{"id":1802,"date":"2023-02-18T15:04:59","date_gmt":"2023-02-18T15:04:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.buyuchen.org\/?p=1802"},"modified":"2023-04-10T13:58:42","modified_gmt":"2023-04-10T13:58:42","slug":"sabbatical-week-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.buyuchen.org\/?p=1802","title":{"rendered":"Sabbatical Week 12"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Opening<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Malaysians are all so kind; Kuching is very affordable. Penang is so beautiful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A foreigner boarded a local bus in Penang without change (by law, bus drivers don’t carry changes), a passenger helped out immediately with his small notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I asked where the bus lane to the Airport, a local gave me an answer right away. I stood at the stop for a bit confused. The local ran to the lane and told me about more buses I can take.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are just two small examples. All of them are so honest and helpful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Day 1<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Travel day to Thailand! (180k) – Didn’t sleep quite well with the two guys snore like thunders in the dorm and my top bunk being slightly too warm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Got myself some Muesli 40k with a coffee<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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TukTuk ride the bus terminal!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The bus was quite nice and not very full, I sat in the very back row with unlimited leg room. Had some nice chat with a couple from Germany<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At the Lao – Thailand border. First was to get the exit stamp from Lao<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Walk to the Thailand after the neutral zone<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I had to get another Thai eSIM ($9 – really overkill for like 72hours) due to some stupidity that I erased the old one otherwise i’d be much cheaper to top up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Checked in to my hotel and relaxed with a Chang<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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70k<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hotel was $17.62 (500 baht walk in) I booked on Agoda in advance because there were hotels that were fully booked already.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I ordered some take outs. Felt quite tired from the lack of sleep previous night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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103B – Wonton noodle soup. Finally some decent food<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Took a nap but ended up feeling a bit sick. Took a walk outside to see the parks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Didn’t quite walk to the night market. Might have caught a bug somewhere. Maybe it’s from the Chang. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ended up ordering Isan food and some fruits instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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around 200B – I just didn’t have any appetite to eat anything savory<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Woke up a few times to use the toilets. Not sure if it’s the food or I already sick from the previous night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Day 2<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Dragged my tired body out of bed to catch an AirAsia flight ($37.53) to DMK (Bangkok) to catch my train to Malaysia $28.72<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Got a cup of coffee and some pastry for breakfast (100b)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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My flight with a jet bridge! what a treat!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Seats are surprisingly comfortable<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In just under an hour, we arrived at DME (Bangkok)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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View from the DMK terminal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Robots doing the cleaning! even in Thailand<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I needed to take the new Red Line SRT to the Bang Sue central station which just opened late Jan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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View on the bridge that’s connects the rail to the airport terminal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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View from the rail platform<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Waiting for my train to arrive. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It’s only 42B<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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View on the train.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In just about 40min, we arrived at the newly built train station. It’s still pretty early (3 hours before the my train to Malaysia border departing!), I decided to get a light lunch since I wasn’t sure how the food would work on the train.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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duck rice for 60B. My last proper Thai meal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Finally boarded my sleeper! $28.72<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My adjacent mates were all Thais, super nice. tried so hard to be helpful (offered me their food and tried to help me ordering mine as well despite not speaking much English)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Train’s moving now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Watching sunset on the train<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Shortly after dark, the train attendant came in to set up my bunk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pretty nice bedding!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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My bunk mate’s food. I was too late to order one myself.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I had bad food from some random vendor selling on the train, that I had to run to toilets like 4 times which deprived me sleep. Oh well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Day 3<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

At around 10am, we arrived at the Malaysia border. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We quickly stamped out of Thailand and stamped into Malaysia. Bought my commuter train ticket to Butterworth (12.8RM)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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View on my local train<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Arriving in Butterworth<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To get to Penang, I needed to also catch the ferry (2RM)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Waiting at the ferry terminal. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Boat that took me across the water<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Said goodbye to the lovely Canadian – Malay couple who sat next to my train to Malaysia<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Penang here we come!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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First impression! very clean<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Checked into my hostel (42RM + 10RM for the towel rental)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Socialized a bit and found a Portuguese to eat dinner with. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My first proper Penang food! Milky wheat noodle soup! yummy! (14.5RM)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Walked around a bit after dinner around Love Lane<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Street arts<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Found this very cute arts gallery where you can buy and send post cards in the future!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Went back to socialize a bit more with a British. He’s funny, he initially told us how he liked Asia more comparing to South America where he just went. After I questioned more clearly everything in SA was amazing! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“British” beer (10RM) + local snack<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Narrowed dodged the thunderstorm<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Day 4<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Woke up early. Didn’t sleep much due to the loud motorbike noise at night. Nevertheless, walk day!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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hmm Chinese praying?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

