the Chinese all know what this is about, going to the graveyards of our ancestors to clean their graves, give them offerings and pray..

it's an amazing thing the chinese culture, seeing that we have been a society since 5000 years ago.. the culture that we have developed, the respect for our elders and the dead..

it's festivals like these, that leads us back to our roots, to know who our ancestors are, to learn where we came from.

although i must say it's tiring, having to hike up a hill (before the break of dawn), at least i was spared the hard part of grave cleaning, since i'm a weak little female haha... it was good exercise though...

one thing which i'm curious about is the burning of offerings.. in most religions, burning is a way to purify...but it seems that for us, it also sends things down to hell for our dead relatives to use.... interesting right? how on earth did such an idea come up?

another thing that i noticed is that, our practises for our culture aren't really environmental friendly.. what with all the burning of stuff.. it's pollution.. i mean all the chinese in the world are doing it!! don't we have any alternatives i wonder... but oh well culture is culture... and i love oriental culture :p

but that's all, just went up to the graves, met my dad's cousins... (as well came from the same ancestor so naturally we would meet each other at the graves...)

it wasn't my first time going for ching bing.. but nevertheless, i still felt that it was an interesting event.

people grouping together.. socialising in a graveyard of all places.. haha.. but oh well.. guess that's just life. :)

-Oracl3-

title: hentai!! means pervert!! (also used to call a person weird..but i' using it in the pervert context...)

*I thought the PERVERT on the LRT was BAD, This is by far the WORSE, ALL PERVERTS SHOULD BE CASTRATED!!*

initially i used to think that PAS in Kelantan was absurd for separating the male and females, like in supermarkets they have lines for the males and females..

BUT... i stand corrected, i do know the reason why they do it now!

i don't mean to be racist, but enough is enough, I've been harassed one time too many. and all of them are malays..

on Saturday after my class, i decided to take the public bus back to my home town (well it's my parents', since i was born in KL)

anyway, the thing about Malaysians is that, they are really rude.. a study done by reader's digest on the rudest cities in the world, places us at the bottom (I've blogged about this before), and on Saturday, i finally saw why.

there were three buses going back to my home town, and two of them are where you pre book tickets, thus ensuring you a seat. it was already fully booked till late evening, so i had no choice. but to take the other bus, which was the worst of the 3, (not well maintained, stuffy...) where you paid on board...

not to mention that it's more expensive than the latter 2 as well..
as seats are not predetermined, people naturally wanted to be the first to board the bus to ensure a seat.. resulting in everyone pushing their way to enter the bus.. if you don't get a seat you will have to stand for the one and a half hour ride... (unfortunately i had to stand, and the bus being so stuffy, i thought i was going to faint... =.=')

Malaysians are really not civil, an old woman, was being pushed and shoved, children were not spared either.. i was like.. what on earth are wrong with Malaysians??

especially the Chinese girls.. they are really so damn kiasu (afraid to lose) that they really pushed everyone to get on the bus.. i was so disgusted with them..

to top it off... this 2 Malay guys next to me.. harassed me!
my blouse rode up a bit, revealing a small amount of skin between the blouse and the jeans... (the blouse rod up, because i was being squeezed left, right, front and back.. )
and guess what that pervert did, he used his finger and stroked that area where the skin was exposed...

i was already pissed with the Malaysian mentality, and now this.. i really did want to turn around and break that fella's hand off him or something... but alas.. i was squeezed so tight, that i had no choice but to endure.. when i could finally move, he removed his hand.. WTF, so i just pulled my shirt down, which rod up again in the end because of the pushing of this stupid Chinese girl next to me!

and the freaking bastard did the same thing again.. he's smart he knew i can't move... i was like F-ing idiot...

as if that was not enough he started to run his hand down my ass to my hips and up again.. i was like WTF??!!

i really don't see and satisfaction from doing things like this.. (can a guy explain to me, what satisfaction is there?)

so disgusting.. so when i finally boarded the bus, i made sure, that i was standing as far away from them as possible...

i mean i wasn't dressed provocatively.. it's just their mentality.. when i went clubbing in Maison's.. now that's what i called dressed somewhat provocatively, but no one harassed me. even in the UK, though at clubs, sometimes those idiotic teens just couldn't resist a pat on my ass...

but it wasn't that often....and they only touched lightly, teasingly i guess.. and well i guess teenagers =.=..

but the one in Malaysia are all grown adults.. they have no self discipline.. what do they think this country is? no wonder we are a country with a 3rd world mentality, if they can't even keep their hands to themselves...

in a Chinese area, i don't think that, separating genders are necessary, but in a Malay dominated area, please by all means do so! (it's people like that, that force us to be racist.. honestly i'm fine with them, having a few Malay friends myself, but this is too much!!)

if not, i have a solution, and that is education. educated malays don't do things like this. the ones that do the harassing are the lowly educated ones.. you know, you can tell.. educated people, don't give wolf whistles and things like that, they are by far... more sophisticated..

education has to teach this lecherous men that women are to be respected, we are not JUST A WOMB, OR FOR PLEASURE!! we have dignity, and respect that..

