Boody's Travelogue. China Day 1

Yes, itsbeen almost another month since my last post. Was kinda busy with work and working out after that. That made me tired enough to just go home and straight to sleep soon after.

Well anyways, as the title of this post mentions, I went back to mainland China for the last 10 days of November. Here I shall recount what happened on Day 1.Pictures will be up on Facebook as soon as I'm done going editing and resizing them (almost 2,000 pics snapped!!!).

Ok. So after working late and packing the final pieces of clothing to be brought, i slept at about 2am. Woke up at 5.20am to take a quick shower and had a few bites of bread before heading to the airport. Our flight was 9am so we had to be there by about at least 7am. Reached theresafely with many bags to carry (i had to help carry my mum'sbag since she has lots of things to carry (u know women lar..., her bag was so full she had to "tumpang" some stuff in my bag as well). My luggage consisted of my backpack and a mid sized trolley bag. Brought my Ricoh camera (with its full gear: 3x 1Gb memory cards, spare batt, charger) along as well despite my sis bringing the newly bought Sony @300 (2x 4gb card, spare batt, zoom lens kit and charger) along.

Plane left on schedule and it took about 4 hours plus to reach Xiamen (SOuth west of CHina, Facing the straights of Taiwan. We flew by MAS on a Thursday, so there were plenty of empty seats in Economy. One passenger had the whole middle row to himself, so he slept across all 4 seats after lifting up the armrest. LOL!! Food served wasn't too bad, but I remember MAS serving better food. oh well, it comes with cost cutting i guess.

Watched Journey to the Centre of the Earth to kill timeas well as snapped pictures on the plane. On the flight was my family of4, my 5th aunt (GK), my last aunt(BK) and her daughter/ my cousin (HH).

Arrived at 2pm and once we got our stuff and cleared customs, wemet u with the tour co-ordinator. We had a connecting flight from Xiamen, Fujian Province to Nanchang, Jiangxi Province (more towards Central China) at 4.00pm. Here we joined up with the rest of the tour group (whom had arrived a day earlier and stayed one night in Xiamen). So in total there were 44 ppl on this tour(yes i was surprised at the huge amount of ppl).

It was here at the airport that they took away my Shokubutsu body shampoo!! I had forgotten that there was a bottle of it in my backpack and since i did not check it in, it was confiscated. Doh!!! silly me...

We flew on Xiamen Airlines, using their newly refurbished Boeing 777 (i think). THe seat and interior was spanking new. EVery 2 rows, there was an LCD monitor on top which displayed a map of china, and where the plane was flying towards.It even showed how fast the plane was going, temperature, and well as how many miles to reaching the destination. The flight to Nanchang was about 1.5 hours long. We arrived at 5.30pm and headed to the hotel in 2 buses. The temperature outside the airport was about 17 Celcius. It was freaking cold for me as i was wearing just a t shirt and a jacket. The sun sets earlier during winter and 6 6pm, its total darkness, like the 8pm in ouR country.

We jammed our way to our hotel. Nanchang city is split into 2 parts by a river. In fact the Jiangxi provice has lots of ultra huge lakes(some the size of a little sea) as it has pretty low flat lands. The riverside was done up nicely, with lots of lights and beautiful walkways. however, we stayed some distance away from the river. In fact, we were horrifed when the tour guide told us that the place we are staying in is 3 star and the 3 star hotels here are of worse quality than malaysia. We thought of the worst.

THen when we stopped at the place wewere staying, I was mortified... The name of the place was called Motel 168. MOTEL?!?!? Outrageous!!! But wait a minute, this motel is 15 storey high... Hmm.. something must give.ANyways, we had dinner at the hotel restaurant. It was 6pm and we were all cold and very hungry. Food served wasnt really tasty but nobody cared. Every1 just stuffed themselves silly. I, myself had 3 bowls of rice. YEs, the cold weather has an effect on people.

I then braced myself when we walked into our rooms for the night. But wait, the key used is a key card. And its a touch card system, something like touchn go. tap the card on the door and it opens... Hmm... very high tech. Turned ont he lights and the rooms were bad at all. Inf act, very much better than our 3 star hotels. It even had rain-style showers!!! Woohoo!! I couldnt wait to hit the showers!!. After our showers, we headed out to town for a walk since it was only 8pm. We only walked the streets nearby our hotel as we weren't very familiar with the place and we were freaking cold. we then discovered we were actually beside a train terminal and the train terminal in Nanchang is like what KL sentral is in malaysia. Its a transit point for most train travellers in the south west of China. There were plenty of cheap hotels or motels or just a place to bunk for the night all over town. there were lots of little food stores selling almnost the same thing; mixed rice. THere were also lots of provision stores around our place. We had supper of Xiu loong pau (soup dumplings) at a nearby restaurant before going back to the hotel. Watched some tv before going to sleep at about 12am. The bed here is damn hard... but who cares? I'm too tired anyways... Zzzz....

What comes after the Hungry Ghost Festival?

Come guys and girls, take a guess. What event comes after the Hungry Ghost Festival this year. It may not happen next year or the year after that. It didn't happen the year before and the year before last.

Got you guessing, didn't I? hehehe...

Its definitely not the Mooncake Festival as it happens every year after the Hungry Ghost Festival. Take another guess...

Don't Know?

Give up?

