CREDITS
designer:haryani
Sunday, December 19, 2004
China.
China.
[WARNING:LONG PIECE, read only if very free and have lots of time to spare.]
Going out with my lao niang (which is also my mum) later on. Gotta buy a new pair of track shoes cos' I can't keep sharing shoes with bin forever eh?
Hmm...lao niang's not even getting ready to go yet,so yeah,might as well blog about my China holiday right? She takes forever anyway~
OK!
I took a 4 hrs + flight to Chengdu International airport on the 6th of Dec at around 6 am. So yeah,I had to get up at 4 to get the luggage and stuff ready~ The inflight meal was erm....alright lah...except for some mystery black stuff here and there which I highly suspect to be soot.
Other then that, nothing special about the flight,still kinda bummed out about the 'cannot see sunrise cos ' it's too cloudy' thing.
Hmm...we reached the Chengdu International Airport weary and sleepy-eyed. Cos' of that we almost ended up following the wrong tour~
After that we slept on the coach called 'King Long' all the way until lunch.
The thing about Sichuan food is it's speciality in 'Salt', 'Spicy' and 'Tongue-numbing' qualities. Besides that,it's the usual, too oily (everything was swimming in oil ok!) too salty, too hot and too much (the portions were so big that even Africa could be fed ok!).
Good thing for the rest of the tour our tour guild always called the restaurant beforehand to tell them "less oil,less salt,less chili".
Our guild was this Chinese Local who is extremely fluent in mandarin. He could recite out long Tang Dynasty poems and other famous verses which out Singaporean teachers don't teach. He also had a very extended knowledge of Chinese history which would put any history teacher to shame. One of the most knowledgeable tour guilds I've met so far. Another amazing thing was how young he was. Early twenties in fact~(he was complaining about how he could not get married cos' China has this ridiculous 'under 24 cannot get married' rule).
OK~During my visit there I went to JiuZhaiGou.
A famous tourist attraction for it's dazzling clear blue lakes/rivers/ponds, white waterfalls and dense forestry.
Wow. It failed to disappoint. The scenery was so shockingly pleasing to the eye. There was this giantic waterfall so fast and white that it looked like a sheet of shooting snow. And a lake with sunken trees in it. What's so fascinating about that?
Ahem. Trees are supposed to float on water remember? I forgot that for a second too~lol~ Not only that,these trees are from dunno how many hundreds of years ago and well preserved by the minerals in the water. That and the clear blue green water. Wahhhh~~It was so beautiful that I almost salivated ah~
The only thing I really disliked was the friggin low temperature[ most of the time 0 and below degrees] and the low pressure there.[ I was 2500++ m above ground level.] That made a simple task of climbing perhaps 2 flights of stairs seem like a 2.4 km run without air. I don't think it's because I have a lousy stamina cos' I'm pretty confident of my stamina. [A for 2.4 k!]
Maybe because of the whole low pressure and low temperature many of the older folks in the tour fell ill. That included my mum. So yeah,I think she hated the whole thing~
Visited Fairy Pool too. There we saw this incredibly majestic frozen waterfall ,frozen lakes (which had layers of ice that wouldn't break not many how heavy a rock we throw at it) and of course...30 cm thick snow! [ yes,I've satisfied my fascination with snow]
Hmm...ahh..yes,played with fire crackers(the long red kinds people used to play with during chinese new year) and we got to set off fireworks (the kind you see during National Day). Got hit like 6 or 7 times by come clay like stuff used to seal up the fire crackers cos I was too close to them. 3 m away and still too close. Sheesh. Nevertheless the sight of fireworks in the starry sky was truly mesmerizing...reminded me of something long ago...
Haha~past.
Back to topic.
What I couldn't tah han was the freezing hotels we stayed in. They were 4 to 5 star hotels, BEST in the region. Crap.There was this hotel which had a heater that blew out friggin cold air from the outside from 1 am onwards, one didn't even have a heater.[ Had to sleep in 4 layers of clothing and 4 blankets]
Another had this stupid 'only 8:30 to 10:30 have heater and hot water' rule. This one called 'Mao Xian' even had this smell of decay in the entire room. One of the other put-offs of these hotels are the rude hotel personel some of these hotels had. [Ask for 2 more blankets cos' your friggin hotel has no bloody heater got problem ah!! ]
And they wonder why China's tourism industry couldn't take off.
