruits and flowers. Unlike the market that i have in mind....the market here is sooo cleannn and neat. Unique market indeed!

Everything in this market was auctioned to the stores before they were sold to the customers. So items like crab, octopus ikura, or even honeydew has its own prices.

One of the best potato croquette that i've ever tried!

At noon..we visited the Kenrokuen Garden in Kanazawa, acclaimed as one of the Japan's 3 great gardens.

It is famous for the bonsai trees which are supported together by ropes -- so that the weight of the snow wont break the branches.

Our lunch...the typical Japanese lunch box which consisted of many varieties..all in bite-size portion :)

One of our favourite findings during the tour: FURIKAKE! Its the Japanese flavoring condiment made of roasted seaweed, salt, sesame seeds etc, often sprinkled atop rice. Its nice...

Afterwhich...we went to Shirakawa-Go village, a well-preserved Unesco world heritage site - famous for its old farmhouses with steep roofs. We had fun with the thick snow here. Not to mention it has the best scenery!

We spent the night at Hida. The hotel resembled a resort - famous for its onsen (japanese hot spring) and that also marked the first time we slept on tatami (yey!!).

For once we get a spacious hotel room. It has a living room, a bedroom, a wardrobe space and 2 toilets!

That nite we tried the very culture of japanese who like to shower in the public bath called onsen. The bath was seperated between male's and female's. There one basic rule within the public bath: no clothing allowed! And we were given only a small piece of hand towel. We were suppose to cleanse ourselves in the shower before entering the pool. They have 3 pools inside the bath: indoor pool, outdoor pool and the last one (which was the most interesting one) was the rooftop pool. We liked the rooftop pool the best as we can enjoy the snow and the night view while soaking in the hot pool.

In the bath, they provided all the things women need like soaps, shampoo, conditioner, scrub, hairdryer, disposable comb, lotions etc. Very convenient indeed!

Before onsen:

After onsen:

The bath did make me feel sleepy :) But itss really worth it. Japanese even take the bath before and after dinner (its open from 6am till 12 midnite afterall!)

The sarupopo -- its the traditional character from Hida :

The Country of the Rising Sun - day 2

2009-01-08T11:13:00.021+08:00

Our second day started with a bento box breakfast (which apparently will be our breakfast for the next few days!). A bento box consisted of a variety of food (mainly rice, fish, seaweed, pickles, veggies, and miso soup). Looks healthy at a glance! But as they were mass-prepared long before we woke up..everything was cold by the time we had our breakfast. Everything except the miso soup. Not exactly my kind of taste :(

Luckily we had a chance to try out the Japanese Curry for our brunch :) it was niiiceeeeee...simple yet delicious (and WARM!)

For the first itenerary of the day, we were suppose to take the bullet train (Shinkansen) from Osaka to Kyoto, which took only 13 minutes! We happen to be taking the 2nd generation of Japan's bullet train called Nozomi which travel at the speed of 300km/h.

This is the overview of a bullet train.

The Japanese tend to be very quite and calm whenever they are inside a train, be it a bullet train or the normal 'MRT'. Hence we made quite an 'impression' when the whole group first entered the bullet train hah!

At Kyoto, we first visited the Kyomizu temple. Fyi, Japan has a LOT of temples because their religion, Shinto, taught them to worship as many gods as needed. So in the case when they need wealth, they'll worship the prosperity god..and so on so forth. Oblivious to all their gods and goddesses, we went to take tons of picture of the beautiful surrounding scenery and ....

...played with water.....

People queued to drink the water from these 3 small fountain as they believed that each will bring you propserity, health and ... (can't remember wat's the last one heheh)

...and bought their famous mochi!

This is the grilled mochi.

While this is the original mochi which i think is nice! Especially the sweet potato flavour.

In this shop you could sample all their mochi for free till u drop! (plus they'll even serve u tea and u can sit around the heater hah!).

And last but not least.....

........................do stupid things...like these 2 people:

Afterwhich we visited the Biwa Lake, which size is bigger than Singapore! heheh Coz its the biggest fresh water lake in Japan. We didn't take any picture tho since it was merely a lunch at the pit stop which happened to be beside the Biwa lake. Most of the Japanese fast food always use a vending machine where we insert our money and choose our food. Then they'll prepare the food manually and send it to us :)

That day we spent our night at Kanazawa, a small village few hours from Kyoto. We had our dinner at the hotel:

This is called the Japan crab!

The entire meal revolved around CRAB. Crab meat, steam crab, crab leg soup, mashed potato in crab shell etc etc...

After dinner....we were greeted by SNOW! yey...tat was the first time it snowed since we reached Japan. So..the first thing we did was grabbed our umbrella and ran out in a rush to play with the snow hehehe

Some......even tot that snow = ice kachang!

Then....unstoppable picture-taking frenzy!

All the way..until the snow stopped falling...

And late that night...in the privacy of our room:

Let the battle begins!!!!

And the defeated one is......

*poor little thing *

While the winner:

And the climax for the day:

*Sadako in action* (scroll faster to view)

The Country of the Rising Sun - day 1

2009-01-05T16:37:00.009+08:00

I was quite skeptic when the idea of going to Japan came out in Nov mainly because it was a last minute thing. To make it worse...our proposal to apply for Japan visa in Fuzhou's Japan Consulate was rejected. And guess wat...Ryan's mom had to go back all the way to Jakarta to apply for everyone's visa...just one week before departure! Hah! So..i'd considered this as God's gift for us (especially the jobless me..going to Japan would be the last thing in my mind :p ).

Well...we participate in Chan Brother's 6D5N Japan Sceninc Delight. Here goes the story:

After a sleepless 7-hours flight, we arrived in Nagoya Airport. The sudden temp drop forced us to change into a thick jacket (luckily i bought this thick bubble jacket just the day before...). Then we had a 3 hours drive to Osaka by bus. Along the way we made a pit stop at Nara, a small town before Osaka. As exciting as it was to first step into Japan, we can't help but to fall asleep once we sat on the comfortable chair of the bus.

