Day 70~ LASER tAG!!

是累的嘍... 早上七早八早起床(4:30AM), traveled all the way from 方莊 to 香山, 就只為了體驗上戰場"打仗"的感覺... 打仗, 是累的嘍~

躲也累, 跑也累. anyway, 你想躲也躲不了. we're in the OPEN man! 憑幾個sand bag是不夠的嘍! 所以最後還是得跑... 跑來跑去, 爬上爬下;先躲在樹後面, 然後又躲在石頭後面; 你cover我, 我cover你, 最後還是一起壯烈犧牲... best part is 突然刮起大風, 把地上的沙都吹起來... 哇. 好像在拍電影嘞... 哈哈哈~

打完仗, 肚子餓了... 從香山跑到磁器口北的"康仔"吃港式雲吞面... 是好吃的嘍... 有"家"的味道... i miss my kopitiam 雲吞面~

吃飽了, 就跟同學/戰友們在附近走走... 不知不覺回到家已經6:00PM了... 很累很累... but 還得先沖涼煮飯洗衣曬衣吃飯寫BLOG最後SKYPE了之後才可以睡覺... haiz. gotta give《麻婆鬥婦》 a miss tonight 了~ but never mind. 明天可以慢慢看.

  

daphne今天叫人上來搬東西去她的新家了. 相當年... 嗨~ 往事只能回味~

last sunday, chef weining 準備的　easter sunday dinner~ 有五星級酒店水準哦!

（photo by liling) 

clockwise from top left: CHICKEN; EGG; BREAD?; CHEESE~ 

(photo by liling)

介紹兩位同學: (左) charmaine, (右) jocelyn~ 

剩下來的 apple cheesecake 就留給我當早餐啦!!

Day 60~ MAPO tOfU~

actually, what exactly is mapo tofu? dun remember trying/seeing one before. but it really does sound SPICY isn't it?

no wonder mediacorp named their latest drama 《麻婆斗妇》which sounded exactly like 麻婆豆腐. they secretly want this drama to be HOT u see. lol~

《麻婆斗妇》预告片2

the trailers are all FUNNY. but how come the opening title so DRAMA so SERIOUS one leh? dun care. if mummy says it's nice then it's worth watching. ha.

I CUT MY HAIR SHORT SHORT LIKE AN ARMY BOY!! hahaha. but i'm feeling MUCH MORE comfortable now that my fringe's "gone". lol~

cake frenzy!!

bought a CHEESECAKE from the nice nice backery
(not 味多美) to try. but not that nice leh =[ 

my classmate's birthday cake! this one's NICER.
but very sweet. cannot eat too much. the middle
white white parts' NOT cream.
it tasted like MARSHMALLOW!

ARGHHH I (WE) MISSED THE REGISTERATION AS OVERSEAS VOTERS!! that means we CANNOT VOTE for the upcoming election =[ never take things for granted. never expect a REMINDER email ALL THE TIME. cos this time there's none and we missed the registeration. WE MISSED IT!!

《子曰》. 一口气唱完的~
let's see if u can spot all of my mistakes. ha~

Day 53~ bACk fROM Xi'AN!! (PARt tWO)

ChAPtER 7. tERRA-COttA ARMY 秦兵马俑.

from Huaqing Hotspring, we took a cab towards the terra-cotta army. this cab driver's weird. kept repeating whatever he was saying. and brought us to some factory selling jade so that he could collect his petrol coupon/voucher or something. but he told us a lot lar. like 临潼三宝 = 石榴，柿子, and 蓝田玉; 石榴 and 柿子 can only be seen in october, so all that's left now is the 蓝田玉. never buy the 蓝田玉 from the street stalls. best is to buy them from the 加工厂s. and so he brought us there. lol. he also recommended the kind of jade we should buy: the pink 芙蓉玉 is best for ladies like us, and the dark green 墨玉 would be the best gift for mothers etc. oh and he said that there are 3 parts to the jade: 玉皮, 玉心, 玉根. if u want to buy jade u better buy those made from the 玉心 or the 玉根. the 玉皮 is the lousiest part of the jade~

anyway, back to the terra-cotta army. we took a "golf-cart" from the entrance (ticketing) to the entrance (exhibits). lol. first stop was the  Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor (秦始皇帝陵), if i remembered correctly. haha. it was really dark in there. main exhibits are the chariots, the horses, and the riders (soldiers). it's said that these exhibits were half the size of the actual stuff but, it seemed a little too small to be "half the actual size" to us~

entry ticket!

