This March holidays was probably the craziest , most exciting but also the most tiring and painful one yet .
Let's begin with the escape from reality - Hong Kong .
Yup , the full five days off the shores of Singapore have really gave me a chance to open my eyes to new landscapes , situations .
Yes , we have all learnt what a caldera is - basically a volcano that boomed off its top in an eruption . And the books which show amazing pictures of it are nothing compared to the real thing . Hexagonal columns of sheer granite towered on the left , while a gentle reservoir of water sparkled down the slope on the right . All twenty-five penguin-liked figures huddled together and trod down the muddy path in the incessant rain , leaving only footprints behind . The chilly winds and air pollution were no match for our love for geography . It was something that Singapore would never experience , well at least not in a hundred years .
And yes the tombolo . The Secondary 3 textbook merely showed a little sandy path branching out from the mainland to join to an offshore island . The real thing , was NOWHERE near what was shown in the textbook . It was rocky . With boulders and rocks strewn on the 10m wide sand path made it somewhat dangerous to cross but nonetheless , armed with our cameras , sketchbooks , desire to experience treading on such a rare landform , we trudged slowly , slipping , sliding , sometimes falling - all the way to the offshore island .
And the human part of geography . Our group took the MTR to the poorest and most underdeveloped part of Hong Kong to study the housing standards .
What the hell .
The buildings were practically crumbling . They were at nearing 10 storeys in height - without lifts . Whatever paint left on the buildings were already being covered with algae , and upon interviewing several residents of the area , we found out that a 500 sq ft apartment there was worth 2 million HK dollars - approx 300k SG$ . And in each apartment , there were at least 4 people living inside with 120 sq ft on average to themselves .
What the hell , seriously .
Urine on the stairs and the smell of decay hung in the air .
You don't feel pity for these people . In fact , they were smiling , and they did not carry the pungent odour from their houses with them .
You would have felt anger . A disdain for the HK officials who claimed to have carried out urban redevelopment across HK but not there . So much for implementing policies and raising standard of living in the CBD . Leaving the suburbs to rot isn't the way to treat a country .
I guess there are really many many many more things wonderful/worth remembering about HK but pictures would explain better . And yes , a certain someone kept using me as a windbreaker just because im a little tolerant to the cold there - - .
I've seen your wishes . And yes I still remember what 1212 signified . I opened the cupboard door and the Tigger doll tumbled out .
And the story of us looks like a tragedy now .
Touched down on wednesday morning , and thursday was the floorball camp . Gosh . I was practically dragging myself around on thursday and friday .
And during the camp , when I heard my juniors talking about their feelings about the camp , it got a little irksome whenever someone mentioned 'I dont have any good points' . And though there was a prolonging annoyance at certain individuals in the camp , it is heartening to see the leaders working together to pull off the camp in the end . Hopefully the juniors have opened up a little and realised that we arent really that terrible a bunch of people .
I'm sorry . While you may not feel that way anymore , I still do . But , I understand .
So many things I wish you knew . So many walls up I cant break through .
