Day 28 – Struck by the plague (not really.)

สวัสดีคับ(Thai - hello), PEOPLE!

What worst than having your family back at home while you are groaning in pain (because of the climb)?

Today MIGHT be the worst day of my eighteen years of living.

Alright, enough of the misery! Looking at the brighter side, today project management lesson was quite meaning and a fun-filled one. I would not call it a lesson, but rather an activity maybe.  And it’s all about TEAM-BUILDING & COMMUNICATION.

Bridge – Building seems to be easy, but with limited resources, it’s never easy at all already. We are given papers and some paper clips and we are needed to make a bridge that spans over two tables and must be able to hold the weight of 5 ‘dictionary-like’ books.

Although my group is not the winner, I learnt it’s important to communicate with your group members as it will hinder the results in the end. Overall, I believe that the learning process is the most important.

As the title suggests, really didn’t do much except rest, rest and more rest. Thighs aching! Got to go!

For people who want to know why i'm not feeling well because of the climb to Mount Wu Dang... I was wearing short sleeve shirt and did not wear any protection attire against the wind. And after sweating so much when helping the elderly, with the combination of the rain and strong winds, even the strongest person on earth will fall sick. Thankfully, it was a minor fever! (:

Day 27 - Conquering Mount Wu Dang 武当山

สวัสดีคับ(Thai - hello), PEOPLE!
FINALLY THE DAY HAS COME! MOUNT WU DANG, HERE WE COME!

Today is the day where history will be created for the 5th OIP students! Today is the day where we conquer 7000 steps of Mount Wu Dang. And on this special day 10/10/2010, many locals might say it's a beautiful day because of the double ten in the date, where most of the locals would say 十全十美!
Mission: To conquer Mount Wu Dang and make it back on time for LUNCH!

We took a one-hour bus ride up to a point in 武当山 to ready ourselves for the ultimate climb!

Manage to take a group photo before the climb!

Yup, we prayed and asked for a beautiful weather, but somehow, our prayers have not been answered. Besides the freezing temperature, there's a light drizzle and a minor haze. Which make the climbing more intensive and challenging! Take a look at the FOG!

Steps after steps... We were heading up the Mountain and we came across this uncle who was carrying very heavy goods with his stick on his shoulder, Yu chuan and i stopped and volunteered ourselves to help him with the load! Soon after, more came to help to lessen the load so that we can proceed faster! GOOD JOB, GUYS!

After about three hours, we finally reach the final flight of stairs before the summit. All can we exchange for the climb was the majestic view of the mountains! An experience that you can never exchange for money!

Just realised that as the we go higher, the steps just steeper! But armed with determination and perseverance, we managed to stand at the top of Mount Wu Dang, The Golden Submit!

Didn't managed to stay so long at the golden submit because we were drenched and the wind blowing at the submit can send massive chills all over your body. We took some photos and video before we head down to less windy grounds before heading down Mount Wu Dang again!

After an hour, we finally reunited with the rest for a sumptous lunch!

*Drooling* LOOK AT OUR LUNCH! :D

It time to head home! 6 hours later and we are home! (:

Reflection:

Today, we conquered Mount Wu Dang! And to me, it takes quite an effort for me to climb all the way up endless flights of stairs to reach the golden submit. And after reflecting about what happened today, surprisingly, i learnt a lot of things besides realising how tired the climb was.

There are two things that i want to address:

Firstly, I am grateful to meet some of the elderly along the way so that i can help them. I realised that helping a person seems to be very difficult in the beginning, taking the carrying of load as an example, it's very hard for me to lift his goods up because it's really very heavy and one flight of stairs can really kill me. But looking at his age, i tell myself that i'm such a strong, young lad. I should be much stronger than him. And whenever he wanted his stick back, i refused to give it back because i want to prove that if an old man can do it, there will be no problem for a young lad like me. In the end, i realised that the smile on his face seems to be the greatest 'Thank You' to me.

Secondly, i am so thankful for all my friends especially my group. They never fails to cheer me on when i was about to give up. I still remembered that i had muscle cramps on my calfs, they are the ones who took care of me! Really felt blessed!

So today, I managed to climb to the very summit of 武当山! And i'm really proud of everyone who are able to conquer Mount Wu Dang also!

Day 26 – Training for The CLIMB! (Wu Dang Shan Tour Day 1)

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FINALLY, THE DAY HAS COME! THE ULTIMATE CHALLENGE, WU DANG SHAN!

The plan was to wake up at 5 o’clock in the morning, but eventually, woke up at 6 o’clock! ): Left with dying minutes to pack my bag, I just chucked any clothes that I can find inside my little baggage. I do not know whether to say am I efficient or am I adapted to do thing at the very late minute. My roommates and I went out of our room at around 0635 and surprisingly, we were among the first to reach the meeting place. (Some of our friend applauded for us because they think it’s an achievement as we are always the late ones during lessons. :X)

Alright, TIME TO SLEEP! (5 hours long bus ride!)

RING!!! RING!! TIME TO WAKE UP! After the draining bus trip, we finally arrived at 银街假日酒店@武当山to have our lunch.  Lunch was GREAT although it’s kind of vegetarian. Look at our results!

Before we went off, we took some photos near the hotel! Told you we are here to conquer Wu Dang Shan!

After the hearty meal, we are gathered at ticket concourse to have our tickets purchased and distributed.

We visited 3 places on 武当山 today, namely the 太子坡，紫霄宫 and Tian Yi Hu.

After cruising in the bus for around 30 minutes, we reached our first destination! Tai Zi Po 太子坡!

We were suprised that we are able to find a tea appreciation session here in such a historical place. And we were invited to have a free tea appreciation session!

Time waits for no man! And it's time to move on!

Next Stop, we arrived at 紫霄宫!

Besides its majestic structure, 紫霄宫 is known to its famous taoist martial arts, tai ji. I noticed that a lot of foreigners came all the wall from their home to a foreign land to learn tai ji from the taoist monks at Mt Wu Dang. Now, lets our eyes witness the amazing Purple Heaven Place.

After witnessing the amazing PURPLE HEAVEN PALACE. We head down to our last final destination, Tian Yi Hu.

According to the tour guide, we need to walk a certain distance before we reached Tian Yi Hu. And at Tian Yi Hu, we are given a chance to experience or in other words, train for the climb tomorrow. Today, we conquer 蓝岩.

After a short hike up and down stairs, we reached our destination, Tian Yi Hu.

We continue to hike up 篮岩! Look at our tired faces!

Finally, we reached our destination! I realised that there are a lot of locks that are locked along the chains along the staircases and the circumferences of Tian Yi Hu. I believe that the locks bring them blessings not only for families, also for the loved ones.

After all the tiring climbs of stairs, we are finally going back to check in our hotel!! WOHOO! :D

Reflection:
Today, we experienced the long tiring rides and partial endless climbing of stairs. Really did manage to experience part of the climbing. I hope tomorrow will be a good day for all of us for the ULTIMATE climb to Mount Wu Dang. After all the tours like the 3 gorges dam, we are trained to learn to appreciate mother nature more. And after much reflection, i feel that it's quite important appreciate mother nature more in Singapore, the nature landscape is very limited. So therefore, i am really appreciative that we are able to see all the mountain and learn about the stories behind it. Time flies, and it's time to say goodbye. And we need tons of rest before conquering Mount Wu Dang! Have a good day, everyone! :D