Friday, December 29, 2006,8:08 PMXD
oh man.
school is reopening soon. this sucks! A level year!
hahaa. anyway, 2006 has been a great yr.
ppl..if you want to shop you should take this chance to do last minute shopping before the GST increases to 7% next year!! hahaa.i doubt it will ever go down again..
christmas was ok. hahaa. ohh..ill like to thank the following ppl who sent me christmas cards:
sharonling
weiling
peiqi
zihui
zhixin
enjia
sophia
eunicetan
robert
samantha
THANK YOU VERY MUCH! i feel so loved! haaha.
not forgetting those who sent christmas greetings as well! yay!!
went out with sharonling, weiling, yingtze and charmaine today. :)) havent seen them for a very long time! we ate at a japanese restaurant and the food was quite nice! i learnt how to play bridge!! hahaha. its quite fun!! all thanks to weiling and yingtze who taught me how to play it.
we also went to jurong entertainment centre to iceskate. first time skating. it was rather scary at first. couldnt even move. kept holding on to weiling and 'hugging' random ppl. lol..not bad...i didnt fall. just once on my knee though. =DD
Labels: School
Sunday, December 24, 2006,11:07 AM
Top 5 most irritating things.
5. Ppl standing behind your back/ peeping into your com. screen while you are blogging/chatting.
4. Ppl not punctuating their msgs/smses.
e.g yay so fun
does this sound sincere??? no way! make you seem like you cant be bothered!
3. MSn hanging.
eg.
it really makes you lose your train of thought!
2. Spending so much time and sparing so much thought writing a long testimonial/message for someone on friendster then when you finally click submit..they say ERROR. ZZz.
1. The thought of having to submit all my hw and going for tests in a WEEK'S time! AHHH.
Labels: Personal
Monday, December 18, 2006,11:25 AMI went to Outward Bound School in India from 4th december to 14th december. Hahah. thinking back it was actually rather fun but while i was there suffering, i couldnt wait to come home! haha. hm. i shall now blog about my escapade before I forget about it!
On 4th dec at around 4pm, i boarded the SIA plane heading towards Delhi. Watched the movie 'Stepped up' on the plane. A rather nice movie, interesting dance moves. The food on the plane was delicious! there was even tiramisu icecream! hee. Ate the meal heartily as i knew that this would be the last good meal i would enjoy for a loong time.
xD
the mini television in front of me x)
As soon as i touched down from the plane 4++hours later, i noticed the drastic difference between Singapore and India. Just getting through the customs was a problem. We had to queue a super long time to wait for our passports to be cleared. The airport was not as nice as Changi airport. the facilities arent as good.
About an hour(? maybe less) later, we stepped outside the airport. It was super dusty! My vision was blocked by the fog..and i thought only Singapore has haze. Got into a vehicle that was waiting to send us to our first stopover. We would be travelling on two separate days as the journey to reach our beach campsite was 12 hours long. We stopped by the deluxe tents for the night.
We were greeted by very hospitable people whom served us tea aka chai and snacks. We couldnt believe our luck when we were introduced to our deluxe tent. It came with an attached bathroom!! hahahh.
inside the tent
The next day, we continued our long bus ride. haha. the sights we saw were interesting..indian drivers are pro drivers! they swerve left and right everytime and kept honking..what a busy road! haha..oh. behind their vehicles..there is a sign..'PLEASE HORN" Zzz.
their taxi..
animals ( cows, bulls, horses, donkeys, ponies, camels) were used as a basic means of transport
just an interesting sign i saw..><
this is a view of the beach camp
ahh..see how messy my bed is..packing for our trekking expedition
this is the view from our beach camp
toilets we use..inside its just a hole dug. after doing your business, you are supposed to use a pan, scoop some sand and dump it on top of your whatever to cover it and prevent it from becoming stinky.
this is the cliff we jumped off from for the cliff jump. the cliff is about 15metres high. it was quite scary!! esp when you are standing at the edge of the cliff and all you see below is flowing waters. as i stood at the edge of the cliff, i was shivering with both fear and cold. the water was icy cold..abt 9 degrees..wth!!
