Wuhan: Day 21

The day our trip hit half way, was the day I had my first test for APPG, it didn’t turn out too bad though, and I can ace it. I’m sure of it. My personal stalker has made the tendency to web cam me almost every day, AWWWWWWW. She’s just been such a good friend these days. She’s just in this one sided relationship now and she needs someone to talk to, me on the other hand, needs contact with the outside world (Singapore) so, I owe her uh… picnic at botanic gardens when I get back. Of course it’ll be hard cause I have to rehearse for singing at the SOE FOP. I’m going to kill it.

Okay so back to today, it’s been a rough day, apparently, had a minor quarrel with one of my friends Cristofer. Childish issue, but a lot of logic in it, my side of course, I was juvenile as well. After the test, we had another APPG lesson. And TODAY, wow finally we went to play basketball again, everyone has just been so lazy, it’s a good thing we did today. I don’t know what else to write, being forced to do a journal really gives me a mental block.

Anyway, todays reflection is, carpe diem (seize the day). OH and a lot of the quotes written all over the walls of the corridor OF the school are meaningful. I hope I remember to bring my camera and take a few pictures of them. Anyway, back to carpe diem, a lot of things we do here, are not what we really want to do or intend to do, because we are too shy to express ourselves, so in turn, here I am writing about seizing the day, probably because, I regret not walking up the Wudang Mountains and a lot of other stuff but this is just one of the examples I can think of right now. Fatigue has hit me hard, I think I’m going to sleep early tonight, until tomorrow guys. H`asta La Vista.

P.S I got into french for IS module! ArcEnCiel ArcEnCiel ArcEnCiel BABY! (Arc-en-ciel means rainbow in french, no im not gay, but dont you think Arc-en-ciel is just so darn fun and cool to say? =D )

Wuhan: Day 20

Oh my oh my, its day 20 already, the days on the calendar are flying off the walls as though they were vouchers for an all you can eat buffet. I’m half way there guys, only another twenty two more days till I’m back in Singapore. My stalker for one, is one of those who are missing me. This stalker, who is now deemed as my best friend, has been with my almost all the way since the day I left for Wuhan, this stalker, is none other than Nadia, most of you may know her as my ex, but for now, she’s my best friend. We just get along SO SO well.

Okay, so here to bore you with the days details, had class today, APPG trail test, I THINK I can ace it tomorrow. The trail test was done with A LOT of ease I tell you, I strolled right through it. a lot of people found it hard though, it`s basically just remembering the concepts and what codes go where. That was pretty much my day, except for the “hardcore” revision I had-done, am-doing. Right now, all that’s on my mind is shopping, I need to shop, like REALLY. I have tons to buy, for myself and such, for crying out loud, I brought t-shirts I could throw away because I knew I was going to shop a lot for myself, BUT NO, no shopping done yet. I need to buy clothes, if not, a lot of the pictures I take of myself (against some background of course) will be me in hideous clothes. Haha.

Reflection for today? Bring nice clothes no matter where you go, so you can take nice pictures and also, do take note, my best friend has made some things clear to me about myself, MY GOODNESS.

H`asta La Vista.

Wuhan: Day 17,18,19 (Wudang)

Seventy two, seventy three, seventy four, seventy five, seventy six, seventy seven. A sleepless night has led me here, even the counting of sheep doesn’t help. So I have decided to write my journal entries, trying to make them as interesting as possible. Avoiding the possibilities to bored you guys.

