Lost a friend in a foreign country?

From a backdated draft. 
 
The weather was real bad when I'm about to leave Dalian for Hangzhou. My flight was delayed. for 16 HOURS! I was very mad at the airport or I should say frustrated. The only thing that I'm worried at that time is my travel partner whom I suppose to meet at HZ airport on that day. Her flight will arrive at around 11pm and mine is suppose to arrive 1 hour later. It sounds like a perfect plan for the both of us. We didn't plan anything before that because we plan to stay a night at the airport as there's no transit bus at midnight. Our plan suppose to be perfect. But then, god decide to make it adventurous for us.

Minus the bad weather part. I texted her about the flight delay but there's no reply from her. So, I assume that she got my message. There's one thing about china mobile number, they dont allow us to make international call. As for public phone, they are the worst. You need to get a 100 RMB reload card to make phone calls.  grrr.

I texted her again before my flight depart Dalian for real but there was no reply for her. But, I expect her to see her at the arrival hall once I came out from there because that's what we planned. When I step out of the arrival hall, there's no sight of her at all. I searched for her around the arrival hall but there was no sight of her at all. Then, I went up to the departure hall but still there's no sight of her. I called the possible backpacker inn which we discussed earlier but unfortunately my friend didn't check in.

The next thing I did was switch on my laptop and search for her picture. I asked the bus ticket counter if they had seen her before. The lady told me that she was on leave the night before. Hence, I went to the airport reception counter. Do you know what they told me? They said the airport was close after 11pm as there's no flight and no passenger is allowed to stay overnight. fml. Where would my friend go if she's not at the airport? I was damn panic k? I tried to text our friends at Malaysia to ask if she actually came to HangZhou. lol. I get my sister to call her from Malaysia but my sister told me that she couldn't get her as well.

I went to the police station at the airport next. The policeman told me that they couldn't do anything about my missing friend as they can't track passport number. They can only track identity card. =( I even show them my friend's picture in case she was there before. Since they couldn't help me, I wanted to give up after searching hours at the airport. At the same time, I have no idea what to do with the rest of the trip.

Miracle happened when I step out of the police station. I saw my friend sitting in front of me talking to some random people. I was so so so happy. Imagine searching for an hour at the airport but you couldn't get anything and the person just appear in front of you like that? Praise god. We both laughed at our very first adventure. It was an exciting beginning for our 2 weeks trip.

Apparently she got all my message after we met each other. We don't understand why it took such a long time to deliver also.  Who knows what happened in between. Oh yeah. She actually ask the flight company when will my flight arrive as she got my first text message. But, they told her that the flight was cancelled due to bad weather and there wont be any flight from Dalian. She thought I won't be there as there was no news from me. I actually flew to HZ via another company as compensation for the previous ticket.

I feel that this beginning is a bit harsh for first timer. lol. But, we learnt our lesson well.  

Now you get the whole picture? dramatic kan? ahhahaa

Tell you more stories if I can remember !

The Old Beijing

One day, we asked our friends where is the must visit sites in Beijing and they told us that it will be the Old Beijing, which is called 南罗鼓巷(Nan luo Gu Xiang) in mandarin. To go there, you can either stop at 'GuLou' station or take bus from BeiHai park. There's another station but I seriously forgot the name. The tip is ask the local and they will lead you the way =)

Actually Old Beijing is a large area formed from many Hutong (胡同). There's many small streets which linked to each other. If I'm not mistaken, Houhai (后海） and the YongHe Lama Temple is just nearby. If you love photography and antique buildings/houses, you must visit this place. Almost all the houses in that area are protected.

At the beginning of the street.
The map and brief introduction about the place.
The main street. This place is good for shopping, search for unique cafes, for food and unique souvenirs. If you love to take photo, it will be a good place for you too. If you want cheap clothes, never by from this street. You just need to walk a little bit to the street behind it and you will find very very cheap bargain. For example, a dress selling at the price of RMB25. Never never buy something from the main street.

