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| Handing over of flag from Japan to Myanmar |
I was actually expecting a Chinese friend of mine the previous night. He got in late to Haiyang and unfortunately for me, my splitting migraine had me crashing out for the night earlier so I didn't wait up for Heawin.
Heawin hails from Guangzhou and our friendship goes back 8 years. We first met when we worked on the Mild Seven Outdoor Quest in Sabah. Seeing that I missed him the night before, I made plans to meet him for breakfast before keeping to the day's summit schedules. Unfortunately, the timing didn't go as planned either. Being the last day of the summit and all, our mounting frustration with our translator was about to peak. None of the schedules for the day was kept to and nobody, literally nobody knew what was going on. And then there seemed to have surprise meetings which are compulsory for us to attend without prior information. Basically, it was one entire pot of mass confusion. Between my anticipation of meeting with Heawin, the screwed up itinerary and making sure we didn't embarass Malaysia further by missing out important activities or being seen as "not giving face" to Chinese government, my migraine creeped back. Aaargh.
I haven't met Heawin in the last 8 years and we had lots of catching up to do. Just as fate would have it, I bumped into him at the lift - he was coming down and I was going up! What were the odds of that really, given that the hotel was fully booked??! A quick hello indeed and I had to rush into the lift. Hmmm... really not how I would've expected to greet an old friend. No hugs. Haha. I wasn't sure if I should be mindful of "cultural differences" here or do I do my usual "banana-world" Western-style hugs when I see an old friend *smile* Anyway.... I had more things to worry about like "fishes" who couldn't get a proper time schedule for us.
The first activity for the day was our travels up to Zhaohu Mountain Park. The weather wasn't really on our side. Over-cast, drizzling... but nevertheless, we went on the bus and it was a police-convoy all the way, even with police stopping traffic. Ok, how grand is that? :) The Zhaohu Mountain lies 549.7m above sea levels and on there is a Buddhist temple is situated at one of the hills. The temple is also a deep meditation institution. The day being cloudy and over-casted actually created a very surreal and peaceful atmosphere. I had felt a moment of deep peace, in both my mind and my heart when I was at the temple and I prayed. Hmmm... again, it was one of those "strange but good" things that I experienced in my China trip.
After the trip to the mountains, we were ushered back to lunch. Instead of lunch at the hotel, we met up with Heawin who took us to Jade Palace Restaurant at the Sand Sculpture Park for lunch. It was good, doing a quick catch-up with him.
The afternoon, was a compulsory meeting at the Shineland Yacht Club so after lunch, Heawin dropped us off. Now, nobody told us it was a media event and guess what these two silly Malaysians were dressed in? Travel gear since we just only came back from the mountains :P OMG indeed when we walked into the room. Ms. President was obviously fuming. I was luckier. I didn't have to sit at the head table. She did. Hahaha! But still, I took out my sweater to cover up my "touristy" T-shirt and tried to keep a low-profile. But when our translator showed up, he was well-dressed in formal attire and I asked him - why weren't we informed that it was a formal meeting? Because earlier on, they only said it was an informal tourism presentation. OMG. OMG. OMG. Even in her speech, the Mayor said "I'm sorry for over-dressing, but it is only because I have another important meeting to attend." Either she caught sight of Leticia's dressing and tried to let us down easy or she was being honest. We will never know. But we survived. In fact, people wanted our autographs too. Again, strange and bizzare. Autograph? Oh, because our faces were in the Official Book for the 14th Asian Bridal Summit.
After the media presentation, we went back to the hotel and met up with Heawin again. I felt bad because he traveled all the way and I didn't have a correct schedule to keep to. Anyway, we went to the beach for ice cream and chatted about events and weddings in our respective countries before we had to go back to get dressed for the Closing Ceremony. This time, Leticia and I were gonna make sure we looked the best for Malaysia. Haha.
Due to inclement weather, the closing ceremony was held indoors although a set was set-up for outdoors. At the Gold Coast Hotel again, when we arrived, nobody seemed to know what was going on and what to do with us. We spoke to fishes who insisted on speaking to us in Japanese and we were just plain frustrated. Finally, they told us that the President had to sit at the Judging Table. Funny, funny... there was a Top Model Contest taking place during the Closing Ceremony and they were to be judged. The judging form was in Chinese. My President couldn't read a single word. I was happy to be at my delegation seat. *laughs*. And last-minute like, I was told she had to present prizes to the winners of the contest. So I related the information to her and told her I would signal her when she needs to go on stage since she couldn't understand Chinese and nobody did any translation of any sort! OMG..... ! Another lost in translation moment happened when a simple question of "what time does it all end?" was misintepreted as "we want to leave now!". When the translator went to inform my President that she can now leave, OMG, was she fuming mad. I mean, how the hell do you expect her, sandwiched in between all the Chinese government officials to first of all walk out of there? And second of all, how bad would it look for Malaysia? Whether we liked it or not, we represented the country and we didn't want to be known as the delegation who misbehaved! I decided to look up the organizers right there and then and explained the entire situation to them. The last thing we wanted was to let the Chinese team think that we were being so bloody difficult. We weren't! OMG indeed. Luckily, they understand. They also understood that our assigned delegation's person-in-charge was more interested in drooling over swimsuits than to ensure that we were well looked after.
