Xx Back from Mao Land xXA'ight... Sorry for the long lapse in updates. Been kinda lazy these few days, partially coz' school's starting next week. I still haven't obtained the China trip pics from my brother yet, so no pics for now... Will post a few when I decide to get them.. Lol... Now, a textual account of the trip.
ShanghaiBoarded the plane with a fuzzy feeling in the stomach.. Thanks to the god-damned gastric flu. It was like a time bomb waiting to explode through all my guts. 2 hours- spent watching "Batman Begins"- later, the freaking feeling was intolerable... Don't really know how to describe it... It's like you want to egest, but nothing comes out. Tolerated that loathsome feeling all the way to the Hong Kong Plaza Service Apartment, which was still 4 hours away. A service apartment is basically a condo renovated into a hotel. Actually, besides the lack of a grand lobby, the service apartment is no different from any 4 star hotel. Ok, I'll spare you the details of how I resolved this freaking gastric flu. I swear I felt like a drug addict on that day.
That night, I was feeling a lot better already. So, we went to Xiang Yang Market, where all the pirate goods were sold at ridiculously low prices. You can basically haggle the price down to 1/3 its opening price! Though everything there is fake, it's amazingly similar to the original. Bought quite a few stuff there. Shoes, bag and some shirts. But the police there is kinda hypocritical, not in a bad way. Right in the middle of the market is a police post. At the doorstep a poster reads, "... illegal goods will not be tolerated...", or something along that line, cant remember. Lols... Wth? Not tolerated yet they aren't doing anything?! Hahaz.. But they can't help it. That market is packed from day to night. It's probably plays quite a significant part to Shanghai's income.
Shall skip the 2nd day. Nothing much really. 3rd day was spent at the Formula 1 racetrack in Shanghai. There were stalls set up tp sell official fan merchandise. Bought a Ferrari print shirt, for myself (Duh!), and F1 pins as souveneirs for everyone back here in SG. Anyways, the race was fantastic. Alonso practically owned everyone else. 8 seconds ahead in the front part of the race. Team tactics, I must say. Fisichella was blocking Kimi Raikkonen from getting ahead. Mean bastards.. Hahaz... The noise from the V10 engines are deafening, but the value of watching the race 'live' is priceless. Well, worth at least S$75 coz' of the tix. Lols. Bought a Ferrari and Renault flag outside from the illegal vendors. Hahaz.
After dinner, my sister-in-laws went on to buy pearls from a "clean" store. Dirt cheap pearls, seriously. They bought dunno-how-many pearl necklaces and earrings and that cost only about 1000RMB? Equivalent to S$200. Go to Takashimaya or any other jeweller, what fock can you buy with $200 except a diamond, miniscule in size compared to a full stop, strung on a string of wire? Yeps, that was about it for today!
Day 4 was spent at Xiang Yang Market again!! Wahahaha! Shop till you drop, man. This time, we had upgraded to buying stuff from their private warehouse. A lot more pricey, I must say, but extremely good looking stuff. Complete clone of the original. There were even
real LVs and other branded goods there. Watches and shoes were also among the wide array of goods on sale. These goods are from factory overruns and probably some
zei huo (Loosely translated: Thief Goods). Who cares! Their loss is our gain! Screw originality and copyright! Don't jail me, please! *Sobz* Yup, That's it for Shanghai!
Suzhou, Wuxi, NanjingA'ight... For the rest of the trip, my family set off on a private tour. 33-seater bus occupied by only 8 people, including the guide. Ain't going to go into details, coz' it's all the historical babble. And coz' the guide was speaking in Chinese, I basically wasn't very interested to listen. Lols. Not that I don't understand, it's already boring in English, it'd be worse for me in Chinese.
Since arrival in Shanghai, we'd been eating at restaurants for lunch and dinner. The prices are like, what, S$5 for a typical-sized restaurant dish. But frankly, their food isn't exactly to our liking. The locals love food that taste extreme- salty, sweet, spicy. The mildly spicy Ma Po Tofu can make you breathe fire after several mouthfuls. Fancy eating
live drunken prawns? Eckks.
The air in these areas are so much more fresher than Shanghai. Finally can get to see the blue sky and lush green grass. There isn't much shopping in these areas. Suzhou and Wuxi were the most boring areas, man. Even the hotel breakfast served in those areas sucked real bad for four-star hotels. Only in Nanjing we stayed in a five star hotel. The breakfast there is fantastic. Ham; sausages; bacon; sushi; pastries; omelettes; whatever-the-heck-you'd-want-to-eat.
