Faces of Vietnam

Aside from Vietnamese women dressed in flattering figure-hugging ao dais, I also came across many "ordinary" folks- hawkers along the streets, people toiling away in handicraft workshops, friendly waitresses in restaurants... though communication was still a prob in many instances, I felt that most people I met were all quite friendly and helpful. Was particularly impressed by how many Vietnamese working in touristy places spoke Japanese! (some even better than English). Anyway, hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I did taking them :)

This was snapped in a hurry while on my tourist van. And the expression of hardship on the lady's face still makes me feel a little unsettled whenever I look at this pic. According to my mum, those huge fruits on the ground contain our atap chees (those white chewy things you get in your ice kachangs)...

Rice paper production in action. Lady was really skilful and nothing tore... I still can't figure out how something so thin can be so "untearable"! These wet sheets were later put under the sun to dry...
Lady packing coconut candy into packets... Every single candy is wrapped up in white wrappers by women with superbly nimble fingers... This 'coconut candy factory' was on one of the islands tourists were conned to go to haha. Basically the tour guide brought us on a Mekong River boat trip-- a not-so-picturesque boat journey spanning one whole afternoon and island-hopping btwn 4 rather obscure islands on the river. But since you've already paid for it, why not just be happy and make the best out of it? :P
Worker polishing a piece of lacquerware-art. There were many such lacquer-art on sale in HCM City.... and I never expected the production process to be so arduous and labor-intensive till I got to witness for myself what went on behind the scenes... This man was quite friendly when I somewhat guiltily asked for a picture... just cos you know... i'm like "capitalising" on ppl's hardship by taking a picture.

Little boy squatting by the road beside a scale at his grandma(?)'s durian stall. There were several informal stalls selling fruits etc when we were on our way back from Ben Tre Province, the place some 1.45 hr bus ride south of HCM city, where we took our boat cruise...

Vietnamese women taking a lazy afternoon nap in a wholesale Market in Cholon, Vietnam's Chinatown. Erm, thought it was rather odd that they just sprawled out like that....

Soldier at the Cu Chi Tunnel demonstrating how soldiers could disappear into the extensive system of tunnels underground. This was one of the 'holes' and seriously after he placed the wooden plank over his head there was no trace of him at all. Amazing how resourceful and innovative ppl can get during times of war. Somehow this guy reminds me of a plumper version of Julian Cheung... and his silent upward stare (at tourists photographing him) makes me a little uneasy... cos he feels so submissive.

My HCM "motorcycle diaries"

Ho Chi Minh City has to be the motorbike capital of the world... Nothing there fascinated me as much as local folks zipping around on their motorbikes... day in day out... everywhere... rain or shine... Given HCM City's status as Vietnam's "economic powerhouse", witnessing some 10 times more motorbikes than cars on the roads (or more) was truly surprising to me.... Cars certainly appear to be a rare commodity- the occasional 4-wheeled vehicles i see around are either taxis, tourist vans/buses or public buses...
Motorbikes have such a HUGE presence in HCM City that the gas stations are primarily motorbike gas stations... 'carparks' frequently only have entrances only big enough for motorbikes to enter... Local markets even sell ready-made hats/face masks to gear motorcyclists up for the weather/pollution etc. No doubt motorbiking seems like the most convenient and cheapest way to get around...but it sometimes appears really dangerous too -- with 2 or 3 passengers on one motorbike being a very common sight. But perhaps it's also necessary-- ppl really don't seem very well off and you probably have to make do with what you can afford. On the other hand, I couldn't help but feel that motorbiking can be a good bonding experience-- for couples/ families/ friends.... there's this element of navigating treacherous roads together? I for one would probably cling on to the person in front for my dear life if put on one of the motorbikes for my very first time.

Tourists also dun have it easy... Crossing roads have never been as challenging for me...! there are pathetically few formal pedestrian crossings and frequently motorbikes do not adhere strictly to traffic rules... From time to time these tourist security guards will bring you across the road, but most of the time you'll have to rely on yourself. well i do believe that motorcyclists actively try to avoid pedestrians but sometimes they only manage to stop when they are like 30 cm away from you... So to sum it up getting to the other side can be harrowing at busy times of the day even if you make it over unscathed! It also doesn't help that I sometimes had a squealing mum clinging on to me :P Prob not too great an idea to bring your toddler or grandma.

After so much blabbering, I shall let the pictures tell the story :) I actually took quite a few pics, but cos most of them were taken while "on the move" from my tourist van many turned out blurry. These are some of the better and more interesting ones...

Colorful motorbikes on sale in a shop...
The "garang baby" model -- kids are frequently placed in front of the motorbike and this is one example... The kid in this pic even has a veil over his head, i guess to filter out the polluted air..Garang baby No. 2... Actually I feared for this kid's safety... The lady (presumably the mum) is riding with one hand... I really take my hats off the Vietnamese. dunno how they manage.
The "Sandwiched Baby" model... Another place to put your kid is in btwn two adults... The mother-carrying-newborn shown above is not very common... I saw many kids sitting in btwn, or better still... standing in btwn on the seat!People also somehow manage to transport all kinds of things on motorbikes - Our CPU warrior being an excellent illustration. Seriously -- travelling at high speed while holding on to a not-so-light CPU with the other hand... certainly takes lotsa skill.Last but not least, motorbiking in foul weather. It drizzled a little on the 3rd morning and while in my van I saw many motorcyclists stopping along the road to put on ponchos and other rainy-day gear. I couldn't help but wonder what happens to the millions of motorcyclists in the city during heavy downpours...?

Shi Min is off to Ho Chi Minh City tmr afternoon for a 4-day respite with mum! haha and proudly declaring that I have yet to even pack... am too lazy now to do anything now after a busy week at work.... should be fine lah cos it's just a short trip and it's not like winter or anything. hopefully trip will recharge me a little... and hope to get some interesting shots too :) will be back Tues!

I think I am beginning to understand why some colleagues have so much leave balance, that some people even have to carry forward their 2005 leave balance to 2007. Because there's sometimes no incentive to go on leave. Not when going for a break comes at the cost of tonnes of emails in your inbox and lotsa catching-up to do. So I really admire those ppl who really make the effort to go for (often much-needed) breaks. Sometimes I can't help but question... why is there so much work to be done at times? Why is there so many things to go around?? who churns out things and why do they keep increasing if people cannot manage and are forever missing deadlines? I have yet to make sense out of all this. One colleague also quit recently.... so in this "sunset period" she has appeared to be relatively freer than most of us. Couldn't help but fantasize a bit that such a choice was readily available to me. Hai, and somewhat embarrassing when boss actually not-so-subtly remarked just now (I believe with ref to some of my recent assignments)... "eh, you have quite a few typo errors"... Where has my heart flown to?

I have been extremely clumsy lately -- have been bumping into many many things in my way... Even when exits/doors/railings etc were obviously not blocking my way, I can blindly walk into everything. Good thing they weren't severe enough to cause a series of blueblacks on my arm... Also somehow managed to walk into the partition separating workstations when exiting one colleague's workstation. When the 'exit' technically has enough room for 2 persons to stand side-by-side. My bumping caused a minor earthquake of the partition; she and I both also couldn't stop laughing at me, cos it was the 2nd time i've done it when walking out of her workstation... Why haven't I been able to walk straight these few weeks??

