Call me SiMoN !!

Exams time is like judgement day for every student, but it's inevitable. I'm going to have my exams within 18 days from now and to be honest, I'm nervous, but helpless. All I can do is to cram everything given and taught by the lecturers. Unlike secondary school, I haven't had any exams prior to now, so the exam formats are still strange and unknown to me.

Christmas is coming soon, but it will be a lonely Christmas for us (Tiffiny and I). We have each other, but nothing is comparable to celebrating Christmas with our beloved families. Receiving presents is one thing, but the warmnest and feeling are different when you have to celebrate such a joyful and sacred event. In China, religious activities are seriously banned because in the concept of China Communist Party, such a small party can be a threat to their national status and religion is considered an obstacle for the nation to develop freely and completely. I don't really approve this "idea" because spiritual development is really helpful as it relieves spiritual pain and provides undefined strength for its believers.

It will be different Christmas in a non-religious country. There is always something missing when there is no religios elements in a religious event. But anyway, I'll try to cherish this special Christmas in a foreign place, other than my home sweet home.

Today, we had our first in-class exam for Hospital English Conversation. Basically, the aim of the class is to teach the medical students how to interact with their patients. Throughout the whole class, I've learned a lot of medical terms and time is insufficient for me to digest them all. But for the conversation part, I didn't really learn much from it because after the introduction of certain illnesses, the teacher will just let us partners to play roles of doctor and patient.

Last week, we had our first round of oral exam, which requires every partner to stand in front of the class and the "doctor" will try to diagnose the "patient's" condition according to the differential diagnosis. Tiffiny and I did it quite good, if that's what the teacher meant when he said "Very good, guys!". Half of the class haven't had their turn yet because every partner had their turn according to their name list (which is noted down based on their seats). When the whole class finished their first round, we had our second round conversation, Sore Throat, and we have to switch our roles with our partner. As usual, everyone had their turn according to their seat location. And this was when the annoying thing happened.

Tiffiny and I (and my friend's team) waited patiently for our turn as the teams in front of us had to give their conversation first. And in a sudden of no where, two teams just overtook our turn and pretended to sit in front of us. Because of these two teams who don't have a clue of what "wait for your turn" means, our turn was postponed. D*mn you all! We had been using this wait-for-your-turn approach since the first day of the class, unless the teacher asked for volunteers or pointed out your team. This is just outrageous.

One of these "outrageous" team were my roommates and their attitude has long been an eye-sore for me. Their arrogance really get into my skin and they are the only person in my room whom I really dislike, especially the other guy who is shorter. He seemed to enjoy teaching people everything, sounds like a know-it-all guy. He even tried to teach me thoeries of playing guitar, though he didn't know how to play. Stop telling Bill Gates how to make Microsoft. I can play guitar far better than you do, and you don't have the right to teach me like I'm a guitar noob. He stopped annoying me after I kept my guitar in my guitar bag, where it is unreachable from him. He once took my guitar and placed it in his room, instead of giving it back to me and say thank you. Quite a dominant guy, if that's the proper word to describe him.

After the exam, though I lost my turn to perform today, at least I've learned something very important about these two guys. A good precaution before getting myself into their traps. When they returned to our dorm, they acted like nothing had happened, but actually some of us were seriously annoyed by their act.

Medical school, known to have gathered most of the elite students (I'm not trying to convey any intelligence or ability discrimination), but because of their intelligence, most of them are seriously damaged by their anxiety and lust of being the best (or better). Well, this is life. I think I have to get myself used to it. "Simon, just endure when you can, or just ignore them." A good advice.

Hai, is this what we called "the unfortunate event"? My bike was stolen two days ago when I parked it at the parking lot below our classroom building! I'm trying to suppress myself from condemning those bastards, but it's very hard.

Two of my roommates lost their bike, and one of them lost two of his bikes. Unlucky, huh? Since the bicycle theft, students complained to the security department to installed one or two surveillance camera around the parking lot, but all they did was installing a few light bulbs there. Maybe the school is trying to ignore us students from causing more troubles for them and they did something as simple as possible to shut us up.

