Tuesday, December 13, 2005
CHINA!

So I'm back from freezing Beijing to sunny Singapore. Flight was about 6hrs onboard Garuda Indonesia, and for the first time, we had really good airline food. Garuda HAS to have the BEST food everrrrrrr. There's also no time difference between Singapore and Beijing.

Hmm, what can I say man, Beijing totally rocked! I mean where can you get a 8GB Thumbdrive for just over $10? Yupyup, but of course with any place theres always somethings that nowhere else can have better than Singapore.

I'll do a good/bad comparison, starting with..

The food
good: some dishes were spicy and nice, and they have really nice beef there.
amusing: the cutlery used were really small! What I thought was a toothpick holder was actually our teacup. the plates they use were plates that we use to put cups on. you know, those small plates..
uglyyy: Really really REALLY greasy food. Practically soaked in oil. Soup was like oil soup.

The people
good: Some are really friendly, like the aunties at the mosque. They're small in size, very slim, so that makes the clothes on sale very small too. My sister wears sizes S-M in Singapore, but she had to get an L-XL for some top she bought there.
bad: The vendors can get pretty hostile because if they don't agree on the price that you bargain for, they'll chase you out of the shop.
ugly: I don't know about everyone, but this guy we saw on the street just walked up straight to a lamppost and started urinating there. All over the lampost. GROSS. lucky we were in the bus.

Cars/Roads
good: Cars are SOOOOOOOOOOOO FREAKING CHEAP la. with S$2000 I can get a decent Volkswagen saloon.
interesting: They have bicycle lanes on the road! As in really a lane for bicycles only! People cycle basically EVERYWHERE they go, explains why they're so slim. Motorcycles are rare, to reduce pollution.
ugly: Drivers absolutely DO NOT obey any form of traffic rule. They don't give way at zebra crossings, they dont stop at red lights and accident rates in Beijing are pretty high.

Public Toilets
good: Okay no offence, but the only clean toilets I've seen were the ones in my hotel room and the one at the airport. Yup.
uglyyyy: Some toilets have absolutely NO DOORS! That's madness! No way am I going to use a toilet with NO DOORS OR with doors as high as my sister! So I just stuck to NOT drinking water, until I got back to the hotel.

Shopping!
excellent: Cheap, cheap stuff, which you of course, won't get just like that. You have to bargain for it. From RMB600, I got my Timberland down jacket for RMB100. My Mandarin has considerably improved from all the bargaining and stuff. Yeap, its good to know some Mandarin. I learnt mine from watching those Channel8 serials in primary school. heh.
bad: Because of I'm-not-so-sure-what, counterfeit money is EVERYWHERE. So you really have to be careful that the change they give you is indeed real RMB and not fake ones.

Pics are already up, just click here or the pics! at the side!

Beijing was great, I loved the weather, but nowhere feels as good as home! :)

Back in Singapore, its so humid, and reality bites back. Gotto start on module/timetable planning for next semester.

Yikes.