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Hitchiking to Morocco!

Posted in
Hi guys. I am back from Morocco! Luckily we came back earlier than planned so I 'only' have 12 days of event to blog.

It all started with Jimmy telling me about a 'guy who needs a partner for hitch' at the first Bruneian Social. I was merely being polite when I said, 'hmm, interesting!' Somehow I ended up registering for the hitch with Zhiyang, a 2nd year M'sian (FYI, he's not the guy Jimmy was talking about)

VISA, THE MAIN HEADACHE
Anyway, preparing for the hitch was much harder than i initially thought it would be. First we had to raise 300 quid EACH, or else we had to donate from our own acccount to LCD, 'so that no one treats this hitch as a free holiday'. -.-" Everyone doing the hitch went all out to raise the targetted amount of money. Selling Krispe Kremes, blackmailing their friends to donate... Jimmy and Zhiyang even auctioned themselves to run from University House to Rootes in bikinis at lunch hour for 60quid each! (They chickened out though, and are going to be singing chipmunks at the Piazza in boxes instead)


Visa was another problem for us. Apparently only Malaysians need a Visa to go to Morocco, even Singaporeans do not need one. (It somehow makes us wonder what shit the politicians are doing in our country) I won't elaborate too much but many groups applied 3 or 4 times (each time cost 50 pounds), bought ferry tickets, flights, and accommodation in Morocco just to get the Visa. Aaron finally called the Moroccan Embassy up and cleared the matter. It seemed that they MISREAD our documents and thought we are fundraising IN Morocco instead of FOR the Moroccan. $%^*!#$#

Frustrated, Zhiyang and I went to the Moroccan Embassy in London to sort out our Visa. Took us 2 days ('come back tomorrow, we only open at 9-10am for Visa application') and when we finally got it approved, -it was the most hideous looking Visa I'd seen in my life but i almost kissed it in tears-, we left immediately to Portsmouth to catch the 2300 ferry to LeHarve in France.


OUR JOURNEY BEGINS!
To our dismay, we discovered that we weren't the only group of hitchers there! One look across the ferry told us that there were practically more hitchers in our green hitch uniform than potential 'hitch-giver'. After one whole night of perturbing the people on the ferry, we got 2 ladies, (and 2 year-old Grace), to take us to Angouleme in France. Our first hitch was the best, despite the fact that Grace kept asking us to cut apples for her. Here's part of our conversation.

Lady: I need a knife to cut these apples *fumbling for a knife
Zyang: I have a pen knife
Lady: *Act slightly taken aback* AHA, that's a trick question! Get out of my car now!
Zyang: Oopsie
Grace: I want you cut my apple!
Zyang cuts apple into slices
Grace: It's too big!
Zyang cuts again
Grace: It's too big!
Lady: Grace, you are making fun of your new friend here aren't you?
Grace grins : It's too big!

We managed to take a short visit to her sister's house in the village where they are ending their journey before being taken by her sister to a nearby petrol station so we can continue our own journey. She was a nice lady too, for she helped us talk to the truck drivers at the petrol station as we speak no French nor Spanish and got us on a van that goes straight into Spain that night! One day and we got pass France!

I have to say that we learnt most of our Spanish in the van with Santos. He spoke a little English and we spent 8 hours in the car flipping through the back of our Spain guidebook with prints of some common Spanish words trying to string them together to form a conversation with him.

We arrived in Burgos at 2300.

HITCHHIKING- HARDER THAN WE THOUGHT IT WOULD BE
Our luck ran out the next day. We woke up to find ourselves at a very broad bend towards the motorway to Madrid, at the first day of EASTER BREAK, and almost no car in sight! After an hour of walking and waving, our 'AUTOSTOP CARIDAD' (hitchhike for charity) and 'Ir al sud' (Towards South) signboards saved us and we got picked up and put at a nearby petrol station, where we got our next hitch to Madrid.

Somewhere along the way

I cant describe the disappointment I felt when this guy decided to drop us off somewhere at the bottom of Madrid when we realise that he was going all the way to Morocco! Imagine getting all the way to Morocco in 4 hitches!! You must understand, I am sleeping in the car tonight and it's for my own safety. Awwww-ghhhh. To add to our misery, his estimation of 'bottom of Madrid' was slightly off. When we saw another hitch group at the same petrol station where we got dropped off, we knew we were stuck. Indeed, we spent the whole day begging everyone and still stood at the exact same spot at the end of the day, with friends/competitors beside us this time.

