Train Woes (with specific reference to SMRT)

Being an average (or even low) income earner, i have to take the public transport every working day; at times, even on weekends.  Not sure about the most of you but it has been getting more and more stressful taking the bus and train nowadays!!

The irritating part; when the whole platform is full with people, there is absolutely no explanation what has happened!

Oh yes, there was!

A male voice advising people to "step behind the yellow line" or when commuters' temper is getting short, "the train will come very soon".

I DON'T NEED THIS KIND OF USELESS INFORMATION!!

I know better than to step beyond the yellow line, within a possible nasty bump with the headstrong train and "come very soon" does not offer a specified WHEN; could be 1 minute or maybe 10 minutes.

Plus!

At Jurong East Mrt station, trains from Woodlands continue to stop and the flow of commuters alighting to take the train to Pasir Ris remains constant, creating a backlog of passengers!!

ARGH!!!!!!

Fine, it's my fault; who ask me to work in Clementi??!!?!?!?!

I should work in Yishun! =(

Public Toilets in China (中国公共厕所)

A typical cubicle in Changi Airport

Like eating, going to the public toilet (for the obvious) has always and will always be part of the basic necessities for a human. "Whatever goes in must come out", as the truthful saying goes.

For many, it is more than just doing "business". It acts as a conversational platform with fellow users, a makeup zone or even, a much-needed smoking area.

Most of my NUS colleagues will know i love the toilet due to, in no small part, my super digestive and hyper sensitive stomach. Either reason, going to toilet few times a day is part and parcel of my daily life.

Therefore, when i told my friends i am going for my FIRST China trip in 2008, the first warning (by a female friend) was the appalling condition of the toilets there. 

It was explained that at times, the toilet will be built over a water area (most likely a stream or river) with holes on the floor for easy yet natural disposal. And the best thing? Either there will be no cubicle or no door for existing cubicles!

Taken from www.shockdc.com

*SHOCKED* was my expression then.

But i am a versatile person! I am not very particular when it comes to small business; an open area with no one around suffices as a release point. And with big business, i believe i can bear with the outgoing sensation until i reach my hotel (which i had been assured to be at least 3 stars).

A toilet in Papua New Guinea

(picture taken from www.flickr.com/photos/robertbyrne/563544741/)

Now that i am back from my second China trip, i think it's the right time for me to share the local public toilets experience.

One very nice public toilet in Stone Forest (石林), Yunnan

One

Although public toilets in China have cubicles (with the exception of one), only a small percentage has no doors (you are likely to find toilets with doors in tourist areas and bigger cities).

Two

Even if doors are provided, locals will not use them.

There was once in Yunnan, at a restaurant toilet where i encountered my first culture shock! I opened the door and right ahead was a man squatting and smoking - with his cubicle door wide-open! I almost slipped, thinking it was a one-man toilet! He looked at me and continued his business.

=_=!!!

Three

Even when cubicles and doors are provided, they are likely to be low-rise; meaning, once you stand up, you are able to tell how "bushy", lengthy (reserved for man only!) your next door neighbour is and whether he or she has a tattoo on his/her butt!

Four

Correct me if i am wrong, but i found the stench from the women's toilets to be super overpowering compared to the men. Ladies in our tour group will bring along an arsenal of items each time they go in.

Five

Most public toilets do not provide the "sitting" type and for lazy people like me who do not use the common "squatting" type, it's a blessing because i will DEFINITELY bear any outgoing sensation till i reached the hotel!

Six

The disposal system is at times, just a narrow, slight sloping drain connecting all the cubicles. Which means; you have to extremely careful for fluid-concentrated output (diarrhea for etc)!!

Seven

The chance of being asked to pay for the use of public toilets stands at around 60-70% (according to my experience), regardless of the conditions. It will cost RMB 1 yuan, more than the Singapore 20 cents we usually pay.

Commonly seen in China. This picture was taken in my recent trip to Hunan.

