Day 7 - Shell China Trip

Day 7

(FINALLY! 3 Months late!!)

Woke up damn early today to pack my bags.. Which is when I realised that the sun apparently rises by 4am in China.. well at least during that period.

Went for breakfast and took some photos.. :p

Lovely dishes they had there..

Fry the New Year Pudding	Stir Fried Assorted Rice
SMALL CAKE!!!

Ladies & Gentlemen, I give you... SALT!!!

That right.. This here is salt.. It's not sugar.. And please don't tell me otherwise just because you think it looks like sugar. I was there. I had a taste. It's salt.. After 7 days of eating tasteless food, I finally find some good ole salt. 6 days too late albeit.

Anyways. First up today was yet another shopping street. It's a very popular tourist spot so it was damn crowded...

Fancy a spot of tea?


Brilliant signage!

My mom was in one of the shops bargaining for some blouses. After some bargaining, it turned out the lady didn't have any stock and was left with the display piece. Being the crazy oppurtunist my mother was, she attempted to bargain more for that item. Needless to say, it failed(tourist spots can afford to hold out). So my mom left and the lady started cursing and swearing at her. Which is when I gave that woman the dirtiest stare my cold and hard face could give. I was a bit surprised though that the lady didn't seem shocked. I mean, c'mon.. I sometimes freak myself out when I look in the mirror in the morning.

Who says Starbucks is on the decline!?

Starbucks is WESTERN FILTH!!! wahahaha...

Street Hawker

"Road Sweeper's" cart.

I tried to photograph the sites and sounds of the places I'd been. Notice the colours in this country are different. That gray cart for example would've looked more silvery here in Singapore. Not just because of the paint(doh!), but also because of the colour temperature in that region.

Some of the popular tourist dishes

The Chinese and their Koi

A Koi farm in China equals $$$. I swear. The sheer number of these Kois and the way these Chinese flock to these numerous ponds must make the aquarium shop owners love Capitalism.

Singaporeans will understand this

Malay speakers will understand this

Do you know the way to San Hose?

Can you spot Bruce Lee?

Those pictures were from yet another tourist shopping street. I got some stuff from there like this magnetic UFO thingy that allowed you to spin a top in the air. Unfortunately, there was some trouble with this item at the airport.

Our last lunch that we had today was the usual with duck for the appetizer and the usual watermelon desert. Also as usual, there was lots of left over food. This is when I found out that James' wife had bought me a Mickey Mouse belt which was a Godsend cuz my pants was sliding off my arse. The belt wasn't as childish as you might think.. In fact, it was quite cool.. lol

A Trike! Never seen one in Singapore before!

Last view of the "wrong-direction" streets :P

Anyway, we set off for the airport where we saw these real cool buses that had beds in it and all. It was pretty obvious that what the guide had said about the rich and poor gap being very big was true. WE HAD NO BEDS!! WHERE IS THE JUSTICE IN THIS WORLD?!?!

So, at the airport, I was going thru the metal detector right? When this lady called me aside and asked me to open my bag that went thru the X-Ray machine. Apparently that magnetic UFO toy had too strong a magnetic field. Costs us about S$12 in total.. Since I had 2 of them with me.

List of prohibited items (Magnets included! DOH!)

Da Rules

More Rules

Anyways.. The whole of China, airport notwithstanding, is full of people who tend to burp and fart WHILE WALKING and continue walking as if nothing had happened. This reminded me of cows. lol. No offence. In fact, right in the airport, this guy walked right pass me, slowed down, and bent forward a bit, and let loose a semi-dry one. "DAMN!", I said to myself. "Something just ain't right here." lol.. It explains the extremely high ceiling in the airport though.

Futuristic but simplistic, high ceiling.

Then there's their travellator. Which is nice and all, save for two things. (1) It's way way way too narrow for the trolleys. (2) My little sister could walk faster than the damn thing could move.

Space saving bastards! :P
(Apologies for poor framing. Cropped!)

Multi-Directional Trolley (Speedster)

You got that? Passengers only!!

The lights even went out for a bit at the passenger waiting area. Budget sia!!

Passenger waiting... er, in area. hmm..

SAFETY TIPS!

Did someone say, FIRE!?!?

Someone I know did manage to get in with some pretty strong magnets though...

That's a BATTERY on the chain, PEOPLE!

After a fellow Singaporean mumbled "Fucking Inefficient" when he was stopped from entering cuz he didn't have a RED sticker on his ticket, we walked onto the last bit of China we'd be seeing for quite a while(No more Pudong and Pusi.).

The gangway

And on to Singaporean Property!! S.I.A!! MUACKZ!!! (Moment of weakness there. Ignore it)

I saw Badawi(One of Singapore's MPs) on the plane in Business Class. Hmm... There was some holdup with the plane and we left behind schedule.

KrisWorld was different this time. My unfinished movies from the flight in to China not being available anymore coupled with the fact that you were no longer able to fast forward or rewind the video meant you had to sit thru those boring and unending commercials and if you pressed the wrong button.... it meant u started from the beginning again.. But..

Le Remote Control

Le Screen & Remote.. and my hand.

I've got to say. SIA is Number 1 in service. I love their KrisWorld. I love their crews' accents(BIASness there). I love their warm attitude. I even love their safety instruction video, which is hilarious btw. Then there's the fact that they give us warm towels to wipe our face just before the plane takes off.

I dunnoe if any other airlines do this service. But if they do, I think they give the towels after the landing. So that the passengers can clean up after themselves. Which brings me to another point.

SIA has the BEST FUCKING pilots! I swear. All my trips on SIA have had perfect landings. This landing though caught us with some tailwinds but I swear, the pilot realigned the plane seconds before touchdown such that we felt like nothing had happened. Well, actually I felt the plane about to tilt over but what they hey. I could've passed it off as my imagination without being the wiser.

I know that one of my fishing buddies who was a former steward told me about all the hush-hush stuff from SQ about Taiwan and shit.. But who fucking cares?!?!

And as usual, I got a deck of the customary playing cards.

This was when I overheard one of the Shell guys mentioning that the quality of the petrol these days was so high that people only really cared about the prices now.

We arrived at Changi Airport ahead of schedule to a very balmy 29ºC dry wind. We didn't need to worry about crossing the street anymore cuz we were on the right side of the road.. haha

Uncle Simon was there to pick us up and Dad gave him a bottle of Black Label. I don't drink myself cuz I don't like the taste so I wouldn't know how much it meant to him to get that and stuff.. haha.. Which is also when I found out that the flight crew aren't allowed to buy drinks from the DFS..

(Photo Edited. What is missing eh?)

The day was ended in my SPRING mattress and snoring my head off.
Part 7 of 7

Good night guys.

ADDENDUM: Apparently there was a flood in Shanghai the day after we left. God is great ain't He? But then again.. It would have been way fun.. haha.. *Scolds the sadist in me*