Sunrise at Rarangi Beach, Blenheim

5 of us (me, Shyuan, Chian, Kai Li & Min) woke up at 5am to prepare and have our breakfast, before setting off at about 6am to Rarangi Beach which was about 15 minutes drive from our hostel.

It was just our guess that we could watch sunrise at the beach, since the day before we saw sunset on the other side (we know our geography well ).

Was cold like mad when we went down the car. But watching the sky from breaking dawn to sunrise was definitely rewarding. Really indeed.

6.15am: Breaking dawn view from Monkey Bay 

The sky is nice, isn’t it? This sunrise view is way better than the one we watched at Teluk Tempoyak. I think I did not blog about it but you can go to my friend’s blog – Jhu.

After hour of waiting, when we thought we were on the wrong side, suddenly we saw the “little egg” rising up. YAY!

The moment that we waited for!

Snapped many many shots of the sunrise in various angles. But I guess if we were busy taking photos, trying to capture the best angle, we could have actually easily forgotten our main objective, which was to enjoy the process of sunrise.

Sometimes, watching with our naked eye is way better than capturing the moment with our camera. The feeling is very different. Not sure if you agree with me

Watching the sun rising slowly 

I the picture below very much. There was a moment whereby the birds flew by the sea during sunrise, the view was just so…perfect!

 

I prefer the sand of Batu Feringghi beach, though 

That’s me of course 

A picture of the 5 girls

Had a wonderful time watching the sunrise. If I can have dim sum after watching would be better haha. Yeah, I am starting to miss Penang food. Damn it.

Till here. Gonna start work  soon. Probably will not be able to update for quite some time.

Cheers!

 

-sherril=xuele-

Leaving :(

Gonna leave this lovely place soon. Sad sad.

I have already started to miss home, but I wish I can stay longer here. I swear I will come back again, but maybe not during summer. It's seriously way too hot haha.

Goodbye, Taiwan! <3 Mummy daddy, I am going home soon! :)

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<3 Taiwan <3

Hello people, greetings from Taipei!

My backpacking journey to Taiwan with friends will end soon. Have already spent 8 days here and the weather here is extremely hot!

Within these days we have travelled from north (Taoyuan桃園) -> Tainan 台南-> Kaohsiung 高雄-> Kending 墾丁and now settled down in Taipei台北.

And you know what? We actually met another 2 groups of UTAR-ians here in the hostel that we are staying in right now! 1 group from Electrical and Electronics, one group from Civil and we are from Mechatronics. What a coincidence! Haha

Anyway, gonna make sure my remaining days in Taiwan can be memorable and meaningful. Gonna miss here so much. I can officially say that......

I have indeed fallen in love with this beautiful country :)

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張家界、長江三峽之旅 (Preview)

Hello people! How are you guys doing lately? Muahaha I have just came back from China yesterday. Very tiring yet  very recharged!

I could see that my last blog post was dated 12 May. So sorry for not updating often. After finals I was busy packing and moving my stuffs back to Penang. Then my bro went down KL and I was busy being his driver. After that was our annual family trip to China and this time we went Zhangjiajie 張家界 and Changjiang Sanxia 長江三峽.

The vacation was 10 days long. We took flights, travelled long hours on buses, stayed four nights on 5 star cruise, walked and climbed up hills and steps and took boat rides to have better view of sceneries. Hotels that we stayed were superb and food was great but got very disgusting in the end because the food was almost the same especially on cruise.

Most importantly, we have added a brand new chapter of China’s partial history and culture into our book of knowledge. Time to do more research and tidy up my notes that I have jotted down during the journey.

And the best part is, we together as a big family (16 of us) have once again travelled together, spent great time together and made new friends at the same time. I absolutely love the time we spent together and will cherish those moments.

I really ♥ my family

Will endure my 1st backpacking experience with friends next week and am now busy planning my part of schedule. Thus, most probably will blog about my China trip after my backpacking trip!

Take care people! ♥

 

-sherril=xuele-

Cameron Trip

Supposedly after my previous final examination I should have followed my ex-housemates to Cameron before I went to Kampar for 2 weeks. However the timing was not right so I ended up going back Penang for 2 days to celebrate my mum's birthday.

During the preparation period for "xia xiang" (筹备营) we planned a trip to Cameron as our last trip together. Therefore after sending our juniors off, we set off to Cameron without making any reservations. Everything was just, spontaneous!'

