What I've been up to …

While we were busy with Nafis at Taylor’s College, Nukman’s school was having an Open Day yesterday. Lucky for us, Bok had agreed to go with Aina.

They didn’t just go as visitors, but they brought with them Wii, to help Nukman and friends man a games corner.

Nukman & Aina:

Bok & Nukman giving a demo:

Aspiring band members:

They even had karaoke with the “band”:

apart from the Wii, they also had PS2 and PS3:

While the kids were enjoying indoor, Aina told me that there was also a pony-ride corner:

A final pose, before the Tai-ko takes the stuff home, I guess:

Aina even managed to take a shot of the collection of the day for the Wii:

Sorry Mae Mama could not come, but I am sure you had a wonderful day yesterday .

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Yesterday we went to register Nafis for his college studies at Taylor’s College, Subang Jaya.

The day schedules for various programmes :

The registration yesterday was for sponsored students by JPA, MARA and Bank Negara. Nafis was indeed very lucky to have managed to secure a MARA loan to take up Actuarial Science via the American Degree Transfer Programme .

The queue for the initial registration at the far end of the pic:

While waiting for Nafis, I looked down:

Some of the programmes offered at the college:

There was a briefing by the Dean of the ADP programme (no pic) followed by the briefing on accomodation.

Finally it was the briefing by a MARA representative, who’ll be in-charge of the MARA-sponsored students here:

Both DH and I managed to be early for the free lunch at the college, but Nafis had to surrender some documents, so by the time he was ready to have lunch, it was too congested. We then took him to the nearby McD for his lunch:

We left him at the entrance of his apartment and came home. Nafis later came home with Bok, who went to fetch him. Later tonight we have to send Nafis back to his apartment because his programme will start first thing tomorrow morning!

Good luck, Nafis.  Do not let us and the country down.

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It’s not really new, because I made it over a month ago, or maybe even over 2 months ago, I can’t really remember. I forgot to blog earlier.

The fabric was bought online. I thought the musical instrument design is appropriate for the bag that she puts her music books whenever she goes for her music class.

I didn’t forget to include a pocket inside:

Oh, yes, the inner lining has loads of musical notes . It’s the leftover fabric from her old (sling) bag that I made her in Feb 2009:

I am quite happy with the new bag, and I think so is Aina . Let’s have another view of it:

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It was 20th June 2010, our final day there.

We started the day by exploring the subway. I have to say exploring, because, after we entered the “Nanjing East” station we had to do a lot of reading/exploring to find out how to purchase the tickets. Luckily the ticket vending machines have the option for “English”.

Turning the medium to English is one thing. The next thing is to identify the stations on the subway map with the map that we had with us. We finally figured out the destination (can’t remember exactly the station name) but we were going to the Shanghai Expo 2010 grounds.

The tickets were 4 yuan one way each. We also had to change trains at one of the stations. After trying the subways in Korea & Tokyo (where we could hardly read the language/signs), I think the Shanghai subway system is pretty modern. One of the lines has new coaches, and it was indicated on the LED screen where we were, with blinking lights!

We decided not to enter the Expo ground because we didn’t have enough time. We also figured out that we came to Shanghai to get to know Shanghai and not to visit booths of other countries, many of which we have visited. We were also informed that the booths/pavilions are so congested that visitors had to queue up for long hours just to enter each of them. If I have 1 whole week in Shanghai, I think I’d come to the expo ground daily and take my own sweet time to savour visit each pavillion/booth.

Here are some pix of me at the Expo grounds.

By the way, did I tell you that they have direct access from the subway station to the expo grounds?

With flags of the participating countries/organisations:

With the Chinese Pavillion as the background:

It looks like my headgear here:

One striking (coloured) billboard:

We came back to the hotel in time to check out, and then we took the subway again to Shanghai South Railway Station.

Shanghai South Railway Station certainly fascinated me! It’s like a huge umbrella. At first look, it could easily be mistaken for an airport!

We thought it might be sensitive to take pictures, so we discretely took a couple pix using our handphones. We however saw some groups actually took their pix, with flash too!

Anyway, here’s me:

The station has a few levels (for departures and arrivals). Even the different types of express trains (I know of T, and D, D being the fastest) have different levels for boarding! Let’s see the tickets again for both types of espress trains:

The centre of departure level, with people going to their respective platforms (which are on a lower level and could not be seen):

It was only a normal Sunday evening. Can you imagine how crowded it would be during the rush for the Chinese?Lunar New Year holidays?

After loitering for a couple of hours, we eventually figured out that our departure was not even on this level. WE had to take the escalator down, and enter the platform form the lower level. Once in the train, it was much more comfy that the train ride 2 days earlier. I politely obliged for a final photo shoot :

Less than 2 hours later we arrived at the Hangzhou Station. We took a cab to the airport, and waited for out 11.20pm flight back to LCCT. We arrived in LCCT 5 hours later!

