OH, OH, OCTOBER...

What a month it has been.

Surabaya
Am typing this as I am waiting for the flight back to Singapore, fom Surabaya. Visited Surabaya for the first time, then the following week I am scheduled to fly to Beijing. Then towards the end of the month, I will going back to Jakarta...

Dunno how much I stand to earn, financially, but emotionally, I am beginning to feel the strain of travelling. Whenever I am abroad, my guard is up, always trying to anticipate the worst, or whatever. It's tiring and the weather is shit in Indonesia. Bloody hot and dusty.


14th October 2003, Beijing
The plane I took to Beijing was late by an hour plus, i boarded close to 1.30am. KNN, they say it's bad weather...boh pian lor. VERY IMPORTANT TRAVELLING TIP: Do not take overnte plane rides, especially if you are flying economy...it's even worse if you dun have in-flight entertainment....it's like HELL...I woke up with the right half of my body fucking bloody sore...i was at a window seat and hence sleep against the plane wall, in the tiny confines of the AIR CHINA economy seat...I shudder at the thought of my 8hr plus trip back to Spore on Friday.....it's a day flight but I think I might feel sleepy at certain points of the trip...

Beijing - It's a OK city, the roads are wide, i love the weather, it's like having the aircon turned on all the time, somethng like Genting without the mists and of course, much colder. Imagine sunny weather but constant cold, dry winds of 8 degree celsius blowing straight at ur face, shiok lah.....

the place is moderately clean but nothing beats good ol' S'pore, realised that I am indeed blessed to be able to stay in S'pore, one of the cleanest and safest place in Asia, I won't say the world cos haven't seen other places yet but Asia seems to be quite a safe bet. Generally, the ppl are kinda rude but that is to be expected of Chinamen. But the people I was introduced to were nice to me. I was introduced as a manager...which is abit weird for me and I can't give them my namecard cos I'm sales & marketing exec there (in english AND chinese). They are impressed that I can speak good English and mderately fluent chinese....hehehe

Boo Hoo: I had to share a room with a chinaman. Story goes like this:
Characters in story: boss, boss' brother, lao-chen, xiao-he, other chinamen

Originally, I had a room at a 4-star hotel, booked by boss' brother. Then, maybe to avoid awkward situations and the pressure of making conversations with me, boss and boss' brother told me to join the other chinamen and stay at their hotel. I was fine with this as I dun really mind as long as the hotel is cheaper and not cock, and as usual, staying alone is assumed.

At the hotel, xiao-he paid for me, he said that he is claiming it back from the company...I was willing to pay but since he said that, I just bohchap. So I was happily checked-in, unpacking my barang-barang when suddenly knocking was heard on my door. I opened and it was the big manager, lao-chen. He wanted me to share my room with his 1st officer, xiao-he, so that he can share the other room with his guy friend. Fuck man, wat can i say, i nice guy, i agreed, since the room also not paid by me but the company. In the company's eyes, room-sharing should be widely accepted since it's a cost-saving act. The thought of paying a room by myself flashed thru my mind but I decided against it, a) too much trouble, b) it might give the wrong impression. I thought lao-chen didnt like me, from the looks he gave me at the exhibition when I was skivin and not attending to customers. Anyways the 1st officer is ok lah, not bad lah...he is polite enuff and nice enuff. Just that I can't laze around in my boxers, watch dvddivx movies that I d/l or even the porn that I hidden in this laptop. I also planned to watch some anime or band of brothers if I got too bored but looks like now cannot liao...

Anyways, the exhibition is quite mega, never before have i seen so many heavy earth moving machines congregate at one place. The crowd was big, 90% chinaman, 10% foreigners. Then got exhibition chio bus, Kubota hired some chiobus to give rehearsed explanations thru irritating feedbacking mikes, while skimpily dressed in 8 degree celsius winds.....then there were this stoopid arabian dance organised by Daewoo, lots of flesh. Hitachi came up with a better event, a classier and stylo-mylo dance item, with 3 eurasian looking sluts...power stuff....not forgetting, the common local folk also got a few chio ones attending the exhibition, either following their boyfrens or spouses, or maybe they are interested in buying a bulldozer? Neh, i doubt so...

My company's booth employed a chio bu too....Miss He or He Xiao Jie, an elegant classic china beauty, dressed in a red cheongsam, tight-fitting and the slit went up so high that I almost could see the mouth of her panty hose, and she has the most gorgeous legs I have seen in weeks, *SLURP*. The age old marketing strategy "sex sells" was used to great effect, i could have sworn that half of the ppl was there to ogle at her pretty face and watever that was not covered...

One thing I noticed about pretty Beijing girls...they are tall...almost as tall as me or even taller...and when i say pretty, it's model-like or can-be-actress standard. Hardly see short ones around....maybe that's the Beijing distribution. Well, that's my first impressions on my first day in Beijing, the 1st officer is already sleeping at 9pm, I feeling abit tired too, must be the horrendous plane ride....stay tune for tomorro's report...


