Xx Back from Mao Land xXA'ight... Sorry for the long lapse in updates. Been kinda lazy these few days, partially coz' school's starting next week. I still haven't obtained the China trip pics from my brother yet, so no pics for now... Will post a few when I decide to get them.. Lol... Now, a textual account of the trip.
ShanghaiBoarded the plane with a fuzzy feeling in the stomach.. Thanks to the god-damned gastric flu. It was like a time bomb waiting to explode through all my guts. 2 hours- spent watching "Batman Begins"- later, the freaking feeling was intolerable... Don't really know how to describe it... It's like you want to egest, but nothing comes out. Tolerated that loathsome feeling all the way to the Hong Kong Plaza Service Apartment, which was still 4 hours away. A service apartment is basically a condo renovated into a hotel. Actually, besides the lack of a grand lobby, the service apartment is no different from any 4 star hotel. Ok, I'll spare you the details of how I resolved this freaking gastric flu. I swear I felt like a drug addict on that day.
That night, I was feeling a lot better already. So, we went to Xiang Yang Market, where all the pirate goods were sold at ridiculously low prices. You can basically haggle the price down to 1/3 its opening price! Though everything there is fake, it's amazingly similar to the original. Bought quite a few stuff there. Shoes, bag and some shirts. But the police there is kinda hypocritical, not in a bad way. Right in the middle of the market is a police post. At the doorstep a poster reads, "... illegal goods will not be tolerated...", or something along that line, cant remember. Lols... Wth? Not tolerated yet they aren't doing anything?! Hahaz.. But they can't help it. That market is packed from day to night. It's probably plays quite a significant part to Shanghai's income.
Shall skip the 2nd day. Nothing much really. 3rd day was spent at the Formula 1 racetrack in Shanghai. There were stalls set up tp sell official fan merchandise. Bought a Ferrari print shirt, for myself (Duh!), and F1 pins as souveneirs for everyone back here in SG. Anyways, the race was fantastic. Alonso practically owned everyone else. 8 seconds ahead in the front part of the race. Team tactics, I must say. Fisichella was blocking Kimi Raikkonen from getting ahead. Mean bastards.. Hahaz... The noise from the V10 engines are deafening, but the value of watching the race 'live' is priceless. Well, worth at least S$75 coz' of the tix. Lols. Bought a Ferrari and Renault flag outside from the illegal vendors. Hahaz.
After dinner, my sister-in-laws went on to buy pearls from a "clean" store. Dirt cheap pearls, seriously. They bought dunno-how-many pearl necklaces and earrings and that cost only about 1000RMB? Equivalent to S$200. Go to Takashimaya or any other jeweller, what fock can you buy with $200 except a diamond, miniscule in size compared to a full stop, strung on a string of wire? Yeps, that was about it for today!
Day 4 was spent at Xiang Yang Market again!! Wahahaha! Shop till you drop, man. This time, we had upgraded to buying stuff from their private warehouse. A lot more pricey, I must say, but extremely good looking stuff. Complete clone of the original. There were even
real LVs and other branded goods there. Watches and shoes were also among the wide array of goods on sale. These goods are from factory overruns and probably some
zei huo (Loosely translated: Thief Goods). Who cares! Their loss is our gain! Screw originality and copyright! Don't jail me, please! *Sobz* Yup, That's it for Shanghai!
Suzhou, Wuxi, NanjingA'ight... For the rest of the trip, my family set off on a private tour. 33-seater bus occupied by only 8 people, including the guide. Ain't going to go into details, coz' it's all the historical babble. And coz' the guide was speaking in Chinese, I basically wasn't very interested to listen. Lols. Not that I don't understand, it's already boring in English, it'd be worse for me in Chinese.
Since arrival in Shanghai, we'd been eating at restaurants for lunch and dinner. The prices are like, what, S$5 for a typical-sized restaurant dish. But frankly, their food isn't exactly to our liking. The locals love food that taste extreme- salty, sweet, spicy. The mildly spicy Ma Po Tofu can make you breathe fire after several mouthfuls. Fancy eating
live drunken prawns? Eckks.
