TravelStream™ news feed for member ascarid_j on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/ascarid_j en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sun, 04 Nov 2007 20:04:27 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ascarid_j/freedom-2007/1169679900/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ascarid_j/freedom-2007/1169679900/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ascarid_j/freedom-2007/1169679900/tpod.html Sun, 04 Nov 2007 20:04:27 -0500 Taiwan and onwards to the world of unknown.

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Siem Reap, Cambodia

There are just way too much to talk about on the first day of arrival at Siem Reap, Cambodia. The flight from Bangkok, Thailand to Siem Reap, Cambodia was delayed by about 1 hour which made our pre-arranged pick-up driver leave without us. By the time we arrived, we were confronted with intense heat, no pickup driver, no public phone to call, about 200 local taxi driver sharks eager to devour us like two juicy steaks. They indeed tried, but didn't succeed because luckily I had Rich's cell phone which I used to call up the person (Zhen-guan, ZG for the rest of the travel log) who arranged the pickup for us.

Okay, before I start with the whole incident about the taxi and hotel, let's talk about the immigration gates at the airport. There were a few different booths, like all airports, and one of them has a little tag that says "e-VISA." Joanna and I were so happy to see it because we thought it was going to be painless and fast since we've already got the e-VISA. But, the truth was that the luck was not on our side, we stood in line and waited for a long long time (with only a few people in front of us). It wasn't until the rest of the people who didn't have an e-VISA and bought the VISA on the spot were all cleared our line moved.

Now, back to the taxi-hotel story... To add to our surprise, ZG told us on the phone that the confirmed hotel reservation was full?! and wanted to move us to another hotel nearby at the same rate. At that point, we had no choice but say ok. Our thoughts were that we will go to the town center first and then look for another hotel. ZG said that he had talked to the prepaid taxi booth person and would let us take the taxi to the new hotel first and then they'll pay the $5 and also, the taxi driver would know where to take us. After we hung up, taxi booth guy completely "forgot" about this agreement and asked us to pay $5. With little choice, we paid and moved on.

As expected, the taxi driver also "forgot" about where we are going and kept recommending us to another hotel while asking us to use him for the rest of the few days as driver. We, of course declined. The goal was to get to the prearranged hotel (at this point, it's really not a "prearranged" anymore, ha.) and our minds were set. We had to put ZG on the phone a few more times to talk to the taxi driver in the hope that they'll sort things out. However, the taxi driver managed to continue forgeting whatever was conveyed on the phone with ZG.

After some more looping, he figured out that we weren't giving in, so he brought us to BeQuest (original hotel) first and then Heart of Angkor (new arrangement). We checked HoA and it was just way too shabby. We asked HoA owner if he could hold the room and we will come back - of course, the answer was No. We took the risk and walked out of HoA and walked back to BeQuest (man, it was hot). At arrival of BQ, we asked the front desk if they have any room. To our Nth surprise, they DO have a room. The rooms were clean and comfortable and we stayed ($13/night/room). This is contrary to what ZG had told us about all rooms booked out. I was furious at this point at ZG and demanded the front desk at BQ to see where I can find ZG. The front desk told me that he'll be in later at night. Our room was #110, and it was at the end of the walk way on the 3rd floor.

By the time we got settled in it was already late in the afternoon. We were both tired, especially after no sleep for too long, and both of us were ill. By dinner, time, we went out of the street looking for food. We ended up in a Chinese restaurant. The female owner was from ChaoJou. The food was okay. After dinner, we found a internet cafe and made an call to Rich to let him know where we are and everything was okay. Internet phone call was 1 min for 25 cents US (or 1000 Riel <local currency>). Internet usage fee is 1 hour for 75 cents US.

After dinner, we returned to BQ. At 10pm at BQ front desk, I found my driver, Raksmey, who I reserved over email to drive us around for the next 3 days. But, but, but, yet another surprise. Raksmey said that he could not take us around the next few days because he promised his current customers that he'll be with him for another day. After the entire day of problem, I was about to explode. Anyway, after some arguments, we settled that he'll take us around on 26/27/28 of Feb. As it turned out, it was actually a good thing that he had to take others around on 25th so that Joanna and I would get a day to recover a little from our illness.

ps., we did not find ZG at BQ as he promised tonight.