STRANDED IN SPAIN
We started looking for a place to stay after a guy promised us that he would take us to Malaga the next day at 8am. Maybe it's our haggard appearance, with card boards, backpacks and our limited Spanish, or maybe they are genuinely fully booked; we were shunned from every hostel, motel, hotel, pension we asked! We almost went into a church to ask for help (as suggested by one of the hotel receptionist) but went away after hearing people singing inside. Fortunately we met a family on the street and they helped us talk to one of the pension owners (pensions are small hostels where you have to call and ask for a room, we couldn't get one before this as we couldn't communicate beyond 'Ola' (hello)) and we successfully avoided sleeping at a bench outside the church, where we had previously decided that it was the safest place for homeless people like us around Pinto.


What happens when there's too much time to kill......


Our worst dreams can true the next day as we found ourselves still standing at the petrol station hours after the agreed time, frantically calling the guy's mobile for the millionth time while shivering in the cold, cursing the guy for 'flying aeroplane'. At 10, We started asking around for hitch again in turns, (one of us ask whilst the other go into the shop to regain some body heat) and only left the 'most horrible stacion gasoline on earth' at 3. After a few more short hops, we got on to a cool-couple-who-kept-trying-to-offer-us-weeds's car and got to Granada, at the bottom of Spain.Deciding that we had enough, we took a bus to Algeciras, stayed a night, and got on to the ferry into Morocco. That's when our 'holiday' begun.

Really cool couple who kept offering us weeds.


MOROCCO- 'BEAUTIFUL CITY BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE'?
Stepping out of the ferry in Tanger, it felt as if I landed myself onto another planet altogether. The buildings are Alibaba-like, and I have yet to see another city whose altitude can differ so vastly in a short distance. Again, we walked up and down the steep alley, trying hard to ignore the stares from the locals, for hours before we got ourselves a room.

There are a few things that one can't help but observe when in Morocco. First, jobless bloke -even kids- looking for tourist to con are aplenty on the streets. Kids snatched my food away in Fes when I was eating, taxi drivers hiked up the price by 800%, random people told us 'What are you looking for? I just want to help' and asked payments for their help thereafter...

RISSANI- A TOWN WE WILL NEVER VISIT AGAIN, EVER
This situation was particularly the worst for us when we were at Rissani, the city that we had to pass if we were to go to Western Sahara. Literally EVERYONE we saw was trying to get us to part with our money. Lady begging on the floor, petite taxis, grand taxis, boys on bicycle's with a back seat, restaurant owners, and even, bus ticket seller. He tried to sell us a 90 Dirham (45 ringgit) ticket to Kenifra after telling us that the direct bus to Marrakech were sold out. Not taking up his advice (we learnt that it's best to use our instinct instead in Morocco), we bought the 55 Dirham ticket to Midelt. However after we came back from lunch to wait for the bus, he approached us offering us 2 refunded tickets to Marrakech at its original price, 140 DH, whilst refusing to refund our tickets. Desperate to get out of the terrible place, we grudgingly bought the tickets, declining his offer to 'sell our original tickets for us'. Then We went about selling them ourselves.

Somehow we managed to get to this 2 men who gave their 2 Marrakech tickets to the ticket seller to sell for them, as they decided to go somewhere else. After a short chat, we both realise that we were cheated as the ticket seller sold us the ticket at full price but told them he couldn't sell the tickets. He must have done this trick more than a million times as when he was confronted, he made up all sorts of stories, diverted out attention and ran out of sight. It didn't help our mood when a kid pointed us towards the direction of the ticket booth when asked, turned around and asked for 'payments'; nor when a man stood between us and the place where one put one's baggage at the bottom of the bus, demanded us to give our backpacks to him, turned around, threw them in and asked for 20 DH. To complete our mishaps, the bus broke down after 20 km towards Marrakech. Great.

