After we disembark, rushed off for our short sightseeing in Yang Shuo City before we set off for the airport. The tour guide for our sightseeing is so nice. She knows tt we are going to catch our flight at 9pm and she took the initiative and help us arrange for transport back to the airport and help us bargain..All these done without us even requesting her to help us do. So nice of her. And the best part is, we wanted to give her some tips and she refuse to collect and passed to the driver of our transport instead…First time someone refuse tips in china siaz…really respect her to the max…So…tts concludes the Guilin trip…Must say adventurous trip for me, esp coz I did not do ANY research before going there, and the encounter with the nasty cab drivers and the nice bellboy n tour guide just make this trip more happening…..
Monday, October 27, 2008
Guilin Pt 3
After we disembark, rushed off for our short sightseeing in Yang Shuo City before we set off for the airport. The tour guide for our sightseeing is so nice. She knows tt we are going to catch our flight at 9pm and she took the initiative and help us arrange for transport back to the airport and help us bargain..All these done without us even requesting her to help us do. So nice of her. And the best part is, we wanted to give her some tips and she refuse to collect and passed to the driver of our transport instead…First time someone refuse tips in china siaz…really respect her to the max…So…tts concludes the Guilin trip…Must say adventurous trip for me, esp coz I did not do ANY research before going there, and the encounter with the nasty cab drivers and the nice bellboy n tour guide just make this trip more happening…..
Guilin Trip Pt 2
Back to the 2 drivers, apparently what she told us is a completely different story from what was agreed on the phone. So the rest of them were arguing with her and I cant really be bothered abt all her arguments and sat there to plan for our next journey, until one point when she started accusing our parents for not teaching us tt “zhuo4 ren2 yao4 you3 liang2 xing1”…and that got me so damn pissed off, that I stood up and scolded her…and that shut her up. For me, u can scold me but never ever bring my parents into the picture, else you will really get it from me…and this cab driver got it from me!!!!
So these 2 cab drivers really let us see one side of the China pple, very smart in making business and also very good at quarrelling with people. So all of you going to China, make sure you are smarter than them to outwit them.
Although this incident sort of spoil our plan and mood, we managed to find some stuff to do, like visiting the ”Du Xiu Feng” which has very nice view of the city and also a surprise visit to a local Pri sch, where we saw the sch kids queuing for "Mai Ya Tang"..some candies lah if u dunno chinese....and then we went into the school to look around...hahaa...the sch teacher even asked me if i am from Korea!!!...first time someone say i am from korea...wonder why i look like "a malaysian, AT, Hongkie and now korean" but not a singaporean..haha
Guilin Trip Pt 1
Reached Guilin airport and to our surprise, the hotel tt we booked is like 65km away from the airport and 45km from the city...and coz of the time we arrived, there is no more bus to the hotel. Had to take the cab which cost 320RMB (about 60+ Sing)..and along the way to the airport, both cab drivers stopped at the side of the road and advise us to go n stay in Guilin city instead and forgo our 5 star hotel(merryland Resort)...Spent like almost 20 mins trying to decide whether we shld go ahead with what the cab drivers suggested. To be honest, i dunno why we are so easily manipulated by what the cab drivers said...maybe singaporeans trust pple too much already....
Glad that we stuck to the original plan and checked in to our 5 star hotel....actually we were also being mis informed about this hotel, coz we thought it is located in the city, but actually its so far away. And tt gave us tonnes of headaches for the arrangement of the transportation...which result in us being Kings and Queens for the next few days. Chartering the hotel vehicle for ourselves...and on top of that, we even ordered room service almost everyday...this is an ultra luxurious trip for me..but luckily, these services after converting back to Sing dollars is still considered cheap. Alright, enough of the grandmother story....now into the main part of the tour....

Day 1: We took a raft and travelled along the river and visited several nice scenic places. And actually we kena chopped once again like a radish head(Cai Tou) coz we paid 200RMB for the raft, which in the locals eyes as astronomical price!!!!...Ok..so Singaporeans really so gullible siaz...but the scenery and the experience made up for this cai tou experience....
Monday, October 20, 2008
Mid terms.....
