Day 52: Kuala Lumpur

It was less than a year ago from my last visit to Malaysia. I remember the delicious Malaysian food fondly. As soon as we checked into our hotel (thanks, kim), we hit a Muslim-Indian restaurant next to the hotel. The freshly baked naan and tandoori chicken were to die for.

The next day we went to Chinatown for lunch. We saw many faked designer goods – all made in China but cost a few times more. Afterwards, we went to the bus station to secure two tickets to Kuala Besuit (8-hour ride), the ferry jetty to Perhentian Islands. Unfortunately, the tickets for the night bus were sold out, so we ended up with two tickets to Kota Bharu, which is still 90 minutes away from Kuala Besuit. We would figure out the connections when we get to Kota Bharu.

lunch at Chinatown food court









In the evening, we had a lovely dinner with Kim at Madam Kwan's in KLCC. The night view of the Twin Towers was as magnificent as before. The next day Kim treated us to a good Thai restaurant. We had an afternoon to kill before our night bus, so we went to KLCC and spent quite a bit of time at the Japanese Bookshop. On the way to pick up our bags from the hotel, luck would have it – the rain started. After we got our bags, we got into a taxi (no meter used even though there is one, of course), but the driver refused to drive us to the bus station across town due to the congested traffic (caused by the rain). He suggested taking the LRT, and said it would be faster than driving. We took his advice and eventually made it to the bus station in the nick of time. Two close calls in a row.

our dinner spread at Madam Kwan's & night views of the Twin Towers/KLCC












Having been through countless bus rides in China, the double-decker night bus at KL was a luxury. There was no spitting, smoking or cheesy videos on board. The air conditioning was so strong that most people put on their jackets when they got on the bus. Good thing we brought the fleece and wool blanket with us.

our "freezing" night bus








touch down in Kuala Lumpur ... notice the suit bag :)









our first sweet corn in our trip - for some reason, all the corns we bought in China were not sweet.

Day 50: Shanghai

Before going to Shanghai, we came across a photo of a guy carrying a freshly tailored suit in one of the rice terrace places in southern China. We were laughing at how foolish it looks. Well, we went to Shanghai to get one suit and one dress for Hide's wedding. These are what we ended up with when we left Shanghai: two tailored suits, two tailored cashmere coats, one tailored black dress, one tailored Chinese dress, one tailored trenchcoat, six pairs of shoes (one for me) and other miscelleneous items, including one big bag to fit all the things we bought. :)

Overall we spent one week in Shanghai – the longest we ever spent in one place. Shopping was one of two reasons for our extended stay. The other was that the apartment of our friend, Cookie, was simply too nice. Honestly, it was the best accommodation during our entire trip in China. It had a gym, a doorman, a housekeeper and a maid who cooks three times a week. Cookie also treated us to a fancy Italian restaurant (apparently owned by a Taiwanese).

We also met up with Rae, another good friend from Switzerland. Rae treated us to Ye Shanghai, an up-scale restaurant in Xintiandi, and an amazing massage at Green. My God, it was one night to remember. BTW, Rae's place has similar services as Cookie's place. Just to kick it up a notch, her place has a free breakfast buffet.

It was good to see Rae and Cookie doing so well in Shanghai. Having been spoiled in Shanghai, we knew it was going to be difficult to hit the road again in backpacker style, i.e. US$10 hostel. But leave, we must. Our next destination is Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

Before we end this blog entry, we have to share with you how we got to the airport in Hangzhou. The night before our flight, Cookie suggested booking an early taxi at 7:30am because of a forecasted rain. A normal taxi ride would take 20 minutes, leaving us plenty of time for our 9am airport shuttle bus. At 7:20am, we promptly went down to the lobby and waited for the taxi, which did not show up. In fact, no taxi was available and we weren't the only people waiting. At 7:45am, we decided to put on our rain coats and walk to the metro station with our backpacks and, of course, the freshly tailored suits and dresses. When we walked out, we saw why there was no taxi. The streets were flooded to knee high. It was a funny scene to see people in suits and dresses walking with shoes and socks in their hands.