Intermezzo:

We met a bunch of high-school kids with one and only one style of hair cut! hehehe maybe they r from the army?

Our first stop once we arrived in Osaka was the Osaka Castle:

It is one of Japan's most famous castles, and played a major role in the unification of Japan during the sixteenth century. The central castle building is five stories on the outside and eight stories on the inside, and built atop a tall stone foundation to protect its occupants from sword-bearing attackers.

Duhh...sengak nya...hihii

A nice cauliflower-look a like :)

We had udon for our first lunch in Japan. Loving it! Even after only a few hours in Japan, we realized how friendly the Japanese are.

They even have takoyaki-key chain .... jepang abiesss!

Not to forget...takoyaki pretz!

After that..we visited Shinsaibashi, a shopping area in Osaka. Here we can find Daimaru, Parco, Sogo Dept Store and many other branded shops. One shop which caught our attention was Matshumoto kiyoshi. Its a well-known pharmacy chain in Japan (something like Guardian). But interestingly all pharmacies in Japan sell a lot (and i mean A LOT) of cosmetics items. So..there u go.. we had our first shopping spree of Japanese eye liner..mascara..etc etc in a pharmacy :)

The 14 storeys' Sogo dept store.

One of the wedding gown on display in Sogo (the checkers remind me of our table cloth at home! heheheh)

We found this Sanrio Gallery along the Shinsaibashi, and as expected...its FULL of Hello Kitty! You can practically find everything from stationery to golf ball with Hello Kitty logo on it.

Their unique gas stations where all the dispensers are suspended from above

See the capsule hotel in the pic? Worth a try!

In Japan..only 3G phones work. Hence they have their own version and brand of handphones. And they don't SMS anymore! Instead they email each other thru handphones...w o a w !

And when we arrived at our hotel...it came as quite a shock...It was sooo small and tiny (especially with the triple beds inside it).

Even the toilet is small.....

But interestingly...all the toilet bowl in Japan is very high-tech:

Well..i guess the first 3 buttons are self-explanatory rite? heheh its just a different directions of the water spray. The last one (the music note sign) is the flushing sound (meant for a rather LOUD and excessive discharge)...interesting huh?

They also have services such as the warm seat for winter, deodorizer, adjustable volume and pressure to suit our liking! Wowww!

And in every cubicle they have special child seat so that mommies won't have to leave/carry their young ones when they go to the ladies.

Guess the Japanese are considerate, toughtful and of course CREATIVE people that they put such a great effort into making a toilet...a very user-friendly and also comfortable place to be in.

At night, we visited a small traditional restaurant which supposedly served a good okonomiyaki and takoyaki.

First impression on the takoyaki:
Tako-pochi @ Takashimaya could have done better than this!
(But it turned out that the takoyaki at other places...even the one @ the highway pit stop have scored better than this one hehehe not bad indeed).

Intermezzo:

Straight tea...

Never know that there are 'gay' tea?

Missing in action part 3 - Xiamen & Wuyishan

2008-12-17T11:05:00.018+08:00

Finally...we are back in Xiamen (after leaving it for almost a month!).

Had a chance to bring my parents around the city. First of all we brought them to the beach which although completely baked under the sun, it still had the cool winter breeze....perfect for sun tanning :p

One of the unique scene that we saw was the unusually high no of brides taking wedding photography at the beach during that particular day:

Spot the brides!

Photos taken by paparazzi / mamarazi:

Kayak lg brantem mode...

Then only when they realized the presence of a camera

Huehhehehehe

Next...we brought them to this Japanese Resto (one of our favorite) which offers a very reasonable price for such a buffet spread...so much that the table can't contain any more plates :p

But one dish caught our attention:
The dump-ling hehehhe...

Intermezzo...

Sejenis cacing yg dijadiin one of the dishes (in a high-end restaurant!) wueeeeee

Just realized that in Xiamen..everyday there's this vehicle which sprays out water along the way...simply to wet the road surfaces. Dn't really know the exact reasons but my guess is to clean the dust off the road ? so that the pollution would be slightly minimized.

Last but not least is the brown daschund which looked exactly like my alfa.....missed him lots :(

Our next destination was Wu Yi Shan, a small town near Xiamen (30 mnts by flight).

We stayed @ Nine Dragon Villa which is 10 mnts drive - away from the airport. Its clean, rather new and it has a wonderful view.

The first tourist spot we visited was yi xian tian (read: a strip of sky) a phenomenon created by a humongous rock which cracked and splitted into two...creating a small gap between the 2 cliffs. The resulting gap..when entered..is almost pitch dark (everyone has to bring their own torch light) except for a strip of sky above.

This was the most narrow part of the gap where everyone has to walk sideways (to make it worse..everyone was wearing a thick winter clothing :p )

The next activity is considered as the compulsory when visiting Wuyishan..its the bamboo rafting!

Its a memorable 90 minutes ride with the rower telling us the histories behind each and every rocks we passed thru..hah!

Intermezzo:

Besides Yi Xian Tian...they also have Bu Jian Tian alias " No seeing sky" !!!

See that small gazebo on top of the rock mountain? We climbed all the way up to have this spectacular & breathtaking view:

Missing in action part 3 - GuangZhou

2008-12-11T16:22:00.020+08:00

Huoolllaaaaa.......back with me againnn...on the journey accross China (as if!!! heheh)

Come to think about it...i just realized tat the content of the last few blog entries didn't actually reflect the title of this blog " What's so amazing about China". But...well...u knowww....ora opo opo yahhh hehehe

So...my journey continued...

We took a shuttle bus from the Venetian to the border between Macau and China called ZhuHai Border...it was a 15-20 mnts ride. The two borders were walking-distance apart...so it was perfectly convenient. Once we entered China teritory..we were greeted by CTC booth (China's biggest travel company..i suppose?) which provided bus services to the neighbouring cities. So we took the bus from ZhuHai to GuangZhou (GZ). It cost us 60Rmb/ride and the journey was about 2 hrs.