Took group picture with the juniors before they set off

Took bus from Kampar to Tapah, had lunch and took bus from Tapah to Cameron. The latter journey took us about 3 hours, as it was a "bas berhenti-henti", not an express bus. Whatever it is I do not mind, since this trip was supposed to be a budgeted trip =)




Found a quite nice 3 rooms and 2 bathrooms apartment when we reached the terminal bus.

Rainforest Apartment (ours was the ground floor front lot)

I would recommend this apartment as it is quite spacious and was able to fit the 10 of us perfectly at a reasonable price. RM360 for 2 nights! Besides that, plates, bowls, pans and cutlery were provided and was even a BBQ pit with BBQ sticks! All we needed to do was to buy ingredients.

View outside the apartment

And we even had a "gardener"! XD



However bear in mind that once in a while you might be able to see cockroaches passing by you. And yeah, there was this annoying cat which would jump into the house through windows. Somehow it was not scared of human and the worst thing was, it ate Shyuan's Michael (hamster).

Yes, you heard me right. It ate Michael but did not swallow. The bundled dead body was found the next day. So disgusting, isn't it?

But besides this incident, the house is quite nice =)

A very special looking spider building its cobweb

After resting for a while, we walked out to the shops and explore the area.

Small little town

Happily eating ice-cream when it was quite cold over there

As we passed by 4D shop, we decided to buy a number to try out our luck. That was my 1st experience stepping into this kind of shop and bought the 1st number in my life.

8643

Our 1st dinner in Cameron - Steamboat

During night time, our only entertainment besides playing cards was watching Pink Panther in Cartoon Network. Childish huh? Hehe we are still kids anyway XD

The silly Pink Panther

Despite Michael's misfortune, we still had fun the next day with our day tour. Well, we went to only a few places as we just wanted to relax ourselves.

First stop: Rose Garden

There are many kinds of flowers in Rose Garden. And that was where we shot our personalized MV =) Was tagged in Facebook so you guys can check it out. But I guess the song is only familiar to those who joined "xia xiang" before.

When these 2 flowers combined, they formed a pretty "butterfly" shape

Lady Shoe flower, don't you agree with the name?

Happy family ^^

Second stop: Strawberry Farm

I tell you, I am a strawberry lover but I hate almost every food and drink with strawberry flavour because they will normally taste like antibiotic. However, the jam, pancakes, strawberry pure juice and strawberry shake in strawberry farm were awesome! They tasted nothing like medicine!!! Haha totally fall in ♥♥♥♥♥♥ with them.

Third stop: BOH Tea Plantation

Were brought along to BOH tea factory tour before we ended up in this cafeteria with breathtaking tea plantation view.

Cute Yew ^^

Fourth stop: Cactus Valley

Well, that was our final stop for the half day tour. After purchasing some lil cactus as souvenirs, we went for lunch, which was then interrupted with the news that our results were released. Great. Totally spoilt our mood.

When we reached our apartment, some went to sleep, some were texting friends about results, trying to access the intranet for results, playing cards, flying kites and some were even blowing bubbles.

For example, Shu Jun. She was blowing away love bubbles to her darling hehe.

In the evening, we went shopping for groceries for BBQ. That night, it was my 1st experience to wear a jacket while BBQ-ing and yet still shivering with cold. So, can you imagine how cold was it that night??

So, basically that was how my trip went. Everything was fresh to me because the last time I went was when I was still a lil kid with not much memories. Appreciated every moment with them and I hope we still get to meet each other in the future. Take care everyone!!!

♥ Love you peeps ♥

-sherril=xuele-

Beijing - Day 2

NOTE 1: Click the links to read detailed information about that particular place/thing.

NOTE 2: It is a very long post. Sorry if you think I am very long-winded.

Finally after so much of procrastination, here is my 2nd day trip in Beijing. Haha Kae Vin was already saying me being a lazy pig. I hate you Kae Vin!! =)

There are a few things that I love about China - the history, ancient culture and the breathtaking sceneries.

I am embarrassed to say that being a true Chinese who came from Chinese school, I do not really know about the history of China and those famous historical personage. Besides, I am never too keen to read up books and articles about them. But then, I am very much fascinated by the ancient buildings, sculptures, workmanship and ideas. I think I will really consider the option of learning more about its history when I am free.

So for my 2nd day, basically below are the few places that we went to. But first let me introduce my tour guide in Beijing whom we called Xiao Wang.

