Libresse

I cannot believe that I had just gotten a phone call from a celebrity! I almost jumped when my phone rang and upon picking it up, to hear that it was the bubbly, chubby, multi-talented Adibah Noor on the other side of the phone calling me to actually seek my opinion that will decide her fate.  

I suddenly felt so important. *ahem* But now, you can also help to decide their fate and have Adibah Noor (or even Yuna or Pam and Van) calling you this very minute seeking your opinion as well. All you have to do is just watch the Libresse TV commercials. With more and more tv commercials becoming stale these days, this one is surely a very refreshing twist. Seriously, I had so much fun watching through all the commercials and even playing roles in them. The surprised at the end of the commercials really did amazed and impressed me. These commercials are not the usual direct ones. These are the types that will get you thinking a little and I think it's really creative for Libresse to come up with the 1st of its kind in our country, the live interactive web and mobile experience type of commercials. You all should really go watch the commercials (click here) now too and have fun being part of it and receive calls from the local celebrities.

After watching the commercials, I'm quite tempted to actually try out the Libresse sanitary products. We should always be adventurous and not afraid to try out new things because if we never try, we'll never know if we'll ever like a product, no? And Libresse is just the right brand that resonates with being adventurous and bold in experimenting with new things. I always like to experiment with varieties to know which the one that I truly like.

Their range of sanitary products are the only ones design with the concept of 'Absorption is Nothing without Fit', which simply means that their pads are design to anatomically fit our body supported by the secure fit design and deep flow channels. How cool. One of the things we girls hate when having period is leakage and the discomfort due to unfitting pads. All we want is a pad that can deliver both security and comfort keeping us confidence even during heavy flows.

With the secure fit design, the pad is design in a way to conform to our anatomy while the deep flow channels are meant to minimize leakage.

Libresse panty liners comes with secure fit design too.

I guess it will feel like almost not wearing any since they are so thin.

To find out more about Libresse, their activities, their goodies, their giveaways (they are giving away free panty liners currently) and yes, to be part of their one-of-a-kind commercials, please visit Libresse homepage or their facebook page. :)

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Thank You

About a week ago, I decided to start a fund to collect donation for the recent Japan earthquake and tsunami vicitms among my batchmates simply because unity is strength. There's only so much that I alone can donate, so I decided to ask around and see if I could gather more for the vicitms as I know some of my friends are also interested to offer help but just do not know how to.

So after a week of collection, we managed to collect a total of RM 60 (about 1610 yen) for the victims. I had donated the money collected to the Malaysian Red Crescent Society which will channel the money to the Japanese Red Cross and use them for the disaster relief effort in Japan. I felt so proud of all of you who had donated without thinking twice. Every single cent certainly makes a difference no matter how much or how little it is. I really like to say a huge THANK YOU to all my friends who had donated. I'm sure your generosity would be of help to the victims.  Once again, thank you to all who had contributed. :)

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Why Do Medicine?

I can almost see the finishing line now. That line that was so far away 5 years ago but now with every passing day, the silhoutte of the line becomes distintively clearer. Strangely, it felt just like yesterday that I was sitting face to face, one on one with the then dean of the medical school for my interview. When he finally shook my hand to welcome me to medical school, he threw in a word of advise, 'It's gonna be a long marathon. You better start building your stamina.'

Now, I have been running this marathon for almost 5 years. This may be just the first part of the marathon (in the medical profession) but surely it is one of the longest and most tiresome marathon that I have run so far. It started with a sprint but now every step felt heavier than before. I'm excited yet afraid. It's so near yet felt so far now. This run has been nothing short of challenges. It is not just a run that physically challenges but also one that is emotionally challenging. This running track is fill with countless hurdles, some taller than the rest. Some so tall I fell so many times just trying to cross over them while some seems to have spikes it's so painful crossing them.