You may want to read my blog on The day before if  you’ve not done so.

THE END.

to be continued…

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It was Sunday, 20th June 2010. It was our only full day in Shanghai.

First was to get our tickets for the following day’s return trip to Hangzhou. We were lucky that we got the fast D train trip.

We then walked on the opposite direction towards the Bund again (we were there the night before).

It was hazy and hot too, but some people, just like us,  were not deterred:

I tried to read the map, to identify the buildings along the street (not in the picture), like this one:

We then decided to walk towards the ferry jetty.

and found the ticket counter:

It was for the ferry service plying between both sides of the river. We decided not to take up any of the touristic cruises (which normally are packaged together with meal/lunch/dinner which are mostly non-halal anyway) and try this local ferry.

It costs 2 yuans per trip, and here’s our ferry:

Inside the ferry:

We arrived at the other side of the river, bought our return tickets and took the same ferry back to where we were initially!

After the ferry ride, we did a bit more walking, until the heat was just too unbearable that we decided to go back to our hotel.

We only came out again in the evening for another stroll along the famous East Nanjing Street Mall.

It was a very very busy place, being a Sunday evening:

We were looking for the halal restaurant:

Instead we came across a saxophonist who played from one of the balconies facing the mall, while some others danced to his tune:

We did spot the halal restaurant, but since it was still quite early for dinner, we decided to walk further to People’s Park:

I took a quick rest, before walking back to the mall, and headed to the halal restaurant which was on the 10th floor of a building.

A friendly waiter greeted us, and whispered to us that the chicken and ducks are not halal, but mutton and beef are.

So we ordered our dishes, but since it was peak hours, and the restaurant was 3/4 full (I counted the tables, and concluded that it could easily accommodate 30 pax at any time!

When we almost gave up, our dish finally arrived:

After dinner, we walked back to the Bund, and spent some time there before we decided to go back to our hotel.

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After the morning stroll at Hangzhou’s West Lake, we checked out from our hotel and took a cab to Hangzhou Railway Station.

That was my first experience taking a train in China, and I was fascinated by the size of the station (no pic). Buying the tickets was tricky. We couls not understand Mandarin and the cashier didn’t understand English. With some help from the information counter girl, we found out the fast train was sold out. Luckily we managed to get onto a slower, but still express train.  It cost us 29 yuan, instead of the expected 65 yuan for the fast train.

DH took a pic of tickets for both ways:

The Hangzhou ticket is the one at the top. We couldn’t understand anything except that K8356 is the name of the train journey (like the flight number). We could see the date  and time too. The other numbers on the far right we figured out to be the coach number (18) and the seat number (in this case, seat no.10).

We arrived at the Shanghai South Railway Station almosr 3 hours later (the train journey was supposed to be only 2.5 hours). It was the peak hours, and for a Friday evening, the statino was surely congested. Since we had saved on the cheaper train tickets, we decided to take a cab from the railway station to our hotel.

At certain juntions, there were LCD screens indicating which routes are congested and which are not. Here’s one of them:

Anyway, we arrives safely at our Manhattan Business Hotel. What a name, but it’s in a good location, being very near to the Bund.

That night we visited the Bund – full of people and lights were in full blast!

Trying to get a spot where there were less people:

A slightly different angle:

It was still very early dusk, and yet there were so many people, and the crowd was still building up:

Across the Huang Pu River, it was more spectacular:

The Aurora building on the right was like a huge screen, changing the image/video from time to time:

Here’s the Aurora building with “I Love Shanghai”:

The Shanghai Tower too had some light show. The cruising boats looked like they were trying to outdo each other:

After a while we got bored, and decided to visit the nearby mall – East Nanjing Street. I had never seen sooo many people in my life!! Even Hong Kong was not that crowded when I visited it (2000). There were traffic lights, and traffic duty-man, but both vehicles and pedastrians alike, hardly follow the lights..

Too overwhelmed by the crowd, and getting more tired, we eventually called the night off.

Next: Shanghai – Day 2

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On Thursday (17th June) night we arrived at out hotel, Ramada Plaza, in Hangzhou, at about midnight.

When I woke up the following morning, I was pleased to see bamboos growing outside my window,  in the courtyard:

Even the banana tree bears some delicious fruits!

Hang on! On close inspection, I was disappointed to find out that they were all immitations (OK, maybe the bamboo stems are real):

Who else in the world are good at immitating stuff, but the Chinese!  Yeah, even the banana trees are immitations!

After breakfast, we found ourselves strolling towards the nearby West Lake:

The West Lake must be Hangzhou’s pride. Breathtaking view:

I thought Kay was here some time ago, and I tried to find the boyfriend statue that Kay posed with. Instead I found this:

And here’s the description of the statues:

Another view of the lake:

Walking along the lake, I came to this part where I couldn’t resist having my picture taken:

We were earlier at the building you see in the background!

