Friday, January 25, 2008

What title? - poem?

春眠不觉晓,
处处闻啼鸟。
夜来风雨声,
花落知多少。

Who is this beyond fathom?
Only realised over the night!
Just like the sudden arrival of spring…

效历朝英雄
莫辜负圣贤
总在茶余后
供予后人说

And that’s where you reach the depth,
That many couldn’t attain.
The knowledge that’s of the sage…

百战旧河山
江山几局残
千年孤臣泪
文章写不尽

And over the storm you hold the keys,
Saving him from all calamities
And opening a path for him to shine….

And now he feels the breeze.
Which carries along hopes
Together with the dream to
再造一个辉煌的汉疆和唐土。。。


Note:
1. Some chinese phrases are taken from the lyrics of 古月照今尘 by 文章.
2. The intepretation of the above is up to individual discretion. Writer is not responsible for any misintepretation.
3. The English words are not intepretation of the chinese, but is a continuation of idea.
4. Inspiration is drawn from everywhere.. and over a cup of 铁观音.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Last few days in China

After arriving in Suzhou, we stayed there for 2 nights, before taking a flight back via Pudong Int Airport.

Last factory and dinner
In the morning after a night of comfortable rest, my dad called the representative of the last factory to indicate that we would like to visit the factory. The reprentative sent a vehicle to pick us up to the factory where we spent the entire day there before being brought for dinner.

Alcohol was again served.

8% is nothing... after 12%.
Being a careful person, my dad asked for the alcohol % when the hard liqueur were served. When the waitress read 8%, my dad's face suddenly radiated with confidence, knowing that he will be able to take it.

So immediately, he toasted the host and daringly drank the whole glass. He had no choice but to follow suit.

Later, the host made a mistake. He toasted each of us individually, maybe due to his inexperiences. When reached my turn, after toasting, the side of my eyes noticed that he was observing how much I will drink. Sensing that he is going to follow suit after me, I bottomed up!

He followed. For me, the alcohol did not hit me like the previous time. Saved. But for him, could see his face extremely red after that. Striked! Haha...

This really made him learnt his lesson. The subsequent tooast were directed to everyone and could see that he only sipped after the toast.

After dinner, we were sent back to our hotel.

Met 红霞, she was extremely rosy!
Upon arrival, I hoped on to a cab to meet 红霞. Upon seeing her, I almost couldn't recognise her. Her cheeks were extremely rosy. This may be due to the constant exposure to the cold.

Anyway, we went to the nearby coffee house for a chat until about 11pm. Thereafter, I sent her home before going back to my to rest and prepare for my journey back the next day

And we were waved goodbye by snow
To go to the airport, we took a 3hr coach ride from on of the China Eastern Airlines branch office in Suzhou.

Upon arrival at the airport, it began snowing. It was a nice experience expecially seeing it from the heated indoors. There, we saw the snow flakes floated gently down to the ground.

However, due to the snow, our flight was delayed from taking off because it had to be de-iced. It was after we had board the plane. As such, patiently wait for the process. What made the process longer was that the airport only had 2 de-icing trucks, and there was a queue of aircraft for the process.

Hence, we were delayed for more than half hour before our journey back home started.....

Sunday, January 20, 2008

The 'rush' to Suzhou

Today, we took a long distance bus from Wenling shi to Suzhou which took the whole day. Our journey started at 1pm sharp from the bus station and arrived at Suzhou at 8:30pm.

Shocked at the sitting configuration.
When we went up the coach, we were extremely shocked by its sitting configuration. Each passenger is allocated a space which consist of a inclined backrest and a long mattress. These are arranged in 3 rows with 12 beds per row stacked in 2 decks. 2 narrow asiles are present between the rows. The height and width of the coach is similar to those of regular coach. Imagine the limited room available for each person, sideways and heightwise.

When we were about to walk to the asile, we were instructed by the bus captain to remove our shoes and carry it to our spaces. Anyway, the asiles are so narrow that we had to squeeze our way between 2 rows to our allocated space.

And the coach stinks too
While squeezing through, I could smell a stanch of salted fish. I suspected that it was that of the socks of the locals. Yucks. The smell remained throughout the journey.

Hence, to alliviate the stanch, I opened the side window a little, hoping to bring fresh air in. As it is winter now and that the route which we traveled is mountainous, the air which came in was extremely cold. Apparently both are bad. In the end, I still had to bear with some smell and experience the cold.

Miserable ride.
While travelling, I tried to sleep, but was unable to because the speaker was directly above me, and they were blasting whatever very loudly. So I tried to sit up.

