Visit to Guang Xi, China.

I just came back from the Guang Xi province not long ago. My family members and I went for an 8 days tour and we visited Guilin, Hezhou, Yangshuo, Lipu and Xingan. This time, instead of summarizing what I experience each day, I'll tell you the interesting facts I discovered in Guang Xi. Facts different from what we see in our country.

1. Road.
I don't know if I should comment that Chinese are very terrible or good drivers. They are very scary drivers. They turn when they feel like turning and stop in the middle of the road even if there are cars behind. There are a lot, really A LOT of motorcyclist and cyclists on the road to make the matter worse. Not only car drivers need to avoid other cars, they need to keep an eye on the motorcyclist and pedestrians whom go in random directions. There is no one minute that I cannot hear honks. And I mean honkS. However, they are good drivers because despite the complicated and busy road, there are very little road accidents.

The Chinese driving on the left already confused me, having a very busy and complicated road system did not help much. There are very little traffic lights on the road.

The motorcyclists, cyclists and pedestrians are not afraid of bigger vehicles, even buses and lorries. They will not budge an inch even when the vehicle is just one foot behind.

When I mention motorcyclists, I do not really mean the petrol-driven motorbikes. Majority of the motorbikes (like 95%) are electrical bikes. They are as big as the usual motorbikes and are allowed to cruise on main roads and even highways like the normal bikes. But, electric motorcyclists do not need to wear helmets, like they are not prone to accidents as the petrol-driven motorcyclists. In fact, only motorbike taxi drivers need to wear helmets. Maybe helmets are part of their uniform. Helmets do not serve the purpose of protection.

Also, the fare to use highways are very costly. Approximately 250km in Malaysia, like from Klang to Kampar costs RM 25. Over in Guang Xi, the same distance cost up to 220RMB, that is about RM 110!


2. People.
There are 56 ethnics in China as opposed to the 3 main ones in Malaysia. In China, the majority are the Hans (I am a Han as well!). Other ethnics whom village I've visited are the Yao, Zhuang, and Hakka among others which name I do not remember. Each tribe lives in an area and speak their own dialect. Unlike how majority of (Malaysian) Chinese in Klang speak Hok'kien even though they are not Hok'kien people, the (China) Chinese only speak their tribe dialect and Mandarin. They do not understand other dialects. As oppose to this, due to media influences, many (Malaysian) Chinese can speak Cantonese as an additional dialect.

Each ethnic also have their own culture. For instance, one of the tribes which name I've forgotten, measure beauty by the darkness of the skin. Also, the man with the darkest skin gets to become the village leader. Although there are also Hakkas in Malaysia, they are not sensitive towards words like "xiao jie" (miss). However, Hakkas in the Hakka village (in Yangshuo), are very, very sensitive towards the word "xiao jie". "Xiao jie" should not be addressed to girls as this word is only used for prostitutes. The Hakka houses are also easily recognized by the display of their family name on the door.

The Chinese are very talented. I can confidently say that they are the only race in the world that can perform amazing acrobatic shows. Amazing! Small girls bend like they are boneless and small boys have the strength that could fight a bull. Imagine the discipline they have to train since they were toddlers.

One of the best acrobatic show ever!

How did they even thought of using ducks to fish?

Also, I've noticed that compared to Malaysia, there are lesser, who do I put this? Let's just say fleshy girls. No, I'm not saying that Malaysian girls are fat. Certainly no. I've seen supermodel slim figures. But I've noticed that in Guang Xi, only 1 out of 200 girls are fat. Even old ladies are thin. Besides, unlike how there are a handful of guys who have their ears pierced, I've never seen even just one guy with pierced ear in Guang Xi. Why?


3. Food.
If you think you like Chinese food in Malaysia, you might not have the same thought when you try real Chinese food. They are so very different from our Chinese food. They do not have 'bah kut teh' or 'char kueh teow' or 'laksa'. People in Guang Xi likes sour and spicy. They have a local specialty which smells, excuse me, but it smells like unwashed toilet. Their breakfast are porridge, mantou, their local 'mee hoon' (which, I swear are noodles!), noodles (which are 'kueh teow' ==), dumplings, pau with 'mee hoon' inside, soya bean milk and some weird kuih-muih. I've never been to Shanghai but according to my mom, she said in Shanghai people likes eating sweet stuff. Every dish is added with sugar. How weird... but similarly, if the Chinese came over to Malaysia, they might feel our food is weird. Lol.

