Huun Huur Tu

So one day I was searching YouTube for stuff concerning the Rainforest World Music Festival that is held every year in Kuching, Malaysia. Came across this band Huun Huur Tu from Tuva, which they claim is a country but is technically a part of Russia. Anyway, they have managed to maintain their culture through the ages and it's amazing. They are "throat singers", which is unique enough. What's more, when they do throat singing they can maintain a low bass-like note while doing a higher-pitch whistling. Here's a sample of their performance in Munich 2002:



Oh, I'm also interested to go to the Rainforest World Music Festival at the Sarawak Cultural Village 11-13 July next year. Anyone wanna join me? =)

HK - China Trip (Part 7) (End)

Day 16

So today started off with the final discussion session where we talked about what we felt about the whole trip in general. Most of us talked about the friends we made along the trip more than the trip itself. I was asked to say something coz I merely translated for the past few times.


After lunch we headed off to 上海交通大学 (Shanghai Jiaotong University) for the official closing ceremony. There were the usual speakers but one of the participants, a caucasian/angmoh/gweilo, gave a speech in Mandarin, reading the script written in pinyin. He wasn't too bad actually. Then there was the CSP song singing session, and people broke down and cried. Aww...


We had some time then before the farewell party was organised at a dining area at the hotel we stayed in. This was the final opportunity for us to spend time together so many people dressed in their best (I didn't bring any decent formal clothing though. Oh well). Each group also had to do a presentation. I missed out something on Day 15: At night we had rehearsals for our performance. My group's performance was basically a recap of what we went through in the whole programme whilst singing some songs. Ah Mei and Victoria wanted to do a hip hop dance too but there were technical difficulties. Oh well. Anna did some kind of traditional dance which was rather interesting. Oh by the way we had a dinner buffet as well.

Me and Pin-Chieh

So while all this was going on, people were just running everywhere to get a few words from the friends they made during the trip. Oh, and taking photos. Ahh... At night a few of us from Group 1 decided to go out to McDonalds. It was a crazy night. We kept getting lost thanks to 香港的代表 Carey. It took us more than an hour before we found it. Lol.

Doing homework. Lol. So Chinese of us.

Jia-hung and Carey playing scissor-paper-stone （石头、剪刀、布）before we went out.

Day 17

Yesterday was technically the last day as some people were not going back to Hong Kong. So early in the morning we came down to the hotel lobby. The atmosphere was... melancholic. Alison, my group's coordinator then said that it was time to leave. It then struck me that the whole trip ended and we were all gonna part soon. People around me were already crying and stuff, so I, being the emotional person that I am, cried too. All the way up to the bus. And more crying as people started hugging, waving goodbye, singing farewell songs, friendship songs... oh...
* End of CSP8 *

There were many of us so we were split into 2 different flights back to HK. My plane got delayed though, and the plane that was supposed to leave later now left earlier. Oh well.

More delays back at HK airport. Tee's bag was ripped or something and other complications. So nevermind I went back to CityU hostel first. People slowly came back. I realised I was able to call Carey using the phone in the hostel room. After some long complicated discussions and conflicting plans, Tee and Olivia were not going joining us and only me and Pin-Chieh joined Carey, Carry, Alice and Jia-hung. Carey fetched us (in his nice big car) to 西贡 (Sai-kung) for a seafood dinner. It was delicious and fresh! Really liked it. And we found out that Jia-hung has Prawn-phobia! Lol!

Fresh prawns. My favorite seafood hands down!

Then we went to 满记甜品 to have some desserts. This shop is a popular dessert in HK, and this one in Sai-kung is supposed to be the original shop (KV knows this shop too!). Then Carey fetched us back, and Carry stayed at Pin-Chieh's place.

Carry, Pin-Chieh, Jia-hung, Alice

Chauffeur of the day, Carey! Nice ride on your car!

The dessert shop. They had a special separate section for durian desserts.

Day 18 (extra)

Carry brought me and Pin-Chieh all the way to 荃湾 (Tsuen Wan) for breakfast. Too bad the shop she wanted to bring us to was closed. But we still had a nice breakfast at another place. Had porridge and 猪肠粉 (Ju Cheong Fun?).