Bang! My head hit the ceiling! The headroom is insufficient even for me to sit up. So I tried to incline backwards.

But the angle was extremely comfortable as well! So I tried lying on the side. The space was so limited that shifting positions was a humoguous task. The space given was really miserable.

The rush.
When we arrived at toilet checkpoints, we were only given unspecified very limited time to do our business. We had just enough time (for guys) to discharge our waste, wash hand and run back to the coach. Even then, the door almost closed on us once. It was really a rush..

At one checkpoint, it was a small cookhouse when everyone was instructed to disembark for dinner. There, we each had to pay RMB20 per person. Then, each of us has to carry a metal tray and the staff will place our desired dish on small metal plates on our trays. At the end, we were given a metal bowl of rice. Only wooden chopsticks were supplied. Then we had to carry it to the dining area. The whole process reminds me of life in army.

Anyway, for the previous rushing experiences, I globbled down the food with the chopsticks. However, despite the fast eating, when I looked up after finishing my share, the whole dining area was almost empty! The other passengers were already boarding! Anyway, the dinner stop was the last stop before reaching Suzhou.

At last, we arrived.
It was about 8:30pm when we arrived at the outskit of the city. The coach just stopped by a round-about and the captain keep calling us to disembark faster. When we got down and collected our lagguages, the coach just zoomed off and continued its journey to Yangzhou. The coach was indeed a rush.

There, we hired a private car to ferry us to our hotel. Upon arrival, the hotel and its room appeared posh. Most likely 4-5 stars. Everything seems so comfortable, which is a sharp contrast from our journey here...


Heres a picture of a strip found on the bed...

Saturday, January 19, 2008

More updates from China..

Here I am, this rural industrial town for the forth night and have almost lost track of time. Life here is cold, 'alcoholical' and chinese... Of the 3, I cannot get used to the former two. Despite these, there are more experiences here.

What a gruesome journey.
Yesterday, the owner of the factory brought us to a country factory which manufactures raw materials for the products. Journey there was miserable. We had to endure 1 hour of car ride along the country road which are so unevenly paved. While in the car, we experienced bumps every few hundred meters. My uncle almost vomited, he claimed. When we finally reached the raw material factory, all of us left the care immediately with relief...

Why wear the same?
Later in the day, we visited another factory where the export manager attended to us as their boss was busy entertaining someone else, afterall we were the impromptu guest. After the meeting, the staff brought us for dinner (which is the usual practice of chinese). As this was entertained by the staff level, four staffs were present to make up for the absence of their boss. It was there that I discovered that the export manager sweater was of the same colour as mine. Hence, I immediately took off mine as I do not want to be a subject of joke among us Singaporean. Fortunately we were having steamboat for dinner, where the steam could keep me warm at least. Great! I look young!

During the dinner, the export manager asked for my age. Out of impulse, I told her I was 1 year younger than her, which I figured from her msn address given to us (she included her birthday in her username). However, she was not attentive enough to hear that hint. Eventually, my dad got into a wager with her that if she can guess my age correctly, she will be excused from beer, which she is not used to (surprising!). The 3 option given was: 17. 21 and 24. During the process of guessing, she keep saying that I look 17. However, due to the adverse reaction from my dad, that option was ruled out. After a long period of consideration, she finally chosed 24, which great uncertainity from her face. Upon asking for confirmation, I took up her glass of beer. She looked extremely scared.

Instead, I took the glass and drink it, because she guessed correctly. What a waste, we lost one drinker!

After the revealation, the discussion continued. The china's nationals keep saying that I looked younger than 23 and that I looked more like 17. Which makes me feel young again!
As of other dinnner, this meal was again paid by our host..

At last, our first cents..
It was only until today that we managed to spend our first cents on food. Ever since we touched down in China, all our meals were paid for by the hosts from various factories. It was only when one of the host brought us to the bus station to purchase tickets for tomorrow's trip to Suzhou that we spent our first cents.

Our first output of cash was on a roadside stall for sweet potato, which was considered the war food during the Japanese occupation in Singapore..

And first sight seeing...

After purchasing the bus tickets, my dad requested that we be brought to visit one of the attraction in this area. However, the staff from this particular factory said they had to finish up their work for the day. Hence, my dad suggested to just drop us at the attraction.
The attraction which we visited was the man-made caves which was created after years of harvesting for materials during the ancient days. Some of the usage of stones harvested were for ornaments, funitures, excercise machines (dumbells) housings etc.
(pictures to be added)

Due to time constraint, we only managed to visit one of the caves. I managed to take some pictures of my experience there.
The pond above is actually the bottom of the well below The frogs can be seen from the well which represent 井底之蛙.. Hmm.. It suddenly reminds me of someone... However the idea is loosely associated to that someone because this 蛙 heard alot of the world outside..

