December begins

It’s been a busy week.

I started the week thinking it would be another lazy, I’ll sleep in until whenever week but it hasn’t turned out so.

It’s weird, I look back and it doesn’t seem like I’ve done much but I feel like I’ve done heaps…strange

I think it’s mostly the driving, I’ve been driving to and fro lately, to, and making multiple pit stops in between destinations. I’ve been handing out resumes, doing groceries and such. And that’s just the errands, I’ve also caught up with a few people.

I got a job though finally! I haven’t worked since I quit my old job, which was before I started uni, a few years ago, so hurrah to contributing to the community again? I’ll be doing around 2 shifts a week so that will ward off my laziness for a few days a week :P It’s at a pharmacy. I’ve just done my first two shifts and my feet are tired/sore, I forgot how tired and sore they get when you’re standing nonstop in them all day. My new shoes might factor in as well. hmmm, I’ll get used to it over time.

On another note, it’s STILL raining everyday which prevented a trip we planned to Green Island. I was quite hopeful the other day when it was really bright and sunny but then in the late afternoon…rain! *sigh*  

Rain...

It's been holidays for a couple of weeks now, Yay! I can relax until exam results start coming out at the start of December, then I'll pedantically log in and check if they're up every day until they're all up, which is about 2-3 weeks.

I flew back up to Cairns this week and am trying to get a summer job. I have an interview soon so hopefully that will go well.

My dad told me it's been raining everyday for a couple of weeks up here... it's on and off, there is blue sky for a few hours, then suddenly it will rain. I hope it subsides over the weekend, I want to go to the reef hehe.

House Lunch

We had a house lunch on Saturday as a last meal before we go for holidays. There were hash browns, lemon cake, dumplings, cheese, bagels with cream cheese and chocolates. Then we went crazy taking lots of photos! :D

cake, hash browns and cheese

Cheddar and Camembert

This is the view from my window. The frangipanis are starting to grow back.

Dog on a motorbike

How cute is this dog!

from http://xmb.stuffucanuse.com/xmb/viewthread.php?tid=4176

Breakfast on the Bridge

On Sunday 10/10/10 as part of the Crave Sydney International Food Festival, the Sydney harbour bridge was closed down for about half the day for the breakfast on the bridge. 6000 people dined there from 6:30 am. So early, and I was fortunate enough to go :) There was real grass laid out and the view was beautiful. Although it rained a little, it cleared back up again.

Decorations and entertainment included, a giant chess set, a few garden boxes of tulips, people on stilts, people doing tai chi and giant inflated soccer balls in honour of the 2022 World Cup to be held in Sydney.

Walking out

We had quiche, fruit salad, bagels, cream cheese, smoked salmon, bread, jam and champagne.

And here’s what happened via one of the cameras on the bridge;

Food

I made gingerbread for the first time last week. mmm

I didn't brown them very evenly but that’s ok, they all tasted fine J

Beheaded in the name of sharing... we also cut his body in half >.>

And RY and I have made mango sago a couple of times yummmm. Mangoes are pretty high up in my ‘favourite fruit’ list and it’s almost mango season woo!

And today, I made lemon cake...breakfast tomorrow with a glass of milk? I think so hehe. 

Oh and it’s mooncake season as well now, I must go to Chinatown soon to get some. I’ll give lotus with yolk another shot...again lol. I do wonder if it’ll ever grow on me.

Birthday Time

I’ve made another trip around the sun :) Being quite a boring non-partier, I had a pleasant, relaxed birthday with my housemates in the morning and then with my family at night.

Started the day early-ish with breakfast at a cafe nearby (within walking distance) where I had eggs Benedict. RY even brought her dog along ^^ she’s so cute! Things other people had; banana and pear fritters, chicken Panini and a ‘big breakfast’ which consisted of toast, hash browns, mushrooms, eggs and bacon and possibly some other things.