Soon we were on the MTR again and Carry had to alight. And Pin-Chieh too. So all I could do was loiter around the downtown area. Nothing much coz apparently, most shops open at 11am! Saw Sally and chatted awhile but she was going to buy stuff for Jia-hung's birthday I think. Met up with Jia-hung later and we also walked around a bit. Then we went to the meeting point and people started coming. We were going to 饮茶 (yum cha), or rather, have a 点心(dim sum) lunch.

A small sample of what we had

One of the two tables

Me and Jia-hung

The food was OK. We went shopping afterwards and I had to do a whirlwind shopping spree. Met up with Ping Gee back at the CityU hostel afterwards (late, sorry). And we then made our way to the airport. And back to Singapore.

CSP logo

THE END.

**** **** **** ****

Final thoughts:

There were times where I felt the trip was quite disappointing; however, sometimes it is up to you to make the best out of an opportunity. All in all I enjoyed the trip a lot, especially because of the great company I was travelling with. And making friends from everywhere. Really cool, and for the price I paid (US$200 + S'pore-HK to and fro air ticket), it was well worth it. Strongly recommend every university student (with some Chinese heritage, unfortunately this is a prerequisite) to apply for it.

**** **** **** ****

Omg! I've finally managed to end my HK-China trip series! Haha. But anyway, the next series in line will be my Berlin trip and Summer Uni series so stay tune! Also, a special advertisement on CSP9 when I get more info about it!

Imogen Heap

Imogen Heap (how do you even pronounce this?) is a singer-songwriter from UK, and she was part of a group called Frou Frou. The first time I heard a Frou Frou song was on the 2nd season of So You Think You Can Dance and it was called "Let Go". I really liked the song but of course like any other song I just leave it at that.

Then in the same season of So You Think You Can Dance, the choreographer Mia Michaels used an Imogen Heap song titled "Hide and Seek" for one of her group contemporary dance pieces. I found the song... eccentric yet electrifying. So I went to find the song... The only "instruments" used were her own voice and a synthesizer.

I shared the song with KV one day and I was surprised that he found it nice too. And then I decided to look up on wikipedia and found the connection between Imogen Heap and Frou Frou. Since then I have been looking for more Imogen Heap songs and I think her song repertoire is really unique and refreshing. On a side note, I've found more of these qualities in British singers than I have from US or Chinese singers.

So anyway, here's a video of one of her songs, "Headlock":

HK - China Trip (Part 6)

On the train... nothing much to do. People were kinda climbing around like monkeys at times; kinda hard for me to explain. But anyway, the beds were OK and it wasn't too cold. And since I didn't get enough sleep the past few days, I slept very well in the train. When I woke up...

Day 13

...I heard music! Gosh, they actually play music on the train. I remember hearing a weird song (like the original was supposed to be in English or something but they played a Chinese version) but I can't remember what song it was.

Anyway, can't remember much of what happened between then and the seminar. We attended a seminar on World Expo 2010 Shanghai. Unfortunately the main speaker spoke only in Mandarin. Fortunately, there was an interpreter who did instant translation on the spot after the main speaker spoke. That was a rare occasion: for many of the previous talks in Chinese the participants who didn't understand Chinese were kinda left out. Can't remember the details of the speech anymore, I guess that's why people like to make notes during speeches. But I can simply google/wiki it online =P

The rest of the day was free and easy! We got off the chartered bus somewhere near 南京路(Nanjing Road), which was one of the roads perpendicular to The Bund. Mostly did window shopping but many of us bought stuff at the Beijing 2008 Olympics shop. The longer we stayed inside the more stuff we bought. I was so tempted... yet this salesperson was like:" yar, it's quite expensive. You'll spend a lot of money if you want to buy them." and his colleague was like:"you're weird to dissuade your customer from buying stuff!". Ended up buying for everyone in my family.

In German this should be Nanjingstraße Fußgängerzone. Basically a road only for pedestrians.