The mountain above is now hollow from harvesting of stones in the past
However, the caves does not impress me because it is not natural and that I have seen much better landscape- 黄山 (huang shang), which is acclaimed to be the most scenic place in China leading to this saying: 五岳归来不看山, 黄山归来不看岳 wo yue gui lai bu kan shan, huang shan gui lai bu kan yue (chinese characters will be added later)

The above phrase means: After visiting the five famous mountains in China, you will not want to visit other mountains. And after visiting 黄山 (huang shang), you will not even want to visit even the five famous mountains. This emphasize the profound beauty of 黄山 (huang shang).

Hence, visiting the cave, does not really impress me, from the aspect of scenery, expecially when it is artificial. However, I managed to appreciate the cultural aspect, which emphasized the advancement of the ancient chinese in terms of craftmanship and their ability to build with stone.

By the way, I am a Chinese! Hmmm.. Proud of my heritage.... As my dad always say: we are the decendents of the dragon 龙的传人

Our motorised trishaw journey.
After the visit, we had to find our way back to our hotel. There was no transport from the attraction.

Fortunately, while buying the tickets, the counter-lady gave us a number to call for transport to a car terminal (yes! a car terminal!) where we can charter a car back to our hotel. Upon calling for the transport from the attraction, we discovered that the transport was actually a motorised trishaw, which can barely fit 4 person at the back. The configuration was 2 on one side facing each other. It was cheap though, only 5RMB to the terminal which was only a small house with many cars and motorised trishaw parked along the road.

More drinking, this time, big blow!
Upon arrival in our rooms, the owner of one of the factories called us for dinner again at the high-end resturant in our hotel. This is our 4th time having dinner there, because of the lack of option in this small industrial town.

Before dinner, we were brought to a huge hall where the food samples were displayed everywhere. In the center, live seafood were displayed. The owner, his friend ( a banker) and my dad placed the order. After 'choosing' the food, we went back to our dining room (with a toilet in each room) and wait for the food.

Alcohol this time is the 12% chinese hard liqueur, which we had 2 night ago. However, this time, was heavy drinking. First, the owner toasted to us. before drinking, I observed him first. It was a relieve, that he drink only sips, which I subsequently followed suit.
Next, the banker toasted with me on the individual basis. Right in front of my eyes, he bottomed up! Oh no! I had to follow suit! If not not considered respectful! Hence, closed my eyes and drink the whole glass down (standard wine glass). Within a few minutes, I started to see star!
After about 10mins later, the banker's assistant toasted to me individually and he finished the whole glass too! Oh no! Another time! After this glass, I saw more stars!!

Interesting, for every refill, the wiatress filled my glass to the brime! Thats not fair! Anyway, the host toasted us a few more times which once in a while specified at least half cups, which was bad enough. This went on for a few more rounds.

Altogether, 5 person drank a total of 5 bottles of their version of XO, bearing in mind that my dad's wife only drink barely 2 glasses. Imagine how much the rest of us drink to make up for her incompetence..

After dinner, I literally felt unstable.. Even until now, I could feel myslef still spinning. Anyway, tonight, we can sleep more because our 'express bus' journey to suzhou will be at 1pm. ..

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Update: Factories visit in China

A few days ago, I received an urgent 'imperial idict' from the emperor to accompany him to visit factories in China in prepration for life after graduation. Thus, within 30 days after my trip from Korea, I find myself travelling again to the northern hemisphere, this time to China.

Departing from T3.



As we are travelling with Singapore Airlines, we had the 'privilage' to depart from the newly opened Terminal 3 of Changi airport. Class as it may be, even the toilet in the waiting area which can see-through glass to the checking area. It has its ulgy side which was spotted by my dad in the toilet at the boarding lounge - dustbin filled with napkins till overflow. So he told me to take a picture of it before boarding the plane.


Buy 1 get 3 free...



As this was a 1am flight, there was not many passengers on the plane, as such, after the plane too off, I took the liberty to conquer an empty row of 3 sits. There, I lifted up the arm-rest in between the seats and lied across with my head facing the left. I put 2 pillows on beneath my head and used one as booster before covering myself with 2 blankets.. As I was not tired yet, I watched 'Rush hour 3' on the left-most screen which the switched to journey display status on the middle screen. As it was difficult to see the screen from my position, and since the left-front seat was vacant, I inclined the seat to get better angle for viewing. As such, I had 3 more free seats for the price of 1. What a good deal....


