Bathing area in the ancient time

After my "horrible" encountered after my shower, we visited the bathing area of the royal family....华清池....we were told that 杨贵妃 used to bath there...how nice...the bathing area is huge....it is said that 杨贵妃 had body odour, that's why she constant came to wash herself..of coz it could be false...it's just the chinese belief that no one is perfect..she couldnt be a beauty without flaws....ever heard of 四大美女？well, each of them had their own flaw "created"...one had small shoulder, thin earlope, body odour and big feet...how interesting...anyway, i was impressed by how intelligent ppl were from the ancient times....they had "bath tub" as big as swimming pool or personal sauna....now i know who invented bath tubs and sauna...hehehe...and they even had steam room~~~ooh, i forgot to take pics of it....after hot bath, they usually would stay in a room...but because of cold weather, there was no heater then...so what they did is they created a shallow drain around the room and let the hot spring water in~~~BRAVO BRAVO!!!

This is yang gui fei's personal bath tub...it is a shape of lotus flower...so pampered~~

Guess what i am trying to show....no idea? look at the pagoda...it looks like a normal pagoda now but in the past, it used to be more important....it used to be yang gui fei's pagoda where she dried her hair...晒头发

Bottom pic: 温泉的来源

Ancient swimming pool~~~:

Performance area:

秦史皇 rules~~~

Back to the past~~~have you ever seen Emperor Qin doing the peace sign like this? (^^)y I HAVE...haha...this guy even did 007 pose...it's ashamed that i didnt take the pics..coz he was surrounded by people...aaahhh, he must have felt like a star~~~hee hee hee

Boogey trap!!

My close encounter with with BOOGIE~~~ I woke up at 715am on the saturday that i was in Xi'an...getting ready for our adventure with terrocotta and qing shi huang~~~our taxi driver was gonna pick us up at 8am and we had to have our breakfast before we left....i got up and went for a bath...aAAAhhh, i tried the sauna, tried the massage then showered....it was amazing how i could do all these in 10 minutes!!! So i got out from my amazing shower and took the towel...was wiping my face dry when i saw something on the towel...it was a BOOGIE~~~~ @_@ ya, you read correctly, BOOGIE!! AKA 鼻粪 （米田共），human's remain, pi sai (hokkien), pi si (hakka), nose shit (english), tahi hidung (malay), be si (cantonese) etc etc etc....deep inside, i wish it was mine....determined to find out whose it was....i used my index finger and digged at it...OMG OMG...it was kinda stuck on the towel !@#$%^& @_@ IT WASN'T MINE~!!! i almost puked...GROOOoooosssssSSSSSsss

(this is me when i found out the TRUTH)

My 1st reaction, dropped the towel on the floor, washed my finger and rewashed my face...dried my face with tissue paper instead...from then on, i checked all of my towels...

(this is me when i dropped the towel)

BTW, M saw a rat in the hotel restaurant~~ im sure it wasn't REMY from ratatouille...hehe...oh well, it was a fun trip overall...the boogey gave M and me a fun laugh...haha...^^ didnt tell ina coz i think ina would faint or just laughed so hard lol

(this is M when she laughed at my close encounter~~~)

interesting signs

Found these at Xi'an Ancient gate....how interesting~~~hehehe...we played around a little :p HEY, i didnt know i could do it so perfectly~~~ ^^ nice, informative sign...the pic says it all..it means going down the staircase...or use staircase to descend...no lift and elevator available...please walk...No rolling down the stairs, no running, no jumping...hehhe... Wonder what this means...no climbing on the wall? wuahahaha..