By the way, for point two, some users (tourists mainly) will use an umbrella to protect their modesty. And we did ask our local tour guide why cubicle doors are not utilised even when they are provided. 

His answer as follows:

Most locals believe that it is unhealthy to constraint oneself with 4 walls while "doing BIG business". In the lines of aromatherapy, what you smell can affect your health and mood. Hence, door remains unclosed at the expense of showing everything.

:) 

Savior in China!

Throughout my recent China trip, it's rare if i managed to find my dinner to be so fabulously good i gobbled everything. Hence, it was with great happiness that i found the above snack in one of the multiple convenience shops located near my hotel in Zhangjiajie!

Not to be confused with the Glico Collon biscuits commonly found in all most supermarkets in Singapore, i know it may look like a cheaper imitation (that China has and always been famous for) with a taste so horribly fakey i would probably just spit them out and crave for the not-so-nice but bearable dinner.

Suprisingly NO!

The biscuit roll encompassing the sweet, creamy white cream was crunchy (truthfully, it tasted exactly like Collon but with an extra crunchiness) and the best thing, i love the individual aluminium-foil pack each biscuit comes in!

Don't you always feel pressurize to eat the Collon biscuits EVERYTIME you open a bag?? I do and it's because of things like this that i never seem to decrease my weight. In addition, i will always feel jelak (a similar English word is surfeited) when i reached the last few pieces.

This product was named my savior because without them (i bought a few boxes), i might have starved to death.

Fine, i will not die but i would probably be angry. Why?

Because a hungry man is an angry man. wahhahahahaa. Okay not funny.

Anyway, here's another good reason why you should always try the local products when you travel overseas!

Office Dares - I DARE YOU!

My brain is really too dead to think about anything constructive! By chance, I saw this email that i am going to regurgitate and share with all of you!

The following test will determine how brave and daring you are! Total points = 105. The nearer you are to 105 points, the more fearless you are deemed to be.

Be unique, be different and break away from your routine work! Try the following dares tomorrow and give yourself a tick (plus a pat on your back) everytime you complete one of the following:

One-Point Dares

1. Ignore the first five persons who say 'good morning' to you.

2. To signal the end of a conversation, clamp your hands over your ears and grimace.

3. Leave your fly open for one hour. If anyone points it out, say, "Sorry, I really prefer it this way".

4. Walk sideways to the photocopier.

5. While riding in an elevator, gasp dramatically every time the doors open.

6. When in elevator with one other person, tap them on the shoulder and pretend it wasn't you.

7. Finish all your sentences with "In accordance with the prophecy..."

8. Interrupt your conversation with someone by giving a huge dejected sigh.

9. Use your highlighter pen on the computer screen.

Three-Points Dares

1. Say to your boss, "I like your style", wink, and shoot him with double-barrelled fingers.

2. Kneel in front of the water cooler and drink directly from the nozzle.

3. Shout random numbers while someone is counting.

4. Every time you get an email, shout ''email''.

5. Put decaf in the coffee maker for 3 weeks. Once everyone has got over his or her caffeine addictions, switch to espresso.

6. Introduce yourself to a new colleague as "the office bicycle". Then wink and pout.

7. Call I.T. helpdesk and tell them that you can't seem to access any p*rnography web sites.

Five-Points Dares

1. At the end of a meeting, suggest that, for once, it would be nice to conclude with the singing of the national anthem (extra 5 points if you actually launch into it yourself).

2. Walk into a very busy person's office and while they watch you with growing irritation, turn the light switch on/off 10 times.

3. For an hour, refer to everyone you speak to as "Dave".

4. Announce to everyone in a meeting that you "really have to go do a number two".

5. When you've picked up a call, before speaking finish off some fake conversation with the words, ''she can abort it for all I care''.

6. After every sentence, say 'Mon' in a really bad Jamaican accent. As in: "The report's on your desk, Mon." Keep this up for one hour.