Service too good to be good.

As for the in-flight service, maybe due to the lack of passengers to served, I felt that I was 'harrassed' by the in-flight attendance every few 10mins, even when I was 'sleeping'. Apparently, it was from the same stewardess. As such, I did not managed to get proper sleep. First, I was offered snacks, then there were seemingly rounds of drinks every few 10 mins, and every rounds I would be offered. The most noteworthy was during the breakfast.

In laying down position, and eyes partially opened, a face suddenly appeared from the top with some glibberish comming out of her mouth. I almost screamed. I only understood what she was saying after sitting up and her repeating herself. However, when served, I ate only a few mouthful as I was in a semi concious state.

At the end of the journey, I concluded that SIA do indeed have good service, but maybe just too good for my liking because I did not had a good sleep because of such.


Wait longer than travelling.

Upon arrival at Pudong international airport at Shanghai(6am) , I found out that we have to catch another 50min flight to a town, but the flight was at 7pm that night! What a long wait. However, we managed to make good use of the wait by visiting a factory in Shanghai before going for the domestic airport for the flight.

We arrived at the airport very early (5pm) and had to stone for 2 more hours before boarding. After an inmemorable wait, we boarded the plane, which was parked on the apron far from the terminal. It was a cold walk from the transfer bus up the plane, expecially when there was a congestion at the stairs.

When everyone had boarded the small 737 plane, the announcement came that there would be delay taking off. Wait again. When it finally moved, our plane had to wait in a queue of 3-4 planes. Wait again. In all, from boarding to take-off, we waited for close to an hour, which was longer than the journey itself! (see my dad dozing off even before the plane took off)

The journey ended eventually and could at last sleep on proper bed in 2 days.

Factories girls?

First thing in the morning, we begin visitation to the factories.

While on the factory tour, I had a memorable experience in one of the rooms. The room was filled with girls, mostly in their teens, doing some wire processing. When I first entered and walked pass them, I heard excited chatterings among the girls I just walked pass.(note, I was the last in the group and visitors are common in factories). Managed to heard something like "...... hen (very) cool..." As I walked down the row, I apparently created excitement along the way, with many looks on me. Hmmm... were they excited by me?

To confirm, I tried to take notice while walking back. True! Giggles happen whenever, I turned my head to their directions. Does young man make them excited? Is it that they have never seen a 'young man' visiting factory with his dad?

Chinese can really drink.

As for drinking, I have been intoxicated with alcohol almost every meal with any Chinese host we ate with.

During the first lunch, we were served wine with 45% alcohol content! It really burnt when it when into the mouth. It was a painful drink. To make it worst, the host actually poured alot into my glass (in context of rice wine). I had to struggle to finish the 'fire' drink. Although, it may be painful, the after taste actually taste quite nice after awhile. Will try to buy some back if I can find it in the next few days.

As for beers, it was served during dinner at the first night and lunch today (2nd day, Thursday). Personally, I hate the taste of beer. But not trying to complicate matter, I forced them down their throat. Anyway, it was here that I learned tricks not to be served too much - try not to drink to less than half your glass because that entitles refill.

Today's dinner was the worst where we had dinner with 7 China's chinese. We were served 'golden wine' which is some form of chinese hard liquer which alc content of 12%. Though lower then the rice wine, we were continually toasted by each of them individually and twice for each individualy because of this chinese saying "hao shi cheng shuang" (good things comes in pairs). As such, drank a total of a few glasses which makes me super dehydrated now...

Thats all for the trip so far....

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Cotton fields sung the China's way

While searching for 龍的傳人 (decendants of the dragon) in youtube. I chanced upon this which incooperated the song Cotton fields into their melody. When I heard it for the first time, I almost fainted, so this is the way they sing cotton fields... The song starts at 1:40 of the clip.


btw: the Texas Kana in the clip is actually referring to Texarkana!!

Taxerkana: a town in northeast Texas adjacent to Texarkana, Arkansas
(from: wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn)

Anyway, according to wikipedia:
The song mentions that the fields are "down in Louisiana, just about a mile from Texarkana". This is geographically impossible.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

The Labrador Market?

In the earlier days when technologies was much less advance, 2 competing shoes company each sent one of their salesman to a civilization at the far corner of the world to conduct a study for the potential market of his shoes.

After months of audacious journey over the treacherous high seas, the duo finally arrived. Upon stepping off their ship and seeing the people, both of them decided to sail back immediately.

