9/07/2008
WARNING: LONG LONG POST.. haha!
After being cut off from internet for almost two FULL DAYS, I've now come to update and be warned. It will be a long long long long long post. haha! with quite a number of updates.. =)
DAY 13early morning we had to board the bus to make our way to 绿林景区. It is about 3hours bus ride from WUST and man! it was such a nice timing for people to sleep on bus! haha! anyway, we had a quick lunch at the restaurant over there before we head out for our first activity on the itineary - WATER RAFTING!
*Sorry no pictures cause water ah.. Camera cannot tahan water*
Well, after rafting, MY PANTS TORE!! haha! I was super sian but it was alright. Cause I brought along extra pants! Clever Bingrong eh? haha! we went to this place where they provide bathing facilities. It was pretty nice as there is HOT WATER and yea, it was nice after 2hours of rafting. Oh. Did I mention we rafted 6.7km?? haha! it was tiring but FUN! I'm so gonna bring my friends along the next time. hahahaha! make them suffer! =P
after the tiring rafting, we went to this place called 美人谷. It is like a place where you can see nice waterfalls and other nice scenery. The place is pretty breezy and well, it makes looking around feels comfortable! haha!

we took this raft to travel a short distance. Take it as our slacking time so we can rest from walking. haha! =P

side view of the raft
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One of the nice scenery on the lake.
well, after that we walked and walked and walked. saw many nice waterfalls. mini and BIG ones.. they were all SUPER NICE! =) I hope that Singapore would have something like that. haha!

Those people behind are crossing the mini bridge which is around everywhere. It looks dangerous but steady!

One of the BIG waterfall! NICE RIGHT??!!

my attempt to take the waterfall and myself in together.. not a bad shot i would say.

Zheng wei and guoyuan. I have NO IDEA what the pose was for. haha! =P

one mini waterfall coming up! I like the rushing water part. very cool and nice! =D
so we continued walking until we came to a small stop at this pavilion place and another waterfall. it was almost the end of the tour at the place. but overall, I felt worth it walking around as these are sights which you will NEVER in your life time see it in Singapore. haha!

Guoyuan and Jacob.. Jacob looks like some xiang xia ren. haha!

Jacob and guoyuan.. this time.. looking VERY RETARD.

WEEE!! I look stupid -.-

group photo in front of a waterfall. =)
Well, after that we headed for dinner and then to our hotel room! I tell you, it is FILLED WITH BUGS MAN! First a HUGE grasshopper.. then SPIDERsssssss.. then when I was about to sleep, ANOTHER HUGE GRASSHOPPER! haha! i was like SIAN 0.5 haha! cause I was afraid that the bugs will sleep with me when I'm asleep. then got bit by them, I will become WHATEVER-BIT-ME man. hahahah! ok lame. haha! so we slept at 11plus after a few rounds of daidi with the guys.
DAY 14Woke up to prepare early as we need to meet by 730. rushing to pack up and had to rsh zheng wei to be quick (p.s he always takes ages to bathe one) haha! yeah.. so while zheng wei was bathing, I took some shots. =)

This is how the room looks like after one night of sleep.

More to come.

me FULLY PREPARED to check out liao. haha! ^^
anyway, we had breakfast and went to this pretty killer tracking on the 800++ meter high mountain. we saw lots and lots of stuff and I don't really remember them all. So I'll let the pictures speak it all. =)

this is the starting point of our death march. haha!

Look at how STEEP the steps are?? COOL RIGHT?? ur legs can break if you walk this 3times a day!

Reached one of the rest point. ICT guys and Mr. Tan!

Me pointing to a mini gate of our resting point.. nice shot! Credit goes to Boss, Jacob. =)
after like 10minutes of rest, we continued our journey through this forest or whatever you call it. on our way, the guys were bored and we started doing funny faces. we were trying to see who is the best! haha!

the starter of the game, Zheng wei. he looks funny doing funny faces. DURH

Next is cheng teck.. even his funny face looks like his usual smiles =P

Guoyuan. he got commented from us that he somehow looks like some 10 years old kid. haha! but really what...

yours truly doing funny face.. I think it looked scary rather than funny. hahah!