Of late, I have been thinking, why is it that most straight A's students in SPM like to pick medicine as their first choice when applying for JPA? Im quite sure out of the 9000+ students who achieved straight A's in the recent SPM, about 50% of them are gonna pick medicine as their first choice in their JPA scholarship application form. I had been through that phase before, eagerly circling medicine as my top choice thinking straight A's (with pretty good extra-curricular achievements to add) would definitely get me a place in medicine with the JPA scholarship. I'm not trying to blow my own trumpet here but it's necessary for me to mention it to continue my next point. Like a lot of people hoping to get the JPA, I pushed myself through all those extra-curricular activities in school hoping that will gives me the extra advantage when applying for scholarship. But I was wrong. I was disappointed because in the end I didn't get the scholarship. The straight A's does not matter because in the end it's not about the A's. After much thinking, I guessed one of the factor must be because it is really competitive to get a place in medicine under JPA simply due to the fact that if 9000 people scored straight A's, at least 4500 will pick medicine and out of that 4500, the government will only choose like maybe 1000 students to sponsor. So, where do you stand among that 4500?

Well, if you are one of those that is planning to do medicine (whether you scored straight A's anot) despite knowing how competitive it is going to be, the question is WHY? WHY DO YOU WANT TO DO MEDICINE?

Seriously, I think a lot of people don't really know why they want to do medicine. They just simply jump onto the medical bandwagon simply because they can (or so they thought). The other common reasons are like because it is prestigious, wealth, stability, family pressure, drama influences or the ones most commonly heard 'because I got passion and I want to help people'. Honestly imho, 'want to help people' is not a reason at all because any occupation also can help people, not necessary only doctors.

Well, if you are going into medicine because you think medicine is a prestigious course and career, you might want to rethink your options. It might seems like you are at the top of the food chain in medical school but in reality, you are at the bottom of the food chain once you graduate. If you are seeking glamour from being a doctor, you are going into the wrong field my friend. Even a blogger can be more glam than a doctor these days.

If wealth is your reason, you are once again wrong my friend. Those stories you hear of doctors driving 5 series BMWs and stays in huge houses with their own private pools are long gone. To achieve that kind of level of wealth, you have to at least be a very famous specialist or by the time you can afford all of that, you are probably all greyed and wrinkled. With the surge of doctors these days, it's going to become very competitive in the medical field. GPs don't earn as much as they do in the past anymore. And if you become a specialist, you will then have to compete with all the other specialist to be the best, else you'll be stuck forever earning very little. And do you know that junior doctors aka HOs in Malaysia are only paid something like RM 4-8 per hour? (minus locum) Junior doctors have long working hours, needing to work up to 48 hours straight sometimes and in certain hospitals without weekends off, so their pay certainly do not do them justice. So go be a businessman, entrepreneur or politician if you want a lot of money fast and young.

Some might claim that a doctor is the most stable job because the world constantly need doctors. But sadly, that is only true in the past. In case you haven't been noticing it in the papers or on the internet, there have been alot of predictions that there will be a surplus of doctors by 2015. And that means doctors can be jobless anytime in future.

Sadly, quite a lot of people are also in medicine due to family pressure. Parents who force their children to take medicine to relive their lost dreams without realizing what they are getting their children into. Sometimes this can be extremely tricky. I know, how can we say no to our parents especially if like you are their only child or their only hope. I have friends whose parents had sold off their entire possessions just to put them through medical school simply because it's their dream to have a child that is a doctor graduate. Sad but true and still happening. If you are being forced into doing medicine and have no interest at all, it's better you let them know now than to suffer later. It's tough but it's time parents know doctor's life is not a bed of roses anymore.

I find this reason a bit hilarious but who knows, some people might want to do medicine because of drama influences like ER, Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, House or even CSI (for Forensics)? After all, those dramas make doctors look quite glam and seems a pretty easy and exciting job. But time to burst the bubbles. In real life, or at least in Malaysia, being a doctor is nothing like they appears to be on tv. Seriously the stress that you face even as medical students is enough to make you age ten years faster. Whats more during housemanship. The sleep and rest deprivation alone is enough to make you age 20 years faster. This might be nothing for guys but for girls, you might want to be mentally prepared on this. With each exam, I can feel myself growing fatter (stress-induced eating), more wrinkles showing and eyebags revealing, especially so during my last profesional exam, I think I had really aged 10 years in advance. I never really had eyebags, dark circles or pimples until I went into medical school.