The first i did when i reached GZ was to meet up with Cebong and Vredi hehehehe....miss them lots!! Anyway...we met up @ 上下九路 for a dinner:

Anyway...we had a great hot pot dinner....total cost was 120RMB for 5 adults. Most importantly..it was GOOD! Its nothing like the 小肥羊 which we had in Xiamen. Absolutely worth the try :) A random pick of restaurant turned out to be an affordable feast indeed hehe.

The scenery which can't be seen in Xiamen heheh how i wish Xiamen has such shopping centres....Its gonna mark the beginning of my shopping spree! hehehe

We parted for the night since they have a curfew at the hostel hehehe...

The next day..Ceb & Vred decided to accompany us from noon onwards ( at the expense of the day's class --> heheh yah ngk ceb? *wink* ) We went to yi de lu to this mall which specially sells all the cute little items for wholesale...meant for those traders...altho they do sell them in retail too. These are some of the things which caught our attention:

All these are made of hand towels..folded and decorated to look like food..aren't they just adorable???

There were much more of other stuff such as potpourri...soft toys...paintings...pajangan2...and tonnes of other small stuff. Bet those things which we saw in malls were purchased here hehehe...all those brg2 tinte :p

One of my interesting observation was the number of colored people purchasing all these wholesale stuff and carried them in this large black plastic bag (like our garbage bag) or in their huge luggage hehhe..must be traders!

Then we made our way to 北京路 as part of the must-go itinerary. And that marked the beginning of our photo-spree heheh:

Ceb...ceb....tsk tsk tsk...hihiii

And even without anyone helping us with the camera:

One of the snack which they introduced to me...grilled cuttlefish which happened to be local's favorite especially during such winter.

That marked the last nite spent with Ceb & Vred @ GZ hikss....But will certainly return to GZ for another unforgettable shopping spree with u guys heheh.

Intermezzo...some of the findings from GZ airport:

A little boy peeing into an empty water bottle (the toilet is just nearby??! Why???)

And the best of all: A liquid abandoned place --> huhhh??

Missing in action part 2 - Jkt & Macau

2008-12-09T11:50:00.019+08:00

My next destination was jkt for the next 2 weeks. Skalian ngurus visa china yg udah expired n skalian persiapan buat the day. Had a great time there (especially with the newly installed speedy internet connection which makes the office less boring heheh).

The interesting part was that we managed to visit GI and PI almost EVERY DAY. Somehow all the vendors requested to hold the meetings there hence we ended up going to Thamrin every day boowww. Bisa diitung brp kali ku makan d food court GI during that 2 weeks.

Well tats pretty much wat we did everyday...meeting...meeting and more meetings....And oh yah..now tat china's airlines are allowed to fly to Taiwan directly, kita made our Taiwan visa while we were in JKt too...u know..just in case heheh

Next...my mom planned our holiday to Macau & sekitarnya since now u can fly to Macau at a VERY (considerably) cheap price. Check this out: http://www.flyvivamacau.com/en/ One way to Macau cost us like USD $80+. Good deal huh.. So since i've never been to the Venetian, we (me, mom and dad) decided to try this new airline.

Well....to my SURPRISE...

This airline may have a cheap fare but its a completely & ridiculously commercial inside! Bayangin aja....we are not suppose to bring any liquid into the plane but the least they can do is to provide mineral water for their passenger onboard....but no! It cost u 20 HK dollar to purchase a bottle of mineral water. Great goodness...It was a 4++hour-flight, of course everyone need water! And to make things worse...if u wanna listen to their movie/radio broadcast, u have to purchase their headset at the price of 20HKD!

Fyi...20HKD is the cheapest price on their long list of things u could purchase from them. Food can range from 50-80HKD (bahkan popmie aja bisa puluhan ribuuu rupiah...sedihnya). And the smart them..did not allow any outside food to be consumed onboard....hikksss. Never know that cheap fare comes with such a price to pay onboard heheh.

Anyway...after surviving the 4 grueling hours with limited water and food...we finally arrived at Macau airport. Picked up by the shuttle bus from the Venetian, we headed straight to the hotel. The most beautiful lobby (tat i've ever seen) awaited our arrival......its was finely, classically decorated and absolutely gorgeous!

All the rooms in this hotel are suites, so it has a slightly bigger space than the regular hotel rooms. And they have like thousands of such suites.

Spent the rest of the night walking around the huge hotel, from one end to the other - exhausted even before reaching the other end hahaha. Can't even find their gym and spa. Gave up looking for them after a 15 mnts walk along the direction given with nothing in sight. haizzz. But the walk along the Grand Canal was worth it :) THese are some of the pics taken during the stroll (everything was Venetian theme-decorated and 24 hrs daylight concept indoor :) )

And the most difficult temptation to resist....of all... was SHOPPING heheheh especially with all the shops terpampang dari satu ujung ke ujung lainnya...

One of their most famous attraction is the Gondola ride - just like the original Venetian Gondola. It cost 180HKD/person for a ride (if u r lucky u'll get a rower who has a beautiful voice and when they sing..their voice will echo along the entire canal hehehe) Example is this Gondola guy who sang and danced to entertain this little girl riding his gondola :)

And at the end of the day...just before the rowers retire from the work...they'll gather at this bridge and sang a song while marching off..interesting:

We spent the next day going to the tourist spots in Macau like the ruins of St Paul Cathedral...

Tried their most famous Portugese egg tart @ Magaret's cafe (yang katanya sihh paling enakk yahhhh d sono heheh):

Intermezzo: the unique naming of their BBQ-ed meat :)

Another interesting scenery was their range of las-vegas-originated 5-star hotels which sprang up in Macau....for one-obvious common goal : GAMBLING!

The Wynn

MGM Grand

Grand Lisboa (yg ini local)

Another Grand Lisboa

And this was in the indoor-garden of MGM Hotel.