Ever since that day, when my roommates lost their bikes, some of my friends went to buy better quality locks. Original one, instead of the pirated brand. And for myself, I didn't buy a really good lock because I thought it was too costly and unnecessary as I already got one and that was sufficient for me. The next few weeks were quite safe and nothing bad happened. Compared to others, I am the only one using the chain lock, which they considered the lousiest lock because you just have to keep on stabbing the key hole to unlock the whole thing. I didn't buy that as much as others did, anyway.

Maybe it was my pay back for not being sincere with my bicycle's security. Maybe I was really that unlucky to become those filthy bastards target. We complained the whole matter to the security guards on shift and all they did was giving us a whole bunch of excuses. "Sorry wor, sometimes we just didn't notice anything peculiar when we were changing our shift." "What? Many people lost their bicycle too, so don't think it's the end of the world, okay?" "Stop fingering us security guards without any proves, okay?!" Waliu... My friends told me to complain as if I've lost my head and exaggerate about the situation. But, frankly speaking, I was completely empty and when they gave me all those excuses, nah, what for argueing with them? I've lost my bicycle and talking to them was a waste of time.

Now, all I could do i sto assure myself with a very useful assurance when you lost something or being treated in a very unexpected manner, "This is China mah...what can you do about it?" All I wish is that I could cope myself with the whole culture in China as soon as possible.

Buy a new bicycle or not? Dilemma...

Before, I'd mentioned about the dancing practice which kept me busy for quite some time, and all the hard work and sweat were all for that 2 hours performance (or less). So far as I could recall, I had my first stage dance when I was at the Chinese Language and Cultural College 华文学院 in conjunction to the Water Festival. Well, I won't be using much time briefing about the Water Festival, but it was fun and wet.

As for the dancing practice, we were "recruited" to perform during the GuangZhou International Tourism Expo at TianHe Stadium 天河体育馆. The organization we are in is called CT, abbreviation for Cultural Troupe in GuangZhou. It was sad to tell you guys about it, but we are actually the last Cultural Troupe representing Malaysia with truly Malaysians in China. The CT groups in Beijing and Shanghai had already been disbanded due to insufficient source of energy. In fact, the dancers for CTs in Beijing and Shanghai were actually China mainland students, instead of Malaysian students!! Wow, that is a really pathetic fact to be heard of. So, I guess we as the last surviving CT group, we have to struggle harder to maintain its survival. To be more realistic, we have to do so too because we will be able to maintain our alternative financial source as we will receive extra reward for each performance we performed (occasionally).

Back to my actual topic, the performance was on the 29-30th of November, accompanied by the cold and windy weather. I'll just neglect talking the training, as there were a lot of conflicts and misunderstanding throughout the training (a very common phenomena). I was actually confused about my feelings towards the performance. The mixture of nervousity and ecstasy confused me. I was nervous because that was my newbie experience for performing in front of the public and mass medias. I was ecstatic because I had the chance of training my guts dancing in front of so many people, with my friends.

My friend saw this in the newspaper regarding the Expo.

On the way to our so called "fitting-room"...

I like those balloons.

This is the stage. Try to zoom in the photo. Those dancers were barely wearing any clothes!! Woohooo!!
Here the "giant" booth I've mentioned just now.

The typical posters of Malaysia, with no other races except the Malays.

Empty...

This is our "fitting-room"...in the middle of the booth...

Jun Hao with his cosmetician (she's just our CT president)

Caren with the real cosmetician (our dancing Cikgu, he is really good with what he's doing)

Tiffiny!! It's so rare to see her with any make ups, but she was gorgeous anyway with it.

Me! Our president said that I didn't need any make up coz my skin was already fair enough. A compliment?

Tiffiny looked so different in this photo.

Notice the girl's emotion at the right.

Tiffiny with her Indian make up.

Qi Song wore his Sarawakian costume, and it was windy and cold, and...

...he was freezing as Iban's outfit was very simple and little.

It was very squeezy to change our costumes under the booth and we barely had any space to sit or squat. The lack of privacy was a serious issue because the visitors were holding cameras and some of those irresposible people took photos of those girls changing their costumes. Though the girls did their safety measure, those horny and lusty old man were too over with their action. Despise them.

Me in my Malay costume. Kind of suit me, but...
Me and Tiffiny~
4 Malay muskeeteers!

We 6 newbies in CT! Handsomes and beauties!

