Started the new year with a gathering with my old school friends... We've all been friends since we were 13 years old i.e. friends for over 15 years!!! What is so beautiful about this friendship is that, no matter what we do for a living or how old we are... each time we meet, we're able to let our guards down and return to the young and once carefree days of our lives.

This time round, Jackie who came back for a holiday from New Zealand, rented a suite at PNB Darby Park, near Citibank. At first, the night started out decently... cos Jackie's parents joined us for awhile (btw, we used to be so close last time that each one of our parents know the group members by name and in person...):

[From L to R] Jackie, "maemee", Colin, Daniel, Elaine (Daniel's gf)

When the clock stuck midnight, the fireworks display started. Thanks to Jackie, we had an excellent unobstructed view of the fireworks from the balcony.

I took a video of the fireworks but the file was way too huge to be uploaded here...

After the fireworks display (which lasted exactly 8min), we proceeded to play cards. Everyone was supposed to target a different person to drink each time (so that everyone of us drinks) but after awhile, everyone started targeting me and therefore, I ended up being the first one on the couch!

Honestly, I've always been a happy drunk cos the world seemed so much nicer then... Tee hee...

In between, we took quite a number of photos and videos... some of which I have absolutely no recollection of... All I remembered was that I had endless cups of Chivas with water first, followed by Flirtini and then Vodka Cranberries!

[From L to R] Jackie (little laughing buddha from NZ), "maemee" (me lor) & Daniel (a doctor who secretly wishes to be a bartendar)

But of all the photos and videos taken, THIS video here has got to be the funniest...

A drunkard capturing a bunch of drunkards... We actually posed for over 3min to take a photo!

With that, "maemee" would like to take this opportunity in wishing everyone a very Happy New Year!!! May 2008 be yet another spectacular year of our lives! Cheers :)

Today is the last day of 2007... what better day than today to do a roundup / recap of the entire year right? So here goes...

P.S. Click on the links should you wish to read up more on the topics... Happy New Year!!!

New Leaf
Every aspect of my life changed for the better ever since I read the book called (The Secret by Rhonda Byrne)

• I began thinking positively in everything that I do.
• Eventually, I believed law of attraction took place...
• So much so that 2007 was nothing but FULL of gooooooood news (or maybe it was the way I chose to see them)!

Holidays
I was very fortunate to be able to visit 4 different countries this year.

• In January, I visited Thailand (Phuket)
• In September, I was sent to attend a conference in United Kingdom (London).
• Then given that Paris is just nearby, I extended my holiday and visited France (Paris) too.
• And finally in December, I took a trip with my family to China (Shanghai, Suzhou, Nanjing, Wuxi, Hangzhou).

Work Wise
I also started gaining a bit more recognition at work.

• In March, I finally got the ad hoc increment (above and beyond the yearly adjustment) that was promised to me 9 months ago.
• In July, I was promised a promotion (which ahem, till now I have not gotten but was assured that it is on the way... Perhaps I should wait for 9 months before making any noise just like the increment incident???).
• In August, I was given a formal headcount for the first time...
• In December, my boss evaluated me fairly in my yearly assessment..

Celebrations
I also started having more and more good news that calls for celebrations!

• In April, I got my first property; (Kuchai Avenue 2) a service apartment.
• In July, I received an unexpected sum of moolah from the privatization of my company.
• In August, I met (Gwen Stefani) up close and personal for the concert I organized in Malaysia.

Material Gains
Personally, I like to buy things... i.e. shop... but I've always been a gadget person. So this year, I told myself that I should perhaps shift my focus a little and start accumulating bagsssss instead...

• In March, I got a new digital camera (Canon IXUS 850 IS)
• In July, Alan got me my first (Coach bag & wristlet).
• In September, I bought 2 (Louis Vuitton bags) from Paris.
• In October, I got a Samsonite laptop bag to match my LV and a new phone (Sony Ericsson K850i)
• In December, I got another (Coach bag).

Friendships
I also developed a series of new friendships this year which wouldn't be possible had I not read the book cos I wouldn't even open myself up for any relationships with anyone from work before this... So... I'm glad I did after reading the book... :)

• "A": Got close when we worked on a festival earlier in March. Now I know that if I ever decide to go Hong Kong, I can bunk in at his place...
• "J" & "S": The cute couple who is always lovey dovey unless of course when they are driving... they'll then be bickering non-stop (albeit in a cute manner)... This is a couple that I must introduce to my bf... cos really, they are both really nice and genuine people...
• "C" & "C": My uncle and aunty at work... (who are coincidentally boars) without them, life would be boring... Special thanks to them too for all their wise advise and more importantly, their friendship...
• The list is non-exhaustive but the above are the few people who left a stronger impact on my life... (positive ones of course... hehehe)

So what have I learnt in 2007?