Had a chance to attend one of their CIRQUE DU SOLEIL show called "ZAIA", entertaining but don't expect too highly of the show :)

And just before we left for China the next day...

One interesting sight which really caught me off guard when i was taking a stroll inside the hotel during my first night there....i saw these young ladies, in their early 20s...wearing rather 'unusual' clothes (especially its winter now) meaning short skirts and excessive make-up...standing along the aisle. First i tot they must be the wives/girl friends waiting for their hubby/bf who were gambling nearby. Never occur to me that they could be escort ladies or anything of it sort...considering the EXTREMELY STRICT security they have there..and cameras all over the place. Well...i haven't come to any conclusion as to who these ladies are...but there was once where i accidentally saw one of them offering 'something' to this random guy who passed thru...in a veryy subtly manner. Well...i can't really say tat im not leaning slightly towards my earlier suspicion... but...it certainly aroused my curiosity! Its the Venetian gitu lohhh!!! hheheh kok bisa2nya....But...not gonna judge them by the cover...perhaps there are greater explanation behind all these :)

Anyway by the way busway....thats the end of my Macau trip....

to be continued on the next journey....

Missing in action part 1 -- Singapore

2008-12-03T10:26:00.019+08:00

Huoollaaaa....

Just realized that i've been missing from peredaran since 1 month ago! Well...had actually LOTS of things to write in the blog...just couldn't find the time and the motivation to write it heheh... (read: males).

Anyway...i was in Singapore for the first 2 weeks. ALtho its been only 1 month since i left Sg...it felt good to be back to 'normal' life with close friends around. My first weekend was spent in celebrating the belated 'October-fest'. Bought some bratwurst and bacon from carefour. Trus masak2 dehh d rumah... To spice things up...we bought this shaker and some drinks. Well...found out a few new things such as cooking bratwurst with beer (wakksss), and how the alumunium shaker really numb uor fingers when u shake it! (dingin booww.....really admire those penjual bubble tea...)

As a result:

Tekdung...yg baca sinchan kayak baca teksbook kimia! tsk tsk...seriusnya dikauuu....ngk perlu dihapalin kok dung!!!

And the rest of my friends:

ps: kalo yg terakhir ini mrk emang hobinya bersih2 hihiii....will get them a bunch of sikat and kain lap for their anniversay...go nuts! ;)

I took a chance to visit my old school too...NTU with my friends. It has indeed changed a lot since i last seen it in June'07. It not has a new double-storey canteen with fast food chains all over the place.

Malah skr ada sakae sushi d sana...hehehe (norak yahh hihii)

And as part of the compulsory agenda of the trip...is (.........drum rollll..............) BPC!!!! (alias Black Pepper Crab) nya Eng Seng hehehhehe. The 7 of us managed to finish 8 CRABS! (ouuchhh cholesterol flying all over hehehe)..but its worth it! ")

The sole survivor:

And just before i left for Jakarta...some intermezzo:

The 'pinkies' of the day....duhh manisnya kalian....

Mc Cain and Obama selling Chicken @ Billy Bombers

Last but not least...tebak tebak berhadiah....

Haiyooooo ini foto siapaaa.....anak KP kok....

Mau tau jawabannya....baca trus d blog mendatang :p

The Ching-lish

2008-10-29T23:28:00.009+08:00

As we know...the Chinese are not the best group of people when it comes to English language. We encountered quite a number of interesting mis-use of the language..

To start with...even the bank can use the wrong WORD in their ATM. I might have posted this pic before but its to good to be true hehehhe.
Its written there " Transferee account BUMBER" huahauhauahhahauahauha 'Bumber Bee' kalii yeeee....

Next is the sign board in front of a condo which says that " No Entry of The Bagman" --> which actually is saying that Salesmen are not allowed to enter.
And below it "Please Got Off" --> which actually is trying to say that we are not suppose to ride our bicycle/motorbike when entering the area.

What a misleading sign! Kirain lg ngusir tuh bagman?? Piye tohhh...
ps: hmm someone ada bakat buat jd guard di sana tuh...u certainly have the look hihihihii...

Btw...we are wondering why they have the gate while they put such a big space around the flower pot which we can squeeze in and enter.

Last but certainly not the least...is the sign on the playground "Children playing with the adult" while what they mean is every child has to be accompanied by an adult...hahahah

Guess...pictorial language is understood better than Ching-lish around here :)

The neighborhood part 1

2008-10-22T10:13:00.011+08:00

I've always liked the neighborhood around the house. Its always so lively especially at night time (bukan night life lohh). It is strategically situated around wet market, supermarket, banks, mama-shops, salons and good food ")

This is how it looks in the afternoon (front view of the house).

At night (when we r too lazy to cook) we'll just stop by the restos outside the building which offers a variety of local dishes such as:

BBQ ala China hehehe (you should be grateful that it was dark out there..)

This is a stall selling all parts of chicken and ducks (never tried tat...and will not be trying it for the near future :P )

Well..this is was one of our favourite. Its called ma-la fish. The soup was this much (about 1 pot) and it is mixed with a BIG plateful of dried chili (top). So the composition is almost 50-50! Hah... Imagine the taste hehehe...but we like it still!

There is also the fish & flower shop. We started to raise these 2 ikan cupang di aquarium kecil. At first was skeptical about their survival but they are alive till date hehehe. We also started to decorate our living room with the lilies (which cost 2SGD/stalk).

We also have toko buah langganan right in front of our house. Not one day passed without us buying their fruit hehhe. We found this weird-looking papaya one day:

We called it pregnant papaya.

There is also this gerobak tukang buah around the area. We found him one day during our evening stroll. People are crowding around the cart to but his sugarcane. No..not for the juice but to be eaten JUST like tat! (Reminds me of my childhood days bitting sugarcane stick hahah). So we stayed and watched the tukang buah in action. People are buying the sugarcane at the price of around 5RMB/stick. Then he'll help you to cut off the skin & cut them into bite size pieces.