Tonight I also have bloodshot eyes from unsuccessful pinching of contacts... :( having disposed of old permanent contacts, recently finally got down to getting disposable dailies for occasional use. But slippery nature of these disposables has made them extremely elusive for my untrained and "rusty" fingers... Well, i finally managed to get them out, but not before rupturing many blood vessels.... sigh. now i dun dare to put on a new one again :P maybe I should consult my optician on best pinching techniques...

Sunrise

I usually dun have the luxury of watching the sunrise, but caught sight of the beautiful vermillion sky early this week when having breakfast. And thus rushed to balcony to capture the pretty sky. So here it is... nothing beats just sitting there for a few min and marveling at the beauty of nature. This picture has somehow diffused the orange and reds. It's been a busy week for me, with our on-site registrations and house visits again. And without really realizing it it'll be Friday tmr! Hopefully I'll zip past the next busy week and then get a well deserved tiny holiday next Sat cum weekend.

On some days I'm just struck with the harsh reality that there are so many aspects to life... esp after I started working and got to witness people at different stages in life. I get 'reminded' that there are and will be many things I will deal with and face at later stages of my life, whether I like it or not, cos these are just things that will soon not or later come up. Last week, the sudden demise of a colleague's father came as a slightly shocking piece of news to me. Earlier this week, I also found out that a colleague was pregnant. Then, a day later when I found out that another recently-married colleague was also pregnant, I somehow couldn't suppress my unfounded surprise and apparently had this look of disbelief on my face (aiyah i mean it shouldn't be so surprising, but I guess I was like in shock for 3 min cos suddenly find out about 2 pregnancies in 2 days mah). Since my antennae was always either spoilt or half-working, I tried to confirm with this colleague (who divulged the news) that there were no more pregnancies I ought to be aware of; to which this colleague amusingly remarked, "you know, this kinda thing is ongoing... but for now I don't think there are anymore lah, unless got accidents..." Anyway, moral of story is it somehow made me wonder if I'll ever like step over to other stages in life, or would I always remain as status quo? And made me wonder if ppl actually progress to other stages ready and well-prepared for the new 'challenges' ahead? How do ppl decide or know that this is really what they want?

Pepper Crab Outing

The first outing of our 'singles club' was an outing to a kopitiam place called Eng Seng Restaurant at Joo Chiat Place, famous for its pepper crabs. There were originally 11 of us, but our group shrunk to a mere 4 after many casualties arising from having to stay back at work etc/ family commitments last min. I was tempted to stay back to finish up my work too, but alas! decided to go ahead with the outing planned weeks ago. So, after the last member of our little team managed to get off work, we rushed down in a taxi for our food :P The crabs here are so popular that they run out by 7 or so on Fridays, but we managed to call up the coffeeshop beforehand to reserve some crabs. Nonetheless we were told that they will be 'given away' if we didn't reach by 7.15pm. Thus the mad rush. When we reached, there was a long line and we were told that even though we had reserved our crabs we still had to join the queue to wait for tables. Auntie there taking orders also seemed a bit pian1 xin1 and appeared to take orders first for her shu2 ke4s... Nonetheless, when we finally got our food, everyone tucked in immediately. The crabs were yummy, esp with the rich pepper sauce. But cos I haven't had pepper crabs in some 5 months or so I don't have any basis for comparison. I should check out more places.... We also ordered cheap but good chicken wings from an adjacent store; and adjourned to Parkway Parade after dinner for durian ice-cream dessert.... aaah... I'm still feeling bloated from my dinner cum supper!

On some days I get so demoralized and frustrated at work, but I realize that I'm not the only one who feels this way. Boss gets his fair share of frustrations and I bet his job is way more stressful than mine. So are some other colleagues'. But how do these ppl manage it... ? And even though I'm 9-months-old at this unit, I am nowhere near competent at what I do... it's really quite pathetic but I sometimes console myself (excuses, excuses!) that this is natural given that I never chose to do what I am assigned. Sometimes I feel so pent-up but yet I can't blog indiscriminately given that evil regulators lurk out there waiting for you to say something incendiary and then alert authorities to have you put in jail (ok i am exaggerating). Maybe I should talk to my frowny care-bear instead. Work-aside, I have also been feeling unhappy about various things in my life but things don't just happen whenever you wish for them to. Nonetheless, I concede that you have to work hard for things you want. After all, life becomes easily becomes boring and unchallenging if you get EVERYTHING without doing anything.

Totoro in HDB Estate
Jeannice recently gave me a tiny Totoro from Hokkaido... which i've put up on the windowgrille of my new room. And on a slow Sat morning I was inspired to come up with some silly pictures below... Globalisation has brought Totoro to the HDB estate.The view from my window, with Totoro watching over me ;P

A good friday

Yesterday marked my first night in my new room! yeah.. about 4 months after I announced that I would be getting my own room :P didn't get a whole lot of furniture... only a simple bookcase that doubled up as a side table; a bedside table cum drawer and a new wardrobe-- cos my sister's and my clothes were literally spilling out of our old wardrobe. since it's impossible and wasteful to just dump all old furniture, also reused some old pieces and so room looks kinda like an odd fusion, but still ok for my liking... hee... will decorate my walls over time. it's fun to be able to do up your own room... and to 'mark the occasion', i went out shopping for lil things I could get; and found a cool cushion cover (which i now find a little scary actually cos it's a half-face-half-motifs design) at The LIFESHOP at Raffles City, at half-price. (It's a cool furniture/lifestyle store, but sadly, most items are way above my budget...)

Also volunteered for the first time as an usher/ticket-puncher at the National Museum. task was quite simple, and caught bits of a very interesting Syrian whirling dance performance. at the end of it all, was also asked by staff to be one of two girls to present bouquets to the director and main performer... that was really quite random, but since no one knew me anyway and it's just presenting of flowers, i did it quite unreluctantly haha. but yeah, quite a good experience overall. not to be blasphemous or anything, but it was really a 'Good Friday' on the whole...

The Lives of Others is an excellent film. The first 20 min or so was a little hard to get into, but soon you'll get really drawn into the whole story... I love how it ends... I think not reading any synopsis (or a really brief one) would make the film more enjoyable/more impactful... pls only read the plot summary on wikipedia after you've watched it! Catch it at the Cathay Picturehouse before it goes off the screens ;)

2Q resolutions

I find it hard to introduce changes into my normal routine; cos whatever self-improvement drive I choose to embark on would inevitably eat into my sleeping/resting/bumming time... but perhaps small steps will help? And so, the 3 small things I set out to do are ONE: Be a more conscientious Japanese student and stop doing homework only at last min. This i've been trying to 'implement' over the past 3 months or so but haven't been very successful. It beats me why I bother spending $300 for each semester, only to remb sufficient grammar and vocab to do my weekly test. More discipline!! Also splurged on an electronic dictionary last week; if I don't study harder I suppose i'm really throwing money into the drain :( TWO: Exercise more. I've come to appreciate the importance of exercising, but I don't do enough of it. But... this will take time lah. slowly slowly... shall aim to eventually exercise twice a week or something. Should also be a good way to force myself to get off work more punctually. THREE: This is not really a resolution, but I've been trying to think about what things really matter to me/things I enjoy. Under the influence of that inspirational book i read some weeks ago, I have been trying to figure that out... so last Sunday I revisited the good old Bras Basah Complex and all the arty shops there... feels a little like finding things you've lost. Gone are the sec days where I could spend literally 4, 5 hours in the art-room just drawing one thing, or putting together a little part of my art project; yet not feel that time has been 'wasted'. Sometimes you wonder, have certain things been 'rightly sacrificed' and why have they been sacrificed?