Snacks.

So-called 'mee hoon'.

Breakfast.

While I was having a stroll in Hezhou one night, just to experience their night life. My dad discovered something, which to me is horrifying. Apparently, there were hawker stalls which sells exotic animal flesh. These stalls provide the service of slaughtering and cooking any type of animal meat you want to have that night. Snakes, dogs, you name it. Cruelty!

Guang Xi have their locally made beer. With alcohol level of only 3%, there's no problem drinking the whole bottle yourself.

There are also plenty restaurants I saw in Guang Xi which tables are no higher than 2 feet and instead of chairs, customers sit on short stools. Feels like China, yes. Lol.

4. Environment.
Well, I would say the government spent a lot and made an effort to preserve the natural and beautiful environment. It is indeed, the best place for photo-taking. Parks looked like ancient China, like those we see in TVB dramas. Even newly build building have ancient Chinese influence instead of adopting modern architecture. According to the tour guide, there are over 300,000 hills/mountains in Guang Xi, the state with the most mountains. So, yes, Guang Xi is a vacation spot for sight seeing.

Mom, tasau and niece. Hilly background is obscured by thick mist.

On the other hand, I personally feel Guang Xi, although the parks and vacation spots are kept clean, other public areas like the walkway, roads, certain restaurants and open air shopping area are not as clean. There were papers and cards everywhere. The ground are constantly wet with dirt mark everywhere. What I can't handle most is people throwing rubbish on the floor when there's rubbish bins around. Perhaps more effort should be put into keeping the whole town clean.

 Underground shopping place. Not that clean.

Well, that's all I can think of now. After gaining a few kgs and a few shades darker, I'm back with more experience. It's kind of irony thinking how we are all Chinese, with the same skin colour and common ancestors, we are actually very different from each other.

21st Birthday Presents!

On my 21st birthday I got expensive gifts XD

A 50mm f/1.8D macro lens from my friends.

A gold necklace and pendant from my mama and papa.

A car from my parents.

And a set pretty cupcakes. They are photography-themed! Look at how adorable they were. I simply just can't put them in my mouth!

Well, I'm 21 now. Happy Adulthood to me!

According to Sito, Being Legal = Responsibility + Freedom. I couldn't agree more.

To Mom, Dad and Kayah, We have No Generation Gap... Actually.

This is a special post for my parents (including kayah). We are actually from the same era! I went through the 70s' and 80s' like you did :)

Convinced? Lol.

For more photos, go to Album 1 and Album 2.

X'mas + New Year Gathering

2010 Christmas, my tasau had a gathering. We had a feast and a delicious turkey! 

And yesterday, my papa organized a New Year gathering. It was in a bak kut teh restaurant (Klang people wat.. XD) and then a second round in mamak stall. A total of 40 members, 9 tables, 8 families and 3 generations. I know, we're amazing. Lol.

Look, this is what I discovered. They're my nieces.. Cassandra aged 3 and Emerald, aged 6.

Kids nowadays... Lol.

Roots

On the 27th of October, a few of my family members went back to where we originated from (or rather, where my ancestors originated from), China. My family tree started from Pheng Hu, Xiamen and when my great grandfather was a young man, he took his wife and sons (my grandpa and his siblings) to Malaysia to escape from the communists. My grandpa was only 7 back then. My great grand uncles stayed back in the village.

My grandpa's house.

The altar. 

A room in the house, I don't know what room though.

My dad promised to bring me to visit my ancestor home but unfortunately, I wasn't on sem break. So instead, I only get to look at photos and listen to their stories. In the olden days, it took 7 days for my ancestors to walk from Pheng Hu to Xiamen city but now, it only took several hours by modern transport.

Ancestor's home.

The ancestor tablets are arranged according to the generation.

I heard that my grandpa shifted out from the main house and live on his own. Maybe with his parents and siblings and typically, they were farmers. The tradition carried on. Some of my cousins are still farmers but some of them are craftsmen.