Hello again, the past 3 days I haven’t written anything partly because uh, I was lazy and we went to the Wudang mountains for 2 days. SO, I shall not talk about day 17 although this title says I would. It was just basically classes, and getting ready to go. So let us see, we woke up early on day 18. Thank god for my awesome hostel mates, waking us up almost every day ever since we got to Wuhan. (Us as in Stefen and I). So the journey there was 6 hours? Let me count eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, one ( or two) . So roughly 6 or seven hours to get to our “4 star” hotel lunch, which tasted alright for china food I guess. Oh, whatever photos I thought were nice, I posted below, other than that, the whole trip photos are in the picasa album. Continuing on, the toilet was legendary there this is some serious shit. The moment you step into the toilet, say sorry to your shoes, for they are in a pool of piss. Like really. I regretted wearing my limited ed. Vans shoes. Aww. And wearing sneakers up a mountain is a bad idea. Really. Nothing else was interesting though, until we got up to the mountain, as you guys can see, taking pictures from a moving vehicle is a very bad idea, photos are always out of focus, silly Nicki. Learn from your mistakes!

I have adapted a new pose for now, this china trip. The trademark Thumbs Up, from none other than you know who. I shan’t say but a lot of my readers (I hope) know who this trademark is from. Any hoo. I’m glad I brought my 2 favorite shirts (that I have in china) up to the mountain, the striped rugby polo tee, and my zara long sleeve, which I bought with Arthur back in Singapore YOU KNOW WE GAYYY! Oh and I’m glad I brought them cause I look good in them (I think… Yes I do).

Wudang is famous for its martial arts, or rather, its Wushu. The master / shifu, is a good trainer, I can tell, since I’ve learned martial arts before (muay thai), and perfection is everything. Beating the apprentices for little may seem harsh, because they are young may seem cruel but its not, from pain we learn. Only then do we become perfect. Got back to our hotel, DAMN DOES IT LOOK Eerie. Oh wait there was dinner, aiyah, same difference, it’s just food. Oh, the hotel. Surrounded with nothing but trees, mirror facing directly infront of us, weird noises in the night, its hard to think that its not haunted, oh and, if it makes it even better, in the midst of being cold and all. I woke up in SWEAT. WHAT THE EFF.

I’m trying my best to make this interesting but I think I’ve failed. In epic proportions. I think its cause im more of a writer writer, not a journal writer. Okay never mind, talk about day two now.

Day two of Wudang mountains, this is where the story kinda gets more interesting. The queue is like getting into zouk on a party night. Damn crowded and you can queue for almost 2 hours. However, this is not zouk. But a cable car up to the peak of the mountain. Why so long? Let me tell you why, Chinese here, can only think about building cable cars that can hold 2 people at a time. Waiting for the queue was ridiculous, Chinese are rude and crude, and very very disgusting people. They let their child pee in the queue, they shout a lot. And always try to cut queue. I’m glad I’m Canadian haha. Civilized people here? I beg to differ. Getting snubbed to me, is very disrespectful.

Therefore, from now on, I won’t ever talk to anyone I don’t know. Really. What the hell is the point. I’ll sleep on that issue for now. Uhh, okay. So when we got up, I saw MENG ZHEN, I spelt it right this time. Apparently, she walked up instead of taking the cable car, and beat us by a good hour. Major bull. If I’ve known, I would have walked up as well, cause we only had like, 45 minutes to an hour of exploring the peak, that includes walking up and taking pictures, buying souvenirs (I did not buy any FYI, others did). Sad sad thing. Journeyed down, or is it journied? Microsoft word is confusing my with spell check. Journeyed (journied) down, lunch, then travelled back, again the trip took longer, or same time, I think it’s the anticipation that makes it seem shorter. (I mean since the trip back seemed longer, so here I mean the trip to wudang mountains) wow, I’m tired now, photos below with captions, I’m hardworking tonight, partly cause I can wake up late, class starts at 10 tomorrow, THANK GOD!

H`asta La Vista

(and yes, it’s my tag line, it’s like bruce almighty saying “ as the cookie crumbles” I say “H`asta La Vista” like the terminator).

Some bus fun with Shu Gen our “Mud”

Wu Dang “something something”

This picture of Cris’s Gay Face is Worth a Thousand words, the first 999 words are Gay.

Out of Focus

Oh LOOK! TAI ZI PO! ( i think, im just typing it out just to make people think that i know this, but actually, i dont know what or who, it or he is).