Eggs benedict

I also had a cherry ripe hot chocolate which was just a hot chocolate with a cherry ripe in it. Yummm

Cake was had later after we digested our breakfasts somewhat.

For dinner, I had hotpot with my sisters and uncle. We got a half half pot where half was just stock and the other half was with added the chilli and pepper. It was very spicy but delicious at the same time. We had a selection of varying meats from chicken to pork to liver to fishballs and had a selection of veg as well.

After dinner I had more cake :)

I’d like some wine please.

I look young; I’m overage yet look as though I should be in school.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m neither complaining nor bragging about it, I’m just stating a fact: I look young. Here’s another one: I always get asked for ID, always, even at restaurants...after I’ve been served alcohol. Let me elaborate...

Last week, I went out to dinner with some family and the waiter didn’t serve me any wine until after he was assured by everyone at the table that I am indeed over 18. Another staff member came over to our table about 5 minutes later and requested to see ID....AFTER I was served! If they were so worried I was underage, the first waiter should’ve checked BEFORE serving me. And besides, everyone at the table told you I was! Waiter number 2 was then berated and rightly so.

A Weekend Away

I’ll take any excuse to get on a plane and go somewhere and this excuse came from BP and went something like “JG is coming to Brisbane, you should too!” So come I did and spent a long weekend in Bris where it felt a bit warmer than Syd; BP and I think it’s because even though the temperature is about the same, it’s a lot less windier.

I have Mondays off uni so left late Friday afternoon and arrived back in Sydney on Monday night in time for uni in Tuesday.

When I arrived, I got a lift off RXZ which saved a lot of time (I was originally going to take a train) BP and I had dinner at little chinese restaurant near her place and then we went back to hers where I would be staying.

On Saturday, BP and I had sushi for lunch and went shopping during the day in the city. Later that night, a group of us had dinner at an Indian restaurant.

On Sunday, we breakfasted at pancake manor, went ice skating, visited a comic shop for some manga for JG, sang some karaoke and had dinner at Olbaltan, a Korean BBQ restaurant in the city. Afterwards, we had a ride on the ferry. It’s SO cold and windy when you’re standing at the front of them.

On Monday, I went to a lecture with BP and YY and then BP and I went to the city where we were going to chill until it was time to catch the train, on the bus there, we saw JG and her mum, took some photos and then she had to leave, unfortunately before YY came, but when YY did arrive, we took some more photos and then headed to the train station.

We ran (literally) to the train station for fear of missing the train and therefore my flight. We made it with the train already at the station to depart in 1 min, phew! And that was my lovely weekend in a few short paragraphs :)

Holidays in a sentence

Beach, shopping, movies and dinners is pretty much the summary of my holidays :)

So it was a very relaxing and warm few weeks! ah how I love warm weather :)

It’s the first week of uni this week and I’ve been in jeans and layers the entire time. And it’s also been raining. Hoping for blue skies soon.

Here’s a pic of Holloways beach

July

July means holidays in the world of university.

Yay, Holidays!

On July 3, RY had her 21st where her sis made a lot of good food; sweets and savouries alike!

Am now back in Cairns where I am greatly enjoying the hot weather where I can wear shorts. I’m also going to the beach on Thursday :)

So far I’ve been to a lovely dinner party and sleepover where we had vegetarian lasagne, mini pizzas and chocolate cake and seen Toy Story 3 which was great.

Random pics

I see the light at the end of another examination period! yay. It's my last exam on Tuesday!

How cute is this!

Perspective

This amazing image lets you know just how BIG this world is and in turn how SMALL we are.

It's exam week starting next week...ahh, not very fun but it means that the holidays are close!

Click the image to enlarge or click here

Buying things

I bought a few things last week :)

Firstly, I got myself a new pair of shoes, just plain black ballet flats and bought a new shower puff, it was a complete impulse buy as my one now is still good but it’s got little sponges in it. How cute!

And I got a whole bunch of photos printed off, 277 in fact.

