In my previous
post in early July, I scooted over to Shenzhen for a quick buying trip for Fall/Holiday 2012 season for Daddy's newest baby.
I did mention that it was my first trip ever ALONE right?
(I know, so old already, still so dependent on everyone to take care of me...yada yada)
A happy/excited big baby before taking off from Singapore.
It was boring flying 4 hours alone with no one to talk to.
Armed with music from my iphone and a great book from a friend from Sweden, I survived!
I was seated next to this Brunei-ean couple about the age of my mom and dad.
I was kinda scared to excuse myself for the toilet, because I was seated by the window, and its a chore to get "elderly" people to stand up and make way for me.
Hahahah.
I waited til my bladder's about to burst and could hold no longer and excused myself in my nicest, most polite, most poor thing voice to ask to go to the loo to relieve myself.
hahahahha.
Dad arrived with the driver at the airport, and took me to the hotel.
It's quite budget, coz there was something going on, and most hotels in the vicinity around his office is packed. He booked this one on the recommendation of his friend who's got some discount membership thingie.
Cost about RM108 after discount? It works out to be slightly over $20 a night.
But surprisingly, the room deco suits me!
I entered the room and fell in love with the cozy corner.
Especially the lights!
Here's a close up!
sitting in that spot makes me happy!
I know right? I made my mess the minute I enter the room! Book, passport, cardigan, Bags, all strewn on the table.
After making sure that the room is secure and safe, the daddy left and went off!
I decided that I was hungry and went out to get myself some food.
(When I arrived, I was already eyeing at the food stall located downstairs, and everything smelt awesomely delicious)
There was a grilled store (selling sticks of vegetables, meat, and blahblah) and a fried noodle store.
I settled for fried Kway Teow, because it was already midnight, and I needed to be up by 8.30am.. so light meal and its sleep!
My noodles - a combination of Rice noodles, chilli flakes, spring onions and egg + oil is mad delicious!
Rwar! I call it the $1 (RM5) chinese phad thai! Lol.
I took pictures of it in my camera, and i'm sort of lazy to reach for the camera at the moment.
Everything shown here is from the phone.
I ate my supper with my book #foreveralone, showered and went to sleep.
Sleeping alone in a King sized bed is overrated.
I tried to sleep like a starfish, and I couldnt fill up the space much anyway.
Woke up the next day and started off super early.
Outfit coordinates for day #1.
Decided that going monotone is probably as serious as I can be, without looking stuffy and boring!
Decided to throw in a blazer, just in case the China culture is crazy about dressing up or something + I hate being cold.
Cabbed over to the office, and met the team that I would be working with + the cats!
Aiyoh, I have shitty pictures of the cats, because they wouldnt keep still for a family picture, plus it was summer shedding (they look patchy), so I settled for just making friends and playing with them. :)
Post lunch, I spent the entire day selecting outfit after outfit after outfit.
We were on our feet for hours!
It gets tiring after awhile.
Here's the tip of the iceberg..
My favourite person in the team would be Catherine.
Im a bad friend. I have no pictures of anyone, but myself.
Hahaha.
I'm closest to her because we're the same age, and her past experience with Malaysian and Singaporean colleagues allows her to understand my slangs and conversational style pretty well.
Besides we are both kinda direct when we converse, therefore we get along the best!
Yay! Someone understands me!
My conversational mandarin is terrible!
Finally like after much Overtime working, we left for the usual chinese restaurant seafood dinner.
Dinner is crazy.
There was like 20 over dishes for 9 people!
Dad ordered the seafood and meat, and told Catherine (she loves vegetables) to order the veg.
Guess what? She went on an ordering spree and We had like 5 mega plates of vegetables on the table. Goodness!
But Cat and I managed to clear off most of the veg anyway.
I know I'm known for my bottomless pit right?
I finally met a female who eats more than me!
Happy or what?!
Post dinner, KTV time.
Daddy's welcome party for me. -_-"
This place has nice decor. KTV salon (that's literally the name of the place)
The system is rather different.
They rent the karaoke rooms out by packages.
It comes with beer, food, and more food.
I love their pickled dishes served to be paired with beer (I really hate pickled food in SG..)
Even sliced cucumber dipped in soya sauce tasted good.
Hahahah.
We sang our throats hoarse, they all drank like fishes...and I was living on bottled water and coke. #spoilsport
Day#2 outfit coordinates
Sidebow jeans with my baggy slit slant Tee!