One of the cafe there. As you can see, all the buildings there are very unique. I think it is just the right place for people to take pictures. Perhaps should dress up for Old Beijing next time :)

The Panda House.

One of the hangout place.

Our Chinese friends strongly recommended this dessert called 双皮奶(SuangPi Nai) as the must eat dessert in Beijing. It is so famous that a few shops is selling the same thing. All you need to do is to find the right one. The picture below show the most famous shop(Wen Yu) in Old Beijing. Everything is homemade and the stocks are limited. The queue is very very long and you need to do is just be patient.

Their opening hour is from 11am-they finish selling their products on that day. See? We were there around 3pm on the first day but everything was sold and the shop was closed. =( But, we tried our luck on the second day and the shop was open \o/

If you miss the famous shop, dont worry. You dont have to go to the other few shops to get the same dessert. You just need to go to the lane behind the shop and search for this one. Apparently, it was opened by the sifu of WenYu. Cool right? They had a brief introduction on the dessert as well. Apparently it is from the old dynasty.

If you are wondering how it looks like, it looks like this ! haha. It tasted a bit like soya but it is not soya. I think it is made of milk. The price for this is RMB 8. Other than this, there's other dessert such as yogurt and etc. According to them, it gives good skin complexion. And now I know why their skin look so nice.

I think I will still go back there if I happen to visit Beijing again. There's so much to see at Old Beijing. :)

I shall end my post here.
To see more post from Beijing,please click here.

Till then.

Learning their language part 2

As I mentioned earlier, Dalianese speak normal mandarin. But, for the central part of China aka places like Shanghai, Suzhou and Hangzhou, they are very proud of their local dialet and trust me, it sounded 100% like alien language. It wasn't hakka, hokkien, canton, teochew or whatever dialect you heard in Malaysia. I have no idea on what are they trying to tell us. And they dont speak in normal mandarin, they will ask question in their dialect and will automatically differentiate us from the local people. My friend and I keep telling them that we are from Guangzhou as we speak 100% like them. Well, its better than telling them that we are tourist. haha

But, we need to becareful at ShenZhen. To the people there, you will either be Mainland Chinese or HK chinese. But, how are they going to detect you? They will approach you with cantonese language ! Once you replied them in cantonese, you will be labelled as HK Chinese. We fell into the trap once and from that moment onwards, we replied them in mandarin regardless of the dialect they used to speak to us.

I spent 6 weeks with my homestay in Dalian and I spoke mandarin with them. The odd thing is that the more I speak in mandarin, the more I find that I speak exactly like a Hongkie. I was speaking the HK mandarin. It was so so bad that I wanted to stop conversing in mandarin so much after every sentence I spoke as it sounded very very funny. I bet they find it hillarious. :(

There's once when I told Chris to bring his pendrive/thumbdrive to my place later as I wanted to give him some videos. He doesn't know what is pendrive/thumbdrive as it is not the word used in China. They called it as 'U-plate( U 盘) in China. I didn't know what is U盘 and I thought he don't understand what I was trying to tell him. I told him to bring whatever he has and we spent time arguing which is the most appropriate word for thumbdrive.

Chris complaint to me that his friend were laughing at him when he answered his friend's question using the Malaysia mandarin. He claimed that he's a fast learner and I manage to influence his speaking in only a few days.

Ai Ling, who is also a Malaysian had another interesting encounter when she wants to reload her sim cards credit. She was used to the term '进钱' and none of them understood. She had to explained what she really meant. Then,only they realize that she meant '充值'. hahaa..This shows how bad our mandarin is.

That's all for today.

Till then.

Shanghai Expo 10- Home country

Next, I'm going to show you what's is inside the Malaysia Pavillion.

