Great Weekend

Tuesday morning – what a wonderful day. Early in the morning, I went to Shah Alam office, loaded some stuffs and headed straight to the North again. On the way, I stopped at Tapah for lunch and stopped again at Sungai Perak to withdraw money because by then only I realized I didn’t have enough cash for toll !! No choice ler… cannot use Touch n Go, need receipt for claims.

Wednesday night, went Bukit Tambun to have seafood with my youngest sister and her boyfriend, 2nd sister and brother-in-law, their children and their mate. MmmMmm…… fish, crabs, prawns, fried sotong, ‘snails’……yummies….

“Eat seafood so fun ah!” The next day, eat fried ‘kuew tiao’ which I ‘ta bao’ in a nearby food court. Not bad, nice also……got sea food also ma - prawns and ‘si ham’.

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Let’s jump to Saturday. It was a happy day as well. A friend of mine, Kok Wai from Bukit Mertajam came Seberang Jaya and fetched me to meet some other friends – Chen Kiat & Kheng Kiat in Penang Island. We went Star KTV in One Stop and sang for the whole night, 9 p.m. until 3 a.m. FUN!! Really enjoyed ourselves!! After karaoke, we even went for supper at ‘Penang Original Nasi Kandar’ Shop. We had super big ‘Roti Tisu’.

Sunday morning….or should be afternoon, because only woke up 12 in the noon. “Ok liao lor…… slept 5 a.m. few hours before that ler!” Ah Kiat brought me to taste Penang famous ‘Penang Laksa’ at ‘Kek Lok Shi’. After that, went for a short Penang tour, but not to famous tourist spots, instead went site seeing…..

I am on top of the world!
Nice view - Balik PulauTeluk Bahang Dam. The water level looks low to me. Wander enough to support the residents nearby...... mmmm.....

The Ship

Kiat and his car on board the ferry

Penang BridgeKomtar

Getting dark, time to go home......

开心就好！

最近有点倒霉， 遇到几次意外，事事也不太顺利，所以心情难免也被受影响。可是现在一切都过去了。不论发生什么事，路还是得走下去。

过去的两个星期，可说是有点好转。其实应该说是过得蛮开心的。上个周末，原本在Kulim的我，毫不犹豫的赶回KL，跟一大班朋友赴约。我不想再次‘放飞机’了。上次已错过梁静如精彩演唱会及阿Boo生日party，这一次怎样都要去乱一下才行。最难得的是，大部分人都到齐，只是少了阿Kooi。我们一共开了五辆车（好像很‘geng’这样）到Sungai Buloh 去打仗 -‘Paint Ball’（是不是应该‘Kongsi Kereta’啊？）。可是真的好久没这么多人一起出动了。爽！

虽然打到一半下大雨，可是我们造打！打得没个人都变了落汤鸡，很爽！！ 打完仗，还是下着大雨，可是我们还是风雨无阻的去Kuala Selangor吃海鲜，再次的爽！过后又去Friendster喝酒，超爽！！

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原本星期一要赶回Kulim的我，因为有些变化，所以多留了一天。放工回到家跟housemates，小马&小云一起吃了小云亲手下厨的晚餐后（越煮越好吃了），我们一块到1 Utama 看电影 – ‘Harry Potter’。其实我已有几个月没进戏院了，所以可一边吃popcorn 一边看电影的感觉真棒！看完‘Harry Potter’都已接近12 点半夜了。回到家，摸一下，已经1 点多了，明天可以驾车吗？没问题，开心就好！！

Zhou Zhuang 周庄

Zhou Zhuang 周庄 lies between Shanghai 上海 and Suzhou 苏州, is an ancient town of Kunshan City 昆山市, Jiangsu Province 江苏省, where abounds with rivers and lakes. So it is thought by many to be the best waterside town in China. This ancient town has a history of more than 900 years old with many houses built in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. There are about 100 houses with courtyards, and 60 of them have arch gateways made by carved bricks. With lakes on four sides, the beauty of Zhou Zhuang is specially to be found along the waterside lanes and around a number of the stone bridges.
The Map of Zhou Zhuang

You can either take a van ‘面包车’，a taxi ‘出租车’or a bus ‘公交’from KunShan Town to Zhou Zhuang. The journey is about one hour. After buying the ticket at the Ticket Office of Tourism 古镇旅游售票处，which cost us RMB100 each, we need to walk pass a bridge (which is behind me in the above picture) and walk for another 10 minutes before reaching the below entrance.
Walking beyond the archway, is a small town with lots of shop houses selling clothes, souveniers and the most famous product of Zhou Zhuang, 'Pig Leg' 沈万三蹄。

When you walk futher in, then you will come to another archway, the Ancient Memorial Archway 古牌楼。 You can see The Quanfu Pagoda 全福塔 on your right side when walking towards the archway.

Beyond this 古镇照壁 which stated 'China No.1 Waterside Village - Zhou Zhuang' 中国第一水乡 -周庄, you will come across,

Old Fashion Streets...........