See that kiddo enjoying his sugarcane there? hehehe Wonder how his tiny mouth can fit the sugarcane :P U'll be surprised...

Out of curiosity..we gave it a try

Looks like someone was enjoying the sugarcane so much...wink wink

ps: taste good tho...crunchy :p but not false-denture friendly..

Another interesting view here during the morning or evening walk is the group of moms or even grandparents who bring their children for a stroll. They will just crowd in groups along the street and chit chat (alias ngegosip! hihiii). This was the view at 5pm daily:

Even with China's one child policy...there are still a LOOOOTTT of kids out there...and somehow all of them looked like of the same age to me!
ps:believe it or not but 99% of these kids are boys...haizz..

The Churches

2008-10-21T14:47:00.008+08:00

Since we arrived in Xiamen we've been hunting for church and fellowship around the area. Our first week...we went to the Xiamen International Christian Fellowship aka XICF. They hold their fellowship @ Bayview Hotel. Interestingly...the government regulation require us to show our foreign passport before we can join the service. Thats how strict the communists are. We found lots of expats and Caucasians there..not to forget quite a number of Africans too! Most of them are either working here or in case of the Africans, they are exchange students from Xiamen University.

We met some Indonesians too..
But the 'interesting' style of this fellowship is that during worship...we will be standing the entire half an hour. And during this worship they don't have any emcee or worship leader to lead the whole congregation. But they have pemain musik and backing vokal hehehe. Interesting huh...

The week after that...we attended this PD Daniel which is a fellowship for Indonesians studying in Jimei University.
Its pretty much similar to our ISCF in Sg heheh (nostalgia bgt). They hold it in the University's canteen heheh. We feel rather old and ngk nyambung soale all of them are Jimei Uni students while kita cmn nimbrung doank hehehe. But so far...we have a good impression and see a good prospect in this fellowship hehhehe.

The last church which we tried was GRII. As we have known that they hold their Sunday service in a small, humble apartment near Jimei Uni. So we gave it a try once. It came as quite a shock for me thou (well i was too pampered with my huge and comfortable GPO..hehe).

There were about 10 of us (the other 8 are all students btw :P). And karena ngk ada gembala..so we end up watching DVD kotbah nya Pak Tong yg d jkt.

Well...now we've seen the struggle of wat they called 'underground' churches. And as i reflect back...i was soo fortunate to be able to attend GPO every Sat and Sunday like nobody's business hheheh. Well..the next challenge is to attend the local, registered churches which speaks either chinese or Mi nan hua (dialect). It will be interesting to hear the Word of God in Chinese -a language which i think oh so highly :) I bet it can paint a much clearer and more beautiful picture than other language.

The Silent Killer

2008-10-17T11:09:00.007+08:00

Another interesting finding which i found out in Xiamen (or maybe in whole of China hehe) is the transport which the local people use daily and very very commonly.

Its some sort of bicycle except that it uses electricity instead of fuel.

Everyone in Xiamen use this...ibu2..bapak2...enci2...om2...apek2..
anak2 muda...aa..teteh...smuaaa dehh

And this is how you charge the thing...just plug the adapter to the power plug and voila! You just leave it there like when u r charging your HP :p
And when you run out of battery when u r using it...all u need to do is pedal them like a normal bicycle...no pollution and very efficient (also cheap too i assume).

But why do we call them the 'Silent Killers'?? Well the story goes like this...

These bikes are very very quiet as in it doesn't emit any sound during operation (NONE at all!) unlike the normal motorcycle or even a bicycle. It is so soundless that you wont notice any of these coming near you..even at dangerous speed! And these people just wont bother to honk or give us any signal of them nearing or smth...So most of the time we had the shock out of our lives or we had to avoid them within split second else we'll be 'kissed' by the Silent Killerrrrr ")

What have i been doing

2008-10-14T22:37:00.010+08:00

So...wanna know what i've been doing here in Xiamen?

Well to start with..im currently a part-time tourist and a part-time blogger which makes me a full-time 'lawyer' alias pengacara hehehe

When we are at home (which is like 90% of the time)..this is what we do:

1. We play cards...

2. or we play Wii (right san? heheheh)

This is her favourite game..hula hoop (she can do 3500 turns wow...)

And if we ever go out...we would....EAT. Well our place is nicely located near all the restaurants with good food. One of our favorite is the BBQ stall where each stick cost like 1RMB (=20 cents people!)

We also enjoyed this Pu-tian resto with its famous ma la fish where each ma la (when bitten) tasted like a BOMB in your mouth! hahhaha...its really an experience..you should try on of those!

Intermezzo: China's bean sprout is like twice the length of the normal size we've seen huh...its abnormal!

And guess wat we found?? And indian guy cooking prata! hah... whom by the way speaks better chinese than english! toenkk....ANd the prata..for the first time i saw prata with corn-filling and peanut butter!

We called this the original chinese food which consist of a blandly tasted clear soup with eggs and tomato (u'll normally find this on the menu in the tour to china)

They have bee cheng hiang too in Xiamen...Came all the way here to buy this heheh

What have i seen?

2008-10-11T10:47:00.010+08:00

What are the interesting things i've seen lately? Hmmm..

Well..to begin with..every morning and evening..there'll be a lot of these young mothers carrying their children to hang out with fellow mothers just in front of our apt gate. And you know wats the similarity among these childrens (or infants i should say)... its their HOLLOWED PANTS!

And mind you the hole is not just on the back..its also on the front side of the pants..guess its for easy access huh...hahahahah

Next..its the "Lesportsac" of China...they called it Aidipu (Read: I tipu...mau aja ditipu! hihiiii )

But China also has great food...one of them is our favourite: Taiwan 手抓饼。It tasted pretty similar to prata (ohh i miss prata house) but better!

And it cost u only less than a dollar! (SGD)

And being so near to Taiwan..it has its own advantage: good bubble tea!
Its only 3RMB by the way...which is like 60cents?

Where have I been?

