25th November - Hangzhou, Shanghai

Today as u might have predicted was the best sleep i've ever had. Pity though because we had to leave early in the morning so we could visit a few sightseeing destinations before heading back to Shanghai. Since we didn't use the breakfast coupons for breakfast the hotel let us use it for the hotel bakery, that's where i stumbled upon these:

OK, so perhaps its not such a big deal, but I've NEVER SEEN THEM IN CHINESE before so let me be! XD


First stop was Liu He Pagoda. Liu He Pagoda is a really old chinese pagoda which was destroyed and rebuilt several times.

From the outside appearance the pagoda looks like a 13 storey pagoda. When a pagoda is built, it is either 13 stories for royalty or 7 stories for commoners. In the case of Liu He Pagoda, the outward appearance of the pagoda shows 13 stories whereas inside it only has 7 stories. So don't ask me what it means - i don't know. Katy mentioned something about how its a pagoda built around a pagoda or something like that.

China's secret nuclear cabbage program outside LiuHe Pagoda

Liu He Pagoda is a hexagon. The 6 sides of the pagoda are meant to represent thr 6 directions of buddha- heaven, earth, north, south, east, west (forgive me if i'm wrong). The pagoda was built by the order of Wu King with the intention of scaring of evil spirits and tidal waves with his magnificent structure.

Ancient love messages etched onto pagoda by love-sick monks

When we finally reached the top of the pagoda (dad counted 234 steps) we got a view of the area around the pagoda as well as the Qian Tang river.

Left: Hip hip hooray!! We reached the top!
Right: Poledancing, big one too :p Now we know what entertainment the monks enjoyed

The Qian Tang river is supposed to be only a branch of the Huanghe river, but its SO DAMN BIG. Shudders me to think of the actual thing.

Left: LiuHe Pagoda surrounded by forest.
Right: View of Qiantang river and a 2 level bridge (1 for vehicles, 1 for trains).

When we had all come down from the pagoda we had a quick rest at the wonderful green vicinity of the pagoda.

Traditional music played in the LiuHe garden
I only noticed this when i was viewing the photo - the flutist doesn't have pupils O.o

Having missed a proper breakfast, we had a big brunch and then hurried off for a quick stop before we headed out of Hang Zhou.

No wedding here. During lunch and dinner time this restaurant is fully packed!

The Broken Bridge is one of Hang Zhou's famous bridges that revolve around a famous romantic tragedy of Madam White Snake. The broken bridge is the actual place where Lady White and Xu Xian meet.

Broken Bridge. Sadly most of the lotuses were dead due to oncoming winter.

The bridge is so named because during winter when the snow falls on the briddge there is supposedly an illusion that makes the bridge seem broken. Another reason is that the White Causeway from the Solitary Hill was cut off here....dun ask me what that means :S

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The trip back was a long one, and when we reached shanghai dad had to go to the MAS office to change some ticket stuff. Eventually we reached the hotel pretty late.

Overturned truck on the way back to Shanghai

Dinner was at South Beauty once again in Super Brand mall, but this restaurant was on the absolute top floor - the 10th.

Da Bao (takeaway bag) for Uncle Kuan

This restaurant was a bit more high-class than the other restaurant we went to in Super Brand Mall. The only sad thing is that some of the food was a bit spicy. I like spicy, but i can't handle too much :(

Dinner setting


Open kitchen. SO MANY CHEFS!!!
note: some have red collars some have blue collars


Left: Chili display at the main entrance to restaurant (of course fake chilis lah!)
Right: One of our dishes, glutinous rice balls or something like that, sweet, light and tasty. YUM!

"We are all victims of casuality. I drank too much wine, I must take a piss. Cause and effect." Merovingian


This is the urinal for the restaurant...i just find it weird... I guess girls wun get this, but to the guys..
I'M MEANT TO PEE ONTO ICE!!??

26th November - Shanghai

“A tiger fights its hardest at the end of its life”

Today being the last day in Shanghai, the “tigers” within the ladies of the group suddenly jumped alive, "Today is going to be a SHOPPING DAY!", they proudly announced. Reluctant as I was, it was either follow them or do nothing.

So in the shopping exertion we went to 2 shopping places, I feel too lazy now to elaborate the nitty-gritty bargainings (something originally 300 yuan can drop to 50 yuan). So instead here are some pics and little comments:

This was the first place we went to, i dun rmb the name and i can't read the words of the market, so here's a pic for u chinese readers.