We ran to the Malaysia Pavillion after visiting the China Pavillion. It meant a lot to me because I was away from Malaysia for 2 months and I miss Malaysia very very much. Going to Malaysia Pavillion is like heading back home except the fact that we are going to get a visa. ^^

This is the front view of Malaysia Pavillion. Can see the 1 Malaysia sign at the side ?It looks way better at night I would say. And they said that they will recycle all the material used for the pavillon for the environment sake. *That's what we told the primary school students*

At the entrance of the Malaysia Pavillion. Oh. If you are a Malaysia citizen, you just need to show your passport and you can skip the queue. The only benefit of being a Malaysian at Shanghai Expo.

There's no suprise in the pavillion I would say. Everything is very normal. It could be better if they put more effort in it.

Baba Nyonya was featured at the pavillion.

The batik surf board ? haha

They even have a fake rainforest inside the pavillion. The visitors loved it a lot as I saw many people took pictures there.

More batik :)

How can we forget the petronas twin tower?

Since the theme of the expo was 'better city, better life'. Malaysia pavillion had some exhibition about going green and etc.

They displayed our national mascott too. But, in a cuter version.

Our n0t-so-traditional National Costume. I would prefer the normal baju kurung/kebaya and the guys in sampin. Or maybe the traditional costume of our bumiputra. That will be nice, right?

Not forgetting the 1 Malaysia sign. I wonder if the rest understand what is the meaning of '1'.

The food menu. Before we went to the cafe behind the Malaysia Pavillion, we were craving for Malaysian food so much. Any curry/sambal will do. But when we looked at the menu, our excjaw dropped. Will you pay RM 15 for a cup of teh tarik ? Or RM25 for a plate of nasi lemak or a bowl of laksa? Trust me, the portion was very small. crazy ke?

Story from the Pavillion.
There was the guy who is the exhibitor there. He was making kerongsang for exhibition. My travel buddy asked me what was he making at that time. We were talking in cantonese language to make sure our identity remained as foreigners. haha. I told her that it was kerongsang and the guy was suprised. hahaha. His facial expression was priceless when he heard of the malay word. Then, every exhibitor knew that we were Malaysian and they dont bother to promote their product to us. boo. But, when we went to the second floor, we told the guy that we are Malaysian because we got interested into this made-in-sabah-chocolate-drink. He gave both of us 2 cup of sample and told us "Orang sendiri bagi cawan penuh, orang lain saya bagi separuh je". It meant 'I'm giving you one whole cup since we are Malaysian and I only give the others half cup for testing'. So nice of them. Sherrie and I were so so glad because we met nice people at the pavillion and we felt like home. =)

The end of Malaysia Pavillion and stay tune for more expo sharing. :)

My journey at Shanghai World Expo 2010

I was at Shanghai for 3 days 2 night. Or I should say 2 days 2 night in total for the Shanghai Expo. Will talk about the sights at Shanghai later. Now, I'm going to present Shanghai World Expo 2010 to all of you ! =D

A brief info about the Expo.
It is held 5 years once and the theme of this expo is 'Better City, Better Life'. Hence, their focus is more on the environment, green power and etc. This is also the most expensive expo compared to the past. Haha..Education by grandpa not wasted.

I bought the Student ticket at RMB 100.(RM 50) You need a valid student ID and the student ticket when you enter the expo area. Ticket for a normal adult is RMB 160 (RM 80) for a one day pass.

Going to this expo is really an eye opening experience. We went there around 7am and what we saw is a huge crowd right infront of us.

Here's some tips for people who wants to visit the Expo.

1. We chose to go in via gate 8 instead of other gates after doing research and hearing reviews from the locals. Gate 8 can be reached via metro line 7. (Stop at 'Wai Tan' Station). Gate 8 is nearer to the European countries' pavillion.

2. The china people will be there as early as 6am although the gate only opens at 9am. Hence, when you get out of the station, you will see people walking to the Expo compound. The bus service only starts at 730am if I'm not mistaken. If you wait for the bus, you will be way behind the queue. Hence, it is better for you to walk. Just follow the sign board and you will not get lost.