BRIDGE! interesting!

i think this was my best picture of Day 1

Chinese and their Ridiculous signs, made my whole journey worthwhile with hour long laughters

LOOK! PO ZI TAI !

Me going What the Eff/ What you looking at PUNK

Hello Rooftops

TWISE

Buildings ( random Pictures of i dont know what)

Please tell me this made you laugh.

Interesting…………………

The watch made me look gay.

More Randoms

Turtle with a dragons head

WU SHU BABY

First Thumbs Up

If that last one didnt make you laugh hard enough or at all.

Blow Wind BLOWWWW.

Funniest of them all. NOT.

Hotel Room, look. ORBS. oooooo SCARY, i actually got scared by these, so. haha.

Cable Station

Our First Stop.

Hello Roofs ( 2 )

This says its the third of its kind.

Best Picture of Day 2

Wu dang Something SOmething again

Heaven Pillar Peak, GOOD i can read.

This shows you how close we are. AWWWWWW.

If that last picture wasnt enough, heres a few more.

WOOOWWWWWW

OKAY THIS IS THE FUNNIEST, if until now, you havent laughed at the signs, i dont know what else to say. NIGHTS!

Wuhan: Day 16

Its day 16 already! Wow, only another 26 more days! Singapore here I come! Well, it’s still too early to say. Today was like any other day, I’m sorry people, really, and there really is nothing to do here. BUT but but… I forgot what I wanted to say, I think I really am maturing here in china. I’m starting to grow up whether you like it or not. I’m 19 this year for crying out loud. It’s time to be a grown up. No more petty and childish stuff. Or NOT. This post barely hit 100 words as well. hahaha. Which is a good thing yes?

Reflection for today is… In times of crisis, the best thing to do is rise above the situation, or strive under it. Getting through life independently is only the first step to changing your life. H`asta La Vista.

Wuhan: Day 15

Today was a terrific yet horrible day. Let me start at the beginning. We woke up at what? 6.45? Class was at 8, the canteen was jam packed with people, I hate Wednesdays, particularly cause its IS class that’s why. And it starts from 8 – 12. It’s a drag really. We learnt business etiquettes today. The lecturer was really funny, as in his accent and pronunciation of words. No offence though, not like we Singaporeans don’t seem funny to the Chinese. Anyway, lunch was at a new canteen, where we had this damn good soup I forgot what it was, but I know there was pork in it, or was it chicken?

Anyway, I want to have that for lunch tomorrow again! The soup is just damn good, it satisfies all of my needs, anyway, we had to do a summary for the whole business etiquette thing, and I wrote my part of the summary, it was 2 pages long and 1000 words exactly. I think I wrote too much, or was it too little? I don’t know for sure.

At 3, we went to this I.T mall. Only 3 pictures from me, would have to take the rest tomorrow, anyway, here they are below.
The bus ride to the IT mall though, was horrendous; I tell you the people here are ridiculously ill mannered. Cultural Revolution made them this way? You decide, I personally think that they can change whenever they want to. This is pretty much what I think about the Chinese now, the IT mall though is bigger than Sim Lim Square, but the prices are ridiculously high as well. Might as well buy stuff in Singapore, this was pretty much it, I’m just waiting for more inspiration to write more about my days here. Lately this has been a burden. Alright, shall not bore you guys, H`asta la vista.

Wuhan: Day 14

Hello, today was an amazing day, I finally played POKER! WOO HOO, yeah but not with money so, awww. But we played exercise poker, I did (rough numbers), 400+- push-ups, don’t know if I hit the 200 mark for crunches and a hell lot of jumping jacks and squats. Overall, today was pretty normal, but we went to the steel factory in the morning, I tell you, 2 hours journey there, and only a 15 minutes tour, then a 3 hour journey back. WO BU HUI LIAO LOH! ( means I don’t know/ understand already). We were dropped off at the mall, which was a tad bit stupid and retarded since our school is like 20-30 minutes drive away from the mall, why cant we just be dropped back there! Retarded bus driver, anyway.