Lastly, if you so claim that it's your passion to be a doctor because you want to save lives, perhaps you want to ask yourself this 1st. Are you willing to serve in rural areas? Not just district hospitals although even that also some people are already complaining but real rural areas? Places where it is not accesible by public transportations or land transports. Places where you need to walk through jungles and is only accesible by boats. Places where you even need to wade through rivers just to reach your destination. Places that have no internet; dont dream about facebook or blog or twitter. Places where you should be thankful if you dont get malaria or dengue or eaten by crocodiles while serving there. Yes, believe it or not there are still such places in Malaysia and in fact my bro will be going into one of these places in a few months, hence thats how I know that such places exist in real. So if it's really your passion, then please don't whine, complain or appeal (or worse some will use their "cable" to get them forever not posted to such areas) if you ever get posted to places like that. Remember this, anyone can fall sick. Not just the city people. People in the rural area falls sick too and they too, need the doctors help more so than the city people in fact.

Of course, lets not forget the sacrifices you have to make as a medical undergraduate and a doctor eventually. This might be a bigger problem for those outgoing and happening ones than those who study all the time anyway. It's not that you have to totally give up your life and convert into a total nerd. You can still have a life, in fact I never thought my life have gotten any less exciting as a medical undergrad but to a certain extend, sacrifices are necessary. You can still be in a relationship, have fun, travel, blog etc as long as you know how to balance and handle your time. But of course, having an incredible amount of stuff to study also means that you will definitely have to cut down on partying and fun time. And in my case, it means saying no to many many events, modeling, advertorials (chances to earn some extra cash) and even a chance to be an Olympic torch bearer for the Malaysia leg. On a more serious note, sacrifices here is more to really sacrificing sleep and family time.

Depressing much? You haven't hear the worse yet I promise you. I seriously recommend that if you are still interested to be a doctor or is still being force into being one, you should read more here and here first. I think its only fair if you know what you are really getting yourself into before you cluelessly jump onto the bandwagon. Besides, even if you scored academically well, that doesnt mean you will be a good doctor, so dont feel oblige to do medicine just because you scored straight A's. We have seen too many people who are apparently very highly educated but talks and acts as if they have an empty brain. I hope you are clearer now of whats install ahead of you when you finally decide to circle off medicine as your first choice in the application form. But whatever your reason is, I hope you end up liking medicine and still do the best for your patients. Good luck doctors hopeful. :)

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Crack Nail Polish

I really wanna thanks my mum for introducing this interesting nail polish to me. Seriously, sometimes I feel that even my mum is more up to date on fashion compared to me. I was getting bored of my usual nail polish colors and was telling mum about some new colors that I'm planning to get and that's when she went like, 'Get the crack nail polish. It's the latest thing now.'

I always love it when there's something new to experiment with. Yeah, so this crack nail polish is actually similar to OPI Katy Perry shatter nail polish. I don't know where you can find them elsewhere but I found mine at a mall back in JB. At first look, the nail polish appears just as any other nail polish. But the magic prevails once they dry, creating the crack/ shatter effect on the nails! Really interesting. I have been playing with it for quite a while and it is really so simple and fun. Don't need any complicated steps or specified tools. All you need is some time and patience.  ♥ :)

My crack polish is from Korea though not the OPI one. They also come in a variety of other colors like orange, yellow, black, red and green.

Ta-da! The end product. *sorry this is my 1st attempt hence look a bit cacat*

But after few attempts, I learn that we shouldn't coat them too thick and they will produce the desire effect. I had included a simple tutorial on how to apply the crack new polish. Just some really simple steps and reminders to take note of. Hope you guys enjoy them. :)

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Tokyo, My Most Favourite City

I had been to Tokyo (click to read previous posts on Tokyo), Japan three years ago in 2008 for a conference and Tokyo certainly top the list of my favourite city so far. If there's such a word as most favourite, Tokyo is my most favourite city in this world. I agree there are many more cities and countries to be explore but till then, Tokyo is my no.1. For a start, they are definitely practicing more go green than our country. Aside from the obvious facts that they recycle all their rubbish by having a recycle bin in every home, cycles, car pool and uses their public transport more and has tax incentives for buying hybrid and electrical cars, I went to Tokyo during the summer and it was really hot. Like 31 or 32 degrees everyday. I believe a lot of you dont know this but Japan (Tokyo) has a policy that all the airconditoners have to be maintain at 26 degrees and above, ideally at 28 degrees. Yes, so even though they have aircons in their hostels, hotels, restaurants, shopping malls, office, home, hospital, uni, practically anywhere, they maintain it at a 26-28 degrees, just enough to provide a cooler environment that the scorching heat outdoors.