This week I have a 2 quizes. One today, Monday, covering all the lecture material (it’s like the midsemester but not during midsemester..weird) and one on thurs for statistics. In less than a month I will be on holidays!

To reward myself for having an exam today, I went to the city and bought myself some poptarts :)

Almost Crunch Time

I completed my last lab of the semester on Tuesday! Last Monday I had my last lab for microbiology and Tuesday was my last biochemistry lab. On Monday, I handed in my report for micro and at about 5:30 ish on Tuesday, I handed in my lab book for biochem and that’s it. Lab work is finished for the semester yay.

Most of my assessments are also over  no more reports at least, a few quizzes to go, have done very well on them so far :) Looking ahead to end of exams is kinda scary :S so much to study ><

My head was attacked by ST the other night. The simple question of ‘can I put your hair in braids?’ was grossly misinterpreted. Ithought it was going to be 2 braids, max. But it turned out to be over 10! Didn’t actually count them. I decided to leave them in and see if my hair would go curly/crimpy this morning, but it failed. Asian hair likes to stay in its natural form; straight haha. The smaller ones kinda had a slight crimpy look to them but for the most part, hair stayed but had added frizz which made it slightly more voluminous than usual but not in a good way. So in conclusion, fail; no curls, frizzy and very underwhelming. Hmmm, I might try it again sometime and leave it in for longer to see if it works better.

I had hot chocolate with Renee on Wednesday. Yummm, hot chocolate made with chocolate, hot chocolate powder and milk and topped with cream. After seeing that list, I should limit having them to once a week.

Nail Polish

About a month ago, 6 of us (my sisters, a few friends and I) made a humungous order for OPI nail polish. We each ordered 10 each :D

It was a bit of a debacle getting them though, once we placed the order, they took ages to come and my sister ended up having to call the supplier chase it up lol.

But loh and behold, last week, they came. Nail polish goodness in all their glass bottled beauty.

So far I have tried 2 colours. At the moment I’m wearing ‘espresso your style’ which is a chocolate- brown metallic. :) and I’m pondering what colour to wear next...bright or dark? Blue, red, pink?... so many options!

It’s cold and raining at the moment and the sun set at around 5 ish. Not very nice to walk to uni this weather especially when it’s dark. I was also breathing smoke today as well, winter is on its way... very early.

Need to Sleep

I am a little sleep deprived at the moment, the additive effect of not having enough on the weekend and not sleeping much during the week has taken its toll. This morning I woke up at 7am (to study/cram) after going to bed at 1am (after studying). Tired! I’m going to have a sleep in tomorrow.

It was ST’s 21st on Saturday and a birthday yum cha on Sunday. I was out most of Saturday day. Firstly, we went to the shops in the morning to buy food and decorations. I then went to Chinatown in the afternoon had lunch with my sister and bought a few things. A nice new photo frame :) and some impulse buy foodstuffs like soy milk.

When I got home, I got ready then started to decorate the place with Renee and Don. Pink was the chosen colour theme so we had pink and white streamers and pink, white and silver balloons. For food, there was mashmallows and nutella (chocolate dip), chips and dip, and crackers with smoked salmon and brie. Yumm

Her aunty got her a chocolate mousse cake that was covered with white fondant with white chocolate slabs surrounding the outside and on top were sugar flowers (none of which were eaten).

The sparklers on the cake set off our smoke alarm (oops) no harm done though as we live in a short building, the fire dept doesn’t get alerted when ours goes off unlike in the taller buildings (that’s what I’m told anyway) After the cake, we went out for the night.

On Sunday morning, the place was cleaned up and I headed off to the city for Yum Cha at Palace Chinese restaurant for AP’s birthday. We all ate SO much that there was little appetite left for dinner haha. Serves us right for being greedy.

