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TADA i'm back!

i wouldn't say i love 江南 a lot though it left me with many nice memories.
went to 杭州-苏州-南京-无锡-上海. i love 杭州 and 苏州 the best because it's accentuated with an old china atmosphere. 上海 is just another metropolitan city, somewhat like a much bigger singapore.

the experience aside, there were so many things to get used to.

toilet and the food
i tell u, singaporeans will be the first to die if we all were to move to a backward country. even the dirtiest toilet in singapore cannot hold a candle to the dirtiest in china. ok the first day freaked us out (esp gracey my cousin). after 5 hours of plane ride on garuda (with insomnia-induced sleep), we made our way to 杭州 from 上海. hungry, sleepy and grouchy from a full bladder, we stopped midway for lunch at the most horrible place ever. the guide explained that's the more backward area and we should drastically lower our expectations for the toilet and the food. and yeah so we should. the toilet was horrible - clogged with tons of shit, doorless, so pungent i was glad i ate before. the food looked weird. grace scared me by saying that some of the meat may be dog meat in disguise so i ended up not eating much. well both of us were lamenting on our predicament.
and yeah the guide (we call him 小周) told us there's grade for the toilets. A = ok, go even if u have to force your pee out. B = doorless but go if you're urgent. C = go unless you have no choice.
well things looked bleak the first day but it picked up later. but generally the toilets are still worse than singapore's. a word of advice: bring your own toilet roll, try not to look into the pothole, don't breathe while inside.

the insolent smokers
from what i observed, almost 8 out of 10 men in china smoke. everywhere i go, there'll be chain smoking. argh the situation gets worse in 上海. the reason for so much smoking is because the cigarettes are freaking cheap. the cheapest box cost you only 2 bucks in singapore, a far cry from the rates here isn't it?

high probability of mismatched couples
this is an observation from grace. she noticed that most couples often end up having a really ugly guy and a not bad girl. so we end up speculating whether 江南 is blatantly lacking in cute guys and supple with pretty girls. as the chinese saying goes, "江南出美女" so i presume god is fair when making men and women. afterall men in china is still the head (they're mostly MCPs) except the 上海 and 苏州 men, according to 小周. so girls, if you wanna marry to china, consider only the abovementioned.

fake products
having said that, the guides warned us that china is full of fake products. even fruits can be fake, can you believe that? i was especially worried about the fake bank notes. i dunno why they have to do this. isn't china's economy on the uprise? i don't understand why they have to capitalise on fake products.

filthy air
the air in 上海 was really dirty. the sky always looked a little hazy and by the end of the day, our noses will be full of noseshit. grace's slippers never fail to become dusty at the end of the day. the air in the other provinces were better. makes me appreciate singapore so much more.


yeah a lot of factors to tolerate but the experience was good.
the guides were really very good. and surprisingly, all of them were university graduates. 小周 in particular graduated with a law degree, decided to drop law and study tourism. and he speaks bahasa melayu, learned professional photography and technican knowlege and have been to many places around the world. i can safely say some of them are even more capable people than some of our local university graduates.
and i really admired the pride they have for their own province and also the wealth of knowledge about their country's history. at a supper session with 小周, he told us about the hard life of students in china and somehow i can more or less understand why the PRC scholars are so kiasu and hardworking. i don't dislike them that much anymore. but one thing bad about chinese men is that they're all very MCP. 小周 told us he can never accept the idea of equality in sex but no matter how firmly he denies, i can sense that he loves his wife. haha a man's ego at work. he also says that most couples in china tend to date for many years before they marry. i dunno if it applies anymore or only in certain areas, but i somehow like how the chinese stick to their tradtional roots whereas singapore has no unique identity.

xiaozhou's so scared of us haha. his bahasa is very funny, exaggerates on the Rs. like pasarrrr maram, tidoh grrrr. and his fave tagline is "come on, let'ch go. follow me."


the fellow on the left is our sg leader.
he used to be an ex TCS actor, anyone recognise him? damn funny guy.

see all pics here

actually what made this trip memorable for me was the people. the scenery itself wasn't a draw because i prefer natural scenery and the itinery was too rushed. but i would encourage people who dislike cheena things to actually give china a chance. saying "cheena is yucky" without giving them a chance is just plain shallow.

i ain't done but i'm sure you guys will die if i continue writing. i'll leave it to telling you all when we meet up.
i would love to visit china again, this time to the north because every province has very distinct differences.