Alice with the stuff she bought. Haha. Just kidding. It was all our stuff.

Time went by quite fast and we decided to move on to 城隍庙 (Chenghuang Miao). I didn't see any temple (庙) there but it was a nicely ornamented area. They either refurbished or built the Chinese-styled architecture there and lined the edges with lights. And there was also a small lake at the centre. Anyway, the shops were about to close so we hurried to this famous shop to try their 汤包, 饺子 etc. Didn't find it exceptionally tasty (in fact, a bit too salty), but it was still OK.

Nice place. Too bad we came quite late and shops were all about to close.

What I had for dinner. Definitely cheaper than what I have to pay for here in Europe! @.@

We had a 2nd group discussion either on this night or the next day. Can't remember. But anyway this time when they asked me to translate I said something like:" Thank you for letting me translate but I feel like I should let someone else experience this wonderful job of translation" So they got Xenia to do it, and soon after many other people helped in the translation as well. Didn't do much after that, just went to someone's room to chit chat.

...and we also 踢毽子, which disintegrated after a powerful kick by Lan Bin.

Day 14

I have to mention that Shanghai's pollution isn't as bad as Beijing's and it's still tolerable. Anyway, on this day we spent almost the whole day at 杭州 (Hangzhou), and we went there by "bullet train". It wasn't as fast as we expected it to be... merely peaking at around 140km/h.

和谐号, Harmony

Our first stop was 岳王庙 (Yuewang Miao), which was of course built to honour the Chinese hero 岳飞 Yue Fei. Those of us who came from Chinese schools and grew up with Chinese stories, myths etc. would know the many tales about Yue Fei when he was born, his tattoo on his back, to his death. And of course, the famous poem 满江红 ("Whole River Red"). There was a statue of him inside which the guide said wasn't how he looked like coz no one knows. And he also told us that during the Cultural Revolution they removed (or destroyed?) the statue and placed a statue of Mao Tse Tung instead. But of course now it is not there anymore.

Written on top, in a kinda messy calligraphic way and the traditional way from right to left, "还我江山" (Return me my land). Yue Fei was a patriotic general who wanted to help his country gain back lost territory.

Kneeling statues in front of Yue Fei's grave of 秦桧 and his wife, who supposedly were to blame for his death. There is a sign beside that asks of tourists not to spit on the statues. From what I read, in the past people would spit or even pee on the statues.

We then strolled around at the nearby 西湖 (West Lake). Apparently tradition speaks of "Ten Scenes of West Lake"（西湖十景) but I didn't know about it then. There were also some beautiful traditional buildings there but I didn't exactly find the whole place really charming. The sky was still hazy and it was a gloomy day. Or maybe I just didn't feel well. The area surrounding the lake was rather large and we didn't manage to see it all. In fact, I think there is much more to Hangzhou but we just didn't have the time.

The calm lake on a gloomy afternoon

Posing in front of a heroin whom I do not know

Beautiful Chinese architecture

We then went to this shopping street (I've forgotten what it's called). It was mainly a tourist street I suppose. Had some free 六月神仙茶 at a 药材店 (erm... Chinese Pharmacy?) to cool me down. There were lots of shops selling traditional stuff. I went to one shop that sold only Chopsticks. Someone told me about the Chinese Surname series so I went to inquire if they had my surname （彭）. The saleslady asked me how many I wanted. I said 6 (for my whole family!). And I was kinda lucky coz they only had 6 pairs left! However later when I thought about it, my mom doesn't have the same surname as me, but oh well, she's Mrs. Pang anyway =P

The shopping street

Went back to Shanghai via the "bullet train". Our bus driver doesn't seem to know the way well and got stuck in a jam (we learned more about that the following day), so we ended up being quite late for dinner. It was at a 云南 Yunnanese Restaurant (Yunnan, a province in South China). There were nice dances and music. There were also pictures with descriptions on the walls concerning 云南十八怪 (18 strange things of Yunnan).

Ah Mei trying out the Bamboo dance

As I didn't feel very well I slept early.


