came back from hainan camp a few days ago... really bad luck to get a cough which is quite serious, just like the one i got earlier this year... nevertheless i enjoyed the camp, though there were some unpleasant moments...

海南

hainan is an island province of china... marine climate and many coconut trees planted along the roads and expressways... the weather qutie hot, i dont really like it coz i sweat a lot... the rain there is very irregular and sudden... mountainous area with many padi fields by the villagers in the province... quite an advanced place coz the infrastructure is quite developed, though the airport only has 1 duty free shop...

新井村

this village has 90 families where everyone has the same family name... electricity is available, but the village is not very developed... the double-deck beds were made of metal bars which shake qutie vigorously when u move about on the bed... at least there were power sockets to add juice to my mobile phone and digital camera...

the meals were qutie large servings and usually i cant really finish the food coz i dont take in that much food... breakfast was the worst coz we had the same breakfast (bread, kaya toast and soya bean milk) for 4 continuous days...

we helped out in the planting of padi into the fields... but i think it was quite screwed up coz according to the villagers, most of the padi we planted into the soil floated on the field... so u can imagine how bad was the plantation... we also helped out in the construction of the irrigation canal for the farms there... in the end, we only helped to carry concrete slabs coz the villagers did not want too many people to be involved and they were quite annoyed with us for breaking some of the concrete slabs... the slabs were fragile coz they were made by the villagers themselves... i suppose we were non-existent during the construction of the irrigation canal...

联欢 on the last day at the village wasnt that bad... there was a puppet show in hainanese... after that, we released the 孔明灯 made by us... out of the 7 released, 6 managed to fly past the clouds... the first one caught fire after a few metres of flight... fireworks were lit and it was an exhilirating experience to see fireworks exploding right above us...

文昌中学

one of the schools we visited... big campus with a large school population... volleyball team won many nationals and even participated in international competitions... must be quite good, better not mess with them... the students' and teachers' hostel was terrible as the buildings were dilapidated... the classrooms were large coz of a large class size of 60 students... some of the better classes get to use the interactive board (those kind of boards which are connected to the computer and u use a plastic pointer and point here point there on the board to activate the program in the board)... i saw their textbooks for high school grade 2 (equivalent to singapore's junior college grade 1)... their textbooks were mostly in chinese except for english... the contents taught for physics and mathematics are similar to what i'm doing right now... their english textbooks were much more simplier as the locals do not have a good grasp of english... the canteen good sux, had dinner there and they gave a lot of rice... cant finish coz my appetite was destroyed by the horrible food served by the canteen...

五指山

a mountain in the central area of hainan which resembles the five fingers of the human hand... our accomodation was in 水满乡 which is the home to 黎 tribe there... the hotel was much better than that in 新井 with decent beds, a tv set which broadcast chinese cable tv and a decent toilet... the water heater was working very well and i had a nice time in the toilet after constipating at 新井 for the past 4 days... we planted 2 trees at a school in the proximity, and it was a hard time digging holes to plant the trees... in the end, it was the locals who did most of the job coz we were very slow in digging the holes...

三亚

tourist city... southern end of hainan province... taxi fares quite cheap at RMB5 (approx. S$1)... the lan shop also charges quite cheaply at RMB2 per hour (approx. S$0.40)... however, the warcraft 3 tft was in chinese, while cs was in english... not bad for RMB2... there are many fashion retail outlets in the city, hence i did not buy anything from the city except for some sweets, drink and chewing gum...

大东海 beach is located somewhere in the city... nothing much to do out there coz the undercurrents were quite strong... some of us rent the beach cars for RMB50 (approx. S$10) for 10 mins... i feel that it's a bit expensive coz S$10 can be used to buy many other things... stayed at a bar on the beach and had a drink at RMB5 (approx. S$1)...

南山

buddhist temple... now transformed into a tourist attraction... statue of 观音菩萨 made of pure gold and silver decorated with precious gems... did not get to see it coz need to pay RMB20 (approx. S$5) admission fee... it's a bit ridiculous to pay S$5 just to look at a statue... there's this dragon stone plate that is the world's largest and many people come here to receive blessings from this monument and the 观音菩萨 inside the museum... prayed for peace at RMB100 (approx. S$20) and made a wish over there... i do hope that my wish can come true... dont tell u what my wish is...

the main attraction of the buddhist temple is the giant statue of 观音菩萨 in the middle of the south china sea （东海）... this statue is higher than the statue of liberty in manhattan, new york... according to our tour guide, the typhoons in the area were less frequent once this statue was built in its existing location... must be something quite fascinating...

海口

captial city of hainan province... nothing much to shop around here coz there are many shopping complexes and shops... went to a dvd shop and bought stef sun & jj lin karaoke dvd at RMB36 (approx. S$8.40) after discount... very cheap, very affordable, i think china is a good place to purchase dvds... had lunch at a roadside hawker selling noodles... the noodles are cooked right on the spot and u can add other dishes such as green vegs, mushroom and some cow's blood if i'm not wrong... the noodles tastes qutie good and it is affordable at RMB2.50 (approx S$0.50)...

the school we visited was 海南华侨中学... we stayed over at their hostel for a night and it was a horrible experience... the school may seem modern and the architecture of the hostel looks promising... however, the beds were no better than those at 新井... the worse thing is that the bed produces squeaking sounds once pressure is placed anywhere on the double-deck beds... quite scary to get to the upper deck coz the ladder not very stable... the toilet was quite horrible coz i did not manage to flush down my "big business"...

at least i had some memorable experiences in 海南...

pic of the day: a sunflower to bright up your day...

came back from hainan camp a few days ago... really bad luck to get a cough which is quite serious, just like the one i got earlier this year... nevertheless i enjoyed the camp, though there were some unpleasant moments...