The farm. Used to be a big farm but a big portion of the farm were used as land for houses.

Cousins and relatives crafting Buddha statues.

Since I didn't experience that place myself, I have nothing much to tell. So I'll have more photos instead.

The best part of the story was getting to know my cousins and other relatives. My cousins and nephews/nieces are way older than me. Have a look at these photos and prepare to be shocked!

As labeled. Be shocked!! My cousins are even older than my uncle!

From left, my 6th aunt, 3rd cousin sis-in-law, 5th aunt, 2nd cousin sis-in-law,

 eldest cousin sis-in-law, 4th aunt, my mom and the small boy is my great grandnephew. 

My niece and her husband. Guess what, that guy is 23 and he's a grandfather already!

Shock! SHOCK!!

Apparently, I am already a great grand aunt! And I'm only 20!

Besides this family tree story, my parents told me about a Hakka village they visited. It's a remote area, high up in the mountains and it took about 4-5 hours by modern transport to get there from the Hok'kien village (my family village) which means up to 8 hours from the city. It's a really old village. They built it hundreds of years ago and as you can see from the photo, it's rounded. The reason for this is to prevent robbery. There's only one entrance to this village and no windows on the lower floors. The walls are 3 feet thick, thick enough to prevent the robbers from making a hole to enter the village. Only the higher floors have windows because the thieves couldn't climb up that high. Inside this huge circle, there's another smaller circle of rooms and then another circle inside this circle until there is no space left. There are about 400 rooms in this village and occupied by 600+ villagers but in the modern days, only 200+ are left.

Hakka village architecture.

Beautiful, isn't it? I love it.

My dad said that there are couple of Ph.D holders from that village and they donated money to build a better village. And due to exposure to the outside world, they no longer build circular houses but square ones and not that high.

Modern Hakka houses.

I really enjoy listening to these kind of stories, stories about ancient world but at the same time, it made me a little sad knowing that these kind of lives do not exist anymore due to modernization.

The tree my grandpa planted before he came to Malaysia.

This tree is a hundred years old.

But anyway, I'm proud to know the roots of my family, especially when one of the great warrior Lu Bu (from Romance of the Three Kingdom) share the same surname as me. Lol! Isn't it just so interesting and exciting to know where you originated from? :)

Visit To Perth

Day 1

tofu...

I went to the Royal Perth Show earlier today. It's a huge once-in-a-year event and there were tonnes of people there! I bet u will like it here, 9 out f 10 ang moh girls here wears sexy clothes and their shorts are like.. woah! super short! But hey, it's normal for them, I think. Apparently, I'm 12-13 years old in Australia.. understand? Which means I look like 12 or 13 years old here. 

A few things that i still find a little difficult to adapt are :

1) We wear shoes into the house. I so used to taking my shoes off ==
2) We drink from tap water. They don't boil water here ><
3) All shops close at 5 and they sleep at 9.30 or 10. I wonder what I'm gonna do for the rest of the night...
4) And finally, we don't lock the bathroom door when we bathe! More like, there's no lock!!

I'll send u another mail tomorrow. I'll go shopping tomorrow, I think. If there's anything suitable, I'll get it for you :)

<3,
~eliza                
                           
     

p/s : The two pics, one is me playing one of the games in the Royal Show. I was supposed to climb the swinging stairs and touch the target. If i did, I'll win $50 (which is like rm150!!) but too bad, I was CLOSE, but did not :( The other pic.. the pic of a ring on my finger, is a ring given by my aunt. It's a diamond ring XD 

Day 2

tofu..

It's Thursday today and in Perth. Thursday is late-night shopping day. I told you yesterday that all shops close at 5pm right? Well, on Thursday, they open till late :) I went to several second-hand shops earlier and they sell all kinds of stuff.. clothes, shoes, furniture, books etc. I bought a black and white dress. It's actually a long blouse but looks like a dress on me :) I've attached the pic~

One of Andrew's friend came over this morning. His name is Allister Higson. He's like really tall for a 16 year old. He's about 185cm tall! And haha.. he likes me. Wth? And everyone here seems to like that idea == He's coming again on Saturday. I attached a pic of me with him, taken this morning. (As u can see from the photo, my hair looks extremely flat and ugly. It's because of the static here)

Went to a Chinese restaurant in Spenser Village for dinner. Saw some cute Chinese guys. Wakakaka! See? Told u i still like Asian guys better XD Ate pork chop rice at a Penang stall. You know what the weird thing? I never ate any pork chop rice while I was in Penang but I ate it here. Anyway, I just got back from shopping, it's only 9pm and everyone is going to bed already == I'm eating so much i bet I'm FAT! :(

<3,
~eliza

Day 3

tofu...

