1. ridiculous number of seagulls at the lake at some temple we went to in kunming (sorry, i honestly don't remember names of the many temples, lakes and architecture we visited)

2. All the funny translations. There was one which i didn't take a pic of but the sign supposed to say "hand-dryer" was translated into "hair-dryer". As my dad puts it, since they spent so much money and effort making such a machine, why can't they at least get a good translation? haha.

3. The pretty hotel rooms! yay (: And i must say, most of them have a fondness for glass shower doors. No idea why, but it's kinda creepy.

4. The giant chess board in dali. Very fun for photos.

5. Rocky falls and wooden bridges. Made me think of new zealand, i miss NZ!

6. A sort-of retro disneyland. That tian long ba bu filiming "studio" (built like an ancient city) had all these activites you only see in period dramas. Like throwing the silk ball to choose a husband. Or looking for criminals on the street with a drawn portrait. You get the idea. It was also here where they pushed 9 of us onto a horse cart drawn only by 2 horses and it was only meant to be for 7 people. And the poor horses had to go uphill. Omg, and guess what i did. I CRIED. I started tearing, and then sobbing. Like, real crying. I was so so sad for the horses who had to pull us up i got over-emotional. Oh man, and it wasn't like i could just jump off the stupid cart. Plus, they made me sit in front next to the driver and i could see the poor horses in pulling their way up tediously.

7. The tea. We drank lots and lots of tea. Bought lots and lots too. And it's only back home when you realise the tea just doesn't taste as good as it did there. Bummer.

8. The sort of put together culture performance in this very quaint little hall, complete with wooden chairs and old architecture. But in the corner were these 2 giant speakers connected to a laptop used to play the music for the dances. Haha, funniest part was when halfway through the dance, the music crashed and the guy had to restart the comp. and the 2nd time they did the dance, it crashed again. lol, they shld just abandon technology and actually use instruments to play the songs, or maybe use a cd player.

9. The world's VILEST and most DISGUSTING concoction ever created - GINGER TEA. omg, i can't believe i actually managed half a glass. Madam Kim must have been one hell of a woman.

10. Traditional mediacorp style breakfasts! You know those amazing feast-like breakfasts channel 8 dramas always have? Yup, we experienced it. Cuz the resort-hotel was designed such that there were many houses and each house had 3-5 rooms. We shared one with 2 other families from the tour grp and each house has one hsekeeper who makes tea/milk for you at night and cooks breakfast in the morning. Pretty cool. and each house has it's own comp, living room and kitchen.

11. the most horrendous and primeval toilets i have ever ever seen. Gosh, at least some still had doors, albeit only half-length. Some don't even have doors, only partitions! And the "toilet bowl" is this narrow drain thingum which is shared by all the cubicles, slanted such that all the stuff flows from the first cubicle to the last. Oh my word. And the most puzzling thing was, there was this toilet which couldn't afford to have proper locks on the doors, but could afford to have sensor taps installed!

12. The world's second VILEST and most DISGUSTING concoction. Rhodiola liquid. the only thing which keeps it from taking first place is that it (thankfully) comes in 10ml bottles.

13. Oxygen bottles! We were up so high (around 4000+ metres, actually not that high) that the guide advised us to buy oxygen just in case. wow, but it didn't really get me high.

14. SNOW - flaky, dry and crystal-like, but still snow (: It was so dry, you couldn't even pack into anything. Felt like i was simply holding sugar. But oh well, it's real snow. And the place looked like such a winter wonderland.

15. The cutest dog ever! didn't get a picture, but it was amazingly cute. :D

16. The old women who just dance like no one's business in the parks in the day. In the cold wind. You gotta applaud them really.

17. All the "Gu cheng" (ancient cities) we went to. They were okay, only each one felt predictably similar to the next. Ohoh, there was this gucheng in lijiang which we went to and we wandered ard during free and easy, looking for some place to rest. we were going to go into a cafe already when we suddenly spotted a KFC cup floating downstream on the river in the middle of the city. Haha, so we followed it. and lo and behold, we found a KFC! lucky it wasn't actually in the gu cheng, my brother says, or else it would be totally ruining the treasured culture.

18. Our tour guide in Shangri-la who looks like he walked out of a period drama. Seriously! Look and decide for yourself. (: Some people said he looked like jackie chan too. haha

19. The first time i ever walked on the road to board the plane.

20. As they say, when in rome, do as the romans do. So for one lunch, i had to sit on these weeny stools with a weeny table with GRASS on the floor. Long long grass. Oh my, the whole room smelt of grass! Ew, i felt like i was in a pigsty or a stable.