Why are rubber bands red

today was our annual staff conference and each staff was given $1.50 coffee allowance. Since not everyone can fit into our auditorium, we are given the choice to watch the live telecast at various spots within the dept. But we didn't. (Ppl however get a kick out of watching things like our DCEO modeling our new corporate uniform on stage-- that was during another recent award ceremony :P) anyway, so our support staff suggested getting nasi lemak for breakfast instead, and so this morning everyone gathered at the table for a brief nasi lemak respite (haha more like inertia to work cum form of escapism)... and cos diff ppl had slightly diff choices, some packets came tied in blue-colored rubber bands (quite rare)... when we were finishing up someone asked me to pass a rubber band (to secure the trash) and it suddenly struck me as I was handing over the good old red rubber band to a colleague -- why are rubber bands usually red?? When i posed the question to colleagues, one claimed that cos the rubber seed is reddish... then another interjected -- but latex is white! no conclusion was reached though. well, in Singapore rubber bands i've seen are mostly red; some yellow. So why red? when I reached home and quizzed my Dad, his guess was that since most things aren't red it's more visible when rubber bands are red. I think that sounds like a logical reason... but then... why not purple?? not many things are purple. why not orange?? why red?? is it also cos red is primary color that's easy to 'mix'? what's your take? :)

I find it so hard to do things I dislike but have to do... though it's a natural tendency for all of us to do what we like.. it's a sign of weakness not to be able to do things you don't want to yet have to. I need to become stronger... !!

Film-crazy!

3 film-related snippets in today's post. I watched The Adventures of the Prince Achmed at the National Museum yest evening.... made by German filmmaker Lotte Reiniger, it's apparently the first animated feature to have a worldwide release; and the first surviving full-length animated feature in movie history... the National Museum commissioned a local musician to do a soundtrack for this silent animated film and it was pretty cool, cos she performed 'live', too. Was awed by how she created such a magical animation film with lotsa craft (intricate and beautiful paper cuttings) and minimum technology...
Film snippet no. 2 is that the Singapore International Film Festival is coming up! can check it out here...
Last thing is that I'm going to show a documentary for colleagues over lunch! i've blogged about this before... it's Joyce's cool final year project, Singapore Standard Time... :)

Holiday in sight

keen on a holiday in Vietnam and forced by Dad to take a packaged one (esp cos I'm going with my mum) I braved the crowds yesterday evening and went for the NATAS fair... It was, expectedly, very crowded. and place was quite badly littered with flyers.... well, that's not entirely surprising considering that visitors are greeted by a line of flyer-distributors once they enter the exhibition. The omnipresent flyer-distributors are also stationed near the escalators; alongside the queue for buying admission tics etc etc. Aiyoh, wonder how much paper is going to be wasted... someone should put a recycling bin or two outside the exhibition hall. Hmm, anyway, and so I'll be going to Ho Chi Minh in a little more than a month's time! yay. but yeah, very short getaway lah. but at least it's something to look forward to :) better go and "chop" some leave come Monday morning...

I've always felt unlucky about getting one of the oldest CPUs in the unit, which can only take the low-speed USB drive... and which has caused me a fair bit of inconvenience. But my luck seems to be improving... I got my chunky monitor replaced by a brand new 17-inch LCD monitor screen yesterday; and was told that I would soon get a new CPU, too! yay :) Well, I don't get chio Fujitsu laptops like some other lucky civil servants *ahem* but yeah, one should not be too greedy huh. Also just got myself a new Japanese CD... I quite like some of the songs, but very unfortunately I really don't like how the Japanese-Korean-studied-in-Hawaii singer looks.... I seldom have such a problem, and singer is not like ugly or anything... she just has that hiao2 look which I cannot really stand (thankfully you can't really tell from pic on the cover else I will have to face this look everytime I play my CD) and as such I don't think I will buy any of her other albums.. least not till I can get over this. Hai, i can't believe this is coming from me :P haha but i tried....!

throat has been 'acting up' again of late, perhaps due to insufficient rest and me trying to do too many things even on weekends. as such dryness, and feeling of something stuck in my throat has unfortunately returned. that got my dad worried again, so he accompanied me to the doctor once again to check that nothing's wrong with me. luckily, doctor said symptoms might just be 'remnants' of my sore throat last week, and that I should get better with time. She prescribed me more medicine, and I now have a full range of throat medicine, ranging from anti-inflammtory pills, mouth gargles to numbing lozenges... hmmph. I guess I am well-stocked for similar ailments in future. And I'm officially on a full MC today! figured I should just rest well once and for all. however will miss out on Swensen's treat this afternoon, which boss is giving, having been officially given Management's stamp of approval as unit head. Nevermind, I shall rest well and try to make full use of the free time today -- these days it's so rare to have an entire day of personal time!

A day of firsts

Sales are everywhere! but i'm finding myself a little too tired to shop. had quite a packed Saturday today... was asked to Botanic Gardens today and tried taking a new bus service (No. 5) from my bus stop to Far East Plaza... finally there's a bus that brings me all the way from home to Orchard... took more than an hour though... but at least there's now an additional option :) then met up with a couple of old RGS classmates, whom i've not seen for years... cos it's Cat's birthday today and we decided to go try out this Korean restaurant (Jang Shou Korean BBQ) at Esplanade. Well, i wonder why it had decent reviews, cos the food was just so-so and expensive... and it had inflexible ordering policies, such as making customers order at least 2 portions of bbq meat if we wanted to choose from the bbq menu... the bbq meat is supposed to be good.. but too bad we didn't order it :P. lost track of time at lunch and ended up missing my weekly STEP class.. so decided to go try pilates for fun... it's actually pretty interesting... cos you fiddle around with this multi-purpose stick (multi-purpose cos this stick has elastic bands with loops at the ends for you to stick your feet into) a lot during the workout... haha erm I think i've just succeeded in making pilates sound like a super weird form of exercise. but yeah. i think it trains your muscles...though I had a lot of trouble doing all those stretches and prob did >half the things wrongly, I still hope that whatever I did contributed a little towards a flatter tummy :P

the nasty episode of painful swallowing is finally over! my throat is nearly as good as before today :) didn't expect such a speedy recovery, but it was really sudden sickness, sudden recovery. when i started getting better, I realized that I appreciated being able to swallow painlessly and unawkwardly a lot more... hai. perhaps it's a tiny lesson to punish me for my snacking-on-dry-heaty-stuff habits. Speedy recovery was also in part due to late night consultation at Changi Hospital on sunday night. the unprecedented painful condition got my paranoid dad quite worried and he insisted on taking me to the A & E dept to do some check. (well, so i contributed to that pool of non-urgent cases that the A & E dept receives yearly) Expectedly, non-urgent cases were also not tended to immediately, so ended up waiting at the hospital till close to midnight... nonetheless saw the doc, who confirmed that it's prob not tonsilitis... he also gave me a much stronger antibiotic... which worked wonders! two lil thoughts on incident -- 1) it's a blessing to have such loving (albeit ultra-paranoid) parents 2) ENT stands for Ear, Nose and Throat (dept?) hehe. feel relieved that I didn't need to have funny tubes stuck down my nose/throat etc.

