I am going to bolehland later today and will return on Wednesday evening or Thursday morning.

What I'm doing:

Meet HWMNBN
Eat hawker food
Eat A&W
Laugh at Malaysians

***

Someone was telling me that 2 years ago, she was listening to University talks as a J2 and the SMU representatives sounded impressive until you analyzed what they said, when you realised they had no substance.

Clarins is selling snake oil: "If electromagnetic waves can penetrate walls, imagine what they can do to your skin?". Yes, and Dihydro Dihydrogen Monoxide is dangerous to us in large doses and should be banned.

I was walking by this place near Pasir Ris MRT and tried to buy their" bacon and egg pie". I was told that "we don't use bacon anymore; chicken ham" and got very pissed off. Luckily I saw a place selling Dim Sum nearby and got 2 char siew sou.

I saw a Korean 'BBQ Chicken' place at Cineleisure. There was no sign of the evil eye but unless they have special ingredients in their marinades (like teriyaki sauce) it's only a matter of time.

TV Mobile had this show on Chocolate which concluded: "Aprhodisiac or substitute? You decide". I knew I wasn't the only one to notice this!

Often those who are most eager to prevent imaginary offence are the quickest to issue real insult.

I swear, the people who use the most footnotes are those in law. Thio Li-ann's "Taking rights seriously? Human rights law in Singapore" in "Human Rights in Asia. A comparative legal study of twelve Asian jurisdictions, France and the USA". In just over 12 pages there are 226 footnotes. Some might say that this is because of Singapore's culture of vigilantly striking down those who defame politicians, but in reading foreign legal articles I find they footnote a lot also.

My Toy Someone asked me what are the advantages of being an Honours student in NUS.

I replied that we get to borrow more books (15 versus 10) and book study carrels in the library.

What I forgot to say was that we also get to check out library books (and CDs) for twice as long.

Whee.

"Give me the luxuries of life and I will willingly do without the necessities." - Frank Lloyd Wright

***

As wizened Seniors, Jiannie and I are giving presentations on student exchange to ginna (incoming Freshmen) later today.

I was thinking of calling it: "Leaving this place behind... SEP. You've barely arrived in NUS. Now here's why you should think of leaving"

"The modern definition of 'racist' is someone who is winning an argument with a liberal." - Peter Brimelow

***

MFM: yes you should be more nasty to girls

you're mean but in a nice way
they know you mean no harm

whereas I have a truly vicious hatred for the feminine race

Me: and the masculine race?

MFM: they're better

Me: or less bad

...

MFM: you should care less about what women say
I don't know how you abide having so many female friends

Me: hahahahahahahahaahah
maybe I'm masochistic ;)
nah almost all of them are alright. that's why they're my friends

MFM: most of them sound quite bimbotic, but what do I know

Me: better bimbotic than bitchy right

MFM: not sure about that


Me: anyway not all gay people are like that
luckily

Someone: lots and lots are lor

i only know... hmm...
wah like *2* gay ppl who are not irritating

Me: and how many who are?

Someone: *loses count
this is including ppl i've encountered but have not gotten to know

usually cos they set off my gaydar 2336 km away
and i get so repulsed i make a quick escape
like, to antartica

Me: repulsed by their gayness?
tsk you homophobe =D

Someone: *proud homophobe aura&

seriously, gays in sg are stupid, bitchy and arrogant
and it's all the more annoying cos
it's smth like with poly kia

arrogant for nothing
so stupid they don't even know they're stupid

Me: heh

and overseas?

Someone: overseas they tend to be more normal


Someone else: they remind me of what my prof used to say:
"sometimes liberals are so liberal they become the mosst illberal of all."


