暫別杭州

I've just finished packing my stuff. Packing is hard took around 4hrs... I'm going to leave 杭州 tonight for KL where i'll reach at 4+ in the morning and then linger around before catching another flight back to sunny Singapore at around 7+. Can't remember the exact timings.

I'm going back mainly for FDA where my work "Wisteria" is in the finals. Hopefully, it will be a fruitful trip. =) Secondly, i'm going back to bring back supplies for my friends here. Milo has become a high-end commodity here cause you can't find it anywhere here and so has to be imported. Other things like body shop products and even condensed milk are on the list. Of course, i'm bringing back some stuff like books back. I seriously hope the luggage wun bust the 15kg limit...

Somehow, i have this feeling that it will snow here in 杭州 it this period that i'll be away.

Steam Lar~

It's steamboat frenzy these few days. Yesterday was the third day in a row that we are having steamboat.

I'm not missing, at least my reflection is not. This steamboat buffet costs 18yuan/person only! But we need to pay a 10yuan deposit in case of food wastage. We nearly kenna that, even though i think we didn't left a lot behind. I did pleaded nicely with the 服務員 that it wasn't alot. The steamboat buffet was an impromptu thing actually cause we had some free time to spare after i've gotten my 校園卡 at around 4 since our violin class is at 6.30. This place was just outside the 紫金港 campus, targeting the students there. There was free flow drinks there too, which included milk tea, which is warm, not cold like in Singapore.
So this is another pic (courtesy of Samantha) of the atas steamboat dinner. The price was a few times more of the dinner yesterday. Anyway, the alcohol content of the beers here is quite low, at least for the 2 that i've tried so far. One was 2.2% and the other was 1.9% only.
This was the first steamboat dinner at a restaurant outside 玉泉 campus. Not buffet too. You can see that there's a whole chopped chicken inside the pot. This was pretty impromptu too. We decided to have a mini celebration to celebrate the free accommodation that we will be getting, even though we had already had dinner. 

I think if it was just Junyuan and me, we wouldn't have eaten so much every time. But there's Pika here, who's practically a 無底洞. She mentioned during dinner yesterday that she hasn't really felt full since coming here. Anyway, her wish is to hit 50kg even though she's nearly a good 10kg away. So a few days ago, i had a 1/4 agreement with her, so what i will do is i will give 1/4 of whatever i'm eating to her, so that she can try to gain some weight while i struggle not to put on any. Let's see how it goes...

Things I Put Into My Mouth

I had steamboat for dinner just now at quite an atas restaurant. Some of the prawns in the first pic were still alive when they were served, their legs were still wriggling. Sinful! Of course, i didn't eat them. That's me, Junyuan, 恆丰, Louis (SMU guy who is also on exchange at ZJU), Pika and Samantha (NUS girl who's Vietnamese but learnt Chinese so that she can go on exchange to China). Lots of foreign students can speak excellent Mandarin here. A Nigerian even spoke to me in Mandarin!
Tarik skills learnt from observation. Haha. We had a few tea tarik sessions already.
I had this a few days ago. It wasn't very special, just minced meat with the crispy stuff commonly used as garnishing. What is more special is the name of the dish - 螞蟻上樹, literally translated as ants "climbing up the tree".

Getting Acquainted with Hangzhou

It's around a week and a half since i've arrived in Hangzhou and i'm starting to get acquainted with the city. The road names, shopping malls, transport system, food....

Road names here are vastly different from those in Singapore simply because they are all in Chinese. The "Orchard Road" of Hangzhou is called 延安路. So that day when i was being introduced by 家維 and 姣龍 to the rest of the group, they were asking which "yan" was it, and they conveniently said 延安的延, when i was still thinking of what to say. But that's contextual, can't use that anywhere else. Normally i'll have said 延續的延. Yar, and i think someone commented that it's 奇怪. Quite lar...

ZJU's school motto is 求是創新 and it's printed on one of the page of the student pass. So that day, i was asking Junyuan and Pika what is NUS's motto but nobody seems to know what is it. 

