Lunch at Il Lido Sentosa

My kind and generous boss gave us a treat at Il Lido, a nice Italian Restaurant at Sentosa Golf Club. Good food and nice scenery! Thank you boss!

Shepherds Retreat

Shepherds' Retreat (6th April 2007)

This year's Shepherds' Retreat was held in Malacca from 6th July 2007 till 8th July 2007. We stayed in the Century Mahkota (behind Mahkota Parade).

I brought RJ and Mary along for this trip. We shared an apartment with Wendy, Jaclyn and Cassandra.

Thank God RJ was quite cooperative throughout the trip. When we had our sharing session, Mary stayed in the apartment with him so that he won't disturb me. He has been a good boy. We had good sharing sessions.

On 7th April (Sat), Bee Lan and Daryl came and join us around 3pm. We went out for satay celup and chendol. In the evening, took RJ for a swim with Daryl and Bee Lan. All of us went out dinner together. Bee Lan and I discover that at Jonkers Street they have a night market which is very interesting. We took them there for makan and shopping...

On 8th April (Sat), Bee Lan took us to somewhere further for breakfast, it's somewhere near Bukit Cina. After that we went to Mahkota Parade to meet Bee Chin...however, both RJ and I didn't spent much time with Bee Chin cos we need to rushed back to check out from our apartment.

For 3 short days I had quite a fruitful trip, I get to taste Malacca Chendol, Chicken Rice ball, Satay Celup, buy Gula Melaka, had a good and cheap high tea in the hotel. Most important is that I had great time of fellowship with my fellow Children workers cum brothers and sisters in Christ (nothing forgetting I get to meet my family members).

CHINESE NEW YEAR

This are a few photos we took during CNY in our office. We started work on the 6th Day of CNY (23rd February), and a few of us decided to wear cheongsam on that day. We had fun taking pictures...

Helen, Fanny and I

Another group photo

Frank together with Fanny and Me

Standing tall

Yvonne & I

再见 Kunming, China - 28/12/2006

Wow...don't you think it's fast...it's our last day in Yunnan....the end of our holiday!!!

We started off our day by visiting the silk factory. We were shown the process for making a silk cloth...after that it's free and easy shopping at their shop...they sell very nice silk bedsheet set, blanket, pillow and some silk bags and clothes...there was also a fashion show specially shown for tourists at the shop.This shop tailormade clothing wore by the leaders of other countries during ASEAN Submit meeting in Yunnan, can't remember which year liao...

After shopping for silk, now shop for flowers....our tour guide took us to the Flower Trade Market where there's a lot of fresh and dried flowers being sold....I bought quite a lot of potpourries as gifts to my friends back in Singapore...

That's our last stop in Kunming, Yunnan...we rushed to the airport to catched our flight back to Singapore....took a quick lunch at the airport and straight board the plane....Bye Bye Yunnan....It's nice to spend our holiday in Yunnan, we had lots of fun and good time...once again a big thank you to our boss...cos without him I don't think I'll go Yunnan for holiday...hope to visit Yunnan again one day....Singapore, We are coming back!!!!!

Kunming, China - 27/12/2006

NATURE'S DAY/FARMER'S DAY

27/12, our Nature's Day or should I say Farmer's Day cos we will be going to strawberry farm and nursery....we went to a "Forget Me Not" nursery........WOW... so many nice flowers, each of us can cut 5 stalks of "Forget Me Not" from the nursery...will take back to Sg to make dry flowers....

We took a short drive to Strawberry farm to pluck strawberries and each of us are given a bucket to fill in....YUMMY...fresh, juicy and delicous strawberries....we were told not to pluck those too ripe cos by the time we bring back to Sg, it may turn to be strawberry jam liao...haha....

After a good "work out" on gardening...heehee...we went for good lunch and after that we went SHOPPING...did I say "SHOPPING"...YIPEE!!!!. Was told by Vivian, our tour guide that, most of the major shopping complexes in Kunming is located at this street. They have Carrefour, a large bookstore, 1 big local shopping complex (can't remember the name liao), electronics shops and many local shops...it's the place where you can find almost everything there....too bad it's winter time, so all the clothing sold are winter clothing...We spend our whole afternoon there...as usual JW will go to bookshop cos that his favourite hangout place...anyway all the books are in Chinese so he didn't stay too long there...most of us went to Carrefour to shop....not bad, certain things are quite cheap and good...heehee...you won't want to know what I bought in Carrefour....it's ladies' things...was told by friends that it's cheap and good there...so I bought a lot lor...

We then walk to a restaurant to meet my boss for dinner...this will be the last dinner in Kunming...at the restaurant we saw two newly-wed couple having their banquet there....poor bride have to wear thick jacket on her gown cos she has to stand out side to welcome her guests....it's freezing cold in the evening and at night...by the time we finished our dinner, they are still standing there...so poor thing...better dun get married in China during winter time...

