Wednesday, March 31, 2004
I may be going to some ulu area soon, so I better update u guys on how I’ve been. the past few days have really been eye openers. We’ve seen the diff ways of life pple have over here, the privileged n the very underprivileged. Some things are really heartbreaking... u’ll hear more when I get back.
Anyway, there’ve been several memorable events for me, though they will be probably mundane to the rest of u.
1. We’ve been traveling ard a lot on terribly bumpy roads again... the other day, we were riding to somewhere in a tiny van along one of the worst roads I’ve been on, n suddenly, we hit a really bad ditch that the driver decided to be ambitious n drive really fast over, n it sent me flying off my seat n my head conveniently hit the very hard handhold above the door. Now I’ve got a little bump on my head…
2. Another memorable time for me was the first vegetarian day in my life!!! n hopefully it will be my last. Lol. It’s quite amazing if u noe me, cos I NEVER eat veg, but I was forced to because of the pple ive been with. It was quite strange eating fried rice without eggs, or meat. Oh well, I have to learn sometime.
3. the weather here is amazing. Just yesterday, we were still walking ard in our jackets n a t-shirt n still feeling warm, n today, I was wearing 3 thick layers n I was still freezing my head off! The day started with a dust storm!!! Swirls of sand n dust were just rising fr the streets n blowing into our faces as we walked ard. Then it started drizzling. The strange thing is that the rain was brown!!!! As the drops of rain fell on my jacket, there were brown spots appearing!!! that totally freaked me out. Later, it started to snow!!! that really surprised us cos it was just really hot yesterday!!! guess wat colour the snow was? U’ve got it! Brown!!! this is a freaky place man. Aft that, all the cars were caked in mud... felt rather sorry for the car owners. Lol. We used the public phone, n found it caked with mud too!
4. I’ve finally got to watch some decent tv here!!! 3 episodes of CSI we got on vcd. When u’ve got nothing, a little makes us very happy rite? Lol. I was so happy to just sit there of abt 3 hrs n just watched CSI n pig out on Ritz biscuit we were so happy to find!!! (The actually have yogurt flavored Ritz here)
I really need to be more careful of my words... so im not gonna tok so much. Just ask me when I get back. I’ll tell u face to face.
Everything is amazing here!
Last but not least! Happy birthday Eunice! Sorry we cant be there to celebrate…
btw, i cant read blogs over here, so i really dunno wat's going on back home. keep me posted by sms!!! the comments u guys leave here r only told to me thru my mom... sigh...
my fingers r freezing here as i type, so i better stop here. anyway, security is really an issue.
miss me! *grin*
Anyway, there’ve been several memorable events for me, though they will be probably mundane to the rest of u.
1. We’ve been traveling ard a lot on terribly bumpy roads again... the other day, we were riding to somewhere in a tiny van along one of the worst roads I’ve been on, n suddenly, we hit a really bad ditch that the driver decided to be ambitious n drive really fast over, n it sent me flying off my seat n my head conveniently hit the very hard handhold above the door. Now I’ve got a little bump on my head…
2. Another memorable time for me was the first vegetarian day in my life!!! n hopefully it will be my last. Lol. It’s quite amazing if u noe me, cos I NEVER eat veg, but I was forced to because of the pple ive been with. It was quite strange eating fried rice without eggs, or meat. Oh well, I have to learn sometime.
3. the weather here is amazing. Just yesterday, we were still walking ard in our jackets n a t-shirt n still feeling warm, n today, I was wearing 3 thick layers n I was still freezing my head off! The day started with a dust storm!!! Swirls of sand n dust were just rising fr the streets n blowing into our faces as we walked ard. Then it started drizzling. The strange thing is that the rain was brown!!!! As the drops of rain fell on my jacket, there were brown spots appearing!!! that totally freaked me out. Later, it started to snow!!! that really surprised us cos it was just really hot yesterday!!! guess wat colour the snow was? U’ve got it! Brown!!! this is a freaky place man. Aft that, all the cars were caked in mud... felt rather sorry for the car owners. Lol. We used the public phone, n found it caked with mud too!
4. I’ve finally got to watch some decent tv here!!! 3 episodes of CSI we got on vcd. When u’ve got nothing, a little makes us very happy rite? Lol. I was so happy to just sit there of abt 3 hrs n just watched CSI n pig out on Ritz biscuit we were so happy to find!!! (The actually have yogurt flavored Ritz here)
I really need to be more careful of my words... so im not gonna tok so much. Just ask me when I get back. I’ll tell u face to face.
Everything is amazing here!
