One Night in Beijing: May 2006

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

手机简讯

那一天，就我和你。吃完了麦当劳，我们坐在里头什么多没做。你凝望着我，笑了。我问你干嘛这样看着我，又干嘛笑我。你说，没什么。

又一阵冷场。

你拿出了手机，在上面按了按，按了个短讯。我再喝一口可乐。你就把手机递给我，叫我看上面你所写的东西。

“我难得终于鼓起了勇气，想问一件事情，你不要说数落我的话，可以吗？”。当然，你用英文写了这段话。你的华语，没有这么灵巧。毕竟，用手机打华文字也不简单。我心里面顿时乱了起来，她到底想说些什么呢？我也等不及想听。

“没问题，只要你不要让我‘歹势’就可以了。嘻嘻 =P”。我当然也用英文回复了你。

你接回手机看了看，又笑了，很快地，手机又回到了我这里了。

“我可以抱你吗？”

不可能吧？心里面的我在搔头皮，表面的我却不敢这样做。我的眼神和表情常常出卖我的真性情。每次老师授课时，只要到了超我脑袋领悟能力的时候，老师都能察觉。不要这么苦恼，不会很难的，老师再解释一遍。所以我不看着你，看着手机，假装在上面打字。我也不动要写些什么，打了又删，打了又删。曾经问过你最要好的朋友，知道你只把我当作哥哥来看待，且有了心上人。之间，我也进入了‘半放弃’状态，做不了情侣，做兄妹也可以，至少有多一个聊天的对象。我又不想拒绝你，不过你又是我的谁？拥抱之后，又是谁？不拥抱，原本好好的这段兄妹，会不会变质？

打了又删，打了又删。

感觉到你的嘴角好像渐渐往下坠。

结果，我写了这一段，还给你。

“可以。不过你坦白地告诉我，我是你的谁？你当我是什么？无论你的答案是什么，我答应你，一定会抱你。无所谓的，你可以对我坦白的。”

你看了看，什么也没说。我不知道你有没有再看我，我只知道看着你的手机，不敢抬头看。结果我听见了鼻涕声，我看上来，却又不敢正视你的眼睛，看见了红了的眼眶。我右手牵着你的左手，左手拉了包包，往门口出去，坐在外面的水池边。抹了抹那决堤的眼泪，没用，就把你抱了过来。

我送你回家吧，不要哭了吗。（该哭的人是我吧？）

半走半托上下车，15分钟的车程，在肩上的哽咽声里，在掺住颈上的手里，感觉漫长，感觉无比的复杂。一起下了车，你就把包包结了过去，事情发生的太快，你也没再说什么，就自己往家里方向去了。

你就再也没对我说什么了。

Adapted from bayderophobia: 失眠夜散文集

Sunday, May 28, 2006

Guangzhou 26-28 May

The airticket price from Beijing to Guangzhou (and back) suddenly dropped on Thursday morning. So I bought the tickets to Guangzhou. The 2-way 3 hour domestic flight costed me about s$300 in all.
My dad and my uncle went to Guangzhou to visit my ah-mah last Weds, and I have always wanted to join them but I have to go to work every Monday to Thursday. Now that both the timing and the costs form a good match, I made the sudden decision on Thursday that I will go to Guangzhou to find them on Friday and leave together on Sunday. And boy .. it was a super good choice hehe =)

It was a great great great trip.

The Main Purpose
I saw my ah-mah again, about 4-5 months since she left SG to stay in Guangzhou. I'm so glad she is happy and looks healthier. Her hair has got thicker and has darken as well. Now I know what it means to 嘘寒问暖, when now it 'makes sense' for her to ask me if I am feeling cold in Beijing, and me asking the same for her in Guangzhou. I haven't heard her for a long time, and she still tells me not to fool around and work hard for my studies, telling me that my dad did not have the chance to study and now I should not waste my chances. As long as she is still concerned (although she always look nonchalant and thinks I do not understand what she is saying), I would be very happy.

I also met lots of relatives, all I have never seen before or never thought I would have. I now have lots of cousins, lots of '老表' and '表叔表姑' etc soo distant that even my ah-mah gave up and tell me to just call them 'uncle' 'auntie' haha Really nice to have met them .. although I struggled to understand their Cantonese (I don't understand/speak Cantonese well anyway), it was a very happy experience talking to them. They are very hospitable people, they really made me feel at home. On my way to her place where we stopped for petrol, I found the Ricola sweets she liked and always had at her place when she stayed in SG, and I wanted to cry. It is this type of small small things that remind you of someone special. Somehow, this type of Ricola candies is very hard to come by in SG liaoz. I couldn't find those big big tins she had, so I settled for this small one.