2008-10-08T17:23:00.015+08:00

Well...this week we went to some of the tourist spots in Xiamen...its a new adventure both for me and ryan's family too! (Read: tersesat sana sini, nanya2 orang and lots more)

This is the" Wu Yuan Da Qiao" --> jembatan yang tinggiiii dan panjaaanggg di daerah Gu Lang Yu. They even have an open space for kite flying...
ps: angin d sana kuencennggg rekk....perfect for kite flying!

While this is take on the rooftop facing the Gu Lang Yu Island. There is another side of the Gu Lang Yu which is facing the Taiwan island...I'll go there someday!

This....is Zhong Shan Lu which is sort of the "Orchard Rd" of Xiamen where they have malls and shops along the road. The best thing is that they blocked the entire street so that no vehicle is allowed.

Check our this china version of the "Crocodile" !! :p

Along the road they have all kinds of local snacks such as 'yong tau fu' where they boil all sort of things like corn...yam etc and put them into a small cup.

They also have the traditional candy..its no longer just candy coated cherry but nowadays they have kiwi, strawberry and even pineapple inside.

We also found takoyaki and crepes along the road ") ahhh finally....something edible!

During the dimsum, we saw this oyster omellete too! Its like my favourite boowww...

Nah yg ini is a must-try klo jln ke Zhong Shan Lu and that is the peanut soup dr toko Ze He Huang..it has a similar taste with our Chinatown Aboling yg di Smith Street! hehehhe

One fine day..we decided to try out the cinema in Xiamen and we watched The Painted Skin (pas lg nomad boo...jd cmn 30RMB=6SGD else its 60RMB..not cheap yahh). The theater was fine..the movie was not!

But we discovered that in this area...they have this ferris wheel..we call it the Xiamen Flyer! hahaha...not bad for such a small town huh...We'll give it a try on of these days!

Apparently they have loads of other entertainments here..such as this show which is performed on this hugeee boat..they have bom bom car hehhe...

Well...its a promising prospect for us to return more often to this place...in the NEAR future! Hah...

~Our Viet-nam trip~Finale

2008-10-06T23:32:00.001+08:00

Well..our day 3 started slightly earlier...by 8am we've reached the Sinh Cafe again for another half-day tour to Cu Chi Tunnel (which is a must go when u r in HCMC).

http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/thomasgillam/se_asia_2007/1199321160/tpod.html

Some of the things we encountered along the bus trip there:
1. ANother work for the electrical engineers to clean up

2. The sleeping beauties

3. The egg and shell art carving

Then we finally arrive at Cu Chi tunnel:

This tunnel is the hiding place of Vietnam soldiers when Cu Chi areas was invaded by the USA soldiers. They have small ( i mean REALLY small) openings which they camouflaged with leaves and branches. And these openings lead to bunkers underground up to 8m deep and few km long. These underground bunkers were the hiding and living place for the Cu Chi people during the war (altho we dont understand how they could ever survived this!).

We actualy tried walking thru ( or crawling thru to be exact) one of this tunnel ( a short one) and it was UNBEARBLE! It was pitch black inside (except for a tiny bulb once every few meters) plus the path was uneven with steep steps sometimes, it was small that we have to duck and walk and worst of all..we can barely breath down there! It was a very miserable 15 mnts we got down there.

When we entered, we tot its gonna be something fun n exciting but it turned out that once we were inside, we cant see anything...not even the person in front of us..we dont know which way to turn...we have to continue crawling in tat small tiny hole...we cant breath and we got really panic!

In the end everyone had to take our their hp to shed a bit of light so that the person behind can follow us.

We were just SOOOO relieved to be out of that hole!

The openings which we used to enter:

The actual real opening they used:

It cant even fit a full grown man! How small were they???

Intermezzo:

The bobbie trap

"Mbak (ato mas yahh?)...bole bagi kertas?"

"Nih dehh tak pinjemin HP"

Mas Titus...itu tuh bukan makanan...laper yah mas...

Jadi inget paniki hehehhe...*nyam nyam*

Post-tunnel aftershock

Yet...we can still be as narciss as possible hahaha

In this place, we can buy some REAL bullets and take some shots using REAL weapons n guns at the shooting range. Well the funny story is that..mas Titus beli gantungan kunci yg pake bullet gitu while mas albert dgn isengnya ambil beberapa empty bullet buat dibw pulang as oleh2. And who know that di airport malem itu pas pulang ternyata mrk ditahan di check point because of these bullets! hhahah...tampang teroris sihh....

Anyway after the tour, we headed back to the city for a long-awaited lunch. Based on the list of recomended restaurants we had, we decided to give the pho another try. This time its the Pho 2000!

Its the super-pho

This is the dry-pho

And the chicken curry..nyammm

This is (again) a must try --> Sapodia juice aka jus sawo hehehe

We gave Pho 2000 a better rating than the famous Pho 24 (which can be found in every corner of the streets). Highly recomended!

After lunch we took a walk to the nearest mall and after an hour (which we think is long enough of a break) we head back to that street to try out Fanny Ice Cream (which was recommended by the web).

The crepes was the best

The ice-cream sushi (so so)

Its was ok, but its not smth which we'll come back for ")

Today is our last day in Vietnam...so be headed back to the hotel for a quick last minute packing and some rest.

Finally..this marks the end of our wonderful trip to the Saigon City aka HCMC @ Vietnam. We've truly enjoyed not just the itinerary but most of all the companionship.

Cya at our next destination!