HIGHLIGHTS OF MOROCCO
All was worthwhile though, as we get to see the beautiful desert, silent with more stars than I know existed twinkling in the sky. The sand was the best. It was so dry and powdery, it just falls off once you get up after rolling in the sand. The architectures are very different from what we have, most apparent in Fes and Tanger, with Medinas where market place lies. Marrakech was also a very interesting city. It was similar to Petaling Street, but much bigger. Avoid looking at the preparations of the food and you will definately enjoy them as well.

Hitchhiking to Morocco is an amazing experience to me. I am not sure whether I will do it again, (lazing around at the beach is still my definition of holiday) but I will definately recommend it to anyone thinking of doing something that they will not forget in their life.

Camel ride


Dancing in the (Day)Light


Beautiful Sahara

When Hitchers meet


Food!


Koutobia- Symbol of Marrakech



End of our journey



Daniel at Coventry Bus Station


Our journey- recorded


For more pictures, feel free to visit my facebook photo album :)

Hitchhike for Charity

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Hi guys... finally an update!

I will be hitch hiking from UK to Morocco (Africa) during easter! My plan is to hitchhike with Zhiyang, also from Warwick University in UK, to morocco while raising a targeted donations of 600 pounds for charity. All proceeds will go to the kids in Africa for a better education
(FYI, 10 quid can get them a desk, 20 quid can get a teacher trained for literacy...)

So please everyone, think of how lucky you are, trying to lose weight while the kids out there are struggling to fill their stomach. Just give up a bag of crisps (which makes you fat anyway) , a meal out, or a cinema date.

Give the kids a hope for a better future.

Help us to help them.

For more info and to make donations: http://www.justgiving.com/kidshope


Also, Spread the words around!!! We need all the support and publicity we can get!!

And remember, it's all for charity :)

LiFe uP NoRth

Posted in
Hey guys...

So much have happened since my last update.

Apart from having to do my own laundry, which really IS a pain, I am enjoying every other bits of my life here at WARWICK (elwin, this is the name of my uni). Due to time constraints (laziness), I shall just put everything in point form so I apologize if this entry is pretty much of a shambles.

- Warwick Business School Society Social at Mumbai Bluu (a bar), Leamington Spal.

5 quid (pounds) for the event. And 5 complementary drinks. They played some games and the winner gets another free drink. Now u can imagine how much we drank that night! Everyone was tipsy, and it was quite funny to see ppl swaying and mumbling nonsense. The taxi ride back to Uni was overcharged, well, nothing new, just like Msia.

- StreetVibe. I am determined to dance away my first year! I tried joining Latin n Ballroom, but due to some unfortunate event, I can't find a partner~!! Not that I m complaining, I am going for Streetvibe (a mixture of hiphop, modern, street dance moves), and it's real fun!

- I've been made to realise that our 'English' is so very poor. People from HongKong, China, India, basically everywhere else can speak better 'English' than us, mainly because we starts and ends in the wrong tone! Dang, BM's fault!!

- Lectures and Seminars (Tutorials). Not much to say about these. It's a pain to have to wake up for them. A wise reminder from daniel, 'some of us actually forgot that we are here to STUDY. Back in highschool we dont complain that much about having seminars the next day.' Well, with so much distractions, true. Don't worry ppl, I havent miss any seminars just yet. And I do all my work. If u need any motivation, work out how much a seminar cost your parents. Keep you alert throughout seminar deffo! ( About RM250 per hour)

- Food/ groceries shopping.

H A T E T H A T

- Drinking games. Practically played every social gatherings. Devy's place, tocil flat, streetvibe social, Rootes. There's 'I'd never', 'count the number', poker, and others that names I cant remember. Of course, there's also spin the bottle, and strip poker. -.-""" (been keeping away from that. haha)

- Trips! So far, i have only been to Warwick castle, Oxford, Coventry, Birmingham, and London!~ Pictures are all on facebook. (Cant believe nobody here uses friendster, everyone just go, 'i will facebook u', 'tag me in ur photos') Have you ever realise that in the next generation of working age population, everyone is using facebook/ friendster/ msn that meetings and sorts might be scheduled using that? Anyway, the london trip with Christine, Candy, and Jessica was nice. Went to china town, Oxford Street, then UCL Malaysian Night. The play was really creative, the only drawback is that not much 'ang mo' came to watch. Hope I will have a chance to go to London Eye and London bridge next time.