7. In a meeting or crowded situation, slap your forehead repeatedly and mutter, "Shut up, damn it, all of you just shut up!"

8. At lunchtime, get down on your knees and announce, "As God is my witness, I'll never go hungry again!"

9. Repeat the following conversation 10 times to the same person: "Do you hear that?" "What?" "Never mind, it's gone now."

10. Present meeting attendees with a cup of coffee and biscuit; smash each biscuit with your fist.

11. During the course of a meeting, slowly edge your chair towards the door.

12. As often as possible, skip rather than walk.

13. Ask people what sex they are. Laugh hysterically after they answer.

14. Dry hump the photocopier. When someone spots you, stop and cough embarrassingly, then lean in to the machine and whisper loudly, "I'll see you tonight".

One week to perform the above dares.

Keep a record and add up the points at the end of the 7 days. 

One Very Important Point (OVIP):

Would You Dare?

Feng Huang Town (凤凰古镇 aka Phoenix Old Town) @ Hunan (湖南), China (中国)

A quaint little town with over 200 buildings dated from the Ming and Qing dynasties; it is heavily promoted as the most beautiful old town in China.

 

I totally agree since it exudes a deep nostalgic charm without the capitalist commercialization typical of any tourist attraction; it was just so relaxing, strolling along the stone pavements and marveling at the splendid well-preserved architecture completed centuries ago.

Guess what the most important thing is?

It has not been totally invaded by the Caucasians! In my two days one night stay, I saw only one group of Caucasians and they were part of a tour group! Thank god! Without this group of ethnic group (I am totally not against Caucasians), prices were really economical.

It was so non-touristy when you can buy a piece of pork on the go (above) or see the locals washing their laundry by the riverside (below)!

To show how economical prices were; One Jin (500 grams) of Kiwi cost only RMB 3 (approximate 67 Singapore cents) while a haircut cost RMB 8 and a bowl of tofu cost RMB 2!

As I mentioned in my previous posting, the local delicacy in FengHuang is ginger sweet, which tasted really good with the non-teeth-stickiness of malt sugar, the slight crunch of sesame seeds and an obvious tinge of spiciness! Not chilli hot but ginger hot!

Out of the blue general knowledge question; anyone knows where Kiwi fruits originated from? Not New Zealand hor!! They originated from Southern China and they were HUGE (twice the size we usually have in Singapore)!!!!

That explained why there were so many Kiwi-related products; including dried kiwi fruits, kiwi juice etc. Other local delicacies include Hammer sweet, which tasted like a softer Gong Tng.

An old lady from the Tujia minority.. Or was she from the Miao minority?

Since this ancient town has a big ratio of population from the Miao and Tujia minorities, you can easily find Miao and Tujia cuisines. Wild life cuisine seemed to be rather popular there as well; I can find golden pheasant, rabbits, snakes and even prairie dogs! I din try any since all most of them were too adorable to be eaten. Plus, they looked so pitiful…

A pedestrian bridge connecting two sides of the town. Walk bravely like the man (circle)!

Back to the town, one of the highlights for this charming old town is when night falls and the purpose built lights illuminate the centuries-old buildings, portraying them in an entirely different dimension that looked fake yet serenely beautiful. I was, however, quite disappointed that only a small area participated in the light-up; was expecting at least 75% of the town or at least the whole stretch of the river.

Still, it is beautiful right?

Vacation N Work

The below diagram reflects exactly how i feel before, during and after my holiday in China.

I NEED TO WIN $1 MILLION!!

(hopefully in British Pounds) 

Detestable Ticks (on Dogs)!

The most detestable living thing in the whole world! It has created much irritation to our fur friends and disgust to us, the owners, the caretakers!!

My dear rubee had another bout of ticks infestation and i realised it the first night i arrived back from China. To illustrate how serious it was this time, i can find, at times, up to 3 ticks biting the same spot!!!

