Social

I think this is my life – getting jobs with no time for social life…….

Light

I am beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel. After tripping and falling amidst the darkness for so long, this vision of light has reignited the long forgotten feel of excitement. The harder I work for it, the great the satisfaction when relishing the victory.

The journey is definitely not completed yet. There are more mentally draining processes lying ahead. It’s made more complicated with the huge gamble which I am staking on.

At least, the direction is clear. I just need to follow the illuminated path.

Answers

Examination, especially multiple choice questions, are bad learning tools. You are taught that there is one right answer which wins you point. In life, there are often no right decision. At least you never know if it’s right. Making a decision and living by it are traits of a decisive person but the lingering pains are difficult to ignore.

Let’s hope time can be the answer for these doubts.

宁夏之旅 (二）

I am not one who is easily enticed by tout, more so in China where reports of cheats are rampant. It was just another day when taxi drivers surrounded me as i was waiting for the bus to 沙坡头。 Despite my continuous silence and walking away, there was one persistent driver who I couldn’t shake off. Maybe it was his sincerity, or his patience, my sixth sense brought me up his taxi for the day. This was the best decision of the trip.

My adventure begins.

He first brought me to take this unique boat. What does the float looks like?

Suckling pig? Close to that. This is actually dried pig skin. Pig can’t fly, but they can float.

耕田

Salt Pool.
Seeing is believing.

Actual Venue for filming of 刺陵

Venturing at the edge of the Desert, I came across this pool. This site was chosen for its “wetland” properties.

The 冲浪车 – roller coaster of the desert.

Sliding down the desert.

Moving away from the main desert site, the driver brought me to his friend who rears camel. We went deep into Tengali Desert to watch the sun set on the desert. Breathtaking scenery.





The friendship with the owner fostered during the four hours led to an even more exciting night……

宁夏之旅 (一）

“The greatest waste of a brain would be its inability to communicate”

A new year resolution (Being it the Lunar or Roman calendar) would be to pen down some of the experiences I had outside Singapore. Besides releasing them from the confinement of the head, it would perhaps stimulate and provide some travel ideas for the remaining pocketful of those who bother about this blog. (Ernest and Ivy, I know you still RSS this blog.)

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“Staying overnight in a village alone, Walking across the desert at sunset, and experiencing the warmest ties from strangers”

Topping the experiences during Chinese trip is undoubted the 宁夏 leg. Having traveled with Wanying for two weeks, it was scary, yet refreshing, to be alone in a province which sees few outside visitors – 宁夏. This choice was both backed by a desire to explore a territory unknown to most, even Chinese and a dream to visit a desert.

My first reaction upon reaching the Ying Chuan airport was

“Such a rash choice”
I had no idea where to go, what to see and where to stay. Even the lonely planet book has few pages on this province.

Faced with no choice, I head direct to the second biggest city 中卫 where I knew a desert awaits.

Unable to get a taxi, I randomly hopped into a crammed local bus with my two backpacks. Delicately balancing in the mess of people, I nearly fell over a few times. It wasn’t long that a lady offers her seat to me. I swear it was the first time that a female offers her seat for me. With the setting based in such an Asian male chauvinist environment, I felt like just digging a hole in the bus and hide my contracting male pride. I swallowed my pride and sat down, realizing that this act would just hit my pride instead of injuring those around me. Pretending to sleep immediately, I avoided everyone belittering glances.

Upon reaching the city, I explored around for a cheap and safe accommodation. Shuwan’s mother has warned me of the danger that lurks in the province owning from the immense poverty here. Most of the local 宾馆 are not permitted to take foreigners and it takes a certain bargaining and some tricks before I managed to convince one to take me.

This cosy room costs me S$16 a night. Instead of a water boiler or free mineral water, I got

The most economical and environmental friendly source of free water.

Not wasting any more time, I ventured out to explore this city. Despite being the second largest city, the local business environment felt more such a subsistence survival level of commence.

Goods were definitely much cheaper and it makes you wonder the profit margin of the equivalent sold in other cities.

A interesting monument in the city was a few hundred years old Tang Dynasty temple 高庙寺.