Female friend: you shd have gone for camp, i had two freshie girls calling me up and asking how to bid in cors and what modules to do, and another was a call from my cousin

imagine how many cute freshie girls you can chat up with under the pretext of helping them

China Trip
Day 6 (28/6) - Transit: Shanghai-Hong Kong

This morning I woke up with diarrhea thanks to something I'd had in Hangzhou, so the few plans I had for the day were aborted. For lunch Yucheng, Johnny Malkavian and I had a Brazilian buffet for 55 yuan; they made money through drinks, which were priced at 10 yuan each for a small cup, but then Shanghai had just ruled or passed a law disallowing eating establishments restricting outside beverages being brought in so we brought water in. To encourage fluid intake, everything was salty. This was not surprising, except that even the salad was salty. Nonetheless, even though I ate only half as much as I would've if not sick, it was still worth it.

There was a woman who didn't know how a vizor was worn - she was wearing it like a welder's mask (covering her face).

[Addendum: J in comments:

"Actually, visors in china are meant to be worn like that. they're different from the normal visors if you scrutinize the designs. It's summer so the ladies there like to hide under shade. That's what the visors are used for."]

To get to the airport we elected for the only commercial maglev train in the world.


Station

Even though the journey was only 8 minutes long, there was a First Class option which cost twice as much as the normal one.


Platform




Clear proof that markets don't always clear. Extra legroom wasn't enough to entice anyone.

The journey was fast but not as smooth as I expected (perhaps partly due to the rainstorm we zoomed through). Being on the maglev was like being on a noisy and rumbly plane. Of the 8 minute travel time, only 1-2 mins were spent cruising at the top speed of 490-1km/h. The rest was spent accelerating and decelerating. The train was so fast, it turned like a plane - by banking to one side.

At the airport I was feeling worse and worse, and cursing Hangzhou food all the way. On reflection, being like The Accidental Tourist and carrying canned food with me might not have been such a bad idea.


"Hail the Special Olympic Games, the hospitality of our harmonious airport accompanies your flight - Shanghai Airports Civilization Promotion Leadership Office"
Airport hospitality.

Due to bad weather and a military exercise, some flights were delayed. Ours was delayed by a grand total of nearly 4 hours (and since our flight went on to leave late, we arrived 4 hrs later than scheduled). Although they gave us 70 yuan meal coupons, this wasn't even enough to buy some of the main courses in the airport eateries (eg An exorbitant 88 yuan katsu don). Gah.

If you've psychosis you can't enter China. Wth.


Quotes:

China Easter Airlines (Eastern)

I've had experience with women before. Why else do you think I don't want a girlfriend?

Secret Asian Man archive (by Tak Toyoshima):

Asian Guy: hey, wanna go to this diversity conference I'm attending?

White Guy: Why? So I can sit in a room and listen to people talk about the evil white man?

Asian Guy: Is that what you think happens at these things?

White Guy: Isn't it?

Asian Guy: Well, yeah. I'm just surprised you knew.


Many of the others are good too.

I like how he addresses pertinent topics and existing entrenched attitudes while mocking "Help! Help! I'm being repressed!" attitudes.

China Trip
Day 5 (27/6) - Hangzhou: West Lake (Part 3)

Visiting a country with unsafe water in summer means spending a lot on it. I wonder how our ancestors survived in the EEA with so much sweating.


Exiting Leifeng Pagoda, I walked down one of the causeways bisecting the lake: Sudi.



I dipped my feet in the lake briefly, but not only was it not cold, it looked dirty so I quickly removed them.


Notice the speedboat. How unseemly, tsk.




(All the pictures before this point in this post were taken at "Watching goldfish on flowery stream")



At this point, a man in a bicycle came around shouting that he was selling ice lollies for the princely price of 1 Yuan (20 singapore cents). He had a cardboard carton full of what was literally frozen green bean soup on his bicycle so I aided in my protest at exorbitant concessionaires by giving him custom. It was slightly too sweet but still refreshing because of the lack of cream.


Peacock














After walking for over an hour (albeit with many diversions), I reached the other end of Sudi.





This was supposed to be Wu Song's tomb. However, the fine print said it was built in the 1930s, destroyed in the 1960s and rebuilt in 2004. Neither the English nor Chinese information said all of this; I had to combine the two. Maybe this was to encourage bilingualism.


Sign urging us to love and care for the living plants.
"I am not a vegetarian because I love animals; I am a vegetarian because I hate plants."