Maybe I have tonsilitis

And so the watermelon powder thingy failed me. Woke up this morning with a full blown sore throat... and even after taking my medicine it hasn't shown any signs of getting better... Doesn't help that the doctor whom I saw this morning didn't give me any form of reassurance at all. He somewhat lackadaisically asked me... how long has this been going on? any fever? have you been taking fried, spicy food lately? etc etc. then when I said... it's veyr painful... is it serious? to which he answered, it's probably an infection, but you don't have any fever yet... (so i get the impression it's not serious, though he gave me a cryptic answer).... found it very hard to concentrate with extremely awkward throat so took MC and came back late morning. THEN, later this evening, i started googling for 'tonsilitis' and it appears to describe my symptoms pretty well... esp the bit about finding painful and hard to swallow... yes, I know that it can help me jian3 fei2 (since I either dun feel like eating, or can only eat softer and not so yummy foods), but please go away soon...

my sore throat 'brewed' into an extremely painful one in 2 days and I suspect the culprit is some ulcer... cos pain feels somewhat localised. i can't even swallow without wincing... let's hope the funny watermelon powder works wonders and that I'll be ok tomorrow. on a totally unrelated note, I'm wondering if I should spend $500 on a good electronic Japanese-English dictionary which will allow me to look up words and how to use them in sentences in a few 'clicks'... hmm.. $500.... quite ex... but may be a good long-term investment though.

Of work and life

Sometimes work requires me to turn up at MPs' meet-the-people sessions and it was my (first) turn yesterday night. Basically we stationed ourselves in a classroom beside the main waiting room, to take questions/appeals related to SERS. Well, but most residents who turned up had the mentality that whatever they tell us is useless, cos we can only 'write letters' and are otherwise powerless to make those big decisions... and so I had a relatively easy time last night, with only 6 enquiries or so in the 2.45 hrs or so we were there. Just a few thoughts... MPs lead really busy lives! even though the MP was supposed to be there around 730 pm or so, she only arrived close to 930pm. Nonetheless, residents waiting for her waited.. and waited.. and waited. There was a line of probably close to 40 ppl. A staff helping to organize the crowd told me that the MP usually tries to see all her residents, and that the session can end at say, 1 am even! goodness. Second... i wonder which other govt goes to this extent to help residents... isn't it a vicious cycle sometimes? the more you give in, the more residents expect from you... then in the end even though the goodies you give them are already very decent, they still think that you ought to give them more.... and SOMETIMES, it becomes a case of ppl not taking responsibility for their own problems... they expect the govt to solve their own problems... isn't this quite 'unhealthy' for society in the long term. Singaporeans can be such a sheltered and 'babied' bunch. Then again, whenever I go on site, I do find myself sympathizing with some folks... who tell me they dun have stable jobs, who are facing financial probs etc.... sometimes I don't know what to think.

It so happened that my MPS coincided with a section 'dinner get-together', which I attended for only 30 min before zipping off to work... and colleagues had earlier decided to go down to a bar/lounge to 'chill out' and drink after that session. I joined them at 11pm after work... at this place in Red Dot Traffic Building. The place was quite cool and the 'room' they gave us was pretty nice and cosy... but even though chilling out with colleagues was alright, I was reminded of times I could just chill out with friends. like at someone's place in Berkeley. that kinda thing. Ever since I started work, I don't think I've really 'chilled out' with a bunch of friends at some place... doing nothing or just talking rot.... i suppose my close friends are all over the place too :) nonetheless, felt that something was 'missing'... sometimes I do wonder, am I subconsciously letting the more unimportant things take over my life... and succumbing to these 'evil forces' without even realizing it...?

The world of bentos

That is the topic for today but first I will recall an interesting incident at work. I once mentioned female colleagues and their LV bags. This afternoon, my opposite neighbor (the leading LV fan too) lost one of the diamonds on her diamond bracelet. The loss of this tiny diamond (among many others) was first spotted by another colleague who went to discuss something with her... it then sparked a tiny commotion with a couple of us starting to look on the carpeted floor for something tiny and sparkly. Alas, the missing diamond was nowhere to be found. Someone joked that if finders become keepers we would all be hunting for that lost diamond somewhere in HDB... Unfortunately we were unable to recover this precious stone and colleague went home early upset over the fallen diamond. sigh, I hope she finds it! apparently one costs $200 to replace. dunno how many she has on that bracelet...

Now into main topic proper. After a year-long hiatus from Japanese dramas, I recently grew tempted again and bought a new series called Kazoku, or Family. In short, it's about a young father who tries very hard to bring up his son after his wife walked out of their lives. The story's been quite heartwarming so far, and the bento box kept turning up in the last 2 episodes. I suppose it's a well-known fact that Japanese children get cute specially-made bento boxes from their mothers... and the kindergarten scenes also did show some REALLY cute bento cuisine! such as octopus sausages, rice balls with faces and all...! I would certainly try my hand at making these if I still cook. but i don't anymore :P Nonetheless, looked up pictures of such bentos here.... so kawaii!!! I like the one with good hanamaru (the white seal) holding a flower.... lucky children!

Sometimes civil servants also have to do 'extra-curricular' work such as mystery auditing. HDB's partner association is People's Association this time round and i was 'luckily' arrowed by whoever in CDD to be one of the mystery 'shoppers'. However, i was very unluckily assigned this CC all the way at the other end of the island in Jurong West... was told by colleague this afternoon that it's a very ulu place. however, upon arriving at the cc earlier this evening(via taxi; claimable), discovered that it's not that ulu after all... and cc turned out to be quite modern and appeared to be in a good location, accessible and all. but you wonder why ppl would want to live here, in this extreme end of S'pore far away from everywhere else! (perhaps many ppl on the other hand wonder why on earth I want to live in Pasir Ris? :P)
In a bid to maintain a 'work-life' balance, i've also decided to watch more TV again :) The immensely popular 'Ugly Betty' premiered on Channel 5 yesterday night and the first episode was entertaining enough for me to want to watch the next one. The Amazing Race All-Stars is also showing on Monday nights... just started watching this week and teams are competing in Chile... some place in Chile called Petrohue that's really really picturesque! This used to be my favorite reality game show... but the last time I seriously watched it was probably in my freshman year in my dorm room, together with my other two roommates, when Amazing Race came to Singapore :P

A worthy quote to live by

From an "inspirational book" I picked up the other day-- "There is nothing noble about being superior to some other person. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self. All I'm really getting at is that if you want to improve your life and live with all that you deserve you must run your own race. It doesn't matter what other people say about you. What is important is what you say to yourself. Do not be concerned with the judgment of others as long as you know what you are doing is right.You can do whatever you want to do as long as it is correct according to your conscience and your heart. Never be ashamed of doing what is right; decide on what is good and then stick to it. And for God's sake, never get into the petty habit of measuring your self-worth against other people's net worth. Every second you spend thinking about someone else's dreams you take time away from your own"

Eyes sore and insect-bitten

My poor eyes are overworked; from staring too much at tiny things on the computer screen. typing emails aren't half as bad; but recently, certain tasks like higlighting HDB blocks on ppt block by block (job hazard!) require so much attention to detail that I will go yan3 hua1 if i do more of this after current assignment is done... 2 days of 'Orientation' have also left me behind at work... yes, my orientation came more than 7 months into work, since I just missed the last round when I first joined HDB... I'm trying hard to maintain a work-life balance, but it's hard to-- esp. when going home on time also means owing boss more things... perhaps it still boils down to being more efficient. on the other hand, i've been victimized by various insects recently... argh sometimes I wished I had some invisible shield that could ward off all insects... dun you wonder how insects choose which spot on your body to leave its 'trace'.... like how do they choose where to bite you? or is it random? hai. too sleepy and not-thinking. going to bed.

