Happy 牛 Year

快要新年啦！

今年的新年比前两年来得特别，原因呢，是因为不用两天前赶回家过年。

不用一大早买好巴士票，也不用塞车，还可以完整地过十五天的新年！

祝大家新年快乐！

Reminiscence

It's totally weird for not posting a "goodbye 2008, welcome 2009" post just like I normally would do. It's been 20 days later since we see firecracker in the dark sky, cheering for the arrival of the new year.

Nonetheless, life has been different in 2008 for me. Flashing back, looking at the good old photos I took since the beginning of the year tell the story of 2008. In January, I was sitting for my A-levels exam. I study day in day out, until I could memorise the exact phrases in the text. Immediately after that, I was busy with the preparation to leave for Adelaide in mid February. After that, everything was very very new for me.

February was like a transition month for most of us in Australia. It was 8 years ago when I first reached the land down under. Need not to say, everything was so vague at that time. I settled down in a small apartment and looked forward to university life. Central market is a new place for me for I always avoid market whenever possible. For the very first time in my life, I choose vegetables, I buy fruits and think of what to cook for lunch. I wouldn't say that my cooking tastes good, but obviously I'm improving as time goes by. I'm glad to be there, for I learn to manage my life independently.

In a new place, I meet new people, and get to know some better. In your eyes, the world is growing smaller, yet it gets deeper and more difficult to understand people. I realise that I'm no longer a child, I grow up to discover that nothing is perfect and not necessarily everything will follow your heart. I'm still learning to cope with.

After 10 months being away from home, now I'm back again to the place where I was grown up. She was still as friendly as she used to be, welcoming my return with a warm, sunny smile. Wherever I go, I know it well that there is always a place called home.

~Happy new year~

诗巫之旅

同学当中有好几个是来自诗巫的。诗巫人的特征是福州话，因为大部分的诗巫华人都是福州人，而诗巫也有新福州的美誉。当时的先祖 - 黄乃裳从中国福建省带来了一大批的福州人，经过一连串的发展后有了今天繁荣的诗巫。诗巫的标志是白天鹅，在市镇里也可以看到白天鹅的模型。

白天鹅是由林氏负责维修维持。

三洋大厦是诗巫最高的建筑物，楼下的几层是购物中心，楼上为办公楼。

水晶球是从中国引进来的，有当地华人负责维持。

黄乃裳人像，拍摄于华人博物馆外。

诗巫创走廊

Land of Hornbill - Kuching Part

With "Now everyone can fly", I started my journey from Penang to Kuching. It took me approximately two hours to reach Kuching International Airport. I was informed that it wasn't the right time to visit Sarawak as it was hit by flood due to long hours of rain. Luckily, I reached at night and the condition was relieved. Before that, here is a little "history" about my trip. Firstly, there were around 16 of us from West and East Malaysia joining the trip, with different groups of us reaching Kuching at different times on the same day. Most of the time, we travelled either on foot, by shuttle or by hired van.

Generally, Kuching is not much different from cities in West Malaysia, except for its population demographic. In Kuching, you see mostly Chinse and Iban. According to Sarawakians, the city itself is not highly populated as there are many satellite cities around Kuching city to spread out its development, making the city less crowded. Well, it sounds to be a good idea. Also, there are few skyscrapers in Sarawak because it has plenty of land! (That's why I see many greenery before the plane landed.)

We began our city tour the next day, visiting places of interest around the city such as the museum, waterfront, riverside, shopping malls, and most importantly, the prominent "cat landmark" (as you can see from the picture below).


The next day, we visited Sarawak Cultural Village and Damai beach. From its name, you can know that it was all about many ethnic groups in Sarawak and their respective cultures. I guess this is what makes Sarawak so different from other states in Malaysia. We see houses of different ethnic groups, their performances and different types of food. Showing in the picture below is "Rumah Orang Ulu" taken from Sarawak Cultural Village.

On the fourth day, we hired vans to Semonggoh National Park, Jong's Crocodile Farm, Friendship park and etc. Semonggoh National Park houses our country's protected animal - orang utan in its native habitat. (Visitors are not alloewd to make noise when the feeding process was going on.) On the other hand, Jong's Crocodile Farm offer a variety of crocodile and other animals such as bear, owl, ostrich and many more. Our next stop - friendship park is an interesting one. It is built to represent the friendship between Malaysia and China. There was a big statue of Cheng Ho and Chinese influenced architecture in the park. The environment was serene.

It's all for Kuching part, with Sibu part coming soon. :D

Puzzle

First time in my life, I reassembled a whole piece of puzzle.

So far

On 5th Dec 2008, I started my long long journey back to Malaysia. I stopped for a transit in Darwin before departing to Singapore via Jetstar. Darwin is situated far north in Australia and it is the capital city of Northern Territory. There are only two words to describe the climate in Darwin - panas dan lembap. The air is so humid that I find it difficult to breathe properly. Even when I stepped out of the airport at midnight I can feel the warm air surrounding me. I had a brief tour in the city the next day and I think I will never visit Darwin anymore, at least not the city. Practically there was nothing much in the city; no tram services and no metro buses.

I arrived safely in Penang on 7th Dec morning. Immediately after Haji break, I started my 10-day-attachment in a hospital. I'm sorry to say that I got very bored during the attachment. What I did was very mundane - reading prescriptions and looking for medicines. Luckily, I got to keep a lot of medicine information sheets for my own reference.

After the attachment, I visited Tampin and Melaka, and stopped in KL for a day. All in all, it was a pleasant trip. =)