15th October 2003, Beijing
Nothing much today. Nothing much happened. Less ppl in the afternoon. Miniskirts, I saw lots of miniskirts today, very nice.

I am trying to work my charms on He Xiao Jie, it's kinda working but I am running out of time, I have only one day left...I think she is kinda impressed with me, becos I can speak English...hahaha...in fact all the china colleagues are very impressed with my English, and also the fact that I learnt how to speak Mandarin thru the TV...quite funny

Anyways, back to He Xiao Jie, she is the only child, her family is quite strict with her and she stays like quite far from the exhibition centre. I think she is under training to become a model or a stewardess...But honestly, it's hard, my halting mandarin and my recurring shyness are stumbling blocks in my search for my SmallDragonGirl.

My boss is going back tomorro, but boss' brother is still around. Dun think I can squeeze some time to sight-see but one of the Shanghai delegate asked me to go see the daily flag-raising ceremony at Tiananmen Square. You have to wake up at 4-plus am in the morning, just to see some chinaman army march around and raise the flag, from about 300m away, standing at some barricade. It might be grand to some but I think it's just plain stoopid to lose precious hours of sleep just to stand in the cold. Maybe next time when I have enuff money to take my parents to China.....That's highly unlikely in the next 5 years, unless I kena 4D or TOTO...I have been trying my luck on 4D and TOTO almost every week, spending not more than a total of $10 on them. I just wished I had a JingJing (Holland V) who can give me ZhenZhi (lucky numbers), then again if I had JingJing, I am contented already.

Next week got long weekend, Deepavali, finally something the ah-nehs have contribute to the society. Then it's Jakarta again. This time I have to attend a customer's wedding. Never attended customer's wedding before but more on that in the near future. Ok, sleep already lah 10 already...


16th October 2003, Bejing
Just came back from a very short sight-seeing trip with 2 other managers, female, friendly and not chio. They also wanted to go see see and it's also my last nite in Beijing so they nice enuff to bring me along. We went to Tiananmen Square, after dinner. Had the famous Roast Duck of Beijing, damn good!

Tiananmen Square is damn power but more about it later. On the way to TS, the road is full of damn grand buildings, most of them luxurious hotels, 4-stars & above. I was in the cab and I was like totally Keenau-ed.... I was like going one "whoa" afte another. Like I mentioned b4, the roads are wide, so damn shiok if can drive there, condiions totally made to "fast n furious" it out....B4 reaching TS, we walked thru a small park, flowers in full bloom, looking damn pretty, with a little river along the path. Damn nice if I had a girl with me, strolling in the cool evening breeze. Beijing is modern and they retained the old styled buildings too....trying to achieve an equal mix, with ALOT of grand buildings, especially government buildings. It's like you see already you have to pick ur jaw off the ground, it's that grand.

Tiananmen is very pomp and official looking, damn big also, GRAND. Chairman Mao is the MAN! He is like a GOD here. Took some photos, tumpang the manager's camera. She said that they will post them to me when developed, they persuaded me not to buy an instant one cos very pricey. Should be damn nice cos I feel the place looks much nicer at nite with the spotlights turned on.
After Tiananmen Square, we proceeded to Beijing's version of our Boat/Clarke Quay. Small pubs, bars littered along this street, with obnoxious ppl standing outside their respective pubs, trying to pull you in. Irritating just like their Spore counterparts. Their pubbing scene is still quite weak. Left early cos she still had to go to the exhibition tomorro morning.

He Xiao Jie's name is He Dan Dan, so sweet, so cute. She started to warm to me, asking me how to say stuff in english, but that was towards the end of the day, so I didn't have much time to capitalise on that opening...and I was also damn shy lah.....I tend to go weak when in presence of uber babes, sigh, we always do....sigh, I give up on myself lah. No progress on the last day and we parted, never to meet again. I super useless lah.

The Beijing locals are very friendly and warm, very talkative, as demonstrated by the taxi drivers that took great pains to explain each building and its history. Apparently we can't stereotype the Chinamen we have in Spore as rude & unhygienic cos not all of them are like that as I have experienced in Beijing. In fact I am thinking of visiting Beijing again, when I have enuff money to bring my parents & sis for a vacation or something...

The hygience is ok, bearable. Ppl spit like nobody's business but that's ok as long as their phlegm dun end up on my shoes...they litter too. In fact, seeing ppl performing these uncouth acts are totally refreshing, even empowering, liberating...hahahahaha. The skies are always clear blue, no clouds, no sign of polution, you just feel so free.

It's amazing how a short sight-seeing trip can change my impression of Beijing, from my first posting till this posting. My regrets are not spending more time to see the sights - there's so much more to see, not buying any souvenirs (foodstuff or other barang-barang) and of course, my biggest regret, Miss He Dan Dan.