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。
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
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
Despite having tests around the corner, I joined the hiking trip organised by MySA to Morialta Conservation Park. I have no idea why Morialta was choosen out of the 300 parks and reserves in South Australia; however, I am glad that it turned out to be an interesting experience for most of us.
Briefly, I visited a few spots at the park before having barbeque at an expansive grassland near the entrance to the park. There were three waterfalls in the park, namely First Falls, Second Falls and Third Falls. Simple right? Haha... Also, there was "Giant Cave", although I personally think that the cave wasn't giant. Nonetheless, we took the longest walking trails throught almost every part of the park and it took us approximately 4 hours! (It was written there that four hours were needed but I didn't really check the time.)
Too tired to proceed anymore. My eyes are closing and my brain is in sleeping mode now... Good night!
"If you only ever do one wine trail in Australia you have to make it South Australia's Barossa ... It is quintessential Australia where fine wine mixes with historical ambience, stunning cuisine and friendly laid back Australian hospitality." (Wine New Zealand magazine)
As you can see from above, South Australian is famous for its wine. Personally I'm not a wine lover but this is definitely a chance not to be missed if you are in South Australia --- pay a visit to Barossa Valley!!! Now only I realised that there are actually so many types of wines, Shiraz (I remember this very well as the smell is very very strong), Merlot (which I think is the second strongest after Shiraz)... I couldn't remember their names. I'm not into red wine, I prefer white wines. =)
Barossa wine region comprises of the Barossa Valley and Eden Valley and it is home to some of the oldest Shiraz vineyards in the world. Most interestingly, Barossa heritage vines are free from phylloxera. In fact, all South Australian vines are free from phylloxera!! (I remember the tour guide stressed that many times, I think he is proud of the vines, haha...) Overally, the trip was fantastic except for the winding roads which made almost everyone of us nauseous.
The Barossa trip was an "experience" trip, which was meant for wine dummies like us (there were altogether 15 of us), or perhaps it should be called a wine discovery trip. =P Our first stop was The Big Rocking Horse, which is the biggest rocking horse in the world. There, we visited a toy factory and a small wildlife park. (I'm not sure if it is anyway) Being soooo close to kangaroos, wallabies, ostrich, sheep, peacock etc. made me really excited!!!
After visiting Angas Park Dried Fruits, we started our very first wine tasting adventure at Wolf Blass Winery. I can see several expressions while tasting wines:
"Ewww!!!"
"Wow..."
"Hmm.... Okay lah..."
As for me, the most frequent expression I had was "Eww!!!".
After having our scrumptious lunch at Nuriootpa Vine Inn, we continued our adventure at Vinecrest Winery, Barossa Vines and Kies Family Wines. The second winery was almost the same as the first one, being more commercialised and crowded with visitors. The third one was the place I bought a bottle of wine while the fourth one was a smaller winery, stylishly and traditionally furnished.
Before ending our trip, we visited The whispering Wall, which showed us how wonderful an architecture can be. By whispering at one end of the dam, the one standing at the other end can actually hear what you are saying CLEARLY. Amazing right? So yeah, this was our last stop in the trip.
Finally, I have the time to sit down and blog. Apparently, this is a rather late entry. After ending the "sit down and squeeze your brain juice" session, I decided to give myself a break and proceed to the last task on my list for today - blogging.
So, we will get straight to the main ideas now. Genting trip was a two days-one night vacation I had this year. Reasons? To relax ourselves, of course. Besides that, I think I had never been on a trip before with my friends in INTEC. Not those overnight ones. So far, I missed the Redang trip for a mobile phone which turned out to be a thrilling and amazing trip. Also, I didn't make it to Cameron Highlands for reasons that I had forgotten. See, I regretted, especially for being absent from the Redang trip.
It was not totally right to say that I was completely on a vacation mood to Genting. Well, partly it was due to the fact that I had been wasting too much time enjoying my revision month rather than studying. Combining all the teeny weeny factors that are not worth mentioning, my rate of pleasure had been reduced.
The journey started off well. Although the initial taxi driver that we called did not turn up, we managed to get one outside with reasonable price. As we reached the KTM station, a train had just arrived. Quickly, I flashed my "touch n go" card and ran all the way to the train, rushing up the stairs like a mad girl, hoping that I could catch the train. BUT... Guess what? The door closed before me and the train sped away in front of my eyes! In spite of that, we were still lucky to reach KL central on time. In fact, we were early.
Here we go, starting our journey to Genting by "Go Genting" bus. The bus, okay I guess, didn't expect much of a RM3.30 fared bus. Anyway, it was still acceptably comfortable. There, we met a woman, I guess she was at her sixties. A chatty woman I would say. And for the rest of the journey, I was deprived of my precious sleeping time, not even a short nap that I could get.
"Last time my daughter..."
"Last time my son..."
"My son is an engineer, my daughter is a doctor, my youngest daughter is studying at MU..."
(Please note that I'm not responsible for the accuracy of facts written, as I was too sleepy to pay any extra attention on what she was talking about.)
Continuing with my Genting trip, the skyway wasn't too crowded when we reached. Within minutes, we successfully boarded a purpish painted gondola. The view outside was still the same, not much difference from the last time I went to Genting, except for thicker mist, a cold day ahead.
We did some window shopping before lunch while waiting to check-in. No doubt, we are staying at First World Hotel. Later in the afternoon, there was drizzle. I wonder if it was a continuation from the morning or it started in the afternoon. Be it the former or latter, obviously luck was not at our sides. Gone our plan to conquer the outdoor theme park. The rest of the afternoon was spent at indoor theme park and messing around in the hotel. Too bad.
Night time was happy hours for Zhi Hui and Johnson as they managed to enter the casino. (Proven that I look young as I was chased out by the guards) It seemed that the others had their own businesses to do that night too. Hooi Lie watched a performance at Arena of Stars while Chuen Lu watched TV in the hotel room. Pity me, I resorted to online at Starbucks. At midnight, we gathered back and enjoyed the serenity of the night. It was quiet, peaceful and of course, COLD!! After some photo shooting sessions, I found myself wet - hair, clothes are all damp. After that, we had our last activity for the day, supper at McD. I wonder how many fries I had eaten and HELP ME PLEASE, it was so late at night!! At about 1.30am, we were back to the hotel. There, we watched an episode of HK drama series and chatted before hitting the sack. It was around 3am when everyone started to fall asleep.
The next morning was time to fulfill the shopaholic side of myself. A few hours were granted for shopping but I only bought a jacket for myself, nothing more. Again, flying coaster was closed today due to weather conditions. *Fated* I couldn't really write out what I did for the rest of the day before heading down. Loitering around I guess. For this, I really need to "praise" myself for being so forgetful. Thanks to last minute packing, I carelessly left my swim suit in the hostel. As a result, I can only see people swimming, not myself of course. =.="
At about 5.30pm, we left Genting for Shah Alam. Unfortunately, the RM3.30 "Go Genting" bus was sold out and we had no choice but to take a cab back to KL central. And the price was approximately 5 times that of a bus!! (My pocket was weeping...) 16 bucks + class dinner at Chicken Hartz = one 50 bucks note fled away!
On a whole, the Genting trip was an enjoyable one, though I wasted another two days without studying. At least, I can be freed from the build-up pressure of exams, freed from books and the unpredictable weather of Shah Alam. It was tired but worth all the effort. ~Cheers~