He thinks he looks handsome. So Hua Loong, what do you think huh? You or him? Haha

1. National Grand Theater of China (中国国家大剧院）

This was our 1st destination.

At far

You must be wondering, why of all shapes, it must be built in a hemisphere shape surrounded by water? WHY??

Work your brains. Relate facts about China, a country that strongly believes in Feng Shui.

It is believed that everything must be in BALANCE (like Yin Yang concept). So, when there is a square, there must a circle too. Same applies to buildings. There is a squarish building facing it (not directly opposite, it's more like North-South or East-West thingy). To balance it, it is built in hemisphere. The water surrounding it will create reflection of the building, making it into a complete round building.

What a brilliant idea, isn't it?

Our 1st family group photo - 11 of them are related.

Then we walked all the way to The Forbidden City (紫禁城/故宫).

On the way I noticed something, something that you will not get to see in Malaysia. The flowers planted on the pavement or beside the main roads were all so colourful and eye catching. The colours were even more vibrant than the colours of the flowers planted in my own garden. LOL

Here's only 1 sample. There are other colours like yellow, orange etc. I think even if this flower can be planted in Malaysia at the pavement, within hours, all you can see is just a dead plant.

However the traffic in Beijing is no different to the traffic here. Jam to the max during peak hours. The only difference is, there is no special lane for cyclists in Malaysia. And we do not see a bunch of cyclists cycling down the road to work.

Some public buses are operated by electricity.

If you say Penang people drive recklessly, then we are no compare to China people. Not only their traffic is jumbled up, they practically do not follow the rules. Do not ever trust the traffic lights when you cross the road, because drivers will still drive on even though it is time for them to stop and let pedestrians to cross the road.

See? He is stuck.

And they can make U-turns at nearly anywhere whenever they like. 1 word to describe - Geng!

"Zheng Yang Men" (正阳门）. Will talk about this in upcoming posts.

Cute huh?

Full of bicycles.


Their version of trishaw.


Most of the roadside shops are about this size.

2. Forbidden City (紫禁城/ 故宫）

I am sure many of you have heard about this place. So I will not talk more about it but instead let the pictures do their job alright? *getting lazy lol*

Bro, Me, Mei Lee and Shyuan

Behind us is Gate of Heavenly Peace - "Tian'anmen" (天安门).

Who is more handsome? My brother or Mao Zedong?

From far, the portrait looked like a high-resolution photo. It is said that the portrait is very special in a sense that no matter from where you look at the drawing, Chairman Mao's eyes will always look right into your eyes. Well out of curiosity I tried to look at his eyes from various directions and came to a conclusion, which is - Bullshit. All those crap was just human's psychological reactions (心理作用）.

Anyway I am quite amazed with the painter of this portrait. You know, the portrait is 6 meters high. To draw such a hell big portrait and make it looks soooo real is really not easy. Salute!! And 1 more thing, they need to change the portrait annually. I wonder if it is the same painter who draws a new portrait of Chairman Mao every year? If so, then his life is devoted to drawing this portrait LOL.

Heading into the 'city'.

The main gate is so huge and heavy. Wonder how those ancient people could open or close the door in such a short time?

So many...

Imperial roof decoration of highest status.

Bottom: Hall of Preserving Harmony (保和殿)

As we were not allowed to enter the hall, maybe because tourists might spoil the historic items, so all we could do was to squeeze with others just to have a look and to snap a few shots. Seriously I hate this kind of situation.

Part of the city

Even on normal working days, many of the tourists were China people from various parts of China. Don't they need to work?

1 of the halls

Wall design



Notice the colour difference between the dragon's head and body?

You know why the head is so shining and is in its original colour? Haha Chinese are always superstitious. They believe that by rubbing the dragon's head it will bring you good luck. Well no harm trying anyway.

A human-look tree.

A huge piece of Burmese Jade (if I am not mistaken)

Gilded lion - “Pi Xiu" (貔貅）

Quite a nice garden.

As we exit..

I would say, the 'city' is really really huge. Well actually everything is huge in China because what they have is SPACE. But won't it be tiring and time consuming to walk from 1 Court to another Court? If I were to live in that century inside the palace, I think I will be very slim with all the walkings =)

3. Fangshan Restaurant (仿膳饭庄)

As the name says, it is a restaurant which serves imitation of imperial court cuisine that the royals used to eat. Wow, sounds cool huh?