Travel Tip- as a backpacker, always try to arrive at a new town at the middle of the day where you have enough hours of sun light to handle the unexpected!
TT2 - always, always stick to your own hotel reservation plan and ignore anything gibberish the taxi driver tells you about what kinda bad things happen to the hotel.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ascarid_j/freedom-2007/1172412000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ascarid_j/freedom-2007/1172412000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ascarid_j/freedom-2007/1172412000/tpod.html Sun, 04 Nov 2007 19:19:32 -0500 Taiwan and onwards to the world of unknown.

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Siem Reap, Cambodia

Feb 25, 2007
Cambodia Siem Reap Day 2
Sleep~~ Woke up at 9~10am. Started to put things where they belong because we'll be staying here for the rest of the week. The plan is to hang around on the street and get familiarized with this place. Then, we'll go buy the 3-day ticket for Angkor Wat.

For lunch, well, a late lunch, we went to the old market and the Bar Street and found this Khmer Kitchen Restaurant (as suggested by Lonely Planet). We had Mussaman curry, fruit shake and some soup. They were all quite good. The next table ordered curry chicken with egg and that seemed to be quite good as well. I didn't really like how the rice was
cooked here - rice grains are broken into smaller pieces and are rather dry, then sometimes, I would also find really soggy lumps. But, Joanna seemed to like the rice just fine.

In the afternoon, again, it was roaming time. We went to Wat Dam Nak, a place that's in walking distance to BQ, on the other side of the river in a small alley way. It was a quiet place, not a whole lot of people, in fact, not even a single tourist. That makes Joanna and I
stood out in there. On the way to WDN, we notice on the side of the street there are vendors selling some yellow liquid in bottles (plastic or for those who drinks, Johnny Walker glass bottles). We didn't bother asking, but on the way out, I figured, since I travelled
thousands of miles to get here, it wouldn't hurt to ask. It turned out that those are fuel for the motor bikes and each 1.5 liter bottle would cost $1 usd and there is a red looking one costing $2 usd per bottle.

The sun was a little hard to bear, especially both of us are still sorta ill, so we headed back to BQ to get our hats which turned out to be a great help. On top of that, for some reason, I started to need lip balm, probably because of the intense heat/sun.

At about 3pm, we decided that we would head north and walk along Pokambor Ave and Ph Strung Siem Reap to Angkor Wat (short to AW). We thought we should be able to get there in time to buy the tickets for the following day, and of course, to see the sunset. Afterall, it didn't look that far on the map.

On the way to AW at the crossign of NH#6 and #66, by a bridge, we found a little mini mart filled with different things - food, drinks, snacks, personal hygiene products, misc stuff. It is much bigger than 7-11 in Taiwan. We also found racks of liquor and wine, but they are rather expensive.

After passing mini mart, further north, the scenary drastically changed from the concrete houses to simple huts along the river side. It did appear to be a little scary for us as we are the only 2 tourists that were walking this path. Most of the other tourists would take either the auto-rickhsaw/car through a much bigger road to AW. At 4:20pm, I asked the shops along the way (somehow we found someone that speaks English, magically) and was told that AW was still 6km away. With only 40 minutes left before the start of the ticket sale, we had to get a auto-ricksaw.

Getting auto-rickshaw, again, was a haggling exercise. At where we stood, since it was quite remote, we were quoted some crazy price ($6 one way). Then, we decided to walk back to where we can find more auto-rickshaw drivers and get better pricing. We were right this time,
at least the starting price is now $8 but covers round trip plus wait time for the sunset. Knowing everything is haggle-able, I countered with $5 and finally, we settled for $6.

The driver was quite good and got us there in time. At the ticket booth, we ran into 3 tourists from Mainland China. These 3 told us that they had been to Beng Melea today and got a really good deal on hiring a driver. They were able to include 4 days of driving, plus
excursion to Beng Melea and drop off at the airport for $91 USD. This price is quite good. Oh, the ticket cost us $40/person.

Now that we've got the tickets, time to run for the sunset. The auto-rickshaw took us to the front gate of AW and we just ran straight into the inner most section for the view. We climb all the way to the top of the inner building. The weather was great, no clouds, and the
sunset was beautiful. Although instead of seeing the sunset from AW, we should have headed over to the mountain across from it and see the famous "Golden Ankgor Wat" shining in the sunset. It turned out we tried a few more times in the following few days but the weather
didn't cooperate.