Horror on SQ837 (Quite Interesting =) )
Day 7 comes. It's time to head for home! THe airport is really disappointing. They have like 10 check-in lanes for domestic flights but only a friggin' small corner for international flights. I'm not against the Chinese in China (Well, maybe a little), but they are really friggin'
kiasu* &
suaku**. And you thought Singaporeans were the ultimate
"Kiasus" in the entire world. Let me relive the horrors of Flight SQ837, flying from Nanjing Airport to Singapore at 1400hours.
Alright. 1130, we arrived at the airport and bade goodbye to the guide, who obviously got a fat tip. But she's a nice lady la. All the qualities you'd want in a tour guide. At the Int'l flights corner, a whole mob***(Serious!) of Chinese (meaning the people of China; Not referring to the whole ethnic group) were waiting outside the customs gate. Clutching tightly to the brake handle of their luggage trolleys, the Chinese wait patiently, poised and ready to rush past the customs gate as soon as the clock hit 1200. After an agonizing 30 minute wait, the gates are opened and a stampede breaks out. Like primal instincts, the Chinese charges through, only to find out there are only 2 check-in counters to serve them. Lucky they were as a group, so they had to check in at the "Group" lane.
My family checked-in without any hitches and we sauntered into the waiting hall. After about an hour, the Chinese began to stream in in small groups. We had a light lunch at the Airport cafe and relaxed at the comfy sofas, waiting for the flight time to come. In the meantime, a group of Chinese ladies came to sit down at the other unoccupied sofas. One of them was happily slurping down her Instant noodles while others went for a toilet relieve. The cafe staff approached the lady and gently requested her to leave as outside food is not allowed. But the Fucking bitch stood fast. The staff couldn't do anything, so I guess the bitch won. After 20 minutes, her friends returned. What the heck? 20 minutes in the toilet meant they probably had a lot of crap to let go. Wonder if the toilet could even flush. The staff came again to shoo them, they gave in but retorted with "How come they can sit there?" Fuck you, damn bitch. Buy a coffee and you will earn the right to sit there until you rot down to your bones. Be glad I didn't personally shove that Instant Noodle bowl up your ass.
1330 hours. We headed for the gates. My family took a seat at the plastic seats outside the gate and waited for the "Now Boarding" sign. I went to the signboard beside the gate to read what's on it. Instantly, a queue of Chinese formed behind me. Clinging onto their luggage and whispering excitedly to one another. Like what the heck?! I was just reading the sign! I left to join my family when the "Now Boarding" sign went up. The Chinese mob surged forward like opening floodgates of a water dam. We sat around until the mob dwindled down to the last few strength before queuing to get in.
Alright, the plane took off with ease and we were now en route back to Singapore. Watched Fantastic 4 & War of The Worlds(Again?) and also played the math brain teaser on the KrisFlyer entertainment system, the in-flight entertainment system. After the plane had stabilized, the seat belt sign was turned off. Almost immediately, the Chinese mob began to walk along the aisles, excited about fuck-knows-what.
They began taking videos of the cabin and out the window. Most kept pestering the stewardess to take pictures with them. They even took pictures of the sky out the window. Like, what the heck can you see, man?! Worse still, as we were sitting in the centre front area, the Chinese kept crossing from our front as the front always has wider spacing. My rather-pissed-off sister-in-law gave one of them a very well-needed dressing down. After that, the crossings stopped. Lol! This scene of the excited Chinese carried on throughout the entire flight.
As we descended on approach to the Singapore Airport, everyone was told to sit down. Yet, some members of the mob kept standing up to check out the view outside the window. Unfortunately, the stewardess could only politely but firmly remind them to sit down. I wish I could just throw 'em out of the door. LOL! 15 minutes after, we touched down on the airport tarmac. Instantaneously, cheers and applaud broke the tense silence! An invigorated mob member cheered in Mandarin,
"We have landed in Singapore safely!" Wow... Such furor! Amazing these mob members. And that particular member probably didn't know humans have been flying for more than a 100 years now.
Yep... Home at last! This concludes my trip in China. Hope I didn't make you go blind trying to read the whole post. And let's be honest, you skipped a few paragraphs (Or didn't even bother to read), didn't you?
Till next time, Au Revoir!
Note:
*
Kiasu- Afraid to lose out
**Suaku- Used to describe a person who is very backward***
Mob- By mob, I do not mean a loose gang of criminals, I just mean a whole bunch of disorderly people; Crowd
// Citizen Erased @ 12:03 AM