• Astrology predictions that Sheep ranked no.1 is absolutely true (next year will apparently be a tough year for Sheeps... sob sob)
• Power of positive thinking in unveiling all things good in life (which I will need to remind myself to practice everyday in 2008)

That final morning, our morning call was at 7am... Breakfast between 8am till 9am... And then depart hotel at 9am sharp. Guess what time I got up that morning? 9am!!! I scrambled like a mad cow and even had to miss breakfast!!! But the worst thing was, the entire tour was waiting for me!!! Luckily, I packed the night before... otherwise... I'm sure the rest of the tour members will take turns to 'tumbuk' me la... SIGH... I'm so not a morning person.

Anyway, after breakfast (as in after everyone else had breakfast), we were driven to "Tong Ren Tang". In our itinerary, it was supposed to be "Bao Shu Tang" where they sell "Bao Fu-ling" cream that somewhat cured my exzema before... Not sure why, but it was changed to "Tong Ren Tang" and we were told that we're all gonna get "free" foot massages.

In China... nothing comes free (actually, it's the same everywhere)... While massaging your feet, they'll tell you that you are sick here, sick there and will most likely have serious diseases at old age. But fret not, cos they have their super-duper-powderful-powder that you could use to soak your feet in everyday. Use it everyday for 2 months and everything will be FINE!!! All you need to do is pay: RMB600!!! RMB150 per box (they'll recommend you use 2 types at one go for faster effect) x 2 boxes x 2 months. Morons!

From there... we were driven straight to the Pudong International Airport for our flight back to Malaysia! That marks the end of the 9-day, 7-night trip to Shanghai-Suzhou-Nanjing-Wuxi-Hangzhou-Shanghai from 16 Dec 2007 - 24 Dec 2007 !!! :)

And here's a quick summary on the cool rhymes that I picked up from this trip:

Shanghai

• Wai tan mei you tan (Errr, something along the lines of Shanghai Bund with no bun)
• Lu jia jui mei you jui (Lu jia jui is a place... so of course got no mouth la)
• Cheng huang miao bu kan miao (Cheng huang temple but you go there not to visit the temple - it's a shopping square remember...)

Old Shanghai

• Huang jing guar jai cheng yi wai (Wear gold on the outside to show off)
• Chuan ze sui yi chu mai chai (Too fast paced, no time to change thus go marketing in pyjamas)
• Suzhou he sang piao je ma tong kai (Houses too expensive, many families are often crammed into one house... but not enough toilet for everyone, so used "ma tong"...)
• Sang che chang wei bi hou je kuai (Speed of getting on a public transport and getting a seat - faster than a monkey)

Nanjing

• Lao tou pa lao tai (Women in Nanjing are more powerful than men. Men often have to do household chores... not because they are weak but because they love their wives)
• Ya je mai de kuai (Nanjing specializes in "Salt Water Duck" (Xian Xui Ya)... and so they sell a lot of ducks)
• Se tou tang bou tai (Nanjing is also famous for its semi-precious stones)

On "Heads" in General

• Shanghai kan ren tou (man mountain man sea, everywhere)
• Suzhou kan chiao tou (plenty of bridges in Suzhou)
• Nanjing kan se tou (semi-precious stones in abundance)
• Wuxi kern gu tou (Wuxi is famous for its Wuxi 'pai ku')
• Hangzhou kan yar tou (double meaning: tea and pretty ladies)
• Beijing kan chern tou (great walls)
• Xi'an kan fern tou (graves)
• Guilin kan san tou (mountains)

Compared to the Beijing trip I took last year... I didn't learnt as much... Back then I only knew:

On Us Tour Members

• Sang che sui jiao
• Sia che niao niao
• Hui chu sem meh tou wang tiao

On Their Pork

• Fei er bu ni
• Sou er bu chai

Not too bad for a banana like me huh... :)

After breakfast, we took the bus back to Shanghai and on the way, stopped by a "Chrysanthemum Tea Factory". The guy was pushing real hard for us to get the tea leaves (or flower buds in this case) but instead, all of us bought the instant ones called "BaBaoCha"... with chrysanthemum tea, then errr "kei ji", and arrr... some other unknown herbs and most importantly with rock sugar... making it sweet and yummy instead of bitter... :P