Note for fellow traveler, if you are planning on visiting AW, you can head to the ticket office and buy the tickets the day before after 4:30pm. After you've bought the tickets, you can head straight in for free (this does not count against your days permitted) and enjoy the
sunset and also perhaps roam around a little and plan for what you want to see the following day.

Dinner was at a restaurant we randomly picked along the main street close to BQ. It took forever for the dishes to arrive. Finally we gave up on it and went to the restaurant next to the one we had dinner last night. Well, we went there for th 50 cent beer. The food was okay and the wait was really long as well. But at least, we have some roasted peanuts to go with the cheap beer. We tried all four flavors. :) Dish-wise, the bitter melon was okay, but the noodle was not so good.

After dinner, we returned to BQ and discussed with Reaksmy. We'd go for the Small Loop first and then do the Grand Loop a few days later.

Now, let's continue with the story about my hotel reservation, airport pickup and such.
Finally, after dinner, around 11pm, we found Zheng Guan to talk about all the issues. Here are ZG's explanation:
1. ZG did find someone to pick us up at the airport, but did not know about our flight delay. So, the pickup driver waited for 1 hour and decided to leave.
2. ZG did ask BQ to keep a room, but BQ reservation desk said there are no vacancy. Also, it was right around the Chinese New Year time frame, Internet cafes were not open, so he was not able to email me about it. That's why he had to move me to another place when we
arrive.
3. ZG said that he did go to Heart of Angkor to find us, but we were not there (of course, we had already settled in BQ on our own). Also, Huang (HA's manager) didn't know where we were either. It was until this morning ZG found out that we are actually staying in BQ. He was
shocked and didn't understand why we were actually able to get a room.
4. Apparently ZG isn't very happy about the locals who don't seem to keep their words and are lazy. Also, ZG seemed to have some issues with Boray (a local/native tour guide) and started to complain that Boray stole his customers even after ZG has confirmed with them. Well, this is between ZG and Boray, I didn't really care.
5. ZG said if Reaksmey is not good, then he can find us another driver. But all Chinese speaking drivers are not available these few days.
6. We would meet up 9pm tomorrow to see if we would change driver
7. ZG, as promised, returned $5 usd to me to cover my taxi cost.
8. ZG recommended a place called Mollopo for really good fruit shake and recommended Central Market for authentic Cambodian food.
9. ZG recommended where is the best plae for seeing the sunset and sunrise. Sunrise should be viewed right by the water pond inside of AW. Sunset can be viewed at the same place, OR can be seen from Phnom Bakherg Mt across from AW.
10. ZG said massage is $5/person in our own room.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ascarid_j/freedom-2007/1172329380/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ascarid_j/freedom-2007/1172329380/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ascarid_j/freedom-2007/1172329380/tpod.html Mon, 15 Oct 2007 00:48:46 -0400 Taiwan and onwards to the world of unknown.

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Bangkok, Thailand

Finally, we are on our way to Cambodia. First, we'll need to route through Bangkok, Thailand. The flight from Taiwan left at 9am and we got to Bangkok at 1155a.

The night before the trip was again, a frantic night of packing and writing down all the necessary information for the upcoming travel. Afterall, we are going to be away from anyone we know for about 2 months, not to mention that we will have 0 skills at communicating with the locals. After Joanna finished up with packing, I spent a few more hours writing down all the numbers, facts, contact info, whatever info that I can think of as being important down on a little note book. Clock was ticking, and it's getting really close to departure and I needed the sleep.

As always, things tend to go wrong after a trip has already started. Our arranged car service arrived at our front door promptly and Joanna and I loaded the 2 backpacks on the car and off we went. About 20 min away from home on the highway, I noticed that the most important item - the note book - has gone missing. I frantically searched my backpack did not find it. PANIC TIME! It was 7am, we are half way to the airport, and I didn't really want to call Rich to wake him up. "err, what to do?" I thought in my head. I had no choice but to call Rich, dug him out of his bed to see if he can find that note book in my room. Gladly, he found that the note book was sitting at the corner of my bed. I am sure my note book was wondering why I didn't take it with me for the journey, especially after hours of writing on it. Anyway, we politely asked the driver to turn the car around and head home to fetch the notebook.

