The Best Man Wins

The most tensed & exciting elections are coming very soon! Everyday I hear & see this topic everywhere. Last night, I even had nightmare in my sleep! I dreamt my wife bought a green HERMES handbag exactly like Rosmah's and swiped with my credit card. Horrors! I woke up sweating and it was a silly dream. Heh Heh!! My simple wife doesn't like branded stuffs and loves salads, mountains & joss sticks more than anything else.

BTW my wife blogged earlier than me and went missing. Now she is back again and you can see her enlightening blog HERE.

 

I am caught between 2 Rocket candidates right now. One of my bosses (Right person in photo) will stand for Parliament seat in Teluk Intan. So we colleagues are caught up in this race, like it or not. My silly accountant has been crossing swords with me everyday when we talked about my boss. We are not even voting in his area yet we argued like dogs. This is politics and it is a very unhealthy topic that create tensions & enemies!

  

Meanwhile in my neighbourhood, I got roped in to help this Segambut candidate. Last Sunday, I walked around the evening market with him to distribute his Rocket newspapers under the rain showers!! Goodness, I really cannot believe I am doing all this. I posted this photo in my Facebook and got so many "likes" & they asked me to stand for elections! No way!

I cannot wait for this elections to be over and have my life back to normal. I wish them all good luck whether you are dacings, moons or rockets!

Abraham Lincoln said:

"Elections belong to the people. It's their decision. 

If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, 

then they will just have to sit on their blisters!"

Mount Jiuhua (Jiuhuashan - China) Part 1

Mount Jiuhua is located in Qingyang County in Anhui Province and is famous for its rich landscape and ancient temples.

We took a 4 hour bus ride from Nanking to reach the small hamlet of Jiuhuashan. The road leading to bumpy uphills passed many miles of vegetable and flower farms with tiny remote towns along the way. It was both interesting & shocking sometimes but that's life for me to learn. Most passengers in the whole bus spoke Mandarin with heavy Anhui slang that it was impossible for other Chinese city folks to understand.

We stayed 2 nights at a very spacious 5-Star Hotel Ocean Line which was built by Hong Kong businessmen. It was off peak seasons and I got it cheaply for less than RM200 a night. Next morning, we took another bus that brought us up along the very sharp winding roads to Mount Jiuhua. 

My wife wrote in her BLOG to guide anyone who is interested to know the details to reach this mountain.

This small village has got many small hotels & shops to cater for the many tourists & worshipers. Look at their lovely lake with mirror reflections that looked like a pretty painting and it had thousands of gold fishes swimming happily inside!

There are 99 peaks on this mountain with 90 temples scattered around the whole mountain range. Many of the mountain's shrines and temples are dedicated to Ksitigarbha (known in Chinese as Dìzàng Wang), who is a Bodhisattva and protector of beings in hell realms according to Mahayana Buddhist tradition.

It was a long steep walk up the slopes with additional hundreds of steps to catch their cable car. I was strong all the way and sat down just to pose. Earlier, I had 2 months' gym preparations to strengthen my legs as I knew it was not an easy climb from sunrise to sunset.

We selfishly got a cable car all for ourselves and held hands to view the panoramic scenery & breathed the coolest mountain air.

The cable car passed through so many rocky mountains and you could see that Anhui has lots of mountains including the famous Huangshan nearby too.

This particular rock stood out prominently and very erotically in most postcards. Errrr.... Does it look like Darth Vader gazing below or something else pointing up?

This Mount Jiuhua is also famous for its many old Pine Trees that perch majestically amongst the greens, unlike Mount Huashan in Xian which is all sharp & steep rocky boulders and ranked Top 5 most dangerous mountains in China.

We trekked along the winding paths slowly and I was gasping for breaths on a cold Spring day. I saw the first temple from faraway.

Every temple seemed to be built beside some interesting rocks.

  So many people were there before me.

 I spent some time admiring at all their joss stick urns that withstood many decades of harsh weathers!

 Almost all the temples I entered had the statues of Dizang Wang or Amitabha Buddhas.

Some people were too tired to climb down so they could hire the Sedan Chairs that were being carried by 2 strong muscular men.

(To be continued)

Welcome to Nanking

I have 5 more posts for my recent trip to China. Let me fast forward to Nanking City before going back to Shanghai & other exotic spots. Well, we always see documentary clips on TV showing the horrendous wars that broke out in Nanking during the WW2 where this city saw the most gory and brutal deaths in the whole of China. Few hundred thousands were buried alive with thousands of women being raped & killed - hence this place was often sadly remembered as "The Rape Of Nanking".

There was a tinge of sadness in my feelings when I stepped off from the High Speed train from Shanghai. I had to catch a bus from Nanking to reach the Mount Jiuhua in Anhui Province. All the vivid gory scenes came flashing back to my mind as I walked around.

GOODNESS!!!!!

I was very shocked, numbed and speechless to see a woman, bent over and welcomed her ass to me!!! Her Ass was saying "Welcome to Nanking" before wiping it with tissues and papers. She just finished shitting her poop beside the highway!!!

Feeling dizzy with tummy butterflies, I headed to the nearby famous Xuanwu Royal Lake which is located in the vicinity of over 530 hectacres spanning across 9.5 kilometres! It is the biggest Royal Lake in China and was a popular retreat of the Emperors and Warlords during the ancient days.

The huge lake and park is located right outside the Nanking Railway Station and it consists of 5 islands in the lake, with each commanding panoramic scenery.

The Spring is here and the leaves & flowers have bloomed beautifully in all shades of myriad colours!

Some famous quotes said - "If you tour Nanjing City without going to the Xuanwu Lake, it is as regretful as you tour Beijing City without going to the Summer Palace or tour Hangzhou without going to the West Lake".