Anyway, that's all for now. Oh, and by the way, it hits 0 degree today. It's so damn cold up here. Not the temperature, but the wind. Sends the chill right down your spine. Aiks. Till the next.

~Freshers 2007~

Posted in
Freshers fortnight is over. I am now considered, erm, not so fresh? Okay, that sounds pretty weird. I have finally been able to tell left from right in Warwick, and things are starting to make some sense (barely).

Campus does = fun. There's just so many things that you can do but it always comes with the sense of guilt afterwards, a.k.a 'responsibility too late'. Crap, I have no idea what I am trying to say, having been up till 3am for the past few days, playing cards and staring at this laptop to check my emails every 2 seconds.



My 20 pounds hoodie.
HeXin @ UK
That is ... weird.
Nights at Students Union
Many trips were organised to quench our freshers' urge to spend. I joined one to Oxford, a very studious looking place. Just about every church in the past are now tranformed to become a library. (No wonder you need 3 brains to get in to the uni). We also went to Coventry and the 'famous?' Warwick castle.
5 Hongkies and 1 Malaysian
My flatmates and I. I like the way the 2 of them get drunk. They just get really happy.



Now that the excitements have gradually dissipated, I am starting to miss Msia. The food, the mamak, and of course, the 5sc1 peeps.

The beginning

Posted in
Hi guys.

I have now finally settled down in the UK. Starting to get used to the weather, in the process of learning to understand their very british-ish accent and stuffs like that. Anyway, back to the day i left malaysia.

Was pretty surprised that Meng Yue, Yuan Ruh and Kitloong went to the airport to say goodbye. Didn't expect them to do so. Thanks ppl! Anyway... we had my last McD in Malaysia at the airport, ate mooncakes, and i went down the escalator ALONE. I have to mention the walk down. All your friends and family were up there looking at you, and you know that they cant come in to help you when you have problems, and knowing that's where the journey starts and you are going alone, all of this makes it pretty scary and emotion weld up in me.

Fastforward it to the day i reach Warwick. After the DAMN looooooooong flight, i reached Heathrow, and that's when i start to get lost. Campus is really big. Having been driving for most of my time in M'sia, the soles of my feet start to get really hurt in the first day itself because of all the walking i had to do. People here are really different from us. They can be brilliant in the morning, and get really drunk and lost at night. I have flatmates trying to climb into the cupboard under the sink after a cuppa of drinks at one night and going for a math test the next morning! Crazie.

It's really nice for people who's working and spending here. Everything's so cheap! 3 pounds for a Mcd set meal. UNFORTUNATELY, we are not locals. So times it by 7, that's 21 ringgit.
Bad news.

The people here are quite friendly, but most of the times i just couldnt understand some of their british accent that i really dont know how to join in. Ouch.

It's 12 am. Gotta rest. Coventry tomorrow. Till the next!

The Last Chapter in Malaysia.

Posted in


It's time, after many hours of shouting and screaming (bring this!!.... leave that shampoo!... where's your medical report?!...), for me to board the plane to the region in the west. Journey to the West, let's call it.






But before that, I would like to say.... You Guys RAWKS!!!




It's fun having another round of gathering before leaving. What's more, the presents that you guys gave me really touched my heart, besides giving me a LMAOROTF moment.




This is a teh tarik session at Tan Cha House with PoYi, KarLai and the gang in celebration of Ah Shee's birthday and as my farewell.


The 5sc1 gang!


Notice the shirt!





Limited Edition. "The one and only" Brand. From my beloved friends.





Unexpected flower from an unexpected guy.





Flowers and ballons = party!!






Presents!! Yeah... thanks so much everyone...


Now here's an insight into my room.


BEFORE


I know. It's an utter mess. Thinking of which to bring and which to give up is a real headache.



AFTER

the moment before i left home

The place i now live.

What an Emo month

Posted in
They say time flies, and i totally agree with it.

Right after all the post-exam trips, i worked at a small warehouse to help out with sHELL competition. It was a real sHELL-ish place to work in, what with all the dust and paper cuts and blue black and muscle pain... But still, having my cousin and a few crazy guys over there did add some colour to the otherwise routine work.

