Tuesday, July 10, 2007
The Holiday Trip
I can’t believe that I haven’t blogged about this. I’ve been planning to ever since the trip, but never had the time. It had crossed my mind that this topic may come online a bit too late, but I think I owe it to myself, and to Tanya-my (bi*ching) travel friend to have this piece engraved somewhere, even if it is just my blog ;p
So early last month, I went on a holiday trip. It was a semi-budget travel plan, so there were many stopovers in order to get the lowest fare. Let’s see.. in just 6 days, I went to Batam, Singapore, Hongkong, Shenzen, Macau, Bangkok, and KL. There was even this one single day when Tanya and I were in 4 different countries: Hongkong, China (Shenzen), Macau, and Thailand (Bangkok). It was a damn tiring day I tell you… waiting in line for immigration purposes 5 times in one day definitely drains out your energy.. But nevertheless, we still had fun, and of course, still travelled in style (see Bapak, semi-budget travelling can still be done in style!!!)
During the trip, especially when in HK and SZ.. I discovered a few interesting facts that I think everyone who’s going there should know, and developed the ultimate cursing guide (hehe).
OK. So facts first, swearing later
1. In HK, be careful when you bargain in the markets, the stall keepers scream. Yes. Scream. Loud scream, in very bad English, or worse, in Cantonese. I was cursed so many times during my visit to Ladies market for bargaining less than 50% original price. And it’s not like they don’t end up giving it to me at somewhere near the price that I bargained for! At first I thought it’s just the sunglasses shopkeeper (the first one that screamed at me), and the jewellery girl (who took Tanya’s bracelet out of her bag because according to her the price was HKD40 when I can swear she already agreed on HKD30!), but then I looked around and realized that almost every shop lady there was.. screamed at everyone who bargained. So.. if you plan to go shopping in HK, be prepared for their scream, and you should be alright =)
2. Everything that looks delicious has to have pork somewhere in it. There were too many incidents where we go to a restaurant, and everything we point at has pork. Pork ribs, pork chops, sweet and sour pork, pork porridge.. you name it, it’s all pork! So if you’re the cautious type, be prepared to get disappointed.. hahaha…
3. Going to Shenzen makes you creative. Why? Because you’d have to find creative ways to get people to understand what you’re saying, You see.. people in Shenzen do not know how to read and/or write alphabets. This was quite shocking, at least for me. Hey.. I know they don’t speak English, but I had no idea that they are not aware of the writing system called the alphabet! If you come there for shopping, I’d say it would be very wise for you to always set your mobile at its calculator menu, because in SZ, the language of numbers is definitely the most universal language of all!
Now here comes the swearing/cursing part.
During the holiday trip, Tanya and I found sooo many things that we had the need to curse at, like Tanya’s luggage that was jammed just after we arrived in HK, causing her to carry it in a rather inconvenient way.. or climbing the stairs in HK subways that we have to do every night, when we’re already dead tired of walking the whole day long, or the policeman in SZ that almost made us took a bus that was going in an unknown direction to us, or some shopkeepers in SZ who for some reason felt that by touching us, they were more likely to make us shop (yea right!)… and so many more things that we felt it was time to develop The Ultimate Cursing Guide.. to simplify the lives of all curser-wannabes out there. It’s very simple: just add ‘stupid’ and ‘f**king to an object, and voila.. a curse! It applies to just about everything; stupid f**cking luggage, stupid f**king stairs, stupid f**king shopkeepers (we didn’t use it on the policeman though, we forgave him because he was cute haha).. easy, right…? You can use it too if you want, we’re happy to share this guide ;p
Anyway..
Despite the screaming HK shopkeepers and all the cursing, it was a really fun holiday! Nothing like a little time off to uplift your spirit, right?
Can’t wait for the next one! Hmmm.. Where to go ya…. Suggestions, anyone?
So early last month, I went on a holiday trip. It was a semi-budget travel plan, so there were many stopovers in order to get the lowest fare. Let’s see.. in just 6 days, I went to Batam, Singapore, Hongkong, Shenzen, Macau, Bangkok, and KL. There was even this one single day when Tanya and I were in 4 different countries: Hongkong, China (Shenzen), Macau, and Thailand (Bangkok). It was a damn tiring day I tell you… waiting in line for immigration purposes 5 times in one day definitely drains out your energy.. But nevertheless, we still had fun, and of course, still travelled in style (see Bapak, semi-budget travelling can still be done in style!!!)
During the trip, especially when in HK and SZ.. I discovered a few interesting facts that I think everyone who’s going there should know, and developed the ultimate cursing guide (hehe).
OK. So facts first, swearing later
1. In HK, be careful when you bargain in the markets, the stall keepers scream. Yes. Scream. Loud scream, in very bad English, or worse, in Cantonese. I was cursed so many times during my visit to Ladies market for bargaining less than 50% original price. And it’s not like they don’t end up giving it to me at somewhere near the price that I bargained for! At first I thought it’s just the sunglasses shopkeeper (the first one that screamed at me), and the jewellery girl (who took Tanya’s bracelet out of her bag because according to her the price was HKD40 when I can swear she already agreed on HKD30!), but then I looked around and realized that almost every shop lady there was.. screamed at everyone who bargained. So.. if you plan to go shopping in HK, be prepared for their scream, and you should be alright =)
2. Everything that looks delicious has to have pork somewhere in it. There were too many incidents where we go to a restaurant, and everything we point at has pork. Pork ribs, pork chops, sweet and sour pork, pork porridge.. you name it, it’s all pork! So if you’re the cautious type, be prepared to get disappointed.. hahaha…
3. Going to Shenzen makes you creative. Why? Because you’d have to find creative ways to get people to understand what you’re saying, You see.. people in Shenzen do not know how to read and/or write alphabets. This was quite shocking, at least for me. Hey.. I know they don’t speak English, but I had no idea that they are not aware of the writing system called the alphabet! If you come there for shopping, I’d say it would be very wise for you to always set your mobile at its calculator menu, because in SZ, the language of numbers is definitely the most universal language of all!
Now here comes the swearing/cursing part.
During the holiday trip, Tanya and I found sooo many things that we had the need to curse at, like Tanya’s luggage that was jammed just after we arrived in HK, causing her to carry it in a rather inconvenient way.. or climbing the stairs in HK subways that we have to do every night, when we’re already dead tired of walking the whole day long, or the policeman in SZ that almost made us took a bus that was going in an unknown direction to us, or some shopkeepers in SZ who for some reason felt that by touching us, they were more likely to make us shop (yea right!)… and so many more things that we felt it was time to develop The Ultimate Cursing Guide.. to simplify the lives of all curser-wannabes out there. It’s very simple: just add ‘stupid’ and ‘f**king to an object, and voila.. a curse! It applies to just about everything; stupid f**cking luggage, stupid f**king stairs, stupid f**king shopkeepers (we didn’t use it on the policeman though, we forgave him because he was cute haha).. easy, right…? You can use it too if you want, we’re happy to share this guide ;p
Anyway..
Despite the screaming HK shopkeepers and all the cursing, it was a really fun holiday! Nothing like a little time off to uplift your spirit, right?
Can’t wait for the next one! Hmmm.. Where to go ya…. Suggestions, anyone?
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