Think China's all about scenery?
Think again.
They had this ski resort which didn't have snow so they offered grass ski-ing instead. There is no typo, they really had grass ski-ing. Just that grass ski-ing is more difficult cos' friction is greater. At that grass-ski-ing/ski resort they also had go-carts and this four wheeled motor bike which I have no idea is called what~
I think the lady in charge of those four wheeled motor bike was terrified by the way us Singaporean kids handled the bikes~Lol~
Cos'....
At first I didn't have a clue about how to ride the four wheeled motor bike and almost crashed right into the fence~ =.=" So this lady climbed behind me and kept screaming at me to go slower~ For the second round she finally allowed me to ride alone. So I went full speed.
The feeling of cold air just gushing at you was fantastic!
Andre and this other kid went too fast for their own good. Toppled over as a result.
Kinda reminds me of the time when Andre was still learning to walk...That time my mum bought this round thing with wheels attached that allows babys to walk...Andre was walking around in that weird thing...then he came towards me in the kitchen...he accidently tripped over the floor mat and THUMP! he's upside down. Balancing on his head. WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA~~~ Being the super mean sister I am,I just kept laughing at him while he had this 'want to cry don't know should cry or not look'~~ so cute!!
Enough reminisce.
At China I also went to play this war game. The kind with it's environment made to stimulate a war scene. My sis,this ex-sniper from SAF ,the father of the family I was touring with and me were on the blue team. the three brothers (of the family I toured with) and my brother on the other team.
When we came out, the dude I aimed at most of the time was covered in red ,paint that is. Lol~Poor thing~
The ex-sniper praised me for my accuracy at shooting.
All thanks to NPCC eh~ lol~
Along the journey to JiuZhaiGou and back the bus went past lots of tribes. They had quite a number of coloured flags everywhere, outside their homes,along the roads,in graveyards, temples,etc.
If you look closely those flags have tiny scriptures written on them.
That's cos' these tribal people believe that everything which moves holds power. And these flags are sorta to tap onto the power of these moving things,therefore reading the scripture on their part. Respect the religion beliefs of others, thus I have no comments.
Hmm...back in the city(Chengdu) we also visted this FengShui house. Very enlightening experience. This fengshui master told us about karma. "All bad you commit would come back to you. Similarly,all good you perform would come back to you." How true.
Also,apparently the reason why people always lose money in Genting also has something to do with fengshui. [Clue: think along the lines of the chinese 5 elements].
Had only about 3 hours out of the whole 10 day trip to shop in Chengdu. The city stuff was ALOT more expensive then those in the rural areas I visited. Despite this, I had loads of fun window shopping nonetheless~They had a wider array and range of goods there at VERY attractive rates. I was just itching to find something I like. Alas,it was too much of a rush..so didn't buy much.
Hmm.....the toilets in the city was alright...the rural places....OMG.
Just the smell of the 'lobang' in the toilets is enough to keep anyone away from them. But....I just went in to have a look at what China is most famous for anyway.
EWWWWW~
It was like this, one long rectangular hole, with many short separating wooden boards. There were no flushes,no toilet rolls,no sanitary bins, nothing. Just the hole and someone else's 'lobang' from who knows how long ago starring right at you.
Hmm.....the shows aired in China were pretty good. Better than Singapore's propagandistic drama serials and not so funny comedies.
Well...guess that's about all...
China's setting it's gears ready for flight, maybe flying already.
I kinda look forward to seeing what she's gonna become in the future. I personally feel that China will be able to take this world by storm and accomplish what Singapore may never achieve.
Just hope that by then Singapore would be ready for her.
Just hope that by then Singapore would be able to fly alongside her, maybe even in front of her.
Hope,hope,hope.
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