Stone Bridges..........

River Sides..........

with lots of boats..........

lots of people..........

and lots of fish..........

Other attactions in Zhou Zhuang include,

The Hall of Shen Residence 沈庭..........

Shen Residence's Kitchen..........

Quanfu Temple 全福寺..........Chinese Opera..........

and many many more..........

Before leaving, managed to grab a 'pig leg' 沈万三蹄 for RMB28 and went home with a pair of extreme tired human legs and a very satisfied heart.

Tai-Hu 太湖

Before I start my journey to XiShan 西山, a town located on the biggest island of Tai-Hu 太湖, let me first have a short introduction of Tai-Hu, one of the largest freshwater lakes in China.

Covering an area of over 2,250 square km (about the size of 300,000 times of a football field), Tai (great)-hu (lake) is the third largest freshwater lake of China, below in size of Lakes Poyang and Dongting, situated about 100 km from the east coast of the Chang Jiang delta 长江三角洲 in central China. The whole lake is under the administration of Jiangsu Province 江苏省, though its southern coast belongs to the neighboring province, Zhejiang 浙江. It is located in the densely populated fertile plain of the delta known for its complicated network of small lakes, ponds, streams and man-made canals, including the Grand Canal 京杭大运河 built in the 7th century to connect Beijing 北京 with Hangzhou 杭州 in Zhejiang. The inflowing water comes mainly from mountains to the west and southwest of the lake, while the draining rivers start mostly from the east coast of the lake. Several rivers and channels connect the lake with Chang Jiang 长江, but the water flux is controlled by dams to maintain the lake water level within a range of fluctuation of 2-3 meters. The lake is famous for its abundant production of fishes and crabs, and the aquaculture farms on the coast that apply skillful techniques. In addition to supporting heavy boat traffic, Tai-Hu provides some of the best known water- side scenery in China for domestic and foreign sightseeing visitors.

After taking the 32路‘公交’(public bus) from 海关大楼 (my SuZhou 苏州 hostel), I need to travel on the 91路‘公交’ for another full hour from 木渎，another SuZhou famous tourist spot to my final destination - XiShan. During the journey, the bus have to drove over 3 bridges of a few kilometers long each in order to cross Tai-Hu. I wanted to take some photos of the bridges and the lake but the bus was too crowded even for me to take out my digicam.

Here I am, standing on the hill top of ShiGong Hill 石公山, one the many tourist spots on XiShan island. I even can't see the other end of the lake after standing so high on the hill, imagine how big the lake is.

This is taken on the other side of the hill. There are about 90 islands on Tai-Hu and I am sitting on the hill top of ShiGongShan in XiShan, located on the largest island on Tai-Hu. For your information, Tai-Hu is actually the important water source for large cities such as Shanghai City, Wuxi City, Suzhou City (Jiangsu province) and Huzhou City (Zhejiang province), and the residents living diffusely around the lake. The water of about 1,050 million cube meters has been supplied to several million residents throughout a year as municipal water. This is how important Tai-Hu to the people around here.

Next destination - 'Secret Island' 神秘岛, a tiny island situated not far away from XiShan island. I don't really know why it is named 'secret island', all I have been told is that there are some peacocks on the island and so some people called it as 'KongQue' Island 孔雀岛。

But to my dispointment, instead of peacocks, I saw a few swans and a dead peacock (how can it be called 'KongQueDao'). Luckily the scenery and the breeze there is quite interesting, so it is still worth a trip.

A few don't know is swans or ducks swimming happily in Tai-Hu.

Behind me is the 'Secret Island' 神秘岛, a very small island. Can walk around the island along the wooden bridge built surrounded it in less than 30 minutes. There are a few 'wind-generators' on the island. I think it is to generate electric power for the usage on the island. The scene looks a bit like Netherland. Hehe...

After spending sometime walking and looking through the market in XiShan, which is famous with its pearl and local fruits, it is time to say goodbye to this magnificent lake of China.

一场欢喜一场优

身在中国已有接近两个月，渐渐的开始想念家乡了。原本以为要在华人过年才能回家的我，那天忽然收到个好消息。我在大马的同事说，我十一月五号就可以回家啦！！ 好耶！！可以回家了！！

在收到消息的那一刻，我想马上就打电话到上海马航订机票。可是，后来才发现那返回大马的机票都不在身边，又怎能订呢？所以只好等明天了。心里想，“不用担心啦，同事们上次都是前几天才订，那还是中国公共假期叻，一定没问题的啦！”