I certainly wish them all the best in organizing the Asian Beach Games next year. But I'm pretty sure China will prevail in organizing a world-class event.
After the whole thing ended, we met up with Heawin for supper. The only thing available in Haiyang at that time was their local BBQ shops. Cool. Heawin is in the event business as well and when we complained to him all about the mass confusion that happened everyday, he was shaking his head in disbelief.
Yet another long day and finally, the summit has come to an end. It was a good learning experience for us and of course a great networking event as well, expanding our horizons and wings into China, Korea, Japan, Myanmar. Not to mention, making new friends as well. Sometimes, we never know when these contacts would come in handy anyway. Agree?
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Day 5 : 29th August 2011 | My Short Travels
So, today, was goodbyes. Even though we arranged for transportation for Leticia the day before, they still managed to screw-up the plan. The bus to airport came late. Anyway, after checking and making sure that they are getting it right and she was going to be at the airport on time, I ditched her :) Heawin, my tour guide for the day was going to take me to Qingdao!
The 2-hour ride from Haiyang to Qingdao gave Heawin and I an opportunity to catch up and pick-up from where we left off. This is what great friendships are all about. The gaps in between does not make a difference actually. Before you know it, we were catching up and joking and laughing - me in my broken Chinese and him in his broken English.
First on the itinerary was for me to see the World's Longest Bridge - the Jiazhou Bridge which spans a distance of 42km and links Qingdao to an offshore island called Huangdao. The only thing I could think about was the fact that we could do a full marathon from end-to-end on the bridge. That would be super. I told Heawin to plan the race. *laugh* Ok, honestly, I was impressed by the bridge. 4-lanes on both sides. And with the mist and over-casted skies, it looked like a highway to heaven. Once again, China Boleh, huh? When we exited at Huangdao, my brilliant tour guide got lost for awhile before we found our way to the ferry terminal to take the ferry back to Qingdao. And my tour guide also proved to me why Haiyang cannot be the largest city in China. *laughs* I learnt that one should not argue with a local :P
He put me up at this boutique hotel called The Castle. I can tell, this hotel was specifically made for weddings when the description said "The Green Castle and Red Castle are linked together like a couple standing hand-in-hand". It was a really cutesy, art-decor hotel and definitely looks like a place for a lot of the Chinese to do their pre-wedding shoot. They also have a wedding field for garden ceremonies. At the conference, I learnt that the Chinese people are also westernizing their wedding customs.
Anyway, the scenery from the hotel was beautiful. It was atop a small hill and overlooks most of Qingdao's skylines. Qingdao was an ex-German base in 1899 when the Imperial German Concession was signed. Now, the colonial architecture of the town is what is left of this part of history in Qingdao. But Qingdao was full of people. Tourists, both from abroad and locally. But to my surprise, I only saw 3 gwai los for the 2 days that I was in Qingdao. I had expected this beach side resort to have more. But then again, the International Beer Festival just ended and perhaps, they had all left in their drunken stupor. Too bad, I missed that too. It would've been great to see it.
After checking-in, we went for lunch. Knowing my tastebud for spicy food, he took me for home-cooked Sichuan food. Ok, the setback about doing a documentation of my China travels is that - I am unable to put down the names of the shops I've eaten at. Why? Because me no read Chinese! But this place, was really good food. It was home-cooked style and we had a Chicken, Lamb, Soup and Cabbage dish - all SPICY :) The lamb was apparently the signature dish and has been showcased in the media too. So, good find, Heawin! This was arguably the best full meal that I had since arriving in China :)
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| Heawin and I at lunch at a little hole-in-the-wall shop :) |
We spent most of the afternoon chatting away and before you know it, it was time for our goodbyes too. Again, we said bye-bye in the form of a formal handshake. What?? No goodbye hugs? *laughs*. The handshake seems a bit strange to me. *grin*. Anyway, thanks for your hospitality, Heawin :)
Heawin dropped me off at the hotel and thus began my solo adventure in Qingdao. For the first time in a long time, I was traveling alone. I had actually missed this - traveling solo.
