I was in an internet cafe in town and i cant help but to look at what the dude beside me is doing online...
Typical "Click here to learn how you can make $3000 in 1 month" advertisement sent thru email and i start to wonder why this kinda rubbish is so prevalent when it is so obvious that it is a total scam and nobody I know in their right mind ever replies to it...
Apparently ppl i know dun constitute the world, and although 99.99% of Singaporeans are smart enough to know not to even open such email, this is definitely not the case around the world. ESPECIALLY for countries that are still developing-but-still-not-exactly-developed, countries which are developed enough to have internet access, a reasonable command of english, yet still poor and gullible enough to believe that the reason foreigners are so freaking rich(in contrast to them) is because of such internet deals.
Needless to say, i continued spying and peeking across to see what would be his reaction when he opens up this mail. I am not kidding you when i say that he read (at least i think so, cause he took so long at that page...) every single word in the "get-rich-in-10 simple steps-formula", clicked on the "Click here for instant cash" icon, started to phone his mom/friend/brother/sister/whoever and got a credit card number because there was a requirement for personal details (what, you mean you dunno that is their ONLY aim?!)
Anyway, i was still looking onto his screen occasionally(you really think i dare to stare ah?) now and then and fortunately he didnt carry on to type his details inside, but prob more because his time was up and he got up. I have a feeling he will eventually submit his personal details though when he cannot resist the temptation of "$3000 in 10 simple steps, right from home!" and that is the reason why we continue to see such rubbish spam all across the world...
The ones at risk are not the rich and developed (although we do occasionally get caught off guard and think it is for real, though i think it is the minority) but rather poor counties that are starting to get internet connectivity and they suddenly receive "offers" to get real cash. they often have no inkling whatsoever of the perils of the internet world and i can envision thousands, if not more, of these ppl who actually believe such things and become victims to these cyber crimes.
This is not the 1st, and definitely will not be the last incident that i will witness in my short time in Kathmandu internet cafes, and i have seen at least 4 different ppl on separate occasions genuinely read thru the "get rich plan" and entered their emails etc to get more info (and subsequently get asked for their other info of course...)
i really wonder how many ppl believe such schemes and eventually regret getting cheated of their life savings... definitely a sizeable number given the proliferation of such spam mail (as we call it).
Demand calls for supply, and as I see it now, the supply is present in obscene amounts which can only mean the worst.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Sunday, June 26, 2011
10th May, hmmm sleeping in a tent is much safer than in a hotel anyday! =D
some random sights along the way to Shangri-La （香格里拉）
reached Shangri-la and it's the 1st time in a long, long time that we see traffic lights and street lamps! LOL but anyway was at the local 广场 and saw TONS of ppl gathering and dancing to Tibetan tunes (at least it sounded tibetan to me =D ) they were generally in a circle formation and moving in a clockwise formation, similar to what you would do when you visit a temple or holy place- circumnavigating clockwise... quite amusing to watch also =)
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btw, today is the day that a stupid thief came into my hotel room and stole my money! bloody daring sia... he entered our room in daylight and didnt even bother to wait until we leave the room. we were still sleeping in the room when he unlocked(no idea how he did it also, but its not very hard to do if one really wants to...) the door, entered our room and stole our things, all while we were inside!
猫 woke up and saw him and apparently he said 不好意思, put down 猫's camera, and ran outside. 猫 chased after him but he was gone in a matter of seconds... too bad i didnt get to see the thief's face cause i was sleeping the whole while and only woke up when 猫 woke me up LOL... lost a couple of hundred yuan but luckily my passport, camera and canned tuna didnt get stolen...
reported this to the reception lady but she was totally useless and didnt seem interested in helping us find the thief or provide any solutions at all whatsoever. looked at the guests information but nobody resembled the thief... guess its some outsider who did it bah... oh wells, guess its jus my bad luck bah! sleep in camping tents for so many months and nothing happen before, 1 night in a hotel and kena thief... wah, better stay in tents more often from now man ^.^''
visited the 古城 and looked around town a little before leaving for 德钦 tml morning...
btw, today is the day that a stupid thief came into my hotel room and stole my money! bloody daring sia... he entered our room in daylight and didnt even bother to wait until we leave the room. we were still sleeping in the room when he unlocked(no idea how he did it also, but its not very hard to do if one really wants to...) the door, entered our room and stole our things, all while we were inside!