I've had enough.. the next time someone harasses me.. I'm going to look him in the eye and give him a piece of my mind!!..

well that means i have to avoid crowded areas, or end up in the same situation as the bus one.. where i couldn't even turn to give that pervert a slap!!

-Oracl3-

For a shorter version of the wedding.. i.e. less posts (it's only one post on the other blog), less commentary, and less pictures.. head on over to Generation Lim --> Here

That is for those lazy souls who think my blog has too many pictures& words.... And are lazy to wait for all of them to load, because generation lim consists, of the same pictures and an almost simliar commentary, just that, i cut out quite a lot of words and pictures from that post..

but well if you have time at your leisure, than you might just want to go through all three posts about the wedding, but if you are one of those unfortunate souls who do not possess that time, then head over to generation lim, and read just one post..

and also again, i apologise for all grammar and spelling mistakes on both blogs, because i didn't read through to check, as i'm lazy? and well.. it's so damn time consuming, that i'm sort of fed up..and it's already 210am.. so yeah.. you know why.....

-Oracl3-

Finally!! The last post for the Lim Family's September 2007 Australian Saga... Posting this on two sites is kind of tiring, (since i had to sort, and edit both posts to fit both blogs, or sentences might have been left hanging etc...)

Although i'm only loading the pictures once, but my connection uploads really, really slow, or i think it's blogger's fault, because even last time (when i was in the UK) when i had to post pictures, it takes eons to load.. so that's it for the Australian trip, and maybe later i will post somthing here bout my tour guide stint for my brother's girlfriend in December.. but that is another story...

~~

And now time for the commentary & pictures...

The night before the wedding, saw us being invited to a brewery called the Mash brewery for a round of drinks & snacks sponsored by the bride and groom.. it was a very lively event, as the friends and relatives of the bride and groom sat down together to drink, and chat... (the Snacks weren't bad either..)

It even seemed as if the bride and groom were having a reunion with their friends.. it looked fun, and as for me, i tried different types of brew (beer?).. and discovered there is more to beer than just barley hops, but the combination of many other things.. an interesting event...

Yen Ping and I standing outside the brewery's sign.. so that i would remember what that place was called, and wouldn't have to call it.. "that brewery" or "some brewery" haha...

The travelling companions... (haha, ok part of the Lim Family, the other part of the family were seated about 2 tables away.. and i don't know why i didn't take a picture of them... =.=')
All of us were sitting together at a table, enjoying the drink and food... Picture taken by uncle HP, that's why he isn't in it.. :p


Yen Ling, Me & Yen Ping, posing for a picture inside the brewery..

The three cousins, with our uncle Robert who decided to join in after seeing us taking some pictures... :p

Well after that we left quite early, as we were all tired from our flight, and besides, we had to wake up early for the tea ceremony the next morning...

-Oracl3-

Unfortunately, i don't really have any pictures of the tea ceremony as PK and the professional photographer were taking the pictures, and from my stand point, it was very hard for me to take the pictures. (The pictures from the professional, wasn't very nice so i'm not using them...)

Hence what i have here are the pictures that I took, while waiting for the groom to come over, to begin the tea ceremony....

The groom was staying in the apartment next door, and i guess we were waiting for the auspicious time to begin the ceremony, the improvements made, to satiate our chinese customs were really interesting....

For example, since the groom did not have to drive to the bride's house, instead of getting the youngest male member of the bride's side of the family to open the car door, they replaced that with the door of the apartment...

and well, i think because space was constricted, the bargaining at the door instead of being done by the bride's best friends (zhi mui, sisters? girl best friends?) it was done by the bride's brothers.. haha.. totally interesting...

anyway, here are the pictures...

Ling and i taking in the view of the golf course while waiting for the ceremony...

Uncle Robert and i, striking a pose for the camera, it was during this time that i learnt a few new tricks about using a camera, since my uncle likes to take pictures..

