Day 6 - Oct 20, 2006: Shopping Time
All this while, we never knew of the travelling plan until we were actually told just before we begin our journey there. In the day earlier, we didn't know where we were going until we got into the van. We didn't even know of the next destination until we got back into the van.
Today was no different, only that we knew during breakfast of the day's plan. While the plan was to visit the Yellow River (Huang He), we 3 youngsters (yes, it's the same 3 of us), were sought of 'sent' shopping. I do not know where else did they visit. There wasn't space for us to sit in the van anyway. The whole time in the day earlier, the 3 of us were sitted at the back of the van at the luggage compartment because we're the youngest in the group. The rest are old uncles and aunties that could not take the ride at the back. Maybe they realised it's a little suffering to sit that way over a long distance on the road, so they allowed us to go shopping instead. Who knows?
There was nothing much to buy. It's not worth buying things in China anymore IMHO because prices are only a little cheaper than what we get in Malaysia and it also adds up to the weight of our luggage. In this case, being underweight is better than being overweight.
So we were in the city the whole day, walking about from one shopping mall to another which are all within walking distance away from one another. There are also pedestrian bridges outside, connecting all the malls around. We were looking and asking around for the local market because that's where we can get really cheap items.
Pretty soon we got tired and bored and as we were wandering around, we came to a cinema. After some discussion, we decided to watch a movie to kill some time, since we do have the whole day for ourselves. So we watch 'The Banquet'. A pretty slow moving movie and the storyline was pretty boring. The only surprise was at the end of the show. Watch it and you'll know what I mean.
After the movie, we tried to call Liu Jie (we only had her number, we couldn't get Xi Lei's) to join us in the city centre via the public phones. Unfortunately, she and Xi Lei have already started the new semester at the university. They were having classes when we called. So we were left by the 3 of us. Soon after, it was time for lunch. Fearing that we might get the right food since the local taste doesn't really suit us, we decided to try out the McDonald's there. Hey, even if it taste difference, how far the difference will it get?
The restaurant does not charge any service or government tax. We ordered the medium sized value meal which cost us RMB 17. That's around MYR 8.50, cheaper than Malaysia's prices. They have a 4-piece fried chicken which I ordered. They should not have called it 4-piece fried chickens but 4-piece fried chicks if you ask me..... The pieces are so small, that the drumsticks are only as big as my thumb. Should have ordered the burgers. At least the sizes are reasonable.
We finally found the market we were looking for after asking a McD's staff. At the market, there was so much food we could have tried, so much item we could have bought... yet, I didn't buy any simply because all these items could be found in Malaysia. I also didn't want to carry the stuff back unless it's really really really worth buying.
Walking around the market took us the whole afternoon. When it was around 1800, we wanted to return to the hotel already. On the way out of the market, I was really tempted to try the kebab there and bought one I did. Well, even before buying, I was already expecting it to be oily and salty which it was. Other than that, there's nothing special about it. It was kind of cold as well, eventhough there was a kept warm.
Anyway, since Tiffany has reminded me to write about her Taiwan sausage eating-spree, I thought it's fair to metion it at the very least. Haha. I think she took almost 8 sausages that day. Including one that she dropped while trying to wipe away oil on the sausage because this particular one was exceptionally oily compared to the rest. Her reaction after that was like a little girl who dropped her ice-cream... muahahahaha. Sorry, just kidding. She only whined about it for a while.
The one she dropped happened when we were trying to find our way back. We tried to call our team leader to have her friend pick us up if they happened to be nearby but they were still quite far from the city centre, so we took a cab instead.
The whole time in China, we never come across any traffic jam but that evening the jam was terrible. The lady taxi driver said that it was because it was a Friday night and everyone's out for the night. Before we got into the cab, we showed the hotel business card to make sure she knows the place. She wasn't really sure and even called her friend for directions.
The night was totally dark very soon and I really felt like it was already 2200 until I saw my watch. Only 1930. After being stucked in the jam for almost an hour and a half, we finally reached a hotel only to tell the driver that it was not the hotel we stayed. Great... another long journey in the cab coming. She tried taking lots of short cuts to avoid the jams but I guess all the effort was wasted. So we had to start making phone calls.
Only then she knew the exact location of the hotel which she never knew existed. Not even her friend despite showing her the card which has the map at the back. Below are the images of the card. Sorry, I need translators myself for this.
I think she got pretty freaked-out after knowing where we were actually staying and reduced the taxi fare for us with the jam as an excuse for the reduction. I thought she would have said that because she lost her directions and it's her fault. The final fare... RMB 14, but only reduced from RMB 16. I was told that the fare was already very cheap.
We were joking over dinner that she may have thought that we were children of some minister or high ranking officials to be able to stay in this hotel that she dare not over-charge us or do anything funny with us. I'd spoke some English in the cab so I'm pretty sure she knew we're not locals.
Dinner was as usual, served with tens of dishes which we could not finish. Finally we decided to pack for our 'driver' for the past week and the team leader's friends since they're locals and are not staying in the hotel so that the food are not to be wasted.
We then headed back to our room. That night we only watched tv and had some chatting since it's our last night in China. The local TV programmes are all in Chinese. Even all the English movies were translated. We watched a drama series acted by Pamela Andersson but I can't remember the title. It was once shown on Malaysian TV many many years back. We were lucky to have found 1 channel which are totally in English. The news, movies etc are in English but spoken by locals. Naturally I would have a little hard time trying to understand their slangs, but it was ok...