food in xi'an

This looks like a turtle~~~it's made of seaweed and egg roll and surrounded by raddish...yum yum..this dish is supposed to represent wealth and long life. the middle thingie looks like the ancient coin = wealth...the whole thing looks like a turtle = long life....COOL~~ This looks like normal xiao long bao (小笼包） heck no, they are 灌汤包...made from beef...weird...the 1st time i had beef xiao long bao...they tasted...well...beefy...wuwahahaha...they even had mutton...i couldnt imagine the taste and i don't want to know~~~@@ This is the famous shop for serving xi'an's famous muslim food....泡沫羊膜....it's soup with mutton and bread crumbs...look below for my yummy lunch...it is only RMB7...i had beef one instead~~~i am not a fan of mutton...Sorry mMMmmek mmMMmmek There are still alot of pics i didnt post...those pics are still with Ina~~~ we went to one shop along the "islamic street" (回民街) and saw alot of BBQ outside..instantly, we got attracted and went in....the moment we stepped in, i had goosebump all over coz the floor was sOOOoo dirty and oily...i felt like i was sliding instead of walking...i think the place makes a perfect place for "ice" skating practice....it was dirty but food was good....we didnt dare to touch the menu too...we did a good deed tat night, Ina and I translated the shop's menu into english, printed out the next day and hand delivered to the boss...(it's a LOooong story why we did it)

Terrocotta and me

Pictures say them all~~~ (me standing at the entrance, feeling excited about seeing terrocotta that i have always seen on TV and movies. HOo Hoo, i'm going in~~~ follow me...) (left: me, centre: ina, right: M) haha...M and I had same shirt on...we didnt know that Xi'an was so cold...M only brought tanks and shorts and i brought short sleeves shirt and jeans...so we went shopping the night before...M and I like the same shirt and Ina wanted to be unique...hehe..just kidding...she just liked the shiny cherry on her chest~~ hiak hiak hiak.... this is the horses and cart they found in the burial...they were made of gold and copper....wow, expensive~~~and on the horses, there are rings made of gold and silver...it's still a mystery of how the ppl made the ring with gold and silver as both of these elements are not supposed to mix so well~~~impressive....

wow Wow WOW~~~ thousands of soldiers!!! im getting dizzy, very very dizzy....it's just like wha we saw on discovery channel... Me P/s: in Xi'an, you need to pay entrance fee for all places you visit~~could understand why...they need more fund for all this....oh yeah, a lot of ppl thought we are students...and asked us which school we go to...i told them we all got suspended!! haha...i was the only one among the 3 of us who got student fare...don be jealous ina...hiak hiak hiak...my USELESS friend said we look more like 留级生 @_@

lucky me

was in Xi'an the weekend before i went to seoul....i was so excited, my friend ina joined me in Xi'an all the way from HK *touched*...my colleague joined me...W was supposed to come, but he had some last minute changes that he had leave Qingdao...too bad W...you have our sympathy :p My colleague and I were upgraded to executive room due to unavailability of our deluxe room...initially, the reception told us to move to our deluxe room the next day, i frowned and said: "WHY? we won't stay around tomorrow just so that we could change room!!! i booked my room in advance and now you don't have a room to give me, whose fault is it?" then she said we could keep the room..YAY (^^)y the room is sOOOoo big, with two bathrooms, a living room, a big bedroom and my other bathroom has a BIG bathtub with massage and sauna system...COOL~~~was enjoying my room while waiting for Ina...finally, ina arrived...she told me she has been upgraded too...to suite i think...ina came to visit....and she realised that my room is much better than hers...so we went to visit hers...oh well, ina, all i could say is, you made M and me felt very lucky...hehehe.... This is the view outside my room:

where did my money go?

Now you see

Now you don't...heheh..actually, it turned into some of this

kimchi

I have a partime job these days....i always carry my digital camera with me....money well spent, i have fully utilised it...hehe and i love my camera..without it, i would have lost alot of memories and wouldnt be able to share my joy and experience with my friends :) *applaud to my Fujifilm digital camera* (^^)p

In korea, ppl don say CHEEESSSEEEEEeeeee~~ they say KIMCHI instead...this is the effect of saying Kimchi while the photo is taken....i said KIMCHI but my sis said "bler" instead...hahahah

(left: peace, right: yo yo baby)

Gyeongbokgung

it was raining cats and dogs (meow meow, woof woof) in seoul during my weekend visit....i didnt know tat there was typhoon nearby, luckily it didnt spoil my trip...but really sympathised the victims in that area (".) i didnt do much in seoul...took quite long to go to places so i picked a few places that are worth going....on sat morning, my sis was busy, so i went to gyeongbukgung (korean palace)..i went to forbidden city in beijing, so i tot it's only right to visit the palace of a country...GYEONGBUKGUNG (AKA 景福宫 in chinese...the name may sound familiar to some ppl..sounds like KTV or some place with illegal business..^^)....it is a big palace....looks like a chinese palace, even wordings are in chinese...it is a nice palace but compared to forbidden city, it's more 平民...it cost me W3,000 to get in, nothing much to see but a row of buildings and imitations of chinese architecture....and they even had performance to demonstrate how the "security guards" change shift like dono how many hundreds or thousands years ago....Woooo, so that is what they did...hehehe.... (korean subway station, saying gyeongbokgung in korean too)

(don't play play with me~~~i have a sword!!!)