In Shanghai, we visited "Tian Mai Jade Shop"... Again, nothing much cos I don't quite like jade... but they taught us the right way to 'sayang' a "Pi Siu" for more wealth luck. Start with the head... then the back... and finally the buttock ("Pi Siu" has no buttock so all the wealth it gathered are accumulated at the buttock)... then put the palm you used to 'sayang' it in your pocket... :)

On our first night in Shanghai, my bf took us to the "Cheng Huang Temple". At that time, we all wondered why we had to take photo in front of the dark entrance of a 'temple'. The taxi driver insisted that we should at least see it and he even said this: "If you've not been to "Cheng Huang Temple", you've not been to Shanghai".

So today when we finally visited it in the day time... imagine our surprise when we found it hustling and bustling with life! "Cheng Huang Temple" is not a temple (don't be misled by the name)! It is in fact a huge supermarket and food bazaar! It even has Star Bucks and Haagen Dazs ok! Hehehe... What was so special about this place was that there was indeed a temple within the shopping area... but the biggest attraction was the beautiful large wooden structures and seemingly handcrafted rooftops that created an ambient of past times!

And at night when the lights were all on... it was even more beautiful and spectacular!!!

All the buildings surrounded a main square with large pond filled with carps! In its middle, there was also this "Yu Yuan" Garden, a calm Chinese garden beautifully illustrating its namesake, which means "peace and quiet" in Chinese.

That night, after dinner, we took a cruise along the "Huangpu River" (Huang Pu Jiang) which literally means the "Yellow Bank River". The boat has 3 floors and we went up to the highest level. It was windy and terribly cold but it also offered the best view of the Pu Dong and Pu See districts along the river.

Pu Dong District comprises of buildings with new architectural style. The "Oriental Pearl TV Tower" (Tung Fang Tian See Ming Chu Ta) was one of the more outstanding ones...

Pu See District on the other hand houses dozens of old colonial and historical buildings that once housed numerous banks and trading houses from Britain, France, U.S, Russia, Germany and more!. The one with the green roof top is called "Peace Hotel" (He Ping Fan Tian) where that dunno what "Mak-Kor" from the drama "Shanghai Tan" was shot dead the minute he stepped out of the hotel...

After that, we were taken to this park which offered the clearest view of "Shanghai Bund" (Wai Tan) for a group shot. The Bund centres on a stretch of the Zhongshan Road, named after Sun Yat-sen (Soong Ching-ling's husband). Zhongshan Road is a largely circular road which formed the traditional conceptual boundary of Shanghai city "proper". To the west of this stretch of the road stands some 52 buildings of various Western classical and modern styles which is the main feature of the Bund. To the east of the road was formerly a stretch of parkland culminating Huangpu Park. This park is the site of the infamous sign reported to have proclaimed "no dogs or Chinese"!!!

The final stop for the night was "Xintiandi". A square with pubs and bistros. Also large shopping mall with gigantic Christmas trees...

Stupid blogger! I had to retype this entire entry cos stupid blogger couldn't post it earlier and when I clicked the "back" button, everything was gone! Damnit!!!

We started the day by taking a cruise along the "West Lake" (Xi Hu). We sat in a boat which is similar to the one featured in this pict.

While we were on board, a local guide introduced us to Hangzhou. One thing for sure, Hangzhou is a famous place for many of its love stories scenes...

• Liang Shan Po and Chuk Ying Tai: Dubbed the butterfly lovers
• Lady White and Xu Xi: Have not heard of their stories before but... the story revolves around how they met at the Broken Bridge and reunited at the Broken Bridge again after suffering lots of hardships

After that, we proceeded to visit another garden with lots of carps... called the "Flower Harbour Park" (Huagang Guang Yu) which is translated as "Viewing Fish in a Flowering Harbour". The garden consists of several sections, such as the the Peony Yard, the Red Fish Pool, the Thick Forest Zone and the New Flower Harbor etc. This park was so famous in Hangzhou that even Emperor Kang Xi of Qing Dynasty visited it some 300 years ago and left a handwritten tablet in honor of the fishes in the park.

We had lunch at this restaurant that has a huge pond next to it... think they rear their own fishes... One thing bout the fishes that we ate in China... they are pretty bony...

After that, we were taken to the "Mei Jia Wu Village" which is a village famous for their tea plantation. The famous Dragon-Well (Long Jing) Tea is grown here.