Back to business this week with study and such...struggled to get up to make my 9am lab on Monday and had a quiz this morning (hence why I slept late and woke up early) which was yuck. I hope I’ve passed, note to self, the number of lectures isn’t proportional to the number of questions on that topic *sigh* I hate when I’ve focus on certain topics (cos we’ve had the most lectures on that) and then there are minimal questions on it but heaps on another one that only went for about 2 lectures.

Tonight, we went to the Friday Chinatown markets and then to dinner at Chat Thai. The table we got for the 6 of us was a bit too small, cos not all our dishes could fit in the middle of it. But it was ok cos we passed and swapped dishes back and forth. Again, we ate a lot XD but not so much that we felt sick haha. Yummmm, thai food.

Random Recount

Last weekend was a long weekend :) yay to 3 day weekends. ANZAC day was on Sunday, which made Monday the 26th a public holiday. I had a pretty chill weekend, it was filled with a lot of food that my arteries probably aren’t appreciating but was oh so delicious.

Saturday morning brunch was cheese and fruit. A lot more cheese was consumed than fruit though hehe. I need to not eat cheese for about a month now! Saturday afternoon tea was prawns and deep fried squid and Sunday, inspired by masterchef, we had quail and for dessert, a cream tart with strawberries. Yummy!

My housemate, Renee has a Wii fit which I’ve started using recently. I made my mii last Monday and she’s so cute :P I’ve been doing well with making my calorie goal every time I go on it which is good, not that it’s that high anyway (59 calories) With each calorie goal is a food that you would’ve burned off and 59 calories is how much is in a piece of cheese hehe, that’s why I chose it. My main aim is to go on it for 30 minutes each time which gets me over the calorie goal anyway. I don’t really feel like exercising when I’m on though, it feels more like playing games haha.

Today, at SUV (Sydney uni village- where I live) they had an international food festival. It was held in collaboration with a few of the Sydney uni clubs and societies. At the village bar, The Well, people made dumplings and mochi and barbequed satay chicken. You could even learn to cook said food and make some during the night as well. Sayuri and I made some dumplings then decided that we wanted to eat them instead so we went to find cooked ones haha. It was all free too :)

This weekend is Sayuri's birthday too. 21! We’re going out on Saturday night for it. I’m not a big clubber but am excited to go out nonetheless.

One Year

Missed
Loved
Remembered
Forever….
~ 1 year gone and not a day goes past that I don’t think of you ~

Easter, holidays and Marriage

First things first.
Happy Easter to everyone! hope everyone enjoyed the 4 day weekend. :)

I am on my mid-semester break at the moment. Although it’s a break from going to uni, it is not a break from studying and boy is the motivation hard to find at the moment! lol

I arrived back in Cairns on Friday and on Saturday, went to a ‘wedding’ It’s a wedding in inverted commas because the actual wedding with the dress and the ceremony and the rings etc is in Brisbane where the couple resides. The bride’s family lives here in cairns so her mum held a relaxed Chinese themed wedding reception at their house which included some traditional Chinese things such as the dowry, a wishing tree, a hair brushing ceremony, tea ceremony and the door games the groom must play to get a key to the house to get to his bride (who is locked in) and lion dancing (not sure if this is traditional or not but the bride’s family does lion dancing hence why it was there) Most of this I’ve already seen from my cousin’s wedding back in November and the only extra things were the lion dancing and the hair brushing ceremony.

The door games were very entertaining and included – a race around the pool, dress ups, push up competition, connect-4 and shooting baskets. the story behind the door games is that the bride’s sisters and bridesmaids aren’t going to ‘give her away’ so easily so they make the groom play games to prove his worthiness of her.

Our parents have been friends for many years and my dad and I were the only ones from our family who went with my sisters still in Sydney. It was a very relaxed night and lovely to see her after such a long time.