Day 15

On this morning we took a 1-hour bus ride to a place that I think was the office for the ports and stuff. Our bus driver missed a turn and we were late again. I seriously don't know if he follows the orders he was given. Oh well, anyway we then listened to some explanation about the 东海 Donghai bridge, which is the longest cross-sea bridge in the world, and also about 洋山深水港Yangshan Deepwater Port, which was on an island and connected to the mainland via Donghai bridge.

Outside the office building was a world map (not correctly represented i must say).

We then got the opportunity to travel to the actual Yangshan Deepwater Port. Donghai bridge was very long... It's not like Penang bridge where you can see where you are going; it was like a bridge to nowhere in the sea. But anyway Yangshan Island was actually a nice breezy place. There was building located amongst the rocks on a hill and I could imagine it to be a fantastic villa or mansion.

Windy. Yangshan deepwater port behind me.

The building amongst the rocks. Would be an amazing venue for parties.

We then went back to the mainland and visited the site of a city there are planning, in particular the lake located at the centre of the city called 滴水湖. In the afternoon we attended a talk by an Anthropologist. He talked to us about the changes in Shanghai society, and told us that at different levels of society in Shanghai you speak different languages: on the top, English; middle, Mandarin; bottom, Shanghainese. We had a tour of 复旦大学 (Fudan university) too.

Sculpture at Fudan University

There was supposed to be a sight-seeing activity at The Bund but somehow it didn't come to fruition, so instead me and Tee went together. It was beautiful with lots of lights. The 东方明珠"Pearl of the Orient" along with other buildings on 浦东(Pudong) part of Shanghai were doing a light-display show. I actually preferred the "traditional" side (The Bund) with its European architecture. Our guide told us previously that The Bund is like an architectural museum: each building has its roots in different European architectural styles of the early 20th century.

Pudong at night, as viewed from The Bund

Nice architecture

All the lights along The Bund are turned off at 11.00pm.

Soon to come... HK - China trip (part 7)! 完结篇

Hari Raya Aidilfitri

Ketupat!!!!

[Blog entry ni mungkin ade banyak kesalahan. Maaf ya. Dah lama tak guna Bahasa Melayu Malaysia. Rasanya aku patut baca suratkhabar online Melayu tiap2 hari. Tapi tak cukup masa lah! ]

Aku rasa sekarang dah terlewat, tapi aku ingin jugak mengucapkan Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri kepada sahabat2 Muslim aku di mana jua kamu berada! Maaf Zahir dan Batin.

Oleh sebab sekarang kat luar negara, takde peluang untuk menikmati suasana Hari Raya serta makanan dan kuih muih Melayu yang aku suuuuuka sangat. Nasib baik aku dapat jugak makan nasi lemak kat Seri Gading sebelum berlepas ke sini. Anyway, hari tu aku sedang melayari laman2 web dan tiba2 teringat pulak lagu Hari Raya. Lalu carilah aku lagu2 tu kat youtube:

"Suasana Hari Raya" oleh Sharifah Aini (waktu dia buat MTV nih belum gemuk sangat)


"Selamat Hari Raya" oleh Saloma


"Seloka Hari Raya" duet Siti dengan Apek (seorang pelakon dari Senario)

HK - China Trip (Part 5)

Beijing (con't)...

Day 9

This morning's seminar was a general report on the Beijing Olympic Games preparation. I think many were relieved to find that the speaker, who is the deputy director of international relations in the committee, could speak English well. During Q&A the pollution question came up. Seriously, I think Beijing's polluted air is really too much. It's like the haze season in Southeast Asia, except that it lasts throughout the year.

Just took this photo because the Malaysian flag is there! Yay!

In the afternoon we visited 清华大学 (Tsinghua University), which has aspirations of being one of the top universities in the world by its 100th anniversary. There we attended a talk by a "returned"-Chinese who was involved in big landscaping/architectural work. It was actually quite interesting but many fell asleep as the lecture hall + lecture effect was rather sleep-inducing. We had the opportunity to tour the campus after that.

清华学堂, as it was first known. It has roots in Sino-American relationship.

