Travel disaster~ 不幸中的大幸

Even though the trip was full of disasters~ from transportation perspective~looking at the bright side, we did meet a lot of good people along the way~

Like in shanghai airport, the lounge guy let us into the lounge coz he said it wasn't crowded~ I forgot why my sister's membership couldn't get in in the first place~ so my sis and I were eating, drinking and watching movie on comfortable sofas~ then my bro was willing to wait for us at the airport for such a long time~

Then we met my sis' friend who treated us 3 bottles of wine.. One costing RMB 2500 each! Wow, the most expensive wine I ever tasted and yes, they tasted much better than my RMB100 per bottle type of wine :p and we got to drink with French sausages.. Yum yum...like LJ said, mayb my urine was more classy that night onwards.. Hahaha

Then when I couldn't get taxi to go airport on the rainy day, the taxi guy actually tried his best to rush over~ we called each other a few times to see how far off was he and whether my sis and i were still waiting for him...like friends.. Eventually we found out he is Hakka too and he asked us to call him to take us to airport next time we go gz~ btw, this taxi guy had sharp observations~ many ppl couldn't tell my sis is older than me but he could! I like him immediately! Hahaha... 

Then the hotel concierge was kind enough to search hotel for us even though it wasn't his responsibility~ and the hotel bell boy went to the main road to hail a taxi for us even though we weee not hotel guests~ 

I find gz ppl are more friendly than ppl in shanghai~ guess they r too busy taking k of their own businesses than people who are in need~

Thanks for the wonderful (and disastrous) experience.. They r both priceless!

Travel disaster (part 2)

After having soooo much fun in gz, it was time to leave on Monday~ my bro and sis in law left early in the morning via HK and we sent them off at the border and went back to gz for further activities! Our flight was at 9pm.. So we had plenty of time to wander around.. Just that we spent most time on the road... U know how big China is Lo... On Sunday, we stayed in shunde and travelled to foshan during the day, then we went to gz for dinner and stayed in dongguan for a night. The next day, we sent them off from shekou and went back to gz.. By the time we reached gz after our lunch, it was already 230pm.. So my sis and I decided to get more electronic stuff from the wholesale place~ we went for massage at about 330pm...How relaxing was it? Hahahaha... The massage guy told me my joints are too stiff.. Then I asked him if that's bad.. He said it's nothing, just stiff coz when he tried to twist me, i couldn't be twisted, whereas my sister is easily twisted :p what a funny description.. No wonder people said I looked funny when I do yoga..sorta like mosquito doing yoga..(⌒-⌒; )

After we were done, it was time to go to airport.. But it was raining cats and dogs! With this kind of weather in china, getting a taxi is almost impossible! I was standing at roadside, trying to hail taxi but I just couldn't stop any! We asked people the number to call and nobody seem to know! Why why why? So I stood at roadside again, was so tempted to put out my beautiful leg and see if people will stop. Hahaha.. I managed to get some numbers from the passing by taxi.. With this kind of weather, even calling the taxi hotline would be a problem. Called once and got told the line was busy..called second time, someone picked up.. Gosh, his mandarin sounded like mine.. Hahaha.. Anyway, he said wait for 10mins to see if anyone call u, if none, please call the hotline again...(｡-_-｡) pray pray..someone pls call me! Finally a taxi driver called.. He said he could come but we need to wait for him for 20mins! I quickly said yes! I must have sounded very desperate...hehehe

Finally we got to airport just in time... Only to find out our flight was delayed and the timing was to be determined! Many flights were either cancelled or delayed! My sis and I were disappointed with gz airport.. Such big airport but such crappy system.. If like that, the busiest airports like HK or London must be doomed and crowded with people when weather wasn't good! So we waited and waited and waited..finally at 1130pm, we were told the tentative departure time was 110am.. Tentatively!!! My sis and I learned our lesson.. That has not included waiting time in plane.. So we both decided to cancel on the flight and stay for another night in gz.. My sis wanted to have dim sum at the famous restaurant in gz.. So I said, what the heck! A good n valid excuse for my sis coz she wanted to go there even before we got to gz~~~

We reached a hotel I know at 1230am and to only found out that the hotel was full due to some exhibitions! We were told most hotels were full that week T_T do we have to sleep under the bridge? Where could we go? Lucky the concierge was kind enough to help us looked around and found us a place.