Honestly, I think those Malay costumes suited me quite fit, it is always weird for a Chinese to look good in Malay costume. This is not racial discrimination, but I don't think I will look good in Chinese costume. Kinda sad. But anyway, a lot of visitors asked Tiffiny to take photo with them and that was a great honour because I didn't see many of our other CT members being asked to take photo by any visitors. To my surprise, a lady approached me with her friend and asked me to take photo with her. Hehe. At least that was a good compliment and confirmation for myself.

Here's Tiffiny with a star-looking lady.

Lol, I looked stupid and stiff in this one. Shy mah!!

We were quite early before the performance, so we had our lunch there, provided by a Singaporean cuisin restaurant. The food was very Malaysian (Singapore and Malaysia same one lah) and it was actually our first time eating a very Malaysian style curry after being in China for almost 3 months. Curry in GuangZhou tasted very weirdly, not spicy enough. Besides curry, we had fried rice and friend noodles. We enjoyed the food so much, especially the curry.

This is the fried noodle. Fried noodle actually tasted better than fried rice.

This is the fried rice, but it tasted a bit different.

The whole exhibition lasted for two days, and we had two different sets of dance. The first package mainly consisted of Malay dances; the second package had more ethnic dances: Malay, Chinese, Indian, Kadazan, Iban and more. Personally, I could remember the dancing steps for the first package clearer, but the second package was quite strange for me because I always forget the steps.

Me acting macho in Kadazan outfit! ^^

Iban and Kadazan.

Iban and Indian.

Wearing those costumes for the girls made them look fatter because the girls had to wear so many clothes at a time. Costumes and accessories for the girls were so much more complicating than the guys. The performance went on smoothly, with no technical problems, but I did a lot of mistakes during the dance. I forgot some steps, did some actions too fast, and many more. Embarrassing la! At least I admitted my mistakes. The only thing that really pissed me off is that some people when they did some mistakes, instead of admitting their mistakes, they talked about others' mistakes and complained why others didn't do so. By doing so, other people will not realize the mistakes that those particular people had made. Clever hoh.

Here's a short clip of our dancing. This is the package one dance.


This is the package two dance.


Two weeks of intensive training, two hours of performing. It was an unforgetable experience for a green guy like me, especially when it comes to performing on stage. When I came back from the stadium, I arranged all my costumes and took pictures of them. Enjoy!

The first Malay costume.

Second set of Malay outfit.

Kadazan outfit.

Last but not least, my Chinese costume.

That's all for today's post. While writing this post, I caught a flu and my nose became so stuffy that I could hardly breathe. The weather in GuangZhou right now is cool and windy, unlike Beijing which is freezing. I can just wear shorts and sleeveless T-shirt sometimes, but sometimes, I had to wear my thick jacket and looked like a dumpling.

Got to go to sleep now. Good night!

See ya!

Woo hooo!!! Worrying is useless, guys!! As long as you have your trust in God. I'm not trying to exaggerate anyway about God or persuade anyone to believe in God, but I just want to share something very minor but major for me that happened yesterday.

You all know that I was worrying about my PE test because I had to run 1000m within 4 minutes and 25 seconds (this is the standard of passing). Stamina is always my biggest obstacle in every sport I take part in, especially running. How the hell am I going to run 1000m within such a limited and insufficient time? I had been practicing my stamina by running once every three days at the running track in my school and my consistency in it never lasted for more than 2 weeks. Because of that, I was numb and never worried about the test anymore because I would surely fail.

Tuesday was my PE judgment day. I was acting like usual, never worried as I had already predicted my own result. We met our teacher at the running track and we could feel everyone's heart beat. The feelings of anxiety and nervousness crawled among us. We had our first test, 50m running within 8.3seconds. I was a little worried about it too because I always lacked of speed when it comes to sprinting. But I managed to pass it with the result of 8.1seconds. Beyond failing and at the stake. Lucky me.

Next, the torturing test, 1000m. Everyone had a partner who will help you to remember your time and you know the rest (of course we take care of each others asses la~). My partner finished his 1000m in 4 minutes and 33 seconds, but I told the guy who do the recording 4 minutes and 24 seconds. Hehe. He passed. When its my turn to run, I sighed and went preparing at the starting line. When the teacher shouted "GO!!", everyone rushed and some of them even pushed me aside. I was at my own track and they pushed me. Damn it. I ran and ran with all my might, but I just kept losing behind most of them. Nervousness really slowed me down, while draining my stamina. I thought I was going to fail because I could see no shadows behind me. 2 rounds and a half, finally, I could see the light, Ooops, I meant the finishing line. I gave up my last breathe and charged.