Change of guard shift "ceremony" (i wanted to put the video of the ceremony on, but it has already taken me 60mins to upload...i'm fed up...so no 眼福 for you guys :p i'm fed up and have decided to cancel the process~~~)

My dream came true

Finally~~~my dream has come true....i have been planning my trip to Seoul for the past months and something always happened...when i was still struggling to decide where to go on my last weekend in QD, one night, i received an MSN from my sister, inviting me to go to SEOUL~~~ i was SOOOooo happy and i quickly purchased and flew to Seoul the next day~~~i was very x 100000000000000 excited...as usual, i took my red backpack and boarded myself...

After 1 hr & 20 mins, i was finally there....WOW, koreans~~~ just like the faces we saw on TV...everywhere is korean - the ppl, the signboards, the language, the etc etc...the airport looks a bit like HKIA, but in korean...hehehe....i took a bus to my sis's place...it was raining so hard that day....but the city is very nice....i exchanged some korean wons at the airport, i felt like a millionaire...i have W150,000 on me!!! tat's a lot of money (in fact, that is only equivalent to HKD150) ^^ my bus ride is the most expensive ride i have ever taken in my whole life...it cost me EIGHT THOUSAND bucks!!!! i feel so rich yet so poor :p everything cost at least ONE THOUSAND in korean....i remember i paid 16 thousand for my lunch @@..yup, i had problem with my math everytime i made my purchase....i thought it was cheap coz i divide the currency my 1K instead of 100. my CD cost 12,000 and i thought it is HKD12...after i paid, i realised it is HKD120 instead...but too late~~~ (i'm millionaire in Korea but poor in reality~~~)

你同不同意？

我们有一个朋友非常自恋，不是说自己长得像莫莫明星，就是长得比普通人要好看。那天去了郑州，发现龙门石窟很多石雕的佛像不是被破坏(不是头不见，就是脸不见）就是风化了。好可惜。话说回来，当我在拍照时，我这位朋友又开始自己称赞自己了。。。哈哈，我想也不想就说，对啊，你的确是一个好景点。这时他已有点飘飘然，因为我很少称赞他。还来不及享受被赞的滋味，我有加了一句， “你就像被破坏和风化的景点...” 哈哈哈。只有一个字 “狠！！！”

（aahhh, isn't him more handsome like this? ^^)

功夫小子

This is 童子功 performed by shaolin expert :) he is so cute..when he performed, everyone ran to the stage to take picture and video :) isnt him adorable? he is little Jet Li (Hoo!! Ha!! Hoo! Ha!

SHAOLIN Temple

少林寺 AKA Shaolin temple…it reminds me of 少林足球 and 十八罗汉….the thought of seeing the real thing makes me so excited…after visiting dono how many temples (in china, beside eating, the other must do thing is visiting all kinds of temple)…well, they are pretty interesting and quite pretty too…but when u visit 4 or 5 in a day, that’s a bit too much for me…but I like the places…what I hate most is, ppl using religion to earn money…I remember in one temple, the tour guide taught us the proper way of worship and after that, she said the monks who are specially trained would “help” us a bit for free…so we all Q up for “freebies”…it turned out that they are doing a bit of fortune telling…when it was my turn, they told me the good things 1st, then the bad and asked me to try to “destroy” it by burning some incest…..and they told me that the price is RMB999. I rejected them but at the same time I felt guilty…this is wat I hate the most…. Shaolin temple is very BIG and to me, a bit commercialized…couldn’t believe I was actually there..the world’s famous temple :) it was a really nice place, very touristy…we didn’t have enough time to thoroughly go through the place…