The air in these areas are so much more fresher than Shanghai. Finally can get to see the blue sky and lush green grass. There isn't much shopping in these areas. Suzhou and Wuxi were the most boring areas, man. Even the hotel breakfast served in those areas sucked real bad for four-star hotels. Only in Nanjing we stayed in a five star hotel. The breakfast there is fantastic. Ham; sausages; bacon; sushi; pastries; omelettes; whatever-the-heck-you'd-want-to-eat.
Horror on SQ837 (Quite Interesting =) )
Day 7 comes. It's time to head for home! THe airport is really disappointing. They have like 10 check-in lanes for domestic flights but only a friggin' small corner for international flights. I'm not against the Chinese in China (Well, maybe a little), but they are really friggin'
kiasu* &
suaku**. And you thought Singaporeans were the ultimate
"Kiasus" in the entire world. Let me relive the horrors of Flight SQ837, flying from Nanjing Airport to Singapore at 1400hours.
Alright. 1130, we arrived at the airport and bade goodbye to the guide, who obviously got a fat tip. But she's a nice lady la. All the qualities you'd want in a tour guide. At the Int'l flights corner, a whole mob***(Serious!) of Chinese (meaning the people of China; Not referring to the whole ethnic group) were waiting outside the customs gate. Clutching tightly to the brake handle of their luggage trolleys, the Chinese wait patiently, poised and ready to rush past the customs gate as soon as the clock hit 1200. After an agonizing 30 minute wait, the gates are opened and a stampede breaks out. Like primal instincts, the Chinese charges through, only to find out there are only 2 check-in counters to serve them. Lucky they were as a group, so they had to check in at the "Group" lane.
My family checked-in without any hitches and we sauntered into the waiting hall. After about an hour, the Chinese began to stream in in small groups. We had a light lunch at the Airport cafe and relaxed at the comfy sofas, waiting for the flight time to come. In the meantime, a group of Chinese ladies came to sit down at the other unoccupied sofas. One of them was happily slurping down her Instant noodles while others went for a toilet relieve. The cafe staff approached the lady and gently requested her to leave as outside food is not allowed. But the Fucking bitch stood fast. The staff couldn't do anything, so I guess the bitch won. After 20 minutes, her friends returned. What the heck? 20 minutes in the toilet meant they probably had a lot of crap to let go. Wonder if the toilet could even flush. The staff came again to shoo them, they gave in but retorted with "How come they can sit there?" Fuck you, damn bitch. Buy a coffee and you will earn the right to sit there until you rot down to your bones. Be glad I didn't personally shove that Instant Noodle bowl up your ass.
1330 hours. We headed for the gates. My family took a seat at the plastic seats outside the gate and waited for the "Now Boarding" sign. I went to the signboard beside the gate to read what's on it. Instantly, a queue of Chinese formed behind me. Clinging onto their luggage and whispering excitedly to one another. Like what the heck?! I was just reading the sign! I left to join my family when the "Now Boarding" sign went up. The Chinese mob surged forward like opening floodgates of a water dam. We sat around until the mob dwindled down to the last few strength before queuing to get in.
Alright, the plane took off with ease and we were now en route back to Singapore. Watched Fantastic 4 & War of The Worlds(Again?) and also played the math brain teaser on the KrisFlyer entertainment system, the in-flight entertainment system. After the plane had stabilized, the seat belt sign was turned off. Almost immediately, the Chinese mob began to walk along the aisles, excited about fuck-knows-what.
They began taking videos of the cabin and out the window. Most kept pestering the stewardess to take pictures with them. They even took pictures of the sky out the window. Like, what the heck can you see, man?! Worse still, as we were sitting in the centre front area, the Chinese kept crossing from our front as the front always has wider spacing. My rather-pissed-off sister-in-law gave one of them a very well-needed dressing down. After that, the crossings stopped. Lol! This scene of the excited Chinese carried on throughout the entire flight.