When we arrived at home, saw that Rich was right by the door with a plastic bag in his hand, I was relieved. At least I got the precious book back. Rich was very thoughtful and put a few extra pen, some "green bean" snack in there as well just in case if we were to get hungry on the way. You won't be able to imagine, those beans turned out to be the life savior later on in our trip. It was just amazing how did Rich figure out that we'll need those beans in the first place.

Anyway, we grabbed the bag and asked the driver to shoot for the airport. Luckily, we had allotted more time so this little detour didn't cause us to miss out flight.

The moral of the story - if you were going to travel, try not to deprive your sleep too much. Also, check, double check, triple check, quatriple check to see if you've got everything before you leave your front door.

After checking in, and the usual hassle, we boarded, and the flight took off. A few hours later, we arrived at Thai international airport. From the air, it was a shiny, massive building with numerous planes sitting around it. I've gotta say it's hell of a nice looking airport. We didn't have too much time to spare exploring it. The first impression was that it was big but a little empty and no much to do - well, this thought was overturned at the tailend of our trip when we had to spend more than 10 hours at this airport.

J.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ascarid_j/freedom-2007/1171672680/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ascarid_j/freedom-2007/1171672680/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ascarid_j/freedom-2007/1171672680/tpod.html Mon, 08 Oct 2007 16:29:22 -0400 Taiwan and onwards to the world of unknown.

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San Jose, California, United States

I DID IT!

As a typical engineer, the productivity shoots off the roof as time approches the deadline. Magically, at 11am, the apartment turned empty and I have no idea how I did it. Starting last night until now, it's been probably the most productive 24 hours in my life.

With less than 6 hours to go and only one thing left to do (dropping of the car and catching the flight), I can finally feel the breeze of freedom flowing through the ears - hallucination caused by lack of sleep - and it is sweet. (for those of you that are reading this at work, feel jealous, very jealous of me. :P)

The flight will probably be the first chance that I get to sleep more than 5 hours over the past few weeks. I wanted to savor each and every minute of it and let the reality to set in bit by bit (what the -beep- am I doing leaving all that good stuff behind and heading into the wild?); however, I think I would fall asleep before the flight leaves the gate.

tick... tick... tick... looking forward to this chance of a life time, with a little worry, a little joy and a ton of excitment.

See you all in six months!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ascarid_j/freedom-2007/1177724100/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ascarid_j/freedom-2007/1177724100/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ascarid_j/freedom-2007/1177724100/tpod.html Sun, 06 May 2007 10:19:25 -0400 Taiwan and onwards to the world of unknown.

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Taipei, Taiwan

On the flight, I was hoping to finish the 007 movie that I saw half way on the way to China. But but but, for some reason, the pilot and the air crew just had so much to say over that short 2-hour flight such that every 5 to 10 minutes, there was a PA. How annoying... and I ended up not being able to finish that movie. Err.

At about 8:30pm, we arrived at the airport. As we were walking through the corridor, ignoring all the DFS's touts, I got a phone call from Rich and a terrible news - Mom is ill and the diagnosis was Lymphoma, again. Ah.... Why is God being so unfair to her. Why?

With this news, it will terminate my travel plan as the family needs to work on the treatment plan and help her go through this hardship.
This would mark the end of my travel blog as well.

For those who are following and reading the travel log, I apologize for the delay in the writing and pictures, I will continue updating each posting so that all the contents are filled and all the pictures are posted. It will take some time.

Wish my Mom good luck on winning this battle against Lymphoma. Until then, keep in touch.

J. & J. Apr 29, 2007, Taipei, Taiwan.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ascarid_j/freedom-2007/1177689600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ascarid_j/freedom-2007/1177689600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ascarid_j/freedom-2007/1177689600/tpod.html Sun, 29 Apr 2007 01:34:59 -0400 Taiwan and onwards to the world of unknown.

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Hong Kong, China

At 9am, we left Yuan's place and headed for Beijing airport concluding our short 2-week visit to China.

