I guess things gets old and breaks down after a few years of usage. For electronics, the lifespan could be even shorter. My beloved dvd player has been diagnosed as asthmatic by me after giving it CPR for 3 weeks. It chokes and stopped breathing every 15 minutes of usage.
Today we are going to bring it down to see a specialist hoping he can nurse it back to health soon.
A new clean home is usually free of pests like ants and cockroaches. It was probably due to the persistent paint and cement smell which was more endurable by humans.
But after 2 years of occupying this house of mine, i begun to see new unwanted visitors. The cockroaches remain shy from entering but the ants are a bit thick-skin. They took a taste of my bread, my candies, my snacks without my permission. What’s worst is, they have also decided to make my house the perfect place to live in; especially the area around my dining table — far from the kitchen!
Seriously speaking, i’ve been observing the ant colony’s movement for weeks but yet i couldn’t trace where the source of their nest is. They might be migratory ants but who knows. Sometimes they appear in the toilet, sometimes in the kitchen….
The usage of Combat Ants Stick Pads all over the place yielded a fruitless harvest. None of the ants took up the bait. Perhaps i should go and buy an Ant tunnel (think can buy from Science Centre) and trap them inside for good!
Credit: Ant Pic from mwkw
The cost of electricity is on the rise again. This time, they are going to rise it up to 5%! Crap! If only my salary increases at the same rate. *rolleyes*
This makes me even more determined to continue to save and conserve energy in my home.
Some habits i’ve developed over the years on saving up on the water/electricity bill, some of which are influenced by my wonderful mum:
If you have any other ideas on conserving water/electricity, feel free to email me and i will post it up here.
My last post for the trip. You must be tired reading my travel entries by now, hahaa, but no choice. If i did not make an effort to blog them down now, i would forget more than 80% of the stuffs. This is the problem i faced in my past trips. I took too long a time to blog my thoughts down.
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Our main destination today is the famous Gupo Mountain National Forest Park. The mountain was named after a woman who chose to stay single her whole life.
The route to the mountain is a long one and we had to take a mountain tram in. If you climb higher up the mountain, you get a chance to take the photograph of the waterfall.
En route, we visit the Jiupuxiang Wine factory, we were given a chance to test their herbal wine. Do you recognize this place? It was used in filming in numerous Hong Kong movies/series.
Ah, that’s the end of our China trip.
My feelings about LongSheng/Guilin/Yangshuo:
Anyway, i would like to thank my China tour guide, Ms Fu, for her interesting stories about Guilin. She taught us a rather interesting word called ‘Gou Rou‘ (a.k.a Dog Meat in Chinese). It refers to good friend. 
So if i call any of you Dog Meat, pls dont say i am rude. hahaha!
I might go back to China again in a few years time. Hopefully i will see better toilets next time. By then, i guess it will be more expensive to travel to China. That’s the price to pay for better toilets.
Goodbye China!
This morning, our next destination was the Yinzi Cave. The rain from the previous night made the lake looked foggy. The pictures did not turn up quite well. But it sure feels like one is traveling through the celestial court short of fairies flying around. 
A nice fishermen came on board our ferry on our way to the Yinzi Cave. We have to pay to take photograph with his precious birds.
Look at the birds on the pole which i am carrying. They are real birds! and they made the pole feel heavy on my shoulders. They are a kind of kingfisher used by the local fishermen. The neck of the birds are tight up so that they could not swallow any fishes they caught. Their owners will remove the life fish from their mouth after they had done their job.
Yinzi is another beautiful cave of almost the same nature as the previous one. So not posting anything much on it.
I loved this view from the cave.
During the night, we went to watch “Impression Liu Sanjie“. Just like what was mentioned in the website, the natural environment was used as the backdrop. The number of performers was enormous at a number of 3000. Most of the performers were by the local farmers and fishermen. You could see how skillful they were when they row in the sampans onto the natural stage on the Li River. It’s pretty smart of them to use these professionals as part-time performers. They can save on the training cost 
Unfortunately i couldn’t show you any pictures. The night shots did not turn out very well.
