lost in translation: Guangzhou adventure

September 2009, I had a chance to visit Guangzhou, China. As they say, every trip is memorable, every misadventure is worth remembering and so here's a list of  10 things/experiences in my Guangzhou trip.

1. Looooong trip

Philippines to Guangzhou and back only takes 2 hours air travel. But because we're availing our "free" tickets, we need to transit in KL and connect to Guangzhou in less than an hour! It's like an amazing race challenge, we we're frantically running inside the airport like lunatics. CRK-KUL 4 hours; KUL-CAN 4 hours; so much for a free ticket I guess.

left PH with the sun still up and arrived in GZ by sundown

2. Currency Exchange

Remember to change your peso or money before arriving at the destination or leaving the airport. I have high regard for Ringgit (RM) so instead of bringing USD's, what I brought were RM's  and a decent amount of Hong Kong dollars. I've done that in my trip to Cambodia, HK and Macao, so I thought I won't have a hard time exchanging my RM's but I was wrong. We arrived on a Saturday, banks are closed. Not all banks accept RM's but PHP are accepted widely. Lesson learned!

3. Taxis

We have pleasant experience with taxis except for one. Overall, most of taxi drivers we encountered were honest and disciplined. They issue receipts not only that they give back your change no matter how small it was.

para po!

a. upon arrival we hailed a cab at the airport, showed him the hotel address, he couldn't understand us but he has a 2-way radio. he radioed a translator. how cool is that?! :)

b. on our flight back, Mia left 1 of her bag inside the cab. good thing the cab issues receipt so we were able to get in touch with the taxi operator and the operator immediately called on the radio all the drivers who dropped off a passenger at the airport that came from Guangzhou Hotel. our cab driver was kind enough to go back to the airport to deliver Mia's bag even if it means that he'll pay again a certain amount for entering the airport premises. Mia was giving him money to pay for the fee and as a sign of gratitude for his gesture but he won't accept it. God Bless that man. and I hope more of his kind would grace our streets.

c. we 2 hailed 2 taxis going to Pearl River. the other taxi driver was mean and convinced our driver to take the longer route so that our meter fare would be higher! hmpf! 

4. Language Barrier

Its hard to communicate, not everyone speaks English. Before leaving the hotel, we asked the concierge to write the names of the places we're going to visit to in Chinese character if in case we got lost we can ask around. Its hard to eat too because there's no translation in the menu. Thank God for the pictures!

5. What to see

a. Yue Xin Park - largest park in GZ. You'll see the 5 rams and Zhenhai tower. The 5 rams represent the 5 gods that came to GZ each giving a stem of rice signaling that Guangzhou will never experience famine again.

b. Municipal hall -  There was another park we went to but we don't know the name. It was a nice building with Chinese architecture. We tried to go in but the guard didn't allow us, apparently, it is a government building. Maybe a municipal hall.

c. Guandong Folk Arts Museum - with just a few steps away from the MRT station, we paid a visit to this museum. It was a different kind of museum I would say. At the entrance we were greeted by a building that has intricate stone carvings on top of the roof, they also have open spaces and landscaped courtyards where you can sit, relax and contemplate. 

d. Pearl River - one of the famous tourist attraction here in Guangzhou is Pearl River. There are several bridges along the river, it is lit up at night. And it changes color every minute. Along the sides of the bridge are some restaurants and wedding-needs shop.

beautiful Pearl River at night

6. healthy street foods

What can I say? The street foods they sell are a healthy treat. They have different kinds of fruits. We could not resist to try it out.

papaya, guapple, pineapple, chestnuts, melon, radish, apple

7. English Translations

 I find these English translations on different public transport amusing.

at MTR station

sign inside the taxi

8. Shopping

Aside from Hong Kong, Guangzhou is known as an alternative shopping destination. The very famous of which is Beijing Road Pedestrian Street. There are also districts that specializes in different kinds of goods. I forgot the name but we went to a street that sells watches, then there's a street that sells only shoes (all kinds of shoes) and also a place dedicated in selling wholesale clothes. One tip I can offer is when you haggle be sure you're going to buy that item and don't walk away (you know us Pinoys,  its our style) or else you'll get scolded by the seller. True Story! hehehe! :) 

9. Misadventures

What I love most about traveling is the misadventures I always encounter like...

somewhere in Guangzhou

at last,  a Chinese Temple. 

b. eat something you've never eaten before - tried this grilled tentacles by the street. tentacles of what?! we don't really know, of octopus maybe?!

c. let loose - I try to enjoy everything. They say museums can be boring but with a little imagination you can spice it up.

try imitating the statues 

look for unusual place to take pictures

10. caught in the act!

Last but not the least, this is the most memorable event that happened to us while in Guangzhou. A man was doing these magic tricks at the corner of the street. He was making a stick figure dance, stand up and sit at will. Josh was so fascinated that we was asking the man how much it cost. He was so busy scrutinizing the stick dolls that he didn't notice the vendor was being arrested by police. We called Josh but he was chasing after the vendor, we told him that he just leave the vendor coz the police might arrest him too. But he didn't listen. We don't know what to do, either leave Josh or be arrested too! Finally Josh got what he wanted, apparently he bought 10 pcs of those wooden doll sticks. And he was chasing the vendor to get those stick dolls. And FYI, up to now he don't know to make it dance, let alone move the doll itself. Wahaha!