The flight has to route through HK first before we can head back to Taiwan. It's quite a painful experience. If there were direct flight between China and Taiwan, we would have been able to make our way back home in around 3-4 hours instead of having to waste the entire day on flying. Sigh, the stupid political reality between China and Taiwan making everyone's life harder. The real sufferors are the people, not those idiotic political groups and government officials who, I believe, only care about their own prosperity.

Anyway, enough political talk.

We finally arrived at the HK airport at around 2pm. Our next flight to Taipei is scheduled at 6pm. In the mean time, we'll need to reclaim the HK airport tax.

Originally, our plan was to visit China from Apr 15-27 and HK from Apr 27-30; however, after research, the accommodation cost in HK at that time is just outrageous (roughly double of the regular rate) because of the upcoming 5-1 golden week in China. So, we made a last minute change to not bother with HK and return to to Twn straight. Because of this, we had to get the HK airport tax back which was included in the original tickets.

What I find interesting is that the office for getting the HK airport tax refund is "after" you entered through the HK customs and immigration. The whole reason for getting a refund is because we are not entering HK, but we have to enter HK to get the refund. Strange. Joanna's travel document (®È¦æÃÒ) issued by PRC (¤¤°ê) cannot enter HK without a VISA. My "Taiwan Residence Travel Permit" (»O­MÃÒ) also issued by PRC (¤¤°ê) on the other hand lets me in HK without any VISA. So, I had to leave Joanna inside the HK airport while me taking all her travel documents, entering HK customs/immigration, routing through departure check-in counter area and then finding that refund office to get the money back. Err. For all intended purposes, shouldn't this refund office be INSIDE of the airport? I am just glad that we had about 4-hour transit time to get this all done. Another interesting thing is that inside the airport, most of the airport officials have no idea on what is the proper procedure in getting the refund.

Anyway, after spending about 1.5 hour, lining up at the HK immigration, finding my way to the refund office, fighting through the departure security check, I got the money back, a whopping 240 HK dollar for the two of us. :)

One thing that's great about the HK airport is that inside the terminal in the waiting area, you can find an ATM to get local currency. This is fantastic because you don't have to put up with the terrrible exchange rate from those blood-leeching money exchange booth, shops who claim to offer all-major-currency transactions, and credit card oversea transaction fee. Our exchange rate at ATM was 1 USD to 7.8 HKD where as money exchange is at 7.2, shops are at 7.1 and credit card charges 3% transaction fee on top of the lousy exchange rate. I love ATM!!! So far from our experience, it is the best way to get cash while you are aboard.

Joanna bought some UV protecting facial cream. With the leftover money, since we are in HK airport, we've gotta try some of the HK food, like the BBQ duck, Hainan chicken, etc. The food was okay.

Finally, we boarded the flight back to Taipei at around 6pm.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ascarid_j/freedom-2007/1177223340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ascarid_j/freedom-2007/1177223340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ascarid_j/freedom-2007/1177223340/tpod.html Sat, 28 Apr 2007 02:31:09 -0400 Taiwan and onwards to the world of unknown.

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Beijing, China

We are done with the Xi'an trip and now back to Beijing.
It's been almost 10 years since the last time seeing Fang Yuan, it's such a joy to be able to meet him again.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ascarid_j/freedom-2007/1176918900/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ascarid_j/freedom-2007/1176918900/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ascarid_j/freedom-2007/1176918900/tpod.html Sat, 21 Apr 2007 13:59:46 -0400 Taiwan and onwards to the world of unknown.

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Xi'an, China

Arrived at Xi'an.
Headed straight to the Xi'an Xidian University for my presentation.
I was shocked with the number of students who showed up, way more than 50 as I had originally expected. I think the presentation went well as there were quite a few questions at the end of the presentation. Also, the presentation was originally planned for 2 hours but it actually took over 3.5 hours.

Another thing to my surprise was that I was paid for my presentation. This is the first time that I got paid for presenting in front of a bunch of people. Perhaps I should consider this as a career. :)

Dinner was great, we headed to the Islamic area for dinner where the host at the university introduced us to some really authetic and great food.

Since work is all finished, starting tomorrow, it's all about fun. First, we'll head to Qing Emporor's Tomb and the Bing1 Ma3 Yong3.