After dinner, we went back to the hotel where we 1st stayed in Kunming...YEAH... there's Wal-Mart next to this hotel...which means I can shop again...I did quite a lot of last minute shopping at Wal-Mart. I bought a pair of jeans, bought some clothes and toys for my dear son RJ, bought quite a few reusable heat pad and some local products as gift....after shopping JW and I went to KFC for supper before going back to hotel...since I buy so many things liao I have quite a lot of repacking to do...Once all done, Fanny, Yvonne and myself gathered at Yan Yi's room to chat for awhile then back to room cos it's bedtime liao....Goodnite Kunming!!!!

Shangrila-Kunming-Jiuxiang, China, 26/12/2006

RING.....Phone ring again....Wake up call...it's time to wake up and go to the airport again...aiyoh we didn't even get to see daylight in Shangrila....by the time we reach Shangrila it's already dark then before sunrise, we have to go to airport liao....we will be flying to Kunming from Shangrila....

Oh...come to think of it, we did see daylight in Shangrila...ya from the airport...cos we were stuck there for 2 hours.....our flight delayed for 2 hrs due to bad weather in Kunming...again bad weather in Kunming....sianz ah....we were stuck in the airport, so cold, so bored...how we wish that we can go out and kai kai....end up we did our shopping at the airport lor...I bought 2 earrings at good reasonable price, all thanks to Alice (Francis's wife)...she is GOOD in bargaining price...

Finally our flight took off...Kunming... we are back....remember the first day I reach Kunming, I lost my luggage....yeah my luggage finally arrived at Kunming airport....JW will be getting his clothes liao....

Due to the delay, we have to rush all our itinerary....we had lunch and somehow the lunch was fantastically delicious...probably after eating lousy food in Shangrila...I think I ate about 1.5 bowls of rice....

After lunch we took quite a long drive to Stone Forest. Stone Forest is a massive collection of gray limestone pillars, spilt by rainwater and eroded to their present fanciful forms. We took many beautiful photos there...

We then proceed to Jiuxiang caves...wow...amazing cave...our "Ah Shi Ma" told us that Jackie Chan filmed the movie " The Myth" in this cave...too bad we can't take too many pictures there cos it's very dark, even with lighting doesn't help much....we took a long walk to finished all 3 caves.

We still have to take quite a long drive to the hotel and have our dinner there....we had the famous Kunming Cross-bridge noodle, Yiliang Roast Duck...The hotel is located at quite an "ulu" place, no shopping at night....sianz...some of them went for hairwash, some called for massage...i called for massage but they were late, so I decided not to take up the massage and go to bed and sleep....better catch my beauty sleep cos I'm lacking of it during this trip...

Lijiang - Shangrila, China 25/12/2006

We wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!! Jesus is born on Christmas day!!!

Today another tiring day cos we will be on the road most of the time...the whole journey from Lijiang to Shangrila is about 6 hours....aiyoh, sit till buttock pain leh!!!

Our 1st stop is at the 1st Bend of Yangtze River...nothing much to see lah...just a BEND lor...but it seems that according to history, this is a very important "bend"....we then drove another 1.5hours to Tiger Leaping Gorge, which is located between the famous Ha-Ba snowy mountain & Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and see the surging rapidly striking the riverbank. It's indeed a long walk...there's sedan there to take people up but most of us choose to take a walk...

We then pick up our "Zou Ma", our tour guide from Shangrila and proceed for lunch...lunch was no good...the place was so dirty, the food not too our taste, anyway we just grab a bit cos we will have a long journey on the bus....

OH>>>NO>>>>there was an accident, a van overturned...from the picture you can see our young reporter reporting the accident (hehee...that's Fanny's daughter, Michelle)...Our bus is too big to pass through...HAIZ....so we were stucked there till the local police come and settle this situation....many of us went down to see the accident but when the local almost fight, we quickly went back to the bus....we wasted almost 1.5-2 hrs there....

Because of this delay, we end up reaching Shangrila late....once we cleared through the jam, we told our "Zuo Ma" that we need to "sing song" (pass urine lah)....so they stop us somewhere by the road, quite "ulu" toilet...or should I say "local" toilet....NO DOORS...just a drain...a few of us quite uneasy using this toilet

On the way to Shangrila, the scenery was so nice, it's indeed "THE LOST HORIZON"....superb scenery....by the time we reach Shangrila, it was very dark liao and we went for dinner....since it's Christmas day, Chua Pin is so generous to sponsor us with a camp fire dinner at a tibetian family's home with roast lamb, roast suckling pig and roast chicken...due to some miscommunication, the first home was quite unpleasant...we left quite fast. "Zuo Ma" felt real bad and faster arrange another home for us to visit...the second one was good....the roast meat was so so but the performance was good....we had an enjoyable time there....we also join in and dance with the tibetian...

When we reach hotel, "Zuo Ma" advise us not to bath cos we won't want to catch a cold from Shangrila...me being very kiasi and obedient, followed the instruction....the heater in the room turned off around 2am....so I covered myself with blanket as many layer as I can....

Actually JW and I planned to meet Pastor Daniel's family n Sammy's family but too bad, we didn't manage to contact them...probably it's God's will....will have to visit Pastor Daniel some other time, if we have the opportunity to visit Shangrila again!!!

Once again MERRY CHRISTMAS to all of you!!!! God bless you!!!