Reaching back their advanced culture after a few more months on the seas, they were greeted by their respective managers at the harbour, anticipating for favourable reports.

The salesman from the first company walked down the ship directly to his manager. With a disappointed tone of voice, he said: "Forget it, there is no market for our shoes, everyone is walking barefooted!"....

At this moment, the salesman from the second company was seen running towards his manager. Apparently, he was extremely excited. When he reached his manager,panting, he said:" Quick, send 2000 pairs of shoes to the far-away land! It is a big market! Everyone is walking barefooted!"....

I was reminded of the above story during the meeting with Toddycats project manager today.

As the newly appointed so-said Project Manager of Labrador, my first agenda was to introduce the public to the intertidal habitat of Labrador. Hence, assuming that everyone in the meeting have been to Labrador, after all it is a naturalist group, I proceed to do my presentation based on that understanding.

A few sentence into what I was supposed to say, Mr Siva decided to ask the group for a show of hand who has not been to Labrador Park. To my astonishment, 50% raised their hands! That's incredulous, ain't we a naturalist society, and Labrador is one of the only 4 Nature Reserve in Singapore? And if this group of people have never been to Labrador before, won't it be worst for the general masses in Singapore(other than those living near there). I was seriously caught off-guard.

To make matter worst, another person asked, where's Labrador Park? Bull eye! Disappointed. I felt like the first salesman, seeing that there is no potential for that place...

Sad sad sad..... .....

Wait a moment, suddenly, this thought came to my mind --- in actual fact, I have struck GOLD!!! If not many people have been to this place before, chances of positive response will be much higher because its something new for them. First time experiences are usually more exciting for people.. Wow... Like the second salesman, I have actually inherited a massive market to promote nature to the general masses of Singapore....

Note: for those who do not know about Labrador park, information can be found at the Nparks website.

To find out more on rocky shore habitat at Labrador visit:
Labrador Park blog
wildsingapore website (occassionally also features blog entries on Labrador)

Alternatively, can also join guided walks. Interested parties can contact me at: justinsng@yahoo.com

Friday, January 11, 2008

Austin strikes again!

Austin is in the 881 craze this few days... Managed to catch a short segment of him dancing on video...

Hes always so happening...

The 'Kou Lian' Justin

First, I went to service my car, so lost my legs that brings me around...

Kou Lian ar Justin ar, si bei kou lian tai...

Second, as such had to wander aimlessly in AMK hub for half a day... alone...

Kou Lian ar Justin ar, si bei kou lian tai...

Thirdly, had to watch movie all ALONE....

Kou Lian ar Justin ar, si bei kou lian tai...


Fourthly, it turned out that I was surrounded by ah pehs in the cinema.

Kou Lian ar Justin ar, si bei kou lian tai...

Fourthly, during movie distractions came from everywhere...

Kou Lian ar Justin ar, si bei kou lian tai...

Fifth..... Sixth.... Twelved.....

Kou Lian ar Justin ar, si bei kou lian tai...

Translation:
Kou Lian: pitiful/ poor thing
si bei kou lian tai: extremely pitiful...

Monday, January 07, 2008

40% alcohol!!!

More on the trip to Korea:
On the first night when we were in Korea, my dad and his friends were having a party in one of the rooms.. I was invited as well.. There were alot of food, esp dimplings.. And not forgetting that they are business people, alcoholic drinks were inevitable!

Anyway, it was uncle Jerry's birthday that day as well.

My dad poured some hard liquer for me. Knowing the % alc, I diluted into many parts with mineral water before drinking. However, due to the massive dilution, it looked very clear--- caught by uncle Kelvin.. So I added a little more alc into the glass..

After the first shot, I could feel the heat, which was very comfortable especially when the window was open, bringing in the extremely cold air. As such, I had a few more shot just be keep warm. This gave me ideas for the subsequent days..

Day 2...
I glass (about 50ml) of Korean rice wine

Day 4....
About 4 wine cups of Ginseng wine..


Day 5..
A few more wine cups of Korean rice wine..
This was only that I understood why I could feel a massive sudden blood rush after drinking the Korean/ginseng wine.. And also a sudden narcotic feelings.. The alcohol content is actually 40%!!

Thursday, January 03, 2008

'Ang Moh' eating 'liu lian'

Daniel's father is in town and I brought him to try our 'King of fruits'- durians...


Before reaching the shop, he was signaled that he was not really keen on trying it after Daniel's bad testimony on its smell. However, we went ahead anyway...
And there they had their first bites of the majestic fruit..
And managed to finish one complete 'fruit'..

Wonder if they like it??