Three cousins, braving the morning's chilly air to take some pictures together... tsk, tsk, those two don't have very good standing postures... then again, i think i look like some lady from the 18th century, with this posture.. (with my hands clasped infront of me..) haha :p

The bride in her pretty green cheong sam and i... waiting ever so patiently for the groom to come over, for the ceremony to begin... i like the way my hair falls over on my shoulders on this picture hehe :p

The boquet of roses for the bride..

The boquet of roses for the bridesmaid..

Since i had nothing to do while waiting for the ceremony to begin, i decided to put into use the new found knowledge taught by my uncle :p the effect is quite nice, as the florist had sprayed the flowers with some water to keep them fresh, the way the water captures the flash of the camera, (especially for the red roses) makes it look like there are daimonds on the flower, doesn't it? :p

Photography could really become a hobby of mine, haha, but it's only a fluke that from time to time i manage to catch beautiful pictures, thanks to the angle of the lighting at the time.. i sitll remember a picture i took in St. James Park, London. the sunlight was at the right angle, that it looked like a beam of light was shinning down..

Well maybe it's a fluke, maybe it's instinct.. or maybe a combination of both.....

-Oracl3-

On a late morning, of the 15th of September, after the tea ceremony in the morning, all of us bundled into the car, to head to the St. Mary's Catholic Church for the wedding Ceremony, Between my cousin Magdalene & Glenn..

The church on the outside, and the father of the bride, waiting for the bride, to walk with her into the church..

The ermm... booklet for the ceremony, stating the bride and groom's names, the date and the church name.. i.e St Mary's church. click to enlargen and read..

After the ceremony, everyone was happily grouping around to celebrate the new happily married couple :p

me standing next to the sign, so that i will remember what is the church called.. though i was dressed like that.. but excuse me, i can be vain too.. because it was freaking cold!!! it drizzled/rained somewhat, resulting in the drop of tempreture..

So much for the church wedding.. Now, on to the Wedding Dinner, which was held in a golf course's (i think) ball room...

it was really romantic, with the chandelier, and all the candles.. it had a quaint feel with all the barrels stocked by the side..

Yen Ping, Me, and Yen Ling, i'm like some mamasan hahaha
which girl do you want? the one on the right or the left? haha :p

The Lim Family at the wedding dinner..... i should be standing at the back, since i'm kind of tall, and therefore will block people.. but i didn't have time.. as i had to pass my camera to someone to help us take the picture...

Yen Ling and i posing in front of the heater... it was kind of cold in there.. :p

A cousin Picture!! Yen ping, Yen Ling, PK and me.. why am the only one in red? i wanted to wear black, but i heard that some people were against it (pantang...) so i opted for my red cheong sam.. ceh.. or i would have wore my black dress, seems we all like to wear black.. :p

it wasn't a bad night.. though i noticed that compred to lorena's (my sister's ex-collegue in Prague) that asians are kind of shy to get onto the dance floor to dance, which resulted in me dragging my cousins out to dance..

One thing i don't share with my cousins is my love for dance, and my not so love for alcohol.. :p

-Oracl3-

For a shorter version of the Western Australia tour.. click on Generation Lim (GL)

The on on GL is shorter, has less pictures, less words, better grammar and spelling, and best of all, it's all in one post....

I apologise for the horrendous english on all the australian posts for this blog, as i was uploading them all at some ungodly hour, and was tired and sleepy, thus making me too lazy to edit it....

well there is one more.. post left.. which will be cross posted to GL again... the wedding in perth, and after that, it will be pictures of my brother and his girlfriend when they came to Malaysia..

so, many... =.='

-Oracl3-

On the 13th of September 2007, i headed of to KLIA to meet with my relatives, as we were all heading to Perth to attend my cousin's wedding...

Upon arrival, we were checked into an apartment on a golf course in swan valley (i think that's what it's called, i've forgotten..), where the wedding will be held, and which will be posted about separately..


this is the picture of our first accomodation, a little house on a golf course.. here we have Yen Ling and i, and well the cars which we used to travel in the whole of Western Australia... nothing much happened there, except the wedding, which as i said, will be blogged separately...

so after the wedding, we packed everyone and everything into the two cars.. and off we went!!

