Collage

 

These men have something in common.. Hmm, they look kinda alike, yeah?

Conclusion? 

MY TYPE

how i feel about ...? (1)

writing

Nowadays I enjoy writing as a stress relief, but writing actually has been a part in my life since I first had my diary. And writing has becoming a lot more fun since blogs were invented. I created my very first (old) blog years ago. It keeps me sane and it keeps memories I wish not to forget. It’s like a refrigerator for those ideas in my mind, my heart feelings at those moment, and some important points of my life, exciting and joyful events, along with my saddest memory. The best thing is they are kept fresh when you re-read them. Who knows that someday they may become inspiration or motivation ~

The Adventure to The Ancestors' Homeland #6 : Yellow Mountain a.k.a. HuangShan

We made it to HuangShan during summer holiday in 2011, 2nd of September.

HuangShan, the Yellow Mountain, is a part of Anhui province, and it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site too by the way. It is mentioned in the most used Chinese textbook published by Hanban (if you're learning Chinese, you know the red textbook we all use). It mentions the famous 迎客松 'welcoming-guest pine' and the 云海 'sea of clouds'. I never thought that I would go there tho because it was not as appealing as the Great Wall. Then, my seniors asked me whether I wanted to go to HuangShan or not. I said yes, why not, I'm always ready for adventure. Mountain sounds fun!

So we booked our train tickets and packed our stuffs!

We didn't stay too long tho, it was just a short trip because my seniors were doing their internship. They have limited day-offs so we went during public holiday and stayed there for only 2 days.

We took the night train to HuangShan, it was a sleeper train that took 12 hours to reach the city near HuangShan if I'm not mistaken. By the way, HuangShan can only be reached by train (more conveniently, rather than by car or public buses) and the train only go there twice a day, so you either take the afternoon train or the night one. Considering the hours, I think it's wiser if you take the night one so you don't have to sit in the train wide awake for the 12 hour journey.

Here's inside the train. 

Ko Budi n Ci Lili

My 'wasn't ready for the camera' face turned out 'annoyed' face.

Oh, we bought the hard sleeper tickets and it wasn't that bad, it was pretty comfy but not too spacious. Maybe the soft sleeper ones were better, I don't know. It was pretty good for us, as the train took off at 10 pm and we mostly spent our time sleeping. Another suggestion, if you are getting the hard sleeper ticket, do not buy the top one, stick to the bottom or the middle one. Then you'll have enough space to sit down. The gap between the top bed and the ceiling is too narrow for you to sit down. Warning for the claustrophobics out there! I'm a little claustrophobic actually but I still managed to enjoy the whole journey in the compartment.

After spending 12 hours on the train, we arrived the next day around 8. The train station in Huangshan (this one referring to the city) was small and not the modern type. It was surrounded by hills, I kinda felt like we're lost in a small village despite of the many tourists getting off from the train with us.

We've booked our room at an international youth hostel in the downtown part of the city, in fact it was located right in the middle of the walking street of downtown Huangshan, so we took a bus that took us to the downtown. When we arrived at the city it started to look like a real city, there were buildings and some fast food chains. We put our luggage in the room and took some stuffs that we need for the hiking. Then off we went to the Yellow Mountain!

Even though we were already in the city near to HuangShan but we still need another hour to reach the mountain. We rented a car from the hostel to bring us there.

We arrived!

The view after we entered the main entrance.

Great view! And that was just the entrance! Ready to hike?

Well, the hiking did not start right away because we have limited time. Remember we had just arrived at 8, then went to the hotel and another hour journey, so we were probably there around 10. And the park closes at 7 or 8. We had to take the cable car to save time.

Thank God they have cable car so we got to enjoy the breathtaking view without taking our breath, hehe. It really had saved our time and our energy for the real hiking. 

After getting off from our cable car ride, we climbed a little further to find this. Everything was so pretty, no filter needed, just like in a fairy tale land. Prepare your legs and your camera, and snap! Indulge your eyes and capture the view forever in your mind.

By looking at the bridge, I knew we still had a lot of climbing to do. Super excited!

Here we were at one of the peaks. Had to take some pictures of course.

Don't fall, folks.

Fairy land mountain range ~ Very pretty ^___^

We went from one peak to another, tried to visit all recommended spots which according to the sources we searched were the best spots. We kept walking and taking pictures. It was really fun and I had to admit quite tiring because we did seriously lots of climbing.

I dunno for how many hours we had been climbing up. And, we realized that we had to start going back down because the cable car was going to close soon. Omo, and that's when our fun and happy and cheerful walking turned into an "Amazing Race". At that very moment, we were like RUN!!! We were racing with time because if we didn't make it to the closest cable car station before they close, we would have had to spend the night on the mountain without any camping preparation and without food supply. And if that was going to happen, I couldn't imagine. The better option was to climb back up to the hotel and rent some tents which I kinda doubted because it was getting dark and we didn't have any flashlights. With our mobile batteries running low, we might lost in the mountain. 

Luckily, the Amazing Race spirit of ours drove our adrenalin high, we were running with our might. Our tired legs weren't a great help but we knew we could do it. 

TA DA! We caught the very last cable car, just before they closed. 
Thank God!

Safe and sound in the cable car.

Enjoying our last view of HuangShan and bidding goodbye. 

Looking at the now fading HuangShan as we rode further down.

That was SO MUCH FUN, and the Amazing Race part was even adding more fun into my trip this time.

We made it!

The full team.

Ahh, what a great memory!

* Looking forward to another adventure! Hoping the next will be Eurotrip!

Au revoir ~

Happy birthday, Mama!

This date will forever be in my heart, and every year on this date it will always be a remembrance of her love. 