The whole set up is kinda like an old Chinese building. But of course the shops below were not selling old Chinese clothes.

I bought one of those peeing pottery stuff. The price tag was 15 yuan so I told the lady 5 yuan, and she smiled happily and agreed. Later on I found out from Uncle Kuan that I could have got it for 1 yuan…GRRRR talk about getting pissed >.<

Xiang Yang Fashion & Gift Market

We were here a few days before but besides my sister no one bought anything in particular. Today on the other hand my usually un-shopping-ish self found myself walking away with a pair of timberland shoes ALSO a pair of dress leather shoes that I’ll prolly use on Mondays and Fridays. (it was all imitation goods, of course)

--

At around 2pm we rushed to the Shanghai Grand Hyatt for a dim sum that would end at 2.30pm.

Picture taken from http://shanghai.grand.hyatt.com/

The grand hyatt itself is an amazing building, a skyscraper above other skyscrapers. To me the outward appearance is very much like the petronas twin towers, a magnificent giant clad in shiny armor and with a very pointy hat. Despite its grand height it stays true to the land on which it stands on, boasting the auspicious number of an exact 88 stories.

Upon entering the main elevator I was shocked at how this towering titan had only 3 buttons in its elevator, on a closer look I realized the hotel lobby was on the 54^th floor O.o

Dim sum at the hyatt’s canton restaurant was rather posh. We dined and admired the grand view of Shanghai from comfy cushion seats.

Dad and I headed back to the hotel by cab as the girls with Uncle Kuan as their guide returned to shopping at people’s park which is meant to have 95% girls accessories and clothing. Obviously dad and I took a pass on that one.

Tea and a View at the Shanghai Grand Hyatt

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He thrust the needle forward and in a split second it pierced through the glass and followed by the "pop" of a balloon.

As the show began, we promptly upgraded ourselves to the middle row center view of the half empty Lyceum Theatre.

The Great Kungfu Performance was all the basic Shaolin stuff, yet the performance was no less exhilarating. The difference between watching shaolins on vcd and watching the real thing is obvious.

The Shaolins did demonstrations of different weapons and qi gong. The energy put into every kick and punch can literally be felt by the audience.

Furthermore the weapons demonstrated such as the whip blade was a sight to see for me. As the blade and whip become a blur together with a "whishing" sound i pondered on how deadly the weapon could be if used against an oncoming foe.

The “rigid qigong” skills were shown to. The Shaolins bent spears with their throats and lifted themselves into the air by spears.

All in all though, the needle performance was the highlight of the show for me.

First was a short demonstration that the glass and the needle were real. Next, a monk then held the glass plank while another monk held a balloon behind the glass.

After summoning his Qi, the monk with the needle pulled back his arm and thrusted the needle forward so fast I could barely catch it with my eyes. Before I knew it the needle had pierced through the glass like a bullet and burst the balloon on the other side. The monk holding the glass then showed the glass plank with a bullet-sized hole right in the center of it.

HOW FREAKINING COOL IS THAT!!

note: photography was not allowed so please bear with my crappy drawing skills

Bustling Burma

Oh my god! Is this a new post? Yes, in between incessant buggings of ppl (*coughelainecough*) and getting plenty of nagging posts in the sidebar, i've finally lifted my ass and am writing this post. And just to make up for my lackadaisical behavior....PICS!!

Well as u may or might not know the past week or so (since nov 1st) i've been having a holiday with my dear mum and my dear aunt, elvina e e (ee is fu chow for aunt) in BURMA aka Myanamar (i think burma sounds WAY cooler).

The whole idea of going to burma at first was rather upsetting at first. Due to the trip to Burma mum had decided i was "travelling too much already" and because of that i was denied of goign to langkawi with schoolmates cuz she was "scared something might happen" -_- .


Burma is located just west of thailand and covers an area of approximately 678,500 km². The goverment now is still a military government and i can assure u that the whole of burma is dotted with military personnel everywhere. I would have liked to show u a picture of all this but unfortunately tourists (or "foreigners" to them) are not allowed to take pictures of any military personnel or structures. So when it came to shooting a picture i was a bit more concerned of being shot.

1st November
We arrived on Myanmar Airways International (MAI) flight 8M or MH9051 (the only plane i think flying back and forth from maynmar to klia). After waiting about half and hour to collect our baggage we set out to look for a sign bearing "mr. warren chan" in the crowded arrival hall. Yes, you heard right a sign bearing "Mr. Warren Chan", not "Agnes Chan" (my mum), or "Elvina Wong" (my aunt), but much to my mother's disgust was the name of yours truly. Now do not get me wrong the past 2 sentences are not meant to boast (i think :P) but are to illustrate a mentality of the burmese people - out of 3 individuals, they thought the male was the dominant.