You're going back Tangkak tomorrow with Sardin right? Have a safe journey! Sleep early, else you'll wake up late and miss your bus ==

Anyway, I went to Fremantle today. Google it! Lol. It's a port.. like how Port Klang is like, only there's more stuff and more unique buildings here. They look like really old buildings, you know, like those from the cowboy era. I got souvenirs from the market there as well :) I'll show u the pics when I get home :) Oh yea, my mom got you a boomerang. I told her about the time when you asked Gs what a boomerang is and she told u it was an animal XD XD

Then I went to the beach. Today was the coldest among my 3 days here.. it's like somewhere 23 degrees but because i was at the seaside, the wind is cooler. I did not jump into the water, mainly because it's cold and that I can't swim, the waters are a little rough, and you know very well that from the few trips we went together to the beach with EE, I never jump into the waters. They have jetty on the beach where they jump from the jetty into the water. Scary! >< But the beach is really clean and blue, unlike how green it is in our country. Here's a pic.. and if u squint, u can see bikini girls XD it's amazing how they can wear bikini in such weather. I'll die frozen! Oh yea, i took the photo from the jetty, that's why it looked like i took it from a high place.

About Allister, well, he'll be coming over tomorrow night. My aunt and uncle is bring my mom to the casino tomorrow. The legal age to enter the casino here is 18. So I can enter but I don't think I will. Even if i do, maybe just a short while. Then I'll spend the night with Andrew and Allister, probably playing Wii. 

I just got back from walking around the housing area. It's cold tonight, about 15 degrees I think? I grew fat everyday. I eat like 3 meals a day. Really fattening meals! Cheese, fries, meat etc. I've attached a pic, have a look at how fat i grew :( and probably you've forgotten how i looked like. Lol!
  

 <3,
~eliza

p/s: I saw on the weather report just a few minutes ago that it's gonna be heavy shower (rain) tomorrow morning. I bet it's gonna be cold.. and tomorrow morning, I'm going shopping again. I'll see if there's any nice baju for you ;)

Day 4

tofu..

Back in Tangkak? Good :) Have a good rest before sem starts. I know it's boring and all. It's also like that for me when I'm in Klang. Nothing much to do except to online. But u can't online. That's worse.. maybe u can go get a short-period job or something. Go jaga kedai kain XD

Anyway, the whole day today from morning to noon was spent shopping. I bought a dress and a book. There were 2 colours to choose from, pink and blue. Guess which one I got? It's really cold today, even though it's sunny. I wore a short dress and no jacket. It was much cooler than Genting and my hair stood up, 90 degrees with my skin XD

Zoe is packing and getting ready for her friend's party. It's a birthday party from later 5pm to tomorrow 10am. The party here lasts that long. Maybe we should organize one like that XD Andrew just got off the phone with Allister. He's coming after 5pm, after his work. Yea, he works part time in a video store.

We're not going to the casino tonight because it's Saturday night and it's gonna be packed in the casino. There will be drunkards and all too.. so pretty dangerous. We'll go tomorrow. Tonight, we're having bbq for dinner. Allister is joining too. here's a pic of the bbq preparation. That's uncle Simon bbq-ing, my mom in blue, Andrew and Allister. Allister is the tallest one.