猫 woke up and saw him and apparently he said 不好意思, put down 猫's camera, and ran outside. 猫 chased after him but he was gone in a matter of seconds... too bad i didnt get to see the thief's face cause i was sleeping the whole while and only woke up when 猫 woke me up LOL... lost a couple of hundred yuan but luckily my passport, camera and canned tuna didnt get stolen...
reported this to the reception lady but she was totally useless and didnt seem interested in helping us find the thief or provide any solutions at all whatsoever. looked at the guests information but nobody resembled the thief... guess its some outsider who did it bah... oh wells, guess its jus my bad luck bah! sleep in camping tents for so many months and nothing happen before, 1 night in a hotel and kena thief... wah, better stay in tents more often from now man ^.^''
visited the 古城 and looked around town a little before leaving for 德钦 tml morning...
Saturday, June 25, 2011
7th May, what a mighty tiger to have jumped across this huge gorge...
the 老板 at the 客栈 was very nice to us last night so we decided to ask if we can leave our things at his 客栈 while we cycle to 中虎跳 to see see look look. since we are alr so close, might as well visit bah haha...
walk down from the road to the gorge and back is about 两个多小时, and 三个多小时如果身体不太好 according to the old lady there... luckily we took less than 3 hrs so that means we are still quite ok bah i guess! haha =D
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went back to take our stuff at the 客栈 and also to have lunch there before leaving. it was alr bout 2+ when we left the 客栈 so we only cycled for a short while before we started to find a camping spot... 在雪山低！not as cold as one might think, though cold enough that i am lazy to get out of the tent to pee in the night. cooked dinner and stayed outside to chat while looking at the gazillion stars above until we got tired haha
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| along the way to the tiger leaping gorge. wonder if the tiger took this route in ancient times as well hmmm |
walk down from the road to the gorge and back is about 两个多小时, and 三个多小时如果身体不太好 according to the old lady there... luckily we took less than 3 hrs so that means we are still quite ok bah i guess! haha =D
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| a very long and steep ladder, which we left to climb on the way up haha |
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| hmmmm so the tiger leapt across this place?? |
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| the way we came down from... and the way we have to climb back up again! |
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| the heavenly ladder (as what the locals write on rocks and signboards) |
went back to take our stuff at the 客栈 and also to have lunch there before leaving. it was alr bout 2+ when we left the 客栈 so we only cycled for a short while before we started to find a camping spot... 在雪山低！not as cold as one might think, though cold enough that i am lazy to get out of the tent to pee in the night. cooked dinner and stayed outside to chat while looking at the gazillion stars above until we got tired haha
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| camping below the snow mountain... |
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| and jumping for joy =D |
6th May, spent an entire day jus to cross a stupid river!
In 丽江, had the good fortune to meet an outdoor enthusiast-刘哥. anyway, he told us of a route to take to avoid paying the exorbitant entrance fee of 180yuan at the 玉龙雪山景区 so thats the route we took! anyway... turns out to be a really, really bad idea man...
some nice scenery before the horrors...
we were in a village called 大具 and we THOUGHT we found a decent camping spot(big open ground beside some graves so nobody will come disturb us in the night right? =P) so we started to set up our tents. almost as soon as we erected the tent, a huge sandstorm started to attack us. it proved a very formidable opponent and we had to literally put our bodies all over the tent to prevent it from flying away. stood there for what seems like an eternity (i think its like 30mins?) trying to protect our homes from the onslaught of the sand-mongster... if only i had 3 hands, i would take out my camera to take a photo of our desperate situation man LOL. anyway, quickly dismantled the tent when the gale subsided and packed up and left to find another spot. 36计， 走为上计. ended up camping outside an abandoned building which fortunately proved very good in blocking the wind.
in the morning, we needed to 渡江 to get to the opposite side of the river in order to continue our journey towards 虎跳峡... and we spent an entire day jus trying to cross the river! cycled for more than an hour and when we are about to reach the 渡口， we realised that there are 2 渡口, and the one we are reaching is the 新渡口. the dudes doing construction work there said that if we use the 新渡口, we cannot bring our bikes up cause there is a very steep path from there. er ok... sians... guess we have to backtrack to get to the 旧渡口 then bah!
the road is damn rocky and lousy so we were travelling at like 6km/hr? backtracking in this kinda lousy road sucks but we got to the 旧渡口 anyway. we could look down and see the 渡口 and 2 boats waiting there but we couldnt find any path down! had to ask a local to show us the way and only then could we find the path down...
wah this is the path down ah?! seems like it's meant for ppl on foot and i have no idea how we managed to bring our bikes down also man... and after an hour, we finally reached the 渡口!