Some of us were practically sweating even though we were eating at air-conditioned restaurants, walking in air-conditioned malls etc. The reason behind this policy is because they found out that at higher temperatures, the aircons does not emit as much carbon dioxide as they do at lower temperatures, hence it'll be able to reduce global warming. Global warming and climate changes does not come from development alone. It comes from the lack of practice of environmental friendly measures at all time.

The Tokyo tower

Tokyo City

Tokyo is like a gigantic melting pot of past, present and future. They seems to have absolutely everything. There's nothing that you cant find in Japan. From neon lights boards to electronics to vending machines that has nuggets and fried chickens to fashion to super huge flagship stores to comics and animes to some of the cutest and quirkiest stuff on earth, I'm totally impressed. Not forgetting their advancement in technology from singing toilet to automated taxi doors, automated hand-wash-dryer tap, robots and all the latest gadgets that left my jaw dropping in awe. But at the same time, amidst all of these futuristic advancement and their fast pace life, Tokyo still maintain their traditional past rich in history and culture.

One of my culture shock would be having my share of experience showering in a public bath, a female one of course. Nonetheless, the notion of having to be only in my birthday suit with other girls that I don't know was quite an intimidating one. My first shower was with this HK girl and because we were both so shy we decided to take a corner of the bathroom each and face the wall to shower. It was very awkward initially but it surprised me at the same time how some other girls are not shy about it at all which makes things much less awkward I guess. Soon we were sitting down chatting while showering. Yes there are stools for us to sit and shower. Of course we still dont purposely stared at each other if you know what I mean. And telling yourself that it's all anatomy surely helps to adapt to the culture sooner.

Another noteworthy thing about Japan would be their public transportation system, the metro more specifically. Despite having one of the most complicated metro system in this world (so complicated that people say if you never got lost while taking their metro, you have never truly been to Japan), I really salute their efficiency and punctuality. If their train is scheduled to arrive at 5.05am, the train will be there sharp at 5.05am. And their trains are so clean and moves so much faster than our lrt.

The Tokyo Hospital

The traditional part of Tokyo, Asakusa

Doraemon candies.

This is the birthplace of some of the world famous cartoon characters like Doraemon, Hello Kitty and Pokemon, superheroes like Ultraman, animes and comics. These cartoons, animes and comics certainly brought back many childhood memories so it was like reliving the childhood seeing all these characters candies. I still remember having to read the Malay version of Doraemon and Detective Conan just because I cannot read Chinese. -.-"

Hello Kitty candies.

Boobs jelly. Seriously.

I love these transparent umbrellas a lot. That was then when transparent umbrellas were still not available in Malaysia.

Yukata, their summer kimono

Tokyo Disneyland. I was so sad when I heard initially that they are affected by the tsunami.

The famous Disney's castle

Ginza

The BEST ever green tea and red bean ice cream I have ever eaten.

The freshest ever salmon and tuna sashimi. 

Another reason why Tokyo is my no.1 is because of the food. Japanese cuisine and Mos Burger is one of my most favourite food so being in the land surrounded by authentic Mos Burger, ramen, udon, sushis, sashimis and green tea was practically like being in 7th heaven. The green tea ice cream with red bean is the best green tea ice cream I have ever eaten in my entire life. Cannot be beaten by any local ones here even the more expensive ones. The one there is just too authentic. And the sashimis from Tsukiji is the bestest of the bestest. If you are afraid of the fishy smell of sashimi, then you have to try the one at Tsukiji. They are the most unfishy sashimi ever.

Huge tuna like this are their daily catch.