"4 minutes and 18 seconds for this spectacle guy!!"

OH MY GOD!!! CHEEZE AND RICE (a more polite way of saying "Jesus Christ")!!!! I PASSED!!! If I doubted about passing the test for a while while I was running, I could be 7 seconds behind, but I didn't!!! I PASSED the FREAKING PE TEST!!! I was speechless, but overjoy! Many a word of praising God came into my mind at the moment I heard my time.

Though I could feel my legs and my head was heavy, nothing worthed more than that 4 minutes and 18 seconds. Most of my friends accomplished their test with better results, around 3 minutes and 25-50 seconds, but I was satisfied with mine. God really blesses me, whenever I need him, or not.

God really blesses everyone, no matter how good or bad you are. We always neglect God's work when we accomplished something, and beg for His help when we are in deep trouble. Praise him, and you will be fruitful. That's all I wanted to share with all of you. May God be with you always! Peace!

We had our dorm discussion today. Our very first discussion together, though it might be a little too late. We discussed about out troubles and conflicts in our dorm, and I was in a very doubtful mood during the whole process. I just want to make myself clear with the situation, especially matters related to the money I paid.

Next, they mentioned about my multi-plug adapter. Finally, something triggered my anger hiding deep inside my heart. When they asked about my opinion, I erupted like a volcano (a little bit exaggerating, but I seldom talk in such an angry tone) and I just spitted out everything I had in my mind. At least I made myself understood. They paid me the amount of money I used to buy my new adapter, RMB 45, though I still have to pay less amount of money for the steamboat (win-win condition).

I made most of my statements clear and the outcome was satisfying (at least from what I've heard for everyone). I just hope that things will be better and 8 of us can live together like a family. For certain issues, we have to make things clearer, but the most important thing is that everyone must understand the purpose for doing so. It's not about the lack of trust, it's about minimising all the possible problems awaiting. Money is a devil's tool to men's self-destruction. That's it.

Temporal issue solved, but there will be more in the future. God, be with us always!!

Today, we had a steamboat party in our dorm, though cooking is seriously prohibited in every dormitory. Well, I wasn't expecting much from it because I had my serious lesson after the 1st BBQ party of our class. Things always ended up the opposite way, I mean negatively.

Everyone had to pay RMB20 for the steamboat and personally, that was the maximum amount of money I could afford for such an activity because our dorm financial consumption had already override my personal budget. We had paying too much for our dorm expenses, and some of the stuffs were quite unnecessary.

Back to the steamboat, I was surprised by the variety of food they bought for the steamboat. It was actually not bad because they bought almost every basic stuff, like meatballs, frozen meat, noodles, and many more. Quite a luxury. But the only thing that triggered my anger was that they put nearly everything near my place, unplugged all my electrical plugs (without consulting me), and inserted their own cooking devices' plugs on mine. That was a necessary act, but it is considered rude to intrude my place without my knowledge. I tried to calm myself down, while worrying when my electrical cable would melt. It did.

We were enjoying the food, while watching Prison Break Season 1. Suddenly, I smelt something fishy, like burning plastic. No one suspected it. The first thing that came into my mind was my cables. Damn it!!! SHIT!! My whole cable melted and the heat was increasing. Immediately, I pulled out the main plug, while resisting the minor burn. Everyone wow-ed when they saw the smoke, but some of my roommates really made me very angry. They intruded my stuff and when they "burned" my thing, they assumed that it was no their trouble. Its mine, because I bought a lousy multi-plug adapter. There was another unoccupied socket at the other side, near the other roommate of mine. When we mentioned why they didn't use that socket, his face turned black. Wow! That selfishness, okay!!!

After the incident, everyone moved the table to the other side and continued their "important" business. F**K!! Sorry for using foul words, but that is the best word for me to express my feeling. Those HK people have been exciting my patience for a very long time. Their loud music bass, screaming and money-wasting have been troubling me for months, and to maintain an "okay" relationship with them, I have been tolerating, a great deal. But too much is too much. They always want to buy this and that without thinking those items are really necessary. They always buy stuffs without really getting our permission. They asked if we need a vacuum cleaner and I said that wait till everyone agreed then we'll consider it. I haven't agreed on it yet. Then the next few days, they bought the vacuum cleaner. We had been using the brooms to clean our dorm for almost a month and everything was okay. A vacuum cleaer is more convenient, but not too necessary. In other words, their action was too barbaric to me.