Because I didn't have much time, I decided to only look in at a few places and therefore, I took a walk out to get to Zhanqiao Bridge - the iconic symbol of Qingdao. This was near to the hotel, but me being terrible with maps, I got lost for a good one hour! I ended up asking strangers on the streets for directions. Again, call me lucky, but nice people directed me. One of them, when he found out I wasn't local, he said "Welcome to China." And so, in a country supposedly full of obnoxious and selfish Chinese, again, I was blessed with meeting only the nicer ones :)
I finally made it to Zhanqiao and it was so crowded! I like Chinese architecture, which was the building that was at the end of the bridge. More so than the colonial ones. It's quite funny because despite my very westernized ways, I do like a lot of things Chinese. Anyhoo.. from Zhanqiao, I made my way to the Taidong Bu Xing Jie - the "world famous pedestrian walkway" where supposedly, is a great place for night market shopping and also to see the wall mural paintings. OMG, when I arrived - it was "people mountain, people sea" but because the place was so crazy big and spacious, you don't get that claustrophobic feeling. I was actually in awe of the wall murals. They were really good and I was wondering how did they get it done and how long it must've taken them to do it.
The night market, though was only 3 lanes and the rest were all branded fashion and upscale shops. The night market was rather uninspiring. I was looking for a bag and a magnet for my Mom and found none. What? No souvenir magnets?? Oh no. I spent 2 hours here at Taidong and didn't manage to walk the whole place. It was too overwhelmingly large for me. I ended up having a look inside Walmart. Hey, after all, I'm in civilization as compared to PP, so why not, right? Oh... I also managed to sample some "Smelly Tofu". Hahaha. I smelt those delicious snacks from miles away and had to get them. But it was again, strange. They serve it in a type of broth here. Still tasted good anyway :)
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| The impressive wall murals at Taidong Buxingjie that I'm in awe of |
After the walk and all, I wanted to go look for dumplings to eat. Wow, Qingdao was so huge in itself and not everywhere was within walking distances. But - the taxi drivers were nice. Except, one of them scolded me for not being able to read Chinese. He, was apparently too old to see the signboards clearly. So, I said even if he scolded me, I still cannot read. So how? He laughed at me after that! *slaps forehead*. Anyway, I finally found one local looking shop and had my Jiaozhi before heading back to the hotel and calling it a night.
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Day 6 : 30th August 2011 | Last Day in China
I woke up bright and early and went out for a walk around the hotel before having my breakfast. Now, breakfast was rich indeed as compared to breakfast for the last few days. I decided to skip the Western breakfast and had Jiaozhi (again!), porridge and Siew Loong Bao for breakfast.
Then, I made my way to the Qingdao Beer Musuem. If not because MOH wanted a Tsingtao Beer T-shirt and I couldn't find any at the night market last night, I wouldn't have gone. I thought I'd make it quick and just give it a short look around. My main objective was really to get the souvenir! Hopefully, a magnet for my Mom too. I ended up touring the place for an hour plus. Yes, I did. It was interesting. Plus, they gave visitors free beer. So, 9am in the morning, I had a small cup of beer. And I don't even drink beer!! Finally, I found the T-shirts and bless me, I found magnets too. Woohoooo!!!
Next, I went to the Badaguan Scenic Area and last day for me to take in the sea breeze and ocean. Badaguan Scenic area houses a lot of the colonial buildings and also upscale resorts. Qingdao is not flat and it's a lot of uphill, downhill - so perfect for running :) They should do an international triathlon here!
After enjoying my ice cream by the beach, I headed back to the hotel. It was time to leave and time to say goodbye to Qingdao China. I wasn't particularly looking forward to the 8-hour traveling back to PP from Qingdao. If only the Harry Potter portkey was real. I'd zapped myself back. We'd all save a lot of time too.
So, my trip to my Mother Land has come to a great end. For some reason, I am missing China already. That is strange. I didn't expect to miss China !! Hah, too many "strange but nice" things that I experienced this trip. The trip was definitely made nicer because I met nice Chinese people. I suppose, maybe people's perception about China's Chinese need to change? Or I'm being too idealistic? Yes, they are still loud and oblivious to the world, but so far, I only had the pleasure of meeting the nice ones. As I mentioned, in a country, supposedly full of cunning, obnoxious folks, I met only the nice honest ones. I'm either very lucky or I'm starting to build an affinity with my Mother Land. But then again, I also prefer to see the good in people first. This might one day be my downfall but.... oh well.....
I was also a bit strange for me because they all seem to find me strange. "How come you speak Chinese? | How come you speak but you cannot read? | How come you look so dark? So you speak Chinese in Malaysia?? | etc... etc...."
So am I actually Chinese? Of course I am Chinese!! I just don't come from China!
I'm also happy to have the chance to catch up with my friend too. Now, I can say I have been on the longest bridge in the world. One day, I shall run the marathon on it :) So all in all, the trip was really great.
Now, perhaps, is time for me to brush up my Chinese and not let it rot since I seem to have gotten a hang of it in my last few days in China *laugh*
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