Muhd Sufi Hakim
4th week journal

Another 2 weeks till home sweet home. I didn’t think i could survive 4 weeks in another country without my parents but I guess determination and money prove me wrong. Hahahah. If 6 weeks no problem at here, national service will be a breeze. I actually aimed to shed some kilos over these few weeks but I feel that I kind of gain more weight because I’m eating too much here! To tell you the truth, the food here is delicious especially the ones cooked at this halal restaurant in the campus. The dishes I always order are ‘Neuro Ban Mian’ and ‘Neuro Chow Fan’. All this food talk is making me hungry already. Hahah

On Monday the 22nd of March, I turned 18. Thanks for all the wishes. At facebook alone there were over 100s of them. Thank you all.

The first major thing that happened in week 4 was our APPG Lab Test. Although I felt I was prepared for it, I blanked out in the room. I saw a few people asking for help from other fellow students secretly but I didn’t want to as i want my conscious to be clear. Besides if I fail means I can learn from it. You can’t from cheating. As soon as I received my paper, i started doing but heck my mind was so blank I begin to cock up. I forgot my ‘messagebox’ got inverted commas and my ‘.ToString’. Now I’m just hoping I can study harder for Theory Test 2 so it can pull up my grade for APPG.

Sunday came. It was our trip to Jiu Zhai Gou. I must say this one of the most beautiful places on Earth and this place will surely be a good mention in one of those ‘100 places to go before I die’ articles.

My dormitory mates didn’t sleep the whole night for fear we would not wake up in time for our flight. The flight was at 7am. The bus from our campus leaves at 5. So yeah played DOTA all the way. It was tiring to wait till 5am. In the bus we managed to catch a nap as the airport was just a 45 minute ride away. Once we reached the airport, we got our flight tickets. My seat was 1D. I got a happy feeling at that time about my seat but I wasn’t quite sure what it was. So Mr Teo settled some things blah blah blah. Once on the aeroplane, i finally knew what that feeling is. The feeling of FIRST CLASS SEAT. Hahah. The flight will be about 1 hour from here to Jiu Zhai Gou. Caught some sleep but a sudden change of temperature and altitude woke me up. My ears were hurting and I was shivering. Upon arrival, the air stewardess announced, “We have arrived at Jiu Zhai Gou, 2500 metres above sea level and the temperature is -2 degrees Celsius”.

I thought i was a hero wearing 3 layer of clothes only haha. I was wrong. I took out another sweater. Put in on and it was still bloody cold. Outside the airport I could see fragments of ice on windows but there weren’t any snow.. YET. I asked Mr Tan how far our hotel was from the airport. He said we were going to take some detours along the way before going to the hotel. It was 2 hours to this waterfall place. On the way to there, I seriously had some bladder problem. 30 minutes to the journey, I already had the urge to pee but it wasn’t until 20 minutes later till the next toilet break. So I quickly dashed to the toilet and pee till I was satisfied. I got back to the bus and i had the urge to pee again! Wahlaowei. Fast forward to the waterfall place. This is the first place i experienced snow in china. There were only small currents flowing down in the lower part of this place. We needed to climb to the top to get to see a spectacular waterfall. And what a sight to behold! The waterfall was beautiful. This is just the beginning. Tomorrow would be a beautiful day and changed my life forever.

In the hotel, I was paired up with Amin to share a room to spend 2 nights. I was too lethargic to unpack so i just threw myself on the bed and fell asleep. Can’t blame me I’ve had a lack of sleep. Haha the next morning my feet felt so cold. I open the windows and I couldn’t believe my eyes. Snow covered the place, mountains and trees in white. No wonder so cold. I wore 5 layers to Jiu Zhai Gou’s nature park which is the main event for the 4th week.

Upon reaching the nature park we were required to take a bus to Virgin Forest, which was located in the Rize Valley, and then go back down to where we came. Jiu Zhai Gou is composed of three valleys arranged in a Y shape.The bus was packed and now I know how sardines felt when they are in a tin. Hahah. Reached halfway and the bus asked us to alight as the season has just past winter, it was too dangerous to go any further. Right now my group were at Panda Lake. Kept trying to find panda waterfalls but failed. Panda Lake was cool but it wasn’t any significant. Took some pictures here and there. Went to pearl shoals and found pearl waterfall. To me this is the most amazing sight to ever see other than hot women. The Pearl Shoal waterfall somehow creates this mist that creates this amazing effect which I can’t really describe here. You have to be there to see it for yourself. Now I know why this waterfall is world famous. Too bad I didn’t have a camera.

Our next destination was the tourist centre where we could take a bus to Long Lake which is located in the Zechawa valley. The bus ride was longer because it climbs to a higher altitude. Once reached, I couldn’t believe my eyes. The lake was literally frozen solid! Me acting as a child went lower to see a clearer view of the frozen lake. What an awesome sight. I turned to my right and there were people crossing over the authorised line, taking pictures on the big pile of rocks. Wanting some cheap thrills, my group mates climbed over the authorised line getting nearer to the frozen lake. I swear while walking i almost lost my footing because what we were walking on was big rocks. Once we were literally near the frozen lake, we threw rocks to try to break up the frozen lake. I threw mine and the rock literally bounced off the ice top. Nizam threw a big rock. It did break the ice but the water turned to ice back just moments after it broke! I looked back and we were very far off from the authorised line. An achievement indeed. Haha after a while, there was a security guard who ordered us to go back up. Because we were scared that he might shoot us, we went back up reluctantly. Overall, the long lake was the best place in jiu zhai gou. After we got back up, we met up with Qi Long’s gang and headed straight to the entrance place without exploring Shuzheng Valley. That was our biggest regret. Not having time to explore the whole place entirely.

Went back to the hotel to have a quick shower and dinner. After that the OIP group went to see a Tibet Concert which to me was quite ok due to the fact there was a lot of beautiful girls dancing.
The next day we had to wake up early for our flight back to Chengdu. The best damn thing during the journey was that it was covered in snow. After reaching the airport we had time to take pictures with snow but i didnt get to do my snow angel.....
So that’s it for week 4. Stay tuned for week 5.