A random statement, I know, but I guess its now time to finally come clean with it. 5 years later, and I still love you sayang.

Thank you, also, to all those who attended my birthday celebration about two weeks back. I am forever grateful for your attendance despite the last-minuteness. The gifts, and mostly your presence made it all the more glorious an event. And Therry, thank you for coming all the way for me.

After arriving in Shen Zhen, we had to transit onto another plane and took a 2 hour flight to Kunming. Upon arrival, we had to get onto a bus and endure a 6 hour bumpy ride to get to Dali, the place my dad was about to organize his FLAME camp. The Flame camp is actually a Bahai inspired camp that aims to bring out moral leadership amongst youth. Dad's been getting sponsors and this trip to China was to actually organize the first of the many yet to come of FLAME camps. On the bus, we actually met up with 5 volunteers from the company that was sponsoring us, Tencecnt (the Chinese know them as QQ - a chinese version of MSN). A couple of outspoken young adults with a pretty good command in English.

We arrived in Dali late at night and had to get some sleep immediately because the following day was the beginning of an excruciating long day. The camp began in the afternoon of the 29th and ended in the afternoon of the 31st. It was pretty difficult to be of any use due to the fact I speak not a word of Pu Tong Hua (Chinese). Even when I tried, the kids there would just look at me in a blur face. It was sad. But seeing these kids really reminded me of my stay in Thailand for two months last year. Living in the mountains with indigenious children brings upon a different mindset. These kids from China are so much more different than anyone I've ever met.

The story of these Kids from a school called Hua Hua is pretty heart-wrenching. They live 8 hours away from the closest school, so they have to stay in the school. The school itself is built on an unstable mountain so adding rooms to stay in is pretty risky. Roughly 15 kids sleep in a small room, and they're not allowed to run around because of the fear of the ground collapsing. Every ten days they're allowed to return home, but these ten days mean they study for ten days. Straight. No weekends. But after the ten days they go home and spend time with their families for 2 days. 2 days is required to travel to and fro. So, when I first saw these kids, they looked pretty erm... dirty. And the reason behind this is because in their school, they don't have a large supply of water to bathe with. So, they only bathe once in two weeks.

But these kids, you can see it through their eyes, they've gone through a lot, and with just a bit of encouragement, you just know they'll end up being great people. The camp, didn't really result well because the methods of teaching wasn't exactly up to the Chinese norms. With a couple of tweaks, the camp will sure to be a success eventually. :)

Marijuana grows like flowers - and one of the reason for this is due to China's very low cost of living, particularly in Dali, a lot of the Hippi's came and lived in Dali and grew their own marijauana plantations. Till the government intervened in the 1970's, marijuana was everywhere!

And the old town of Dali is also famous for its Three Towers (Three Pagoda's), and it's north and south gate. The town is actually in a fort, so its surrounded by walls. Cool huh! :)