My mom was a really nice lady, everyone loved her. She was a kind-hearted indeed, besides caring for us of course, she also cared for others. Such a big heart she has that she cared for every being. 

She sorted our garbage and kept the recyclable for the scavenger, she would gave it to the scavenger. 

Once she came home from work in the middle of a heavy rain, she found a little bird looking cold in the corner of our porch, she took it inside, put it in a box to keep it warm and gave it some food. 

When she bought some fish from the fish seller and she found out that a fish was still alive, she kept it in a pail and let it live “a little bit longer”. Unfortunately I wasn’t like her, nobody ever taught me this, it may sound gruesome but as a child I used to like catching grasshoppers and kept them in the plastic and then I would fill the plastic with water to let them drown or just separating the legs. My mom definitely never taught me that. 

So now you know why the fish only got to live a little bit longer than its fate on the chopping board. I didn’t cut it up into pieces, I just played with it, I took it out from the pail with a fish net and put it back into the pail. On and on and on, until it met Jesus, hehe. I don’t take after my mom’s personality. I’m a cold-hearted person and I’m not as nice and kind as her.

Anyway, thanks Ma for your sacrifice, you barely have any spare time for yourself, you took care of us, you raised me for this 24 years of my life. Thanks for putting up with me.

Until this time I never truly feel that she left, often I think that she will come home from work and I want to ask her something. It never fails to give me security, it feels like mom knows best indeed, mom have the answer to everything.

I remember one time it was a school holiday, my brother and I were home but dad was out of town for work. One of mom’s friends called her to go out for a reunion. She asked us first whether she could go or not but my brother and I didn’t let mom go. I thought that I wanted to spend more time with mom at home by reasoning that no one would cook for us for the day. Then she ended up not going. Sorry mom for taking up your time and your freedom.

 Credit to whoever made this cake for his/her mom. 

That is such a pretty cake.

 I envy you because u made it for her. I wasn't that lucky.

The photo was taken at The Bund on summer 2012. I skipped my ECG rotation because I didn't get summer holiday during my internship. But glad that I spent my time with them because time is your most precious gift, when you give someone your time, you are giving them a portion of your life that you'll never get back. I showed them my life and they were literally there to be a part of it. Mom looked tired here, she was always tired because she is a career woman, a housewife and a supermom. Thanks for everything, Ma!

Happy birthday, Ma! I love you!

 

The Adventure to The Ancestors' Homeland #5 : 小吃街

This was another trip I took to Shanghai with some friends while we were still in our freshmen year. Sadly, this place is no longer exist because as I remember it was located across the subway station by Marks & Spencer. And when we went again to look for this place, we couldn't find it anymore. The road where it was located has now changed a lot. There used to be only Marks & Spencer and few stores. Now, this place has changed into a commercial walking street with modern buildings and lots of branded store chains like Zara, H&M, GAP, American Eagle Outfitters.

XiaoChi Jie was located at WuJiang Lu. 小吃 means snack and 街 means street, so 小吃街 means the snack street.

You can find many food vendors of local snacks there. I am not a big fan of the snacks so when I went there I didn't really buy anything. I just enjoyed taking pictures, hehe. 

spotlight on the roast ducks

Their conversation were probably like this (in Indonesian).

Guy : Neng, ini hen haochi loh neng. Mau ga abang beliin?

Girl : Masa sih?

Pardon the wild imagination of mine.

More pics. 

Lady : Mbak, ini apa ya?

There's always a long queue in front of every stall.

That was 小吃街 that has been replaced by tall buildings. Now you can find some fancy bakeries, Korean restaurants, ramen shop, pho, Krispy Kreme, Starbucks, Yoshinoya and more restaurants with familiar names over there instead of these.

- meLLe -

hi Bambi

Today's doodle!

Bambi

the month of march

Here is March, the third month. Missing mom..

It's been already one year since mom left, how time flies..

It's almost mom's birthday and if she was still here she'll be turning 55 this month. 

Our lives has been very different without her because she is our sun and our lives revolved around her. 

Missing her waking me up everyday before going to work, missing her waking me up relentlessly on Sundays, scolding me to go shower, preparing breakfast, missing going to church with her, her chatting with other ladies while buying kuehs, then leading an always hard conversation where to go for lunch, shopping groceries, cooking dinner and watching TV with her. 

And recently, the mom of a friend of mine had just passed away. My heart breaks for you. Words just couldn't explain. But I know for sure, they will always live in our hearts.

- meLLe -

The Adventure to The Ancestors' Homeland #4 : Formula 1

Bringing back the excitement of watching the expensive sport, Formula 1! 

I barely remember how much I enjoyed the euphoria of Formula 1. I started watching F1 probably since the season when Kimi Raikkonen was with the McLaren team and almost entitled The World Champion, only second to Alonso by slight difference. I was still in high school and I liked Formula 1 so much that I dreamt someday I had to watch it live. The dream came true sooner than I thought apparently. 

The once in a lifetime experience 2008!

 Weehee, the feeling when entering the venue! I could smell the racing spirit already!

The view from our seats. Anxiously waiting for the race to start.

Let the games begin!

That's Kimi going out from the pit stop!

It was really different watching Formula 1 live from the circuit and watching it on TV. But I think it'd be my 'first time in forever' and 'once for ever' because although the sound of the F1 car engines blaring gives you rush, it wasn't efficient going to the circuit somewhere-far-away on the city side, sitting and sunbathing to see the cars passing you for few seconds then whroom gone. You don't even have any idea what's happening in the race or who's leading, you still need to check the screen eventually. 

At this actual distance..

My vision is 6/6 but those were really hard to be seen.

 

It was very memorable tho and definitely worth seeing for once. 
Glad that I did!

Bye now! 

Thanks for the memories ~

- meLLe -