* In this post, I shall not mention about the guide which pissed us all off and the "state of the art" facilities hostel.
** Lets thank the organising committee, Mr Chua and household for their efforts in making this trip possible.
So it wasn't really an escape from Beijing to be exact. I apologise for the misleading title.
We went to 十度(Shidu) , just outside Beijing that has the crossing of 10 or more meanders. Lots of nature scenic spots; mountains and waterfalls and you-know-what-else to expect.
Day 1:
On paper, this was a trip that requires a 3.5 hours drive up. Or so we thought so. The painful fact flashed before our eyes when we were all so hyped up for the trip; a traffic jam for a couple of hours. I lost count but I estimate that we took nearly 6 hours to get to our destination. The funny thing that occurred during the jam was.... A couple of us left our vehicle to get a breather, stretch those tired muscles and to relieve ourselves as the traffic was at a complete standstill. Before we could finish all the above, we found ourselves running after the vehicle as the traffic somehow eased. I swear I need to get into shape. We ran a good 800m (rough estimate) in slippers to board the vehicle still in motion. It was truly comical. HAHA.
After panting so much, we finally set foot in 拒马乐园 (Ju Ma Le Yuan), a lot similar to a theme park with some rides as well as bungee jump. Ok, its a huge clue dangling in your face so maybe now you have an idea of what happened next. 55m high up above sea-level and a rope tied to your legs. I jumped, rather I was pushed off the platform just like the thousands others. I'm puzzled after I did so. I always had the mentality that jumping off is the most painless method of committing suicide but I was wrong. It was pretty mentally torturing (at least for myself) during the 5 secs of free fall period, I couldn't shout, I couldn't do anything and was helpless as my mind was a total blank until I felt the rope at my feet. The rebound was pretty strong I was thrown into mid-air like a slab of fat meat with my arms flagging all over trying to recover my balance but to no avail; think zero-gravity? Haha. Overall, it was a super enjoyable 20 seconds for the 205rmb. Now, don't call me spendthrift alright? It was truly worth the experience. While some of us bungee-d, the others went for the safer alternative of enjoying the theme park with its array of activities; cable-car riding, rafting and others.
We had 农家菜(Nong Jia Cai aka Farmer's dishes) for dinner. The best kind of home-cooked food after being away from my mom's fabulous cooking for 3 months. I'm not discrediting Sheng Yuan's fantastic cooking ok? In Junwei's words, "don't malign me please!". The spread of food was simply wonderful but I shall get to something that's even tastier on day 2. Hold that thought first. Fast forward till just before bed-time. We played cards in the room; Heart attack and Indian Poker to pass time as it was still early to hit the beds. The latter was used to decide which poor soul would entertain our guide the next day and Flora couldn't have wished for better luck as she won all the games hands down during the showdown matches with Bor, Choon Tat and Sihan. In case you aren't aware, winning wasn't exactly the notion of the day as she took home the honour of entertaining the guide the next day. So a chapter of "The Fly and The Pie" started. Buzz~~
Day 2:
A early morning exercise to awaken our senses was in place. We went mountain climbing at 东湖港 (Dong Hu Gang) . This was miles easier compared to Hua Shan in Xi'an as there were metal staircases built for the ease of visitors. Too bad there were just slightly too much man-made features for myself with the small water features and stairs. The weather was hot and the sun was burning and we weren't exactly used to it after enjoying the chill the past 3 months. At least now I look healthily tan once again after resembling a sick chicken for the past couple of months. We went bamboo rafting after that. Its a miracle the raft was still afloat with 13 of us standing on it although it threatened a few times to give us a nice cool bath during the course. I was one of the few unlucky ones that had my feet and shoes soaked. Wonderful. Just like Chris Columbus, we found a little stone island and set foot on it while the rafters, Shunyu and Choon Tat, went off with the raft. Curse them both haha. We rained pebbles and stones when they were far enough in hopes of "hitting them". Luckily we failed for the consequences could have been far from desirable.
In the afternoon, we went over to 孤山寨 (Gu Shan Zhai) to climb more mountains. At least it was less modified than Dong Hu Gang. We rode horses. I rode a horse. Yes! It was enjoyable and the few seconds it galloped, I felt the existence of my butt. With this short ride on it, I'm looking forward to conquering the vast grasslands of Inner Mongolia with my horse. We came across this waterfall and saw people standing in the concave sections of it with the water acting as curtains in front to take pictures. We had to do it somehow. Just somehow and so we proceeded to brave the chill.
An entire roast lamb was on our dinner table (bottom left hand picture). I've never tried anything like that before and I can safely tell you it was truly awesome. The taste was so good that names for the dish were flying across all channels, see if you can figure what it means; KFG, KFL and KGL. Finger.. Licking... Good. Rocks!! We had a campfire after dinner to complete the snacking process with bags of marshmallows and potato chips to idle time away.
To best make use of our time, we had a "get to know me better" session courtesy of Sihan who proposed "2 truths 1 lie". Cracking statements as follows (some of which are false and others true):
Yunli: winning a drawing competition
Bor: playing with sulphuric acid in the lab
Jiwei: breaking my sis's 2 front teeth with a basketball
Sihan: the toilet door broke open in the middle of my tummy ache
Layming: I have 20k in the bank
Flora: being chased out of class for hiccuping too much,
Yin Yin: unable to balance chemical equations 3 months before O levels
Choon Tat: getting caned for running in school
Yew Kiong: getting "most obedient student" award in pri 4
Shunyu: 1st in Home Economics class for baking a cake
Charlotte: I tasted shit before
Junwei: I gave Chinese tuition during sec 2
See if you can call the bluff. Awards are up for grabs and whilst stocks last.
Day 3:
Take a chill pill and lets go free and easy. Some of them went for a 2nd horse-riding session while the others like myself went to get some food/snacks for the picnic session after deciding we wanted to take things slow. We visited their museum cause its free entry. The museum was all about the Japanese Occupation and there were some really gross information in there. I shall spare you guys the details. Back to the happier topic. Where would you normally have a picnic? In a park with greenery accompanying you right? We had it in a park but at the playground as the grass had ants scrambling all over. Haha.
I tried new things during this trip. Lets see...
1) I bungee jumped!
2) I tasted rabbit meat which is kind of like chicken
3) I rode a horse
4) We ate an entire lamb
5) We bamboo rafted
Overall, it was a pretty awesome trip minus some hiccups. Wonder what's next after bungee. I hope my parents don't scream or kill me. HAHA.
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