Happy Birthday to me :)

turning 24 isn't something that I have been looking forward to, yet it's always nice to feel special.. to feel you matter to friends/family... and somehow birthdays are typically the days ppl take the chance to show that they care... while i don't really want anything from anyone, it's always heartwarming when ppl who matter to you show that they care. AND, to treat myself a little, i also went and got myself a tiny birthday cake just for fun. for the very first time in my life, my day started off with a bouquet of flowers and ended off with another!(all from girls lah, no need to speculate) and the bouquet that arrived just minutes ago totally surprised me... cos it's from a very dear friend whom i've known nearly half my life...

Even though i've been meaning to sit down and reflect a bit today; somehow i still didn't manage to do it. Nonetheless, in the 30 min or so that I did get to somewhat think through things that matter to me and what changes I want to introduce into my life (i suppose i'm still not very focused, but i tried....) there are 3 main things I think I want to start and stick to doing for a long , long time...... 1) Stay positive and have more confidence in myself; 2) Treasure my friends and family instead of yearning for things that you don't already have. Drawing from parts of Anna Karenina, we might not actually be as happy as we think we'll be after the full realization of what we have desired all along... 3) Be more disciplined, procrastinate less!

have been feeling a little out of sorts the past few days, as well as today... perhaps cos various things at the back of my mind have become somewhat bothersome recently. or maybe i'm just suffering a quarter-life crisis on the eve of my 24th birthday... and even though I plan to take half day off work tmr I haven't really decided how to spend the half day, either. and it's not a very 'guilt-free' half day, cos I owe boss quite a few things! but whatever. sometimes we need breaks, and I think I'm due for a short break to just slack or like do nothing, reflect on things... but wonder when that will come.

after a movie outing with two colleagues yesterday evening, I was suddenly very motivated to set up some informal 'Singles Club' within the unit, to go check out new restaurants/eateries/hawker stalls together, as well as good shows/movies and other worthy activities... then, perhaps write reviews, practise my English and at the same time do colleagues some service :P BUT a big prob though is i will have very few "members", given that 80% of colleagues are married. if i exclude my engaged unit head; and my section head (we're certainly not so chummy with big boss to ask her such frivolous things) then I'll essentially be left with like 3 other potential 'candidates'... out of which one is attached and technically ineligible... another one is not likely to fancy such activities that much.... then i'm really left with one other colleague.... so maybe my brilliant plan will fall through after all. hehe but it was fun dreaming about doing a mini frivolous monthly food/movie review thingy. hmm. maybe i should outsource and get ppl from other units.. but then again, all big things start small :)

Happy Chinese New Year to all!

the best thing about my new year this time round is perhaps the new year cookies/goodies. mum bought loads; aunt gave us some; sister's bf's mum also made some really yummy stuff for us! these cookies are so going to last us till way after new year... having missed out on the "complete" range of new year cookies the past 4 years, i have been indiscriminately ingesting lotsa flour, sugar and butter in their various baked manifestations... and the best thing to do when snacking is not to think about the calories :P I find reunion dinners sometimes rather paradoxical. esp dinners with extended family and for my case, with relatives (on my father's side) whom i'm not even close to... and because i've never been close to these relatives, there's nothing much to talk about at the dinner table... and obviously they have nothing much to ask after either... cept small talk topics which is so pointless... yet year after year all parties subject themselves to such pain by agreeing to have that reunion dinner just for the sake of having it. when each family would undoubtedly be happier dining on its own... dunno why i'm so cynical but it's true...and i don't have any urge to visit any festive place either haha... so today after a whole afternoon of visiting, came back home to slack.... i hope to spend most of my next two days catching up on SLEEP, reading and studying Japanese :)

Favorite spot of the month!

decided to check out the newly-opened 'Central' at Clarke Quay MRT after work today. the experience was very pleasant, cos it's still relatively new and unheard of and we managed to get away from the sickening Orchard/City Hall crowds. though quite a few shops weren't open yet, a fair number were, which made the trip there still worthwhile. highlight (and main purpose of trip too) was dinner at Japanese restaurant Waraku. They had quite a few non-mainstream dishes, such as this creamy greenish salmon and spinach creamy udon or something. wanted to try that initially; but ended up opting for a safer option. Food was quite decent and the view was great. The restaurant's on the 3rd floor and right opposite the Clarke Quay 'shophouses', so if you're lucky enough to get a (full-height glass) window seat, you'll essentially get to enjoy a night's dinner beside the glistening Singapore River in air-conditioned comfort. After dinner, got Hokkaido ice-cream at first floor and picnicked on the steps along the river. It's really a good idea to let ppl sit just by the river... something you couldn't really do on the opposite side. While sitting on the steps and glancing back at the restaurant where we dined at, realized that actually the Kopitiam food court above Waraku prob gets the good view too :P hehe so if you're budget-conscious, can go food court and enjoy equally good view :) however, i wonder if this place will be still as nice and peaceful say 3 months down the road?

was so sleep-hungry today that I made my Dad send me to work in the morning. and when he does that, I'll usually arrive at work say 15 min early. so today, upon arriving at work, bumped into boss distributing rose stalks to all his lady subordinates... at like 8.15 am!!! I seriously take my hat off to some very zai individuals. I can never really figure out how boss, who sometimes clears emails till 1.30am, manages to wake up at like 7 something the next morning to work efficiently all day as if he's had a good night's rest. AND this also happens quite 'regularly'.... how do all these ppl do it? how to suffer prolonged sleep deficit and remain both sane and good-tempered and all? Section head's another mystery. She can churn out emails at record speed; usually works more than 12 hrs a day and has almost everything at her fingertips. Yesterday, section head also gave each of her some 100-over staff 8 mandarin oranges each; and personally arranged them nicely on everyone's workstation!!! this was definitely done after i left the office close to 9pm... she revealed that she actually did the mandarin-orange arranging till 1am yesterday.... OMG. these ppl really put me to shame.