*****
Smell the salt in the air!! As we've finally left Perth to start our touring of Western Australia.....

Our first stop was at freemantle, but i labeled it as our second, although theoretically our first stop was perth....

i wanted to sit ala litte mermaid style like i did in Dublin, but the rock wasn't stable.. and i'm not a very good swimmer haha...

as i love the sea, and the salty smell.. this was a nice welcome.. :)

when i saw this, i was like.. what? S.O.Y means Shit on you?? and it's true.. after i asked some other friends (who were studying in Australia..) but this was taken at a pier that we went to eat.. and well it was seafood.. our first seafood encounter.. i don't think i took pictures of the food, because it was gone as soon as it came.. since everyone was hungry...

Yen ling and i, one wearing black, one white.. haha.. ying and yang? this was taken at a honey farm, which we non golf players went to, to pass sometime. we thought the scenery behind us looked nice. so there we are.. :p it was kind of warm at that time, so we didn't need our coats :p

-Oracl3-

Our third stop brought us close to nature, as we stayed in a cabin located in a forest reserve, (we even had a barbeque at the cabin, but as i was too busy helping out, i didn't manage to take pictures... sigh..) and we went to a neighbouring forest reserve for the all famous tree top walk...

unfortunately for us, it was raining, before that, and as we all konw, when it rains, it's cold... thus we were all bundled in wind proof jackets and we headed up onto the platform, to walk above the ground...

Here we have all the ladies, there is aunt Cindy, me, aunt alice, yen ping, dai yi, and yen ling...

this was what we walked on... it was really stable and shook only so slightly with the strongest winds.. here we have yen ping and i.. well we all know that my hands always freeze easily, hence my gloves :p i love my Zara coat :p (my sister bought it for me when i was in Prague, she has a matching coat!! :p )

once we got off the walk, there is a little trail on the ground which we could walk.. to look at some of the magnificent trees from the ground..

lots and lots of greenery.. it was really nice, especially if you like nature :)

this is one of the tarractions, a sort of like hollow part at the root of the tree.. believe it or not, the tree is still alive and growing... but in it's trunk it has a hold like that, believed to be have been caused by forest fire...

more greenery,before we headed to another forest reserve...

the next reserve we went to, was home to a tree called the gloucester tree, where there is a tree about 7 storeys high i think.. and which was used as a look out during olden times for forest fires.. unfortunately i fear heights.. and the steps.. more like ladder? it wasn't really a ladder, basically it was jsut thin little steel bars of about 1.5 cm in daimetere, embedded in the tree to form your steps all the way up...

the sign.. click to enlarge and read more..

there was a picture of me climbing those steel rods, to as far as i dared go, but it is with uncle robert, and again, i don't have the pictures from him..

so all we have is me, feeing the ever so colourful parakeets available there.. they were really tame, and gosh it was so ticklish when they landed on my head... and they were so damn cute, but their claws sure are sharp...

-Oracl3-

Im not very sure about this stop, but at some point we made a stop at a place called The Gap, a place named after a huge gap between some rocks where the sea water splashes up...


the angle of sun and the burst of waves allowed for this shot to be taken, a beautiful rainbow.. the gap is actually dangerous, and people who are light should not enter alone, or the strong wind could very well blow you into the water and you may drown...

intially we had difficulties passing through to get to the viewing deck, because water kept splashing down on us like bullets, it hurt, and the wind was harsh... but it was fun, as we screamed and ran from the water haha.. it was freaking cold too...

a family picture of us at the viewing deck of the gap.. well it's kind hard to say who is who, and some have been blocked.. so i digress haha..

with the angle of the sun, the water catching the brilliance of the light jsut at the right angle, it was really beautiful...

*****
We had a little pit stop for lunch before heading on to the kangaroo farm.. and here i am enjoying a nice warm cup of tea on a cold rainy day in a little restaurant tucked in a valley..

well it was a winery, and it's called Old Kent Winery.. i think.. for pictures of the food we ate, go to the FOOD stop post below this :)

i was a little wet from the rain, and kinda chilly.. next to me is my uncle robert... so since i was kind of wet and cold.. what did i do?? :p

a nice little fire place to warm myself... but heck, i just love fireplaces.. i think i read too many british books in the past haha :p

and it was time to journey on after lunch... of to the farmhouse... cum kangaroo farm...

we stayed 2 nights at a the farmhouse, owned by a couple who runs this little kangaroo sanctuary for orphaned joeys.. and it's sort of like an attraction for tourists.. this was on the day we were leaving the farmhouse for our next destination...