Here’s another nice shot:

We actually walked for over 2km along the lake to come to the beautiful bridge:

That’s the same bridge you see in the 4th pic above (and the picture was taken using a zoom lens).

Here’s me walking on the bridge:

We then walked back to where we were before, and walked further to the left (we walked to our right, earlier), and came across this nice boat:

We also came across a stone-carved map of the city:

Soon it was time to go back to our hotel, because we need to catch a train to Shanghai. Walking back to the hotel, we came across Bentley showroom:

The Chinese surely have strong buying power!

Soon our brief stay of Hangzhou ended. I think Hangzhou is a nice clean city, by the look of the roads I passed by, like this one:

Next: Shanghai!

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About 2 weeks ago, Nuni bought me this book, “Falling Leaves” by Adeline Yen Mah:

(pic from Adeline Yen Mah’s site)

Last sunday night I finished reading it. It’a a great book. It was another an -unput-downable book, just like the Wild Swan, by Jung Chang. I think I am always facinated by Chinese female writers, especially when it is a  biography and involves hardship in their lives.

Now a friend is reading it and a few others are in the wait-list!

It somehow made me want to write about me too, hahaha!!!

Thank you, Nuni for the book!

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The day after the reunion dinner, I decided to give the resort, or rather the nearby hot spring a visit:

First it was the dipping pool:

As I entered the pool, the water got warmer and warmer. The warmest part was the place where the hot spring water came into the pool:

It was nice to just sit stand in the water:

It was still early, and there were not many visitors:

When we were about to leave, Ninie came. I saw the open shower water, so I decided to give it a try, as Ninie looked on:

Looking back as we were leaving:

I then joined some of my former students dipping the feet in the 42-50C water:

I couldn’t keep my feet still in the water – it was too hot to my comfort!

I then went to a place where they boiled eggs:

The guide there told me the granite around the (almost boiling) water was hot and good for walking/standing on it, so I gave it a try :

It sure was relaxing to my legs!

Soon it was time to get back to our room and get ready to check out.

The view of the resort as we walked back from the hot spring:

We packed our stuff, and checked out before noon.

And here’s the front view:

When we got home, I immediately tried to book the place for the current school holidays but it was already fully booked! I’ll surely come back to this place one day:

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That’s exactly the title of the gathering.

Date: 22nd – 23rd May 2010

Venue: Sg Klah Hot Springs, aka Felda Residence.

It was a gathering of my former students (of Sek Men Teknik, Persiaran Brash, Ipoh) who sat for their SPM in 1987. They are due to turn 40 years old this year, hence the title “Grand” reunion.

I certainly had a great time.

I arrived at the resort at about 3pm on 22nd May (Saturday). I went with DH, Nafis & Aina. It was a long awaited meet with my fellow students. When I was given the key to the room, I passed it to DH, and decided to stay on with the registration team, to greet others who came later.

It was really nice to see my former students. Some I remember their faces, some were quite difficult to recall their faces. However after a while, the faces became familiar again…

In the afternoon, we (yes me too!) changed into the uniform t-shirts for the group photo session. I like the t-shirt very much, especially its front:

The first official group photo:

(photo by Faizul)

A more relaxed version here:

The photos above do not reflect the number of attendees because many more arrived later. In total 75 former students came for the dinner that night! There was 2 other group photos. I’ll upload later once I got them from the cameramen.

After the photo session (above), they had several telematch games for both the attendees and their families. I spent most of the time catching up with those we were not participating in the game at any one time.

Here’s a pic of me with some of the “girls”:

(Photo by Rozita)

Later in the evening, a few others arrived.

We then had another round of group photo:

Here’s the group photo taken before the dinner:

Another version:

That night we had dinner together. I was given the honour (I certainly feel very honoured) to give a speech. I tried my best to keep my speech within the given 5 mins (thanks to training by Dale Carnegie I think I kept to the given time). There were some gift exchange, lucky draws and  karaoke.

I was taken by surprise when the MC invited me to accept a gift from them!

It’s a bonsai – to reflect resilience and longevity!

Oh, did I mention karaoke? Most of those who sang, sang songs of 1980s, i.e. their school days era. Towards the end of the session (it was past midnight!), some of them were brave enough to attempt to sing “Fantasia Bulan Madu”! All the pitches were off and went to the sea!! Hahaha!

When the resort people finally  closed the cafe, it was almost 1am. We then adjourned our gathering to the nearby park, occupying some of the tables in the park. We continued talking, and some of us had a sing-along session with two of them taking turns playing the guitar!

We actually called the night (should I say dawn?) off at 3am…

My heartmost thank you goes to the  almni of SMTI 1986-1987 for inviting me to join them. I had a swell time with them. I hope the feeling is mutual…

Finally, I’d extend my thanks to Rozita, Faizul and Kamal for letting me use their photos in this blog entry.

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