~Our Viet-nam trip~Part 3

2008-10-05T23:03:00.000+08:00

Our day 2 started with a simple breakfast of roti yg dipecah-pecahkan heheheh (alias bagi2) becoz we have to reach the Sinh Cafe at 8.15 (inhumane hour for a holiday!)...only to find out that we left the day-tour receipt at the hotel! Doenk...jd few of us balik lg deh. However..there's always time for a snapshot:

Wanna know why all the electrical engineers in vietnam are highly wanted? Check out the cables people!! (At least we Indo have smth we can be proud of now hehe)

We took a 3 hrs bus trip to Mekong Delta :

Bpk Cagub in his anti sand-export campaign

Bis itu kita naik not-so-speedy-boat buat ke tmp2 tourist spots like:
1.Rice paper

Which can be eventually eaten as:

2.Bee farm

3. Lunch

We had an 'elephant fish' (read: gurame) as part of our lunch which is wrapped in the rice paper

4. Exotic fruit

They call this water-coconut (guess its edible but we didnt get the chance to try it tho..)

Kita jg sempet mencoba beberapa alat transport lainnya spt:
1. Delman --> sepanjang perjalanan mas Titus tak henti2nya bilang "Ah kalo ini mah di kampungku seng Bondowoso itu juga ono" huahauha ngapain jauh2 ke Vietnam buat naik delman lewatin pedesaan yah mas...

2. Naik sampan --> sebagian besar dr pengayuh sampannya itu ibu2 lohh...dan yg menariknya kita sempat merasakan 'F1' versi sampan krn sampan kita berhasil mendahului 4 sampan2 lainnya booww.... *salute to ibu yg kayuhin sampan kita*

(Couple seats....yes...hahhahaha *wink wink*)

Later tat nite...after we reached back to the city..we decided to have our dinner at this small, humble stall which someone recomended. At first glance we chose to passed thru the stall and search for another more convincing restaurant but to no avail. So we went back to this stall and decided to give it a try..and it turned out to be the GREATEST meal we ever had in Vietnam! Its a simple meal but it has the taste of a home-cooked yet traditional taste.

It really was....WOW...

BEFORE

AFTER (did u see the additional stack of plates there?? heheh)

Guess it was the simplicity and the fellowship that made this meal so unforgettable..rite guys?

Bis makan...kita kongkow2 d pinggir jalan sambil minum jus sawo :) (highly recomended too!)

ps: we managed to find these topi petani ala Vietnam..at last

Intermezzo: "toni n guy" or "toni n tuan" ? hmmm...

After tat...its SHOPPING time!!!

Yeah...guys didnt have much to shop for.. so they ended up hanging out at a cafe and waited for the girls to finish their shopping spree :p

And later that nite...again the same old routine we did:

Well..tasts the end of our 2nd day....cya tomorrow!

~Our Viet-nam trip~Part 2

2008-10-04T14:44:00.000+08:00

And our journey continues....

Abis dr Pasar Ben Thanh n War Remnant Museum...kita lanjut k post office yg gedungnya kuno n rada unik:

Suparman sedang beraksi..mencari kotak tlp terdekat buat ganti baju...

Suparman sedang ganti baju dinas...

Suparman siap beraksi! Eng ing enggg..

Next..kita nybrang jalan buat ke gereja Notre Dame Cathedral (nop..not the one in paris) tp sayang grejanya sabtu ngk buka jd kita cmn bs poto2 d dpnnya...

Bis dr sono..kita lanjut dgn blanja2 di SUPERMARKET terdekat buat beli cemilan n air. Kita jg sempet ngopi di salah satu cafe yg keliatannya lumayan terkenal dgn kopi vietnam nya (which is uenak kata org yg bs minum kopi).

Tampang org2 yg high on caffeine dari highly-concentrated coffee Vietnam

We ended the city tour by going back to the hotel to rest before we go out again..on our own later that nite buat ke Saigon Center ('Mangga dua' nya HCMC katanyaaa)...proven quite true soale they have all the 'branded' goods available there at a very 'unreasonable' price heheheheh.

We found this LV-patterned ball...

But there are also these interesting bags made of recycled drink cans --> well done!

Not to forget our dinner which consist of the Vietnam traditional rice paper spring roll and sayur kangkung (can you believe that it was called MORNING GLORY in english?? tsk tsk...)

And we ended the day with a game of cards in our connecting rooms (among the pile of tidbits we accumulated for this trip!) :p

~Our Viet-nam trip~Part 1

2008-10-02T22:11:00.000+08:00

Akhirnya after a few weeks of planning (considerably impromptu for people like us heheh) kita akhirnya berhasil men-revive kembali semangat jalan2 spt yang menjadi visi dari JJG (Jalan Jalan GPO yg dicetus 4 tahun yg lalu). Anggota tim Ho Chi Minh (HCMC)Vietnam trip kali ini terdiri dari:

1. Pencetus ide Vietnam trip alias Bpk Cagub (calon gubernur) -- tukang siapin itinerary
2. Ibu Cagub -- Jeng Jenifer
3. Bapak Lurah kita -- Eyang Titus (cant do without him...he is the most important person in this trip...without him there wont be this blog...cos he is the PHOTOGRAPHER!!! hihiii)
4. Ibu Majelis (perwakilan majelis untuk Persekutuan Wilayah bagian Vietnam) -- Ci Rita (sang bendahara, well guarded 24/7 by all of us)
5. Bapak pengusaha dari Tiongkok -- Ryan (our navigator)
6. Full-time tourist (huehueheheh) -- me!

Dengan itu berangkatlah tim Vietnam kali ini dgn the first four members flying in from Sg dgn JetStar dan the last 2 members flying in from Xiamen dgn Cathay Pacific sambil mampir HongKong doeloe.

Interesting findings in HK airport:
1. Tempat pensil idaman ketika masi kecil dulu yg byk compartments nya...

Arent they exactly like wat we used to dream of but never actually had one?

2. Patung Disney presented especially for the J E N G S heheheh

3. They actually have a play pen for kids in the waiting room??! Wow...

fyi..saking gedenya tuh airport..it actually took us 30 mnts to get to our gate ( 70 over gates btw!) and we successfully became the last passenger they've been waiting for hahahah

DAY 1

Ok now back to Vietnam...hehhehe
Pas pertama kali sampe Airport Vietnam, tak kirain bkl mirip2 airport soekarno hatta gitu...ternyata...wat a surprise for a country yg mata uangnya lebih kecil dr Rupiah ( 1SGD = 10 000 Viet Dong) airport mereka jauh lebih bagus n lebih teratur n rapih.

