madrid, spain (aka where we spent a night on a rock) // early early 26th june 2007.

we missed the train to valencia. thus we spent a night on a strategically located rock somewhere between the prado and another big building not too far from the train station. oke maybe the rock was more of a granite pedestal yet unoccupied by a monument or statue. but in any case, for this mostly sleepless and particularly memorable night on a rock, we blame and thank mango sales, ourselves, and the super strict madrid train station. we arrived 15 minutes before departure time but they functioned like an airport with security check gantries and gate closing times and so we could see our train but we were not allowed to board it. haha it was a long night with accounting, paranoiding, postcardwriting, randomdancing, feelingcoldandhungry, fightingtokeepeyesopenandhandsonallbags, and wahlaoinghaha, but thank God we survived.

madrid, spain // 24th to 26th june 2007.

hun mentioned again today the giant half of a watermelon that we ate with two tiny red gelato spoons somewhere in italy and that reminded me that a retropost on this blog was really overdue. so here i am picking and posting again.










we nearly fainted from the scorching heat after we landed in madrid but we managed to make it to our first hostal, hostal miguel angel, albeit the major lack of lights going up the pitch dark stairs with our backpacks and two other girls lugging suitcases. we walked a fair bit despite barely sleeping that first day but madrid was actually nicer than expected (based on friends' reviews). we ate at a local bar-cafe thing standing up at the bar with all the power grandmas and some uncles and aunties and the occasional gentle grandpa, saw a museum and walked around a heckload and sat in plaza mayor. after talking to an elderly indian man we met at the hostal on the first night we discovered many other places we could go to on the second day and even did some strategic bus hopping after killing our feet walking everywhere the first day. because of what he told us, we got to check out the real madrid football stadium, jumped madly to grab on to sculptured bulls outside a bullfighting stadium, found some interesting architecture, ventured into a semi atas neighbourhood, found a patch of park-fountain-monument where there were actually more locals than tourists, and even dipped our feet in pools amidst trimmed hedge mazes in royal gardens and of course met many power grandmas along the way.

sheep and bear adventures : brussels-leuven, belgium // 23rd to early 24th june 2007.

in brussels we met up with zhijun who was then doing a one month stint in a supermarket outside of brussels and he brought us around and occasionally carried our bag(s) too. we did the necessary brussels then headed to leuven, a sort of university town away from brussels and it was quite a nice place. there was a street festival going on (seems like this was the start of many coincidental street parades/festivals/parties we would unexpectedly run into later during our great trip).

i remember staring at this little girl on her father's shoulders while we were in a crowd that was watching abit-too-young-for-their-moves(but who's to say nowadays right..) dancers on stage. even when i first started shooting some years ago, i had always been fascinated by people's backs and what that revealed or concealed about them if you'd look closely enough. sure, a head-on face shot of someone may be punchier or be much more direct sometimes but from time to time, or maybe alot of the time, i still like to keep looking on even when people turn away.

solo sheep sojourns : eindhoven, delft, amsterdam, den haag // 19th june 2007 to 23rd june 2007.

i left london on a surprisingly sunny afternoon and landed in a freshly rained on eindhoven in the evening. it was still sunny though and i quite enjoyed walking around despite having heard about it being a rather industrial little town. there i stayed a night at president's place before taking the train to hun's place in delft the next day.





hun the brownbear was amidst rushing for a submission when i arrived so after a quick but wonderful bike tour of delft in the evening i was pretty much free to and very much encouraged to make my own daytrips to amsterdam and den haag (the hague) in the next few days before we left delft together for our sheep and bear adventures.





amsterdam was confronting. shops and signs and people everywhere - you really don't know where to look and where to go. the weather left me drenched to the core too so that didn't help. i did make it to the van gogh museum on foot though and i really enjoyed it.

i didn't have much time in den haag so i pretty much just walked down the main street while nursing a major and chronic craving for soto ayam....and then i found soto ayam! i was really happy and even had chendol after that too. haha. little joys.