I look kinda ugly here but whatever. The cameraman snapped at the wrong moment when I was half closing my eyes. But the stars here are those peaches! Omg, I have been craving for them ever since I got back from Japan. Why Malaysia got no peaches? I dont mean the can ones, these are fresh peaches. So juicy and sweet. I love peaches.

Harajuku.. I miss the strawberry cheesecake crepe and shopping there. :(

After fumbling unknowingly with the 100% Japanese speaking and Japanese language photo sticker machine, we miraculously managed to have our photo sticker done.

Above all, the reason that puts Tokyo no.1 on my list of favourite city is the people. I'm totally pawned by their discipline, helpfulness and honesty. On our last night in Tokyo, it was also the beginning of the Summer celebration in Japan. It was quite a big celebration in Japan hence in conjunction with that, they had like an hour of fireworks show to mark the beginning of the festival. On that night itself, I think more than 10000 of Japanese youth mainly all clad in yukata and jin bei gathered at Ichikawa to watch the fireworks. I love fireworks so I totally enjoyed the one hour show. The amazing part was actually after the show had ended. 

After the show had ended, everyone headed towards the train station and almost immediately, the Japanese just queued themselves in lines, in rows while waiting for the train to come. They dont even need the station warden to blow the whistle or to order them to queue. It was just automatic. Like that's what they do every single day. And imagine ten of thousands of youth at the train station and all of them just queued up! Those that dont fit into the queue just patiently waited at the stairs until the first batch of people went into the train and then they moved up to form the next new row. And when the train comes fully packed, they just wait for all the people to come out from the train before entering. No pushing. So discipline can.

Thanks Waka too for posting back my package to me from Tokyo.

On our 2nd last day in Tokyo, we were moving from Shibuya (where we stayed the whole time) to Narita so we were lugging our luggages and all in and out of the train. What happen was, I actually left behind one of my hand carry package in the train when I got off at our destination. And I only came to realized that after the train door had closed and sped off. I was so devastated at that time as I watched the train sped off with my package in them. That package had meant a lot to me because it was the package that contained ALL of my souvenirs from Japan. It was all the souvenirs that I had managed to buy during those limited shopping trips during our conference and also from Tokyo Disneyland. Souvenirs that I had bought for everyone back home. And it was gone all because I was careless and forgetful. I couldn't possibly rebuy all of them again in one day too even if I had wanted to. That kinda feeling was totally devastating that I cant help but broke down crying.

After reporting to the lost and found department at the train station, I was still grimmed because all of them can only speak Japanese with super minimal English and I can only speak super minimal Japanese which wasn't exactly helpful. They gave me a number to call, which was also in Japanese and asked me to check back with them from time to time if they had found my package. The number was an operator number fully in Japanese language too so there was no way I could communicate with them. Thankfully, most of the Japanese are very friendly and helpful people. From time to time I randomly approached random people who can understand some English to help me make those calls to check on the status of my package and all of them willingly helped.

You cannot imagined the joy, gratitude and happiness I felt the next morning when they called to the train station and they said they had found my package. It was the best news I had heard during my entire stay in Japan and the news came aptly before I left for the airport to fly back to Malaysia. Another of my friend also left his DSLR worth RM 3000+ in the train the day before and it was also found and returned to him. Such is the honesty of the Japanaese that got me really really impressed. I'll definitely want to go back to Tokyo and Japan again simply because there's still so much left to be explore and experience.

The news of the earthquake and tsunami had sadden me pretty much. It must be very devastating to be hit by one of the worst earthquake in history. Seeing the aftermath pictures, the death toll rising day by day and more news about lost homes and family is simply upsetting. I figured besides offering our prayers to Japan, they definitely need alot of aid in terms of medical supplies, food, clothes, home etc so the best way we can help them is also by taking action. I really wish I can actually abandon classes here and be part of the relief team instead. But since that's not quite possible, for now the only thing I can do is to offer donations. Well, if you will like to donate too but do not know how yet, one way is through here (click).

Besides, I think with so much news ongoing about the nuclear plant explosion, a lot of people are very concern of radiation and stuff and I had seen alot of tweets and RTs about acid rain and applying iodine and stuff. Well, I guess we all just want some reliable info so here's a site (click here) to get more reliable links and info regarding the quake,tsunami, how to help and nuclear plant.