Dan ini ketika kita menyambut kedatangkan kloter ke 2 dari sg yg dtg belakangan:

Nice pose people! --> camera conscious people hahah anytime...anywhere

Kita nginep di hotel ini (below) which is facing the Saigon River.

Renaissance Hotel Ho Chi Minh City

Rating:

Number of rooms: 349

Location: District 1 North

Address: 8-15 Ton Duc Thang Street District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Hari itu kita ditemenin sama 1 local guide + mobil buat kita pake free n easy around the city. After selesai beres2 sana sini...kita off to sign up for the next day's Mekong Delta tour and Chu Ci Tunner tour.

The web recommended this place called Sinh Cafe yg emang terkenal dgn day tour nya ke tmp2 tourist spots in HCMC.

After tat...kita lanjut dgn lunch di another recommended resto buat mkn Pho (its the famous beef noodle ala Vietnam) @ Pho 24.

Ps: Albert was trying to mouth the word "pho" which is read as "foo"

Intermezzo: Lomba makan kelapa muda

After lunch kita lanjut dgn itenerary kita selanjutnya yaitu city tour:

1. Ben thanh market -- udah mirip kayak pasar baru di Jkt boww...but the sad thing is our skill of tawar menawar ala mangga dua didnt work AT ALL! And harga2nya lumayan mahal...palagi
when we start using our USD instead of Dong...ngk kerasa boo.

They sell all kind of stuff including this 'snake' wine where they put the cobra snake in this drinkable bottle of wine (katanya sih obat kuat buat cowo2)

We ended sitting down for some local desserts which we can actually afford hhahaha

Intermezzo while waiting...'Bintang mas' hehehe

Next...kita lanjut ke war remnant museum nya HCMC which depicts a lot of sad stories masa penjajahan (a failed attempt eventually) of USA d Vietnam (yg katanya sih buat menghapus komunisme d Vietnam jaman itu).

Us with some of the peninggalan alat2 perang.

Salah satu cerita yg bikin aku trenyuh itu waktu USA used a biochemical weapon (a herbicide called Agent Orange which released Dioxins-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange). This resulted in the genetic defects for the subsequent generations (deuhhhh sampe ngk tega ngeliatin foto2nya)

Abis ngeliat ini, kita jd rada2 bete ama turis2 bule yg pas lg ada d skitar kita ..well..its rather inhuman method they've used afterall...

My first week in Xiamen part 2

2008-09-25T22:11:00.000+08:00

Ternyata belum selesai temen2....malem ini kita abis nyalon! Ternyata kita menemukan 1 salon yg lumayan 'convincing' di sekitar neighbourhood kita. Setelah mencari2 tau apa 'creambath' in chinese...kita brangkat k sono demi mencari salon yg bisa dijadiin langganan.

Impression pertama ok...soalnya tempatnya terang n bagus! Orang2nya pun ramah. Tapi yah gitu...ada sedikit culture shock.

Dimulai dari rambut kita yg dibungkus pake cling wrap (yg biasa dipake buat bungkus daging itu lohhh) lalu dipanasin pake heater yg puanassss reekkkk.....(like xiamen is not hot enuf!)

But at the end...the creambath turned out alright...at least rambut kita jd bersih n rapih....Its just tat next time we will be bringing our own hair spa cream :)

And the other thing is....China has so manyyy man power that buat ngelayanin 1 orang d salon aja perlu 2 pelayan :p Jadi during that 45 mnts, the both of us have 4 pelayan yang stick to us faithfully :)

AND the best part isssssss....(drum rolllllll)....it cost u only 25RMB (=5SGD)!!! Unbelievable!

Intermezzo.....
2 orang cina lg kongkow2.....

Promise this will be the LAST posting before Vietnam trip! hahahah....

My first week in Xiamen

2008-09-25T18:24:00.000+08:00

Tgl 22 Sept kmrn ku menginjakkan kakiku di Xiamen. Setelah 4 jam perjalanan di pesawat yg puanasss bgtt..akhirnya kita sampe. Tadinya expect kalo bulan gini Xiamen dah mulai dingin2 adem...tp ternyata panasnnyaa lebih panas dr Sg boww...

Apalagi setibanya di rumah Ryan..mrk br pindahan n masi berantakan + debuan = perfect combination for the weather :p

So wat else is so amazing about this place?
1. Its CHEAP
Almost everything is cheap here. Sewa rumah aja yg udah condo, 3 kamar, baru, fully furnished and central area cmn 3300 RMB = 660SGD (equivalent to my room rental di toa payoh booo).

2. Chicken feet & teman2
Orang2 sini suka makanan2 exotic, and by exotic i mean rabbit meat, dog meat and friends. Pas d sebrang rumah kita, ada jg orang2 yg jualan chicken feet, duck feet and any other feet i suppose :)
Ngk hanya d pinggir jalan, tapi makanan2 yg dijual d supermarket2 besar spt Carefour pun lumayan unik, such as below:

Chicken feet

Kalo yg ini tuh chou dou fu alias tofu of 'strong odor' heheheh.... warnanya explains the taste i suppose.

Nah kalo yg ini tuh keluarga bebek yg terdiri dr sayap bebek (kiri atas), ceker bebek (kiri bawah), leher (kanan atas) dan mulut si bebek (kanan bawah)...smua lengkap boww...seruu yahhh

This is for the babe's family. Ada pig's hand (kiri) and pig's tail (tengah dan kanan) -- perhatiin nama yg tertera d label harganya deh hehehe

Nah kalo yg ini lebih manusiawi....Lay's rasa cucumber and lime (kok kayak wangi sabun pencuci piring yah)

Kalo ini --> baby carrier ala china hehehe could also be used to carry your groceries :)

Sekian updateku dari Xiamen- week 1.

The next blog will be from Vietnam ..cya!