The CHAMPION of the game, Jacob. Like what Zheng wei said, he has the most IMBA face. or lay-man terms, the BEST face to do funny faces. hahaha!
so the journey went on and on and on until we came to the second resting point. We saw this yuanyang tree where it is supposedly for people to make a wish to find their partners. then there were many other statues and props around it to play with! haha!

This is me trying to pull out the BIG and HEAVY weapon. but to no avail -.-

Jacob with this warrior called 刘秀.

a picture of the yuanyang tree where many people pinned their hopes on. haha!

oh. I made a blooper out of the warrior. =P sorry ah. hand itchy. and if those people played this in your secondary school days, you would know what it means. haha! =P
then we went to this place where it leads to "Heaven". haha! it has a nice top view and it had quite a difficult road to go up. what we call, stairways to heaven.

The entrance.

Zheng wei pretending to look scared. haha!

The stairways.

TOP VIEW! ^^ SUPER LOVE IT!

the sign board which leads us to the Heaven. haha!
well, we were at somewhere near top of the mounatin. and we took at bus to go ALL THE WAY to the top. to look at some war area. haha! it is VERY COOL I TELL YOU! its BIG AND SPACIOUS!

the view from top of mountain.

one of the entrance. its called the 东门.

Jacob trying out plank boarding on the slope.

Me being a REAL WARRIOR using stick to fight! haha!

The commandant camp. Looks quite cool lei.
So we went to walk around some more before taking the bus and go back for lunch and then back to apartment. Seriously, they are like training our physical body like that. haha! first the arms and upper body. then the lower part of the body. I think we will train our spirit when we are at Wudang Mountain. hahaha! CRAZY! lol. oh well.
played some basketball just now. Been a long time since I've done that. I think I deproved like SUPER ALOT. haha! and we are going to have a match with some of the china students tomorrow evening. Looking forward! haha! the last we played, we lost with the score of 7 - 11. haha! not too bad for all the deprovers. haha! =P
well, gonna sleep soon. Bless those in China and Singapore to enjoy their coming new week! =)
REFLECTION OF DAY 13 & 14, SATURDAY + SUNDAY, 6th & 7th SEPTEMBER 2008:Time: 11:15pm
Two days at 绿林景区 was a very different experience for me as it is a little different compared to Wuhan. From lifestyle all the way to food, it is considered living in a different environment for the two days.
Throughout my 2 days, other than trying out new sports like water rafting and conquering a 800meters plus mountain tracking, I’ve also took the chance to learn something from my observations about the surrounding. There are two major observations which impacted me the most during my two days worth of stay.
Firstly, the people (shop owners to be exact) are rather competitive yet friendly towards each other. When some of us came over to get sandals made of straws for water rafting, they were anxiously trying to get us to visit their shops. They used various means such as giving discounts or trying to direct us to their shop so that we would buy the goods from them. However, once we settled down on one of the shops, they were just like normal friends helping out each other and chit-chatting. It is simply a shocking scene as I thought such competitiveness would usually cause strained relationship since they needed/wanted business badly. From that, I compared it back to business in Singapore. People usually look after their own needs and care for themselves only. There are however, the minority who would put relationship over business profits, but not many in Singapore. If Singapore would have such attitude when it comes to business, I would think that business in Singapore will become better as they are able to retain more customers due to their friendliness/warm welcome.
Another thing which I observed was their service at the hotel. Although the hotel is not those grand hotels that we see in Singapore, the service that they provide are fast and up to standard. What I mean is that they respond to requests quickly and were able to provide solutions to problems within the fastest possible time. Even though their solutions are simple due to lack to equipments, it is that sincere heart of serving which captivates their customers. Even if their hotel rooms are not in the best condition or does not have nice equipments, their attitude to give in their best in serving is what it counts in such industry. As I have stayed in a few hotels in Singapore before, some of their services are half-hearted as they were not 100% willing to serve the customers. This resulted in unsatisfactory stay at times which in return, decreases the hotel’s popularity due to negative comments being spread out. I thought if Singapore’s hotel service management would increase their standard in having such attitudes, they would succeed even better.
In conclusion, I think that having a good attitude and positive mind set brings a more successful path to a person in whatever they are doing as this is one important factor which all should have to pursue success in life.
Learning in progress: Better observation skills