You might not realise how many Malaysians actually think they could win the 25K given out by Shell every week. Millions of forms were sent in every single week! Considering the fact that we dump half of the forms away randomly to ease our otherwise impossible to finish workload, the winners must have just been kissed by the Luck Lord.

It had been quite an emotional month for me. After getting my results, which thankfully, fulfills the requirement of University of Warwick, I joined a camping trip to Gunung Nuang with fellow scout mates. It wasn't a really enjoyable trip for me but at least I got to the top (which was actually quite bare) and back home in one piece, not to mention getting really sick for a week after that.

Thereafter, I have been busy with Visa application, medical check up and all the preparations before actually boarding the plane to the other side of Earth. Hey guys, it's 24th Sept not 24th August. Haha. Thanks for the surprise farewell anyway. You guys rawks!

Have been browsing some blogs recently. Came across one which really touches me. Partly it's because I didn't expect him to write something about me, and partly because I didn't realise that I actually did mean something to him. I have been made to think that he didn't care at all, that I was just being something of a pastime to him. Now to realise this after all the emotional turmoil that I had just been put through, I could almost see sunshine in my life.

I know. This entry is an utter mess. Just a random update.

Gibberish

Posted in
let go and being let go.
one is full of remorse, one is filled with helplessness
blaming someone or being punished for a reason not because of you
your past, your upbringing, your status
i didn't ask for it
but experiencing it both at about the same time isn't something easy
i won't whine
i won't hide
i will embrace myself to face all the challenges awaiting
when a door is closed, another will be opened for you
the inks are dried up, pages are teared,
tears have dripped upon the cover of my life,
it's time
to start a new chapter, a new journal of life
nonetheless
i will still pour my heart and soul into it
Posted in
little piggy died

Carnival + Prom + Zhengling's Bday Party + PD and Melacca Trip + Mini Gathering + MaeAnn's Bday Party + Perhentian Trip= 2 weeks not at home!!!

Posted in


MAE ANN'S BIRTHDAY PARTY (23 June)
It's Mae Ann's party the next day. I spent one whole afternoon hunting for a monkey as her present but in the end shared with Sheik Ying cause I couldn't find one cute enough for her. Besides, I was already exhausted from all mini gathering with Poyi, Shaer and the gang. Was in a bad mood cause i poured my whole mango juice all over my body at the Tan Cha House!!!! Argh...... Anyway, the party was at Dave's Pizza, OneU. We got lost on the way there. I particularly love the mashpotato there, for those who don't know me, I don't like mash potato, but on that day, i had 2nd, no, 3rd helpings!


Upon reaching home, I called Quennezy on her cell with my HOUSE PHONE (Dang, daddy is gonna kill me) for 2 hours. Crapped about lotsa things. It wasn't until 5 o'clock the next day that I finally decided to join Robert's class trip to Pulau Perhentian on the day itself! (I only spent 15 minutes to pack for the 5 days 4 nights trip.)


PULAU PERHENTIAN- TERENGGANU (24 June - 28 June)
Basically, I have no regrets joining this trip, though I was quite unsure at first. I only know Robert among all the 20 peeps! The only thing I have to say is that we spent too much time waiting throughout the trip. Waited for the organiser, waited for the bus (the bus ride was life threatening I tell you, worse nightmare ever!), waited for breakfast, waited for the ferry, waited 6 hours to check in, basically, the only activity we did there was snokelling (spotted schools of fishes, corals, weird mouth looking thingy, and turtles). Thanks to all the friendly PE7 peeps, even the waiting part was filled with laughter.



Beautiful Perhentian



Camwhore


What's that??!!

On the way to snokel in different 6 spots


Deep blue sea


Suddenly, 'plop...' that's Daniel on the ground.


And he got back up grinning widely. Haha. He look kinda cute (also funny) in this pic.


That's Jeremy, our friendly organiser. That's the most 'normal' expression i've seen so far in all his photos. Hehe.


Swimming frantically to shake hands (??) with the turtle.


Fishes!!!

Flying in the sea?!! Boys are just being boys.


Looks cooling isn't it?