delft actually also reminded of lund quite a bit (except it had alot of canals), so it was heartwarming though a little heartachey too.

solo sheep sojourns : london // 12th june 2007 >> 19th june 2007.

i left lund to travel on 12th june. my first stop was london for a one week transition between the lundlife and the summer backpacking trip. many of my friends and some of my family work/live/play/study in london so it felt like a good place for a relaxed extended stopover before i met up with the brownbear in delft for our sheep and bear adventures in europe (mostly in the countries along the mediterranean)...





in that one week in london i stayed with maner, aida, olivia and met james and barbara (cousin and his wife) for lunch too.

and so, i was always living at friends' places (thanks thanks thanks you all!!) and went out with them sometimes but i spent a fair bit of time walking all over on my own too which was lonely at times yet mostly rather rejuvenating too. spent alot of time in museums, parks, flea markets and maybe a little too much time in the underground. felt like a worm after all that tube-taking from the first few days so i made it a point to walk more instead of taking the tube in the last few days.

sommarhus // 1st to 3rd june 2007

last weekend we were at johan's family's summer house somewhere in blekinge, above skane. no drinks, no laptop, no traffic, just alot of trees, assorted nature sounds, five portions of great company, four rare cocoa bean cards, three floating flowers, two beautiful lakes and one fish. goodstuff. i quite miss it already, unexpectedly.

the last party with the classmates at OG's last week was also quite heartwrenching! and thanks for the dear bracelet. will wear it almost everywhere i go!

the family is here with me now and i just cooked the usual sesame oil chicken and chinese veg dish for them...looking through the abandoned food cupboards for cooking stuff made me suddenly emotional. arhhh. i never knew onions could make me tear without even having to chop them first!! onions kept so carefully in an airtight container somemore!! haii.. i miss the midnight bakery..

but i will be oke.. i will survive the final days in lund!!

"where are u sheep??" answer part three - Stockholming // 28th to 30th may 2007

flying hun in skansen..

we were in stockholm for two days and the weather was wonky but the food was great. haha kudus hostel is the best siah!! looks like exchange has turned even a big guy like kudus into a proper market auntie haha cook and watch soap opera... oke oke but we were really thankful for him being a good host! on the last night in stockholm we met more nice people...first a lady from the presbyran (a convenience store) near kudus' home drove us all the way to central station at 1am in the morning because the metro had stop running and we had to catch the first train. the central station was still closed so we wondered and wandered around in the rainy cold for a while then finally went inside a 24 hour apoteket and the lady was nice enough to let us sit there quietly too as long as we didn't lie down and sleep heh. and so we survived! the parents and brother were in stockholm at the same time as us but time was too tight to meet up but no worries, just 5 days more before the chialets reunite in Lund!!

"where are u sheep??" answer part two - Saving Private Paul aka Rebel Tiger // 26th to 27th may 2007

hun the brownbear arrived to visit and we headed out to a cottage stay with other brave souls : paul "rebel tiger" ho, john, yvonna, weizhi, kellie, hanway and yang. i guess we all agreed that it was more a cottage madness adventure than a cottage stay... braved rain and muddy slopes and lighthouses that refuse to be found and bikes that are good only for one person and had one heck of a time in kullaberg and molle and later on in helsingborg too at the mysterious tree tunnel, favourite hangout spot of the rebel tiger..

saving private paul... the journey to molle from the cottage was madness enough already but the journey back was almost impossible cos we were all super tired and tompanging (ferrying) someone else on your bike is really much tougher than it looks. me and paul kept falling quite badly into the grass at the sides.. really shang hen lei lei ( injuries all over) mans....so in the end paul decided i should ride ahead first on my own, also so that i can pass the rest the key he was carrying. haha rather dramatically his bike helmet was in the basket so really macham saving private ryan.... when i reached the rest after at least 20 minutes of riding, we decided we must go back to get him and so off we went, me and john with paul's helmet still dramatically sitting in my bike basket haha.