We continue our journey today from Guilin to Liu Sanjie Cultural Garden
Liu Sanjie is pretty well known all over the world, especially amongst the Chinese. I’ve heard of her from my previous history lessons but i’ve never actually know her past in details. We visited the cultural garden today.
This woman has never cut her hair before. See how well she maintained her hair.
This woman doesnt understand the common Chinese, but she came out from the house after hearing our warm applause. Look at her neck!
The next interesting item was the Shan1 Ge1 Challenge (Folk Song Challenge) . Some of our tour mates were called up to use songs to communicate with the local aunties. Even my bro was also called up to do a dance with them.
I really loved this place. It reminds me of my grandmother’s house many years back. She used to stay in Changi Village (Eastern side of Singapore) before the government decides to redevelop the whole area. If only the place was reserved back then, it could make a good tourist attraction. I was real lucky to be able to stay in such an environment for a period time.
Look at the Singapore kids nowadays, will they have a chance to do the following things which i’ve did when young?
But if you were to ask me if i would go back to that environment, i would say “No”. I am too used to staying in the comfy zone. But it will be good to experience it once in a while. It’s a refreshing experience
On day 3 , we proceeded to the border checkpoint in Mong Cai. We walked across the bridge that links the Vietnamese border town of Mong Cai on the southern bank and the China Dongxing City of the northern bank across the Beilun River.
We spend a night at Nanning before proceeding to Guilin.
Day 4: We visited the Banyan Lake scenic spot. The lake is a new landmark of Guilin. Around the lake, you could see traditional chinese landscapes.
After an hour’s climbing and walking around the cave, we finally met the sun again. The air in the cave was pretty good and fresh, but i still prefer to be out. I cannot imagine getting lost all alone in the cave. The stones and natural carvings seemed scary after a while.
Today’s our last day/night in Vietnam.. pretty sad but we were on schedule.
Look at the stranger at the window. They are floating fruit sellers and they climbed up to our ferry to try to sell us fruits. So amazed. This is one of the spirit of Vietnamese. They are natural entrepreneurs. They could sell anything and anywhere. Some did not own any formal stalls etc. They just use a table or stool, sit on the floor, and they could sell things.
One of my favourite stone formation is the Kissing Rocks (a.k.a Fight cock). They are many others.
Gifts from Vietnam
We left for Guangxi the next day. We took our last photo in Vietnam with the Vietnamese tour guide, Ah Xiang. She is a lovely lady and speaks average Chinese. But i truly appreciate her efforts in trying to make us understand the Vietnam culture.
Last few things to note about Vietnam, from my two days experience:
1. People there knows how to speak little English and some chinese. Maybe because Vietnam is quite near Guangxi (southern part of China)
2. Some younger salesgirls will ask for Singapore dollars as souvenirs.
3. Most shops there accept RenMingbi (RMB), USD and Vietnamese dollars. But if you are going Vietnam ALONE, better change to full Vietnamese dollars as some shops do not have change for RMB.
4. Their famous delicacy is: Green Bean cake/paste
5. Most of their fishes are fresh-water fishes, so there’re lots of bones. Be careful if you are ordering fishes from restaurants.
6. Be careful when crossing roads. Traffic came from all directions, there is no fix direction. Don’t hesitate when you start crossing the roads else you will never get to cross. (if you have been to Taiwan, you will know what i mean)
Goodbye Vietnam!
We arrived at one of the caves in Halong Bay. I don’t remember the actual name of the cave but this is the cave which the ferry from the mainland brought us to. I guess there are other caves around the bay but this is one of the popular one.
There’s one island which our tour group have the majority votes to give it a miss, that is ‘Tian Tang Dao’ a.k.a Paradise Island. Unless you are one who loves to swim or sun tan, you can probably go there and have a look. During that time when we were there, the weather was rather cold to do that though.
Upon entering the cave, i was mesmerized by the lightings. The cave itself seemed pretty normal to me but the lightings inside rather enhanced the cave structure well. The tour guide in the cave gave us a rather interesting tour.
Each stone/rock has a name and if you have good imagination, you can actually “see” different kinds of animals and legendary figures amongst the stones.