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after paying 25yuan to take the boat to 渡江, we finally accomplished the 1st part of our mission and got to the opposite side!
but still not a time to relax cause we have to bring our bikes up to the main road. this path is much worse than the one jus now and we had to remove all our luggage and carry them 1 by 1 and transport them a short distance before going back to take the other items. repeat this a few times until the path becomes wide enough for us to push our bikes. and when the path becomes wide enough, we have to push it cause its too steep and sandy to cycle so we had to push the bikes up at least 300m in vertical height...
and once we got to the top and found the road, its alr late afternoon! an entire day (well almost...) spent and we only travelled like 20+ km, a huge part of it spent pulling our bikes when we went downhill(if dun pull it will drop like a stone down the valley duh!), and pushing our bikes when we went uphill.
after such a tough day trying to cross this stupid river, had to have a candlelit dinner to reward our efforts hehe =D wanted to camp in the backyard of some 客栈 but it started to rain heavily and there was strong winds again. the 老板 is really nice and asked us to sleep upstairs in the corridor of his 客栈. so we set up our tents upstairs and luckily we did, cause it was freaking cold outside tonight!
thank you 永壳客栈老板！
some nice scenery before the horrors...
we were in a village called 大具 and we THOUGHT we found a decent camping spot(big open ground beside some graves so nobody will come disturb us in the night right? =P) so we started to set up our tents. almost as soon as we erected the tent, a huge sandstorm started to attack us. it proved a very formidable opponent and we had to literally put our bodies all over the tent to prevent it from flying away. stood there for what seems like an eternity (i think its like 30mins?) trying to protect our homes from the onslaught of the sand-mongster... if only i had 3 hands, i would take out my camera to take a photo of our desperate situation man LOL. anyway, quickly dismantled the tent when the gale subsided and packed up and left to find another spot. 36计， 走为上计. ended up camping outside an abandoned building which fortunately proved very good in blocking the wind.
in the morning, we needed to 渡江 to get to the opposite side of the river in order to continue our journey towards 虎跳峡... and we spent an entire day jus trying to cross the river! cycled for more than an hour and when we are about to reach the 渡口， we realised that there are 2 渡口, and the one we are reaching is the 新渡口. the dudes doing construction work there said that if we use the 新渡口, we cannot bring our bikes up cause there is a very steep path from there. er ok... sians... guess we have to backtrack to get to the 旧渡口 then bah!
the road is damn rocky and lousy so we were travelling at like 6km/hr? backtracking in this kinda lousy road sucks but we got to the 旧渡口 anyway. we could look down and see the 渡口 and 2 boats waiting there but we couldnt find any path down! had to ask a local to show us the way and only then could we find the path down...
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| the river that we had to cross to continue on our journey... |
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| i can see the boat down there but wheres the path! |
wah this is the path down ah?! seems like it's meant for ppl on foot and i have no idea how we managed to bring our bikes down also man... and after an hour, we finally reached the 渡口!
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| finally... or is it? |
1160740.mov
after paying 25yuan to take the boat to 渡江, we finally accomplished the 1st part of our mission and got to the opposite side!
but still not a time to relax cause we have to bring our bikes up to the main road. this path is much worse than the one jus now and we had to remove all our luggage and carry them 1 by 1 and transport them a short distance before going back to take the other items. repeat this a few times until the path becomes wide enough for us to push our bikes. and when the path becomes wide enough, we have to push it cause its too steep and sandy to cycle so we had to push the bikes up at least 300m in vertical height...
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| haha looks quite lup sup but dun laugh =D |
and once we got to the top and found the road, its alr late afternoon! an entire day (well almost...) spent and we only travelled like 20+ km, a huge part of it spent pulling our bikes when we went downhill(if dun pull it will drop like a stone down the valley duh!), and pushing our bikes when we went uphill.
after such a tough day trying to cross this stupid river, had to have a candlelit dinner to reward our efforts hehe =D wanted to camp in the backyard of some 客栈 but it started to rain heavily and there was strong winds again. the 老板 is really nice and asked us to sleep upstairs in the corridor of his 客栈. so we set up our tents upstairs and luckily we did, cause it was freaking cold outside tonight!
thank you 永壳客栈老板！
end to my journey and now its back home and Uni life! Kathmandu, Nepal - Final destination...
as what i had said in the previous post, i was travelling thru Tibet the past 2 months and every1 who knows anything about China knows their firewall blocks google and any other free-speech praising website hence i was unable to post anything up even if i got internet connection...
Surprisingly, i have actually managed to get past Tibet and I am now in Kathmandu, Nepal. ppl have told me it is mountainous, very tough, lots of legal hassles etc but really, who cares! anyway, guess my trip is going to have to end here for now cause the nation calls for me to get my ass back to study for a brighter future. yups will be updating my blog for the previous 2 months to let family and friends know what kinda rubbish i have been up to aside from climbing mountain everyday and camping with mountain yaks and sheep...
to get things started, here are a few photos of Nepal sights and local scene.
oh wells, nth is forever and i gotta stop playing 1 day!
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