If any of you guys can lay your hands on those big big tins, please tell me where to get them.

The Food and the Drinks
As a result of their hospitality, I ate non-stop ... except when we are driving .. really haha. Of all the countless stuff and names I couldn't recall nor translate into Chinese, I remembered eating the 狗肉火锅, 烧鹅, and the ‘双皮奶’, which is a super nice dessert. Something like a white custard beancurd thingy. And they never stopped drinking, unless they were sleeping haha except for the 表叔 who drove. They were always inviting me to drink with them (''yam peah', or 饮啤, drink beer in Cantonese), which I accepted for the first dinner with them where we had the 狗肉火锅. I think I might have demostrated a good hold of liquor and that was quite a nightmare haha. They invited me to drink at every meal, even at breakfast! Dimsum breakfast with beer is jitao a stun for me. I cannot tahan even half a glass and I keep covering my glass when the waiteress came around with the bottle to refill our glasses. My uncle see liaoz also know I not their level liao and never 勉强 me for beer at breakfast. But they din stop inviting, and I didn't stop rejecting, coz I still had to tahan a long lonely night at the airport, and then the 3hr flight back to Beijing. If I drank, I would be dehydrated and the sleeplessness + flying would make me feel like shit.

Getting there and back
You see, I reached on Friday noon, ate the 狗肉火锅 that night. Went yamcha dimsum breakfast on Sat morning, and left together with my dad and uncle when they had to leave to return to SG on Sunday midnight. While they took off at midnight, my flight was at 8:20am, so I stayed at the airport that night. Driving from the place where my ah-mah stayed to the airport takes 2 hrs. It doesn't make sense for my 表叔 to drive home after 12midnight to reach home at 2am, and then drive me out again at 4am so I can check in at 6am. Despite not drinking, I still felt like shit when I reached Beijing on the Sunday morning. I haven't been able to sleep the night I 'tuanged' at the airport. It doesn't operate 24hrs like Changi does; they turn off all the lights at 12midnight since there are no more flights between 12midnight till 8 in the morning. The seats at the airport had sleeping-unfriendly armrests, sleeping on the floor is uncomfy and 'xia-suay' looking, the sofa couches are for some air ticket agent promotion gimmick and cordoned up. I sneaked in and lay on it for a short while until I got so pricked about the possiblities that the security guard discover me and accuse me for tresspassing and suspecting me of trying to steal things or what that I sneaked out not more than 15 minutes ... so I stayed up reading 水煮三国 at the very pathetic lights available at the luggage wrapping counter. I finally gave up reading at about 4am and slept lying down on the counter table, constantly waking up hoping that no airport staff would come and chase me off. At 5am the lights came on and I walked about wondering between the luggage deposit counter and the e-ticket counter waiting for either one to start their operations so I could get on with the checking in. Furthurmore, I'm the type who couldn't sleep well while travelling, you could say I didn't sleep at all. And the rest of the Sunday when I reached home at about 2pm, I was groggy and slept till dinner, woke up and ate, and slept at about 10pm till it was Monday morning. I'm not young anymore, I just couldn't stay up all night and not feel very tired for the next day, and recover fully after a night's rest.

The sightseeing
While we were in Guangzhou on Friday afternoon, we went to 上下九步行街 to shop but nobody is interested to make any purchase so we headed to 陈家祠 which was simply astonishing. I saw the legendary 43 layered elephant tusk ball that 故宫 said it used to have and lots of exquisite craft works which is simply breathe taking. The architecture of the 陈家祠 is soo different from those we see at Beijing; the ceiling is very high and there are very detailed stone carvings on the beams and on the walls. So so so amazing to see the craftsmanship built into this place.

We also went to 肇庆 on Saturday afternoon to see the 七星岩, which is big lake with 7 islets in it that (they say) look like 北斗星 from the sky. The place is beautiful whether or not they have that '北斗星 from the sky' anyway. It is expensive to go into that place. It costs 50yuan to get in, and it does not include all the other 景点 entrance fees inside the 七星岩 area. You can take the 25yuan ride with tour guide or walk the whole 9km by yourself. It rained the whole day and so heavily at long stretch of times while we were on the road that I thought the typhoon chan-chu came back. It drizzled on while we were at 七星岩 and so not many people were around, somekind of sight soo rare in China sightseeing spots haaha.