After that, we visited Hangzhou's (Liu Lang Wen Ying), a place called "Listening to Orioles Singing in the Willows Garden". "Orioles" being birds with yellow and black feathers. However... I don't remember hearing anything... maybe cos it's winter... the birds were probably sleeping... :)

That night, we had a special dinner cos it was the "Tung Je" festival in the Chinese lunar calendar. But instead of the normal "Tang Yuen", we tasted a special kind of "Tang Yuen" with tiny small glutinous balls in sweet, thick broth... So so yummy that I took 3 full bowls...

After dinner, we visited "Qing He Fang Street" (Qing Fe Fang Jie) which was a well-designed old pedestrian street. The original street has been ruined and it recently took on a completely new look after a large-scale restoration. Shops selling art crafts, souvenirs, silk, tea houses, and restaurants line both sides of the street. This street is also otherwise known as the "Snack Street" for the diverse food it serves.

Don't remember doing anything that night. But one thing for sure... I had their "Fang Bian Mian" for supper again... hehehehe...

The following morning, we went to this place called "Li Garden" (Li Yuan) still in Wuxi. The story here is about a guy who not only knows how to fish for himself but also willingly teaches everyone else in the village how to fish for a living. The governor was so pleased with this Li guy that he named his garden after him - hence the name "Li Yuan".

Here there are 4 "pondok" positioned at the North, South, East and West of the lake. At each "pondok", there were different plants cos these "pondok" are used by the governor to enjoy the scenic beauty of the lake and plants in accordance to whether it is spring, summer, autumn or winter...

Then we were brought to this place that makes "Zhi Sha Tea Pot". We were shown a variety of tea pots that were apparently available to us at a special attractive rate (so they say)... I saw a nice 'Zhi Sha' mug which cost RMB900 (RM450). Later on, I saw the same mug at one of the shopping streets in Shanghai retailing for only RMB150 (RM75)... tsk tsk tsk... Lucky thing I didn't buy that damn mug at Wuxi!

After that, we visited the largest "Tai Hu Lake" at Wuxi called: (Tai Hu Yuan Tou Ju). Again, beautiful garden with scenic view next to a lake.

Here at the "Tai Hu Lake", there's also this dragon tortoise, which was said to be Mr. Dragon's youngest son... Toss a coin and make a wish. If the coin lands on the dragon tortoise's shell, your wish will come true...

Then we were hesitantly brought us to this Pearl Shop (cos our "ti pei" - local guide was lazy). Nothing much here, but Ah Ong bought me half a dozen of pearl cream with natural gold and silver essence. :)

Then it was time to leave Wuxi to Hangzhou. What was supposedly a 3-hour journey turned into a 6-hour one!!! Firstly becos it was too foggy, the highway had to be closed and secondly, the bus had a punctured tyre.

We stopped by "Nanxun Water Village" (Nan Xun Sui Xiang) for dinner. The sky was already very dark (sun sets at 5pm). Nanxun is a water village cos it is surrounded by a river in between 2 rows of ancient looking houses. We had "chou tou fu" here. The smelly tauhu was soooooo smelly that no one dared to eat it... it's not the typical fried smelly tauhu but the steamed kind... Only my brother was adventurous enough to take a bite. But only one bite... cos it was waaaay too smelly... hahahaha...

We took a quick walk around the village and were all dressed like Eskimos cos it was drizzling and freezing cold!

After that, we continued our journey to Hangzhou to check in. That night we had supper at one of the small eateries next to our hotel. The shop was a small one... there were only 4 tables in it but the food was superb and cheap too!!!

Before we left, 4 locals came in and ordered 4 duck heads. We all looked bewildered cos nobody eats duck heads in our family... like how exactly do you eat it and what is there to eat lehhh? But ahem... it is a local delicacy... just like how we Malaysians like durians that Hongkies thought smelt like cat poo! Hahaha...

The following morning, we were taken to the see the "Great Wall of Nanjing" called the "Gu Chen Chiang" that was built during the Ming Dynasty. The beauty about this wall is that it is built next to a river / sea (can't remember). Thus from the military defence point of view, it is strategically located. Also, each piece of brick has the supplier's details. Apparently, if the bricks are damaged for whatever reasons, the person who's name is on the brick will be beheaded. And therefore the wall was built on excellent QC standard.

It was exceptionally cold and chilly that morning. The photos seemed rather blur but in actual fact, it was foggy with low visibility.