Last but not least! Happy birthday Eunice! Sorry we cant be there to celebrate…
btw, i cant read blogs over here, so i really dunno wat's going on back home. keep me posted by sms!!! the comments u guys leave here r only told to me thru my mom... sigh...
my fingers r freezing here as i type, so i better stop here. anyway, security is really an issue.
miss me! *grin*
Thursday, March 25, 2004
it's been a week since i left. n this is the first time ive been able to touch a com!!! everyone has probably gotten tired of not seeing any updates n stopped checking my blog, but it's ok. the lucky ones tat still check r privileged! *grin*
lots has happened since i left.
the first few days was spent at kunming, which was surprisingly hot! we walked ard in our t shirt n jeans n we wondered y we had brought so much warm clothes... anyway, highlight of that leg of the trip? 2 of us were visiting the oldest mosque in the area, n on our way out, one muslim man told us to have a seat on the mosque steps for a rest. we were at first quite happy to n thot they were nice n friendly to tourists. turns out, the guy was a muslim missionary n tried to convert us!!!! can u believe that?! we ended up being talked to for 2 hrs!!! half way thru another younger guy came n joined the conversation. they disagreed on several issus like jihad and it was quite funny seeing them bickering in front of us. lol. i was given a short while to try n give my side of my beliefs, but they kinda cut me off half way insisting that i only had such belief because of my parents!!! it's so not fair cos we were disadvantaged in our language, so how were we supposed to argue back rite? they didnt even give us chance to tok, except when we looked super confused n they realised that we were not following wat they were saying to us. then they wld stop n explain themselves slowly. that 2 hr talk was rather traumatising.
other than that traumatising experience, kunming was a very pleasant experience. the place we stayed in a very nice. it was very cool cos they had converted the balcony into a guest room! so i had the floor to celing windows i always wanted in my room!
kunming was a lso the place where i learnt that this is the land where everybody cuts into everybody else's personal space... especially on the bus, where they just squeeze u anyway they like... it gets really unnerving... once, when the bus was really crowded, 2 kids were actually leaning on me to keep their balance, then when i moved, they moved with me n they actually had the nerve to look angry at me for moving!!!! as if it's my fault... buses r also the place where we must be really aware of the men... they r really freaky when they just purposely push u ard n "accidentally lose their balance"...
we also managed to visit a tourist spot called minority village. this place was a huge park that had mock villages of many minority group where we could see the way they lived n we could watch some performances put up. that was quite cool.
aft kunming, we tok an almost 2 hr domestic flight to gansu province. when we reached there, we realised y we were told to bring really warm clothes. stepping out of the air port was an almost painful experience!!! the cold was really biting!!! by the way, i think my skin is dying!!! it's so dry here, n the coldness is not helping... my nose is sore fr all the times i blow my nose, n everytime the temp changes, i go nto a sneezing fit... my nose is so dry, i think it's gonna drop off.... argh...
oh anyway, back to gansu. we were taken on an amazingly long, 4 hr bumpy ride up the mountains. the road is absolutely horrid!!! the bumps literally make us jump out of our seats! but this was made up for in the beautiful scenery!!! although it's still really cold n the ground is still all brown fr winter, it's really amazing to see all the mountains n valleys n small bodies of water in that barren land. there were also caves in the mountains which look remarkably like those we see on tv abt where osama could be hiding. lol.
on reaching the place, we were really frozen, n were not very much help at all that day... spent much of the time camped out in the van cos i was really freezing!!!! we looked ridiculos next to the locals as they were merely wearing their suits, n i was wearing a hugly oversized thick jacket that one of our friends there lent me, n 3 layers for clothes under that, n with a scarf wrapped ard my face cos the cold really hurt my face. n i was still cold.... the kids were even more amazing! they had only 2 layers of clothes on, n were running ard in the cold playing! u all will laugh when i show u the pics when we get back.
yesterday, we went up to a smaller village also in the mountains, but closer to the city. on the ride up, it was an amazing display of His glory! the brown mountians were clothed in pretty white snow!!! before we knew it, we were driving in snow!!! this was a really unexpected show, we were really thankful for it! it was so cool to walk ard with the snow falling ard us.
last nite, we took an overnight train. 9 hrs rocking on the train n i still couldnt sleep... terrible experience... we had bought the most expensive tickets so 4 of us could have a room to ourselves. unfortunatly, the 5th person had to share a rm with 3 guys who smoked n gambled thru the nite!!! he obviously couldnt sleep. anyway, the room had close to no ventilation! n the air that came in was smoky cos of the smokers in the corridoor... oh well...
today, we expected it to be really cold so we wore all our warm clothes, n turns out, it isnt cold at all... so i was 3 layers over dressed... ended up carrying 2 thick jackets on my hands, which was rather ridiculous...
sorry for the lenght of this post. hope i didnt bore u. i wasnt able to update for so long, i just had so much to share. anyway, continue to send me msges to update me on wat im missing back home. i really miss everything... hope im not missing anything exciting. miss u all!