I went to the park earlier.. a dog park where every dog owners bring their dogs here to run around and socialize. Dogs here need to socialize == It's a wide, green field. Really nice :) Here's a pic I took using self-timer. I placed my Nikcy on the ground and ran to pose, several times. People must have thought I'm crazy == There, I've attached the best pic XD

I realize uncle Simon is really a nice and knowledgeable man. He has like 5 types of different degrees! And he's a Man. Utd. fan for the past 30 years. He has magazines, papers, autograph books signed by various Man. Utd. players from various seasons. I'll show u the pics when I get home. I know you won't be interested but I'll still show you XD Well, the reason I said he's a nice man is because he does house chores. He washes the clothes, he cooks, he do the dishes, and even pack Zoe's bag to go to the sleepover party. See? Can you be even just 25% of him?

I'm going to the market early tomorrow morning about 6.30am. It's gonna be soooo cold ><

<3,
~eliza

p/s: The weather is so dry that my skin is dehydrating. It feels so dry and 'scale-like' >< We've just sent Allister back.. we played Wii till now. Lol. Uncle Simon took Andrew and I around the area and checked out where the market's gonna be tomorrow morning.

Day 5

tofu..
  

I went to the market early this morning. I woke up at 6.30am and then went to the market at 7.30m till about 9.30am. The market, not like pasar pagi or the Kampar pasar as what i think you'll imagine it to be. It's a flea market. It's on a shopping complex's parking lot. People who wants to sell their stuff there need to pay $8 for 2 parking lots. They then place their items, whatever they wanna sell there. Stuff they sell range from brand new items to mostly, second hand items like whatever they can find in their houses and do not need them anymore. Let's say I clean up my room one day and there are bajus and books which I don't need anymore, I can rent a parking lot and sell my stuff there. So the stuff are pretty cheap like $2 for a piece of shirt or like 50 cents for a book or magazine. Since they are mostly items from homes, they can be whatever- shoes, accessories, clothes, radios, microwaves, lamps, glass bottles, paint pails, etc. I bought a necklace from there, no, not second hand. It's a brand new necklace by this vendor that sells stones. I bought this lantern-like necklace, as I've attached the photo. I don't know if it's nice but I like it because it's unique XD Oh yea, there are 3 stones in it- green (which signifies money), purple (for academic) and pink (for love).

After the market, I went home and rested a while before I went shopping at 11.30am. The shopping complexes here opens at 12pm and close at 5pm. Only 5 hours! Mana cukup? I have a friend in Sydney and I remember her telling me she works part time for $14 an hour! So even if you only work for 5 hours a day, it's already $70 a day. A lot? Yea, a lot but food here is expensive. You can easily spend $10 per meal.

So anyway, back to topic. I went shopping in a place call Harbour Town. It's an open-air shopping complex, as in like there is no roof. I've attached a pic so that you don't need to imagine it == So I went there and shopped for 2 hours and only got a tank top. It's a plain peach-coloured tank, plain but there are black rubber strips at the back. Another unique item ;)

After that we went to have lunch then shopped in the city. It's more expensive here, as expected from a city. I got a book in a shop nearby my aunt's house for only $2 but in the city, i bought 2 for $4.50 each. Expensive, but still cheaper than in Malaysia. So i got them anyway. Surprisingly, one of the shopping complexes in the Perth city is also open-aired. I thought Harbour Town is the only open-aired shopping complex. Now, i think there are lots of similar ones.

So.. to sum it up. Today, I bought

- a necklace from the market which costs $8
- 2 books form Good Sammy for $9
- a tank top from Valleygirl for $4.95 (it was on discount :D)

 I just came back from the casino. My first time ever in a casino! And i'm only 20! Muahahaha! Well, as expected, they asked for my ID before entering. Well, i don't know about casino in Genting but the one here, it's almost fully computerized. There were so many machines in there and for most of them, no i can say ALL of them, I don't know how to play and what the rules are. I wanted to play Black Jack but the bet is far too high. I rather not waste that money. But i played Keno though. Keno is actually Bingo. We have  ticket to choose between 4 to 20 numbers then depending on how many numbers strike, we get a certain amount of money. I won about $4 I think but I spend them on new tickets XD Nothing much in the casino but it was an experience to me :)

<3,
~eliza

Day 6

tofu..

How are you today? How's your skin? How's your face? How's your hair? I'm asking these weird questions because my skin is not doing so well here. The skin on my face, especially the nose area started peeling off. No, i did not get sun burnt. My hair is all freezy. I'm sure it's because of the weather here. It's too dry unlike how humid it is in Malaysia.