Immediately, another spot-on application for rubee (his last pipette was half a month ago)! I personally also believe that garlic can help to prevent ticks from the dog's body; not garlic powder or capsule, it must be raw diced garlic mixed to his normal cup of Science Diet Senior Small Bites dry food and a spoonful of canned food (any good brand).

Even with the above, it will take days, weeks or even months before the ticks are fully erdicated! Now i shall reveal the true elements for de-ticking a dog! Controverisal, debatable but this was accumulated from my 9 years experience of having Rubee, whom ticks, unfortunately, found quite attractive to.

1) Locate the tick(s) and pluck it out!!

2) Place it on a piece of tissue paper/newspaper

3) Cover the tick with an edge from the tissue paper/newspaper

4) Press the bulging spot where the tick is with your fingernails; press hard! It is recommendable to hear a soft 'plop' sound.

5) Uncover the tick and ensure firstly, it is no longer moving and secondly, blood has spurted out.

6) If you find the above revolting, you may buy a bottle of Spirits (also known as alcohol) from Guardian, pour some into an unused bowl and use a tweezer to yank out the tick. After which, dump the tick into the bowl. No squeezing needed! It will have a violent, tormenting death!

7) In addition to the point 1 to 6, please also use spot-on and garlic concurrently.

Happy Rubee after the De-ticking Session!

Meantime, i shall brace myself to find ticks crawling on the floor, on my furniture (bed, mattress etc) and the walls. Euuuuuuwwwww.........

Hunan Food (湖南美食)

It's always a good thing to explore the cuisine whenver we travel to another place outside of Singapore, even the MacDonald or KFC.

KFC in Changsha, Hunan, China

The food i had in Hunan was generally.... healthy. I had mainly non-meat dishes while i was there.

Why?

Because i find that their pork dishes had a really strong, raw porky taste (and really fatty), their chicken was usually soup based, which by the way, was way too oily though palatable (but bad for my weight!) and their fish had too much bones!! Not the big, thick needle sized bones but hair-thin choke-induced ones hor!! Please look below for the lunches and dinners i had.

I fared much better with Hunan snacks:

The Miao (minority tribe) fragrant spicy tofu, which added a certain warmth in the chilly weather. The dragon beard candy, unlike those in Singaopore, literally melts in your mouth.

The garlic candy was so tasty (beside garlic, sesame seeds and malt candy were used) i wondered why no one brings it to Singapore! It was one of the specialties in Feng Huang Old Town (凤凰古镇) and though the snack was now too commercialised, there were still a handful of stalls manufacturing it the traditional way; which is really labour intensive.

Though you can find some stalls selling 3 bags for RMB10, the quality is really not there (they use flour, chilli etc to lower the cost). Find the shop named Zhen Gan Zhang Shi (镇竿张氏), in existence since 1896! Just to warn you, it cost a high RMB25 a bag. Please disregard the fact it looked like wood chips (above)!!

We stumped into this delectable snack called Gao Cao Ba purely by coincidence when we reached this small town called Wang Village, 王村 (famously known as Furong Town, 芙蓉镇 due to a film that showed the ever first kiss on China screen lasting a minute plus plus). Anyway, it was drizzling and hungriness had seeped into our bones!! A steaming basket of this Gao Cao Ba proved too much for us to ignore any further!

At RMB1 a piece, it had a pretty rough greenish texture filled with peanuts and wrapped with a leaf that most of you should be familiar with. Tasted like a bigger peanut tangyuan, it was a throat warmer and hunger quencher for us.

Although i was not that suitable to Hunan food (yes, it was my fault, my problem!), there were 3 occasions the food was surprisingly palatable. I am going to spare the details (which will be very lengthy, I guaranteed) and provide only pictures (above)!

OH!! Almost forgot!! While i was dining at Feng Huang Old Town, there was a promotion on this meat sauce called Wild Boar Meat Sauce. A godsend from heaven, it made my meal much more scrumptious and bearable!

It was so good I bought two bottles back!!