Hunter's Valley

Jesus, Save me from your followers

I had dinner with my Girlfriend's friends last night. We went to one of the most popular Korean restaurant in Sydney called Seoul-Ria to have lovely Korean food.
We went with 4 other koreans and 1 Isreali. We had a good time eating the food, my fave KimChi and Gal Bi (Korean BBQ Pork Ribs).
Anyway one of her friends called Charlie, a Korean, was wearing this Mambo tee with Jesus in front, below it reads "Jesus, Save me from your followers. Mambo 19:18". I thought that is a really funny shirt considering that my GF is Catholic and 2 other koreans were Presbyterians.
So we went back to their apartment and we happen to talk about the shirt. The guy has no idea what it meant! And he was thinking of wearing it to Church on Sunday!!!!!
I was laughing so loudly (after what he said was translate to me in English by my GF) and they were all looking at me.... I did not think they appreciate my laughter. :P
It was funny, of course, it isn't exactly funny when your girlfriend is a catholic and you are anything but christian. Thats the dilemma. Anyway, come what may.

The Celestial Teapot

I read something Bertrand Russell wrote when I was much younger and I saw a TV show in Sydney on Religion, that repeated his concept.
Religionist will say that Science cannot disprove or prove the existence of god. So God must exist then. In order to discredit this silly theory, he wrote the essay.
Let's imagine that there is a TEAPOT orbiting in Space. It is too small for our telescope to detect. So can science disprove it? NO. Science cannot.
So let's take it to another level, say this belief of the orbiting Teapot in space was originated 5000 years ago by "wise men". And many holy books were written about this celestial teapot in space. The books were compiled and made into the holiest book of all. There were also many sightings about the teapot by some "wise people", there were "signs" that the teapot exist. Miracles were invoked in the name of the Celestial Teapot. And across the ages, many people came to believe that the teapot in space exists.
And because SCIENCE cannot disprove of its existence, the teapot belief remains true to many people.

How about you? Do you believe that there is a Teapot in space? Most people would say it’s ridiculous. “What nonsense, what teapot in space? That’s the most ridiculous thing I heard”. And we think the same for many other things, like Santa Claus, Fairies, the gods of Greece; Zeus or Athena , the gods of Egypt; Amun Ra, Anubis or Isis, Norse Gods like Thor.

Millions of people have over centuries, believed in those Gods and mythological creations of Men. Egyptians, Greeks, Babylonians, and Sumerians have worshipped, for thousand of years, Gods that you and I do not believe now. They built great temples and statues for their Gods. They have whole institutions based on the beliefs; they have priests, holy woman and man guarding their faith and Gods with their lives.

In a way, we are atheist to these Gods. We do not believe in them and we find their beliefs ridiculous, much like how we find the teapot in space ridiculous. Well maybe its time that we take a step further and be atheist to another God…

Rockhampton, Beef Capital of Australia; Population 60,000

Coming from Cities, I do not know exactly what it is like to be in a place with sparse population and just too much land.
Well, Rockhampton sure is an eye opener. When I arrived on Sunday at around 4. I decided I should walk around the city. I stay in a Motel in the City, why motel? Because there isn't exactly any Hotels here. The Motel I am staying is called Motel 98 and it has the best restaurant in town. A decent meal there could easily set you back by at least AUD$40. Thats really expensive in Rockhampton.
So I was walking around the city, and there is no Cars, and basically there is NO ONE! and all shops are closed! I thought Sydney is ridiculous when they close shops at 6pm....but Rockhampton sure is an eye opener. Shops are closed on Sundays. Real nice eh? But its a peaceful walk around the deserted city. The city has its glory days I suppose, many of its architecture are colonial and very beautiful. Old pre war buildings like their Custom House, Court House, post office, etc are really beautiful. Big structures I would usually see in British colonised countries. There is a River that runs through the city, its called Fitzroy River, one of Queensland biggest river.
The people here are generally friendly, the people I trained are really nice.
On thursday night, I noticed a strange phenomenon, I see youngsters driving their car round and round the city centre!! For what? Beats me! I asked a couple of locals and they said its just what happens. Basically the town has not much entertainment facilities. To the aussies, its the local pub. I did see a Cinema but thats about it. No discos or clubs here. In fact the city centre is much smaller than the Ang Mo Kio town centre that I stay in Singapore!
There is a community newspaper called Morning Bulletin and it has pretty interesting content. For example, there is a section called Name and Shame, it actually name the people who are caught Drunk driving. And there are many community news for the area or the region. I find that it is really good for keeping the population together and updated on the latest events.

Where have I gone to?