As we descended on approach to the Singapore Airport, everyone was told to sit down. Yet, some members of the mob kept standing up to check out the view outside the window. Unfortunately, the stewardess could only politely but firmly remind them to sit down. I wish I could just throw 'em out of the door. LOL! 15 minutes after, we touched down on the airport tarmac. Instantaneously, cheers and applaud broke the tense silence! An invigorated mob member cheered in Mandarin,
"We have landed in Singapore safely!" Wow... Such furor! Amazing these mob members. And that particular member probably didn't know humans have been flying for more than a 100 years now.
Yep... Home at last! This concludes my trip in China. Hope I didn't make you go blind trying to read the whole post. And let's be honest, you skipped a few paragraphs (Or didn't even bother to read), didn't you?
Till next time, Au Revoir!
Note:
*
Kiasu- Afraid to lose out
**Suaku- Used to describe a person who is very backward***
Mob- By mob, I do not mean a loose gang of criminals, I just mean a whole bunch of disorderly people; Crowd
// Citizen Erased @ 12:03 AM
Xx First Semester Results xXNote: Possible sarcasm beyond this pointAlright... Just got my results at 9.30 this morning. Wasn't too bad, but as usual could be better. IPC's weightage was a rude awakening, man. Worth 8 credits per grade. GPA of 3.56 places me on the borderline of a varsity admission. So therefore, I must raise it to at least 3.70! But I'm still glad I didn't fail IPC. Results are in the screenshot below. I'm not trying to HL or something la. GPA 3.56 is quite low actually. I have 2 friends who scored GPA of 3.8+ in different courses. 1 of it is Aerospace Technology, also one of the better courses.
Also, not to mention Weijie got 5ADs and 1A+ la. So yeah, it's pure orgasmic overkill... Quote Gerard Tan who always uses orgasm as an amplifying word. Lols... All the future exams don't have to ask for his GPA liao. Be 100% sure it's gonna be 4, and maybe still have some excess though impossible la.
FYI: AD, which stands for distinction, is awarded only to the top 5% of the students taking that particular module.Ok, a simple message to the JC peeps out there. Well, at least to certain people but
definately not all. My message: "Exams, in general, are a part and parcel of everyones' life. Please do not fret or frown over it unnecessarily. Best of luck for your Promotional exams! Do look forward to the upcoming holidays!"
Yup, that's about it. Till next time, Au Revoir!
(Cont'd from above) But in a meaner tone: "Fuck you, damn whores. You aren't the only ones that have exams to worry about. So, stop complaining about how stressed you are and get over with your damn exam. I'm looking forward to your holidays so I can finally have peace from your stupid whiny MSN nicknames."
Digress a bit, a'ight? Stop giving us, polytechnic students, the holier-than-thou attitude. It's downright disgusting & loathsome. Not everyone in a polytechnic has a score of 20-over. We do have 8-pointers and below for L1R5.
Grades for Sem 1
// Citizen Erased @ 11:47 AM
Xx Bintan Rocks! xXAlright! Returned home from Bintan yesterday evening. Was one helluva great trip, man! This trip definately made the class more united and allowed us to know each other better. Sure, it shagged everyone like hell but it was a superb experience I'm glad I didn't miss!
Day 1Day 1 is quite boring, can skip if you want to.First day was kinda slow and less exciting. Everyone was kinda like dragging their feet to the chartered bus in school. The general feeling was the doubt of the trip's entertainment value. Upon reaching the ferry terminal, we learnt that the ferry was leaving in 2 hours time. Totally turned everyone off. Lols. But hey, we managed to spend those time away well enough la.
The ferry ride was kinda peaceful. Most of my classmates were catching up on some sleep and some others were playing dai-tee, the card game.