I will end my post with a video of the singing toilet I saw in Japan. Really, the toilet sings automatically when you approaches it providing soothing music while your bowel works. Meantime, let's continue to #prayforjapan and offer aids to them as we can. I know Japan will be able to recover and rise strong again from this. :)

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What Are Words

I have been listening to this song over and over again on replay tonight. Such an emotional song to wrap up an emotional day. My heart goes out to all the victims of the quakes and tsunami in Japan. Such horror when I saw the first tweet bout the quake. I refused to believe it at first because I was just talking about revisiting Tokyo the night before with Human Torch and today this devastating disaster occured. Tsunami follows around other countries in the Pacific ring and my heart goes all out equally to all those affected whether they are in Indonesia, Hawaii or California.

Back to the song, I think it is a very beautiful song indeed especially the lyrics. I can somehow feel myself relating to this song. I just kept thinking of what if it was me and Human Torch in their situation instead. I know I'm thinking too much but then again, whats certain in life isnt that? Reading and watching the love of Chris for his fiancee moves me to tears. I fell in love with this song the first time I heard it on radio and I'm even more madly in love with it right now. It's really heartwarming to hear of such strong love and to know of such courage and faithfulness a guy have. Seriously I think Chris Medina (and all the guys who are like him out there) is simply too amazing. FTW definitely. :)

Anywhere you are, I am near
Anywhere you go, I'll be there
Anytime you whisper my name, you'll see
How every single promise I keep
Cuz what kind of guy would I be
If I was to leave when you need me most

What are words
If you really don't mean them
When you say them
What are words
If they're only for good times
Then they don't
When it's love
Yeah, you say them out loud
Those words, They never go away
They live on, even when we're gone

And I know an angel was sent just for me
And I know I'm meant to be where I am
And I'm gonna be
Standing right beside her tonight

And I'm gonna be by your side
I would never leave when she needs me most

What are words
If you really don't mean them
When you say them
What are words
If they're only for good times
Then they don't
When it's love
Yeah, you say them out loud
Those words, They never go away
They live on, even when we're gone

Anywhere you are, I am near
Anywhere you go, I'll be there
And I'm gonna be here forever more
Every single promise I keep
Cuz what kind of guy would I be
If I was to leave when you need me most

I'm forever keeping my angel close.

-Chris Medina, What are Words-

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Guangzhou Shopping Steals

Finally it's end of the week. The day I was looking forward to the most the whole week. I woke up every single morning wishing it was Thursday already and finally TGIT! (Thank God it's Thursday) The whole week had felt so long, I figured days felt longer when it's filled with long and seemingly never ending hours of lectures, bed side teachings and assignments. I know 4 more weeks is going to fly by like nobody's business, good and bad in a sense. A huge part of me actually didn't want the 4 weeks to pass so quickly, but another part can't wait for the end of the Paediatric rotation. Oh well, for now I'm just going to enjoy every single second of my weekend and update this little bloggie of mine.

The best part of my entire trip to Guangzhou was being able to spend some quality time with mum. The experience was definitely something that was unmeasurable to any amount of money - all the exploration, the laughter, the rants, the shopping madness, the food venture. The next best thing would of course be the shopping. I was saving for my trip hence restricting myself from shopping for at least 3 months before my trip and it was all worth it!! To be honest, it was really quite a torture having to fight back temptations to shop for 3 whole months especially when I came across anything nice or when my heart screamed retail therapy needed. Thank goodness Guangzhou did not disappoint me as a shopping heaven. I would had been so sad if Guangzhou turns out to be a bad place for shopping after all those months of fighting and resisting temptations. I know most people will only think of Bangkok and Hong Kong as shopping destinations but seriously I think Guangzhou is an excellent place for shopping too. Especially when they have all the latest fashion from Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan sold at much lower prices. Dont you just love shopping when everything is cheap? I certainly do!

