I'm sure Nicolet and Ms Sour Milk will be very happy when they see this post... they kept asking me both in school and online, when am I going to write about my China Trip. Well... I will... but first let me ramble about year 2007, after all, I am a noisy teenager...

It is the second week of year 2007, and also the 2nd week of the new school semester. Within this two weeks, we had homework, sat for exams, and I got rain while going home from school. On top of it, my artistic friend, Piglet was placed in a different class from me. Everyone is not very used to the quiet atmosphere, she is, after all, the major source of laughter and nuttiness. Oh well, I suppose we should let her go and spread her cheeriness elsewhere, and just adapt to this new environment without the shouts of that little Piglet.

My new sitting this year is not too bad, at least I'm still with my friends. Everyday, I watch Ms Sour Milk fool around with Nicolet, watch Nicolet fighting/wrestling with S and watch Fishy's unmoving back (I am sitting behind her).

My dear cousin who is 2 months younger than me is now actually in Junior College, because she is taking the express stream in Singapore, so she only need to study for 4 years, while I have to study 5 years... Should I envy her?

And the most pampered friend I ever have is now living in a hostel. I wonder how she is now? The next time I see her, I must ask her about her hostel life, after all, there is a probability that I might need to stay in a hostel one day.

As for me, I'm sitting for my government exam this year, and after that, we will leave school, go seperate ways, and most probably bump into each other as strangers in future... What a sad thought, but that is the cruel reality of life.

Mother kept reminding me to keep a look out on colleges, universities, prospect courses... That is another phase of growing up.

I hope to take up fine arts in future, that is my interest. I once imagine, one day in the distant future, when I am a working in an advertising studio, and I the client I am meeting is one of my old classmate, what will our reaction be? Will we point, gasp, and get all speechless? Or will we just shove our feelings aside, and put on our best professional looking mask, shake hands, and reintroduce ourselves all over again? Will we one day meet each other as fellow rivals? Will we be at each other's necks than? Or will we keep the competition friendly? People change, but to what extent? The future is a mystery indeed...

Maybe Miss Sour Milk will be a nurse, although she kept insisting that with her bad temper and rough mannerism, it is quite impossible. Maybe Nicolet will be a writer, and maybe when she is going to publish her 'The Elm Tree', she will think about me, the one who is taking so long with colouring the picture of her characters?

Ok, enough ramblings... Now I will put down what happened in China, or to be more precise, Yunnan.

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This is an introduction about Yunan, China. If any of you happens to decide to go there, brace yourselves for the mountains, rivers, and ah... unpredictable weather. (miehehehe)

Our first stop: Kunming. Capital of Yunan with a temperature of around 16 ºc, not enough to turn one into ice, but still, warm clothing is needed. But anyway, you wouldn’t want me to rant on and on about those...how should I put it... trivial matters. So, now we will get straight to Kunming’s most scenic spots.

Stone forest, like what it name suggests, is actually a land with multitudes of stone formations, and no, they are not stalagmites and stalactites which form in caves. These stone formations actually belong to the sea, but when the crusts move and the sea part so many years ago, the stone forest is formed. Evidence includes a fossil of a deep sea creature on one of the stones.

Another attraction at Kunming is Jiu Xiang. This is where all the stalactites and stalagmites are. With some imagination, you can see the fairy banquet, fairies bathing in the pond (pervert~) and Tripitaka with his three disciples (Monkey King, Pig and Sand monk). And then, there is this most amazing formation which consists of lots of semicircle rocks which hold water, and there are more than ten of them, stacking above one another, and the water flowing down as if it’s flowing on steps. Pity, the dark surrounding in the caves cause the photos to turn out an eternity of inky black...

The second stop: Shangri-La. This is the place where all of our brains lack of oxygen and we ended having some kind of head-splitting headache. Reason: Shangri-La is more than 3000m above sea level, so it’s a no wonder everyone are lacking of oxygen. The temperature of 0 ºc didn’t help (I’m using the scarf to cover my nose instead of my neck, mother was chiding me about it, but I am not going to bother her). Still, that didn’t stop us from having fun. We went to Songzanglin Monastery. There, we have to climb 150 steps up the monastery, and we must climb slowly, because of the thin atmosphere, our hearts have to work harder to obtain oxygen, haste will only make things worst. When we are up there, we saw monks, 2 very faithful devotee praying and pigs. Yes, pigs! And the pigs are so cute, they don’t even smell, and they move fast. It is told that monks also have stages of learning, the highest rank is Zhen Fo, which is something like high priest (but direct translation from Mandarin means true Buddha). This is something unbelievable, one of the Zhen Fo who passed away is now reincarnated, and the reincarnation is now 17 years old, also a monk. I wonder: how do they know that this particular boy is that Zhen Fo’s reincarnation? And there are...err... graffiti on one of the wall, writing stuff like: Yeah! I passed my form 5 exams! I wonder who wrote it. The younger monks? And the monks are wearing only a single layer of clothing, and they are sitting on the roof! Aren’t they cold? And aren’t they scared of falling off? Anyway, I suppose the mentality of those enlightened (monks) might be slightly different from us commoners.