Will be disappearing for the next 2 weeks to officially concentrate on studying...will post more on the Guilin trip after all my mid terms...shall minimise touching this computer also..coz it is proving to be the major distraction...
Wish me luck...
and wish all those in spore luck in ur finals...
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Ping Shan Heritage Trail
Just some pictures on the trail...need to write a reflection report on it which is worth 50%!!!!...Will continue more when i return from Guilin (the China real Guilin...not spore mini version)..haha...going to catch the flight now...
Sunday, October 12, 2008
its reading week..or rather...recess week
Am supposed to attend a make up lesson yesterday..but to my horror..i woke up at 12pm.and completely missed the lesson. Oh well, guess it had become the norm for me to miss lessons here. Think i should not draw the curtains when i sleep siaz, coz once i draw the curtains, it just seems like it is night time at any time of the day. Will need the sun to wake me up..haha..After that i went to play vball and table tennis at the flora ho sports centre..and since the weather is so good, i decided to go for a swim..and tt was followed by a 20 mins jog....sports intensive day for me. Guess that is something i wun be able to do back in singapore, coz i will be too busy to do all these.
At night, went out for SUPPER at midnight. First time we decided to venture beyond bonham road, which only has 24hrs macs, for supper. So we took a cab which goes to xi huan, which is actually at the westwood area for some dessert and also dim sum. I heard tt its a culture for the locals to have dim sum around 1am to 3am and so we decided to experience that ourselves. To be honest, the dim sum place is rather messy, as in the way you order the food. No one is takng the order and every customers seems to be rushing to the counter and just grab what they want. So in the end, we decided to just follow suit. Maybe thats the typical culture ba. The food is not really fantastic but its nice to eat something warm at night and especially when i had dinner at 5pm...I just love late night suppers..haha..though i know its unhealthy..
Friday, October 10, 2008
random
Tuesday was a public holiday over here..Cheung Yang Festival, and according to what the locals told me, its a day to go hiking and drink chrysanthemum tea. And they say its to avoid the evil spirits tt are in one's home on tt day. Thats y pple dun stay at home on tt day. Its also a day to pay respect to the ancestors, something like qing ming. Well, for me, i din go hiking coz its quite hot in the day, but i went to play table tennis n vball n had a project meeting...so i sort of maintain their tradition of not staying in hall..haha..sound crappy i know...
Wednesday...my lesson ended quite early and so i decided to visit the space museum and the art museum at tsim sha tsui...mainly coz the admission is free on all wednesday..hahaha...this is money saving strategy siaz...i find the space museum quite crappy, nothing really very impressive. So i decided to watch the shows at the omni theatre. Watch "The Alps" and i find it super nice...the scenery in switzerland is ultra beautiful..totally blown me away...this is the place i so wanna go!!!...now i know why max/des likes tt place so much, coz its such an amazing place...if only i have the $$ and time..haha..then i watch the other show..which cause me to sleep almost throughout the show...complete waste of money really, its so cartoon, so low class production, so cui tt the name of the show is not worth mentioning...Yup then after which i rush back to school for the project meeting where the project is due today..only managed to finish it at 11pm and so tt means tt my dinner will be some microwave food from 7-11 again. This is super unhealthy i know, but no choice, there are no eating places near my school or hall.
Today.....woke up late for lesson as usual but rush for the 2nd half of the lecture...dun really know why i bother to rush for this lesson coz usually i dun get anything out of this lecture, coz i simply dun understand wat the prof is taking about. Maybe its just to not make myself feel guilty..haha...Also attended a talk on the current credit crisis. Think the speaker provide us with a rather clear picture of the current situation which he describe as the worst crisis in the century.
After which i rush down for the vball training for my hall. Actually, not really training coz the guys are not having the competition this semester. But basically i am helping to train the girls for their competition tmr. I got slightly frustrated at some point when they started to discuss abt the positions in court, where to stand and was like even discussing whether like this can receive the ball or not. I was frustrated coz they r simply wasting time!!! You got to try playing a few times before you know what is the problem right? and then address it after tt. Its no point talking so much abt theories behind things..so pointless..only time wasting. And i got quite sian when i see pple strolling to collect the ball, or moving from court to court. totally lack of tt kind of enthusiam a sportsman shld have.....haha..maybe i am having too much expectation and maybe i am doing too much comparison to my own training session 6 years back. Just some observations lah...no bad feelings towards anyone at all..hahaa...wooh..not bad...finally found back my passion for vball after losing it for almost a year.