3. While you are waiting, you will see people selling foldable stool. Well, if you are that kind of person who can't stand for long, you can get it from the vendor on the spot. Some people brought the stool from their hometown.

4. The volunteers will give out maps for the Expo compound. Well, normally the people will start fighting for the map when the volunteers starts to give out the map. All you need to do is remain calm and wait because the volunteer will make sure everyone gets the map. You just need to wait for the rest to finish and you can grab as many as you want.

5. Bring food, biscuits and snack with you. Trust me, you need to queue again in the restaurant inside the Expo compound. Bring some bread with you so that you can eat them when you are hungry. We can't afford to waste any time. Bring a empty bottle with you so that you can refill the water inside the expo compound. You are not allowed to bring water inside though.

6. They sells pirated world expo passport outside. It's cheaper compared to the original one. But, the colour quality is not that good. And I heard one uncle saying that he can't find the country page in his pirated passport. lol. They only feature 46 countries and Malaysia is one of them! I got the original passport from the souvenir shop inside. It cost me RMB30 (RM15). And they have 4 design if I'm not mistaken. We choose the version with Hai Bao on it. Yeah, you will have passport number too.
The page on your left gives you a brief intro about the Expo and the page on your right shows the China Pavillion.

Most pavillion gives out 'visa' or 'stamp' when you visit their pavillion. Most of them are the major pavillions and some of the minor one doesnt offer stamping service. And some of them only stamp on passports. You wont be suprised to see people holding their own notebook/a piece of paper asking for stamping.

Part of my visa collection.

7. When the gate opens at 9am, you will see people rushing into the expo compound. No, running will be a more appropriate word. That was the first time I saw thousand of people running together just to see the pavillions. It reminds me about the documentary I watched on National Geographic Channel. People will go to the famous pavillion first. Eg, Germany, Denmark, England, Brazil and etc. If you die die also want to visit those pavillion, be there early and run as fast as you can to those pavillion. If not, you need to wait at least 4 hours just to get into a single pavillion. Ohh.to get into Saudi Arabia's pavillion, you need to wait for 8-10 hours according to the people we met at Shanghai. *swt*

As I mentioned earlier, gate 8 is the nearest gate to the Europe countries' pavillon. The first pavillion I saw is The Netherlands. Not many people visit the pavillion. It is a huge one and they have lots of interesting display. I guess most people dont know that The Netherlands=Holland in China. Hence, it explains the empty pavillion.

This pavillion is quite useful in the sense that we get to take pictures with other pavillion. lol.

UK pavillion.

Italy pavillion.

Romania pavillion which is just infront of Holland Pavillion. Once you get out of The Netherlands, it says welcome to Romania. Nothing much to see at Romania unless you want to see their cultural show which is not bad. Cultural show is definately a must see in all the pavillion as it potrays the cultural of the countries.

UK, Finland, Italy, Sweden, Latvia, Denmark and etc is very near to each other. So, choose wisely and know which pavillion that you want to go beforehand. Hence, you must do your research before going there unless you are planning to spend a few days there.

Sweden pavillion.

Latvia pavillion which is very beautiful at night.

Denmark pavillion. You have to cycle up the pavillion and walk down later. Must queue up as they have limited bike.

The picture below was taken at Estonia Pavillion. It is a very small pavillion but filled with pigs like the one in the picture. They are not normal pigs. They have words written on it and all of them is about message on how to protect the environment. To agree/disagree, you can get a paper and write your opinion and then put your paper into the pig. They had a competition earlier if I'm not mistakne.

Monaco pavillion.

Serbia pavillion which is very colourful.

Spain.

Germany. Well, the organiser did a good job as they will announce the pavillion which has long queue. They will tell you how long do you need to wait in order to get into the pavillion. For example: Germany pavillion estimated queue time is 4 hours. Hence, you can avoid the pavillions with the highest human traffic.