It was a suite! Last one! So we rushed all the way there~la la la..

We were entertaining ourselves again.. This time with bigger tear drops. Hahaha

We didnt bring many things to gz~ we wore our clothes for 3 days! Smelly~

The next day, we went for dim sum early in the morning and got to airport before the rain started...we were happy to board the plane on time.. First step to success... You can't confirm success until the plane departs..

We Departed at 12noon with abt 30mins delay only~ when we were taking off, I saw rain from the plane window..second step to success~ yay~ home sweet home.. I sympathized the people who would leave after lunch~ good luck guys~~

The lesson we learned is, never go to gz after lunch, never depart gz after lunch! This advice is priceless!!! 

Me outside the dim sum restaurant~

Travel Disasters!!! Part 1

I haven't been writing post about travel disaster for almost two yrs! I thought I have seen the worst during my years of traveling.. How WRONG was I until my encounter last weekend.

Went to Guangzhou with my sis last Saturday night to meet up with my brother and sis in law.. It was a trip we both looked forward to coz I was planning to eat as much as I could and my sister was planning to furnish her whole place in Paris! Hiak hiak.. 

Our flight on sat night was supposed to be at 830pm. We arrived airport a bit early and we played in the lounge ~ ate, drank and watched movie.. Having lots of fun until we were told our flight was delayed and the timing is to be determined! We waited from 530pm at airport.. Waited and waited an waited..finally at 830pm, we were told to board the plane~ we were so happy... So was my brother coz they were already waiting at the gz airport for our arrival since 7pm! We didn't know a disaster was about to happen.. 

While we were waiting for other passengers to board the plane, I happily told my brother that we would see them soon.. Mayb in two hours time! After sitting in the plane for 10mins, we were told there was a traffic control and we had to wait for our turn...how long did u think it was?

Well, we were in the plane for 3hours coz the plane only departed at 1130pm! We were so tempted to leave the plane and just get our refund but were afraid my bro and sis in law would be disappointed! My sis and I were trying to entertain ourselves.. By entertaining ourselves, we happened to entertained other passengers too.. Lookit our creativity

This is only part one of the story.. We arrived gz at 130am and got to our hotel in shunde at 3am!

Chicken and duck talk

Today I called Malaysia immigration dept to ask about something.... I was greeted by an automated voice saying I'm being directed to one Malaysia one call centre in Malay, of coz~ then this guy picked up, obviously he talked to me in Malay~ I could understand bits and pieces but not full..let alone speaking in Malay~ so I replied in English! I thought he would switch but he continued to ask me something in Malay.. Maybe he thought the same that I would switch.. Hahaha.. Anyway, our conversation went on for about 5 minutes and he kept speaking in Malay and I kept speaking in English! It is quite funny if an outsider was listening to us but we communicated just fine~

This remind me of my first day back to Kuching two weeks ago. Jenn took me to buy fabric and there was this nice lady helping us. I wanted to get a really long fabric but I didn't know how long it should be~ so I said to her in broken Malay: "ceiling sampai...." Then I turned to jenn and asked her what is floor in Malay? Ceiling sampai lantai! Wow! It rhythms! Haha, she understood me 

（＾ν＾）

Beef tendon?

i have not been talking about travelling for long long time already...that's because i didnt get to travel that much...the furthest i went was Suzhou most of the them...hahaha..it's like Kuching to Serian....anyway, this time, i got to travel to Korea with some of my other colleagues from other parts... Taiwan, china, Singapore and phillipines...i still prefer to travel with people..more fun.. 