What should I do? My first instinct told me to argue with them, but many advised me that it would be a complete waste. I have to stay with them for the further 6 years, or less, and I'm really confused. Great dilemma.

God, or anyone, please enlighten me the wisest solution. The more I tolerate, the bolder they will get to "bully" me. Forgive me for condeming HK people, but I was just fingering some of the HK people in my dorm. This is not country discrimination, but the fact in my dorm. I never had a word about my situation to them because I thought they would really understand and change. But the steamboat incident really proved me wrong.

If money can solve every trouble, it will never be trouble anymore. But if things are getting more ridiculous, you people have really crossed my barrier.

Dilemma....

How many regrets do we have within out lifetime? Uncountable, maybe, but I do have some regrets these days, regarding my life in Jinan U.

I managed, or unbelievably, to be voted as the monitor of my class, Clinical Medicine '08. I never got this title before in my whole life, and the most I got was only Vice Monitor. Surprised, huh? Yeah, I was like a drug addict who finally got his drug. I felt like a new life and beginning for myself. I volunteered myself for the vote and I got most of the votes. A good confirmation for me, till I heard what our adviser told me about my job. Now, I know why most people didn't prefer being a monitor at the first place because a monitor has to be like a one- man-show in most of the tasks delivered by any authorities. Not only so, you must also be a good social-guy because you have to built a good relationship with nearly every important people in school. I volunteered myself not because I want to get more GPAs or reputation. I just want to train my responsibility. I proposed to our adviser that maybe every class committee will get choose someone as their assistant to make things easier, but I was denied. Next, I got to finish a whole contact list of the whole class within a night, but I only got less than 3 hours till 12am. No one was really willing to help, and you can see that clearly in everyone's face. All the complicating and troublesome prosedures of the school administration were piling behind me, but I had no other options to delay the tasks given to me.

I'd finished the contact list at 2am, with Tiffiny helping me most of the time. I hadn't even stepped into my dorm for more than 3 hours during that period as the class monitor because the first few days of school was really hectic. Besides, I promised my family to be their tour guide in Guangzhou at the same time. I'd to arrange my classmates to get their text books and the whole school procedure really made me mad!!! Unlike Malaysia, you have to run to at least 3 different departments in order to accomplish a certain task. Most of all, there was no linkage between every departments, so you have to repeat the same thing again and again at different places. It was a big dilemma for me, but I decided to quit being a class monitor. Maybe after this, I would have sufficient time to deal with my other complications.
Yeah, I quitted. I promised not to be regret for this decision, but the new monitor made me so disappointed that I nearly cried, not literally. She's giving me a feeling that she was born yesterday and the whole world is still a stranger for her. WALAU EH!!! The teacher asked the other committee to organize a BBQ party, but as a monitor, you didn't even care to ask a few things about the situation, but to cross your arms during the whole process. WAKAO EH!!!
Have you ever heard of anyone who called the bus company for a bus at 4pm and you need it at 6pm? You can't book a bus as if you were ordering pizza from Pizza Hut! WALIU EH!!! As a monitor, you have communicate with the classmates, including the foreigners. And the new monitor asked my friend to talk for her because she found it difficult to communicate with the foreigners. You should be there, at least, to show your resposibility and honesty, but this excuse is a B.S. to me. Everything is too fake from her. But this is the reality. Different people, different style. I'm quite numb right now, after all these tragedies. As Shakespeare says, "What is history is a prologue." This is just a beginning of the story, and we still have 6 years waiting ahead.

*Sigh* Look at the bright side, Simon. At least you have more time for yourself after you quit. Ya, that's true. If you want me to study whenever I'm free, or make myself busy for something that is unworthy to me (pissed myself or make my life shorter, illiterally), that would be a hell on earth for me. Life consists of sweat: sweat of struggle and fun. Life will be very miserable if you have been struggling the whole way through, especially in your university life, right? I could do better, but I let my chance slipped. Next time, maybe? I will be fully-armed next time, so be careful!!!

