The duration for weekends excursions just gets longer and longer. For Wudang Mountain this time, we had a 6 hours bus ride to endure. The best thing was that we had our power supply cut off before we left for the trip, leaving us washing up and packing in darkness. Oh well, I think I have gotten used to it also already. That's why everything seemed so normal even though it is not normal in Singapore.

We had to report 630am in the morning to take the bus ride again and nonetheless to say, we slept on the way there. When we reached there, the first thing we had was lunch and before we dig in, we saw the whole collection of swords sold over there.

Definitely, there is a big hoo ha about the swords as we don't really see swords sold in Singapore. Everyone definitely had the intention to get the swords back to Singapore as a souvenir but that will never happen as we will have a whole load of problems when we are going through the customs. No one will want to get delayed by this kind of problems when we are going back.

As usual, there were some weird dishes during lunch which we don't even want to eat it. This time, it was the tofu. It has a burnt taste to it apparently and we don't even had this kind of taste in the previous same tofu dishes that we ate.

So, after lunch we began our sight seeing. The weather was kind of bad as it was drizzling when we reached Wudang. So the place was kind of shrouded by mist which the tour guide claimed to be a holy aura (仙气). This is deemed to be a good sign for the Tai Zi Bo as the person who was worshipped there was claimed to be the master of water.

Then we had a tea appreciation session there. That was the first time I drank tea that was brewed on the spot other than the ones that I drank during tea time. The taste and smell of it is just simply so fresh. I find that the art of tea is really interesting as actually there are quite a number of steps to brew a pot of tea. Even the step that we think it might not matter most, it can actually affect the taste of the tea. The tea that I have tasted there was the best with the Honeysuckle, Gan Lu and red tea. The Gan Lu was the best as it leaves a sweet taste when you drink water after that even though the taste was bitter initially. I think this is the same theory as 先苦后甜, which means that suffer first and enjoy later. I think I should have bought some back to brew it for myself to constantly remind myself about this value of life.

Wudang is one of the things that I want to explore as I was setting the things to investigate for my pre-trip report. So, for this trip, I was paying a little more attention with the environment there to compare and contrast the Wudang as mentioned in legend and the Wudang in reality.

However, the most famous one that I heard in the show is Zi Xiao Dian (紫霄殿). However, it seemed that the ones that I saw on the television before that looked so different from the actual one that I saw here. The one that I saw on television actually looked very grand and majestic with vibrant colours as it is used to receive guests. However, the one I saw here is just like a small temple and the hall is not big enough to receieve guests as shown in the show. Nonetheless, the feeling that the building gave me is that it has survived through a long period of time and it has a lot of historical values in it.

Then we went on with the trip and one of the more interesting one was the Nan Yan Gong (南岩宫). There is this urn that was situated at one of the buildings, which is protruding out. The story that was told to us is that people will usually pray at the temple and try to place the joss sticks into the urn which they will usually lose their balance and fall off the cliff. I was quite shocked when I heard about this as I never imagined that people in the past are really so religious such that they are willing to risk their life. Just looking at how high and where the urn is situated at, my legs would had already went jelly nonetheless to mention about going to put the joss sticks in. Maybe it is because that I have vertigo.

Then, the day ended and we stayed at the mountain resort over there. The weather was turning colder in th evening and it just like what I experienced when I went to Japan a few years ago during end autumn. It was really cold.

This time round, as there were not enough rooms in the first resort, Wen Liang and I were assigned to stay with the ICT people at the other resort. However, even though we are seperated from the rest, it seemed that our room is better than what the rest of them got!

When we entered our room, the first thing always to check is the toilet! I was totally happy when I saw that the toilet looked almost better than the one at Lu Lin because of the shower and the toilet bowl. Just I was about to think that I was able to enjoy a good shower, I was too quick to make the judgement. Wen Liang went to bathe earlier than me for that day and he came out of the toilet telling me that the water has only cold or colder. I freaked out immediately and went to test it for myself which it was the truth. I cannot take cold showers at night or I would get a cold. In addition, the weather was so cold that the thought of bathing put me off. Even wiping myself.

With that, we ended the day. The next morning when we woke up, the weather was even colder than the night before! As I walk out of my room, I was shivering and my hands and feet were chilled. There is no hot water from the tap so when we wash up, it made us even colder. In the end, we emptied our bottles to fill the hot water in from the hot water flask and that became our heater. That was like so comfortable however, as the weather was too cold, the water eventually turned cold quite fast and I changed my water 2 times. I was kind of wondering how come no one knew that it would be so cold and didn't ask us to bring more thick clothings because I was expecting the weather to be still cool but to the extent that basics still can be worn in the environment.

We began our hike of the mountain after our breakfast and the experience was awesome even though I was one of the last few to reach the top with Edah, Ryan and Dr Tan! All of us were able to walk quite fast at the starting however when we reached 1/4 of the whole distance, we started to slow down. The expected duration for us to finish the hike was 2 hours but I took around like 2.5 hours. However, it was great to spur each other on as we were tired from the climbing of the stairs which is really excruciating. From what Dr Tan told us is that the distance covered was 5m but with inclination, what do you think? It is definitely increased. Even though my thighs are still aching from the climb, it is really worth it as the view and scenary that you get to see during the climb cannot never ever be found in Singapore and I believe that this is one point of China in which that there is still perfection in the imperfections.

Comparing the legend and the reality in my post trip report again, now I understand that why the characters said that they usually need 1 day to go up the mountain to visit the sect or look for the person. However, there were still some parts where I think it is unrealistic as they could make use of Qinggong to go up or come down from the mountain in around 2 hours time.

We were also told before that Wudang has a lot of herbs. Look at this big Lingzhi that the locals had retrieved! I dont think that you can see this kind of big Lingzhi in Singapore that commonly as it will be expensive and due to business tactics, it is not wise to stock up so much as no one will buy it due to the price.

Finally we reached the top and the view is really breathe-taking! Even though some parts of the scenary was shrouded by mist, I think that is the beauty that makes it look secretive and yet, majestic.

After touring the summit of the mountain, we went down the mountain by taking cable car! This was the first time for me taking the cablecar as I didn't have the chance to take it in Singapore except the Skyluge at Sentosa which I think was horrifying enough for me as I have vertigo. The cable car was moving quite quickly so when we were shoved up by the assistants there, Calista and I knocked our head against each other but at least we got into the cabin. The view of the mountain from the cablecar was kind of better as you are suspended in the air looking at it. However, due to my vertigo, I don't really dare to look down but to ask Calista to help me take photos of the scenary. To add on to the fright of what I am afraid of height, the cable car had to kind of jerk and make noises when it had reached a connecting point! A lot of us complained as well, as we were very worried about our safety. There is totally no chance of survival if we were to have a free fall from this height.

After this, we went back to the middle of the mountain to take our bus to a restaurant outside for lunch and we took the draining 6 hours ride back to hostel again and when we reached school, it was drizzling again. I have learnt to see that Wuhan had very little rain fall and even if it rains, it is usually a drizzle.

With this, that marks the end of all the excursions that we will have on the weekends and next few weeks will be work and more work for presentations.