ticket to ride the "golf-cart". lol~

Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor
is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

4 horses. carriage shaped like a
turtle shell represents longevity.
watch the following video to find out more.

in the following video, director liling talks about the ornaments/jewellery found on the horses.

learn more about the 2 chariots with host weining in the following video.

we visited a total of 3 pits. pit 1 was the largest one. it's like what u see on tv and in books/magazines. liling has all the pictures so, as soon as i lay my hands on them i'll upload them onto this blog entry =] as for now, u may want to watch the following videos.

in this video, director liling will explain to us the reason for building the terra-cotta army here. or rather, the reason why the First Emperor of Qin chose this area for burial.

in this video, host weining will explain to us whatever we should see/know in pit 1.

pit 3. the smallest pit out of the 3.
dun u think this place looks like an
 underground city or something?

there's even a corridor...

the compartment on the extreme right is said to be
a sacred room used to 祭神 or something~ 

this is pit 2. the second largest pit out of the 3.
work's still far from completion as u can see
most of the stuff were still buried underground.

here u can see the pillars and the roof structure
of the "underground city" yet to be discovered.

the archer. notice that his hair
is more towards his left. reason for this
(according to what we heard) was to allow
better aiming for fellow archers
 situated behind him (in the army).

中级军吏佣.

高级军吏佣.

and i'm forced to pose like him.

no wonder the terra-cotta army's listed as the world's 8th wonder. based on what we saw at the terra-cotta museum i'm pretty sure Emperor Qin built an underground kingdom to be buried with him when he died. what we have now is probably one small part of his work. if that's really the case, man, we still have a lot to discover...

didn't know what to buy as a souvenir
(either too expensive/too scary for me).
so, i ended up buying a book instead. haha~

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ChAPtER 8. 走走看看.

now let's take a look around the city centre. actually, other than the muslim street, we also have the Drum Tower (鼓楼) and Bell Tower (钟楼) nearby our hotel!

the drum tower at night.

the drum tower in the day.

文苑大酒店. eunice 姐姐's hotel. lol.

flowers!! think there's some flower festival
or something in xi'an, some time late april.
 too bad we couldn't make it.

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oh! i also bought these stuff from xi'an. one from a shopping mall and one from a roadside magazine stall. (in case u wonder if xi'an has a disneyland. haha~)

it says "HK Disneyland"! and i think it really is from
Disneyland cos the shop sells all kinds of imported stuff.
haven't tried it yet. it's chocolate by the way. wahaha~

donald duck comic for steph!
the pages are coloured but
the words are all in chinese. lol~

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and... 

thE ENd. 

finally. i'm done with the blogging. hahaha~

(more photos on facebook!)

Day 51~ bACk fROM Xi'AN!! (PARt ONE)

i love xi'an. it's such a beautiful place. the moment u exit the railway station, u'll see the city wall. the buildings there are nothing like those modern structures we usually see in big cities e.g. beijing. everyone. welcome to 古都西安.


ChAPtER 1. thE tRAiN RidE

the beijing railway station isn't as lok-kok as i thought. it feels like an airport. but then in china, expect a HUGE crowd within the station. dun have to worry about food cos there are instant noodles, snacks, drinks, fruits etc for sale within the station and on the train itself.

the train is stuffy, "cosy", and stinky. STUFFY initially when the train's not moving cos the ventilator will be off. "COSY" cos there's only a narrow corridor allowing only one person to walk through each time. STINKY cos one person smokes and the whole cabin gets it. they should really divide the train into smoking and non-smoking cabins. for the sake of foreign travellers like us. lol.

there were 2 ang mohs on board the same cabin as us. very cute. they thought the train has a restaurant or something (like the european trains), so they didn't bring any food stuff with them. and when they realised that there isn't a food place on board, the lady said: "shit".

the train ride felt like an MRT train ride. all lights will be out by 10:00pm. in other words, u have to be on your bed by 10:00pm. sleeping on the train isn't difficult at all. but you'll probably wake up the next morning with a stiff back and muscle aches. hahaha~


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ChAPtER 2. WELCOME tO Xi'AN.

outside the xi'an railway station.

once we got out of the railway station, we saw this huge city wall. the ones you always see on tv. this wall surrounds the entire city centre of xi'an.

part of the city wall. according to internet sources,
there are a total of 18 city gates in xi'an!
and this one, is 尚德门.
i also saw 尚武门 and 尚勤门 along the way.