Physically, I'm feeling so much better right now, after the pill given by a friend of mine. Wow, the pill was like an elixir and it didn't only relieved my fever, I could actually stand the freezing wind throughout the whole day, while some of my friends were wrapped like mummies. God really blessed me!!

Tomorrow, we are going to record down the whole dancing process as a reference for every body and I am still a bit unconfident with my dancing skill. But our president told us that during the show, there will be TV workers coming for interviews. Lol, my first live dance on TV, if I managed to survive the qualification!

Good luck to me and you! Bye bye! No regrets!

Damn I hate being fragile...

Since yesterday, I had one of my worst fever in China, I meant my first fever in China. Weeks before, I started to lose my appetite and I didn't really eat much. And that causes my weight to drop gradually. Nothing seemed delicious or appetizing to me. Tiffiny even suspected that I had anorexia (厌食症).

Anyway, I went to bed quite early yesterday, at around 8pm and I could feel myself in a giant oven. My body was heating up and I didn't had enough sleep. Today, my whole body felt so weak and steamy that I could hardly do anything or think anything rationally. What a mess...

Tiffiny got a febrifuge (a new word I've learned from dictionary, meaning anti-fever) pill from a friend and at least after the nap I took by skipping the CT dancing practice, I felt so much better.

That's all I have for today. Thank you for looking after me, Tiffiny. You are the best!

Hai....these few days are a bit hectic and tiring. Back from the hypnotizing and boring classes, I am always tired and frustrated, especially when the class is conducted in English. Assignments are not so piling, but they are just boring. How I wish my assignments could be done with practical experiences, instead of typing documents.

Anyway, I've joined the Malaysia Culture Troupe in Guangzhou and its a culture dance group monitored by the Malaysia Tourism Department. The first month's practice was relaxing but from 15th to 30th of November, we will be having very intensive dancing practice, specially choreographed and monitored by a Sabah ethnic dance teacher. He actually flew from Malaysia to Guangzhou to teach us. It seemed like the MTC (Malaysia Tourism Department) invested a lot of effore for this practice because in the end of Novemeber, there will be a Tourism Expo in TianHe Stadium, Guangzhou. A very grand one.

Dancing is always a knot for me, especially for my stiff joints and muscles. But dancing is a good exercise for a lazy person like me. I just dislike running around the field or whatever. But there's another problem coming. I have to have my PE test in two weeks time and I barely had enough practice of it. I joined the badminton club of my PE class and so far, the badminton test is the easiest, among all the other tests. I also have to run 1000m within 4 minutes and 10 seconds!! What the heck!!! I seldom run and that will be like killing me. I'm doomed!!!! I HATE EXERCISING!!!!

God, please bless me with better lung capacity and stamina. I'll go to run once every two days. Please bless me....

After the "Impression", we were all quite annoyed because we had been feeding those bastard mosquitoes for nearly an hour. The whole crowd left immediately after the show, but we were not really impressed by the show because there were not much surprise or breakthrough, though I have to admit that they do put some effort in completing the show. We reached our mini-van after a few minutes walk and headed our accommodation. We were a bit tired but we had not had our walk along the night market in Guilin near our hotel. It was nearly 9pm and the market was heating up with the crowd increasing.

We had to walk for about ten minutes before reaching the market and along the path, we stopped by some shops with special discounts on their goods. When we reached the market, we were a bit surprised by the crowded atmosphere and we could wait to drill ourselves into the crowd. I did saw some VCDs and DVDs of "The Impression" but I bet they were all pirated because of the difference in price. There were a lot of handicrafts available here, but they were all quite costly. One handmade ball-bell for RMB10, but you can actually get one for less than RMB5.

Somewhere near the entrance.
Knitting and marbles handicraft. Quite significant, but expensive.
To finish the whole street, you need around 1 hour or maybe more, if you are a shopaholic.

Catchy keychains with food, e.g. sushi, pork steak...

An interesting name for a restaurant, 没有饭店 ("No Restaurant" in English).

There were quite some bars and pubs along the market street, mostly managed by foreigners who enjoyed staying in Guilin and opened their own business here. We were told that most foreigners worked in their own country for several months and they saved all their earnings to spend in Guilin. They would spend quite a period of time in Guilin till they finished spending their money and they would go back to their own country again, repeating the loop again. I'm really impressed by their freelance spirit, but I won't do so. Not my style.

