Hainan Trip Part 2

part 2 of my trip report. a long crappy one also....

DAY 4

We checked out of our hotel after the same crappy breakfast. We ordered some dim sum ourselves and they are cheap cheap cheap!!! But it is not nice at all. We visited ‘lu hui tou’ park. There is this story on the how the original same for sanya, called lu cheng, came and I dun think I wanna go on here. The park is located on top of a mountain and we can see the whole sanya city from there. Nothing much though, just another statue. I remembered this place when I went hainan when I was 10. not much change compared to the other tourist sites.

The lu hui tou park

Us with a bird eye view of sanya

Next, we visited ya long bay, where most of the nice nice 5 stars resort is located. There is one activity, which is going onto this ship where part of it is underwater, and we are able to see the corals and fish. The picture made it look so marvelous, but actually it was crap! I feel so cheated. We first boarded a small ship to the big ship with the underwater thing. Again, it was squeezing and pushing those mainlanders tourists. Even those people manning the ship were dulan. There were just there screaming and shouting at them. Hard to deal with them sia…. Then when we went onto the big ship and went to the cabin below, all we saw were some small fish in some unclear water. Attached is the picture.

What crap…. All of us feel cheated. Even the mainlanders. can hear them saying "这都是骗人的呀!"

The boat that we are going to board to view the underwater.

The Crappy scene we saw. Totally diff. from their advertisement.

After lunch, we went to this cultural village, showing us the culture and life of the tribal people. One interesting thing was tat the girls in the tribe actually had tattoos on their body, including the face. Imagine how painful tat was. And of course spending some money on cheap trills. They have this hut inside with all the different drums and gong and we can just go in can bang all we want. At a price of $10. what a smart way to earn money. Side track a bit: another money making method. We went to this factory selling coffee products and we had to walk through the showroom before we can exit the place. They place their shelf and products in a way such tat each and every one had to walk through the whole winding route lined with their products. And for example, if one see this product, he decide not to buy, then while walking down the route, there is this same product there also. And it is also repeated again and again down the route. It is just one way to psycho you again and again to buy their products. Ok, back to the trip. After the cultural village, we visit another village called ‘ya zhou feng qing chun’. Nothing much to see there also, just a place where different cultures of asia are being demonstrated. And there is this ugly merlion there…..

The merlion that represented singapore in the park. Look at the eyes, the merlion looks like it has no life...

we also visit their botanical garden, which is more crappy, before we went back to my mum’s hometown village, at qiong hai city. It was alreadly dark when we reach there ( at 6.30, it is alreadly pitch dark there). Of coruse, as usual, got firecrackers to welcome us. Got 9 of us, so me, mum and dad got to squeeze into a small room adjacent to the main house. Here, a view of our ‘hotel room’.

DAY 5 6 7 (Kampung Life)

Woke up the next morning feeling fresh. The place wasn’t as bad. Still the same to the one when I went back 9 yrs ago. But now got water heater liao. Then got toilet bowl and flush. So damm good liao loh! Nothing much to do in kampung. Just walk around the village, to the ‘mama shop’, walk to the farming grounds. Sleep eat, typical ‘grow fat ‘ life. Too bad now dun have chicks for me to play with. Only two geese which always stick together. The shiok thing was tat we were playing with fireworks almost everynight. Haha. Tat is so bloody fun. Got those fireworks tat shoot up into the sky, got some tat spin on the ground, many different types lah. Just ‘bomb’ ‘bomb’ ‘bomb’ the whole night. We also visited the qiong hai city and jia ji city. Qiong hai city is so damm modern. so different from 9 yrs ago. Most of the people can speak mandrain. still remember when iwent there 9 yrs ago, can hardly find one who can speak mandrain. they all speak hainanese, and my hainansese is limited. There is also international brands there like KFC and Do & Me there. Even got some well know brand like S&K, Baleno, Converse etc… too bad most of the clothes there are winter clothes, so didn’t buy anything. Went to their market also, and the variety of vegetables they sell there is just so little. So for like 3 days, we were eating almost the same vegetables. And not to mention we got ‘tok’ by the fishmonger there. We bought a fish at a certain price (I forgot how much) and we thought it is very cheap already, then we went back, my relatives told us tat it actually cost much less…. And while having dinner at a restaurant, we also almost paid more than what we ask for…. Think they seldom see foreigners, and when they see, they will surely ‘lao yi bi’.