I figured its ok to wear anything I like, since everyone seems cool and there really isn't any dresscode (I made up the dress code in my head)
Okay, also the psychotic Daphne in me also over packed.
I had like 4 outfits for 2 days....
I changed out of my jeans into my red india pants before I took off back to Singapore (no pics though..)
I spent my second morning getting lost in the city.
The cab driver couldnt understand where I wanted to go, and brought me just about the entire town.
I was so late, Cat thought something bad happened, as I was 30 mins late!
I arrived to see her rushing out of the building, she was making her way over to look for me at the hotel....
and I feel bad causing her to worry unnecessarily.
The sight seeing cost me an extra dollar (RM5), and a worried friend.
On a seperate note, I mentioned to Cat about my fascination with this Bruce Lee inspired chinese fast food, "real kung fu" restaurant the night before, and the only spare time we have for my touristy meal would be the morning.
She brought me out to their store for imprompt breakfast!
This is like Chinese Macdonalds yo!
Everything on their sign, has the emblem of Bruce Lee.
Reading this sign is quite an Engrish.com moment!
I thought its really funny if you google translate literally.
It will read - becareful knock head, Instead of Caution! Low Beam.
Lol!
Darn sure this is how engrish.com came about with the help of google translate.
Hahahahah!
I chose the vegetable congee and glutinous rice wrapped in lotus leaf combo.
Cat ordered savoury bun with soya milk and mao ordered the sweet bun with soya milk.
Eating buns in the morning is too dry for me. Wehhh
This is how my breakfast looked like!
Looks boring right?
It tasted mediocre. Personally tasted better versions in the local dim sum restaurants in Singapore.
Anyway...
I had to gobble my breakfast really quickly because the driver arrived and was waiting to pick us up.
It was selection and more selection...for work and when it came to lunch time...
We were told that the closest food source in the vicinity of the factory we were working at was.......
Real Kung fu!
They ordered the delivery version, and so I had Oriental mushroom chicken with steam rice for lunch!
Funny. Hahahah!
I cheekily asked Cat what are the odds of us having the same thing for dinner, and she gave me that "No please!" face.
Lol.
This is how my food looks like,
Steamed lettuce with sauce on the left platter, and my steamed mushroom chicken on the right.
Lifted off the top tier, and the bottom contains my steamed rice and some fast food version of Ginseng black chicken broth soup.
Well points for making packed lunch into a wholesome meal.
It tasted decent, but I'll stick to my original statement.
I've tasted better versions of similar dishes.
Definitely a good idea though!
It's quite the rage in China, from what I heard.
Back at work, I got quite bored of the discussion.
I Decided to try on some of the coats I fancied myself, instead of relying on the inhouse models to move around.
Dressing up is always fun!
As I was selecting for autumn and winter, these are terribly climate unfriendly coats for Singapore.
I'm seriously considering keeping a set of the following coats for future use.
But definitely not locally please!
I like this design, but perhaps not the color..
This are the light weight winter jackets, but seriously... it's going to be sweaty if I put them on in Singapore.
I super like this peach colored blazer.
This fuschia colored one is very "me"!
Matches my barbie pink belt, according to Cat.
I like! :D
To sum it, I'm really thankful to be very well taken care of this entire trip.
Claud offered to send me to the airport, ate Macs with me before I checked in.
The Brunei-ean auntie and uncle were nice to me on the plane trip to Shenzhen.
Cat took really good care of me the entire trip when Daddy was busy.
Dad gave me a whole wad of $$ to spend ( I didnt get time to spend at all?!).
It was a good flight back. I had leg space, the cabin crew were attentive. They had to dim the lights as it was night time protocol, but they noticed that I was really absorbed in my book, and kept the lights on for me.
Awww Hearts!
My trip home was with a friendly cab driver who allowed me to munch my Macdonalds breakfast in his car.
and I came home to a happy waggy doggy.
I really couldnt ask for more, except for actual time to spend the money that dad gave me ( I had zero real shopping time this trip), and not forgetting that Cockroach that creeped into my hotel room and disappeared under my bed after my counter assassination plan failed.
I tried smacking the roach with a hardy hotel slipper. IT didnt DIE.
Instead, it ran towards me. Dafaq much?
That was the roach's ultimate revenge to me.
I slept like a paranoid egg yolk.
I pulled and arranged my pillows and blanket to be smacked in the middle of the bed, and curled up.
It felt safer that way.
I guess I have to luck out somewhere, and sleeping with a roach for all the goodness I've received this trip was the deal.
Wehhh.
Ok the end.