The week that was

It was shaping up to be a pretty bad weekend last week, the day after gaga, I started to get sick :( come Friday; I skipped my morning classes but did manage to make it to 2 hours in the afternoon. Spent the weekend drinking tea…lots of tea, eating toast and sleeping a lot :( drug of choice was panadol (only one I have in the house, which reminds me I should stock up on something stronger) which staved off the stomach cramps for a bit. Was able to stomach some pasta on Sunday night and fortunately, it was gone by Monday morning so my afternoon lab was undergone without much trouble. Dinner on Monday night was roast pork ribs with rice and fried vegies. Haven’t had roast pork in ages, it was so good!

I’ve also been packing lunches for uni as well lately, which is an unusual thing for me. I live on campus so I usually just go home for lunch but this week, have been lunching (with my ham and cheese sandwiches) at uni which is a nice change and much more social. Come to think of it, I’ve never had lunch with my housemates…we’re never home for lunch on the same days lol.

I found this remarkable story on Wednesday; about a boy with 31 fingers and toes, whoa! the article is titled Chinese boy has 31 Fingers, toes. I haven’t found a follow up story on it yet. Shall go searching for it later if I remember. Also in the news, the weather around Australia has been extremely lately, from hail in Melbourne to storms in Perth. Also, Cyclone Ului hit Mackay as well. I wonder what happened to the 5 cyclones between Olga and Ului… (they are named alphabetically and male, female etc … eg cyclone Neville(male) was before Olga (female)) so from Olga to Ului there should’ve been 5 . It’s hard to keep track, especially of the cyclones that don’t amass to anything as I’m down south in NSW and the cyclones hit up north so I won’t hear about them unless they actually hit.

Last night I went to a ‘mystery dinner’ with my housemate. You sign up as either a host or a diner and are randomly allocated to someone’s place for dinner. It is run by my housemate’s church. All up, there were 9 people at the one we went to including the hosts and it was a very enjoyable night. :) We had; bruschetta, chorizo and mushroom pasta with cream and strawberry and blueberry trifle. No photos as I didn’t want to freak out some of the people I’d only just met with my photo-whoring ways and as we were eating outside, the lighting was too poor to produce a decent photo anyway.

The weekend is back, it’s almost mid semester and the workload is just piling up! I’m trying to be good and study during semester so I don’t need to cram, (*chants* I will not need to cram at the end of semester, I will not need to cram at the end of semester) We’re having a fire drill this afternoon at about 2:30 as well so I shall make myself scarce before then lol. If there ever is a fire, I know where to go anyway as there is a map on my door, besides, I’ve gone to a fire drill before. That’s my excuse XD

Gagaliscous

Lady Gaga is on the Monster Ball tour atm and I went to see her in Sydney on Wednesday!! She was absolutely awesome! Lots of costume changes and big sets and props like a huge anglerfish at the end!

This dress animated, the fans on opened and closed

Big leafless trees on set

It's March

The first 2 months of the year seem to have gone by so fast. It’s march already which means uni has started for 2010.

I had a much more interesting first day than intended which included walking in the rain, groceries and a bit forgetfulness. I only had one lecture at 1pm, which was cool, sleep in and only 1 hour of uni! Heck yes! It was a little bit drizzly when I left the house and I didn’t bring my umbrella. I wasn’t worried too much though the lecture theatre is really close to where I live and I assumed it would go away by then anyway…one cancelled lecture later (which I didn’t find out about until I was already there) I walked to the pharmacy building with some others where they were going to another lecture, (there was an umbrella to share J) then walked home in the rain, which unfortunately, was not only still present but a little heavier then when I first set out. Cold and wet I dried off and then waited for the rain to abate so I could do some groceries lest I eat instant noodles for dinner. It did eventually and at about 5pm I was off with a green bag in hand and my forgotten shopping list sitting on the coffee table *sigh* I did however have my umbrella this time in case it rained on the way back, which it didn’t :) Good thing I decided what I wanted for dinner though so I could at least get those ingredients. I made Bolognese, yum.