lots has happened since i left.
the first few days was spent at kunming, which was surprisingly hot! we walked ard in our t shirt n jeans n we wondered y we had brought so much warm clothes... anyway, highlight of that leg of the trip? 2 of us were visiting the oldest mosque in the area, n on our way out, one muslim man told us to have a seat on the mosque steps for a rest. we were at first quite happy to n thot they were nice n friendly to tourists. turns out, the guy was a muslim missionary n tried to convert us!!!! can u believe that?! we ended up being talked to for 2 hrs!!! half way thru another younger guy came n joined the conversation. they disagreed on several issus like jihad and it was quite funny seeing them bickering in front of us. lol. i was given a short while to try n give my side of my beliefs, but they kinda cut me off half way insisting that i only had such belief because of my parents!!! it's so not fair cos we were disadvantaged in our language, so how were we supposed to argue back rite? they didnt even give us chance to tok, except when we looked super confused n they realised that we were not following wat they were saying to us. then they wld stop n explain themselves slowly. that 2 hr talk was rather traumatising.
other than that traumatising experience, kunming was a very pleasant experience. the place we stayed in a very nice. it was very cool cos they had converted the balcony into a guest room! so i had the floor to celing windows i always wanted in my room!
kunming was a lso the place where i learnt that this is the land where everybody cuts into everybody else's personal space... especially on the bus, where they just squeeze u anyway they like... it gets really unnerving... once, when the bus was really crowded, 2 kids were actually leaning on me to keep their balance, then when i moved, they moved with me n they actually had the nerve to look angry at me for moving!!!! as if it's my fault... buses r also the place where we must be really aware of the men... they r really freaky when they just purposely push u ard n "accidentally lose their balance"...
we also managed to visit a tourist spot called minority village. this place was a huge park that had mock villages of many minority group where we could see the way they lived n we could watch some performances put up. that was quite cool.
aft kunming, we tok an almost 2 hr domestic flight to gansu province. when we reached there, we realised y we were told to bring really warm clothes. stepping out of the air port was an almost painful experience!!! the cold was really biting!!! by the way, i think my skin is dying!!! it's so dry here, n the coldness is not helping... my nose is sore fr all the times i blow my nose, n everytime the temp changes, i go nto a sneezing fit... my nose is so dry, i think it's gonna drop off.... argh...
oh anyway, back to gansu. we were taken on an amazingly long, 4 hr bumpy ride up the mountains. the road is absolutely horrid!!! the bumps literally make us jump out of our seats! but this was made up for in the beautiful scenery!!! although it's still really cold n the ground is still all brown fr winter, it's really amazing to see all the mountains n valleys n small bodies of water in that barren land. there were also caves in the mountains which look remarkably like those we see on tv abt where osama could be hiding. lol.
on reaching the place, we were really frozen, n were not very much help at all that day... spent much of the time camped out in the van cos i was really freezing!!!! we looked ridiculos next to the locals as they were merely wearing their suits, n i was wearing a hugly oversized thick jacket that one of our friends there lent me, n 3 layers for clothes under that, n with a scarf wrapped ard my face cos the cold really hurt my face. n i was still cold.... the kids were even more amazing! they had only 2 layers of clothes on, n were running ard in the cold playing! u all will laugh when i show u the pics when we get back.
yesterday, we went up to a smaller village also in the mountains, but closer to the city. on the ride up, it was an amazing display of His glory! the brown mountians were clothed in pretty white snow!!! before we knew it, we were driving in snow!!! this was a really unexpected show, we were really thankful for it! it was so cool to walk ard with the snow falling ard us.
last nite, we took an overnight train. 9 hrs rocking on the train n i still couldnt sleep... terrible experience... we had bought the most expensive tickets so 4 of us could have a room to ourselves. unfortunatly, the 5th person had to share a rm with 3 guys who smoked n gambled thru the nite!!! he obviously couldnt sleep. anyway, the room had close to no ventilation! n the air that came in was smoky cos of the smokers in the corridoor... oh well...
today, we expected it to be really cold so we wore all our warm clothes, n turns out, it isnt cold at all... so i was 3 layers over dressed... ended up carrying 2 thick jackets on my hands, which was rather ridiculous...
sorry for the lenght of this post. hope i didnt bore u. i wasnt able to update for so long, i just had so much to share. anyway, continue to send me msges to update me on wat im missing back home. i really miss everything... hope im not missing anything exciting. miss u all!
Wednesday, March 17, 2004
im leaving tmr. so many things to bring, so many things to pack. still so excited.
Friday, March 12, 2004
im gonna test out this comments thingy
6 days till i leave for my trip! cant wait!
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