Little joey drinking from a bottle of milk... :p

a little joey.. so cute.. (my dog is cuter though ahha) actually i was quite apprehensive, as the last time i came into contact with kangaroos... (still unsure if it's their fault... it could be koalas..or wombats.. which i didn't come into contact on this trip...) i ended up with a stomach flu... that was when i went to Australia like.. 2 years ago?? or, i think it's already 3 years.... well i went to adelaide, and the wildlife park there was lovely, but when i came back to malaysia i was plagued with stomach flu... totally horrible....

at least this round nothing happened.. either it's not the kangaroo fault, or i developed an immunity haha..

-Oracl3-

on our travels we moved around quite a lot, and with each new place there were different things to eat... so since the kind of food that we ate.. i think.. you can't get those food here, so here is a short little break to advertise the food...

So one of the first stops that i remembered.. i think the place is called little kent? well it was a winery... i didn't really manage to take much, cause we mostly shared food, and my other relatives don't seem to understand my fetish for taking pictures of food.. so i m posting what i managed to take..

this was the appertizer.. shared by all 8 of us.. it was yumm.. and ate some stuff i never ate before haha :p

on another stop. a winery we came across after failing to find the one we wanted to go to, as we were all starving and in a bad temper, we jsut headed to the first restaurant we saw, and went in to eat..

as mentioned above my relatives dislike to take pictures of food, so i only took mine.. which was...

Maroon pie!! it was ok, quite yummy!! you can only have this in Australia.. why? because maroons can only be found in Australia, it's a fresh water... err creature... looks kind of like a lobster, but only smaller, and the shell is softer.. well go google maroons to get what i mean... :p

on our 3rd... stop.. i think it was the 3rd.. we stayed at a farmhouse, (kangaroo farm..) it was very quaint, and cottage like, and we were spoiled silly by the owners with all the food.. they even had an alastian, whcih was cute.and 2 other toy dogs.. so damn cute!! haha.. but anyway, scroll down to see what we feasted on...

we arrived kind of late in the night.... and for dinner we had....

they couldn't find maroons for us, so we had maroon claws and shrimps.. :p

Oysters anyone? usually i don't like oyster, due to a certain taste like see ham (clams?) so i don't really touch the stuff, but these were so fresh that i actually ate 1 haha.. and teh hand there, belongs to miss lai yen ling.. stealing some wedges to eat...

Scallops and wedges.. damn i loved this one.. :p

Strawberry and cream for dessert... I love strawberries.. :p and this was lovely.. so sweet... and tender and nice.. :p

and we turned in with a full stomach..

A fish pie for our first breakfast at the cottage.. we had it for lunch too, since we couldn't finish it.. i can't remember what we had for dinner.. since i didn't seem to sort pictures for that here... my memory is fuzzy but we could have had this for breakfast and lunch and the items above for dinner??? hmmm... or maybe we went out for dinner... sorry my memory fails me...

A bacon egg casserole.. it was superbly yummy.. this was served for breakfast on our last day at the farmhouse where we stayed... we stayed for 2 nights.... after checking out of the farmhouse, we headed to the kangaroo encagement, a short distance away.. which shall be posted about later....

This was our last seafood meal in australia, sydney.. i should have put it with stop 11, but i didn't think of it then.. i mean heck it was 1am then.. 343am now.. haha.. and well i m just plain lazy..

-Oracl3-

Our 5th stop was at Cape Leeuwin.. a light house.. a beacon of light for those who thread the seas....


The information of the light house that we saw.. this was my first time seeing a proper light house up close.. though i would have liked to climb up and take a look too...

Up close with the light house, where two oceans meet.. where the indian ocean... and southern ocean meet...

The whole of the lighthouse from afar, with me in it.. :p with it's white washed walls.. we werent allowed to go up though... i think you had to pay to go up, well with Australia, everything is money...

our next stop after the light house....

Stop 6: Cliff Spackman - Jewel Cave..

How fun, some people just have all the leisure to go splunking... and get a cave named after them... but i imagine it was dangerous at that time... with no platform or steps...

The picture abve explains the cave we went to..

after descending a flight of stone steps, one is greeted by this...

Like a big monster's mouth welcoming you to enter its stomach.. haha.. but pretty nevertheless..

Of course, the post about the caves wouldn't be complete without a snap of little cute (as my sister likes to call me, but i differ) ol' me in the caves itself.. though with the camera flash, the golden hue vanished, only to be turned into this.. but without the flash, you can't take nuts... it's like between the devil and the deep blue sea... haha

the light which illuminated the caves, as can be seen gives it's a glorious effect.. it's beautiful... in some ways i was comparing it to the ice cave in the alps.. but they both have their beauty.. and this was breathtaking.. though at some point it felt kind of errie.. haha..

-Oracl3-