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ChAPtER 3. MOUNtAiN HUA 华山


after putting down our luggages in the hotel, we left for Mt. Hua, the western mountain of china's five sacred taoist mountains.

华山 = 财富山!?

we first took a bus from the hotel to the railway station. had our lunch (fried rice and dumplings) at mcdonalds (got warned by the security: no outside food allowed), then took the 12:00pm train to Mt. Hua. it was a 2-hour journey. the scenery along the way was magnificent. good for the eyes and relaxes the mind. i've never seen big farms like these in my life. except those in textbooks. watch the following video. i'm sure you'll love it too.

my train ticket!

finally, we arrived. we planned to take a bus up to the foot of Mt. Hua, but we couldn't find it and no one seemed to know where all the buses are. so we ended up taking the cab. it was a bumpy ride. this place doesn't seem to have a proper road for cars. i feel like i'm in a deserted island/countryside. haha~ anyway, we got there safely. after purchasing the tickets, we boarded another bus which brought us to the cable car. along the way, u hear all the "woah" from passengers on board (including us). compared to Mt. Hua, i really think our bukit timah hill and 小桂林 is nothing...

Mt. Hua railway station.

Mt. Hua's well-known for its steepness. therefore, locals would always recommend climbing the mountain at night when it's dark, cos when it's dark, u won't be frightened off by the height and the steepness of the mountain. look at the picture below and you'll know why. furthermore, all visitors are required to purchase insurance along with the entry ticket, which is important because there are still reports of fatalities despite the safety measures introduced all these years. so, without consideration, we decided to take the cable car instead. lol.

(source: wikipedia)

entry ticket.

insurance to be purchased together with
the entry ticket.

bus tickets for the buses that brought us
 up Mt. Hua to the cable car station.

cable car ticket/card.

sigh. guess i'm the only one who watches wuxia drama serials. nobody knew what i was talking about until we reached one of the peaks and saw this big stone saying "华山论剑"...

i'm at the top of the world looking~  hey we really climbed
 the mountain ok (though we took the cable car). 
the cable car doesn't bring you to the peaks. 
u still have to climb it yourself.

we conquered the north peak of Mt. Hua!
it's 10X taller than our little bukit timah hill,
 and it's still NOT the highest peak of Mt. Hua yet!

don't u find the background familiar?
i think we've seen something similar on
 bukit timah hill and 小桂林,
 but the size of this is MANY times
larger than what we have back home!

we took lots of pictures on Mt. Hua. it feels great to be at the top of the mountain, with the sun shining on you, and omg the FRESH air! we'd like to conquer the other peaks as well but time's running out and we have to get to the bottom of the mountain by evening. so yea. off we went and this time we took a BULLET train back to xi'an, which only took ~30 minutes to reach.

bullet train ticket!

the bullet train!

the bullet train is SUPER DUPER FAST, but u dun feel it when u're on board. everything feels and looks normal. haha~ but it's so much more comfortable and cleaner than the normal trains. next time we're so gonna take the bullet train instead of the normal train. lol.

back in xi'an!

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ChAPtER 4. MUSLiM StREEt


this street is very near where our hotel is. it's busy in the day and busier at night. didn't manage to capture nice pictures of this street. but yea. they sell all kinds of street snacks (小吃) like the 甄糕, 核桃酥, 花生酥，绿豆糕... local cuisines like the biang biang noodle, 羊肉泡馍, 肉夹馍, 饸饹 etc... we've tried almost everything mentioned above i guess, but just like any other food served in china, they're all saltier and oilier than what we're used to. good news is, xi'an food generally tastes better than beijing food (we thought), especially their noodles. we even bought 3-kg of "粗米粉" look-alike noodles from a particular stall for that reason. lol~ 

the special "biang" word for
biang biang noodle. heh.
(click to enlarge!)