After finding our beautiful tour guide we headed out of the airport where i took a snapshot, because stepping out of the airport i didn't see civilization...i saw trees



note: guy on right is military, he din see me take the pic :P

After getting into the tour van we left to the hotel



20,000 kyat ("kya" pronounced like "ja" in "jar")

note: 1USD = 1000 kyat

Our welcome drinks


After dropping our stuff at the hotel we went to Sule Pagoda, which is kinda located at the end of a street, in gact i think the street has been named after the pagoda. Anywayz, this pagoda is special cuz its got a hair of buddha in it. Unfortunately though we coucln't see the hair cuz the pagoda is a stupa.
There are 2 types of pagodas:
a) temple type pagodas where u can walk into it and see whatever is there
b) stupa type pagodas where the relic of the pagoda is enshrined under this pointy looking temple thing, so its kinda like the Kaaba (the black stone in mecca)

Sule Pagoda

The pagoda is octagonal shaped, this is because in buddhism, it is believed that there are 8 days in a week. For each day there is also a special animal for it. So buddhist when coming to the sule pagoda will then pray to the buddha for the day they were born, so there is a monday, tuesday, wednesday, etc. shrine respectively.


Something i found interesting is that according to Lily (tour guide) the amount of worshippers at the tuesday shrine is the most, and it seems most ppl are born on tuesday. I wonder what i am.




THIS POST IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION (INAPPROPRIATE DICTION INTENTIONAL)
Should be done within 3 days...there's ALOT

You and I

The stars, the sun and moon are all the same,
we speak of the same side, shade and name,
but the side of the sky from which I see,
is but yours and odds might never be.

I have come to terms with my numbers,
and the zeros have rolled on in,
from negative to neutral and on higher power,
I have equated you somehow; negating innocence to sin.

Truth to speak fellow glassed subject,
your framed eyes catch me numb,
but oh! the probable chances might just object,
of chance crossing common factor sums.

Endlessly however; truth is that you and I,
are mere quadrants; slipping through x,
or flying up y,
our paths are perpendicular,
intersecting lines that defy.

Ainaa Azhar

30th September 2005

Maud

Well today i was just doing a little look over my blog (...yes this "thing") and i was looking through my sidebar (yes, i have a sidebar if u have noticed), so i so happened to stumble upon Maud.

Ainaa was the first one to show me this poem and if u as a person can't value this piece of literature, i dunno how ur meant to be called a person.

Alfred Tennyson, Lord Tennyson

Maud

COME into the garden, Maud,
For the black bat, Night, has flown,
Come into the garden, Maud,
I am here at the gate alone;
And the woodbine spices are wafted abroad,
And the musk of the roses blown.

For a breeze of morning moves,
And the planet of Love is on high,
Beginning to faint in the light that she loves
On a bed of daffodil sky,
To faint in the light of the sun she loves,
To faint in his light, and to die.

All night have the roses heard
The flute, violin, bassoon;
All night has the casement jessamine stirr'd
To the dancers dancing in tune;
Till a silence fell with the waking bird,
And a hush with the setting moon.

I said to the lily, 'There is but one
With whom she has heart to be gay.
When will the dancers leave her alone?
She is weary of dance and play.'
Now half to the setting moon are gone,
And half to the rising day;
Low on the sand and loud on the stone
The last wheel echoes away.

I said to the rose, 'The brief night goes
In babble and revel and wine.
O young lord-lover, what sighs are those
For one that will never be thine?
But mine, but mine,' so I sware to the rose,
'For ever and ever, mine.'

And the soul of the rose went into my blood,
As the music clash'd in the hall;
And long by the garden lake I stood,
For I heard your rivulet fall
From the lake to the meadow and on to the wood,
Our wood, that is dearer than all;

From the meadow your walks have left so sweet
That whenever a March-wind sighs
He sets the jewel-print of your feet
In violets blue as your eyes,
To the woody hollows in which we meet
And the valleys of Paradise.

The slender acacia would not shake
One long milk-bloom on the tree;
The white lake-blossom fell into the lake,
As the pimpernel dozed on the lea;
But the rose was awake all night for your sake,
Knowing your promise to me;
The lilies and roses were all awake,
They sigh'd for the dawn and thee.