Everything was happening so fast that I wasn't able to take photos or video of what had happened. Found a similar video in You Tube, its almost the same as the dolls we saw in GZ. Watch and understand why Josh got so fascinated. wahaha! :)

5 stages of grief

Denial 

When I left LTP, they said I'm welcome to go back anytime. In fact after a few months, they  told me to go back and work for them.

Anger

5-6 of our life, we eat, we breathe, we sleep AK and all of a sudden we were given 2 months to prove our worth or else its time to let us go. This has been our life then suddenly they're handing out death sentences.  Have we not proven ourselves for the past 5-6 years? Have we not been loyal, honest and hardworking?

Bargaining

Maybe I've became complacent over the years but I still receive good feedbacks from the guest. Hearing words like, you're very efficient and good! ; you're a star! you're a sweetie, thank you for your help. Though its only verbal I know I've done my job well

Depression

Rejection, one after the other. How much more can I handle?! rejected by the person I love for the longest time, and now  rejection from the job I've always love. 

Acceptance

I think nobody gets immune to rejection. It crushes all your hope at same time it challenges you to step up your game. It's either I mope around, or pull myself together and fight. 

"The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times."  - Paulo Coehlo (The Alchemist)

photowords v.3.0

still hooked with typogram. here's the third version of photowords. phrases are from 28 realizations and photos are taken in Clark, Kuala Lumpur and Boracay. :)

you can check out PHOTOWORDS and PHOTOWORDS V.2.

walk the talk

i said in my previous entry so here's the plan; i'm going to chronicle my quest to lose weight. 

as part my plan to somewhat become healthy, i bought a step counter.  a  sedentary person  average 1,000 to 3,000 steps a day, they say its about 10,000 steps a day to be healthy. so, let's walk! i know i'm far from that goal but every big leap starts from a small step. so this is it! 

by the way this step counter costs 88php only! i don't know if its really accurate like that of an expensive pedometer but what  the heck, this gadget will give me atleast a rough estimate of my average daily step count. it will help me  gauge my progress.

after my 30 minute morning walk, almost 4000 steps! :)

earlier today, i went out for a walk. and it felt good. :) i will try to do it again tomorrow. erase that i will do it again tomorrow. 

i can do this! ftw! 

reliving the bangkok experience

I went to Bangkok,  December last year for a 3 day trip. this was my second time to visit Thailand's capital. I was so excited to go there then a few weeks before my trip he said his infamous goodbye and everything turned upside down for me. I feel sad and I was hesitant to go Bangkok after that. I was afraid that memories will haunt me when I go there again. I'm worried that if I go to the places where we've been to before I might suddenly remember him and I would burst into tears. 

Tickets and hotel were already confirmed and paid for so there's no backing out. My friend doesn't have any clue on what I've been going through that time. I didn't want to tell her. 

16dec2010 we landed safely at Suvarnabhumi airport, this was not the airport we went to before so everything is a brand new experience.

We stayed at Sukhumvit area, a different district from where we stayed. so far, so good. 

On our second day, we went to MBK. this was the first mall we went to back in 2004. memories came flooding in... oh-oh! we where looking for some tamarind candies for pasalubong. and now, we were doing exactly what we were doing 6 years ago! no, i didn't cry. i just remembered him and  i just felt sad. but I've pushed it aside and continue to do what i need to do. this is a business side trip not a trip down memory lane. and besides, i promised myself I'm moving on. 

the rest of the day went by okay though occasional thoughts about him and the Bangkok tour would come up but still it was a good day!

memories didn't bother me the remainder of the tour. everything became bearable even the heat and exhaustion. my source of comfort is this uber yummy pad thai. It melts all the pain away. :) I ate it for 3 days for lunch and dinner. 

pad thai! *drooling*

when it was time to go home, I looked back... and it wasn't bad after all. It was a test on how will I handle the 'goodbye', I think I came through just fine. :)  

I'm glad I went to Bangkok. all the memories old and new, whomever I'm with is still a happy memory I'll cherish. I'm pretty sure I'll be visiting Bangkok soon. 

coffee break

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Earlier today I accompanied "Jericho" (my twin brother from another mother) in his job interview. He'll be thrilled to know that I called him Jericho,. eewww! wahaha! Anyway, he almost convinced me to apply for the job too but something's holding me back. I have to wait for a few months before I can decide if  I'm going to look for a new job or not. There are alot of applicants today. I pity the other guy because he got rejected due to insufficient years of work experience. The applicants today kinda remind me of myself 5 years ago when I was submitting resumes left and right in hopes of finding a job abroad.

This is a common sight if we go and visit employment agencies. The place is almost always packed. Nowadays, right after college everyone wants to leave. Nobody wants to be left behind but who can blame them they just want a better future for their family. Circumstance led them to chose those path. The government should do something about this problem. Create jobs and give the people a decent pay so noone will be tempted to leave or resort to corruption or other wrongful deeds. Government should do something about this rapid brain. We are rearing a parent less generation. And we all know that families are important in honing a person's well being. I just hope in the future everything will turn out all right.

Back to my story... Unfortunately, my twin brother didn't make it. Half of me feels relieved that he'll be staying with us longer, another half feels sad seeing him lose hope.

Nothing but tall mocha frap could cheer him up. And so to Starbucks we went, sat and drank our fraps without talking. Stayed there for 2 hours or so till he was ready...ready for another challenge life has to offer.

photowords v.2

Well, as I said, I'm hooked with typogram. Here are second set of my photowords. Photos are taken from my Bohol and Guangzhou trip and a wedding celebration. Texts are phrases from my poems; blur, still-frames and daydreamer II.