Next we went to 北京大学 (Peking University). They have a whole lake 未名湖 (Weiminghu, literally "Yet to be named Lake") and park to claim as part of their campus.Also, there are lots of Chinese architecture on campus grounds which I have been wanting to see for quite some time, as China nowadays seem more preoccupied with building "modern" buildings. So there is really a dearth of traditionally styled Chinese buildings. We had our dinner at the uni's cafeteria and we ate the same stuff as what the students there eat.

Not bad as a campus park eh? Heard from someone there are also small paths in the park where couples like to go at night and...

We had to go out at night of course, being the young people we are =P We went to 后海 (Houhai), a popular nightlife area in Beijing, which is like the Clarke Quay of Beijing. We walked around for awhile and then decided to rent one of the boats that we can steer on our own around the lake. There was an incident involving Olivia that made some of us panic and scream but I ended up laughing a lot inside. Oh well, insider's joke =P

The gate leading to the bar area.

We then split into 2 groups: the beer/alcohol drinking group and the Karaoke group. I obviously went for the latter. We went to Qiangui to sing. 钱柜 (Qiangui, literal translation: "Money drawer") is a karaoke chain enterprise and it is amazing. I have never seen another karaoke place like that in my life! Imagine an entrance and lobby a la a Hotel, a buffet spread and lots of people attending to you. It was lavish, yet the fee was inexpensive compared to Singapore and we got so much more than what we could have in Singapore. Really enjoyed it and I know where to go for karaoke when I ever go to China again (which I somehow think I will).

Day 10

Was really tired as I only slept for 1 hour, but I was still OK (a little grumpy though). Had a quick breakfast and went on the tour bus to visit a building near to the main Olympic building, nicknamed as 鸟巢 (Bird Nest). A lady there went through a briefing about the infrastructure built for the 2008 Olympic games as we walked around to see the models. After that we boarded the bus to another venue where we took photos of the 鸟巢 and other nearby weird-looking Olympic games facilities.

Scaled down model of the Bird Nest Stadium

Actual thing behind me. And this is how polluted the air in Beijing is.

We were having lunch at a place where they also produce jade products. We “had” to go through a “briefing” on jade manufacturing and products before we were escorted to a huge room full of jade products. The idea that ran through most of our minds was: Tourist Trap. Apparently the organizing committee didn’t know of such an arrangement and hurried to usher us into the restaurant place.

After that whole episode and lunch we returned to our buses. We went to 八达岭(Badaling) part of the Great Wall of China, which is one of the better preserved parts and was built in the Ming dynasty. The scenery here is definitely better, and the sky is much clearer too; I could finally see blue skies and white clouds.

The Great Wall is amazing. It’s really hard to imagine how people could’ve built such a project of such magnitude hundreds of years ago. However, like what I’ve heard about the 八达岭 section of the Great Wall, it is over-commercialized. There are so many peddlers and shops selling many souvenirs but many of them are out to charge very expensive prices to tourists which may be 5 times the price.

Part of the Great Wall

Quite steep at some places. Looks a bit exaggerated in this photo though.

There were two paths that tourists could take and I ended up taking the crowded one. The (look-out) “tower” points of the Wall smelt like toilets, presumably because people have been peeing on the walls there. Also, I saw many people, mostly old men, spitting. There were also some Chinese girls climbing the Wall in high heels @.@ I don’t get China sometimes. Anyway, there was merely a shop at highest accessible point and we then made our way down. But most importantly, I am now officially a 好汉! Woohoo! =P

The aforementioned 好汉 posing

Climbed up a tower to take this photo. There's a bottleneck at the lower left corner.

I did some shopping after coming down from the Wall. There was a lady who wanted to sell me a hand-painted T-shirt for RMB260 (!) and I was saying that as students, that was too much for me. She then suggested RMB200 but I refused. She then asked me what price I would want it to be, and I said RMB150. She refused, so I decided to leave, and then she decided to sell it for RMB150. But I still didn’t buy. Wasn’t really interested actually.