First thing was to locate an ATM. Found one in a shopping mall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Not sure about this brand<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Saw a food joint that’s quite popular among locals, decided to have an economy rice (16B – not so economy. hmm)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I think I got too much protein.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Food coma from the lunch, then it’s coffee time! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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10RM<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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View from a sky bridge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Break!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Desert time – black rice with purple beans (12RM)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The shop owner retired from a corporate job and sold everything to own a desert shop (she’s in her only 40s). We chatted the meaning of life that wanting to pursue our own destiny and happiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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diagonal cross walk <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Went to a lovely food museum. (30RM)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Walked to a Jetty to chill a bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At the jetty!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Finally tried some local desert called Candol before heading back to the hostel<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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5RM<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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More street art!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dinner time, tried some local Chinese food called chow kuey teow<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I5.9RM including a drink – shrimps are a bit old <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Someone else got a laksi, it’s a bit better. but still not exactly that great. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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curry noodles<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Day 5<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Hiking day! Took a bus to near the Penang Hill trailhead (2RM)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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View on the bus, quite a comfortable bus ride too<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In just half an hour, I arrived at the foot of Penang Hill<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Started ascending on such beautiful day<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Not too many food options, got myself a croissant and coffee<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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$4.37US<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I decided to do the Habitat since it’s right by the coffee shop. (48RM)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While the views were nice. I don’t think I got much out of it since the hike offered pretty view to begin with. Certainly not worth the hefty price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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hmm<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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It’s getting quite late (almost 5pm) I started to hike down than taking the train which would have costed me 30RM. I also thought sunset views might be nice<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Way down<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Train bridge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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There were some houses spreader around the trail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Caught a glimpse of the train car<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here’s trail end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A Chinese temple <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Lower station of the train<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hopped on a bus to get back to town<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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view from the bus<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A quick rest for dinner<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hostel mates sampling different local cuisines<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Got a shrimp cracker, assam laksa (9RM) and mutton satays (14RM). The satays were good.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Desert time. 5.5RM<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Later on we decided to get drinks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The guy turns out to the owner of the entire love lane (billionaire) and single handled created the night life in Penang 15 years ago. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The guy decided to buy us free drinks, he asked where we were from and used every person’s language to greet us and even Sichuan dialect. What a legend!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Day 6<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Chill day in part is I needed time to recover from the hike the day before. I also had to move to a different place to stay due to the hostel being completely booked. I needed a night to rest anyways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around midday we decided to go out to try a local desert shop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I ended up ordering everywhere on the menu<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Curry rice was quite good!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The “zhongzi” didn’t taste quite to my palate <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Definitely needed a coffee after the meal ($14.91 for two). The shop was cute will all the murals and books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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$3.53<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Later we met up with the Malaysian \/ Canadian couple to catch up and then we went to the mall to get dinner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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18.5RM<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Day 7<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to see some mansions, the couple decided to treat me for breakfast. Hard to say no to free breakfast especially when they are so nice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Got myself americano (9RM) to wait for my flight ($56.87)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Got a bus (2.70RM) to the airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There’s a premium plaza lounge in Penang Airport<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I didn’t eat much since I was really tired for some reasons. The longan stew is good<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Watching planes taking off<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Boarding now.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Penang bridge to Butterworth<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In just short of 2 hours, we arrived in Kuching international<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sunset<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Kuching city<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Took a grab to the city center for only 14RM (about 8km), what a steal! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My private room was also only 45RM, and there’s a hawker center downstairs!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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12RM for a beef noodle soup!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Beer for 3.5RM.. dang that’s cheaper than Thailand<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That’s it for this week!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Expenses<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Week 12<\/td><\/td><\/td><\/td><\/td><\/tr>
Day<\/td>Food&Drink<\/td>Lodging<\/td>Transportation<\/td>Other (tickets\/tours etc)<\/td><\/tr>
1<\/td>$13.38<\/td>$17.62<\/td>$15.28<\/td>$9.00<\/td><\/tr>
2<\/td>$14.39<\/td>$0.00<\/td>$68.78<\/td>$0.00<\/td><\/tr>
3<\/td>$12.04<\/td>$12.20<\/td>$3.08<\/td>$2.70<\/td><\/tr>
4<\/td>$15.01<\/td>$13.58<\/td>$0.00<\/td>$6.82<\/td><\/tr>
5<\/td>$16.07<\/td>$9.71<\/td>$0.91<\/td>$11.26<\/td><\/tr>
6<\/td>$20.03<\/td>$20.38<\/td>$0.00<\/td>$0.00<\/td><\/tr>
7<\/td>$3.02<\/td>$11.55<\/td>$60.36<\/td>$0.00<\/td><\/tr>
<\/td>$93.94<\/td>$85.04<\/td>$148.42<\/td>$29.78<\/td><\/tr>
<\/td>Total<\/td><\/td>Grand Total:<\/td>$357.18<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>
Slightly overspent on transportation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Opening Malaysians are all so kind; Kuching is very affordable. Penang is so beautiful. A foreigner boarded a local bus in Penang without change (by law, bus drivers don’t carry changes), a passenger helped out immediately with his small notes. I asked where the bus lane to the Airport, a local gave me an answer… Continue reading Sabbatical Week 12<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sabbatical","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.buyuchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.buyuchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.buyuchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.buyuchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.buyuchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1802"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.buyuchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1921,"href":"https:\/\/blog.buyuchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1802\/revisions\/1921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.buyuchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.buyuchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.buyuchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}