I was posted to Xi'an for 9mths since Nov 2005. I worked in Xi'an and Shenzhen with my previous company till Sept 2006.
I changed job to this Sydney-based Australian company. Since October I was staying inBeijing for 3 months till Jan 2007.
In Jan 2007, I manage to squeeze 3 days to go back to Singapore before heading to Sydney till end of Feb.Its at that time that I met Kara Bae, my girlfriend.
In March，I was in Beijing for 1 month and I went to Shanghai around end of March.
In April, I went to Shanghai for 3 weeks where I met up with my brother. It's so coincidental that the both of us are sent to Shanghai for work! We had a great weekend together! Really Awesome!I miss my brother!
I got back to Sydney in May and finally saw my GF for the 1st time in 2 months!!I got posted to Rockhampton for a 1 week assignment. Will write a bit about Rockhampton later.
I will probably go to Beijing again in June. This time I'm unsure how many months there. But we do have assignments in Kuwait, Russia, Iran, Ecuador and Taiwan. I quite like China, so I hope to stay there instead of going somewhere else. Travelling so much can be really tiring! I don't really have a fixed home, but I'm quite happy to see the world.

I'm back here after more than 1 year!

Damn Censorship in China. When I was in China, I am unable to access to Blogspot URL!Don't Ask me why they banned the site.
Anyway its been more than a year since I used this site. I happen to be very free now(on a fri night) in a small Australian town in the Queensland State called ROCKHAMPTON. I was here to conduct a 1 week training for a local bank called Rock Building Society. Strange names they give to small local banks here. Actually its a bit of a Credit Union and a community bank.
ANYWAY, I will fly back to Sydney tomorrow to see my Girlfriend!yeah!

Photos

I find uploading photos to this site very very tedious. Shall not upload photos here and find other better sites. Just post the site URL here.
I am using FLickr now, although its good but it only allows limit albums. So gotta change sites after that.
The URL to my Xi'an Pixs are at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eclectic_alvin/sets/1604586/

Reflections on my China Trip

I find it sublime to find myself sitting here in my apartment in Xian.
My TV is on China's CCTV now; watching Table Tennis Finals with China Vs China...Zhang Yining(the coolest and best player in the world) vs Guo Yan.
Anyway, looking back this year, I wanted to visit China. In April, I decided to visit China for the 1st time. Backpacking alone across many major cities in China. I love the place and hoped to do something in China.
Life has been especially good to me. 6 Mths later, here I am, in Xi'an, one of the oldest cities in the world, getting a S'pore salary and having my own apartment. I thank the heavens for this great opportunity.
Life is Xi'an is good. Living it up with my regular massage sessions. hehe. I have yet to meet many people here. My colleagues are IT people...and being the typical Sterotypical IT ppl...they do IT stuff..which means LAN games, look thru codes or surf the web. Therefore I gotta go out and maybe meet more people, else i get too bored and lonely here. I stayed in a Youth Hostel in the city on Sat and got to meet many people. Perhaps I shall do it more often now.
The weather is between -3 to 7 c this week, but though it may sound really cold, it isnt as long as I don't go out in the open for too long and wear more thick clothes.
In the meantime, I will just travel around Xi'an every weekend and work really hard to understand what I am gonna present for my training here.

Off to Bangkok!

It was a lazy sunday afternoon on the 30/10/05, we boarded Tiger Airways to start on our Thailand - Laos Odessey.
We are headed for the City of Angels first!





Look how similar Bangkok airport is to Spore. Its just so Singapore. More on that later.

Bangkok and crappy guesthouse

Grace is the best! She booked for all the accomodations and arranged all the transport as well.
Here she is checking us into Suk 11, a guesthouse located at Sukhumvit Soi 11 in Bangkok.
The Guesthouse looks pretty typical and nice.















We were to stay on the 3rd floor. and thats where I thought we have a rather crappy place. The corridors on the 3rd floor are dark and orangey(from the light bulb).



Dark corridors and hairy stuff are just outside my house. Strange y they put such scary stuff outside






















The view when I step out of the room and look left. The hat looks like a man. Scared me a few times

My room ?!?!?!ARGH!

My room was the shocker, There is a flight of stairs leading to a bolted door in my room!
The view from my bed, I did not really had a good nite, my mind really when on overdrive about what may come down from the flight of stairs.
There! a flight of stairs beside my bed leading to the bolted door! how ridiculous can it get?
I requested a change of rooms and this is the only room they have available. yeah right, bastards...I dun think I would ever go back there.

Dinner at Bangkok

Immediately after we reach Bangkok, we checked in to our guesthouse and we are headed for Dinner at Khao San.
We met up with Grace's friends( Cynthia and Vippy) in Bangkok for our dinner somewhere near Khao San. We had a meal at a very dark restaurant that serves really good thai food! The restaurant has a live band(actually one singer only) as well, and it seems like its both a pub and a restaurant....

At the dinner place. Vippy(left) is a lecturer at a Uni in Bangkok. While Cynthia decided to leave Singapore and is currently looking for a job in Bangkok.

Khao San at its best, there was some rock concert there organised by some beer company and hell loads of people. Khao San is the infamous street favoured by backpackers (read: REALLY Cheap Ang Mos) and for its mess that possibly could rival Patpong.

Vippy sent us to Suan Lum Market in her Pickup.
Suan Lum also happens to be a very expensive nite Bazaar. Nothing much fantastic here except for the prices...