as i stood there shivering i knew i had to jump as everyone was looking at me expectantly. i looked straight ahead and jumped. i was so scared tt my arms were waving about wildly. i landed in an awkward position and realised tt my butt and arms were stinging with pain. Zz. some ppl felt it was fun and wanted to go a second time! ZZZzZZ!!! hahaha. due to peer pressure, all of us went again. the whole procedure was repeated and my relief was replaced with fear once again..
we also had some rope obstacle courses on the first and second day. the third day was the first day of our trekking expedition. the night before, we had packed our 65litres backpack for the journey. my back was super heavy!! about half my weight! in it was my sleeping bag, tent, food rations, clothes and sleeping mat.
the first day of our trekking expedition involved trekking 18km on sandy/rocky roads with our ultra heavy backpack. as i had been slacking at home for too long, i already wanted to give up after the first 1.4km. the trek was tough!! at first, i kept having negative thoughts in my mind and anticipating our arrival to our new campsite. i ended up feeling more exhausted than ever and even wept. Zz. couldnt believe i actually cried. i thought i was strong! AHhh. =( there was no turning back..no vehicles in sight. i had no choice but to carry on.
anw..after some encouragement from my teammates and the instructor, i started to become more optimistic about the whole trek.
after 7 hours of trekking, we finally reached our new campsite and pitched our tents. glad i survived it!!
this is our makeshift kitchen..
the second day of the trek , we had to trek 8km uphill to an altitude of 1600m. it was tougher and more challenging than the first day.
one of the challenging thing we encountered was the COLD. hahaa. so cold. didnt bathe for many days. for my trip i only bathed 2 times. haaha. the water was soo cold tt washing plates and cups can make my hands numb! =((
climbing up was a great accomplishment! and we got to see the himalayan range!
our lunch..
some potato and puri
hehehh. the poor ponies. they were made to carry out gas cylinders used for cooking..and the makeshift kitchen tent..heard tt the load was so heavy tt one of the ponies wept and threw the load off its back! poor poniess! =(((
villagers we met during our trek
the third day, we trekked down 8km and sat a local bus. the local bus was really squeezy but it was an experience! the locals are really friendly ppl! they would return our greetings ..'namastae' which means hello in hindi with a warm smile and namastae. ><
we also had a rafting expedition which lasted for three days. it was my first time rafting and i must say the experience was great! haha..the scenery was breathtaking and water was crystal clear..:))
on the last day of our rafting expedition, we met up with a grade 3++ rapid. our raft was drawn into a hole and then went up a super huge wave. it became vertical and the next thing i knew was tt i was under the raft. quite scary . i drank gulps of the holy water until i couldnt breathe. just as i thought i was going to die, i escaped from beneath the raft. there was a rescue kayak and soon i was back on the raft, dazed but safe and sound. haha. the picture is not the one on the major rapid..juz another small rapid. hee. quite exciting!
abseiling down a bridge.
we were also given time to reflect on everything during solo night where we were given an empty space to sit and think. i received a letter from my father. i started missing everyone back home and also the comforts of home. i started crying uncontrollably and it was quite bad. hahaa. suddenly i heard some noises and looked up. realised tt one of our instructors mr suri was looking at me! zZZzz. so embarrassing !
we also did CIP in a village school for a few hours. the children were cute and shy. hahaa. =)
TAJ MAHAL!
hahaha. we travelled 6 hours to taj mahal just to spend 1hour there! now i really appreciate spore being a small country!! taj mahal was a symbol of love from the king to his third wife taj mahal. it took 22 years to be built. made of marble and precious stones..all transported by animals..magnificent architecture.
WE ARE THE PIONEER BATCH TT GRADUATED FROM HIMALAYAN OUTWARD BOUND!
whaha.. xD
HANNAH HOBS FOREVER! muahaha.
anyway, the experience i had is hard to be expressed here so this is just a brief recap of what i went through!
lalala.
OH MAN. BACK TO REALITY!