We took the bus back, and man I tell you, the Chinese are funny people, there were so many jokes in the bus it’s hard to remember all the jokes. However, we learnt that speaking out loud on the bus is normal, even when we’re shouting in English, the Chinese people didn’t even look at us, not one bit, which was rather unusual, because to them it’s a foreign language and they don’t understand us, but hell. It was so stupid I swear.

Reflection : if you cant beat the Chinese, join them, we are of the same race after all, and we have to blend in with the culture, so why not start by talking loudly with them, and pushing our way through, it may seem mean and ridiculous, but if you were down here, you would totally do the same. Until tomorrow, H`asta la vista.

Wuhan: Day 13

This day started out as per-normal, classes and such, the only unique thing about today was, we had this interaction with the china students today. Dancing and singing and such. I realized my Chinese sucks, its time to improve. Photos from today not uploaded yet, I’ll have to grab them from my friends cause my camera died, no more battery. Anyway, it was awesome today, interacting with the Chinese students is not as bad as it sounds
Okay, I’m really beat now, tomorrow I’ve got to wake up at 6.45am, its THREE GORGES ALL OVER AGAIN! Haha, no just kidding we’re going to this steel factory which makes little or no sense at all. Until tomorrow, H`asta La Vista.

Wuhan: Day 10,11,12 (Three Gorges)

Hello, okay, I just got back from three gorges yesterday, and it was an awesome experience. I mean it’s the first time I was marveled by such a spectacle. The scenery is truly spectacular. Well before we get to the scenery I first have to tell you about that day itself.

Day 10 –

I woke up late, thus got rushed and all. I did have my full shower though. Anyway, the funny yet stupid and worrying thing I did was, I brought my phone charger but left my hand phone on the BED! (do not worry though, my handphone was found just as I got back home). So continuing on, our first stop of the day was a few hours travel, or I think 1 hour. (When you’re asleep you lose track of time very very easily, moving on…) first stop was just a toilet break at this humongous petrol station, boring thing to talk about. Onward! Now, our next stop is another toilet break, in the middle of no where, surrounded by yellow flowers, anyone who knows the name of the flower please tell me, haha. I took a few pictures so maybe you guys can identify them for me. Lunch was next, oh and was lunch oh so good. Restaurant food, looks like our trip with food has been paid for, I think it was 4-5 courses? Maybe even 7, I have a vague but something like an elephants memory to remember all this. I know, what I just wrote made no sense. Never mind about it. For now, I continue. Oh we then went to the three gorges dam.

There were a few pictures that I took without hesitation thus, a lot of pointless pictures. But who cares? The tour guide was explaining everything in Chinese, I didn’t really understand, so I asked people to translate, and you know how third hand information is, its usually misinterpreted. So I didn’t bother to listen anymore. Somehow up here, I felt abit of koong koong’s presence, and NO I am not bull shitting.

Dinner was around 6, which was the boarding time for the cruise. We had dinner at the same restaurant. Made our way to the cruise, which by the way was better than my expectations. Our next door neighbours were these 2 girls from another course, if I’m not wrong they’re from BMSE ( business management and systems engineering?) Chi min and Mei yun I think. Maybe spelling errors though, I hate Chinese names, EVERYONE GET AN ENGLISH NAME NOW! Thank you. Haha. I heard them whine about how opposite them were 2 guys from different courses, now, this is really insulting, I AM SUCH A NICE GUY. So at least I tried to make friends with them you know? But I think, they really didn’t like me, haha awwww. Damn, friendly isn’t such a good first impression, is it? Yes or no, you decide. Nothing much happened that day, sleeping there was comfortable though, OH OH OH! We also saw the first gate of many gates open, now, this gate is very interesting, it’s like, 10M or more above us, now how do we get there? They pumped water into this thing the boat was in, sort of like trapping water in there, and letting the boat rise to the other gate. Very interesting, engineering at its best. Slept earlier than I wanted, the cruise didn’t turn out to be as chaotic as I’d hope it would be.