Lastly...
No pictures this time, until I finish the last 10 shots in the roll. So I will upload them maybe ... in 1 or 2 weeks' time.
I am feeling so happy about the trip, that I am still feeling high today on Monday. It is like a short dream, which was a very good dream that you think about it again and again, and hope you will dream of it again tommorrow night.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Lessons Learnt, thus far

I have learnt how to:

Flowers!

My 妖姬 colleague received another big bouquet of flowers!!!!

Look at the sheer difference between the mug and the vase of flowers ...

Even I got excited and happy and I found myself smiling idiotically at my own terminal even though the flowers are not mine haha It's the uber big 百合花 again

See how it towers over my cubicle!

Sooo nice! Smells so good! Sooo envious!

Monday, May 22, 2006

22 May 2006

有朋自远方来, 不亦乐乎!

Last friday, LJ popped over to BJ for a trip! And I hosted him at my place (of coz). It was great to see somebody whom I already know in SG coming over, while other people had their family or relatives to visit them. It was always great to have friends visiting. And now I look forward to meet Mr X when he pops over to BJ next month.

Also the past weekend, we hosted a potluck dinner at our place. We had hell lots of fun! The chaps from WDK gave us a lot of face and made themselves really at home haha Well, it's the spirit of having fun lah, it's not like anybody got injured or wat =P We 干掉ed 34 bottles of Tsingtao and Yanjing ... broke 2 chairs and a sofa bed, and got Eng Beng to speak his mind haha. He will be my hero of the week! My Steph Sun's HK concert dvd became the best dvd buy; it repeated many times and still entertained everybody for hours straight. Our place turned into a Steph Sun ktv session for quite a long time. We also opened up (cleaned up) our balcony 'to chill'. Hailiang n James helped bought a small disposable bbq pit from their walmart and we bbq-ed sausages and chicken wings and drank beer at the balcony *that's life! But sorry, no pictures to show! Eveybody is too happy and crazy to take pictures =P

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

我是好汉！

Last Sunday I went to climb the Great Wall!

We went to the 金山岭 part of the Great Wall as arranged by the folks from 北大. Mary Ma went with us as well. It wasn't as xiong as 香山 and the best part is that there isn't too many other tourists around. That made it much much much more enjoyable.

The bulk of the guys. I'm the only guy wearing cap, fyi.
From Left, Jasman, Guoliang, Alex, Joseph, Ly, myself, James, Jeff, Shiangjing, Kejie, Alan.

The GIP pple are just crazy on the Great Wall last Sunday. Soooo much horsing around ... stripping one another (the WDK guys with lotsa help from Ly) ... JH and JR took off their clothes and taking pictures of themselves on the Wall and gayed with each other ... and took pictures of it as well.

Now I am 好汉 liaoz!

Photo courtesy of Ly.

Thursday, May 11, 2006

11 April

I had done nothing productive for the whole of this working week. Nothing at work I mean. Not that I am inactive in getting assignments, but there really is nothing for me to do, and anything that is to be done, is greatly beyond my capability already.

At least 3 pple has expressed their 'concern', with replies like, 'you very eng izzit?'

And this week, my '妖姬' colleague received a gigantic bouquet, again.

I don't know if you can call this a wise crack but here it goes;
"结婚就是被动、冲动和感动，有时让人后悔的一个举动."
anyway, it's the fruit of lobo-ness and inspiration.

Monday, May 08, 2006

Labour Day Holidays

My Labour Day Holidays is 9-day long. (羡慕吧? haha)
I packed my bag off to spend the Chinese' golden week at Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Zhouzhuang and finally at Nanjing.

1st May - Monday (Shanghai)
Shanghai is damn hot and humid, compared to Beijing of course. And then Shanghai is bloody packed to the brim ... super xian on the first day loh. Somemore I was still quite shagged from the sleepless night before the trip, by the time we battled it out of the Xiangyang Market and the Bund, I was already quite 'hin' liaoz. So after dinner with GM boy and girl, I gave the night Bund a miss and went back to the hotel to rest.