HOLIDAY HOMEWORK!! AHHHH. :((((
Sunday, December 03, 2006,8:45 PMhaha..i went to taiwan for 9 days.from 21th nov to 29th nov. =D
sat jetstar there. its a budget airline if you have not heard of it. its much cheaper than a normal airline and therefore, we get to save some money and have more money for shopping!! hahaa. :))
took about four hours to reach taiwan from Singapore.
the airplane we took!
upon reaching taiwan, we took a bus from taoyuan airport to the city. it was about a 2 hours bus ride. lugging our heavy luggages, we took the local subway to our hotel. our hotel was located at ximenting..taipei's orchard road. the things in ximenting are super ex! i bought a braclet there and realised i was ripped off towards the end of my stay! if you ever go to taiwan, never buy things there! hahaha.
walking along ximenting.
cute right? taiwanese do keep piglets as pets!
ohh. i went to try the ah zhong mian xian. its the originator of the shih lin taiwan snacks back in Singapore. i prefer the shih lin mian xian they sell in Singapore! the ah zhong mian xian there isnt nice and its filled with pig intestines! yuckss! =X
us at ximenting
this is the cute lil pau i caught from the machine! in taiwan such machines are all over the place! they tend to place these cute lil thingies strategically so it seems easy to catch and ppl would be tempted to try their luck on it..=D but it isnt as easy as it seems!
on the second day, we went to national palace museum. one of the largest museums in the world. comparable to the louvre museum in Paris. the museum has many interesting collections dating back to early centuries. some works are simply so detailed and refined tt its mind boggling how ppl managed to achieve such fine works. no wonder they are priceless treasures. for example, on a small piece of stone, artists could crave out a ship with many ppl inside. each person has a diff expression on his/her face. cool huhh! too bad no pictures were allowed! :(
we went to shih lin night market at night. shih lin night market was a real disappointment as it has become too touristy . it has lost its orignality!
we ate smelly tofu there!
its nice! and i heard tt the bacteria it contains is more useful than the ones found in yakult.
third day
we made our way to taipei main station. we would be taking a train from taipei main station to chiayi. we were going to alishan. hahaa.
i used to thk alishan was smth like this.
with civilization only at the peak of the mountain.
saw them roasting a pig there. quite disgusting! the pig is super big and i can see the fat droplets dripping out from its skin..=X
the scenery there is simply breathtaking! whahaah. we stayed at a local's house and for the next three days..we went about the mountain. hahaa. the weather up there was really cold!
on the last day, we woke up at 4am and made our way to an observatory area just t witness the sunrise! beautiful sight! ><
sakura!
this rose is pretty right?
nice scenery!!
landslide. quite scary...you never know when the soil would give way and tumble on you.
beautiful sunset. marks the end of our stay at alishan.
after coming back from alishan, we went to CKS memorial hall. wah. the structures are enormous and there was a bustling of activities going on. many taiwanese students were there having their CCAs. saw some cheerleaders practising cheers and a group of guys marching. hahaa.
beside the huge CKS statue there would always be two guards standing there and they were not supposed t move at all. every hour, there would be the changing of guards. quite cool. we witnessed the changing of shifts of the guards. it was a rather formal process. i wonder how they managed to keep this tradition going for such a long time!
us at CKS memorial hall
we went to taipei 101 too. currently the tallest building in the world. it has the fastest elevator too! 1010m/min.
saw this mailbox there. quite cute right?
random pic i saw. aritistic right? study the picture closely..it may not be what it seems like..
taiwan is famous for its night markets and we went to many of the night markets there. each market has its own speciality. for example, we went to huah si night market. its famous for the snake dishes and all. ahh. saw a dead snake with body slitted open. blood was still dripping from it. damn gross! =X ahh.
night market.
one other nice place we went to was yehliu. yehliu is made up of beautiful rock formations.
the rock structures seen were due t years of wind and wave erosion.
my dad and i :))
stone shaped like a pig..i spotted it! cool huh!
heartXx.
hahaa. look at the toilet! cool huh!
my stupid bro!!
after our return from alishan, we stayed at a hotel near the taipei railway station. there is an underground shopping area there and it was indeed a shopping haven!! hahaha.
it sells mister donut there. the donuts there are very popular. it is forever a sell-out.
their mrt train.
random pic of me and my sis eating
we did lots of shopping and all! the things in taiwan arent exactly cheap though =((
ahh. cant believe ive already blogged for two hours! time t sleep! if not i wont be able t wake up tmr..whaha..=D
cyaaa! beybey!!
wish me luck for obi! heee.
Labels: Holidays