After that movie, we continued chatting until past midnight. Then... bedtime.
Today was no different, only that we knew during breakfast of the day's plan. While the plan was to visit the Yellow River (Huang He), we 3 youngsters (yes, it's the same 3 of us), were sought of 'sent' shopping. I do not know where else did they visit. There wasn't space for us to sit in the van anyway. The whole time in the day earlier, the 3 of us were sitted at the back of the van at the luggage compartment because we're the youngest in the group. The rest are old uncles and aunties that could not take the ride at the back. Maybe they realised it's a little suffering to sit that way over a long distance on the road, so they allowed us to go shopping instead. Who knows?
There was nothing much to buy. It's not worth buying things in China anymore IMHO because prices are only a little cheaper than what we get in Malaysia and it also adds up to the weight of our luggage. In this case, being underweight is better than being overweight.
So we were in the city the whole day, walking about from one shopping mall to another which are all within walking distance away from one another. There are also pedestrian bridges outside, connecting all the malls around. We were looking and asking around for the local market because that's where we can get really cheap items.
Pretty soon we got tired and bored and as we were wandering around, we came to a cinema. After some discussion, we decided to watch a movie to kill some time, since we do have the whole day for ourselves. So we watch 'The Banquet'. A pretty slow moving movie and the storyline was pretty boring. The only surprise was at the end of the show. Watch it and you'll know what I mean.
After the movie, we tried to call Liu Jie (we only had her number, we couldn't get Xi Lei's) to join us in the city centre via the public phones. Unfortunately, she and Xi Lei have already started the new semester at the university. They were having classes when we called. So we were left by the 3 of us. Soon after, it was time for lunch. Fearing that we might get the right food since the local taste doesn't really suit us, we decided to try out the McDonald's there. Hey, even if it taste difference, how far the difference will it get?
The restaurant does not charge any service or government tax. We ordered the medium sized value meal which cost us RMB 17. That's around MYR 8.50, cheaper than Malaysia's prices. They have a 4-piece fried chicken which I ordered. They should not have called it 4-piece fried chickens but 4-piece fried chicks if you ask me..... The pieces are so small, that the drumsticks are only as big as my thumb. Should have ordered the burgers. At least the sizes are reasonable.
We finally found the market we were looking for after asking a McD's staff. At the market, there was so much food we could have tried, so much item we could have bought... yet, I didn't buy any simply because all these items could be found in Malaysia. I also didn't want to carry the stuff back unless it's really really really worth buying.
Walking around the market took us the whole afternoon. When it was around 1800, we wanted to return to the hotel already. On the way out of the market, I was really tempted to try the kebab there and bought one I did. Well, even before buying, I was already expecting it to be oily and salty which it was. Other than that, there's nothing special about it. It was kind of cold as well, eventhough there was a kept warm.
Anyway, since Tiffany has reminded me to write about her Taiwan sausage eating-spree, I thought it's fair to metion it at the very least. Haha. I think she took almost 8 sausages that day. Including one that she dropped while trying to wipe away oil on the sausage because this particular one was exceptionally oily compared to the rest. Her reaction after that was like a little girl who dropped her ice-cream... muahahahaha. Sorry, just kidding. She only whined about it for a while.
The one she dropped happened when we were trying to find our way back. We tried to call our team leader to have her friend pick us up if they happened to be nearby but they were still quite far from the city centre, so we took a cab instead.
The whole time in China, we never come across any traffic jam but that evening the jam was terrible. The lady taxi driver said that it was because it was a Friday night and everyone's out for the night. Before we got into the cab, we showed the hotel business card to make sure she knows the place. She wasn't really sure and even called her friend for directions.
The night was totally dark very soon and I really felt like it was already 2200 until I saw my watch. Only 1930. After being stucked in the jam for almost an hour and a half, we finally reached a hotel only to tell the driver that it was not the hotel we stayed. Great... another long journey in the cab coming. She tried taking lots of short cuts to avoid the jams but I guess all the effort was wasted. So we had to start making phone calls.
Only then she knew the exact location of the hotel which she never knew existed. Not even her friend despite showing her the card which has the map at the back. Below are the images of the card. Sorry, I need translators myself for this.
I think she got pretty freaked-out after knowing where we were actually staying and reduced the taxi fare for us with the jam as an excuse for the reduction. I thought she would have said that because she lost her directions and it's her fault. The final fare... RMB 14, but only reduced from RMB 16. I was told that the fare was already very cheap.
We were joking over dinner that she may have thought that we were children of some minister or high ranking officials to be able to stay in this hotel that she dare not over-charge us or do anything funny with us. I'd spoke some English in the cab so I'm pretty sure she knew we're not locals.
Dinner was as usual, served with tens of dishes which we could not finish. Finally we decided to pack for our 'driver' for the past week and the team leader's friends since they're locals and are not staying in the hotel so that the food are not to be wasted.
We then headed back to our room. That night we only watched tv and had some chatting since it's our last night in China. The local TV programmes are all in Chinese. Even all the English movies were translated. We watched a drama series acted by Pamela Andersson but I can't remember the title. It was once shown on Malaysian TV many many years back. We were lucky to have found 1 channel which are totally in English. The news, movies etc are in English but spoken by locals. Naturally I would have a little hard time trying to understand their slangs, but it was ok...
After that movie, we continued chatting until past midnight. Then... bedtime.
posted by Eng at
18:24
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