I had never seen a huge lake of this size and it is a perfect place for couples and lovers to laze there.

The Chinese folks love to gamble everywhere by the roadsides, under the trees and by this lake!

Lots of Chinese folks gathered under the trees, probably waiting for the arrival of their trains as the railway station was packed inside with thousands of passengers, leaving no empty seats for waiting.

 

This man beside me was enjoying his cigarette while scraping his flaky soles!

China has the world's highest population of 1.3 billion people! You will definitely come across many happy couples at every corner you turn.

Romantic Shanghai City at Night

 The most famous street in the whole of China must be the "Nanjing Road" in Shanghai, quoted by my previous Mandarin language teacher who hailed from Shanghai itself. He explained that so much history has taken place along the stretch of The Bunds where the Huangpu River flows & blah blah blah...

Today, we can see all the most expensive brand boutiques lining along East Nanjing Road. It was lovely to just window shop outside to view their showcase displays and dream of wearing them - Cartier, Bvlgari, Prada, Dior, Burberry, Gucci & you just name it.

 

 The night was cool and windy, so we decided to take a stroll, hand in hand to see its famous lighted buildings. It was really awesome to see the fantastic French architecture buildings with huge pillars, motifs and statues all over. I felt that I was strolling in the boulevards of Paris!

Here, I posed outside the famous Peace Hotel. If you have read or watched movies of the Shanghai Bunds, you will know this hotel. The room rates are above RM1500 per night for all rooms along Nanjing Road, so I stayed along the back lanes for less than half price!

 We loved the romantic strolls along the Bunds, so we went there twice! It will make even the most boring person become romantic and sentimental to renew the love vows again.

 This is the lovely view of Pudong area across the Huangpu River.

 Every building looked very beautiful and majestic with its own unique design and European architecture. All owned by multi-national banks and companies.

 My honey loved this building the most.

 The holidays were over but the crowds were still there!!!

 This building is my favourite and I told him that I will be back soon!

The Charms of Old Shanghai (1)

We just came back from our 7 days of exciting & fruitful trip visiting Shanghai, Nanking, Mount Jiuhua in Anhui and Suzhou. The weather was unexpectedly cold for Spring season and the coldest experience was 1 degrees C in Anhui. Most days it was around 10 degrees which was perfectly cool and nice to wear my Winter clothes again.

It was our first visit to Shanghai and I noticed the Chinese guys & gals were mostly milky fair & very tall. It was a common sight to see many ladies towering above 5 ft 8 in and they all looked glamorous wearing fashionable clothes making "Shanghai Fashion" a trend being observed even in Paris & Milan.

Our arrival on the 4th April was the 2 days Public Holiday in China for the Qing Ming  - Tomb Sweeping Day. There were hundreds of thousands visitors walking all over the Shanghai city, jamming the subways, malls and streets. The weather was cold, so it was bearable to jostle and push your way around in the crowded places.

I would conclude that this trip was an eye opener for me to appreciate the scenic mountains and latest technologies besides getting shocked by the toilet cultures in China. I hope to upload more posts of the whole trip fast.

We arrived Shanghai at 7:00am and took the world's first Maglev Train that runs on Magnetic Levitation lines from Pudong Airport to the outskirts of the city.

This Bullet Train runs up to maximum 431 kph during peak hours and 301 kph during normal hours. It was very fast and smooth making my head dizzy! We got off halfway and jumped into the subway train that took us to our Dorsett Hotel. This hotel is highly recommended as it has a subway station right beneath the hotel - So Convenient!

We headed to the city right away with plans to visit the City God's Temple, Yu Yuan Gardens, Ancient Tea House and the old shopping streets of Shnghai.

 It was quite cold that morning at 8 degrees C and the streets were so packed with Chinese visitors from all over China. It was so difficult to take photographs and I often had to wait for them to walk away.

 The ancient architecture of the old buildings were all well preserved and everyone was busy clicking their cameras!

 We had to take turns to take our photos like tourists. It was always fun and happier to travel in a pair as a bigger group could mean more headaches sometimes.

 This big landmark is a Goldsmith's Jewellery Shop which started its business since a long time ago.

 The narrow lanes are lined with many cute and interesting shops selling souvenirs, antique curious and traditional food stuffs.

 The lake outside the Yu Yuan Gardens were connected by several bridges. It was packed with tourists like human sardines!

 It was so crowded that I got molested so many times. The policemen on duty had to blow their whistles and shouted at the unruly crowd who were pushing each other.

 We sat down at a big food court that occupied 3 floors with hungry gluttons. My order of plain Fried Bihun with 2 Desserts cost 50 Yuan (RM25)!!!!! It was my first daylight robbery.

My Spring Break

My Honey & I will be away tomorrow for my much awaited trip to climb the big mountains again in China. This time we will visit Shanghai for a few days, making short trips to nearby spots & the ancient Wuzhen Village by the canals. It has been my lifelong dreams to walk along the tiny lanes and bridges to admire the laid back lifestyles. Probably I will join the local folks to sip Chinese tea and play Chinese Chess under the Pine Trees. How nice!

From there, we will both take a bullet train to Nanking to look see before staying around the cool mountains at Jiuhuashan in Anhui Province. I heard there are 99 peaks to climb with many interesting temples there. I will pray for the well being of all the bloggers, silent readers and the coming GE13!

  

Our last leg of the trip will be back to Shanghai again for another 2 nights and I hope to board a boat to another town to climb the Putuoshan where the Goddess Guan Yin Bodhisattva's statue is.

Until then, please keep blogging and I will be visiting your blogs!

(My special thanks to Bloggers Kuan Chuen & TZ for giving me valuable tips about Shanghai)