(the "towers" are actually the tomb of the leader of the temples..they look pretty scare-less :p)

(hoo hoo, that's me~~)

(如来神掌~~~)

(Phone booth at Shaolin temple, very the shaolin..hehe)

(童子功)

Zhengzhou – part 2

We went to 龙门石窟 the next day….it is 3 hrs away from city of zhengzhou…it’s actually nearer to luo yang already…was mostly asleep in the car…went with a tour and this gal sitting beside me..GOSH, I feel like shaking her awake for 3 HOURS…I was sitting in the front with this “sleeping beauty”…She was sleeping for the whole journey and her head kept falling on my shoulder, which I didn’t like and I pushed her away for millions of time…I got angry and woke her up to ask her to sit further coz I had no space and asked her to watch out for her head…for the final half hr, I was finally enjoying my dream :) The place was so MAGNIFICENT!!!! Couldn’t believe what ppl from 5000 yrs ago could do..the whole mountain is a piece of art!!! so proud to be chinese~~~Looks like beehives to me..and in each of the window, there is at least a buddha…what is amazing is that there are a lot of small buddhas carved on the side of the wall as well….it was breathtaking….indescribable…let me illustrate in pics :)

(Beehives like mountain....all with buddha(s) in them)

(Main attraction!! they looked so real~~)

The cuisine is very unique too…it’s famous for 水席…everything is in soup….yum yum

(water banquet - everything in water, very yummy~~)

This is our dinner in Zhengzhou for the nite…yummy yummy too..hey, don swallow ur monitor…well, tat’s coz I almost swallowed mine…hehhehe

(part of our dinner - fried tofu with fish, peking duck, their specialty - mutton handmade noodles)

Zheng Zhou 郑州 - part 1

This is a place that I haven’t heard of..yup, I admit, my geography is not very good~~~ was deciding where to go for 1st weekend, I even brought my CHINA dictionary all the way from HK and kept referring to it….had to leave on fri, but it was already wed that my colleague and I had not made up our mind…gosh…worst come to worst, go to Haerbin…not that Haerbin is bad, just that it’s not winter yet, so there would be nothing to see….on Thursday, my colleague suggested Zhengzhou..without checking, we just booked our ticket and hotel!!! I “worked OT” the night before just to find out wat’s there to see…turned out there are a lot of things to see…. 1. It used to be capital city of China for a few dynasties; 2. it is 关公’s home and final home; 3. could see yellow river; 4. 3 hrs++ drive from Zhengzhou was Luo yang where there are a lot of attractions; 5. food is unique, delicious and cheap; 6. 1.30 hr ++ from Zhengzhou is 少林寺 (Shaolin temple) and other temples; and 7. ETC Day 1 (fri nite) While browsing the web the nite before, I read a lot of comments on how CUNNING ppl from zhengzhou are…so on fri nite, we took a taxi from airport to our hotel…we told the driver the name of the hotel and his 1st reaction was: WOW, that’s the best hotel in Zhengzhou!! I was afraid that he would try to dig $$ because of that, so when he asked us if we have been here before, we quickly said YES!!! We wanted to rent a taxi for a day the next day to go places, so we asked how much he charged…he said without thinking: RMB1,000!! @_@ WHHHAAAaattt??? Do we look like 水鱼? I said, WHAT? It’s more expensive than my ticket to Zhengzhou…so we said, no thanks…then he said he could take us for RMB500…we were very disappointed in him already, so we rejected him. Still too expensive….we were in the taxi for 40 mins already and it seems like a never ending journey, so we asked him how long to go to reach the hotel, he said another 30 mins!!! We didn’t trust him, so we called the hotel to ask…the driver quickly told us, there’s another 10 mins…I was a bit pissed, so I said, I thought u just said 30 mins??? Oh well, we reached our hotel safely…tat’s the most important part J TO BE CONTINUED (City centre of Zhengzhou) (My room part 1)

long time no see

Haven't been updating my blog for 3 weeks++ it's getting outdated, i know and all of you are getting tired of logging into my page already....knowing how long i have abandoned you guys, that's why i am planning to tell you everything that has happened to me for the past few weeks...alot of things have happened....期待~~~