Tuesday, March 24, 2009

22ndMarch09

Wu Dang - Day 2
Woke up at around 6.00am because we're gonna gather at around 6.30am sharp
Today we'll be going up to Wu Dang Mountain !!

Mount WuDang
In years past, the mountains of Wudang were known for the many Taoist monasteries to be found there, monasteries which became known as an academic centre for the research, teaching and practise of meditation, Chinese martial art, traditional Chinese medicine , Taoist agriculture practises and related arts.

WuDang martial arts
Zhang Shanfeng(张三丰), is the originator of Wudangquan generally and Tai ji Quan specifically. He was said to be inspired by a fight he witnessed between a pied magpie (also said to be a white crane) and a cobra. Wudangquan advocates the cultivation of morality and fostering of nature in conjunction with physical training.Wudang is often associated with swords. The sword techniques were again supposedly created by Zhang Sanfeng, and as with many arts associated with Wudang are based around internal and soft techniques, avoiding direct clashes with the opponent and instead relying on quickness and borrowing the opponent's power.

-wikipedia-

for more details on WuDang:
http://www.wudang-kungfu.com/

Breakfast at 7.00am sharp...
and it doesn't look appealing at all......
This is me still a bit sleepy.
Hair stylist : The hard cold bed.
Porridge.
Even though the breakfast was simple and bit blend
we clear it all and still hungry.After breakfast, we're in need of toilet.
To avoid the Legend toilet in the hotel restaurant
the 9 of us went to a better hotel just behind the restaurant.

The moment we step into the lobby, we were like "WHOA !! "
and head straight to toilet.

The toilet was way lot BETTER than the hotel restaurant..
and best of all the toilet is sparkling clean !!
cause the cleaner just wash the place =)
Happily relieve ourselves and head back to the bus head toward WU DANG MOUNTAIN!!
during the ride, Jermey and i folded straw heart.
Straws in China are quite thick and its not easy to fold it.

Reach the ticking area and went through some verification
while waiting for the verification to be done
both Jeremey and i just place our folded straw heart on the ' bushes '
My favourite photo of the day.
Love it.

took a ride of around 50mins to reach foot of Wu Dang
The morning was great.
took this picture while walking to the cable car station.
The line was very very freaking LONG, we have queued for around 2hours..
regretted that we didn't walk up..
and miss the fun of it.
The locals have one common habit or should i say culture, that is to jump queue.
There two ladies cutting queue where Mr Chua was just right in front of them,
Mr Chua face changed and was piss off.
With the help from our tour guide.
She shouted " if everyone said that our tour group is in front
then there won’t be people queuing up! "
She also asked the guard to step in and get them back into the line.

The little girl who was outside of the queue.
Dave was quite interested in her...
After 90 mins or so
we finally saw the entrance of the cable car station...
Weeeee~
finally after 2 hours...
Our cable car
a two seater.
cable car partner : Ernest.
just like what it shown
The Golden Summit
To get to the Peak of the moutain
we still need to climb up stairs
climb climb climb
Keep on Climbing!!View on the Mountain.

There's a Temple at the peak
lots and lots of worshippers came all the way up here to worship
they believe that the higher you go
the nearer you are to the gods.
My personal shots and my messy hair !!
i think i can call it a good hair day.
Locks like this can be seen all around.
give good blessing to family..
lock your love with your love ones together
the keys will be thrown down the mountain and never be found
so that the lock will never be open and loves for love ones will always be locked together

Peak of WuDang
Met Randolf while queueing for cable car
and saw some of his group members
Clive, XiangYu & Ci Min
Photo with MR MA !!
Goin down in cable car
Group shots!
the scenery here was really beautiful
Hardcore translation
Sakura!!

Lunch time!!
We had our lunch at the nearby restaurant
Another simple meal with vegetables as most dish.
Like always, we ate like theres tomorrow.

At the foot of mount WuDang

After lunch, we got to rush back to campus as the bus driver is in a rush of picking another group of people from the airport at around 10.30pm, it took 6-7 hours ride back to campus and the time now is 3.36pm.

The start of Torturing ride begins...
As usual most of us would falll asleep during the ride, and some would be taking photos of those who are sleeping.

As the sky turn darker, the night ride begin to get more entertaining and fun.
After the only toilet break at around 8.00pm sharp, we board back to the bus.