one night, we went out for dinner on our own and we were searching hi and lo for a good restaurant and found this restaurant serving traditional korean food...so we went in...the waiter came with a menu and the moment we looked..gosh, it was all in Korean...and we looked at the waiter for help, hoping he would explain...turned out, he couldnt speak a word of english..so he called out his fellow waiters and all of them surround us and none of them speak english!! i knew they were trying hard to try to explain..i tried really hard to try to understand but .... suddenly my "light bulb" lighted....i took my iphone out, add the korean keyboard in the setting and turned on my 3G. I handed him my iphone and asked him to type in Korean in my translation app...WOW, at that time i really thought i was a genius!! nobody thought of this except me..and i'm fully utilizing my technology knowledge...happy, the waiter took my phone and quickly keyed in and returned me my phone...

the moment it got translated, i laughed so loud that i almost fell on the floor and i handed to my colleagues who also laughed as loud as me...we almost rolled on the floor laughing..coz the translation app translated the word into....see below

???? what kind of food is this? it made us even more puzzled...i was guessing it must be related to beef tendon or something..hahaha..then the waiter went to other customers for help and a chinese came to our rescue...there was no beef tendon in the menu at all!! we were laughing...saying the app gave us a stroke!

失意症~~

something funny (or sad) happened to my mum lately...she has a friend who is beginning to lost her short term memory, out of kindness, my mum recommended her to take "ginko" to strengthen her memory and that she is willing to sell her her extra bottle of ginko from australia~~ so last week, my mum brought the bottle of ginko to her friend's place and sell her the bottle at  cost nia...

she taught her the function of ginko and when to take the pills....my mum went with another friend and they had a little chat...then my mum gave her 10 pills of glucosamine (for legs) as free gift. my mum was hopeful that her friend will gain back her memory~~

that evening, her friend called my mum and told my mum that she didnt receive the bottle of ginko for my mum after she paid! my mum was like "????? what?, i just put on your table and left", her friend insisted she didnt have it at her place, yet she remembered she already paid my mum (?!)....my mum asked her to check her place, still, it was nowhere to be seen..strange..my mum's friend said it must have been taken by my mum's other friend @_@ .... my mum, being a nice friend, decided to refund her....so today, i took my mum and her other friend to her ginko friend. 

4 of us looked high and lo for the bottle...the friend kept showing us her fridge to prove the bottle wasnt in the house as if that was the only place to hide the bottle..anyway, we duck and jump, still no sign so my mum gave up and refunded her the cash...then we saw the lady put the money on the table and went around to show us the bottle wasnt there...again..so i quickly took the cash and put in her hand and said, aunty, please take the cash and remember, we already paid you....out of no luck, we decided to quit and went off....on the road, my mum kept talking about the incident..they both had sleepless night last night...oh dear....is it worth it? then we realized we should have taken picture that we handed the cash to the old lady...coz we were afraid that she would called up and complained we didnt pay her back...

after 15mins, the hubby called my mum and accused my mum for not refunding the cash...we were like @_@

well, up to now, we have no idea whether it was just an act...to pretend memory loss about receiving ginko but remembering paying cash...one thing my mum learned is, never to help the lady anymore....真是好人难做。。。。不过还挺好笑的。。真是什么人都有。。。赞！！

Voting

Yesterday was my first time voting for Malaysia after being registered for more than a decade... Actually this year, I did not plan on coming home specially for the vote, but fate has been calling and the voting day fell on the day i would leave Kuching~ it's destiny... Hahaha..

KCH has got the pre CNY feel where people are excited about the elections.. There are mini talks everywhere, and traffic jams all over KCH... Gosh, I could feel the atmosphere and how people are taking this election really seriously~ with made me excited abt the whole event too.. Many info all over fb.. A few things I'm proud of being Malaysians are: we are patriotic even after so many unfair treatments.. We are so gentle that we do not get violent even though we see how we are being che*ted openly... We have many talented people who make nice and touching videos... Good stories!

Yesterday, we woke up really early To get prepared and to beat the crowd. It felt so nice to be up so early with the cool breeze and fresh air. There were not many cars and people were still asleep.. It felt really peaceful.. We went out for early nreakfast and finished out vote before 9am.

Many people from afar came back just for the election :) not sure what will happen to Malaysia but hope everything turns out fine~