J.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ascarid_j/freedom-2007/1176825000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ascarid_j/freedom-2007/1176825000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ascarid_j/freedom-2007/1176825000/tpod.html Sat, 21 Apr 2007 13:55:24 -0400 Taiwan and onwards to the world of unknown.

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Beijing, China

Since yesterday I decided to spend the entire day on working on the presentation, we can sleep a little later than usual. Mr. Ming Yu called us at around 9am to see what we were doing and was a little surprised to find that we were still in bed.

At round 10:30am, I headed over to the internet cafe to start working on the presentation while Joanna stayed back in the hotel to get ready.

At noon, we headed together for lunch at a restaurant called 9-Head Eagle. The food was quite good I must say. After that, we headed back to the internet cafe. I started working on the presentation and Joanna was watching a movie instead. At around 5:30pm, I was finally done. The presentation was titled "FPGA in Real Life" and the content covers programmable market information, some backgrounder on FPGA and my experience with FPGA.

Dinner was at a Dong1 Bei3 (East North region) style restaurant which is right next to the internet cafe. Right before heading over there for dinner, we printed out my presentation at a store that has only one window outlet. It's a lot cheaper, 0.2 RMB per page vs. 5 RMB per page at the hotel. It's only 10 min walk away and the cost can vary this much. Dinner was quite good as well. We also had a chance to try the white liquor (Bei3 Da4 Huang1) which is around 40% alcohol. It was surprisingly smooth. I didn't want to drink too much as tomorrow will be a full day of flying while presenting to a bunch of people when we arrive at Xi'an.

J.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ascarid_j/freedom-2007/1176732000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ascarid_j/freedom-2007/1176732000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ascarid_j/freedom-2007/1176732000/tpod.html Sat, 21 Apr 2007 13:47:59 -0400 Taiwan and onwards to the world of unknown.

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Beijing, China

Joanna was the guest speaker for this session.

We were there at around 9am and was done at around 11am which then we headed off for some great Beijing Duck! Although we got the bad news that Chuan2 Ju4 De2 (the hundred-year-old store) is closed for renovation starting the day we arrived, Mr. Zou found a great store to satisfy our stomache. It was sooooo good.

After lunch, instead of heading back to Xidian University for more discussion, we went to Yuen2 Ming2 Yuen2 instead. YMY is the place where Chi2 Xi1 Tai4 Hou4 spent our Qing Dynasty's limited national reserve fund which was reserved for building a modern Navy for our norther marine territories for her own garden. Err... Just the thought pisses me off....

What's left now is only a corner of the original garden. The rest of it was destroyed by those 8 countries who "CLAIMED" to be modern and liberal nations; however used their military forces to invade China, taking away much of our national treasure and burning our historical monuments. Again, whenever I thought about this part of the history, I am angry. Angry about those countries invading China while angry about us not being able to defend ourselves at that time. Sigh... Whatever that was leftover (and touched up) was still spetacular.

While we were at the YMY, I was shocked with another news. Mr. Zou (after being on the phone with Mr. Yu Ming) told me that tomorrow, the meeting at Xi'an Xidian University is a little different from what was agreed on before. My discussion on FPGA was supposed to be a bi-directional discussion on FPGA in a small group; but it turned into a full fledged speech which the university prepared a lecture hall with around 50 people attending. It's a formal event. What a change of plan.

After discussing a little more, I agreed on taking on the challenge, settling on the topic. However, I need to work through the rest of the night to plan for Apr 18's speech.

After dinner, I headed over to a nearby Internet Cafe, trying to get some stuff done. 2 hours into working on the presentation, our PCs were shut down and all data were lost. Errr....
It was because some idiotic couple decided to try their old password on a PC in this internet cafe just to see if they were able to use it for free and they succeeded. Partially, it was because that when we first logged on, we did not set a new password. (well, no one told us that we can, need, should do that.) Anyway, I lost around 2 hours of work and it was already 10:30pm. It'll take another few hours for me to catch up and finish, so we decided to give it up and try again tomorrow after a good night rest. Sigh, I had to give up the trip to the Great Wall to finish this off.

I gave a call to Mr. Ming Yu who felt quite bad that because of this mis-communication between him and the school, I had to lose my chance to visit Great Wall. Well, for me, work first, play second. :)

J.
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