- Chopsticks -
Come on people.. say it with me. B-O-R-E-D. Thats right bored. Cos thats what i am right now manning my booth at SPINNOVEX. Wasting the afternoon hours away while i could be doing smth better. sigh what a post to start out the new year with eh. haha.. Well, China trip was definitely good. The sceneary was first class..much better than Switzerland no doubt. But the hygiene.. well, lets just leave it at that. Food was pretty good too. We really ate like kings and payed like 1 to 2 singapore dollars per person. Yup. im almost ashamed of it. wahahahaha.. Well, i hope it stays like this till china is forced to re-evaluate the yuan. Let me give u a short Summary of the places i went to. =]

Chengdu
Well, i've been here before, 4 years ago to be exact. And i can pretty much say that alot has changed. More in the people to be exact. The kids there now are like Damn... They try to look cool, but really fail miserably at it. I guess the new generation teens are trying to find their place in the world's society and are still experimenting trying to find their own sterotype. It'll be worth it just to go back to see how the population finds their own identity. City wise, still as cloudy and foggy but i did notice more shops selling international brands. Shops selling imitation international brands were also on the rise. heh. Oh yeah. when i was there, they were building themselves an underground railway system. China is booming. Went to see the face changing performance at 'Su Feng Ya Yin' its no let down. Honest. The other performance like the wayang, the shadow pupet and the pupet on a stick are all fantastic performances too.

XiLing Ski Mountain
Went here next, a mere 2 hour drive from the city. but the view could'nt have changed any more drastically. the concrete jungle that we're so used to transformed into a jungle of snow capped mountains and winding rivers at their valleys before our very eyes. Amazing stuff. God's Creation never ceases to amaze and humble you. Anyway, went there for one night, and we reached abt 3pm. Went to the skiing fields to ski immediately and what can i say? Gravity doesnt like me, and never really responded to my incessive whinning abt its mistreatment to me. Anyway, i was still balls enuf to go right to the top and ski down. Twice. Fell countless of times of course. In fact during my final decent, i fell so badly the ski flew over my head, centimeters away from presenting me an early Christmas gift, namely, a concussion. The hotels there were REALLY REALLY horrid. Hot water rationing, and no heating system in the lobby or even ur rooms. Sheesh. After a night of 2 blackouts and shivering ur arse off, We awoke to a SNOWING morning. woot! After that we took a cable car ride all the way to the summit. View was killed off by the thick clouds. Couldnt really see much until the wind decided to give us a short reprive here and there. Floor was quite dangerous tho. Slipped and fell quite a number of times. but im proud to say i travelled further than the rest of the group! woot! The air was thin too man.. couldnt breathe easily. The sausage they had on the top of the mountain was also fantastic man! Sprinkled with chilli and hua jiao powder, they're like the best snack for a cold winter.

Hai Luo Gou
This has GOT to be the highlight of the trip. Took a 6 hour bus ride from chengdu to the foot of the mountain. Reached the foot about 6pm. Transfered to a so called 'Green bus' hell, it made just abt the same amnt of smoke as a normal bus. Scary journey up to the 2nd camp site where my hotel was located.. Completely devoid of any form of lighting infrastructure, the only illumination came from the van's headlights. It had to stop halfway to fit chains onto it's wheels to give the vehicle traction on the icy road.
thats when i realised there was HEAVY SNOW outside! taking my chances, i snapped a picture with my camera and lo and behold.. the entire valley lit up from the camera's flash. Reflection from the decending snow.. Millions of small hovering candles lit only for a fraction of a second. It Doesnt Get Any More Beautiful Than That.

After reaching the hotel, the girls went camera crazy and started snapping pictures with the falling snow. Oh yeah, did i mention i could see each individual snow flake's design? =P the hotel had multiple hot springs in the estate, but this traveller was too weary to take my chances walking half nude to the spring in the freezing temperatures. Especially at night. Only Uncle Allan and Auntie Jean were bold enough to take that chance. My hats off.

Morning came, and we took a van up to the first camp site. real high up, 3000m i think and we all had to wear sun glasses to prevent snow blindness. God's grace worked here, giving us the sun to part those clouds away, giving us full access to His wonderful creation. From the camp site, we took a cable car up to the summit. We passed by fields of glaciers and i even managed to see a couple of waterfalls there.. Magnificent view. Once on top, we hiked down 50m to the glacier fields to have a closer look at the huge ice glaciers. One problem tho. Each individual was supposed to have a pair of ice spikes on their shoes to give them more traction on the snow packed trails. somehow, my pair seemed to ahve argued that day, and the right side decided to call it quits and left the expedition half way into the decent. So there i was.. walking like a lame man down the steep path. But thank God that he heals the lame right? Somehow, we managed to hike down and up without anything happening to us. None too soon too. the moment we left, the clouds started rolling down the valley and headed for us.. God's grace man. Accept No Subsitutes.

Went back to our hotel for a dip in the hot springs. My feet couldnt agree more. They were too frozen from that hike to even respond. Quite literally, my feet were cold towards me. (?)Pun intended(?) Anyway, after changing into swimming gear, we rushed out into the negative degree wind. the cold just hits you like a train man.. Train with spikes.. it cuts right through ur body and ur only solice is to dive into that steaming pool of sulphuric water. Damn does it feel good. To be submurged in 40 degrees water with SNOW merely half a meter away just counts for something doesnt it? After half an hour of soaking(Did i mention its suppose to have positive effects for the skin?) We headed down to the base of the mountain to stay for a night before heading back to Chengdu the next day.

XiaMen
Last leg of the trip. Visited this coastal city to visit some of my distant relatives. My grandfather's to be exact. Met them at his hometown at Long Men. Dragon's Door when loosely translated. Nice place really.. just that the entire place is quite literally the country.. so yeah. ill leave it to ur imagination =] Played with firecrackers there.. i guess the locals must be staring at us like some kids completely devoid of a sense of fun. wahahaha.. it was only when we explained that Singapore doesn't have firecrackers did they understand our over-reaction. Last minute shopping all done at the city.. All our shopping done in the last minute before we took the flight back.. haha.. spent like 1000 RMB on clothes.. But all fantastic ones. none the less. =]

Seeked the Lord over many issues during the Trip. I guess the best way would be to put complete trust in Him. Trust in Him to provide the perfect one. Hope That Doesn't Disappoint. =]