第二天早上，我一起床就立刻拨电话给马航。电话响没多久，就有个声音很甜的小姐接听了。
“您好，这里是上海马航，有什么我可以帮忙的吗？”
“您好，我想订机票。”
“好，请问您要订几号呢？”
“十一月五号下午。”
“对不起，已满了。”
“那六号下午呢？”
“对不起，从四号起，至到二十一号全都full了。”
我的天啊！怎么可能整个星期都满完呢？不可能的！我不相信！
“真的全都full了吗？”
“是的。”
“为什么这么多人到马来西亚呢？”
“下星期马来西亚holiday啊。”
Oh no。。。！！可是还是很不甘彦的在想，“真的有这么多大马回教徒要回大妈庆祝开斋节meh? 为什么我在中国这么久，都没看到有马来人的？” 那时根本就没想到处了Hariraya 假期，学校也开始放假了。
“要不要我把你放进waiting list里？”
“好啊，谢谢。”
“请问您的。。。。。。？”
我把需要的资料都给了那小姐。
“你什么时候会让我知道？”
“先生，不用担心，一有空位，我就会联络您。”
“好，谢谢。”
“不客气，再见。”
就这样，我就把我的幸福全交给那小姐了。哎呀！忘了问她贵姓。

星期六就这样过去了。可是仍然没有那小姐的消息。那只好等到星期一咯。

星期一早上，我不停的在看时间。“为什么还没打来呢？是不是忘了我？” 到了十一点多，我还是忍不住了，拿起电话就拨给了‘她’。
“您好，这里是上海马航，有什么我可以帮忙的吗？”
“您好，我想订机票。”
“可以阿，请问您要订几号呢？”
“其实星期六我有打过电话来，我的名已在waiting list了。”
“先生，可以把名字给我吗？”
我把名字一个一个的念给她。
“先生，请您宵等。”
“好，谢谢。”
二三十秒后。。。。
“喂，先生，您的名字还在waiting list里。”
“我的名字有在里面哦？”
“对，有。”
“那要几时才能知道有没有空位呢？那天有位小姐跟我说四号到二十一号都full了，是不是？”
“对，马来西亚那儿holiday。我就是那天那小姐。”
“哦。。你还记得我吗？哈哈。。”
“ 记得。。不用担心，您的机会很大，就要轮到您了。”
“哦。。是吗？那太好了。我下个星期一定要回去了，麻烦你帮我留意下。”
“好，明早您再打个电话来吧。您的机会很大，应该没问题。”
“好好。。明天我再打来。请问小姐贵姓啊？”
“我是Linda。”
“哦。。Linda。好，那明天我再打来吧，谢谢。”
“不客气。”

终于她给了我一些希望。很期待明天的到来，希望她真的能带给我好消息。

昆山的生活

今天忽然兴致勃勃想写个blog, 跟大家分享我在昆山的生活。像平日一样，下午五点钟，阿姨就到我项目工程的办公室接我。一下了‘面包车’，我就到楼下的一间餐馆打包我最爱的‘苦瓜炒蛋’。毕竟这几天我也没吃什么好菜，吃了几天的面包和快熟面，觉得有点闷了。你们一定在想，不可能只吃‘苦瓜炒蛋’，就能医饱肚子吧。当然不咯，我打算配快熟面吃的。哈哈。。最后还是得吃‘它’。冲好了凉，我就下厨咯。没想到，一面看我在苏州买的‘神雕侠侣’DVD，一面吃‘苦瓜炒蛋配快熟面’，也是蛮开心的。其实真正让我这样轻松，一半是因为我的‘长辈同事’已回了马来西亚，另一半是我已完成手头上的一些工作，大松了口气。虽然一个人难免会觉得有点闷，可是长辈不在，一定比较自由，再也不会一直觉得有人在盯着的感觉。明天不知要吃些什么叻？明天的事明天才打算啦！还是早点睡，明早七点就要起床，开始新的一天。加油吧！

昆山（苏州）

After 5 hours of flight, finally landed in Shanghai, China. This is taken in 上海浦东机场 just after I had checked out.

Next destination - 苏州
From Shanghai Airport, my colleague and me took a bus to our SuZhou apartment.

Out of my expectation, the weather here is as hot as Malaysia，around 30 degrees. I thought it would be something like Genting Highlands.

Anyhow, here I am in SuZhou after about a 2 hours journey from Shanghai by ‘工交’.

This is 海关大楼，taken outside our Suzhou apartment. At night, the lighting here is quite interesting. Will try to take more photos the next time I come here again.

石路, one of the famous street in Suzhou Town. Behind me is the 八仙过海 statue.

Next destination - 昆山，the place I work.
Early the next morning, a van came and picked us up from SuZhou directly to KunShan.

KunShan is actually situated between SuZhou and Shanghai. By ‘工交’，it takes about 1.30 hours from Shanghai to Kunshan and another 30 minutes to SuZhou. Travel by train will be faster.

This is my room at 昆山市樾河路，美华东村，21栋402室。
My apartment got 2 rooms, 1 bathroom, 1 dining room and 1 kitchen.

人民路，the most happening street in Kunshan. Will go there during weekend - walk around and look at pretty girls. :)

Taken in 人民路 again with one of my colleagues, Mr. Lim who came and visit us from SuZhou.