I got to witness today one of those MP walkabout/ ang-bao giving ceremonies that have taken up considerable airtime over local news of late... only that mine's a SERS completion ceremony - usually held when residents have completed their move from their old flats to their new ones. and so being the OIC for this particular completion ceremony, was in charge of putting together the info folder for the bosses. that was extremely time-consuming and hair-raising (when you're expected to go dig out info from eons ago). also got some first-hand, personal 'how-to-be-a-good-subordinate' training from boss... like when the big boss is mingling around with bigger shots, have to be watchful... such that if he shoots you a glance from the corner of his eye; it means "come quickly i got something to ask you/ i want you to do something"... and so instead of occasionally getting carried away by the silly antics put up for residents on stage you're supposed to watch your immediate boss closely... so boss watches dept head, i watch boss... (haha i'm sure this is very common lah. and actually boss was nice to remind me. just that i'm being complainy hehe)

I think people try to invent reasons for abnormal circumstances; attributing 'rough patches' to things like bad luck; fan4 tai4 sui4 and such! and so of late colleagues have been saying that the 'pigs' in the office have been out of luck and that we need to go pray to some deity to improve our lots... hmm dun really believe in this sort of thing, but have been rather unlucky of late! so feel a bit cursed! and it's also quite irritating that many things I have to deal with; or IMMEDIATE emails I have to answer are sometimes quite 'technical'... ie. one really needs to be experienced to know where to unearth info from... and some of our databases are seriously mind-boggling/ challenging; with an infinite number of sales codes and acronyms that a freshie like me always takes forever to decipher... and so, i'm really really grateful to my great, kind, helpful colleagues... whose sharp, trained eyes can pick out and sieve out info at record speed... hai. and was really touched by a couple of colleagues who stayed back with me despite having personal things to attend to... despite being super tired too... just to help me tackle work issues. it's heart-warming to have such good, decent ppl around. :)

on some days I can't help but feel that I can never be very good at the things required of me at work... and at times you wonder why you're doing certain things; since they are scarcely related to your work scope at all. so sometimes my colleagues and i spend a disproportionate amt of time mulling over stupid little things... (I suppose it helps that fellow colleagues try to find joy by indulging in titbits and such) sigh. I wonder if ppl also get frustrated with the way some things are done; but because it's so hard to introduce change they just go along with everything and end up feeling that the way things are is actually somewhat acceptable. I hope I don't become all abnormally 'normal' after some years of service in the public sector.... :P on that note, there's a new Jack Neo film coming up; from the looks of the movie title and trailer, it appears to be some satirical take on the govt sector and how things are done. should be an interesting movie to catch. aargh; might have to work fri evening; sat and sunday!!!

This morning I finally hunted down a Japanese cafe cum bookstore that I've been wanting to visit ever since I saw it in CityScoops some 6 months ago. This Japanese cafe (see pic below) is strangely named Bon Gout (which I understand is French) and sells no-frills homestyle Japanese food. The food is not particularly tasty, but I like the atmosphere of the place. You can pick any Japanese book/mag/comic to read while or after having your meal... And it's right by the Singapore River (Robertson Quay), so one can easily take a stroll by the river after his/her meal. I shall return some time to sample other things on its menu.... or when my Japanese actually becomes good enough for me to browse the mags/books with ease haha. hmm... that one must wait long long.

I alighted at Chinatown station before walking over to Robertson Quay. The place was really re nao, even at 12pm on Sat... guess I shouldn't be surprised, since Chinese New Year is but 2 weeks' away. Saw this flower stall upon emerging from the station...

Liked how my zhu jues came along, one almost clad entirely in white (hair too!) and the other in black... provided some nice contrast to the sea of red, pink and orange flowers :)

went for a health screening yesterday morning and had my height measured. am supposedly 167cm tall now!!! erm, but perhaps it was a mismeasurement but I prefer to deceive myself hehe. I shall not take my height again till some other health screening :P hehe, of course weight is a sensitive issue which shall not be disclosed on this blog. not like anyone would be interested, anyways. am stressed by various tasks at work this week; and feel rather unproductive. when things keep coming (which in turn prevent you from concentrating on any one thing you need to do), I get rather flustered and end up being not so efficient. i esp dislike doing very routine things like preparing info folders whereby you have to go and dig up info from eons ago just to give it to someone for reference.... aside from work-- I have a mini Japanese test tmr evening, which i've done NOTHING so far to prepare for... hopefully I wun fail too miserably. also got an email from National Museum; since I signed up to volunteer there a couple of weeks ago.... hmm. prob have to reconsider given how busy I'm getting...!

My tiny collection of baby-doll high-waisted tops has quietly but steadily grown over the past few months, to the extent that a couple of more observant colleagues have started associating me with these good-for-concealing-fats-yet-cute tops :P so today one colleague came in with something like that, and came to me to say that it's a "Shi Min-inspired" top... hehe thought it was really cute of her. sigh, I certainly shop a lot more than I used to in the States... and the ready availability of relatively more affordable clothes doesn't really help. There are many ugly things around; but I somehow still manage to find a few nice things every month... Self-discipline, pls!

hunting down Japanese restaurants

heard from Jeannice that there are quite a few Japanese restaurants at Cuppage Plaza; and decided to check it out today after work. Unfortunately didn't get to eat Japanese food in the end... finding Cuppage Plaza was easy enough (though Joyce and I initially walked past it without even knowing)... upon entering discovered that there were not only quite a few non-chain-looking Japanese restaurants, but Japanese bars and lounges as well... so this is where many Japanese hang out...? well unfortunately most of them were full and had to turn us away. We even stumbled upon one Japanese restaurant with tatami mats and customers sitting on the floor... was really thrilled, but alas! we were informed that they had no seats available... oh well. I shall return one day :P anyway, so we hungrily gave up our search at around 8pm or so and walked out to the row of restaurants opposite Cuppage. Cuppage Terrace, it seems. And settled for Indonesian food at Ricetable, a buffet-style restaurant. For $19.80 without GST/Service Tax etc (around $23.50 if you add all those) you get to sample around 20 dishes of Indonesian food, laid out elegantly on a heated 'metalboard' in the middle of the table (to keep dishes warm). Since there were only 2 of us, we had bite-sized portions of various dishes... a good spread but a little wasteful too cos you're served what you might not like too. unfortunately, even with the small portions we were unable to finish... hai. (to think that we initially thought about getting refills!) guess buffets are never very value-for-money for girls. and quite silly of me to have wolfed down two egg tarts 2 hrs earlier at work haha. mmm.. food was decent, but yeah... not very worth the money for girls, lah. :) after that went walking around at Centrepoint and discovered the new? Haagen Dazs, which was having a one-for-one ice cream offer... quite happily ordered the ice-cream even though i was super-full... and felt extremely lucky cos the store manager removed the sign soon after we ordered and told his staff that we were the last two... :P and so in 3 hrs or so i went from super hungry to super-full.... whatever; it's a Fri night!

one week ago I complained about feeling somewhat 'cursed' at work; this uncanny 'curse' has not been lifted and things are only getting worse! Just a few weeks ago I was wondering why i haven't exactly been given much responsibilities; today i feel overloaded! a couple of not entirely work-related type thingies have also been finding their way into my overflowing inbox these past two days... generally, my mailbox has been and is still so full that I dont even bother saving things i send out :( hehe, perhaps also need to do more housekeeping on my part; but find it hard to find time to! then end up archiving all the old mails (some unread) work life is however getting a little more exciting and varied, despite the unavoidable 'busyness'... have to learn how not to let work overtake my life!!! on a different note, 2.5 months later i'm finally 700 pages into Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina... aaah. 100 pages more to go. at this rate, i can only read like 4 thick books a year :( so pathetic.

i'm really becoming old and forgetful. My mum has been commenting that I appear so nonchalant about many things after returning from the States. I apparently ignore mosquito bites and can't be bothered to apply ointment on the sore bumps. I apparently have delayed reactions when she asks me questions; like frequently repeating her questions before giving her unsatisfactory answers... just this morning, before I left for work, she told me to hand my dad (waiting in the car to fetch me to the MRT station) some grocery list that included some items for dinner. AND I cleanly forgot the existence of such a grocery list until 745 pm or so when I was preparing to leave the office... was quite horrified upon realizing that the white sheet of paper fished out from my bag covered with neatly-penned Chinese characters was my mum's forgotten grocery list... called home immediately to apologize...

i suppose even though life goes on and stuff, I do have some huge things deeply bothering me and I have no idea what to do about them. perhaps the subconsciously preoccupied mind has "sucked up" some of the vigilance of the conscious...