Day 11 –

Well I woke up at 7.30 the sun on my face, how I long for that feeling, everytime I close my eyes against the sun, I imagine Singapore, sun tanning, swimming and gym-ing with the boys. How I long for that now, “I want to sun burn, just to know that I’m alive”. This day turned out better, we travelled along the three gorges, oh and, I thought you guys should know how much of a joke I was. I took a cold shower cause I didn’t think there was going to be any hot water, and after I bathe and came out of the shower, the tour guide knocked on my door and said in Chinese “in half an hour’s time there will be hot water”. You guys know what the feeling is like, it’s like you suffer for shits sake. Breakfast was disgusting, I mean hello, sailor food, not tasty? MOST DEFINITELY.

So as I was saying, we travelled along the three gorges. Now this part was the journey that made me go WHAT THE EFF. Now I know why I came to China, wow. Really WOW. Just look at the pictures. Link on the Comment post. Now the rest of the day turned out pretty normal, except that the boat stopped at this kampong place.

Now, at first thought I was going, what the hell is all this about? Why stop here? COME ON! This is ridiculous. But after a few minutes, I realized what beauty was beyond this place. We sat in sampans ( traditional row boats ). And 3 man were rowing us into this mountain passage place. They were rowing us upstream! Strong man indeed, and what was even more spectacular was that they pulled the boats with their bodies, when the boats where “un-row-able” cause the rocks were too near the boat. Now this is something spectacular. The water there was really fresh as well. I drank from the stream, but when we made a U turn and gone back down, the water looked un-drinkable so….. nevermind.

Mind you I’m only summarizing what happened. Okay. When we got back on the boat, we had our lunch. Then after a few hours, we ended up at this place, where Liu Bei’s ( one of the emperors of the “three kingdoms”) fortress stood as it was a thousand or so years ago, maybe more. Now, before we entered his fortress, we had to go through this temple like thingy, then a thought ran through my mind.

“Hey since I’m in China, I might as well burn incense for koong koong.” Little did I know, that the moment I lit the incense, I heard a man talking in cantonese, when I kneeled to kow tow, I heard him again, now this is not an illusion or a man merely talking in cantonese, I recognized the voice, it was indeed koong koong, no bullshit what so ever.

I can`t remember what he said to me. But at least I knew that he was looking out for me. That was all that mattered. We explored Liu Beis fortress, but somehow I cant help to think that my grandfather. Was always there. It has been long since I’ve been to his grave in Malaysia, I should return soon.

Anyway, I had no phone, to tell anyone about this, now that I remember this event, it brings me to tears. Emotional or not, this is the real Nicki Cheang. I pretty much guessed the signs were all here, co-incidentally, there was a “loong” (dragon) sign, out of no where, dragon, my name and my grandfathers surname as well. The rest of the day, I mean night was swell, hot water bathe, and a full dinner. OH one more thing, my clique are monsters when it comes to eating, I call it, “feeding time at the zoo”. I am not even in their league of eating. That night I had difficulty sleeping, so I chose to sleep with the light on, makes me feel more at home, where at times I would on the night light for sleeping comforts.

Day 12-

I was woken up by the banging of doors and hard knocks on the ceiling, directly above us were my friends I think, the flooring is crappy, when you step on it, it echoes throughout 2-3 doors top and bottom. Breakfast that day was good. Feeding time at the zoo again. The journey back was great, finally we were to return to our bunks, oh and Chi Mins friend, I couldn’t remember her name, it was Mong Zhen or Meng Zhen, something like that, at the supermart where our first/second stop was, I kept asking her name, not once, not twice, maybe 5 times, I can`t remember Chinese names well. Forgive me. When we returned to our bunks that day, I remember, clearly, it was good to be back, seeing the same thing again, makes me miss home even more!

