Guang Zhou

Hi guys, greeting from GZ. I only arrived here today afternoon. Went to the safari today and watch a marvellous-marvellous circus show called the Chimelong International show. The gigs were so cool. They had elephants, bears, monkeys, lions, goats and so forth doing the show and of course human acrobatics. The show was so cool. At the end of the show, all the performers came out to greet people. It felt like having lived in one of those disney cartoons for a bit, having my dream came true. Totally felt great and marvellous! Between the gigs they also had very funny clowns or festive dancers amongst the audience which basically just kept the whole show moving, so basically none were there sitting sleepy and waiting. Totally fantastic and interesting to watch.

 I have 10 relatives coming in finally instead of 14. Thank God they decided to hire a tour guide and basically had a like a planned tour instead of having me as a guide. I do have to say I must have spoken more Indonesian in these 2-3 days from translating chinese to indonesian compared to in the last 4 years. Imagine that! I enjoyed the kids' company a lot. They seemed to like me... (THANK GOD!) Probably coz I am just as silly as they are.

OK... apart from that... I found that the people in Guang Zhou are so friendly compared to those I encountered in ShenZhen area. I am in an internet cafe right now and it's like 00.35AM. It was kinda scary walking alone on the street in the middle of the night. If I was walking as the "Yung Yung who studied overseas", I would be totally fine. Since I have lived in HK for few years, I have learnt it's good to have adequate fear and to be in precautionary mental state sometimes. I have to get an internet cafe registration card (which costs 10RMB) and deposit money in it. I was told the card is valid in the whole GZ area. It costs a reasonable 3RMB/hour or 3.50RMB in small rooms with a far worse reception (I switched 3 computers there and still could not get connected to internet). The internet cafe here is so different from those in sydney (never been one in HK) with over 100 computer stations, imagine that!!!! The mouse pad felt like it's been soaked in water and discoloured. YIKES! Thanks to "my sudden promptness" for buying 3 bottles 99.99% bacteria sanitizers at 7/11 before living HK, I got to wipe the keyboard and mouse with it. I asked so many questions on how the internet card and system works that 3 ladies behind the counter looked at me with questions written all over their foreheads. They were like "you seemed to speak perfect mandarin but you dunno how these cards work?". haha...

Anyhow... I am just happy to share with you guys that Guang Zhou is a pleasant place so far. The food is cheaper than HK and to my surprise is cheaper than Shen Zhen too. I get to eat stirfried rice noodle for 6RMB. Imagine that. Since we are on tour, we do have to travel to some prerequisite destination stops. One of the place was the silk factory. WOW! You won't believe how silk is processed into quilt and so on. The silk quilt covers were so tempting!!! Yet, I decided I should not buy one just yet. They averaged around 1800RMB each. I found out the one I liked costs 2000RMB more. WHY????? Why do all the others cost 2000RMB less? Anyway... that's okay. I often find myself picking the most expensive one out of things without any intentions to most of the time.

 Another thing I noticed are the pretty performers. Each show probably consits of at least 50 young women and all of them (at least seen from a distant and with heavy make up on) LOOK SO DAMN GORGEOUS with their devilish body and long legs and also their deadly dancing skills. Man.... chinese women in CHINA are just soooo talented and TALL and pretty! WOW! All the performers are arguably around the same height too. I mean.... it was just such a nice scene to look at on its own merit. The 2 shows I watched in Shen Zhen at Splendid China consisted arguably all pretty ladies. I AM SO IMPRESSED!

Another thing that shocked me was that I was near to being refused entry to China. The 4 immigration men looked at me and claimed I had a false or fake paspport. What kind of a joke was that? They allegedly claimed that I reported my birthdate 10 years older than my original birthdate. WHAT? The stupid reason behind that was coz 2 of them were born in the same year with me but I looked at least 10 years younger than they were and that should include their wives also. Silly!!!!! It must have been my twin braid-s. Anyway, I am still so impressed with the enermous talents in China. WOW!

 Oh... another thing, I CAN'T BELIEVE how many people in shenzhen actually speak Indonesian. It was almost mind blowing to meet China born Chinese speaking almost near perfect Indonesian at the predestined places complete with Indonesian local slangs. There were more than 1/3 sales people capable of speaking fluent Indonesian there. When I inquired where they learnt the language, they answered "school". Who the hell would choose to learn Indonesian in school? THAT IS JUST MIND BLOWING (if not absurd)! WOW!!!!!!!!!!! I AM SOOOOOOOO impressed! If people say going overseas to study would open your eyes, I would say going to China would open your eyes! Seeing the talents here is just amazing. Not sure if we are staying in GZ tomorrow or would be going to Zhu Hai.

Anyway... I want to thank Dan for passing me a book just before I left. I was kinda reluctant at first coz I dun really read novels. I did when I was like in elementary school but have not been reading one for as long as I can remember. It turned out awesome though. Although I have to say that it's not normally a novel that a man would recommend to a woman. Having said that however, I just love the vividness of the writing and how the writer wrote about the lead lady's mentality was just awesome. Yet... I do have to keep in mind that the writer is over 40 or 50 I suppose. Average real life young women would not be operating thoughts with such mentality. Anyways... thanks, Dan. I believe most would see it as a great book and enjoy it a lot but few would actually be able to connect with it heart to heart despite the character's profession unless they have gone through a lot in life or they are of certain more mature age range. WOW!!! 1.14am already. I guess I better head back to my hotel. 4 blocks away!

PS: The saying "Laughter and happiness are the best medicines" and "laughter makes you look younger" is definitely valid. I actually think I look more attractive and pretty the last few days. Must be the kids!!!!!! THANK GOD that they love me. They are soooo cute! See... my dad does have good genes and seeds. hahaha.... .... But I miss my babies though. Well... it's ok.. I do need a break so badly!!!! XD

PSS: Aparently I am signing in from alivetom.com now :P cool!!!

 hugsssss

 light and warmth

Yung Yung