海南

hainan is an island province of china... marine climate and many coconut trees planted along the roads and expressways... the weather qutie hot, i dont really like it coz i sweat a lot... the rain there is very irregular and sudden... mountainous area with many padi fields by the villagers in the province... quite an advanced place coz the infrastructure is quite developed, though the airport only has 1 duty free shop...

新井村

this village has 90 families where everyone has the same family name... electricity is available, but the village is not very developed... the double-deck beds were made of metal bars which shake qutie vigorously when u move about on the bed... at least there were power sockets to add juice to my mobile phone and digital camera...

the meals were qutie large servings and usually i cant really finish the food coz i dont take in that much food... breakfast was the worst coz we had the same breakfast (bread, kaya toast and soya bean milk) for 4 continuous days...

we helped out in the planting of padi into the fields... but i think it was quite screwed up coz according to the villagers, most of the padi we planted into the soil floated on the field... so u can imagine how bad was the plantation... we also helped out in the construction of the irrigation canal for the farms there... in the end, we only helped to carry concrete slabs coz the villagers did not want too many people to be involved and they were quite annoyed with us for breaking some of the concrete slabs... the slabs were fragile coz they were made by the villagers themselves... i suppose we were non-existent during the construction of the irrigation canal...

联欢 on the last day at the village wasnt that bad... there was a puppet show in hainanese... after that, we released the 孔明灯 made by us... out of the 7 released, 6 managed to fly past the clouds... the first one caught fire after a few metres of flight... fireworks were lit and it was an exhilirating experience to see fireworks exploding right above us...

文昌中学

one of the schools we visited... big campus with a large school population... volleyball team won many nationals and even participated in international competitions... must be quite good, better not mess with them... the students' and teachers' hostel was terrible as the buildings were dilapidated... the classrooms were large coz of a large class size of 60 students... some of the better classes get to use the interactive board (those kind of boards which are connected to the computer and u use a plastic pointer and point here point there on the board to activate the program in the board)... i saw their textbooks for high school grade 2 (equivalent to singapore's junior college grade 1)... their textbooks were mostly in chinese except for english... the contents taught for physics and mathematics are similar to what i'm doing right now... their english textbooks were much more simplier as the locals do not have a good grasp of english... the canteen good sux, had dinner there and they gave a lot of rice... cant finish coz my appetite was destroyed by the horrible food served by the canteen...

五指山

a mountain in the central area of hainan which resembles the five fingers of the human hand... our accomodation was in 水满乡 which is the home to 黎 tribe there... the hotel was much better than that in 新井 with decent beds, a tv set which broadcast chinese cable tv and a decent toilet... the water heater was working very well and i had a nice time in the toilet after constipating at 新井 for the past 4 days... we planted 2 trees at a school in the proximity, and it was a hard time digging holes to plant the trees... in the end, it was the locals who did most of the job coz we were very slow in digging the holes...

三亚

tourist city... southern end of hainan province... taxi fares quite cheap at RMB5 (approx. S$1)... the lan shop also charges quite cheaply at RMB2 per hour (approx. S$0.40)... however, the warcraft 3 tft was in chinese, while cs was in english... not bad for RMB2... there are many fashion retail outlets in the city, hence i did not buy anything from the city except for some sweets, drink and chewing gum...

大东海 beach is located somewhere in the city... nothing much to do out there coz the undercurrents were quite strong... some of us rent the beach cars for RMB50 (approx. S$10) for 10 mins... i feel that it's a bit expensive coz S$10 can be used to buy many other things... stayed at a bar on the beach and had a drink at RMB5 (approx. S$1)...

南山

buddhist temple... now transformed into a tourist attraction... statue of 观音菩萨 made of pure gold and silver decorated with precious gems... did not get to see it coz need to pay RMB20 (approx. S$5) admission fee... it's a bit ridiculous to pay S$5 just to look at a statue... there's this dragon stone plate that is the world's largest and many people come here to receive blessings from this monument and the 观音菩萨 inside the museum... prayed for peace at RMB100 (approx. S$20) and made a wish over there... i do hope that my wish can come true... dont tell u what my wish is...

the main attraction of the buddhist temple is the giant statue of 观音菩萨 in the middle of the south china sea （东海）... this statue is higher than the statue of liberty in manhattan, new york... according to our tour guide, the typhoons in the area were less frequent once this statue was built in its existing location... must be something quite fascinating...

海口

captial city of hainan province... nothing much to shop around here coz there are many shopping complexes and shops... went to a dvd shop and bought stef sun & jj lin karaoke dvd at RMB36 (approx. S$8.40) after discount... very cheap, very affordable, i think china is a good place to purchase dvds... had lunch at a roadside hawker selling noodles... the noodles are cooked right on the spot and u can add other dishes such as green vegs, mushroom and some cow's blood if i'm not wrong... the noodles tastes qutie good and it is affordable at RMB2.50 (approx S$0.50)...

the school we visited was 海南华侨中学... we stayed over at their hostel for a night and it was a horrible experience... the school may seem modern and the architecture of the hostel looks promising... however, the beds were no better than those at 新井... the worse thing is that the bed produces squeaking sounds once pressure is placed anywhere on the double-deck beds... quite scary to get to the upper deck coz the ladder not very stable... the toilet was quite horrible coz i did not manage to flush down my "big business"...

at least i had some memorable experiences in 海南...

pic of the day: a sunflower to bright up your day...