Day 34

took a 40minute bus ride today to go to the Botanic Garden. My first thought was "BORING!" but it wasn't after going there. It is filled with funny events and have a great time knowing more people.

entering the garden, guan and I chose to sit on this car like thing to move around since the garden looks kind of big and we though it would take some time to cover the whole area. the car is SLOW yet easy to handle! haha!


the outside of the Botanic Garden


Guan bin and the car


Me with the car


Other people with the car.

so we moved around the whole area and was kind of lost because the sign boards are pretty rare! haha! so we had some time moving in circles while chancing upon funny stuff. Met with kok long and gang and took some photos. and even made a dumb video out of it. I see if I can get it from Guan later. haha! it was super funny and had some time laughing. the trip was pretty good as the weather is cooling and windy!


entrance to the kiwi garden.


the bamboo shoots grew in the curved manner that it formed a natural passage way! COOL RIGHT??!!


we saw someone setting up a fire. but no idea what was it for.


one of the clean and nice pond in the garden.


DIRTY pond! I wonder what is the green top layer. hmm..

well. we just went around the garden and talked alot too. crapped alot as well. it was nice knowing guan and I'm glad we were able to spend time chit-chatting. haha! after returning the car, we went to walk around the remaining parts which were not accessible by the car.


the outside of the main building inside the garden


this is actually a water fountain. just so suay it didn't shoot water up.


there's this map about I-Have-No-Idea-What-It-Says on the ceiling. took quite a little effort to get a nice shot. haha!

after which, we board the bus to go to another area in the East Lake. it is called the 磨山 scenic spot at East Lake. A place where it is built according to the chu dynasty history. so all the place has name on something about the chu people or the King.


the entrance map to tell us all the places we can visit.


along the path way


the real entrance to the 磨山


and we saw this NICE ENTRANCE! it looks like those ancient times where people go in and out of the city. haha!

we managed to go to a few places to look at the different scenery which is very nice! on top of the cooling weather, WOOHOO! BEST MAN! during the walk, I was with the ME guys most of the time. it was quite fun to talk with them and hang around with them. super cool! =)


the top view from the main entrance.


the street area where there are many shop houses. like those in old times.


the far view of the Phoenix Tower


Guan and another person climbed up to this statue to take a photo. CRAZY. haha!


entrance to the Gardens of the Chu Talents.


and oh! we saw this dart throwing stall and archery stall. most of us went to try. of course, I went to try as well. here are some pictures on it..


the 小李飞刀 board for people to throw the darts and shooting stars


the shooting items


Jacob with the shooting products


Trying out archery. SHOOTS!


the black pig is won by someone else in the basketball shooting. Guan just took it and attached to his specs. very funny look!


then we went up 322 steps to go to the Phoenix tower to watch a musical play. it is quite worth the climb as the top view was super NICE and also the musical play was quite nice. I feel. and there's one idol of the day which I met. This old man climbed up and down 150 steps for around 7 to 8 times while we were waiting for Jacob to come up from other places. he climbed up and down NON-STOP without REST! WOW! and we got to know from him that he does 10 rounds (considering one up and one as 1 round) everyday!! WAH! and we were all amazed by his calf muscles man! SUPER!! haha!


our tour guide of the day. she can climb! haha! there is funny thing about her while we were walking with her. She asked some of us (4 guys actually) two questions which were very hilarious. One was why our side has alot of guys while the other batch (those from WUST main school) has alot of girls. so we answered we were from different courses. and guess what she asked next? here is the question.
"Is it that Singaporean guys are more handsome while the ladies are less pretty (in comparison to China)??"
HAHAHAHAHAHHA! SUPER FUNNY LA! Guan and I ALMOST LAUGHED OUR VOICE AWAY! haha! gosh. I wonder why she asked that. Hmm.. o.O


notice the old man jogging up the steps? he is the IDOL OF THE DAY! and probably the whole trip! MAN! he IS fit!


the steps from bottom view.


after the trip, we headed to another part of the East lake and look around. nothing much. just went to paddle a mini boat and talked to some of my friends. had some peaceful time while Jacob and gang did stupid things once again. haha! but i shall not mention about it.

went back. had a farewell dinner which was held by An Yuan zhang I heard. the food there were ALOT and there's 30dishes in total! SUPER ALOT LA! my table took some food and shared around. and many people started to get high as they went to sing KTV one by one. Jacob and zhengwei they all went with some of the China students as well to the KTV outside. I wonder how they are doing right now. haha! oh wells.

Random photos of the day...





All of us are trying to be CHIO but FAILED. wanna know why? because we are all TOO HANDSOME ALREADY! hahahaha! =P


REFLECTION OF DAY 34, SATURDAY, 27th SEPTEMBER 2008:

Time: 9:55pm

Today’s trip was to a few gardens that are popular around the East Lake area. The trip is very fun and I was able to make a lot more new friends.

From today’s attempt to know more people who are not in ICT, I’ve learnt that it is really up to our effort to make things happen. Like having to mention previously that I want to learn to be able to be comfortable with people whom I’m not very familiar with. It takes one self to step out of the comfort zone to do so and I’m really glad I did today. I had a lot of great time chatting with a few ME guys especially with Guan bin. Had a lot of fun and laughter even as we know each other more and chatting.

I feel that only by stepping out of comfort zone to know people will then make the trip even more worthwhile as one will get to know more friends. Without knowing new people, one will find the trip a little boring as you will always be in the same environment and not trying something different. It is the same as the new activities over here. If we don’t try and explore, we will find things over here boring.

Overall, learning to know more people by stepping out of my comfort zone is something which I want to achieve in this trip. Getting to know more people from the ME side would be one of the ways. I hope to better improve and be able to open up faster next time.

Learning in progress: Knowing people who are unfamiliar/stepping out of comfort zone to do things