Strange fruit

this is a really random post - stumbled upon this red hairy fruit during my site recee yesterday morning. Looked quite like the rambutan, but it's more cone-shaped. What on earth is this? its light-pink flowers were quite pretty though. my colleague has seen these plants around, but i'm positive i've NEVER seen these curious looking things around... wonder if they are edible.

i can't help but feel a little 'cursed' this week; cos one thing cropped up one after another at work leaving me hardly any space to breathe... and though the weekend has finally arrived I still have work stuff to attend to tomorrow morning. hai. just when i thought i was relatively free compared to most of my friends at other stat boards and Ministries... oh well. i am not really sore or anything cos I really very much prefer being kept busy... just that too much work really saps up all your energy, leaving you with very little to do anything else. nonetheless, also feel that keeping positive and not practising self-pity over my recent 'plight' also helps quite a bit; such that even though i come home tired everyday, at least I dun feel horrible... wish for a more leisurely week next week; but i know that's not going to happen... :(

my stomach was making rumbly noises yesterday afternoon in the middle of Japanese class, cos I had left my wallet at home when I was actually supposed to dine out for lunch. and so had to try hard to keep attentive despite being rather hungry. turns out that it wasn't all that difficult, because the sheer amount of time/effort I was expected to put in for my JLPT 2 prep class soon made me quite intimidated and worried. and so after a semester and half or so of relaxing Japanese lessons, I now have to memorize tons of Kanji each week and practise all that we learnt in class on my own, too. This course basically tries to squeeze in 2 yrs of Japanese study into 1, such that by the end of the year all conscientious students would be well-equipped for the JLPT 2 test. I so look forward to the end of the year... cos I dreamily forsee that my Japanese should be waaay better than it is now... but on other hand also fear that I don't have enough perseverance to pull through! oh well. we shall see :) in conjunction with my accelerated Japanese study starting this month, I have also resolved to check out more independent Japanese restaurants from this year onwards. have been relying so much on chains and have been eating the same kind of Japanese food all the time... it's time to be more adventurous with Japanese cuisine too! only that it might burn a small hole in my pocket...

Last Yunnan post

though i still have many pictures to show, i think one week of blogging about my China trip is enough :) and so this shall be the last entry. wondered what i should show... eventually selected a spot i had tea at, which had superb view; and a picture of a local in Dali washing up in the morning just outside his shopfront. This was actually a series of 4 pictures- from his spitting; to gargling; face-wiping... and a final one showing end of all 'commotion'; with only harmless-looking stools and water remaining. alas, thought it wasnt too nice to publish someone else's washing-up routine (i wouldn't want anyone to do that to me; but then again, i also don't wash up in the middle of a street :P)It might not seem that high up from the picture, but we were really above almost everything else. Basically there's this pavilion where you can go for a bird's eye view of the old town... but it was overpriced and we decided that we've had enough of exorbitant and not-value-for-money tourist destinations. As such, wandered down from peak into the little streets and stumbled upon this inn! basically they are situated near to the pavilion and thus enjoyed almost equally good view. and tourists need only pay 2 RMB to go in to enjoy the view (with tea provided). So there i was, sitting above almost everything else :) I really really liked this place. imagine doing your readings up here! it was a little chilly, but still comfy enough for me to stay up there for close to an hour hehe. was also fun peering down at rooftops below you and watching human activity down there.

on this morning set off to the city wall with hopes of capturing the sunrise. but it was too cloudy. so instead wandered around on the city wall, looking down at locals preparing for the day's activities/business. this guy caught my eye... and using my ultra-zoom, i managed a pretty close-up from maybe 30 meters or so away up on the wall. tried to be discreet too; cos i was ultimately sneaking a picture of his daily washing-up routine! :P

Yunnan (4) - Of kitties, dogs and chickens

Before heading to Lijiang from Dali, we had a Tibetan-style lunch at Jim's Tibetan Cafe. Across the street was this book/DVD store whose exterior looked like a place I would like. And so i entered. They had a really great selection of books and DVDs... but what really distracted me for the first 10 min or so in the store was a nicely decorated corner for ppl to chill out. There was a curious kitten pawing the chess pieces on the chessboard... highly extremely unresistably cute. By the time i whipped out my camera and tried to capture the endearing scene, the kitten had unfortunately jumped out of my imaginary frame and down onto the floor. :(

There it is, looking really cute and innocent but perhaps really just eyeing my camera quite suspiciously. The curious/playful creature bounded off soon after I took this shot.

There it is once again, on the other side of the chessboard. Waited quite long for it to look up into my camera, but it never really did. Anyway i really loved the entire arrangment of chessboard, flowers and other random objects on this table. The person who did this must be a genius!

There were two dogs on the roof of a certain wing within the monastery grounds. Have never seen dogs wandering on rooftops before and they (perhaps unfoundedly) felt a little 'celestial' to me :P
The chicken seller with his caged-up chickens at the market at Xizhou, near Dali. I think maybe some 10 years back we could still see similarly caged-up chickens in wet markets in Singapore... remb mini outings to wet markets with my aunt/grandparents as a kid when living at my Grandma's place. not sure about today though. hehe i suppose we can definitely see some if we visit poultry farms :P

Yunnan (3) - Food

There was a huge variety of Yunnan (at times Tibetan) cuisine as we moved through the different cities. The best culinary experiences were in Dali and Lijiang. Didn't manage to sample all the local food; but think i still did a good job overall :) Most of the ventures were worthwhile, with only a couple of 'bad eggs' :)

Yak butter tea in Sakura Cafe, Old Town, Lijiang. It actually comes in two flavors- sweet and salty! The salty tea sounded too weird to me and so opted for the sweet version. Tasted interesting but pretty good!
Tibetan bread with honey for breakfast in Lijiang, at a cafe called Lamu's House of Tibet. The bread was soft, chewy but a lil too greasy. However, it went pretty well with the rich, sticky honey. Yummy.
A Naxi sandwich-- a fusion dish i think, with Naxi-style bread and 'western' fillings, including cucumbers, tomatoes, pan-fried breaded chicken and pickles. Huge portion, but quite delicious.
A local snack termed fried Dali Cheese in the restaurant menus. Saw it in many places along the street and thought... it must taste quite good? bought one 'cheese fan' to try; but on the contrary it tasted quite HORRIBLE. expected this to taste sweet and milky; but instead it was dry and sour... bleah.
Lastly, halved pig heads, pig trotters and a packet of pig brain right in the middle. Well, don't think this counts for food - least not in my case. however, i couldn't really categorise it under 'animals' either, since it's really just slaughtered and disfigured parts of the pig. erm... saw this in a local market in Xizhou, some 15 km away from Dali. was rather grossed out actually, but it was interesting nonetheless. The man who was hawking this was really friendly, and quite proud of his pigheads, too.