The walk was getting bored very soon as I couldn't find anything that really caught my attention. We went back at around 11pm, but suddenly realized that one of my uncles was lost!! OMG!! We searched every alley and corner but all we could find was nothing. We were so worried he might have got abducted, drugged or whatever. We couldn't reach his cellphone and everyone of us panicked. We gave up looking for him, assuring ourselves with all kinds of reasons. Maybe he just went back to the hotel. When we reached our hotel, he was actually in his room watching tv!!! WALAU EH!!! My grandma scolded him like a kid and the whole scene was so funny. Enough of the nag, we all went for our sweet sleep.

Time passed by without noticed and it was our last day in Guilin. We had our breakfast in the reastaurant's cafeteria. BUFFET!!! The food was okay but I didn't eat much. Still dozing.My uncle noticed this hill and there was actually a small house on top of it. Zoom and look.

Welcome to Mount Die Chai.

There were people available to carry you up with that traditional bamboo-thing, but for RMB200+.

I like this dragon+turtle statue pouring water. The water was actually filtered naturally, cold and icy.
Finally, almost the top of the hill.

Here is the famous Wind Cave (Not the one in Malaysia) in Guilin. Very historical and mythical.

Cheese~

风洞, Wind Cave~~

The portrait of some patriots and poets. And also some Buddhism carvings.

Hehe.

Ei, I think I messed up the whole story!!

We walked so many stairs in Guilin.

Continued walking....

Some old village near the mountain...

The bird-view of Guilin city from the top of the mountain.

The sky was quite foggy because it was raining...again...

Hehe, my retarded face!! Leaving now~

I don't know why, but my fingers looked a bit deformed here....

Next destination. Read the plate from the right to left, not the reverse.

The garden was quite good looking.

Another dwarf-like mountain.

Peacock bushes~i like this one so much.

Here's the famous LiJiang, again.

During the winter, some beh-kia-si people will come here for winter swim. Weird hobby.

Here's the endangered tribe in Guilin, 水上人家 (Water Resident? No idea...)

Talking about the 水上人家, these people had been living on their boats in the river for their whole generation and they have some weird "restrictions" regarding their lives in the river. If someone were found drowning in the water by these people, they were not allowed to save those drowning victims, directly. They assumed that if they saved those victims, they would be considered unrespectful towards the God of the Sea, as it was the god's will to drown them. The most they could do was to pull you out from the river and put you on a random isle near the river, but not on the land. The China Government tried to presuade those people to live on land, but many of them could not get used to the modern living on land. Weird huh...

This is the 千人锅 (Thousand People's pot). It was used to cook food for thousands of refugees in a temple during the Japanese attack. The Japanese bombed the temple and the pot was a little bit damaged. The authorities moved the pot from the temple to here and preserved it well.

An ancient bell passed down for generations. The bell was carved with hundreds of officials and poets to show their protest against the emperor's decision to marry the princess to the barbarian's ruler.There was an entrance near the ancient bell leading towards another side of the mountain.
There were alot of these Buddhism statues carved along the passage decades ago.
Two poets playing Chinese chess?
The 还珠河 (River HuanZhu).
Look at that direction pointed by the lady. That was the most precious and age-old artifact carved on the wall. The carvings were fading so you can't see them clearly.
WAH!!! ADMANTIUS ("women of steel" in Latin) CARRYING A GIANT STONE!!!
This is actually the legendary stone which was penetrated by the legendary General's arrow.

These are the pictures drawn by blowing the ink onto the paper. Found it at the hill foot.
This is the statue of legendary General whom I've mentioned just now.

Today is actually the last day for us in Guilin. We had to be at the train station before 6pm so we had our our dinner a bit early at the local restaurant. We were served with their famous Cantonese food and I have to admit that the food is really good.

Roasted duck~with it's head served. "Please eat me~~Dumb DUMB!!"
I like this one too. Fried fish fillet with sweet and sour sauce.
What is this?? Oh ya, deep fried fish with sauce. It's just so so.
Steamed winter melon. This is my first time having winter melon in a such creative approach. Nice!
This is pork with yam (or taro). Guilin's specialty. You have to have both the meat and yam together.
I like their toilet. I mean their washing basin. For their toilet, every toilet is connected with a drain. If someone had their poo poo at the other toilet, you could actually see their "gold" flowing along the drain. Yucks!
The restaurant's interior, very oriental.
We finished everything, except some of the yams. Lol, not enough meat to eat with.
So, this is the look of the restaurant.