Then we were taken to a crystal shop which was located within the Great Wall. Here, they specializes in paintings in the crystal sphere. Check out this gigantic crystal ball:

I bought one too... No, not the bigass one. A medium sized one that was drawn by this 'sifu' here. He even penned my name in the orb.

Can't remember his name, but he presented a crystal ball with our ex-PM's portrait drawn with Chinese brush and ink... and donated an expensive piece to the China government for the restoration of the Great Wall of Nanjing. Here's one of his nicest piece within the exhibition hall (in our opinion):

Next stop was to a Jade shop... Nothing much here cos I don't really fancy jade (like so auntie like that)... but my bro and I, we spotted this 'cup'.

In the olden days, there were no football or soccer matches (not until much later), and therefore, the competition is really between crickets (you know... a kind of insect?). So whoever who wins the competition (i.e. the one with the strongest cricket) wins this lizard 'trophy'... 'tah dah'... hehehe... just kidding...

From there, we took the bus to Wuxi... which took us approximately 3 hours. Halfway thru, we needed to pee... and guess what we saw at the mart next to the loo? Rabbit and dog's meat nicely packaged!

First stop at Wuxi... the CCTV's "Movie Land of the 3 Kingdom" (3 Guo Chen). The entire area was super huge and we were ushered to this place to view the 'battle' between Zhuge-liang, Guan Yu, Zhang-fei and Lu Bu, Cao-cao. It was a pretty exciting to watch the 'battle' and these people are really exceptional horse riders!

Then we went for a boat ride across this lake that was often featured in CCTV's drama.

The boat smelt one kind and has no life jacket what-so-ever... kinda scary considering that it's winter. If anything were to happen, we'll most likely freeze to death than drown to death.

The final place was some emperor's bedroom which was also featured in some of the CCTV's drama. The place where the emperor had ahem sex on his wedding night.

That night we had 'Wuxi Pai Ku' for dinner. Cos Wuxi is famous for it's 'pai ku' - "Wuxi kern Gu Tou"... remember? Was it nice? Mmm... I thought it was very nice... :)

Wuxi is quite a small place so that night, we didn't go anywhere but stayed in our hotel rooms and ate their "Fang Bian Mian". And oh, really lor, their instant noodles hor... there's plenty of varieties to choose from. Even the noodles type... 'wantan' mee type, vermicelli and normal maggie mee type. Yum yummm... particularly this brand called "Kang Si Fu".

After breakfast, we visited "Pan Men Gate" in Suzhou. I can't exactly remember why this place is special except that it is a nice park with a bridge that spans across yet another river. That's the problem with bananas you see... I have to pay special attention when the guide is explaining and write my own notes so that I don't forget where I've visited. Sigh...

From there, we were driven to the "Silk Factory" where they specializes in the production of silk blanket (Chan Si Bei). Here, we were shown the process of making silk pillows and blankets:

• To make silk pillows (refer step 1 and 2): Put cocoon in a pot of hot water and stir clockwise or anti-clockwise to find the head. With the head of the thread, hang it on the machine. The machine will bounce up and down to gather the silk. This kind of thread is only suitable to make pillow cases.
• To make blankets, (refer step 3, 4 and 5): Look for cocoons made by 2 silk worms instead of 1. Stretch it across a rattan "n" shape. Then gather and hang it to dry. 4 person then stretch the dried silk threads into a full piece. Unlike cotton, silk threads are very strong and sturdy. You can stretch it however you want, but it will remain in its original stretched stage.

Then we proceeded to have lunch. After lunch, we walked around the factory and found a nice looking pagoda. Only when I came back, I realised that the pagoda's located in main town center and was first built in the third century AD, and rebuilt in 1582.

From the "Silk Factory", we took another bus journey to "Nanjing" which took us approximately 2 hours from "Suzhou". The first stop was to "Nanjing Ta Tu Sa" - The memorial hall of the victims in Nanjing massacre by Japanese invaders. When the Japanese invaded Nanjing (the capital of China back then before Beijing), they killed 300,000 of the people in Nanjing and buried them (some alive). This memorial was newly renovated and reopened a week before our arrival; December 13 to commensurate the anniversary of the disaster.

The "Disaster of the Ancient City" - The sculptures, composed of a ruined wall, a broken saber, a historical bridge, a head and arm of a victim, an ever burning fire and cobblestones symbolizes the countless bleached bones of the dead and have the implied meaning that later generations standing on the bridge of history should recollect the massacre that happened in 1930s.