Queen rose of the rosebud garden of girls,
Come hither, the dances are done,
In gloss of satin and glimmer of pearls,
Queen lily and rose in one;
Shine out, little head, sunning over with curls.
To the flowers, and be their sun.

There has fallen a splendid tear
From the passion-flower at the gate.
She is coming, my dove, my dear;
She is coming, my life, my fate;
The red rose cries, 'She is near, she is near;'
And the white rose weeps, 'She is late;'
The larkspur listens, 'I hear, I hear;'
And the lily whispers, 'I wait.'

She is coming, my own, my sweet;
Were it ever so airy a tread,
My heart would hear her and beat,
Were it earth in an earthy bed;
My dust would hear her and beat,
Had I lain for a century dead;
Would start and tremble under her feet,
And blossom in purple and red.

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To me that's just beautiful...beautiful...


P.S. Check out "flysui" in sidebar

Some sausages and pole dancing

Well last night i went for a bbq party, was quite fun...
We did things like truth or dare...which lead to things such as I (dare) doing poledancing and someone else saying (truth) i was the most handsome guy there :) More interestingly though was watching certain guys kiss certain guys and watching certain guys kiss grass :p

Eventually when all the girls had left, the saying "guys show their true colour when they ain't no girls!" became a fact.

Anywayz...pics!

Hoong

Si Xuan

Jason

Yan Chuin

Bone Tumour

Wooohooo YAy!!! i got a

BONE TUMOUR

Ever since i can rmb, whenever i sit down in a cramped space (theater, cinema, plane, etc), my right knee feels cramped after a while. If i stand up i then have all these cracking noises coming from my knee.

Ever since i can rmb, i have shrugged of all these effects as just something usual, something that happens everyday, something normal to everyone. But i was wrong, and now i know what i have...

A few weeks back i made a discovery, in the ed board room to be precise. I realized that my leg leading to my knee had a bump on it. It is not very noticeable alone, but if u compare it with my left leg, there's much of a difference. Well i told mum abt it and she said we'll check it out after my exams.

Well now we have,

That was today.

It shocked me at first when the doctor told me that it was a bone tumour, although he inserted the statement with plenty of consolation that the tumour looked like it was non-cancerous. The question still remained though, is this truly cancerous or not?

To get a better look at things, i was sent to the 5th floor to undergo a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan. Well if u've ever done an MRI scan, you'll know that its a painstaking process. The scan takes 30-45mins and if u move a muscle in the whole operation, then u'll have to start all over again. So basically for 30-45mins or so i was left in a room, with only a beeping machine and music from a radio as my company, not being allowed to move a muscle.

Although my body was asleep, my mind was awake. I had a lot of time to think, alone in a room. I was contemplating the possibility of i having cancer and what my life has been up to this moment. My family, my friends, everyone that i cared for. I guess i questioned what really have i done on this earth.

Well the results of the scan were good i suppose. The conclusion is that it shouldn't be cancerous. But nonetheless i have to get it extracted because it impede's my movement. Additionally, if i dun remove it, there is a small chance that the tumour might actually become malignant. We will get the radiologist's report tomorrow.

Our resolution however, is that we're going to seek some second opinions on the whole operation, just to make sure we know its not malignant or if there's any other way to solve the issue. The operation itself will cost RM16000 ( i dunno why my mum cares, cuz its MY LIFE at stake and the company will pay for it).

I think that if i do undergo the surgery though, i would like to do it after my shanghai holidays. Because after this surgery i'll be walking in leg braces for 6 weeks. In addition to that, it will take about 6 months to fully recover. So before i get dragged down to hell i'd like a little taste of heaven.


An Xray of my tumour, the doctor believes its exostosis



















This is my knee cap that is no longer aligned properly due to the tumour, its called lateral patella maltracking


This is the X Ray machine


This is the MRI machine


The following are MRI images:
This is a crossection of my knee in a normal section


This is where u can see the beginning of the tumour forming

This is the tumour at its climax


This is a fish in the KLSMC (KL Sport Medical Centre) fish tank. It wasn't pretty but i liked it, i called it Bob....dun ask me why, (it has nothing to do with my dad's name)

Hand Soap

Well that's what this post is inspired by, hand soap.

My maid came to me today, and she was complaining how the downstairs bathroom hand soap was really really really smelly. Yet, i gave it a sniff and i thought it smelt lovely. I guess the crux of what i'm saying is that what one person likes is not necessarily what some other person may like. Like durian.