Unfortunately it was the winter month when I went, so they were mainly selling winter wear. I think I would had bought at least thrice the amount had it been summer or spring. Having said that, however, I still shop till I literally broke even though I honestly didn't bought much stuff. Like seriously I spent every single ren min bi I had in Guangzhou perhaps only bringing home like 1 ren min bi at the end of the 4 days 3 nights. ^.^ Seriously regretted not bringing more money and the kalung-guni bag (so can shop more conveniently hehe). So, other than those Asian Game mascots and bling glasses, here are the rest of my steals. :)

#1- Knitted hat. Perfect for cold weather but too hot for outdoor Malaysia. Only like RM 10 or something.

#2- Skinny belts. RM 12 for both.

#3- Nordic dress. RM 30.

#4- Winter coat with faux fur. RM 80 - RM 100. There's no winter in Malaysia but there's never one too many for future trips to winter places.

#5- Marshmallow winter jacket - RM 50 or RM 60.

#6- Faux fur vest. RM 30

#7- Hand sewn cheongsam. RM 36. Good quality one too.

#8- Another cheongsam. Also RM 36. Wore this for CNY. (click here)

#9 - Turtleneck cardi - RM30.

#10 - Boyfriend shirt. RM 15.

#11 - Jeggings. RM 15 for both.

#12- Head scarf. RM 5 or something.

#13 - Bow hair clips. RM 12 for both. I know one local blogshop that sells this for RM 12-RM 15 each.

#14- Hand sewn shoe. Like how rare isn't that to get hand sewn shoes these days. And I got this pair for only like RM 20.

#15- Another pair of hand sewn shoe. Also RM 20.

#16- Ankle bootie for only RM 60.

#17- Guangzhou local product - Wanglaoji tea which is a kind of herbal tea that tasted really good. I'm not much of a herbal tea fan but this is good. Like the only food product we bought home.

That's about it. See, very little stuff only right? I bought mainly apparels, not much of handbags or accessories because there's not much accessories at where I shopped (mainly Up Down Nine Street). The locals say there's another place to go to look for cheap accessories. And another if you want to look for cheap handbags. And another to look for cheap paintings. And another to look for cheap electronic products. And another to look for local foodstuff. Guangzhou is like so super duper huge they have all the different places that specially sells different stuff. There's still so many more places to shop but we could only cover so many places in that few days. Truthfully,4 days and 3 nights were way too short for shopping. Besides we were rushing for time so I couldn't bought much too.

I'm still thinking of the many boots that I ended up not buying and the ponchos and winter coats. Yes even after so many months. It's a sign that I had really wanted them. But too late now. *sadness* Guangzhou had left me with a pretty good impression. The people there are generally very friendly and we make quite a lot of new friends during our trip there. Language wasnt much of a problem because we can all speak Mandarin instead of Cantonese. It's like we wanted to keep in touch but the sad thing was they got no MSN or facebook and I got no QQ or their fb equivalent. Safety wise, I think Guangzhou security was pretty good. Perhaps its because of the Asian Games, but as I mentioned previously, there's a lot of police and public security officers roaming the street so we felt quite safe walking around. Furthermore, Guangzhou has a ban on motorcycles, so theres no need to worry so much for snatch thieves. And that certainly means less air and noise pollution as well. Besides China's Go Green campaign is definitely something applaudable too.

I'm definitely tempted to go back for another round of shop till I drop and to try out the many more mouth watering delicacies. Ah well, till then, I'm just gonna continue missing and dreaming about shopping in Guangzhou. :)

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Beijing Lu

I wish time could just freeze right now. The seconds hand of the clock is ticking way too fast and tomorrow we will be starting our final rotation already. In fact it will be my very last rotation as a medical student. And to top it all, it is not one that I'm particularly looking forward to. It's known to be the worst rotation so far and as optimistic as I tried to be, seeing the timetable last week is enough to send me into my first episode of brain death.

It's time like this when I think of holidays, where memories of holidays will cheer me up and resuscitate my dying neurons. I know my travelogue are way way way behind time. I'm trying to catch up and finish blogging about them but I had a feeling it's gonna take another few more months with all the crazy hectic schedule and *horror music pls* final exam coming up. So I hope all of you wont mind my super delayed travelogues and enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy sharing them. I like to finish off my travelogue for Guangzhou first, so tonight I'm gna blogged about the last place mum and I went in Guangzhou last November.