The driver switch on its Tv and the Mini KTV begins !! Woots!!
the 9 of us who occupied the back seats sang along as the Music Video play.
We sang almost all the songs it played, from more recent artist such as Jay Chou's song to those old classic songs.

Moreover, what make it more exciting is that the driver drove OPPOSITE direction of the road !!
He droved for more then 30mins in the opposite lane, and changed back to the right path when theres a cross junction.

To us this kind of action was unbelievable because drivers in Singapore would horn you till you turn deaf even if it's only one slow turn.

Despite the extra excitment that the driver gave us, we continue singing till we reach the campus and the driver 100% late for his nxt pick up.
Time when we reach school : 10.26pm

All of us were hungry and tired, and we went outside campus to buy dinner and take back to bunk.

Ate dinner, wash up and off to bed.

class was push back to 10am.
Everyone was exhausted.

sad to leave WuDang Mountain.

21stMarch09

Wu Dang - Day1

Okay. Today was the only day that Ernest didn't wake me up this time and actual in fact i wake him up. yea~
The reason behind it was because.. i did not sleep throughout the night so that i can sleep during the torturing ride from campus to Wu Dang.
If my mum knows about it.. she will sure nag till my ears drop off.

After all the necessary are prepared, it time to head over to the meeting point to meet up with the rest of the ECE people and both lecturers.

Ride to Wu Dang begins, as well as the feeling of losing your lower body away to numbness.
My plan of sleeping during the ride was a successful one, only wake up for short toilet breaks.

The 6-7 hours of hell in the cramp seat bus, was finally over & the heavenly meal time ascend.
Everyone was famishing, we all always like those hungry ghost every meal time..

The first bowl of rice..
Chiong ar!!
Cristopher digging the rice happily.
* second bowl *
hahax.
The third bowl.
Normally to our third bowl of rice most have already going full tank.
It has some how become a standard..
End of meal time.
even if some of the dishes are not nice to eat..
we still manage to clear them all~


Due to the rain, there's a change of plan.
We will be visiting the other part of Wu Dang instead of going up to the peak.

We hang around at the ticketing area for further instruction and some of us took some toilet break.
The toilet at the ticketing area.
The specific smell that came out of the area clearly indicate itself..

Speaking of toilets..
there are some Legend ones that we came across..
The toilet that we had at the hotel restaurant during lunch time..
the ground is wet, a mixture of pee and pee, it's dark
and at any corner of the toilet you can just relive yourself even though there " peeing stand "
don't really know what is it called.

After we got our ticket, we took the bus up to the first destination, duration of the ride was 50 mins.
In that 50 mins, i feel that i'm in those kind of racing car games such as InitialD, the road was curvy, like Qiu Ming Shan in InitialD, the speed of the bus was fast and the ride is really quite fun.

The first destination :
The Prince Temple.
Group Shot!!
we move furthe in till we saw long stretch of red walls..
it remind me of some camera advertisment or so..
hmm.. deja vu maybe?

Rush to get my outershell.
Next, we proceed to Purple Heaven Palace.
Kid on a golden turtle, so cute..
Live Martial art training.
Doing some stunts
trying to do hand stand.
Cris with Martial Arts background
Ma师傅
training with us
some fun shots
it look like i trying to kick the two lady in the back ground
Wacky shots~
More Wacky shots
Man best friend.
and food as well...

Don't understand why some people like to eat dog meat..
since it is human best friend..
so eating it is like eating your own friends.
After a 40 mins ride back to the ticketing area..
we head back to the hotel restarunt to have dinner.
One of the dishes.
Cucumber Cold Plate.
Clearing up the food like always.
Eat till stomach going to burst!!
Ben look like he going to deliver a child..
Took a pic with our tourguide.
he a newbie in this tourism industry
freshly graduated
only got two years of experience.

he a nice guy really..
very different from most of those China man from road side..
he do provide good service in taking care of us
this implies to other tourguide as well

The day ended on the bed of a hotel.
The room i'm sharing with are Ernest & Yu Lun (Ben).
Both of them took the bed from the room itself which is soft and comfy,
where mine is like... sleeping on the floor with jus cloth cover over it, a foldable metal bed.
Hope tomorrow will not get back ach..