Their plantation. Growing vegetables.

Right outside our house. Can see the hammok there? sleeping there is so damm shiok. the only thing lacking is the sea and beach..

View of the house. We have our meals at the table there and it is also our mahjong table.

The Fireworks. Like a small scale NDP. The villagers say during CNY, the fireworks can go on the whole night throughout the whole village.

Firecrackers blasting away!

Day 8
Last day in hainan. Alreadly got used to life there, starting to dread going back. After lunch, we set off for the airport. The journey took us 1 hr plus and my neck was hurting after sleeping on the van, where there is no place to rest my head and my head was spinning around. Flew from haikou to Guangzhou and the troublesome thing is tat we have to re check-in our bags at Guangzhou. So after reaching Guangzhou, and a long long walk to baggage claim (our plane was parked right at the end of the pier), took the bags, and then another long walk hunting for the international check in. the airport is just too bloody big!!!! After check in, time to go through immigration. What was irritating was tat there are lots of forms to fill up before customs, what health declaration, customs declaration, departure forms etc etc. plus only me, my 2 cousins know English well enough to fill up the forms, so 3 of us down there were like writing writing writing….. then again it is another long walk to the gate. Could have walked dunno how many km liao. On board, I was like damm hungry and waiting eagerly for the food cart to come out, only to have really crappy food. Worse that the Singapore – Guangzhou leg. And the flight attendant don’t go round serving some beverages constantly, like on SQ, and so my lips were so bloody dry. And to make things worse, the seat was like freaking cramp and with the guy in front of me reclining his seat, there is less seat. I finished reading my ‘dou yu’ and then tried to sleep. The plane back to SIN was full of turbulance, and I couldn’t even have a nice sleep. Was so glad (for the first time) tat we landed in Singapore and walked out of the plane. But what else could I expect when I pay such cheapo fees….

And so this is the end of the trip report. Wow, like writing a 5000 word essay. Alreadly tried to summarise a bit, but then…. Heck care lah. Seldom have such long entry anyway… Life there is really quite good. the simplicity no life. no complicated expensive technology gadgets there. Their kids grow up in a way so different from us singaporeans. We singaporeans are really considered damm lucky. dunno why we are still whining away ( i admit at times i do whine abt too). China is really much more developed nowadays and such a good place to visit. Next stop, i hope to visit Beijing!! definitely different from last time....

I love holidays so much!!!!!!!!!!

Hainan Trip Part 1

I am back! in fact i am back on xmas eve. counting down to xmas at the airport. surprisingly, there isn't any xmas mood at the airport while the some parts of singapore are partying like crazy. or perhaps i was too shagged to know abt any party going on.

And then yest was my duty day. After 1 day at home, got to go back to camp again… sianz X 100!!!!!!

hainan is a not bad place to be. In fact, this is my 2nd trip there. The last time I went was when I was 10. in 1996. i love the weather there! not too cold, but not hot also. It is just like in an aircon environment. so cooling. a jacket on myself and i feel just so comfortable. Plus all the nice scenery. ok, a day by day recrap....