But still got sun burnt!! and tanned as well....


Sand therapy!! But we later heard that there's people camping up there using the stream to wash and clean stuffs... Yikes!!!



Our little Nemo...


Sea cucumber .Poor thing. It's squeezed to death by the evil hands of ours!


That's Tyson in his i have no idea what pose.


The fire's proud dad.


From left: Yu Jin being very very sun burnt, me still short and tanned as ever, and Jeremy with a red nose.



Bye Perhentian!!!

After-math

Posted in
Talk about trauma after accident. I had to drive to college today cause KamHei's kembara is 'unavailable'. Every junction we passed by, everytime we are near a car that post a treat to us, he would scream and I would step on the brakes hard, double check, no, triple check, then only move again.

Thanks to everyone who called to care. I really appreciate it.

WhAt a DaY!!

Posted in
What if we had decided to return home earlier when we thought the sun was too hot, would that have happen? What if the we didn't wait for the girl to draw out money to buy our books, would that happen? What if I had insisted on going to Uncle Send for our lunch, would that happen? Okay, enough of the what if's, what, you may ask, HAD happen then?

It's July intake orientation day for Taylor's A level students. So, Kam Hei and I, as former Taylor's students, decided to go back to college to sell off our books. It was the worst way of direct selling. Not only we have to stand under the hot sun for more than 3 hours straight without ever resting, he had to yell to attract the juniors' attention as well. My mind totally mal-function under the HOT HOT HOT sun, and we didn't manage to sell much as there are so few July Intakes.

When we were about to go back, a girl came and asked for the whole sets of bio and maths books. After negotiating with her, she went away saying she wanted to draw out money to get the books. She did came back after quite awhile, but didn't buy anything. Feeling slightly disappointed about the day's selling, we put away the books in the boot and drove home.

Now here's the climax of the story.

We were in the car thinking about how to sell the books the next day. Probably we were too concentrating on the books, when we were nearing the final T-junction in front of Kam Hei's house just one block away, I saw a lady in a Hyundai coming from the right. Fast.

No no, we might crash...

Okay, she's stopping...

Is she?!!

He's stopping....

We are still way too fast.
Oh no, we are too close.

NoNONO....
Stop stop STOP!!!




I closed my eyes...




I seriously thought it would be another NEAR accident, like what we 'P' licence people experience always.

But not this time. We crashed. Hard.

I was thrown forward. Luckily I was wearing my seat belt at that point of time, it jerked my body backwards, forcing my breath out of my lungs. A searing pain rose up to my chest. I literally stopped breathing for a few seconds. I remembered the first thing I did after the impact (after I started breathing again of course), was checking my limbs. Both hands, movable, legs, checked, head, still intact. I am alive!!!

By the time I retrieved myself, KamHei was already out there arguing with the lady. I took off my life saver-seat belt (seriously, if i hadn't worn that I wouldn't be here writing in my blog) and went down. The lady tried accusing us of going too fast, but because we had the right of way, we did not speed or go against the rules, KamHei managed to make her feel guilty, and she sped off! What the! But that's after we took photos of the two cars.

OMG, Blood!!! Nah... the car's leakage.
The idiot verdict.


Do you know that those toll car guys are always driving around hunting for business? I only knew that today as just half an hour after the incident when we were still standing there waiting for KamHei father's company insurer or something, 3 independent toll-man was already there fighting for 'business'.

After 45minutes of waiting, the man finally came. We went to the police centre that deals with all these accidents to lodge a report. After another round of waiting, we were asked to illustrate the incident and show him the pictures that act as prove. He scribbed something on the report paper, nodded when we tried to make sure we are clear, and we were allowed to leave. We followed the car to the repair place near seri kembangan (i think) and I only reach home at around 8pm. My chest and now my ankle still hurts a little but the most important thing is, THANK GOD I AM SAVED!!!

Police report

A scene from the police station. Look at those! We could have been much worse!

He looks happy for someone who met an accident. So yup, we're both fine.

So the moral of the story is, no matter we have the right of way or not, expect people not to follow the rules. So slow down whenever there's the possibility of crashing cause other people's mistake is NOT WORTH your life!


-3pm, 2nd July 2007-