I went to collect my passport today from the PSB in charge of these kind of stuff because i need another visa to re-enter China when i return from Singapore. The first time i went there was by cab with 陳震, Pika and Junyuan and after that, we went to 吳山廣場. This time, i took a bus there, two buses in fact. Not entirely smooth but i got there in the end. 

Not much pictures yet, will try to take more. Going 西湖 tomorrow, or rather in the day later~

Blossom

Plum blossoms are starting to blossom. I've even heard the weather news reporting on the blossom level of the plum blossoms. A few days ago, it was 30%. Some of our classmates brought us to the Botanical Gardens today via an illegal entrance that save us a good 10 yuan each. It was actually through an opening in the fence. Personally, i felt that there wasn't much to see inside. But we did see some nice plum blossoms. 

The Han Mei Ling Art Museum was also inside and we paid a visit there too. Han Mei Ling was the artist who designed the Beijing Olympics logos and the 褔娃, mascots for the Beijing Olympic Games. All the chinese students like him a lot. Cause he's really good at what his doing, no matter in calligraphy, painting, sketching, sculpture... Respect.

TUN Day 5: 01/02/09 - Nong Khai -> Vientiane

The bus from Bangkok reached Nong Khai in the wee hours of the morning but the first bus bound for Vientiane leaves only at 7.30am, so we had lots of time to spare. In the meantime, we were approached by lots of tuk-tuk drivers offering to take us to the border. But we decided to do as the locals do and wait for the bus patiently instead.
Laos, being once a French colony as part of Indochina, had noticeably French influences. Our first breakfast there was in a French cafe. Not that cheap as compared to local food. And that was our first experience with the local money exchange. Anyway, three currencies can be used there: Lao Kip, US Dollar and Thai Baht. The conversion between the Dollar and Kip is quite standard at $1=1000K8000K but that between the Baht and Kip is mind boggling.
The highlight of the day was the visit to Putaxay, which you can see below. This plate on the wall has a very niao caption on it.
One of the gates with the two angels guarding it.
This's the view from the top of Putaxay.
Putaxay  at a distance. This was taken on the road divider. By the time we were done there, there wasn't much time left to visit other sights. We spent quite a bit of time earlier in the day cycling around town to the Northern bus terminal to get tixs for our trip the next day to Luang Prabang. Though some sights were missed out, this was compensated by a trip to the non-touristy Vientiane.
Drivers drive on the left hand in Laos, so by right the fastest lane is on the left side of the road and cyclists should cycle on the right. But i was kinda confused so i lead Junyuan to cycle on the left side of the road. Luckily, the cars in Vientiane were not fast.
We went to two temples which were still open by the time we got there.
Dinner was by the Mekong river. Everyone was lazing there, admiring the view and waiting for the sunset.
We had Beerlao (which i didn't really like);
and the bbqed fish with lots of salt on the skin, that was recommended by my sista. 
The sunset was rather nice. =)

The Lotus Candle and Junyuan

Junyuan's birthday was yesterday and we had a mini celebration with some of our ZJU classmates and some Singapore friends. The candle was the most elaborated birthday candle that i've ever seen. It's in the shape of a lotus bud initially and it will slowly blossom to how it looks in the picture. Cool right? And it plays the birthday song in the background too. I'll upload pictures later once i have them. 

TUN Day 4: 31/01/09 - Bangkok

No visit to Bangkok is complete without a trip to the Dairy Queen outlet at MBK for me. Because the Blizzard ice cream is nice and cheap there. I've tried the Blizzard a few days ago here in Hangzhou but it was much more ex though the flavour was unique - red tea with red beans inside.

After MBK where i took passport photos and Junyuan bought a camera bag, we headed over to Zhenlang's place. Didn't expect to receive ang pows in Thailand too. When we were there, Zhenlang's baby was overdue by a few days already and it was a few days later that she finally gave birth to a baby boy. Congrats to her.

Singaporeans' pilgrimage to Bangkok includes MBK and Chatuchak, so obviously we can't miss Chatuchak even though we are rather pressed for time. But this time, i didn't get any t-shirt surprisingly. Just a pair of leather sandals. And after Chatuchak, we went over to the bus terminal to catch the 7.30pm bus bound for Nong Khai. 