21. Jiuxiang - The deep deep gorge and waterfalls and 300 staircases, 1000+ steps. When my younger brother heard about all those steps, he wouldn't smile at all, he just kept thinking of all that he would have to climb. Haha, so in all the "before the climb" pics he just stares grumpily. Well, we made it in the end. The inside of the caves were very cool and once again, reminded me of new zealand.

22. we cut forget-me-nots which we accidentally-on-purpose "forgot" to take off the bus. Can't blame us, it really was a huge and long bundle of flowers and if we took it along, we would have to hug it aboard the plane. So yeah. But we did take pictures of it! :D

23. Strawberry fields = muddy= dirty shoes. Therefore, they provide us with the chance to experience being ronald mcdonald for one hour. Feast your eyes :

(ignore tree-trunk thighs, thank you) Anw, the strawberries were really sweet and tasty. and since it was 1 bucket per person, we brought back close to 10 kg of strawberries. My house has been transformed into a strawberry factory temporarily.

24. Talent! There was this guy where we were having dinner on the last day who could cut silhouettes of your side view in less than a minute. Damn damn cool.

25. The one thing seldom seen in singapore. SPITTING. It's like having to beware of landmines wherever you go. Everyone just goes "kraahhghhh PUIII!" and spits anywhere. Can't stand it.

26. Those spirulina pills we bought which bears a striking resemblance to turtle food. And now we have loads of those little pills which we have to consume.

Those would be the main points. The rest are just temples, lakes, old cities, tribal performances and the works. Yeah, and very little shopping. Pfft. Things are really very cheap there though. But it does feel really good to not have to come out of the toilet freezing every morning anymore. The temperatures were more than i could take man, but winter is still my favourite season. (: which reminds me, claire tagged me to do that "i am very willing to release personal info to the whole world" quiz thingum but i guess i won't. heh.

16 Nov. Went for my younger brother's P6 graduation! haha, felt so momentous cuz for 10 years, my dad has been driving to nanhua almost every morning. from my elder brother's first day in 1997 to my younger brother's last day in 2007. The ceremony felt pretty familiar. haha. They still have that big crest and mace thingum and ugly "torches of knowledge" which they pass on to the P5 pupils. All the talks were boreworthy and zzz and they still have that part where EVERY SINGLE P6 PUPIL goes on stage to receive their grad cert. omg, i couldn't believe it. HELLO? do they know how LONNNGG that takes? But i guess it does feel good for them to be able to go on stage. so yeah, my dad couldn't take it and went down for a cup of coffee, coming back only when my brother was going up. heh, i'm so proud of him, he finally got an award after 6 years. (: but when i ask him how he feels graduating and not seeing his friends daily anymore, he tells me "Huh, but i can meet them on MAPLE what" Just like 12-year-old boys to think of MAPLE on their graduation day. ohoh i remember! that night when we were going home, my dad somehow offended this big lorry driver and he started tailing us! it was damn scary! we turned into the condo and i saw the lorry following so i bugged my dad to drive one round around the condo before parking. lucky the lorry didn't follow.

hmmhmm, ok, 22 Nov, EAST COAST PARK! yay :D jiawen yenlin yenyee guiqi and i went to ecp. xianmin was going to come but somehow didn't. haha. anw, we went tandem biking in the morning and it was oh so scary! i went with jiawen first and screamed my head off. then when i was with yenlin, she almost drove us into the drain! lunch was at macs and yenyee gave us presents from taiwan, thank you yenyee, i like the keychain very much (: guiqi's present was very amusing, you'll see. afterthat, we went bowling and omg, it was hilarious. especially guiqi, aka, the joker. we put our normal names for the first game and put weird ones for the second. so gorgeous, princess, joker, king and maid/maria had a lot of fun. (btw, we put guiqi's and yenyee's ones for them) haha, guiqi was like "how come jw gets to be gorgeous and i can't be sexy" so we're like ok, the next time it's your turn, we'll go "GO SEXY" and guiqi immediately regrets it. HEH. oh, and it was PSLE results day and my younger brother was very happy with his score. the 294 scorer is damn scary man.

23 Nov. Stubs! with barbossa. it was laughter-inducing, but we didn't manage to get violets for violet. and my my, i now know how to cure claire's stubborness. heeheehee. dinner was subway/macs and my stupid sub gave me FOOD POISONING. oh my word, i had a terrible night and a horrible next day. Tummyache the whole night until 5 am when i finally threw up. Miraculously, i remembered to remove my retainers before hurling. the next wave came around 7 am. then the hideous headache and fever. and it definitely didn't help that there was a humongous queue at the clinic and these 2 obnoxious boys and their father who sat next to me. Haven't eaten subway since then. Then again, it may have been the bubble tea.

Cool pic!