It’s weird these days finding parts of Singapore different from 2 years ago. One of the things is the taxi fares and their speed of “ticking”…

I was on this yellow-top cab the other day. The fare started with $2.40 and it remained there for quite some time. I was rather happy then. Who said taking taxis is ex… Then suddenly, when the cab was travelling from one junction to another, the fare started to speed up. $0.20 during that span of road.

At the junction, the gauge ticked another $0.50!! Much faster than I could even track.

Then when I reached the destination, the price was $3.90. I gave him $5 and then got a change of $1.

Now the fare read “$4.00″.

Amazing.

I finally got round to sorting and processing all the 1000 photos we took during our graduation trip in China. Maybe in time to come, I’ll put in captions for them. These are photos we took in Nanjing, Huangshan, Hangzhou and Shanghai.

View the photos here and enjoy!

A random MSN conversation on a Monday evening…

me> the huangshan’s photos… it’s like i put a fake backdrop at the back
friend> haha, some of mine has that effect, the haziness makes it look like those olden days gongfu movies
me> haha or that ancient sun wukong drama… when he does the million-mile flip
friend> only 108000 li, about 5 percent of a million miles?
me> god… u caught that
friend> actually, why does he need to go so far, he’ll be way out of china haha
me> well- u need to assume he’s at the eastern most tip of china…. then he needs to flip to western tibet to meet the Buddha Ru Lai
friend> i thot he went to india?
friend> even so, that’s just a couple thousand miles
friend> they really exaggerate distances. and i remember sun wukong’s first teacher only taught him the somersault cloud, which is a lousier version of cloud riding. but it’s already so far…

Oh yeah… 天竺 = India… and sun wukong is amazing…

Being broadband-deprived for a few weeks has somehow disconnected me with the blogosphere and the world for a while. Didn’t think I rely on the internet so much…

Anyway, I caught up with a number of news and stuff. This barcode stuff is one of the coolest stuff i’ve seen since I’m back. This design film in Japan, Design Barcode Inc, introduce designs to make barcodes cool and more eye-catchy. These revolutionary designs are functional and pretty - plain cool!

Pending Todo’s:

• unpack
• clear room
• unpack
• unpack
• unpack

Baobei says, “just wanna tell everyone that i m still alive, kicking.. haha ”
Me too!! Back in singapore now…

I support Italy, but I betted on France… Hope for a miracle!

We’ll be onboard the train from Tianjin to Nanjing tomorrow afternoon.

Tianjin -> Nanjing -> Huangshan -> Hangzhou -> Shanghai -> Zhouzhuang -> Tianjin

Sounds like quite a bit for 2 weeks and I’m excited. Hope I can still catch the World Cup matches.

Until 2 weeks later…

The weather here in Tianjin and Beijing is much cooler than Singapore. Despite the constant haze and dust, it seems a tad more comfortable. As usual, I was so pampered by Tianlin’s parents. The more I eat, the happier they are, so I ate more. It was nice.

We spent our first day in Beijing to meet up with Eric and gang, as well as to visit the Residence of Prince Yong (雍和宫). This used to be the Residence of Emperor Kangxi’s (康熙) heir, Yongzheng (雍正), which was later opened up as a Lama Temple in the Qing dynasty. We managed to ‘free-ride’ off a guide who was introducing and teaching this Taiwanese couple about the various aspects of buddism and the temple. This was by far the best guide I have ever heard! Eloquent and knowledgeable, he sounds just like a professor. He answered a number of questions I have about Buddhist practices. I was so tempted to go under his tutelage then. I had to write down some of the notes I made mentally.

I am always skeptical about the practice of burning incense. Having a sensitive nose, I don’t really like the smell of the smoke. I didn’t think it serves any purpose at all. I even used to believe (thanks to all those ridiculous Hong Kong movies) the incense you burn will be eaten by the souls in the other world. So then, why do we burn incense at all? The statues we see in the temples are just the physical representation of Buddhas. Hopefully through the burning of incense, as the smoke rises up, you hope to transcend beyond the physical and reach out to the metaphysical form of the Buddhas. It is an aid to meditation. Also, it is like offering something nice (as 香) to someone you respect and love very much, akin to giving a flower to your loved one.

Using those super thick and huge incense poles is senseless and insulting. 所谓点香就是点到为止… Regardless of its size and amount, it represents a gesture of your faith and respect. It doesn’t mean that the larger and more incense you offer, the greater your faith is.

Some chinese believe that “offering the first incense” (点头香) on the first day of the Chinese New Year will give them good luck for the rest of the year. This is a huge misconception. This is further perpetuated by some misguided temples who auction out the “first incense” to bidders who are willing to pay the most. This is very wrong and goes against the notion that everyone is equal (众生平等). In fact, the “first incense” refers to the first incense any individual offers in a year at any time and is meant to represent the start of a good properous year for one. It is personal, and does not mean competing with others to get the first incense among everyone. Sadly, this has become quite a superstitious act.

Jetlag is quite fun at least if there is food to eat when you walk down your apartment. Baobei and I were hit by jetlag, waking up at 5am even before the roosters start crowing. We changed and went down to the hawker center for an early breakfast. Amazing food for these two food-deprived souls. We had 2 plates of large carrot cake, 2 glasses of ‘teh’ and 3 half-boiled eggs. Strangely all these we know how to prepare, but somehow these taste better when served and prepared by others.

At the soya bean stall, I tried to order a drink pointing to the huge tank of iced soya bean drink.

Me: “Uncle, tow huay chuew zi buay… Leng eh… Suay eh…” (Soya bean drink, 1 glass… Cold… Small…)

Uncle: (Held up a small glass and looked at me with a questioning glare)

Me: “erm…” (Yes)

I really wonder if he understood my hokkien.

Then we went over to ‘Shop n Save’ for our favorite past-time in Pittsburgh - grocery shopping!!! At 7:30am! Strange  stares from the people there. What in the world are these two kids doing here early in the morning!?

We need to put two tags on our front and backs. “Jetlaggin’” “时差中”

The time now is 8:30am and we have the day to burn.

4 years abroad and I’m back. I could still remember the time I first left Singapore. It’s one of those times when you look back and say how quick time flies but when you are in it, it doesn’t seem as fast.

Hot and humid was what hit me first when I arrived. Things feel familiar yet different.

Home is home! Now to catch up on my sleep… After that bowl of fish porridge…

Graduation at last!! Finally stepping into the working world!! I am so going to miss Pittsburgh…

Upcoming plans:

• Watch Cirque du Soleil, win money @ blackjack at Las Vegas for these few days
• Savor the black pepper crab at Still Road back in Singapore
• Tianjin tour
• Jiangnan tour
• Inner Mongolia tour
• Cambodia / Vietnam (still deciding)
• START WORK!!!