Back from Hangzhou

Two days before I left for my Hangzhou trip, I already had symptoms of flu. I thought it would clear by itself so long as I drink enough water. I was very wrong! The temperature in Hangzhou had not recovered from the extremely cold winter, and that made my flu even worse. After being back in Kuching for two days already, I'm still on sick leave.

I guess the bad flu is also partly due to lack of quality rest as I still spent 2 afternoons roaming around the West Lake and some old streets of Hangzhou. Surprisingly I still had the energy to do that.

I'm now feeling low in energy and drowsy. I don't think I even have the energy to walk for an hour. But I could walk for more than 5 hours in Hangzhou! I guess it was just the matter of the power of the mind. I didn't want to miss the chance of seeing Hangzhou for the second time.

I need to get back to work tomorrow, so I need to get more quality rest. I will blog more about Hangzhou after I have cleared my backlog on Czech Republic, United Kingdom of Great Britain, Shanghai, Jiangsu, etc. Now I'm reminding myself how seriously backlogged I'm!

Revisiting Hangzhou

During my trip to Shanghai in year 2009, I detoured to Hangzhou (杭州) and stayed there for a day. It is a very nice city by the scenic West Lake (西湖).

After more than two years without even blogging about this nice city, I am flying off to Kuala Lumpur today; catching my early morning flight to Hangzhou tomorrow!

The weather forecast for the next few days for Hangzhou doesn't look promising for touristy activities. I hope the meteorological department is wrong about that so that I can capture some more pictures of Hangzhou through my lenses. Otherwise I'll just have to stay in the hotel after the conference sessions and food.

My Whereabout for the Past Two Weeks

I went to Shanghai and the neighbouring places for a two-week holiday. My journey started with some glitches due to flight delays. I am losing even more confidence in Malaysia Airlines as my flight out to Kuala Lumpur from Kuching on 14^th December 2009 was delayed for more than two hours. My connecting flight from Kuala Lumpur to Shanghai on the following day was even worse! It was delayed for more that four hours! Even more so, there were 44 Chinese passengers who refused to board the plane and it took the management team another half hour to persuade them. I was almost called in to be their interpreter but they finally found a bilingual air stewardess to do the job.

I had the same problem with flight cancellation during my trip to Brisbane last year on Malaysia Airlines. What has happened to our one and only national carrier? I had better quality of service from budget airlines like AirAsia and Jetstar!

Apart from these hassles, the rest of my journey was quite smooth, luckily.

Sometimes I could even pamper myself with a cuppa at Starbucks. There are plenty of Starbucks cafes around China. I was at the West Lake outlet when this photo was taken.

I was alone most of the time, but along the way, I met with some temporary travelling companions sometimes.

I quite enjoy the trip partly due to the cold weather. The mercury-filled tube didn't hit any double-digit reading and it was even at sub-zero degree sometimes. Well, another part of the enjoyment was definitely due to the good food!