..A World of Nonsense..

Strolling Chinatown

Bak was walking enthusiastically at 20km/h.
I had a hard time catching up just to get this picture.

Admire her courage to pose like this at the train station.

This was the original picture I requested.
These scribbles are chinese words!

Probably more than 15 years ago that I've been to Chinatown before CNY. The crowds are still there, the air is still filled with the CNY atmosphere but the stalls, are hopeless - most of them.

Streets and streets of stuffs selling the same things

- Taiwan's Muah Chee and 果冻
- Stalls selling manufactured tarts, egg rolls, biscuits, e.t.c

There's more appeal and nicer things you can find in typical fun fairs and Pasar Malams. I had just a vivid memory of Chinatown long ago and I wasn't sure if it's like that when I was younger.

Maybe I'm not aware of the right things or having the right state of mind when I'm there.

The Chinatown I remember

Bought a boatswain pipe from an Indian Shop and got it for $10 ($16 before bargain) because of the fact that the pipe's material is rubbish. It comes in silver mostly, and cost about $20 - $30. It ain't easy to find this kind of sailor's pipe around, and some of my colleagues actually had to order from outside.

A good example of a working pipe.

What's different from the one I bought is that the gun's end and the hole is too far apart. I couldn't let it make a sound in the beginning, probably due to the rust inhibitor oil inside. Fish managed to blow it and sound came out eventually.

Not that I know very well but it's still kinda hard to convince people who insist they are right on things and usage that they don't know well. I threw it away after that, anyways, since to me it's not working. I can't blow that hard for 7 - 12 secs. Each mistake will end me up with 1 weekend confinement in my training course.

And it amazes me that Chinatown is selling losers' stuffs like that and with attempts to rack up the prices so much. One malay salesman was even trying to make me buy his magical cream product - It can make your scars and marks on your skin go away with a few rubs each day for a certain period of time!

It smells like indian perfume. It costs only $10 and with this product, there is no need for plastic surgery.

There are also some eye-openers despite all that..

佛牙寺

Keith corrected what I was trying to describe the place - Majestic. The interior is grand, huge and really well designed. There are statues of I think thousands of different buddha sitting on the walls and one hundred dragon carvings in the ceiling. It was amazing - I thought temples are supposed to be smokey with incenses and offerings, but it was air-conditioned and modern. The whole place is sure well-maintained and expensive!

??? Plant. I don't know what it is.

Chinese New Year, it's the plants that got my interest this year. There are so many varieties with different meanings - I missed them all. Their meanings, their names and their uses, I really need to learn to know these things, or I'll be one of the broken links from the older generations to the next ones.

Chinese New Year, I forget a lot of things already, and yet there are actually so many more things that I can learn about.

Probably there's more to Chinatown that we didn't managed to see that day.

Chongz stepped on your garbage at 8:04 PM