another postcard listing down
all the places u gotta visit in xi'an.

postcard listing down all the
local food one should try when visiting xi'an.

did a lot of shopping (in fact most of my shopping) at muslim street. check out all my 战利品s below!

handphone accessories for mummy (right) and papa (left)!
inside each of these is a rice grain
with your name carved on it~

stephy's got one too!

harley davidson model for sale at only RMB5 each!

cool. feels like a 3D jigsaw puzzle. lol.

didn't dare to buy this book initially
cos i have no idea what the 十怪s are.
 thought they are monsters or something...

but then i realise 十怪 refers to
十件奇怪的事情. nothing scary. in fact
these paper cuttings look very nice~

this is a pen with a cute mascot which looks like
a tomato. lol. this mascot's for the upcoming xi'an expo.
it's actually the xi'an flower... if i'm not wrong. haha~

i've always wanted to buy this die. haha.
it decides whether u should cook/
wash the dishes/do the laundry/rest...

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ChAPtER 5. HOtEL.


they call our hotel 公寓式酒店. so i guess that's why our hotel room looked like a small apartment rather than the usual hotel rooms we're used to. it has 2 beds, a toilet, tv, a kitchen, and a rack for u to hang your wet clothes/towel. very comfortable place to rest. i realised i forgot to take a photo of how it's like but, there is one showing weining and liling squatting at a corner in the hotel room eating their... i dunno what... haha~

the heater system is so different from what we're used to. first u have to heat up the water until it reaches 75+ degree celcius. then as u bathe the temperature will keep dropping. so, all of us have to bathe and keep a look-out at the temperature at the same time. otherwise, the last person would probably freeze to death. lol~


on the second morning in xi'an, i was washing my face halfway when suddenly the water supply was cut-off. so i ended up washing off the remaining facial foam on my face with a bottle of mineral water instead. hahaha. called up the hotel guy and he managed to fix it. so yea. i should have waited a little while more before i clean up. or rather, never be the first person to start cleaning up. hahaha.


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ChAPtER 6. hUA QiNG hOtSPRiNG 华清池.


on day 2 of our xi'an trip, we took bus 306 from the railway station and alighted at Hua Qing Hotspring. the bus journey took about 30 minutes or so. 

Hua Qing Hotspring is famed for both its dainty spring scenery and the romantic love story of Emperor Xuanzong (685-762) and his concubine Yang Guifei in the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

that beautiful mountain in the background is
Lishan (骊山). according to a cab driver, Lishan is a
死火山. maybe that's where all the heat and
minerals/substances for the 
Huaqing Hotspring come from~

guess this is holy water or something...
just look at the crowd!!

the "色伯伯"s... lol.
if we're not wrong, this statue is
杨贵妃, bathing...

全球首映!! 
take a tour around Huaqing Hotspring with hosts weining and jocelyn, director liling, and video-grapher me.


Part 1: Star Pool 星辰汤

the star pool was built for Emperor Taizong in 644.
in this video, host jocelyn will explain to us
how the first heating system came about.

Part 2: Shangshi Pool 尚食汤

the shangshi pool was built for imperial chefs
 and palace officials. in this video, host jocelyn will 
explain to us how "acupuncture" may be applied 
to hotsprings.

Part 3: Lotus Flower Pool 莲花汤

the lotus flower pool was built in 747 
exclusively for Emperor Xuanzong. 
in this video, host weining will 
explain to us the structure of the
 lotus flower pool. 

Outtake:

director refuses to be captured in the film.

Part 4: 温泉古源 二号出水口

in this video, host weining will explain to us 
the reason why the water appears green in here.

Part 5: 温泉古源 一号出水口

in this video, host weining and director liling explain to us 

what's going on in the "smoky" cave. 

and probably why our water in beijing is yellow...

Part 6: 金沙洞

in this first video, we shall explore the mysterious cave.

in this second video, we shall discover the reason why 

host weining finds this place very "诈钱".

Part 7: Crabapple Pool 海棠汤 

the crabapple pool was built in 747 for Lady Yang (杨贵妃), 

the favourite concubine of Emperor Xuanzong. 
in this video, host weining will explain to us 
the structure of the crabapple pool, 
and host jocelyn will tell u how she feels about this pool.

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