 I went to the city again today, but this time, with Andrew and Zoe. We went to the museum, art gallery and bell tower. I think the museum was great! There were so many stuff there not available in our museum. The best part, in my opinion was the human evolution part. Maybe because I've always liked human evolution so I found it interesting. There were skeletons of humans from the early days and also all sorts of extinct animals prototype and bones. I like it here but Andrew doesn't seem to like it here. Maybe because he has been here so many times and is bored of it.

We then went to have ice-cream near the Bell Tower by a river called the Swan River. If u think the river is just another river, you're wrong. The river here is wide and really clean. Fully utilized as well. They have jetty and boats to cruise along the river. I've attached a pic for u to see. I'm sure you'll like it here since u like the ocean. Uncle Simon and Andrew told me about the Bell Tower. The bell from this tower was brought from a church in England. Back in England, whenever the bell is worn out, the people will melt the bell and use the molten metal to make a new bell. Then the Australian government gave the English church a new bell and then the church gave the old bell to Australia. That was a brief history on the origin of the bell in the tower.

I went to Belmont Forum as well. While my aunt shopped for ingredients for dinner, Zoe and I went to some girls accessories shop and I got myself 2 pairs of earrings. One of them, is a zip. That was what attracted me XD I don't know if it looks good on me but again, I got it because it's unique. Here's a pic :D

I did not went anywhere new after the city. Just an evening stroll in the park where i took a couple of pics with Zoe. I'll be playing sing star later. I don't know what it is. All i know is that it is a singing game on PS2. Since i love to sing, guess I'll do

<3,
~eliza

Day 7

tofu..

Hey.. have you gotten fat? You know how i usually eat only 2 meals per day, one at 10.30am and then dinner at 7pm and sometimes have goreng pisang at about 4pm, right? Over here, I have 3 meals a day. Nothing wrong, I know but 3 heavy meals? Okay, not that heavy but it's a lot. Like for breakfast at 7.30am, I'll have a cup of tea with a bowl of cereal. Then for lunch at 12.30pm, I'll have sandwiches, fish & chips, or a set of burger (burger, fries, a drink and ice-cream). By this second meal, I'm already full till my throat. Then for dinner, my aunt will either tapau or cook stuff like kebab, fettuccine, pizza etc. I just weighed myself earlier and yea, I've gained weight ==

So anyways, uncle Simon took us to the bush earlier. What is bush? It's actually 'pedalaman', which was not very 'dalam'. It was a place called Mandaring where they have steam stations and long pipes. These were built by a civil engineer called C.Y. O'Connor long long time ago to channel water from Perth to Kalgoorlie. We went to have a look at the water dam and saw kangaroos! Wild kangaroos! We also had picnic over there. My aunt prepared sandwiches for us and we had them for lunch over there. It was a really nice day for picnic. It wasn't very hot and there was cool wind. I also fed a parrot. Here's a pic ;) I also took a couple of nice photos here. You know, the kind of photo where i put my camera on self-timer and then snap photos that bring some 'hidden meaning' XD I climbed up a huge rock with Zoe as well and uncle Simon helped us to snap some pics :D We were doing heart shape pose.

Oh yea, i notice something in Perth. They do not have motorbikes here. No, wait.. they do but they are all either scooters or nice superbikes. One week here and I've never seen a motorbike like JJW =="

<3,
~eliza

p/s: I bought a photo album as well. It's blue in colour. Only $S2 :D

Day 8

tofu..
 
From morning to noon today, we went around some further places, I don't know where with lots of cash converters and second hand shops, since my mom and aunty loves them. While they shop at those shops, uncle Simon and I went to Harvey Norman and JB Hi-Fi. You know what Harvey Norman is so I'm not gonna explain that. The stuff sold in Harvey Norman is not much different from what is sold in Malaysia. What is different,  however, is the level of advancement in technology. Over here, I saw decoders with hard disk embedded in them, which means if ever you want to record a movie, you can record them into the hard disk. There are even some which you can load clips from Youtube then watch it on tv! Cool, right? In my previous mail, I might have mentioned that stuff here are not cheap after conversion but I found something that is finally cheap. Photos!! One piece of photo here only costs, guess what, 12 cents!! Even after you convert it, it's less than RM 0.50! I'm gonna develop lots of photos here. Do u have any that you want in mind? Let me know, I'll help u to print ;) What else is cheap are the external hard disks. I'm still thinking whether to get one or not. 640GB for $A98 which is like RM 300. I remember GS got her 500GB for RM 270.