Unlike other “preserved” temples in other parts of China, this is one that I can swear by its age. It’s certainly one of the most “raw” temple which I have seen. The entire complex would not be out of place in those ancient dramas often shown on TV. The most captivating was the entire solemn aura that it possess.

It makes me want to don those ancient clothes as I walked around the huge complex.

Another interesting part of this temple was the 地狱. The objective of this scary “ghosthouse” was to force patrons to reflect upon their deeds and know the “world” out there.

I was alone in an eerie basement passageway of an ancient temple, (which I have no knowledge of its history) in a city (which I just heard of that day) and with sunlight dwindling, “scare” might be too mild a word to describe the intense feeling. At that moment, I found myself foolish to be challenging my fear again.

With China’s rapid modernization, the sad fact remains that this ancient temple needs to co-exist with modern anemities.

One day, it might be rendered redundant.

As for food, noodle with strongly favoured sauce is definitely a trait of this place. Because of the mass poverty, 鸡肉 in a 鸡肉面 or 猪肉 in a 猪肉面 is really next to nothing. Seriously, with a huge bowl like this that costs 60 cents sing, one can’t really complain.

Walking around after my meals, I came across the warmth of two very interesting locals who encompasses a different perspective of life………………….

谋事在人，成事在天

After two memorable countdowns spent in Stockholm and Ho Chi Minh, I actually spent the last on duty through the night. Using a heaven to hell analogy would be too strong a words but it understate the points perfectly.

2010 is certainly one transition period in my life. With the end of the carefree student life marks the beginning of the career journey. It’s the time to search for the true success in life; where make-or-break decisions abound.

Many thoughts certainly linger around the end of 2010. Resolutions wise, I have actually attained 80% for the year. However, this comforting number simply masks over the whirlpool of emotions beneath, much of which are better not told over the online network.

成事在人，谋事在天。One can only prepare to await the arrival of luck.

Econ-omics

Revisiting Freakanomics again helps to re-instill some a bit of confidence in my choice major for university. Looking at how 99.99% of my classmates have joined the civil side of society, NUS Economics course had, on hindsight, seems like a PSC preparatory course.  Given my distance with it everday, Keynes, mankiw and I would soon be mere acquaintances! (Not that they even know me now…..)

Maybe it is not that difficult to apply all those EC1111 Ec2222 Ec3333 stuffs in everyday’s life. Frankly, either EC1000E or Ec9999 should be on Economics relevance to everyday’s life. Only with this, will a graduate of Bachelor of Social Science with Honours in Economics seems to have taken something useful out of university instead of just having painful memories of those hundred lines gigantic Greek model that just illustrate human are selfish. Just go inside any corporation for half a day and such behaviour are plain obvious to the naked eyes.

Economics actually manifests in so many forms every day. A little knowledge of this can goes quite a long way in seeing a different perspective of life. We have Economics rice and Economics mee hoon. How about an Economics life?

 

Courtesy of one favourite Economics lecturer. Economics can even explain the act of procrastination.

Decision

I never could have imagined that Kuching would play host to one of my favourite sunset picture.  Even the boatman had paused to take in this beautiful scene.  Do I have time for a breather in my life?

Besides this sunset, this Kuching trip unexpectedly holds much  more impact in life besides purely relaxing.

To succeed in life, one needs two traits – Wisdom, and the courage to execute the wisdom.

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Unlike examination, there are seldom correct answers to the many questions faced in life.  I have always attempted to shield behind decisions behind the veil of “calculated risk” to deflect away doubts.

Deep inside my heart, this is seldom the case. Perhaps, this is a time that I need courage, huge dossages of them.

Ranting

Picture from Ben Heys

A life without a goal is akin to being on a boat in the wide open ocean, propelled only by whatever wind that blows by.

I have decided to use my oar to move towards a direction. Calculated risk it certainly beholds, but not fixing a direction is more scary.

Of course, ranting out has made life so much more comfortable.

Difficult moments

Fresh university grads are often the lowest life forms when they first enter any organization. There they will slowly learn the rope before they take the gradual step towards management.

To directly plunge into the role of managing 200 people straight out from school is no simple matter. Expecting the people to teach you the ropes as you prepare yourselves to manage over them is an even taller order.

That’s the challenge for one to overcome.