But anywayz, the thought of how ppl like different smells made me think of pheromones...and from pheromones - love. As u all know pheromones, are chemicals that our body produces to attract mates. It is unsure whether this still applies to humans, but to the majority of the animal kingdom, pheromones are crucial.

So it made me think of how u can love someone, pour all your love into that one soul, where very single passing moment of ur minds inner mechanics revolves around the image of the person u love.

Yet,

The person may not love u.

I guess its just like that, pheromones are basically the explanation to what we normally refer to as 'love chemistry'. It's strange that without this special chemistry, nothing else matters, no possibility of love can ever sprout without chemistry as its soil, water and light.

Have u ever felt that u have so many similarities with a person til that person could be ur double? Everything u wanted lies with that person. Everything u ever could hope for in ur lover resides within that person.

Yet,

You don't love the person.

Why? I guess it comes down to 'that' again...

pheromones..

And if everything is based on pheromones it then questions the sacredness of love. I still hold love sacred in my heart and mind. Yet this so-called love is manipulated by a pheromone. Not how compatible u are with that individual, then how is it sacred? Is love not meant to be the unifciation of 2 souls that enjoy each other. Yet this is all played out by a chemical that triggers certain reactions in our brain.

So in the end,

is there love?

Or is it just the wrong hand soap.



Site on pheremones here

I DROVE

Well this ain't much of a post cuz i'm not really going to elaborate on it.
But since the whole goal of me making this blog is to act as my so-called diary,
I think this is an important thing i must put down in words.

On the 1st of October 2005, Warren Chan drove his mother's car (WGD 8038, E-class merc)( i know that sounds show-offish but this is reallly a log for myself) with his dad (bob chan leong sun) to the nearby (500-600 metres) petrol station(BP) in Gasing Indah.

The car did not recieve ANY damage, no scratches, no crashes, etc. No one was killed either.

Dad drove on the way back cuz he said i drove scary. When we reached our housing area, we switched seats and i took a drive around the neighbourhood a few times.

Yay :D

Haircut...again :p

Dang i seem to log record my haircuts in my blog don't i :p
Well i just like b4 and after pics
Its interesting to see something the same, yet not quite :)

Anywayz i took these pics with my new t7 cybershot dad bought from Hong Kong
I actually wanted him to buy an ipod nano, i even sent a really suggestive sms

"dad, since ur in Hk, why dun u check out the prices for the new ipod nano. And see if they have it in black too. Love u and miss you"

Hehehe, well the ipod nanos were sold out, but he came back with a t7 cybershot so i'm not complaining ^^

So, the "after" picture was actually kinda dark so i used photoshop, i'll post a pic of that just to show how much i'v egot addicted to photoshop XD

Before haircut


This is the after pic b4 i photoshopped it


After haircut photoshopped


The Sony t7 cybershot ^^!! against a mirror

I started a joke~

I'm unhappy now, i really am at the moment. Not sad about myself, but sad about everything else around me.

I WANT TO HEAR A CHINESE RACIST JOKE.

I'm serious...yesterday we were talking in class. Since there was plenty of time before the exam was to begin, we naturally got into a group of telling jokes. The group was chinese. Now here's the part i'm not proud of, I told a racist malay joke. As i said, i'm not proud of it, but i'm admitting it now becuz i wanna get the feelings of my chest. And to add to my guilt...everyone laughed like crazy.

I don't understand why...why i don't know any chinese racist jokes. I mean there's plenty of indian jokes and there's a few malay jokes too. But 'til now i still haven't heard a real proper stab-at-chinese racist joke. It sounds awkward of me saying this, but i feel sad that my own race hasn't been stabbed at.

Now i'm not saying that i'm sad because i feel we're left out, as if we've been deprived. No, i'm feeling sad that we have not been touched by these racist jokes. Why our culture or race hasn't been stabbed at. And what's worse is it means that chinese have been making jokes about other races, laughing at them, giggling behind their backs, whereas other races have just been quiet and not stung back chinese...they've been peaceful. From my point of view its the other races that shud be respected for that, for not being childish.

I asked mom abt this, and she said the reason why i haven't heard any jokes against chinese is cuz i myself am chinese so ppl wun say it to my face. So i asked my malay/indian friends abt it, and they dun know any chinese jokes, and if they do know one or two, they are lame, mild chinese jokes. So are they really any good chinese jokes? Even my indian/malay friends have heard of jokes set against their own race, so why is it that i haven't?