Anyway, we were 10 minutes late when we got to the bus station. We quickly hailed a taxi and headed to the train station for a fast train that takes only an hour to Hangzhou. When we got to the train station, we already missed the train by 30 minutes due to the congested traffic. So the driver took us to a long-distance bus station for a 2-hour ride to Hangzhou. We bought our tickets at 10:28am, and the bus left on schedule at 10:30am. After arriving in Hangzhou at 12:30pm sharp, we immediately got into another taxi and arrived at the airport at 1pm – just 15 minutes before the check-in closing. That was a close call. Too close even for me.

Note: we did not take many photos during our stay in Shanghai because we were at the fabrics market most of the time. There is one snack you should try if you are in Shanghai. It's the pan-fried steam buns at First Food Department Store. Four delicious buns for RMB4.5. What a deal. The line-up is well worth it.

Day 43: Xitang

Xitang was the second and last water town we visited during this trip. At this point, we have a confession to make - we sneaked into the town without paying the entrance ticket. Actually we were approached by a woman at the bus terminal asking if we needed a place to stay. The deal was that she would bring us into the town as her "relatives" as long as we stay at her place for one night (at the price of 100RMB equivalent to two entrance tickets). The flip side is that we wouldn't be able to visit the designated places that require the tickets. But since we weren't particularly thrilled about the designated places in Tongli, we agreed to the deal and was inside the town after 10 minutes.











Remember the scenes of Tom Cruise running and shouting Mandarin in "Mission Impossible III"? Those scenes were shot in Xitang, not Shanghai as the movie suggested. The town's people put up big posters of Tom Cruise at the places where the film was shot. Not surprisingly those spots were also where most tourists gathered for photos.

the "Tom Cruise" bridge & me imitating Tom running in "Mission Impossible III"









Xitang is smaller than Tongli, but draws a lot more tourists than Tongli. I guess Tom Cruise still has his charm on the Chinese population. After most tourists left on Sunday afternoon, the atmosphere was less frentic. There was no line-up at any restaurants or tea houses.

a calmer side of Xitang rarely seen by the public









We have not made any recommendation in our blog entries. This time we want to make two recommendations for future travelers. One is a restaurant called Lao Ping Fang, serving delicious local food at local prices. The other is a guesthouse called He Xiang Guesthouse (xitangly.com/hxkz.asp). The location is great – 30 meters from the main street and by the river. Get the room with river view and ensuite toilet/air con on the 2nd floor (80~150RMB depending on the day and your bargaining skill).


nightshots of Xitang

Day 41: Tongli

Tongli was the first water town we visited due to logistics reason. Finally we saw what we came for – canals and bridges throughout the town. We spent hours just walking around the town and eating sweets (sesame dumpling & green bean soup) by the canal. For dinner, we had the standard stir-fry items and rice by the Three Bridges. Since canals breed mosquitoes and we forgot to bring our mosquito repellent, we quickly finished our meal before the mosquitoes finished their meal, i.e. us.











We also witnessed a cat rescue mission. The villagers were trying to knock a cat off the tree, so they were running around and gathering bamboo sticks. But the harder they tried to hit the cat, the harder the cat held on to the tree. It was a fruitless effort, but definitely an animated act with the cat meowing and the villagers shouting. We went back after dinner, and the cat was gone. So somehow they managed to get the cat off the tree - longer stick or just cat food?












One embarrassing story. The last place we visited was Luoxingzhou, an island known for the temples. We were the only two passengers on the last ferry to the island. Having been on the trip for a while now, we could smell a scam from a mile away. But this time we let our guard down. One woman kindly invited us to a small temple to knock on a bell on the top floor. We politely refused. One man invited us to another small temple to burn some incense. Again we politely refused. Another woman invited us to the top floor of a small temple where we could view the entire island. We took the bait. After shooting some photos, the woman invited us to beat on a huge drum and offered to take photos of us. Since there is no free lunch (not even at a temple), we asked if we had to pay. “One RMB” she said. So there we were going crazy at the drum and the lady was cheering for us with chanting “one for good luck, two for ..., three for ..., four for ...” We stopped after three beatings, gave her a 5-RMB bill and asked for change. “What change?” she said and added “It was one RMB per beating per person”. So we were six RMB poorer when we left the island.