On the bus back to the station I saw a "Prima taste. True Singaporean cuisine" restaurant in the same row as Starbucks, Dairy Queen and Ajisen Ramen.

I arrived at the train station with 1.5 hrs to spare. I trid changing it to a train leaving 1/2 hr earlier, but since it went to a different train station (Shanghai, not Shanghai South) I'd have had to pay 120% of my original ticket fee, so I forgot about it.

There was a "yiu2 you3 shu1 wu1" at the station, which a sign translated as "Tourist Bookstore". Unfortunately it was only for domestic tourists, since it only had Chinese books.

In the station there was a place marked "xiu1 xian2 hou4 che1" (waiting room to while away the time and rest). When I tried to go in, they tried to charge me 5 Yuan. Apparently it was a VIP lounge or something, or only for those on the most expensive train.

Sign seen in Hangzhou station: "Protect circumStance begin with me". Looks like "huai2 jing4" (environment, from the context) had been translated wrongly.


"Walk out the door happily, return home rejoicing"
Wth sign at the exit of the Hangzhou station waiting hall.

Back in Shanghai, I caught the last #3 train back, with 15 minutes to spare. However line #4 had stopped so I was deposited within 1 stop of the one I needed to get to. I was supposed to call YuCheng, Lin for directions but his line was engaged and he didn't subscribe to call waiting, so I just hopped in a cab (since it wasn't that expensive anyway).

China Trip
Day 5 (27/6) - Hangzhou: Yue Fei Mausoleum, Lei Feng Ta (Part 2)

There was no daypass for the Hangzhou buses, so this encouraged people to visit fewer attractions. How dumb.



Entrance to the mausoleum




Child Abuse


Da Man



I had an overpriced lunch (15 yuan) at the mausoleum which was some mixed rice. I suspect this was what gave me diarrhea the next day.




Cemetery


The only place in China where you're *supposed* to spit - but can't.

Upon leaving the mausoleum, I had to run the gauntlet again. The Chinese fans with the words "精忠报国" written on them were cute though.


Entrance to the bamboo garden opposite the mausoleum. There wasn't that much bamboo though.


Water lillies on the lake


West Lake
I considered taking a cruise on it, but there was no point doing it alone.

I waited at the bus stop for the bus to go to Lei Feng Ta, but this lady kept psychoing me to go and drink Longjing Tea despite my protestations that I was not a tea person. Doubtless she'd get a commission if she did so.

This cleaning truck sped down the street playing the tune to "世上只有妈妈好" (in this world, only mother is good). Wth.

The way to Lei Feng Ta took a long time, and I realised I'd not planned my trip very wisely. I should have visited the attractions by taking a large clockwise loop. Instead I was jumping around.


I noticed that in China they used a very strange sort of broom. Instead of making one properly, they just glued old branches or grass to a stick.

At Lei Feng Ta, I found that entrance was quite expensive by Chinese standards. In fact, lots of things in Hangzhou were expensive by Chinese standards. This is what you get for being a top tourist destination.


Pond in Lei Feng Ta complex


Lei Feng Ta
This is not exactly the famous pagoda of myth congealed with reality. The original was decrepit and collapsed in 1924, not least because people kept taking bricks from it to ward off illness. This version dates from 2002. You can read more about it on a new article on Wikipedia, which I have just laboriously translated from the Chinese version.


The escalator was an unexpected luxury.


Foundations of the old tower. Instead of taking the bricks for good luck people now throw money in. The sign reads "protect the foundations, do not throw stuff in" but I guess money is fine.


First floor of the pagoda (you enter through the basement)
The lift was another unexpected luxury.



View from 4th level




Assorted views





The closeness of urbanity is interesting, since from the other side of the lake you'd have no clue what was immediately behind you




Story of the Buddha


Ceiling




Umbrella borrowing and flooding the temple, from the White Snake story



Miao Yin Tai (?)


Silver pagoda of Asoka with Buddha hair.
This beats Jesus' nappies.