Within the memorial hall, there were also specimen of the bones found at the mass grave... Some of the skulls have bullet holes in them, others have nails in between the joints of their arms and legs... No one was spared... males, females, young or old... It was such a terrifying and sad sight... that one could only imagine the kind of terror and pain the victims at Nanjing went through.

This memorial was created not just to mourn the death of the 300,000 victims in Nanjing but also serve as a reminder that we should all strive for world peace. Prior to us exiting the memorial, there was this huge symbol of peace.

After that, we visited the "Chang Jiang Bridge". This bridge has dual usage. Train tracks at the lower level and highway on the upper level. The Chinese are particularly proud of this bridge as it was built in an era where such bridges were never made nor seen before. Even foreigners doubted the ability of China in building such bridges.

That night, we visited "Fu Zi Temple" (Confucius Temple). It is a shopping street but within it, a Confucius Temple (hence it's name). The area around the temple consists of a series of tourist shops, snack bars, restaurants and tea cafes which appeared to be in the architectural style of the Ming and Qing style.

Later in the night, we visited another cybercafe in Nanjing on our own. This time round, it was slightly more expensive. RMB2 (RM1) per hour but with twin sofa seats.

And that marked the end of our third day...

The Soong sisters are very famous in China because their husbands are China's most significant political figures in the 20th century.

• Soong Ai-ling: The eldest and the one who "loved money," was married to the richest man and finance minister of China; H.H. Kung
• Soong Ching-ling: The one who "loved China," was married to the Father of Modern China and first President of the Republic of China; Sun Yat-sen
• Soong May-ling: Youngest and the one who "loved power," was married to the leader of the Kuomintang, Generalissimo of the Chinese armies, and later President' Chiang Kai-shek

This morning after breakfast, we visited the grave of "Soong Ching-ling" - the mother of China.

Her parents were also buried here along side with her. And although the Soong sisters are famous, powerful and wealthy... they produced no descendants. It was believed that the bombing of their parents' graves in the earlier days (due to some political reasons) destroyed their otherwise good feng shui.

From there, we took a 3-hour journey by bus to "Suzhou". The funny but fascinating thing bout Mandarin is that, some words can have multiple meanings and everything under the sun can be made into rhymes. Take the following for instance:

• Beijing "kan Chen Tou" (fortes)
• Xi'an "kan Fern Tou" (graves)
• Gui Lin "kan Shan Tou" (mountains)
• Shanghai "kan Ren Tou" (humans)
• Nanjing "kan Se Tou" (rocks)
• Wuxi "kern Gu Tou" (bones)
• Hangzhou "kan Yar Tou" (teas)

So what's there in "Suzhou"? "Suzhou kan Chiao Tou" (bridges). There are plenty of bridges here as within the city, it is not uncommon to find that streets and rivers go side by side, while water and land routes run in parallel". Historically Suzhou is a remarkable place which is rich in outstanding talents and natural resources and the city is often praised as "the earthly heaven" for its fully developed traditional culture and its scenic gardens. There is a saying that compares Suzhou and Hangzhou with Heaven. "Sang You Tian Tang, Xia You Su Hang" translated as "In heaven there is paradise. On earth there are Suzhou and Hangzhou". (Su = Suzhou, Hang = Hangzhou). Our first stop of the day was to the "Lake of Jinji" (Jinji Hu).

The entire place was peaceful, serene and relaxing except for a bunch of psychotic fellas who crammed themselves into a telephone booth...

From there, we proceeded to the "Classical Gardens of Suzhou". Here we visited a mansion... which was of course damn huge, damn nice and damn luxurious (by olden days' standard) with a scenic view, nice garden, beautiful rock garden and nice bridges for photo taking.

The best part was... when we left the mansion, we had to take a boat ride out... Again... it is surrounded by water... (sui). The old lady who rowed out boat even entertained us a few songs...

After that we proceeded to the "Guan Chien Jie" - another happening shopping streets that sell a variety of apparels, imitation goods, food and snacks etc etc. We tried the KFC here... and was pleasantly surprised to find it nicer than the ones in KL. The chicken was somewhat juicier, more tender and saltier. :)

That night, we walked to a cyber cafe located opposite our hotel. The rates are damn cheap... RMB1 per hour (RM0.50). Here there are smoking section and none smoking ones. We sat at the smoking ones which was of course dirtier but not just with ashes but with "kuaci" shells everywhere... hehehe...

And ohhh... beer is very cheap too... RMB3 (RM1.50) for a big bottle (but not branded one la... some unknown Chinese brand)...