Welcome bags

I live on campus at the uni village. Every year they give you a ‘welcome bag’ which is filled with a few freebies and some coupons etc. Last year I got a lanyard, a 128mb memory stick, a stress ball, cup-of-cereal/ cereal to go (some kind of one serve cereal) an energy drink and some magazines and coupons.

This year I got; another lanyard, can of coke zero, cup-a-soup, a loyalty card from the village’s café (buy 9 coffees get the 10^th one free) and another magazine. Out of boredom, I took a photo of it hehe

One More Week.

Am entering the last week of holidays this week. sad :(

Lots of shopping has been done, many movies watched and much food consumed with friends and family :)

Hoping this year of uni will go by happily and smoothly. I am in second year! once this year is complete, I shall be halfway through my degree..gosh it sounds so long, but hopefully it won't feel long.

A select few of my news resolutions have yet to be achieved...or even started :S woops. hopefully I'll find the motivation for those soon.

Chinese New Year

so last month we celebrated the new year in accordance to the gregorian calendar - the calendar that eveyone uses... 12 months with 365 or 366 days/year etc

Tomorrow will be the new year according to the lunar calendar, known as Chinese New Year. It's the first day of the Chinese calendar hence its name.

So...

Happy Chinese New Year everyone!! ^^
Gong Hei Fatt Choi!!
Gong Xi Fa Cai!!

This year is the year of the tiger so anyone who turns a multiple of 12 this year, you're a tiger. (1998, 1986, 1974 etc)

It's also Valentine's Day tomorrow as well so Happy Valentine's Day.

Hard Drive

For Christmas 2 years ago, I got a hard drive that unfortunately broke a few months after I bought it :( Since then, my poor C drive has been sitting anywhere between 3-10GB free for a long time now. Needless to say, downloading was limited and many disks were burnt to make space.

Last Tuesday, I bought a new hard drive and finally have somewhere to offload all that data!

It’s a 1.5 TB Seagate :) and ready to be filled!

Cyclone Olga...no wait, tropical low

Cyclone Olga died on its way to the coast... over where I live, we didn't get much rain at all but up north it rained all day. We also got a thunderstorm in the middle of last night that woke me up. she will continue to spread her ex cyclonic rain over north QLD now lol

Cyclone Olga

In the middle of last week (wed) Cyclone Neville was around but he got downgraded to a tropical low/ex cyclone on Thursday. Then cyclone Olga came along yesterday. She is expected to hit Cairns at 7pm tonight.

Fun Times 5

Last one! :) I should've organised it better so that all the posts would be about the same size.... oh well. I can do that later if I want to.

Wednesday 02 December 2009

Today we go out for noodle soup in the morning for brunch with my uncle, auntie, dad, AL, GL, KL, ML, AT and T. You get to pick out of curry or just plain soup and what kind of noodles you want; thin, thick, egg or rice. Every bowl gets a few vegies and fish balls and in a separate bowl, you fill it with your choice of stuffed vegies and they cook them up for you. This bowl gets placed in the middle of the table for everyone to share. Some of the vegies available are; stuffed red chillies (the long ones, so aren't all that hot), stuffed eggplant and okra. There were also some deepfried items.

the vegies. In the back, where you see a silver cylinder, is full of boiling water and is where the fishballs get made.

garnishes

Later on, my sisters dad and I catch a train to go to one of my uncle’s house for the day. Later, we have dinner with few other uncles and aunties and cousins then head off .

Dad goes home and we meet up with AL, KL, GL, KE, and T at some markets at about 10-ish. I can’t remember the name of them but they are KL’s longest market and we don’t finish them XD instead we stop by a little restaurant for some refreshments. There’s a selection of desserts and fruit juice and soft drinks. I get ais kacang. :)

Baby deepfried crabs from the market. They weren't that good, just really crunchy with not much flavour

View of the markets

Ais kacang

Thursday 03 December 2009

After a breakfast of frog congee, noodles and vegies etc. we go to the Batu Caves. There are 272 steps and lots of monkeys lol. My auntie and AL don’t go up cos they’ve done it before and it was also a hot sunny day. My sisters, dad, uncle and GL go up though.

at the bottom

At the top

We were going to go to Malacca today, but once we finished with the Batu Caves, it was about 2pm and seeing as driving there would take 2 hours, it wasn’t going to be worth it. So instead we just go home and on the way, we get some fresh coconuts cut up for us at a street stall we drove past.