Day 1
nothing much to talk abt. spent the whole day travelling there. flew to guangzhou, then another flight to haikou. Flew china southern airlines. Crappy airline. Cramp seats on a B757. crappy service. Crappy food. And the flight attendant speak atrocious English!!! Can’t understand a single shit of English they are talking. Reached Guangzhou after 3hr plus. guangzhou airport is just so damm gorgeous, but also damm bloody big!!! have to walk quite a distance from the gate to the customs, plus for a transfer flight, still have to go retrive our luggage and then deposit it again. and there are also quick to suck you of your money. after depositing our luggage, the check in staff told me, for each luggage, there is 10 yuan baggage insurance fee for each bag. Ok, so there goes $70 for us ( 9 ppl traveling). Then they ask if you want to arrange for a transport to go to the domestic terminal (it is quite a distance away). Considering tat my grandma can’t walk well, we said ok. Then it is another $10 each. So there goes $90. for a 5 min trip on a golf cart. Some sort of cheap trill I told my cousin. Never sat on one before. After a long wait at the airport, we finally got to board the plane and it was OMG! Before they announce we can board, those mainlanders ( I don’t mean any insult here) are all queueing up. When boarding starts, they just squeeze and push their way through. There is no such thing as ‘queueing’. So having no choice, we got to push also. Dun’t understand why they are in an eager to get on. It is not free seating. And somemore after landing, before the plane stop at the gate, some already stood up and get their luggage, wanting to leave the plane when the door is not even open. The whole lot of us just sat still comfortably until most of them got off before we walk out. This is not my only encounter with such unruly people in the trip. Will mention again later. It was already bloody late when we touched down, so we boarded the bus and went to the hotel. One thing shiok was tat the whole tour grp only had 9 of us (all my family), and the bus was like 20 plus seater. Haha. Lots of place to stretch out.

The golf cart at the airport

Day 2

Woke up feeling damm sleepy. Expecting a good breakfast. Those international breakfast buffet tat consist of both western and Chinese meal. But guess what, breakfast served at their hotels is crap. Just some super oily noodle, so bun, porridge and a soya bean milk tat is yucky! After eating so tat I can survive the morning, we set off on our tour. We went to visit a place called ‘ping yi pao tai’ ( I think). There is nothing much except for some cannon that were mounted there many yrs ago. Surprisingly, there isn’t any other visitors in the park. Then we visited ‘wu gong ci’(五公祠). It is a temple built to worship 5 officals from the past who were banished to hainan. In the past, as hainan was at the extreme south, it was a place where people thought to be very desolated, and so officals who made mistake were being banished there. One of the more known was su dong po (or what we call sotong ball, I still remember chen lao shi told us this during chi lesson in sec 2).

A statue of 'sotong ball' at wu gong ci

After tat, we proceed to BOAO forum site (博鳌亚洲会场). The nice thing abt tat place was the breeze. As the site is just located beside the sea, the breeze is just so cooling and it is really a nice place to have a convention. We also got a chance to take a boat along the wan quan river (万泉河). We eventually stopped on a stretch of beach. this stretch of the beach is tat one length of the beach is the river, while the other side is the sea. The sand on the beach resembles tat of sentosa’s so much tat I was wondering, is the beach fake like sentosa? after visiting BOAO, we boarded the coach again and we traveled all the way to sanya.

The meeting hall for the BOAO forum. How nice it is to have a meeting in open space.

Photo taken at the beach near BOAO venue. So bloody windy, can see the jacket zipped up all the way

Day 3
Sanya is located at the southern end of the hainan island, where it is famous for it beaches. Also recently, miss world 2005 was held in sanya. If I had gone on the trip one week earlier, I may get the chance to see the candidates. Oh, I still remember miss korea !!! our first visit was to the nan shan temple (南山寺) , where the tallest guan yin statue in the world is located. This place is more of a tourist attraction than a temple, and like every other tourist attraction, they are out to milk the tourist money. After paying for the admission ticket, visitors are ‘advised’ to buy a tram ticket, which will bring you around the place as the whole place is bloody big. One good thing is tat, one tram ticket is enough, and you can get on and off at any of the sites in the temple. Of course, have to rush for seats (free seating leh)…. One of the place we went to, had a guide bringing us around. It is like a sort of museum, but with exhibits related to Buddhism. The guide will ask you to peform activities. Like touching the various parts of the dragon for different luck, setting a lotus lamp for your family, wishing for good luck etc, and all these cost money. And they phase it in a nice way, calling it ‘money for a good deed’ (some sort like this). And when you are in there, one will obviously pay for it. It’s not nice to be so ‘giam’ after the guide used up so much saliva to bring you around and showing you the various thing. Just hope the money indeed help us ‘do good deed’. Lunch was special. We ate vegetarian food. It is buffet style and the plate we used is those type of metal tray with a few holes in it. Those type the army used in the past. But the vege food was great. An irony to tat was tat after lunch, outside the restaurant, we saw someone sending food to the kitchen, and guess what is saw? Pig trotters!! Next we visited the guan yin statue itself. Some parts of the construction has not been completed and we can only view the guan yin statue from a certain spot.