To enter the town, all tourists have to buy a combined ticket (RMB80) which includes 10 places to visit. Among the 10 places, two or three are worth the money. For those of you intend to visit Tongli but do not want to feel ripped off by the combined ticket, just show up after 5pm. The guards at the entrance won't be there.


snapshots of Gen Le Yuan









us savoring local sweet and watching local women doing their laundry by the canal

Day 39: Suzhou

Marco Polo once described Suzhou as "a city with six thousand bridges and full of cunning men of all crafts”. Well, we did not see six thousand bridges all right, but we did see the cunning men in action.

When we went to Shizilin garden to admire the stones, we bought some peaches just outside the garden. The woman vendor gave us back our change, and was nice enough to count it in front of us for correct change. Guess what? She counted nine 10-RMB bills, but gave us only seven back. We did not realize this trick until we were buying the entrance tickets for Shizilin. Promptly we went after the peach vendor and she gave us the rest of the money back without making a scene. Apparently the ticket lady at Shizilin said it was a common trick used by those fruit vendors outside Shizilin. There are two other incidents (one involving bicycle parking fee) which we will spare you the details.

Special stones at Shizilin












While Hangzhou was a pleasant surprise for us, Suzhou was an unpleasant surprise. Some of the canals were so dirty that the color was black. It was not nice to walk on the main streets due to the traffic. The small alleys offered temporary refuge, but cars and motorbikes still zoomed through them, i.e. honking behind you to pass.

To be fair, Suzhou does have its beautiful side, e.g. parks and museums. That is why many tourists still come here. For us, it was time to pack up and visit the water towns before heading to Shanghai.

us riding bicycles in Suzhou ... it was HOT









silk worms and cocoons from the Silk Museum

Day 37: Hangzhou

When we left Yangshuo, we were told by the travel agencies in Yanghsuo that it was impossible to get sleeper tickets to Hangzhou within three days of departure. Our backup plan was to stay in Guilin if we could not get the sleeper tickets for the same day. When we arrived at the train station in Guilin, we were able to secure two hard sleepers leaving at 5pm the same day, leaving us several hours to tour around Guilin. The timing was perfect.

This was our last sleeper train ride in China, so we were a bit sad when the train started pulling into Hangzhou. This ride was the longest (20.5 hours), but it was the most comfortable. The train had air conditioning and even laced beddings. We had our dinner in the restaurant cart. The food was not so good, but it was a special meal for us – a good conclusion to our train ride experience in China.













Hangzhou was a real surprise for us. We weren't expecting much since Hangzhou is a big, modern city. For a big city in China, it was actually very pleasant to walk around. There were no hawkers trying to sell you souvenirs around the West Lake. The public transit was simple and frequent. The restaurants were good. Among all the big cities in China, we like Hangzhou the most. We will be back to Hangzhou soon.

Katy happy about our sleeper train & the nice bedding












sunset on West Lake








someone playing RC boat around the Golden Water Buffalo

Day 35: Yangshuo

Long before we planned our itinerary for China, Katy and I had heard about the natural beauty of Yangshuo. It was an eye opener when our bus pulled into the town, which is surrounded by karst mountains, Li river, Yulong river and 1,000 other tourists. The tour and hotel touts here are more aggressive than other cities we had been to so far.


During our three-day stay in Yangshuo, we did the usual tourist things – cruising down the Li river, walking around the West street and cycling along Yulong river. The bike ride was not for the faint of heart. The seat (saddle) was rock hard. The road was mostly gravels and rocks. The sun was fierce. We were so glad when we finished our ride after three grueling hours. Our butts were sore for the next two days.









Yangshuo is also where we decided to change our itinerary to attend Hide's (my best friend from IMD) wedding in Tokyo in late October. Instead of spending two months in India, we will spend more time in Malaysia, Indonesia and Japan, and postpone our arrival in Europe. So Tokyo, we are coming!

resting our sore butts