The sardine-fied Nanjing Pedestrian Walkway.

But I still gotta kancheong for my passage home; I cancelled my Friday flight's air ticket home last minute, so I can add Nanjing to the back of my itineary. I got news from Shilun who was at Nanjing at that time that there was no more decent train tickets back to Beijing liaoz *gasp, so bobian ... I paid full air fare from Nanjing back to Beijing.

The Pudong river bank.

2nd May - Tuesday (Hangzhou)
We left for Hangzhou early in the morning. Even worsed than Shanghai, Hangzhou is jitao super duper packed loh ... 人头is xibei xibei多! The weather is much more cooling than Shanghai but foggy. Haiz ... dunno what 朦胧的美. Reminds me of the Wubai song though. In short, Hangzhou was too packed to be appreciated. I was already damn tired just by squeezing past the crowd from places to places.

难得清静on西湖，Hangzhou.

After settling my air ticket home from Nanjing, I still gotta gaodim my lodgings and my way to Nanjing. Turned out that the hostel I originally wanted to stay in has ran out of beds for me, and the person did not want to promise me any places for the coming Friday night. Panic xia ... gotta mafan Baoling back in Beijing to help me check out on the Fuzimiao hostel which I eventually stayed on for two days while in Nanjing.

3rd May - Weds (Suzhou)
Today we've got a chummy chubby chio guide! Though she's a bit slack compared to the slave driver on Tuesday, but I like her more.

We've got more time on our hands anyway. It was sunny but the winds were still cooling. Suzhou is comparably less packed than Hangzhou, and that made touring more pleasant and memorable than Hangzhou. Personally, I think Suzhou is more beautiful as well.

Me, 寒山峙，Suzhou.

Boat ladies, Suzhou.

At night when we returned from Suzhou, I popped over to the Bund to take photos of the Pudong river bank. And I've finally bought the train tickets to Nanjing. So now I can relax liaoz, I can make my way to Nanjing, I've got my temp place of rest, and I've got my transport back home to Beijing liaoz.

Night shot of the Pudong river bank, Shanghai.

4th May - Thursday (Zhou Zhuang)
Zhou Zhuang is also another crazily packed place. And today's guide is the slackest, although she had the most regurgitated narration.

At night, I went over to Pudong and took photos of the Bund at night. Unfortunately, none of them turned out decent. I could not get the panaromic shot I wanted to do.

Zhouzhuang.

5th May - Friday (Shanghai/Nanjing)
Early this morning Pris and Kev checked out and went shopping while I stayed to meet the Shanghai GIP friends in the afternoon and then scoot off to Nanjing in the evening. Unfortunately, Pris n Kev packed my t-shirt into their luggage. I was left with just one polo tee for the next 3 days. Gotta try to make do with it liaoz ...
After breakfast I went to Xintiandi - Uber cool place! It's like Clarke Quay and Holland Village in one place. Took quite a lot of photos and then went to meet Jingyi, Chunjie and Shilun.

Starbucks, Xintiandi.

Va Bene, Xintiandi

We wanted to go find the HRC in Shanghai, but we first heard it was closed already, and then we called to find out; it was really closed. The world is really a small small place; I actually met Adrian and cal at the MRT station where I wanted to meet Jingyi and gang. Turned out that they were meeting other friends from GIP Shanghai as well haha. So the whole gang of us met up instead. And we had choc/hawaiian/banana prata at a roadside stall and dimsim lunch as well. After lunch we popped over to Shilun's place and he gave me the best thing I would ever need; a city map of Nanjing. Had a good time with them but I wonder why they keep kajiao me with funny questions haa. But well, it was quite an honor to have the whole lot of them seeing me off to Nanjing =P And that starts my 2 day solo to Nanjing ...

The soft seats on the train are quite shiok, much more comfy and more leg space than airplane seats, in my opinion. The girl beside me is quite pretty and pretty 'dao' as well. It rained on the way, from SZ to HZ then to 常州, the ground were visibly wet and whenever there were roads, I could see people carrying umbrellas; a sight I have yet to see in the 3 months I've been in China.