Paid the money for gulin next tues already and kinda excited siaz...cant wait to get out of hk and travel into china. Next tues will be a rush day for me siaz, having field trip for one of my module in the day to yuen long till 1pm and then since its so far from school,i will need to take 2 hrs at least to reach here...and i have to be at the airport by 430pm..so what i do siaz, should i just go str8?...dunno how but i guess everything will resolve eventually, no point worrying. Just look forward to the trip.
Oh ya...received a phone call from spore on tues...its a company asking me to go for assessment test at their office next monday...but when i said tt i am overseas in hk, she said.." i am sorry tt u r currently overseas, we will have to put ur application for future reference"...so sad lor...hao bu rong yi get the first n only positive reply from all the 5 others i had applied...so was feeling quite sian at tt time. did ask myself if i had made the right choice coming here or not. But i tot tt its not time to think abt this..coz since i am already here, no pt thinking it. Just got to depend everything on luck...
Yup...so tts my past 4-5 days in hk....nothing very special or interesting..haha...will try to find some fun stuff to do these coming weeks..
Sunday, October 5, 2008
3am run...
The route that i ran seems to trace my life all these years. Very smooth and relaxing initially and after i reach the school and made a U-turn back, it was up slope all the way. The path was tough, painful and sometimes lonely but i know i can make it through and reach my destination if i persevere on. I had to believe in myself that i can. I had fell down so many times along the way and managed to pick myself up and move on. I believe i can do it too this time. Nothing will stand in my way, not even the impending storm nor the strong gusty wind blowing right in my face can stop me.
when you must maintain faith
and never let go.
It is especially during the difficult times
that you must live your life
to its fullest potential.
Those are the times to triumph
over circumstances
with hope and courage
Life isn't always easy,
But if you keep going and persevere,
To the very best of your ability,
You will gain strength to manage the new challenges ahead"
This had guided me through the toughest time of my life and i hope it can, once again.....
behind every grey cloud, there will always be a blue sky
tomorrow will be a better day =)
move on....
If something is wrong, fix it if you can.
But train yourself not to worry: Worry never fixes anything."
maybe i shld just stop worrying and move on.....
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Fireworks =)
Alright...since the heading says "fireworks" i shall post more pics on the fireworks against the hk city skyline at victoria harbour...and it lasted for 25 mins !!!!...the longest fireworks i had ever seen and its really very nice. and due to the limitations of my samsung camera for night shots..haha..i took a video n took screenshots from it...still not bad lah..haha =)




1 month overseas
I was watching the Singapore F1 on sunday...so happy to see the beautiful skyline of singapore being beamed to the whole world. That is something to be proud of really. And some of my hall pple in the pantry watching the race also commented that singapore is really a beautiful place just made me feel even more proud of the place i belong to. Was in the global lounge yesterday afternoon and the exchange coordinator here recognised me as a student from singapore n from ntu...kinda shocked me, coz i dun remember myself talking to her before. But nvm, thats good, coz at least i am recognised as a singaporean rather than from china. So signed up on behalf of the rest of the singaporeans for the study abroad fair next month, where us singaporeans in hku will be setting up a booth to showcase our country and our universities. Really a super good chance to tell everyone here that singapore is not china, singapore is not part of malaysia and we are not ah tiongs!!! I gotta start gathering pple and start preparing for the materials already.


got from the net...http://www.itv-f1.com/photo.aspx?IM_ID=50400&PG_ID=22 hope wun breach any copyrights..hahaha
And on studies...i have really been slacking 90% of the time!!!!...first time i felt so slack in my life. Haha...usually i will be busy doing this doing that, involving myself in this activity that activity. But this sem here, totally nuah diao. I gotta psyche myself to start studying siaz else cant even get the passing grade. One thing good is...i receive my motivator to study on monday!!! hahaa...the strawberry pocky!!!!...haha..back in singapore i always eat this when i was studying and i need this..in order to reward myself or motivate myself to study. Hope it does really help!!!
