summer days where all you need is a gelato in hand //

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Part 2 : Humen to Shenzhen

6:06 PM

Part 2 : Humen to Shenzhen

Arrived in Shenzhen and we shopped. Prices were higher than in Humen so we ended up mentally comparing prices.

Something about shopping in China is, their stores are really small so they don't have changing rooms. They go by S, M, L or by measurements in inches. So its pretty tough to decide sometimes whether to buy or not to buy. The garment might fit in size, but the cutting might not suit you. And you won't know this till you try it on. Which is why I didn't manage to buy a single pair of pants back home.

My mum and I bought 6 pairs of shoes/sandals at a shop. The price was neither cheap nor expensive, but as I normally tend to be quite picky about footwear, I was elated to find that I liked so many pairs. We decided to shop smart and buy those that we both liked and could wear that size.

This is why it is good to have the same shoe size as your mum. You can convince her to buy something by saying, "We share the shoe, ok." When you know that you'll be wearing it most of the time. Hehe.

I'm not so wicked lah!

Glanced at some boots but didn't find the right design, material and colour. The price was pretty okay, compared to what you'd have to pay if you bought them here or in UK. My dad was trying to get me to buy boots here so that I won't have to buy them in UK and pay through the nose and burn a hole in his pocket.

There were very pretty evening dresses and gowns and cheongsams and plenty of tailor shops, but we didn't bother going in there.

Oh, and I was tempted to convince my dad to buy me this pair of Ipod portable speakers which cost only RM90. I tested them with my Ipod and the sound quality was ok, incomparable to the original one (of course its fake la. For RM90, you can't even buy an original leather case for your Ipod, what more speakers!) but for that price, what are you complaining about?

But as my mum didn't seem too happy about it and that I didn't really need it, I decided not to press the issue. Moreover, the speakers I was eyeing was only a few months on the market and the faults about the product hadn't been discovered. But everytime I passed that shop, the lady would try and persuade my dad and I to buy them. Talk about persistent salesmanship!

Earlier on, I compiled a mental list of what DVD's to buy but I discovered that I didn't need the list at all. The shop owner had pictures of all the DVD covers he was selling in his laptop and he had all his potential customers browse through the pictures and choose from there. Then, he sent his assistant to some other place to take the DVD's we chose. Is that smart or what? Even if the police come and raid his shop, all they'll see is a laptop with those pics inside. Its not illegal to have pictures of the movies in your laptop after all....

I can foresee in future that those DVD sellers in the pasar malam and SS2 will become more high-tech and carry their laptops with them and the actual loot stashed away in some van or vehicle...

We walked out of that shop with 25 DVD's out of which 2 can't play on my Pioneer DVD player and I have yet to test them all. =(

But my dad says he'll bring it back to the shop if he goes back to Shenzhen on one of his China trips. =)

And if you think that's a lot, this 'quai loh' was already holding a 6-inch stack of DVD's and his companions were still choosing more. Wow!

Oh, and I bought the Desperate Housewives Season 3. Too lazy to wait for 8TV to air them lah. =p

Opposite the shop I was in, there was a shop which kept on pulling down its metal shutters which made a lot of noise. And just before the shutters hit the floor, I'd see 'quai loh' customers sitting in front of a laptop. We suspected they were selling porn DVD's because they kept pulling down the shutters and all the customers that were in there when they pulled the shutters down were 'quai loh's'!

My feet were starting to ache slightly from all that shopping and walking. My parents feet were in even worse condition. We decided to go for a foot reflexology session which was pretty cheap. RM15 for 1 hour. You'll never get that kind of price in Malaysia!

All this while, I was pretty scared about going for a foot reflexology as my mum told me that the one that she did was very painful, but effective. So I wasn't quite keen on paying someone to torture and brutalize my foot. I didn't want to end up kicking the poor fella in pain for doing his job. =p

I decided to play safe by opting for a half-feet half-body massage. So even if the feet massage really hurts, I only have to endure it for 30 minutes.

The guy who was doing my foot reflexology could tell that I was a newbie by my facial expressions and by the way my foot flinched and tensed when he pressed on the pressure points.

Even with massages, I tend to ask the masseur to go lightly as I'm scared of the pain. Or they naturally go lightly when they feel me tense up and flinch. Haha. And it can be ticklish in some parts too. So I guess those masseurs should be pretty happy because they have to expend less energy for the same price.

Anyway, the foot massage revitalized my feet and it prepared my feet for Hong Kong.

I realise that I have been eating Chinese food every meal for the past 3 days with the exception of a pretty good breakfast buffet in Humen and KFC interspersed between mealtimes as snacks.

Oh, and I have to write about the breakfast buffet in Humen. You see, on my last trip to China, the buffet breakfast that the hotel gave us was so full of crap that the only things edible there were the toasted bread which I toasted myself.

This buffet, was decently good by China standards. Cheese, ham, sausages, bread, the whole works. Even apple juice. And I really like apple juice. I'll take it any other day over mango or orange. Except that their omelettes taste kinda funny. But I'm pretty sure that will improve over time. =)

Shenzhen is a bit notorious for just grabbing children off the streets and selling them off. I'm not kidding you here. The last time I was in Shenzhen 3 years back, the tour guide warned my family to make sure that one of us was holding on to my lil brother. Needless to say, we hung unto him the whole time we were there. And we were relieved to get out of Shenzhen.

This time, we tried to scare my brother shitless by telling him that if he didn't stay still and if he wandered off, bad people would catch him and sell him away and chop off his arms and legs to become a beggar and he would never see mummy or daddy again. *horrified look*

His response, "Don't worry, if bad people come and catch me, I will take my sword and cut them and punch them." If it wasn't so serious, it would be pretty funny. And to his credit, we all enjoyed a good laugh before trying to explain to him the seriousness of the matter.

Aiyo, how lah to impress onto him the seriousness of not wandering off by himself?!

In Humen, my dad and I bought 2 roller luggage bags and he bought a laptop backpack at jolly good prices. But I don't know how long the bag will remain in 1 piece. What to do, China products marr...

Anyway, we came with 3 bags and we now have 4 bags. I'm betting that we'll come home with 5 bags by the time we're done in Hong Kong and Macau.

Trundled to the train station with our luggage and went through the immigration to cross over into Hong Kong. Oh, and in China its not uncommon to see people walking the streets carrying luggage bags. So we didn't feel like we were the odd ones out.

And this is where I leave off for the next part to be continued, Hong Kong. Also known as 'Fragrant Land' in Mandarin, I think.

Edited : Zhan Sheng says its 'port' not 'land'

So I'm off to 'Fragrant Port'.

Yeah, its fragrant all right.
Fragrant with its own special smell.
The smell of money/ka-ching/dough/moolah/whatever you call it.

p/s : No pics while in Shenzhen because I was too busy shopping or eating. Hehe.

Written on Wednesday, December 27, 2006; 6:06 PM

Flip My Past:

Boxing Day

Part 1 : Macau to Humen

Home sweet home

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Carolling and dancing

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