Me, my cousin and guan yin

A postcard like shot of guan yin

Next, we went to ‘天涯海角' . In the past, people thought that spot in hainan was the end of the world and hence the term. It is a beach with stones that has the word ‘天涯' and ‘海角' on it. Plus a whole stretch of stalls selling all sorts of things. Of course my mum and my cousin will go crazy and buy this buy tat. Ok, they didn’t buy a lot lah. After dinner, we were back in the hotel room. There is nothing much to do at night. Our hotel is located at some ulu spot and there ain’t any shopping around, plus it isn’t very safe to travel further. So I just watched crappy tv program. Got one show is the continuation of ‘涩女郎' , called ‘摇摆女郎'. Quite a funny show actually. Was surprised tat there is ‘冲上云霄' showing on one of the channels. I didn’t stay up to watch tat…

'tian ya'

'hai jiao'

Ok. I should stop here for the moment least my window go crazy again and i have to rewrite all the above. Part 2 coming up!

yeah. gone through a shitty week and i am going on a week leave. woo hoo!!!! have been so bloody busy this week, with lots of things to settle. sometimes, wonder y they bother to train me as a medic. have been doing the job of a medic, clerk, whatsoever.....

gave my site another revamp. dunno why the previous one cock up. just a simple layout will do. i know nuts abt html, so can't design those fancy fancy site.

nothing much to update. will update when i come back from china. bye!

yeah! finally left with 1 yr to my ORD!!! but 1 yr is still rather long. but time will pass by quickly, and soon i will be out!!!! days are starting to get more bearable for me. perhaps i am getting much used to the job i am doing. and maybe also i am starting to heck care some stuff, dun feel tat pressurised to do things liao. argh!! can't wait for tat day to come.

and 5 more work days before i go on leave for this yr. no more duties for me till i come back from overseas. tmr there is one though. but is freaking slack since it is a sunday.

i am lazy now. shall write more tmr in camp. oh btw, i gave the site a revamp and then i realise tat the layout is the same as ah tee's blog!!!!!!!!!!!!

shit

yes. 2 more weeks before i go on leave. not clearing leave though. just taking a small break from work. ppl may think that working in the med ctr is so damm slack. but when there are responsibilities, one can really have a headache. i am having a big headache now and now that mo is back, hope i can sort the things out with him, and hopefully push some of my jobs to other medics. and got new bird join us liao. quite hardworking though, just like me when i first came in. it seems like the trend tat after some time, people will just begin to slack and slowly bochup things. i think i am going into that stage liao. at the end of the day, i dun really care if the dispensary is messy or not. just lock out and then f off from the place. when no govt around, i also never do work. just keep telling myself, just push it to tmr lah. perhaps i am able to do tat now cause i cleared up some of the 'shit' left by the previous IC. i try ( i said try) not to throw shit to person taking over me next time. but apparently, some of the shit i just dunno how to clear or should i say i dun bother to find out how to clear those shit. ok. i should be more responsible. aiya. F*ck. enough of shit. tmr still have cover (on a bloody sat afternoon). more shit coming.....

i am now watching 金枝欲孽. wow. just can't believe how scheming some people can be. or shld i say i haven seen the real world yet. basically, life is abt surviving. to survive, one have to kill. i watched only 10 episodes and i am like hooked onto the show. it's like playing mind games with each other. and the show also has quite a lot of ren shen da dao li. a definite must watch drama. better than the crappy tong xin yuan. wah piang. the plot is really getting more and more ridiculous.

and oh. i almost forgot to mention abt this thing. someone sent me a program called ORD countdown timer. u just input your ORD date, your number of leave, then key in all the public holidays and it can generate how many working days you have. I am left with 369 absoulte days (not counting holidays n weekend) but for working days, i am left with 265. of course never count the weekend duties lah. but seeing the number dropping day by day makes me feel more shiok. almost one yr liao. one more yr to go!!!!