Friday 04 December 2009

We have breakfast out…the longest breakfast of ever, it takes a total of 5 hours because the place we are going to is far away and there is also a traffic jam. Malaysia traffic jams are awful!!

In the afternoon, we go to the supermarket with my auntie and AL, they are quite different to the supermarkets in Aus, firstly for poultry and fish, none of it is prepacked so you grab you own instead of asking for them at the deli. There is also a sushi section which is quite popular. They also have several different flavours of Ribena there and a little section of dried fruits and stuff.

Chicken

Fish

Sushi

After that, we go to the pet shop to find a new toy for AL’s dog and there you can buy sugargliders as pets as well as some other animals I've never heard of like Syrians which look like little rodents and Winter Dwarfs. Speaking of unusual pets, my cousin KL, (same initials as Kuala Lumpar lol) has a pet hedgehog, it’s so cute, it fits in the palm of one of your hands…aww, I didn’t get any photos of it tho :(

Winter dwarf: they look like tiny furry balls. lol

Saturday 05 December 2009

Today, we are doing more shopping with AL and GL, poor GL, so bored being dragged around by girls all day. In the morning we go to some boutiques then head to the shopping centre later on in the afternoon. Here is when GL gets less bored I hope as we are on the lookout for some ties and a belt for him.

afternoon drink, tea in a can...kinda confuses you at first because you think it'll be fizzy but it's not XD

We have dinner at home and head out that night with the cousins. After a late night roti, we go home and sleep :)

Sunday 06 December 2009

Lazy day. We pack and chill at home. We head to the airport at about 6-ish… our flight is at 9:40pm. There is enough time to have dinner at the airport before we have to board. Then it’s off back to Australia.

To Be Wanted

http://xkcd.com/372/

Fun Times 4

Monday 30^th November 2009

Roadtrip #2: to the Cameron Highlands

Good Morning! We are all up before 7 and leave the house at about 7:30

About 2 hours later, we have reached our pit stop, Ipoh, where we stop for yum cha lunch and get some of the famous ‘Ipoh White Coffee.'

Durians were also bought….many many durians. I like durian, but 17 is just way too many for 16 people. And... they were put into our car (for those of who don’t know, durians have a very strong smell) so the entire car pretty much smelt like durian!

We reach the hotel in the afternoon and have some durian, mangosteen and some other food. At about 4;30 a group of us are off to explore cactus valley, I’ve never seen so many cactuses in one place before in my life! haha

durian and a rice cracker

Mangosteen

For dinner, we have steamboat. Yummm. Then we head to the markets. There we buy some souvenirs and more food. I especially liked this crepe thing with peanuts. It was like really thin crepe folded over into a 'u' shape and lined with peanuts and is really crunchy.

Steamboat!

The markets

Tuesday 01 December 2009

We wake up early-ish again and drive up a mountain to reach the Boh Tea Centre where we have breakfast. Then we go on the quick tour, like 10 minutes, of the tea factory and learn how tea is made. Lots of tea was also bought from the shop there :)

View from the tea centre

At the tea factory

After that, we go to the Rose Centre where they have lots of absolutely beautiful flowers. The centre was built on a hill so there were lots of stairs to climb up and down. Unfortunately it started raining so we decided to climb back down, not before some nice shots of the view where we stopped climbing, we probably weren't even half way up, there were so many more stairs!

After this, we leave Cameron and have a late lunch/early dinner at a little seafood shop that is about 2 hours away from KL.

We arrive back in KL at about 8pm ish and Mrs Chiyoko and her daughter leave back for Japan.