We arrived in Bintan about 45 minutes later. The water is rather clear, as compared to Singapore waters. Upon reaching the exit of the terminal, everyone was taken aback by a surprise. We found out that our transport for the next 3 days was going to be an old tin can, not literally though. The bus was super
retro sia. The windshield was decorated with a few stripes and big blue stars. The interior looked like it was going to fall apart anytime. The speedometer was not working at all, always pointing at zero. The windows were like super low and it felt as if our luggage was gonna fly out of the window anytime.
We had a cultural tour of several villages, each featuring its own special handicraft. Rubber-tapping, blacksmithing and weaving. After this, we finally approached our accommodations. It was a kelong chalet, so to say. At first, all of us grimaced at the sight of the attached toilet. There was no flush system, so all of our bodily wastes had to be washed down the small toilet bowl using a pail of water. And yes, the fluids are drained into the sea below, but the solids are probably caught in a net somewhere. That partly explains why none of us wanted to go for a dip in the water. But hey, at least we still had tap water to use and bathe. That's about it for the first day.
Kelong: Houses built on stilts upon the seaDay 2The activity of the day was hiking up the Bintan Mountain. The climb was rather treacherous. The slopes were quite steep and most of the provided rope-aids have snapped. Not even halfway uphill, it began to rain. The rain through the forest canopy was rather cooling but it had turned the trail muddy and slippery. This was when everyone began opening up and supported one another throughout the whole climb. After an hour or so of climb, we finally conquered the mountain. Most of us were expressing ecstasy, by climbing up the peak marker, while others were too worn down and preferred to sit down in the shade to catch their breaths.
The climb down was more mentally tiring rather than physical. Each of us had to think of where to step to avoid slipping. As usual, the gradients of the slopes were steep. Moss-covered rocks and fallen logs blocked parts of the trail, making the descent even more mentally stressful. Barely 10 minutes into the descent, it began to pour. This time, it really soaked everyone to the skin. Yet, this brought us closer as we guided one another to safety step-by-step.
The descent took another hour or so, I think. We were finally greeted splashing waters of the waterfall. It's believed that good luck will be brought upon those who wash their faces at that very waterfall. After lunch, we returned to our lodgings for a well deserved rest.
We had ordered a mini-show of fireworks display back at the kelong chalet. It was a rather humble show but it was still gratifying. Hey, how much can one expect for $2? The rest of the night was spent with late-night mahjong (I don't know how to play though), and star-gazing! We lay along the wooden walkways above the sea and stared into the nightsky. The entire nightsky was filled with stars and it was absolutely mesmerizing. In bright-lit Singapore, you'd probably only see the moon. I was the most efficient spotter of shooting stars among my friends. I had caught sight of around 10 shooting stars, but I didn't make a lot of wishes as I don't really believe in this kinda things. This was the best day ever.
Day 3The last day was filled with a feeling of excitement. As we packed our bags and prepared to leave the kelong chalet, there was a slight sense of reluctance. But hey, we couldn't possibly stay there forever, right? The morning half was spent on a traditional-fishing tour. It featured the old-school ways of fish harvesting. Rather interesting, but most of us were longing to return home. We were then brought to Pasar Oleh Oleh for shopping. The stuff there was rather dirt-cheap. Original Nike windbreakers were on sale for S$21 and other branded items were a good steal as well. Then, it was time to return home.
Upon reaching Singapore, 3 of my classmates and I shared a cab home. We bade goodbye to our other class and tour-mates. And with this, it was the end of the tour.
Thats about it la. Pictures are below. Still feeling shagged even after 11 hours of sleep. Heehee. Forgive my limited language, totally cannot think right now. Lastly, 1AO7 rocks! =D
Till next time, Au Revoir.
Note: I will only send the pics to broadband users as it totals a whopping 140mb. For others, I will give them to you when the new semester starts and when you have your laptop with you. Also, pictures on this blog are of a lower resolution.
Retarded Alvin
Kelong Chalet (Panoramic)
Sunrise I
Sunrise II
1AO7 conquers Bintan Mountain
Guan Yin Ma-wannabe, Alvin
1AO7 and retro bus
// Citizen Erased @ 11:46 AM
