September 6, 2009

Day 5 & 6 - Up and down Lulin Resort

Day 5

We set off from our campus on Saturday morning to Lulin Resort. I had a last minute motion sickness once we reached our destination. The driver is driving very fast along the narrow, bumpy and curvy road. Everybody in the bus is bouncing up and down.

The activities lined up for us for Saturday is Whitewater Rafting and Waterfall sightseeing. First up, whitewater rafting of 7km. It was a man-made one, so the whole journey was not as rocky as we expected although some parts were really exciting. We bought the straw shoes too. I paired up with Chin Kuang and I took the front seat, which means that I will get all the first hand experience of getting splashed by the incoming small waves.

We washed up and off to our next activity - waterfall sightseeing. Plenty of waterfalls, some of them are man-made I guess. Still, it was magnificent! Took quite a lot of photos there too. Headed back to the eating house for dinner. Then, we checked in to our hotel room.

They have a night performance too, which is quite entertaining but difficult to understand their accent. Took some videos of their performances. Later on, we joined in too. Everybody surrounded the fire and started dancing. It was very fun.

Day 6

Woke up in the morning and went for breakfast at the eating house. Then, we took the bus high up into the mountains for sightseeing again. The mountain is called 绿林山南寨. Another bumpy ride! Here, we saw all the army statues and horses. There are actually horse rides available up there! I managed to get onto one and it was really bumpy for me as the horse is really running, but it was a really good experience! Kudos to the horse!

Next, we went to explore a place where we get to walkabout Camel Peak, Cave to the Heaven and Yangyuan Rock. The steps are really steep and uneven, especially the staircases.

Had our lunch and traveled back to campus.

Reflections
I really salute the drivers here in China. They can drive very fast and still drive smoothly especially in the mountainous area. They horn very frequently and I guess that is their way of signaling the front vehicles that they are coming since they are impatient to wait for the right time to cut the lane. I can say that this is a good experience as you can't see that in Singapore.

On the journey to the Lulin Resort, I can see that there are actually lots of agricultural activities on both sides the roads. The farmers actually dry their crops on the road which is quite dangerous for them since the drivers here are quite reckless and may knock down anyone.

The overall surroundings really resemble those of Malaysia's, with shop houses along roads, agricultural activities and such.

The night performance is really fun as we just joined in with other fellow China people. You can really see that everybody is having great fun dancing along with the music! The atmosphere is great too.

The horse ride should be quite tough for the horse as it has to run so much with different people of different weights on its back.