Hiya ! 大家好！こんにちは！

08 October, 2009

Silk Road 0909

Weather was good in September, train journey was comfortable, hotel rooms were also nice and spacious. No complains on food either.
As the Singapore travel agent has good connection with the Chinese authorities there, the CEOs of Tourist Boards of Turpan 吐鲁番 and Urumqi 乌鲁木齐 hosted dinners for us even.
Urumqi was a surprise to me, I thought it is quite underdeveloped, but actually it is a modern city much better than JB (apology to my Malaysian friends, but it is the fact).
Overall, it was a good trip.

成都金沙博物馆

成都金沙博物馆-太阳神鸟金饰

五星旗下的面包新语

中国 KFC 的嫩牛五方肉嫩多汁，好吃！中国 KFC 还有北京鸭，虾堡和虾球。

成都机场

西安机场

西安的酒吧一条街- 德福街

好高兴看到西安的东方大酒店张挂布条欢迎我们。岂知后来重复见到此布条好几回。原来是新加坡华运旅行社自己挂的。

西安大雁塔

杨贵妃出浴的华清宫

秦始皇兵马俑

西安钟楼

兰州拉面

黄河真得是黄的。大桥就是黄河第一大桥。

黄河母亲塑像

长城西起嘉峪关东到上海关。这就是嘉峪关。

敦煌夜市。

兰州水车园

葡萄美酒夜光杯的夜光杯。

敦煌的鸣沙山

敦煌的月牙泉

敦煌的鸣沙山

敦煌的莫高窟

吐鲁番的火焰山

吐鲁番的葡萄

吐鲁番

吐鲁番餐馆

吐鲁番的交河故城

羊群- 导游说走路屁股上下摆动的是公的，屁股左右摆动的是母的。

现代化的乌鲁木齐市

乌鲁木齐旅游局

乌鲁木齐的酒吧一条街- 公园北路

乌鲁木齐南山牧场

天山天池

30 August, 2009

Inagiku 29.8.09

See the nude sushi girl behind ?
有没看到后面那寿司裸女？

Zoom in
放大

25 August, 2009

KL 0809 吉隆坡 0809

Petronas Twin Towers
吉隆坡双峰塔

Club near KLCC
KLCC 附近的酒吧

KLCC

24 August, 2009

Oh my God !

Extracts from PM's National Day Rally speech :

One side insists: 'I'm doing God's work.' The other side says: 'I'm doing my God's work.' Both sides say: 'I cannot compromise. These are absolute imperatives.' The result will be a clash between different religious groups which will tear us apart.

Aggressive preaching - proselytisation. You push your own religion on others, you cause nuisance and offence. We hear, from time to time, complaints about groups trying to convert very ill patients in our hospitals, who don't want to be converted, and who don't want to have the private difficult moments in their lives intruded upon.

Intolerance is another problem - not respecting the beliefs of others or not accommodating others who belong to different religions.

Sometimes we have parents from traditional religions whose children have converted. The parents have asked to be buried according to traditional rites and their children stay away from the funeral or the wake. It's very sad. From a traditional point of view, it's the ultimate unfilial act but it does happen occasionally.

The way the Government looked at one recent issue, AWARE:
what worried us was that this was an attempt by a religiously motivated group who shared a strong religious fervour to enter civil space, take over an NGO it disapproved of, and impose their agenda. It was bound to provoke a push back from groups that held the opposite view, which indeed happened vociferously and stridently.

how I felt :
whenever you tried to push your religion onto me, I felt very disturbed. Many would feel the same as I did. So, please don't force.

27 July, 2009

Thanks to SPH

NKF
There was feedback given to the relevant authorities but no action was taken until SPH revealed the unlawful practices of NKF. From there investigations showed more charitable organisations involved in malpractices of the public donated money including the recent modern monk's case. Thanks to SPH.

Brookes Business School
Relevant authority was informed 2 years ago of Brookes Business School giving out fake degree but it was lightly dealt with until The Straits Times reported the case recently. Thanks to SPH again.
It was also reported that Brookes did not purchase full insurance for their students and did not handout the policies to them.
I checked with my friend who is studying in a private school here. She too did not receive the policy from her school.
I wonder how many more private schools are doing this ? can the relevant authorities carry out a thorough check on our private schools like what it was done to the charitable organisations ?

24 July, 2009

Temasek Holdings' Unresolved Strategic Differences

I wrote in February in my blog I was so glad to learn that our PM's wife, Ho Ching would leave Temasek Holdings from 1 Oct 2009 and Mr Goodyear would take over her place as the new CEO.
No reason was given for her intended departure but later I learned that she had lost S$58 billions of our money away. I wondered how much did she get in her bonus for making such a huge loss of our money ? I wrote to ask but got no reply.
Then 2 days ago Temasek Holdings gave a shocking announcement that Mr Goodyear would not take over Ms Ho Ching place and she would continue her CEO post after Oct 2009.
Reason given for Mr Goodyear's shock exit was 'Unresolved strategic differences'.
As the CEO-designate, I wounder who dared to have differences with him ? surely it has to be someone on par or above him, who can heshe be ?
So family business continues in Singapore. This is not nepotism but just that others outside the family are still not good enough.

13 July, 2009

Hokkaido n Tokyo - 28 June to 7 July 2009 北海道加东京 - 零九年七月

Went with Chan Brothers to Hokkaido in a group of 30.
I had been to Hokkaido but it was in the winter during Sapporo Snow Festival in Feb 1995.
This time it was in the summer. Weather was good at max 28°C.
Though Lavender was still not fully blossomed yet, we managed to see its beauty.
Hotels were good especially those Japanese style ryokan provided good hot spring bath and good traditional Japanese meal.
I really enjoyed the food in this trip. Kobe beef, Hokkaido crab, Otoro, Sushi, Hokkaido Ramen and etc.
Not much to shop in Hokkaido but we did well in Tokyo.
We extended our trip in Tokyo for 4 days 3 nights. Stayed in Sunroute Shinjuku. It was just opposite the South Gate of Shinjuku JR station, very convenient.
We arrived in Tokyo on Saturday morning. Started shopping immediately upon arrival. Shinjuku, Harajuku and Shibuya were packed with shoppers on Saturday and Sunday.
Also had a hair cut in Harajuku.
It was a great trip.