and thus, we saved our dear private paul aka Rebel Tigerrrrr!! haha.

it was a real blessing in disguise (despite all the giant bruises and scratches) cos the light was really wonderful on the way back and we got to see that bit of the country just a wee bit more.

norwaynutshelling // 16th to 20th may 2007

and so we went, there and back again. tried out many modes of road, river and rail transport, tested out the ergonomics of the oslo train station tiles, ate weird fish balls in a can, saw man u lose to chelsea (simultaneously across oceans with my brother) while wondering what happened to prince william, tried some really tasty wild smoked salmon, saw little houses on a hill, climbed down that hill, and shunbian saw a heckload of stunning fjords along the way. beautiful and expensive norway.....haha i think once is all we can afford for now.

much work to do now. not many days left in lund too. :/

peiting arrives // 11th-14th + skånetripping // 13th may 2007.

wah i think i haven't been so tired after a submission, usually i would hibernate for a few days after but this time round, i immediately had someone visiting after the submission on the 10th so it was mad fun but super tiring days right after submission! 累 beyond belief sometimes until surreal siah. ( lei - tired ).

we did the around the sound pass thing on saturday and then went skåne tripping on sunday. extreme tiring but memorably enjoyable stuff.


sun screen printing


the tripping route as illustrated by johan the mostoftheway driver. haha eh i drove a wee bit too oke!

höganäs playtime // 28th april 2007

haha even though there was almost nothing to see cos everything was closed and we couldn't meet up with the guide of the walking tour we were supposed to join, we had much fun and madness with our own imaginary tourist attractions, observed friendly pets who ate toy monkeys and did some indepth research into the playgrounds of höganäs..

it's truly the company that makes or breaks a trip and this was definitely one fun and mad trip!

kiruna, in between 44 hours on the train.

it all started with an unexpected free bus ride from kiruna train station as the ice hotel transfer coach driver took us even though i think the coach was only meant for people who were going to stay at the ice hotel.. and we met a few other kind souls along our way in kiruna, more bus drivers who took us further than they had to, caring folks at the lappish huts and all.



so our first stop was the ice hotel which is pretty much a must-go place in kiruna and it didn't disappoint but we chose not to stay there cos of our tight budget and instead stayed in an igloo at the Ripan hotel place...even though i suspected that igloos weren't really quite swedish but it was mad cold fun anyways.



the igloo had this mysterious blue foam door. haha that's like one of our model-making materials in ID..



lappland felt really surreal...a cross between the hobbit shire and the elvish lands with little hobbit huts and vast dreamscapes surrounding.



we took a bit of a walk during our last morning in lappland and ended up helping to chase the reindeers back to their living areas.. super surreal. this is peiching venturing ahead into reindeer land.. and happy belated birthday peiching!!! am super sorry i didn't double check with your mum and hence missed it..arghs.



i was really taken by the sight of our magic reindeer amidst all the forest....really looked enchanted siah.



ultimately i would still rate it as a super good trip even though it was rough along the way with the -30 degrees temperatures and having to not sleep for two days after cos i had the puma presentation the day after we got back. we didn't get to see the northern lights and were quite disappointed but i guess we only had one chance to catch it so the chances were slim to begin with... maybe if there's still time i'll go over to Norway to find jo and stay a week to catch them lah, but i think it would be really nice if the IDiots on exchange could go to lappland together and stay in the hobbit huts. sure feel like happy hobbits haha.

the puma presentation went surprisingly well also, i am very glad for that cos i think it was quite undeserving cos i had been away the week that we were supposed to really work hard for it. thank God for that and for bringing us safely home from our kiruna trip too. more pictures from the trip can be found on my flickr page..

haha and i'm getting abit lazy about the uploading pictures and blogging... please prod me more if you really want to see more entries. and thanks for reading and caring. anddd happy new year! 新年快乐！！