And I rode a pony!!! It was such a good experience! I rode a horse once when I’m small, but that time I’m so scared that I might fall off anytime, but this time, the ride was fun. Although there is nothing much to see, only dry grass and horse dung, but to feel the gentle bumping was interesting. Though, I must say, when I attempted to mount the pony, I used too much forced, frightening the creature. It starts galloping, with the pitiful me on its back like a sack of rice. The man in charge calmed it down, and I am able to sit on it properly. In the beginning of the ride, I am pretty much praying: don’t throw me off your back...don’t throw me off your back, but later I got used to it (haha).

Third stop: Lijiang. Lijiang do not have an altitude as high as Shangri-la, so all the headaches stopped. Lijiang’s ancient city is shopping haven for tourists. Rows and rows of shops selling jade, silver, handicrafts, accessories, dolls... the list goes on and on. There is also a row of pub, but I don’t like it, it’s noisy and crowded. Besides, I would not want to be pick-pocketed.

In the middle of Lijiang’s ancient city sits the Mu palace. Famed as the forbidden city of Lijiang, it is the residential of Lijiang’s Mu emperor, the head of Lijiang and of NaXi minority (oh ya, have I mentioned that in Yunan, they have lots of tribes which they call minority or nationality). This Mu emperor wanted so much to overthrow the Chinese emperor, but do not have the power to do so. Hence, he furnished his palace with a dragon carving (which in actual fact could only be used by Chinese emperor) with the lame excuse that having a water dragon could prevent fires. Somehow or rather, the excuse was accepted (but then again, this whole thing is an odd case). The palace was like what it is supposed to be, a palace. Although there is no furniture and the building is actually rebuilt based on the old palace (the original one was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution and an earthquake) with not much of an historical value, but it is still quite interesting to walk around it, seeing the structure and listening to the introduction.

The best experience of all was visiting the Glacier Park of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. There is nothing else except snow and more snow, but snow is something that is not common in Malaysia, so the experience was very rewarding. And if you have the stamina to climb further up, you can see snow flakes, if you look hard enough. Standing there, hearing one’s heart beating with all the white snow and silence around you, one will find that moment very special.

Dongba God Garden reminds me of animism. There is a path, called the path of hell which leads to another path known as the path of heaven. And on the left of the path of hell are statues of ghosts and on the right side of the path of heaven are statues of gods. And along the paths are wind chimes. It is believed that if you wrote your wish on one of those colourful wind chimes and hang it there, when the wind blows and the chimes tinkle, your wish is told to the gods.

Fourth stop: Dali. Four characters are used to represent Dali: feng, hua, xue, yue. These characters respectively means: wind, flower, snow and moon. Dali is surrounded by mountains, so there is very strong wind here due to the limited space for the air to move. Lots of flowers are grown in Dali because their major minority here: the Bai people like to grow flowers. The mountains of Dali are known as CangShan and on top on the mountains are snows. As for the moon, it is reflected on the surface of a very famous lake of Dali: Er Hai.

Now, in Dali, we learnt lots about the Bai people. We visited their mansion, which is mainly white in colour with poetry everywhere, watched their cultural show and tasted their tea (one of them is sweet). Our tour guide is a Bai people and she herself introduced lots about Bai people. If I talk too much about these, it might get boring.

And, so ends the introduction to Yunan, China. But not before I express some personal opinions. The landscape is good, it is not all green in colour like Malaysia, but there are brown, yellow and red. When you look at the landscape, and you use some imagination, you can almost see a pair of horseman staring far into the horizon. Another thing is: China have lots of historical stuff, but lots are destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. It is quite obvious that Chinese have a rather crude way of doing things, it is quite close to destructive.

This is the end of the entry. If you are a nature or historical person, have the stamina and would not end up panting and dragging yourself up the mountains, China is the place for you. Good day to everyone. *Curtains close*

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The photos in China will be in the next post, because they take too long to upload, I don't have the patience.

A quote/ a verse from a chinese poem: The mind of silent man is a mystery.