Zoe and i went to the Falcon park at about 4.30pm. It's a children play park, like a playground but it's a bigger version. They have sand place, volcano where you can climb up and then there's steam coming up, and flying fox. Yes!! Flying fox in a children playground! It's for children, I'm 20 but I went on it anyway XD I took few pictures here and this one in the daisy field that I'm sending you, was taken by Zoe. She has the skill, no? She's a quick learner. I snap a photo of her then showed it to her and told her I want my photo that way and she took it! Here, I'm sending you the one I took and the one she took for me. Nice? 

Andrew's friends came earlier, 3 of them this time- Allister, Phillip and William. I don't know but I might go catch a movie in the cinema tomorrow or day after tomorrow with Andrew and Zoe. Maybe I'll ask Allister along as well :) But hey, one movie ticket here costs $A13 which is like RM39! Wtf.
 

<3,

~eliza

Day 9

tofu..

Why did you choose Eric as your name? Why not Eliza? XD You know I've told you that my dad named me after a ship called Eliza, right? In Perth, I discovered the REAL history behind my name (just for the record, I did not discover it today. I discovered this when I went to Frementle but I think I did not mention it. So I'm telling you now). You see, just like how the Portuguese sailed to Malaysia, they sailed and found Australia. I'm not going into the history of Australia, you can look them up in Google. So anyways, Mr. Broadhurst (I forgot his first name) was one of the sailors involved in the discovery of Australia and he had a wife. His wife is named Mrs. Eliza Broadhurst. Being a sailor, he has a ship and named the ship after his wife, Eliza. Unfortunately, Eliza (the ship) wrecked. I don't know why.. the natural phenomena, the pirates, maybe. So yea, then my dad, as a sailor as well, knew about this ship and named me, his beautiful daughter a beautiful name, Eliza XD And if u think  Eliza Broadhurst is just another sailor's wife, you're wrong. Mrs. Broadhurst was one of the first ladies to come out with women right!!

So now that you know how Eliza came about, let me show you how proud I am to be named Eliza Loo. I went to a place today and look at the picture, this place is called Mt. Eliza Loo! MUAHAHAHAHAHA! Can you ever find a place called Eric Chong? Wakakaka! Ok ok, I reveal the truth. The place I went is called Mt. Eliza but the signboard actually reads Mt. Eliza LOOkout. i just covered the 'kout' XD Mt. Eliza is located in Kings Park, which is a botanical garden. Saw lots of plants here, including West Australia's national plant called Kangaroo Paws.

After the park, we went to have dim sum in China Town. And guess what? I spoke Cantonese to the waitress XD After lunch, we were supposed to walk to the gold mint through the city and over here, there was a crowd. Curious, we went and joined the crowd and saw this street performance by a guy named Nicholas James. He's really good! If I had loose change (I only had 10 and 50 dollar notes in my purse that time) I would gave him 5 dollars.  Recorded one of his dances, I'll show it to you or, you can try to look up in Youtube. Type in 'Nicholas James Perth' maybe you'll find something.

Just done playing monopoly. I bankrupted! Lol.

<3,
~eliza

Day 10

tofu...

It's the last night tonight in Perth. My flight is early tomorrow morning at 6.50am which means I have to wake up at about 3.30am, prepare and leave. It took 5 hours to fly here so the estimated time to reach KL is 12pm. Sadly, after I reach KL, I'll have to attend a Raya kenduri in Bangi. Haih..

So.. I didn't really do anything today. I woke up and we went to a Cash Converter and then came back home and watch 'The Full Monty' on dvd. My mom cooked sambal belacan for my aunt earlier and we know it's smelly. So imagine even Malaysian like me can't stand it, how will my Australian relatives react? Lol.

I'm all packed up! I'll message you soon~!


<3,
~eliza