TUN Day 3: 30/01/09 - Bangkok

I brought Junyuan to eat the ginger tau huay on our way to Wat Phra Keaw. It was as nice as before. 
I didn't go Wat Phra Keaw as I have been just half a year ago when I went there with Baoling. So Junyuan went there alone while i spend the time exploring the surrounding areas and to enjoy to a nice cup of frozen expresso. 
After that, we took a river ferry across Chao Phrya River to Wat Rakheng (Temple of the Bell). Never heard of it before until Junyuan told me about it. There were quite a lot of bells there but apparently the bell which the temple took its name from, was actually moved somewhere else.
A lot of people were also there to 放生 and there were people selling fishes for visitors to release into the river. A lot of pigeons were also gathered there as visitors fed them bread. Pretty scary as a lot of these birds were flying around.
We went to TC/DC, a design centre in a shopping mall after the temple visits. Sista brought me and Baoling there the previous time when we were in Bangkok. Wish we had something permanent like that in Singapore. There was a very interesting  exhibition titled "Perishable Beauty" and this was one of the exhibits. I thought the caption was very niao. 

TUN Day 2: 29/01/09 - Hat Yai

Tao Kae Noi is cheap in Thailand, it is afterall TKN's homeland. So after reaching Hat Yai, we walked around finding a place to lunch and i found out that my bag is really heavy. But somehow it got lighter later on. Most probably because the rays from the sun were not so strong as we move further up north.
Hat Yai is pretty much a pretty boring place;
but we were trigger happy at some locations like this, where bright flowers were blooming in the small field in front of this dilapidated house.
And we found Tintin in Hat Yai. He probably came here when he was a kid before embarking on those adventures. 

We bought tickets that were leaving for Bangkok at 3.30pm that day when we reached Hat Yai in the morning but not before braving touts and travel agencies charging exorbitant prices. But i didn't remember about the 1 hour time difference between Singapore and Thailand. So we got back to the bus station at around 2pm and it was only then that i noticed a clock showing the time an our behind my watch.

8am Lessons Can't Work Anywhere

I woke up late and was late for today's lessons, so Pika, Junyuan and 陳震 were late with me. My bad. 

TUN Day 1: 28/01/09 - Singapore

I shall attempt to blog about the trip that me and Junyuan took to reach Hangzhou and this trip shall be named "The Trip Up North" or TUN in short. Updates may be slow as i'm trying to settle down in this new environment. Accommodation's the biggest issue on hand...

The trip began on the third day of CNY at the Golden Mile Complex in Singapore. It was a very small send off as my parents were holidaying in Yunnan and my sister was still in Bangkok. Only Baoling (who helped me pack earlier) and her mother who came later were there. Junyuan had his whole family there. And it was from there that we took a double deck bus that would get us to Malaysia and then on to Thailand. On the bus, Mission Impossible:III dubbed in Thai was playing.

This trip is not as hard as most people think. All it needs is some research and some time. But i have to admit eventually, we were lacking in both areas. More research could have been done for some areas and more time could be spent in some places. 

I have been wanting to do something for quite a while already, ever since years ago when i read this article by 吳韋才, in which he detailed a trip from sunny Singapore to somewhere in China. So what better way to fulfill this dream than my current exchange to China? Gladly, Junyuan is also game for it, if not this trip might not have taken place at all. =)

Pika's Mistake

喜蛋 - literally translated as "happiness egg", a dish that Pika regrettably ordered.

Rough Update

Departing from Golden Mile Complex on the 3rd day of CNY,

going on to Hat Yai via Malaysia;
moving on to Bangkok;
traveling to Vientiane via Nong Khai;
nearly kenna motion sickness on the bus trip to Luang Prabang;
exploring Muang Ngoi, some say the "last tourist secret of Laos", via Nong Khiaw;
detouring back to Nong Khiaw by river and onwards to Udomxai;
which allowed us to catch a sleeper train straight into China via Mohan;
and then on to Kunming;
and after enduring the 30+ odd hour train ride;

we have finally reached Hangzhou!