Guangzhou
Woohoo, finally back in Singapore. How I missed here when I was in Guangzhou. But I really enjoyed myself during this 5 days trip. I rested, did lots of shopping, gave my mind a break away from work and things I do not wish to think about, and my heart a time to heal. *smilez*1st day in Guangzhou..Reached our hotel ard 12+ in the afternoon. Checked in, changed clothes, and went 状元坊. That place is something like Far East in sg. It's a popular place for shopping among the youngsters. But being China, it's not as safe as in Sg. I had to put my bag in front of me in case it's slashed by somebody. Money had to be "diversified" into right and left pockets. I put my small change into a plastic bag, haha so that no one will think of stealing there. (taught by cyk) Bought quite a lot of clothes there. 2nd day..Was at 白马. It's a wholesale shopping centre. Retailers go there to purchase clothes in bulk and at a low price. We managed to grab quite many clothes at wholesale price though we only bought 1-2 pieces. Actually can't really remember the sequence of places we went to. Places we went to include 上下九 (it's a really long stretch of road with shops on both sides and vehicles are not allowed in), 北京路 (the street along which my hotel is located at. A very long road), 一德路 (wholesale place for souvenirs and cute cute items), and a few more places which I can't recall the names. (will update when I ask cyk who was the one who did the research beforehand and took me to all these places)Bought nearly 50 new clothes (tops, skirts and dresses), 11 pairs of shoes, and some 零零碎碎 things with the amount of money that only allows me to buy maybe 10-12 dresses in Singapore. Each top is only ard $5-$7 and shoes at the most $8-$9. Super CHEAP!!!
Stayed in 丽都酒店. Was afraid of the cleanliness of the room initially (cox of the country's hygene overall) but was quite satisfied with the state of the room upon check-in. Food was nice but abit on the salty & oily side. Overall, almost everything was cheap there. Shopped and ate like a queen there. If I have a choice, I will definitely choose Guangzhou over Bangkok for shopping for clothes. Came back to Singapore with a checked-in luggage of 18kg heavy, handheld luggage ard 10kg. Was stopped at the point before boarding the place cox the people there suspected our luggage is over the stated 7kg. Usually you will be ushered into the plane by the airline staff who don't give a damn about your luggage. But at 白云机场, we were "invigilated" by the airport staff who stops anyone who seems to be carrying over 7kg hand luggage. Reason? They want us to check in the extra luggage so that they can penalise us for the over-weight luggage!!! cyk and me started quarelling with them. Cox our check-in luggage wasn't overweight (we paid more money for the extra weight before going) and we could have put in more luggage. Thou fact is our handheld luggage was really more than 7kg (some items were fragile and they did'nt have the "fragile" label so we did not check them in), we did not want to pay extra. When they failed to make us pay, they even went as far to say "Even if we let you in, the pilot might stop you!!!" That was really the last straw. Do we look STUPID??? Which pilot in the right mind will get out from his cabin before taking off just to stop 2 passengers from boarding cox their handheld luggage is suspected of overweight????? I told the gal who said that "Ask the pilot talk to me" She scurried away, only to return a few seconds later to say "ok you can go in" And when we were at the entrance, she still refused to let the case rest. She's really determined to extort our money manz. She asked the air-stewardess " They are carrying 3 big luggages, are there any space left in the cabins?" We nearly exploded with anger at the ridiculous thing tt is happening. Cyk immediately told the air-stewardess "we are going to complain to your management about what happened. We were the 1st in queue, the airport staff held us back till the last and now you r trying to tell us there are no more spaces left to put our luggage!!" The air-stewardess quickly took us to the back, squeezed our bags in, and let us sit down. Afterwards, she even came over and asked us what happened, told us to leave behind our contact number and apologized profusely. Just one event like tt really spoiled my excitement at coming back home. But one thing really touched us was that when we were in trouble over the luggage, a couple (malaysians) offered their help in sharing our load so that we are no longer overweight. They came over of their own accord and asked if they could help. One small kind act like tt really make our day. It feels good to know tt when you r in trouble in foreign land, there's still a kind soul out there who's willing to help.Ok, think that's about all I can summarize for my trip. Will upload my photos (which there aren't quite many cox I didn't dare to whip out my camera in case it was stolen) when I find the time & effort to download into my pc. For now, I'm gg to catch my beauty sleep. Good night!
Kisses XOXO Sunday, August 12, 2007