Yunnan (2) - the people

Yunnan is home to several ethnic minority groups, two of which I had personal encounters with. Around half the population in Dali are from the Bai ethnic group and Lijiang is home to the Naxi ppl. I usually don't take pictures of ppl, just cos it's usually hard to get ppl to agree to pose for pictures. However, this time round, i managed a couple of portrait-style pics of the locals :) I strongly believe that human subjects add a lot to photographs.

These old ladies are from the Bai minority group. The first day in Dali we decided to visit a market across Erhai lake. and so we made our way to the pier... after some haggling we finally managed to get the ferry fare down to 80 RMB from 130 RMB. Unfortunately, 1/2 an hour later, we found ourselves on an island in the middle of the lake; and were informed that it would actually take 4 hrs to get to our intended destination. Not only were we conned to visit this island, we were also made to pay compulsory island admission fees of about 3 RMB, which in turn entitled us to these old lady tour guides. i did feel rather cheated, but decided to make the best of situation and tried interacting with them... and also tried sweet-talking them into letting me take their pics. hehe, so here they are!

Having been deprived of the market experience the day before, we made our way to another one closer to Dali the following day. This jolly dumpling mold vendor was actively marketing his dumpling molds by giving live demonstrations and an ongoing commentary; repeatedly producing fake, entirely dough-filled dumplings :P However, I was taken in and bought one :) and when i took my mold to examine yesterday evening; i realised that it even had a 'fu2' 'embossed' on the mold!

Some old ladies at the same marketplace. I was very intrigued by the "basket backpacks" that majority of the population carried. Not the most aesthetically pleasing, but certainly very convenient!

Just as Lonely Planet predicted, Doctor Ho spotted us outside his clinic (in Baisha Village) and extended a very warm welcome to us. He's apparently world-renowned; and this fact was repeatedly impressed upon us during our 15-min-or-so stay in his clinic. :P Got some free healthy herbal tea, while incessantly given various write-ups (from BBC, USA Today etc) on Doctor Ho by the man himself. I forgive his slightly excessive egoism, taking into account all the good he has done for the poor :) BTW, he encourages medicine students to visit him for learning pointers.

Last but not least, Naxi ppl dancing in the Sifangjie square in Old Town, Lijiang.

Yunnan (1)

I covered four cities in Yunnan Province on this trip. Flew into Kunming via Silkair; trained overnight to Dali and bused to Lijiang and subsequently Zhongdian (aka Shangri-La). Bus rides in China are amazingly 'informal', as the driver picks up ppl on the way, as long as there are seats in the bus! and so it appears that anyone can try flagging down a bus on the road and check if it's heading towards his/her destination; pay a discounted fare and will then be on his/her way! drivers are generally quite skilful at navigating windy mountain roads... though i had my fair share of worries initially :P my heart jumped during the couple of times when drivers honked furiously, only to realize that it wasn't really at cars in the opposite direction, but at innocent lambs/ pigs/ dogs loitering in the middle of the roads :P Weather-wise, it was generally good, esp in Dali and Lijiang. Zhongdian was a little too chilly for me, coming right from hot, tropical Singapore. it certainly didn't help that i didn't stay at very expensive hotels... and so quite a few didn't have any heater at all... but all of them had electric blankets under the sheets, and the best solution was of course to hide under covers once one was done showering. harsh reality of dealing with the cold in less developed places was impressed upon me-- you just have to bear with it; wear more clothing; or generate heat with lighted charcoal/a fire...

anyway, some scenes from the diff places i visited. will blog separately about the people, food, animals and other random things that caught my fancy :)

View of the Tibetan Monastery in Zhongdian from the spot where we alighted from the bus. It's also the only proper 'tourist destination' i visited in Zhongdian, cos as night fell it just got unbearably cold for me. and thus ended up hiding in bed, skipping dinner and watching TV.

'House' in Baisha Village, around 10 km north of Lijiang. The clear blue sky and orange-brown of the doors made it picture-perfect. This is also where I met the legendary Doctor Ho (more on that later)

View from the Black Dragon Pool Park (or Heilongtan Gongyuan) If the sky were clearer, the snowy peaks of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (Yulong Xueshan) would have been more visible. A very peaceful and scenic place :)

Flowering cherry trees against the Cang1 Shan1 range in the background. Cos it's winter; really didn't expect the entire street to be lined with flowering cherry trees. made wandering around quite pleasant!
Elephant on a platform rock formation in Stone Forest (or Shilin), about 1.5 hr's drive away from Kunming. Unfortunately it was quite rainy, which made navigating the slippery labyrinth of stone formations slightly more challenging. also didn't leave me with many decent pictures :(

I'm back!

took many interesting pictures on this unexpectedly smooth and pleasant trip so don't really know what to post for time being. decided to use this one, since this year's technically the year of the pig; and also cos trip was surprisingly animal-ful... what with dogs, kitties, pigs, lambs, goats and yaks! and i've come to conclusion that more obscure destinations can be quite charming too :)

i thought i could escape from the bad weather in Singapore, only to land in even worse weather! it was cool but sunny in Kunming yesterday when i first arrived, but it's extremely cold and rainy today... terrible weather for travelling. am now sitting in a cold unheated 'bar' with slow internet... and blogger interface is interestingly in Japanese! haha oh well. but shouldn't be complaining, since it's free :) there seems to be more street food hawkers here than on the east coast, with ppl baking sweet potatoes, frying omelettes and bbqing skewers of meat at seemingly random spots on the streets! felt very tempted to take pictures; but cos i wasn't buying felt a little bad to exploit them as photo ops. have taken my meals mostly in restaurants, but have to admit that the food here is somewhat too oily and foreign for my liking :P everything has gone fine though, cept for cold unheated hotel rooms and phenomenon of 'unpowerful' flushes in toilets; which has indirectly led me to cut down on number of times i go to the loo each day... the cold is still tolerable though, but will get increasingly worse as i move inland... pray hard that the next two hotels i booked have heated rooms/bathrooms!

flying off to Kunming tmr morning for a week long holiday. also planning to go to cities like Dali and Lijiang on the same trip... shall hope hard for a smooth enjoyable journey. barely half-packed now and am attempting to squeeze all my barang barang into pretty small duffel bag and backpack to remain mobile. let's hope that i wun freeze when i get there... though it's only about 5C in Kunming; it's been a while since i've been in that kinda weather! so a 20C drop in temperature might take a while for me to get used to and comfortable in :) it'll also probably get colder as i get to Lijiang. in any case; will try to blog once or twice when travelling... if not, I wish everyone who faithfully reads my ramblings a very Happy 2007! :)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate Christmas! have to admit that it really is just another public holiday for me... I am perhaps the most unhappening person; cos just spent Christmas eve sorting out some pictures on laptop while watching Love Actually on Channel 5. Though this is my 3rd time watching it, some of these stories touch me again and again... too bad no nice atmosphere to watch show. also visited IKEA earlier in the afternoon to look for wardrobe and bedsheets... it's crazy cos though weather was rainy it was crowded all the same. and mum commented that it resembled a 'marketplace'... with children running around and ppl sitting on display two-seater sofas at the entrance! look forward to a Christmas lunch at Jacqui's place tmr afternoon :) goodness; hardly accomplished anything and my long weekend is going to be over :(