I saw a similar T-shirt down the road and the person there was going to sell it to me for RMB20! But then again, it looked more like a printed shirt rather than a painted one… Still, at another shop I managed to cut a RMB40 shirt down to RMB15, after Alena pointed out to me that some people were selling the same T-shirt at RMB15 on the Wall. Also bought some key-chains for my friends.

Had dinner and went back to the hotel afterwards. It was still early. Many people came to my room to use the internet and eventually there was snacks and chit chatting going on. Slept slightly earlier than usual.

Day 11

The Forbidden City was our first stop today. It is now actually referred to as 故宫 (Gugong "Palace") rather than 紫禁城 (Zijincheng "Forbidden City") by the Chinese. The old palace grounds were huge, and there were places that were out-of-bounds or were under reparation. There was also a special area where you needed to pay extra to get in but I didn't go there.

Moat surrounding the Forbidden City

Entrance

One of the many "halls" that we passed through as we walked from one end to the other end of the Forbidden City

At the royal garden

Had lunch at 全聚德 (Quanjude), where we had Peking roasted duck 北京烤鸭. The dish actually comprised of 4 things… the really sinfully oily roasted duck meat, a circular popiah-skin like thingy, a dark salty sauce and raw onion. We were taught how to eat it… first the meat is dipped into the sauce and placed on the popiah skin. Then some onion is placed on top of it and the popiah skin is rolled up such that only one side is exposed. It was sinfully delicious =)

My "angel" designed this dish for me! =)

After changing into our formal clothes we proceeded to the 人民大会堂 (Great Hall of the People). I guess we came a bit too early though… we waited for quite some time before going in. So we killed time by taking photos outside. Lol.

Outside Great Hall of the People

Inside the banquet hall

Once inside we prepared for the photo shoot. We stood on a curved, many tiered stage (like those when we stand on during choir performances), and they were going to take a photo of all of us. There were definitely around 250 of us (including the organisers, sponsors, government officials), so how were they going to take a photo? They used a rotating camera (never heard of it). When we all received the photo it was actually a long roll, kinda like 清明上河图.So anyway after all the speech by a government official and the photo taking session, we had our dinner in one of their banquet halls. The food wasn't magnificent but it was OK. There were performances by some of the participants, of which the Violin + Erhu was one of the most interesting ones.

We were free at night and it was Victor's birthday the next day so we went to sing Karaoke! Again! Woohoo! First time I sang mostly English songs though. I think I still prefer Chinese/Canto Karaoke =P

Jacky, Birthday Boy and Olive

Day 12

I got a bit sick this day onwards but was still OK. In the morning we had an event called CSP Forum and we had no idea what it was about. It was held at 中国青年政治学院 (Chinese Youth Academy of Politics?) and the organiser was 中华全国青年联合会 (National Chinese Youth Association?). They invited 4 relatively young people from the corporate sector to discuss about doing business in China etc. All of them pursued their education abroad and spoke good English. It was an interesting forum and it was nice to hear what they had to say about coming back to China etc.

Next up we went to the 天坛 (Temple of Heaven), also a famous symbol of China. There wasn't really much to do there though. Still, it's nice to see the intricate designs and there was also an exhibition space where the history of the temple and the related customs and processions are explained.

There were some interesting mathematical stuff concerning the architecture but I've forgotten

We then had a chance to visit the 胡同 (Hutong) of Beijing on trishaws. Vincent's trishaw rammed into a tree at a point. Anyway it was like a village except that the streets were really narrow and walls were built around every house. I can see why Beijing authorities do not mind destroying the houses for development because there's nothing very interesting or terribly historical in particular. That being said, a better alternative would be to shift the hutong elsewhere, but that of course would cost money. But I also see the logic of protecting the Hutong as it is really old and shows a glipse of Beijing's past, and it is a nice quaint oasis in the midst of a burgeoning city.

Pin-Chieh (Mily) and Carry behind me and Jacky's trishaw

We then left for the train station. The bus went in all the way til the platform! Now that's good treatment. Hehe. We had to sleep in the compartment that has 3-tiered beds, but I found the train OK.

Off to Shanghai!