Alright, there goes my “journal” / “essay” about my journey over the three days, I got lazy at the last day, I’m going to try blogspot to see if it suits me, I don’t think it will, wordpress has certainly been a good blog to write on.

I’ve learnt on this trip, that making friends is not that hard, or easy as it may seem, first impressions usually suck. Responsibility and independence is very important, the people you rely on and trust is a very big thing, people you can count on for being there for you whenever you need. The night before we grabbed a beer and just lay down at the back of the ship, I don’t know what its called, tell me please, but the sky was overwhelmed with stars you can never seen in Singapore, even in the darkest of nights, where the stars shine brightly, Singapore just has too many lights.

The end guys, to day 13!

Wuhan: Day 9

Hello again loyal readers, my 9th day run will come to a close, because, tomorrow, I’m going to the three gorges WOO HOO. Will be there for 3 days so, yeah, a lot of pictures to come, imagine if 1 day I can take 300 pictures. What about 3 days? Haha. Not to worry, I will put them on picasa, googles greatest invention, I have 1gb of space up there, and I can also put it all up at one go! Good to have a change. Anyway, today we had to do lab 2 of APPG, some computer applications thing. Anyway, I UNDERSTOOD ALL THAT! WOW, I completed the lab 2 faster than anyone, or so I assume.

Played basketball after that, I didn’t play with the china students though, why? Oh because I suck at it maybe? Okay, maybe not suck, just mediocre. But yeah you get my point. We “won” the game though, 54 to 43 I think, like hello, it’s so obvious we lost right? They scored so much more, and we’re the guess so they let us win, I can see through these sneaky china people. Haha. No lah, they’re nice people. They know how to be good hosts.

Okay, time to pack up for the three gorges trip, 3 days on a cruise, haven’t been on a cruise for almost 10 years now, I think. Yes. 10 years since I’ve been on a cruise. It’s going to be wild and chaotic. Or so I hope. I don’t know why, but now I have this yearning for poker, it’s so fun. I want to play! Any amateur poker players around? And no Vester and Aaron, I WILL NOT play with you. Thank you very much. Until next time, H`asta la vista!

Wuhan: Day 8

Okay guys, today was presentation day and I found out, that I’m an epic failure, why? Because before the presentation I was slacking away. Didn’t edit my slides to remove all the dead wood from the “copy and paste”. And we were told to redo the presentation tomorrow. HAHA. Sorry luh, im that damn stupid. Anyway, today I felt that I really missed home, I am officially home sick, the food, the warmth, everything, my family and friends as well. Oh my, 36 more days! I can`t wait to get back HOME!

Tomorrow will be interaction with the students day, I don’t know what we’re doing with them, but I think its sports and stuff. Will be fun. I realized I’ve been using the word “epic” a lot of times. That’s because I want to emphasis the fact that it is what it is.

So below are photos during dinner time, I tell you, my dinner only cost S$3. BEAT THAT! Look at the servings! Rice is free flow as well. Oh and for the fishballs, we ordered 2 pots. So, imagine. Haha. The fishballs were perfect. Not bouncy as people like it. It`s made out of real fish, now that’s what I like. Fresh fish balls.
What I learnt today was basically, please. Be hardworking and look through your slides before you do them. Oh and pictures from the other day are not up yet. Bloody china internet and photobucket.com do not work well hand in hand, I shall upload them on another site perhaps?
Until tomorrow, H`asta La Vista.

P.S I look like a real cheena wearing hair band and all. HEY it’s to protect my face from my hair K!?! since I played sports before dinner and all. I did bathe though, but just for fun I wore it.

London Room

First healthy Cup of Tea

Group Shot

Next Few Pictures are blurry dunno why



This one’s blur cause stefen moved






The Awesome food and glorious tea



FREE FLOW RICE!



We had 2 bowls of these Fish ball Soup, with the whole fish inside as well. YUMMY!
The After math




Mind you we had 4 of these rice bowls.

Kenneth is HAPPY