The rain carried on shittily to Nanjing also, and I was down to my last piece of shirt! Jitao xian 1/2 loh ... Somemore, I have no idea where the hostel is, I only have the address .. gotta keep asking for directions in the stupid rain. The receptionist at the hostel was right about the room I asked for; it was pretty lousy as well. It's simply a comforter, a window, a light, and a nail on the wall. But I can't be bothered liaoz ... I was drenched in perspiration and rain .. I just want to bath and sleep and get ready to tour Nanjing the next morning. So I showered in the bath with the faulty heater where the people queueing didn't want to bath in. Fought off the mozzies which talked to me at night and then bit me through the night and then it was Saturday.

My 'cell', Fuzimiao International Youth Hostel, Nanjing.

Me in my 'cell', Fuzimiao International Youth Hostel, Nanjing.

6th May - Saturday (Nanjing)
Woke up earlier than I planned to; the 隔音 was 'superb'. I am beginning to suspect that the room is actually converted from a store room. So i went over to 夫子庙 for breakfast and then tried unsuccessfully for empty rooms nearby. So I gotta stay on for another night and went sightseeing.

中山陵, Sun Yat Sen's Mausoleum, Nanjing.

明孝陵，Nanjing.

I could have finish Nanjing in a day, but I 总得 leave something to do on Sunday right? Nanjing is pretty small (as compared to the megalomaniac cities like Beijing and Shanghai), one end to another is only a 45 minute bus ride. It has also much lesser tourists than the few spots I've been to a few days before.

夫子庙夜景, Nanjing.

View from my Hostel balcony , Nanjing.

And I felt lonely, esp at night. I haven't talked to anybody and nothing meaningful; I only asked for directions and to make purchases.

7th May - Sunday (Nanjing/Beijing)
Went 总统府 and the 大屠杀纪念馆 and furthur convinced me the importance of field trips for history lessons. Shilun is right about Nanjing cabs.

大屠杀纪念馆, Nanjing

总统府, Nanjing.

They are damn expensive. Luckily I only need to take it once to the airport. Then I realised that when I have nothing better to do, I spend money ... And I think of food all the time =P.

Conclusion:
- The Shanghai MRT is very much like SG, so are the commuters -> shitty and inconsiderate haha. Everybody dun wanna move into the centre of the cabin, and people would rather wait for the next train. Beijing is the other way round, everybody wanna move into the centre and would always try to squeeze up the train, pretty civic minded although they are always grumbling.

- In Shanghai, I saw quite a few of old-man-couple-with-young-chio-bu case, something seldom seen in Beijing. Maybe when you have $, you have love. In Beijing, I thought that it really is 真爱是不用外貌和身家的.

- They should ban kids below the age of 12 from golden week tours. Parents who spoil their kids or have kids who demand and shout for attention should never bring their kids out unless they can behave. They should make it a law or something that other people who kanna noisy kids to have the right to knock the kid's head or order the family off the vehicle. Kids that cry should be slapped until they stop crying, then they will fear to cry when they are touring outside hehe *evil grin. Besides, they dun even appreciate the scenery and the architecture of whatever attractions mah ... why waste money, time and effort, end up not enjoying and annoy every other people?

- I enjoyed myself =)

Monday, May 01, 2006

故宫 II

Yesterday's yesterday on Saturday, we (alex and me) were supposed to be working, because of the Labour Day week-long holiday 'compensation'. But we got the day-off instead, coz we finished our work early. Too bad to you all red-eyed bugs, we deserved the day-off. =P

So Alex and I went 故宫 again, to see what the 北大 tour didn't show us. We wanted to see for ourselves, the palace's treasures and the structures we've seen in various television shows like 金枝欲孽, 雍正皇朝 and CCTV's 故宫 documentary. Now we know the 北大 tour couldn't have brought us to see everything anyway. The world's biggest palace is very the big!

We've spent a total of 2 afternoons and we could only finish 2 thirds of the palace. I've now seen the 中轴线 and the 东后宫 area. I gotta go there one more afternoon to finish the western sections of 故宫. Fortunately, this time I managed to see the long long red corridors of the Forbidden City.

I will definitely spend one more afternoon to see 故宫 again. Maybe with Alex and Mr X, when Mr X comes up to Beijing as part of his 'Great China tour'.

Bon Voyage, Mr X!
And Happy Labour Day! (it's 9 days long for me hehe)

I'd be off to Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou and Nanjing for the rest of the week. Will blog abt it when I come back =)

Google Me

You guys can try google 'Beijing MRT line' and you will get my blogger site at the top of Google's search.

Courtesy of Guomao =)

One Night in Beijing