*to refresh memories, click here* So after having our McD, we decided to leave Gangding and moved on to somewhere else and the next thing we knew, we were at Tianhe Plaza (recommended by the hotel manager). Tianhe Plaza is seriously like our Pavilion. Honestly, I was quite disappointed when I stepped into Tianhe Plaza and realized it's quite a posh shopping mall. Not a good place for shopping if you ask me because the purpose of shopping while traveling is to buy things that cannot be found back in your home country or it has to be cheaper than in your home country right? So to step into a shopping mall only to find familiar brands and selling at same or even more expensive prices than Malaysia is like having my shopping dreams shattered.

Gold medal for being the no.1 procrastinator. Or the no.1 super delayed travelogue blogger.  :p

I think mum could sense my disappointment so she sweetly suggested that we looked for a nice place to chill and enjoy desserts instead of rushing around shopping. So we found this dessert corner (cant remember the name now) inside the mall and literally sat the whole afternoon there chilling and people watching which is actually one of the things I enjoy doing a lot when traveling (given enough time).

It's always enjoyable to watch how the locals behave and as we sat there, I realized the people who were seated around us and eating are definitely of a different class and level to those that we met yesterday at Up Down Nine Street. Those shoppers here are definitely of the richer and upper class of Guangzhou and it's obvious from the way they dress, talk and carry themselves. There was an adolescent couple that was sitting in front of me and it's quite interesting also to see how adolescent couple in China behave in comparison to adolescent couple here.

A huge bowl of associated fruits dessert to satisfy our dehydrating body. It costs about 36 renminbi. (RM 18)

They gave us milk to add on to the fruits but I personally like my fruits without milk. I was wearing this nordic dress that I super ♥ .

We did walked around a bit in the mall and this particular boutique was selling everything nordic! Even the leg warmers around the boots also in nordic. (that was when nordic was so in and Malaysia still has like super limited nordic stuff.. consequence of delayed update. Whats fashionable is probably not even fashionable anymore.tsk tsk)

After spending some good time having dessert, I decided to give it one last shot at shopping. I was desperate to look for the Asian Game mascot plush toys, so we found ourselves on the metro once again heading to Beijing Lu this time. I think Guangzhou people either has super feet, are all sprinters or they just like to bluff us about distance. To get to Beijing Lu, the nearest metro station is Gongyuanqian and according to the locals, it is only a 5-10 minutes walk away. But according to our legs and me was walking at moderate fast speed, it is about 15-20 minutes. I chose to belive my legs. Never believe the Guangzhou people time-distance estimation. Kena bluff twice already. (read here for the first time we got bluff)

Beijing Lu is another one stretch of street closed only for pedestrians, only thing is that it is way shorter than Up Down Nine Street with shops lining both side of the street mainly selling clothes from brands like Giordano, Bossini, Uniqlo (the clothes they sell are exactly the same as Uniqlo KL one), Anta Sports (their very popular and branded sportswear) and many other familiar brands that we can find back here in Malaysia. I think Beijing Lu is more famous among foreigners and the richer locals. I personally think Up Down Nine Street (Shangxiajiu Lu) is still the best place to shop in Guangzhou. I didn't bought much stuff there mainly because it was also night already but my happiest find would be the Asian Game mascots. Thank God I finally found them.

Had dinner at one of the many restaurants along the street. This is one whole bowl of pork shrimp dumplings. We had two bowls of this and we almost couldn't finished it.

My beloved mum who accompanied me shopping all the way. She's the best seriously. ♥

Very familiar pic, no? haha

We definitely had a very long day and we did a lot of walking mainly because everytime we asked, the locals will tell us that our destination are just a few mins walk which always turned out to be more than what they had told us. But on the bright side, we managed to cover more places on foot. Our feet are definitely the most amazing for bringing us around. Nonetheless, it was our last night in Guangzhou so all the walking was worth it to get the things we wanted and to explore a little more places. Well, my final post on Guangzhou (which Im really excited about) will be up next, so do stay tuned. :)

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