Undoubtedly the food was quite nice, but undeniably, there were dishes that we found quite weird. Anyway this was not the best meal I had in Beijing. Will talk about the best meal I had in the later posts.

This Fangshan Restaurant is situated inside Beihai Park (北海公园).

Inside the park,



we felt very relaxed.



Mainly because there were lots of trees (very green),

and it was breezy.

Actually we were very hungry but we still need to walk along such a long hallway to reach the entrance of the restaurant.

Then, we were greeted by waiters and waitresses dressed in "Gege"(格格) and "Taijian" (太监) uniform.

My beloved grandmother was of course offered the seat (should be throne) of the Empress. Sitting beside her were my dad and uncle, who at that time looked more like her maid.

Tour guide became our waiter voluntarily because he was thirsty.

Appetizers

Main dishes

4. Temple of Heaven - "Tiantan" (天坛)

We spent our entire afternoon in "Tiantan". Personally I quite like this place, mainly because of the uniqueness of the structure.

Basically it comprises of 3 main sections:

1. Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests (祈年殿)
2. Imperial Vault of Heaven (皇穹宇)
3. Circular Mound Altar (圆丘坛)

(I) Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests

I wonder why such a big building must be built for the Emperor to pray for good harvest?

Anyway, this building has some stunning architecture facts:

1. 32 meters high with a diameter of 30 meters
2. only 28 pillars are used to solely support the whole structure
3. there are no beams no nails

1. inner 12 pillars represent 12 months of a year - Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter
2. outer 12 pillars represent the divisions of day and night
   
   
   

(II) Imperial Vault of Heaven


It is a place used to keep wooden tablets for worships. This structure also has a few interesting facts:

1. 19.5 meters high and has a diameter of 15.6 meters
   
2. built entirely from wood
3. supported by 8 pillars
4. the roof has no beams but has brackets entwined within each other (dynamics principles)
5. the wall around the structure is called the Echo Wall (回音壁）
6. the center marble pathway is known as Triple-sound Stone (三音石） [I do not have a pic]
   

Is the bride pretty?

If not mistaken, the wall behind her should be the Echo Wall. We tried and we succeeded hearing the voice of the men on the opposite side of wall.

As for the Triple-sound Stone, we failed to get the desired results because the place was rather noisy.

I am very amazed at the cleverness of these builders. Really marvelous.

(III) Circular Mound Altar

This platform was where the Emperor used to pray for favorable weather.

See the circular thing that my mom stood on? It is the highest terrace and it has interesting acoustic effect. Your voice can be magnified (resonant and sonorous) magically, if you stand on it and speak out.

I failed to magnify my voice at the beginning. But then I managed to find out how to do it. Your voice must not be sharp but must be low and firm, like an Uncle's voice. I am not sure why but at least it worked for me and the rest of people.

But anyway, acoustic effect was because of the echo of our voice. The balustrades around the platform send our voice back to us when we speak.

Very colourful background

I wish I could lie down on the grass and sleep. So comfy.

5. Beijing Red Theater (红剧场）

To end the day before dinner, we were brought to Beijing Red Theater to watch Kung Fu performance.

Frankly, I did not really enjoy the performance. In fact it was quite boring and some of us actually dozed off a while.

Kung Fu performance should be very lively, full of energy.

But this performance was like a short play about "The Legend of Kung Fu". I personally feel that they danced more than they performed kung fu LOL. If I get to choose, I would rather go and watch "Bian Lian" -- Face-changing. But since I have watched that before during my previous trip Jiu Zai Gou, I should just take this as a change.

6. Wangfujing Street (王府井大街）

After dinner we headed to Wangfujing Street. Vehicles were not allowed along the street so it was packed with people.

The shops ranges from discounted shops to high-end shops.

There was a shopping mall too.

I totally heart this Nike shop!!!

If you are someone who loves to read books and at the same time buy them, it is a MUST to visit Wangfujing Bookstore, which is 1 of the largest bookstores in Beijing. A group mate who made research before joining this tour said that the books were sold at a quite fair price. Too bad I did not do my homework before going to China so missed out the opportunity to visit it =(

Traffic lights specially for cyclists.

So, the trip for 2nd day officially ended after cruising around the city for a while to look at the night scenery. Everyone was exhausted because we walked extremely a lot on this day.

-sherril=xuele-