Croatia. I did went to this one if I remember correctly. Sherrie and I had the same mission which is 'see more pavillion and never enter pavillion which need us to wait for a very long time.' All pavillion will limit their visitor at one time. For example, big pavillion will accomodate 150 people

or more depending on their size at once. The rest have to wait for around 15 minutes or more. We only have one day and we can afford to waste it. =)

Last but not least, Russia !

I need to go now. Will post up more picture next time.

Stay tune.

The ancient ShanTang Street

We were told by one of our roommate at Shanghai that if we are at SuZhou, we must go to this place call 'Shan Tang Jie' which is a old place in SuZhou. Hence, after our visit at the garden, we went to this place call Shan Tang Jie. We didn't ask the girl about the chinese writing earlier. Hence, when we got to the bus stop, we saw the bus to '上塘街'. We were so happy and felt smart for a second as we found the bus to the place easily. Well, China bus has the special announcer where they will announce the stop name before we reach the place. We were so excited about this'上塘街', we were shocked. Imagine seeing a industrial area right in front of you. There's no ancient China kind of building, nothing, just industrial area and a lot of flats. FOL We asked the guy at the bus stop about the ancient '上塘街' and he told us that the one we meant wasn't there. We had to take another bus to another place and then change bus. It was suppose to be '山塘街' We laughed at our stupid mistake. It was so malufying.

After a short detour, here we are !'山塘街' There's a few shopping mall around the area. More like a Bukit Bintang at SuZhou to me. Yeah..they even have china style Petaling Street there with a lot of street food and cheap stuff to bargain at. But, things weren't that nice there especially the clothes.

To be frank, I felt like we were going back to the traditional era when we were at '山塘街'. Everything was so old there. The buildings and etc. So unlike the one at HangZhou 步行街where they built the new building to look like the one they built hundred years ago. gahhh..
I'm going to show you things that we saw before going into '山塘街'. We did everything slow and easy at Suzhou compared to Shanghai and HangZhou. We love the slow pace in Suzhou and it was really relaxing.
We saw this somewhere near '山塘街'. It reads 'Wu jia si ta chai zi'.

And obviously they were ignored by the people at SZ. Look at the grass.

@ the fountain nearby.

Back to '山塘街', it was a place built on water or what they called 'water village' in China. We didn't get to XiTang earlier and this was compensation I guess.

Look at this place. I love it so much! hahaa..The best thing is they have photo studio there where you can let the professional take amazing pictures of you at the place. Not forget to mention that it is so so so cheap. Sherrie and I were saying that Malaysians should fly over to China to get their wedding photo instead of paying few thousand for lame studio pictures. The one in China only cost a few hundreds. See the difference?



We believe that this is one of the SZ local delicate as we can only see this in SZ. They sold it at 4 Yuan for one if I'm not mistaken.

This is how it look like. Not to say something very delicious. I think "normal and no harm trying" will be more appropriate for this cake.

Another temple-like-building.

The uncle with two dogs. The uncle was funny. The small dog was extremely naughty compared to the black one. We just sat there for quite long trying to clean our foot before the sun goes down. Do you know that China is extremely polluted that if you wear slippers out, your foot will turn charcoal black. The best thing is it is never easy to clean it. You need toothbrush. Yeah..we need to scrub it with TOOTHBRUSH ! It was a nightmare. Going back with black foot every single day. Arrggghhhh
Back to the story, there was this uncle with two big bag. We were wondering what is he trying to do. He slowly took out the speaker, radios and blast the music. A few old aunty joined him and they start dancing. Seeee..it is a very spontaneous act I would say. And very common in China too. Another thing I like about them.

My dinner. It cost around 8 Yuan ? Pretty good for a beef noodle. With lots of vegetable as well.

The street at night.

More night view.

The end.

p/s: Writing about China makes me want to go back there for more. I should have bought the ticket to China earlier. Never mind,I shall wait for graduation instead.

Next will be Shanghai Expo I hope. Taaaaaaaa <3