After the dinner, we were brought to a famous silk showroom in Guilin. I was trying to take a few photos in it but I was caught by the salesgirl. Damn. One of them actually followed me for some time to make sure I was being obedient. Anyway, they said that many country leaders came to Guilin for their high quality silk, but I don't buy that anyway. The silk produce here are quite expensive, due to their quality and workmanship. But the only trouble is their designs are a bit off-fashion. Or outdated in other words. Big flowers and cheackboards design, but many people prefer plain design these days. Anyway, the quality is really good. One pillow with so-called therapy purpose and silk sheet cost RMB100+...walau eh...

I only managed to take this photo. Can you see Dr. M in it?

After the silk factory, we were to a nearby massage centre, specially made available for those retired armies, but we were given a chance to try it. Actually, the whole massage centre was based on Tibetan medicine, with Tibetan physicians there. We were told that Tibetan physicians normally practise their diagnosis by looking at their patients palm and face. Something similar to the Chinese fortune teller stuff. Believe it or not, I don't really. Talking about massage, I really "enjoyed" the massage there because my massager kept on touching and "molesting" my feet, instead of giving me pain and scream. The most important thing is that massager is a GUY!!! WALAU EH!!! THAT WAS SO GAYISH!!!!

That's one of the Tibetan physician giving the introduction.
This is the typical map you see at every massage center. I don't really understand those feet.

Well, the massage was a new experience for me, especially when a guy "molested" my hairy feet. Maybe he just like the way my feet smells. Anyway, at the massage center, there were a few Tibetan physician giving everyone of us a little examination on our palm and the way they speak was what I expected. There are only two ways: 1, they would say that you are very healthy, but you would need one or two of their "specially" prescribed medication; 2, they would look t at you with a very mysterious and frightening look, and say that you need urgent treatment because your sickness would cause you a lot trouble. Some believed them, but it might need a lot more effort to convince me anything about this.

It was getting late so we had to hurry up for our train. Before we reached the train station, we were brought to another shopping street in Guilin, somewhere near the station. We should be there at the first place when we reached Guilin because there were a lot more stuff to look at here. But anyway, we had to rush so we just bought some mineral water and bread for our first train trip!! Haha, it was actually our 1st time taking a long-distance trip by train. Kinda excited though.

That was our train's departure time. Have to fight and rush to reach our seat in the train...

This is the toilet at the train station, very similar to the one at the restaurant I mentioned just now.

Me in the train!!! Hehe, inaugural trip, here we go!!

When the gate opened, everyone rushed and squeezed as if the train station is going to exploded within seconds. It was quite far before we could reach our designated compartment and we didn't really have much time to take extra breathe. Everyone became Hercules in that instant because we had to carry our burdensome luggages and we actually ran with them! Adrenaline really helped a lot when we got nervous and stressed. We booked 6 hard-beds and the beds we booked were actually not so bad for such considerate price. The journey was a bit bumpy at first, but when you got too tired and sleepy, you won't anything while sleeping.

On the way to GuangZHou~~~

That's the kitchen in the train.

The seats in the cafeteria.

That's all for the train and Guilin. For the details about the train, i'll just make it brief. There were ladies selling almost every basic stuff you need along the trip, e.g. food, toothbrush, fruits, drinks, towels and many more. Except those rubber tubes (if you get what I meant ^^). There were toilets and basins at every end of the compartments, and also hot-and-cold water. We left Guilin at around 7pm and arrived in Guangzhou 13 hours later, approximately 8am. Not bad for my first train experience.

I guess that's all for Guilin and the coming posts will be about GuangZhou. So, thank you for visiting my blog. Best wishes to everyone and may the angels of love be with us who are away from home and families. Frankly speaking, I really miss my hometown, though I promised my parents not to be so homesick. But, as I always say, "外国的月亮特别圆，但终会有点缺，而那块缺就是家. The moon in foreign places looks specially round, but there is always something missing and that something is the feeling of being home." Home is always the best and warmest place on earth. I love you all!!! See you all when I'm back to Kuching!!! Till next time, take care and bye bye!!!