Are you sure you don't want to tembak 1 last time? ;-p

Well, the answer is.....
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The Hungry Police Festival, thats what!!!! Yes this year, this festival happens immediately after the Hungry Ghost Festival. It has occured in different times every year, and once in a very long while, it happens twice a year.

Yes this is the time when there just traffic roadblocks just manned by about 3 policemen only. its rare for there to be like 10 in an operation during this festival, because if the police are hungry they ain't so keen on sharing, especially with so many people...

Suddenly everywhere u go at night (especially highways) will suddenly be in a jam for no reason. The line could be a few kilometres long, and you must be wondering if it could be due to an accident or something. But the fact is that, it is just due to the extra "vigilance" of our traffic policemen during this time of the year.

Look, i'm not generalising all traffic cops to be "hungry" during this time of the year... I mean some are only hungry over this month-long festival, some are hungry all year long (very unfortunate), while i'm sure most of them are not hungry at all.

I think i've mentioned this in my previous posts last year in my multiply page. But then again, we cant stop the festival from happening unless something is done to satisfy their hunger at employer level. The employers know why this is happening and has allowed this to continue happening, and this is why we end up having this festival every year. You can ask any motorist on the road who is stuck in a roadblock at night what they think. They can tell you the same thing, Hungry Police Festival.

Just like the Hungry Ghost Festival, when we see these things happening, we cannot do anything to kacau or raise a protest as we might be "victimised" later. This is especially true among the Chinese as we were thought by our parents to try our best not to notice these activities. And since we've been doing this from you, its not difficult to transfer what we learnt here to the Hungry Police Festival.

Here I am just wondering, if there were any VIPs that were caught in a congestions caused by these roadblocks. And if yes, what did they think was going on? Do they actually think that the police are just being extra hardworking and upholding the traffic laws during this period while they drive past?

Sigh... Just forget about what I said. i guess I'm just annoyed because of the fact that I had passed 4 roadblocks (which caused tremendous jams) at night already... 4 times is about 10 days and on different highways. There are months that go by without even me having to pass a single roadblock on my way back?

Extra vigilance or Hungry Police Festival

You decide...


Boodyboy, out!!!

Our PM's reply on the Roadblocks and my opinion

This is taken from the Star website and my comments are in red.

Roadblocks needed to keep order, says Pak Lah

PETALING JAYA: Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has defended the police for setting up roadblocks around the city in anticipation of a public demonstration, causing massive traffic jams.

The police, meanwhile, said the roadblocks would continue as they have been “successful”.

Look, he didn't even apologise for the inconvenience caused. He's getting so defensive. At least Syed Hamid Alba was apologetic yesterday when he made his speech. Doesn't the PM know we are his bosses? Even if its for your own bosses' good, you would still be expected to apologise and pretend to understand our plight.

The Prime Minister blamed the situation on those who planned to hold demonstrations and said the police were only doing their job of maintaining order and public safety.

I'm sorry?!?! When i was stuck in the jam for 2.5 hours, all i could see was disorder and chaos on the roads. Oh also the disbelief and the grief of all drivers in the jam with me yesterday. In fact, i dont think i would have felt safe yesterday. For all you know some guy who's been under lots of heavy pressure would have just blown and ran amok, destroying people's cars.

“The police are trying to reduce hindrances and traffic jams (that would be caused if the demonstration go on) too,” he said, adding that businesses and shops expected the police to ensure disturbances do not occur.

“But at the same time the demonstrators say police have no business disturbing them. The police have a responsibility in ensuring there is no trouble,” he said.

Well first of all, to reduce traffic jams and hindrances, remove the freaking roadblocks!! That is the key hindrance we faced yesterday. If the demonstration would have gone on, i bet the only placed that would be jammed is the road leading towards the Parliament only, not the whole of Klang Valley, certainly not in Klang, Kepong, Kajang or wherever there is 30km away from the damned Parliament building!!! The only danger to public disorder was from you lah... And since ISA is used against those who cause public disorder, Hmm... muahahah!!! (You better hope i'm not the PM next time)

Abdullah reminded the demonstrators that they could hold their rallies at stadiums where “they can scream at the top of their voice and “not at these places (in the streets) because people have the right to go about their business in peace”.

Dude, i would have been left in peace if you had let the "alleged" gathering take place, cause nowhere else around klang valley or any major highways would have been jammed for that matter.

The rally that was anticipated to take place at Parliament House by Pakatan Rakyat supporters did not materialise yesterday.

Ppl already denied of having planned it. So if the Opposition deny we cannot believe them, but if our DPM or AG deny accusation we can believe them be cause they are more honest than the Opposition?

Police said they would continue to set up roadblocks at several major roads if needed.

“We have no choice as our main concern is to maintain law and order,” said City police chief Datuk Muhammad Sabtu Osman.

Can you show me where was the order in the chaos on the Highways, Mr. Police? And what do you mean no choice? You guys can use your favourite tool, the ISA to throw those guys in jail once you heard of their plan to rally in the Parliament. So now that you've shown that you will not use that draconian law (which only inconvenienced the politicians and their families), you have now decided to inconvenience all of us rakyat, and then blame it on the opposition?

The roadblocks proved to be “successful” although it caused inconvenience to many people, he told a press conference at his office yesterday, adding that 1,600 policemen were deployed for yesterday’s operation.

Thank you very much for the roadblock. i hope you enjoyed implementing it as much as i enjoyed going to work late on Monday morning.

It is learnt that PKR Youth chief Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin and a few supporters tried to hold a gathering at Central Market at about 1.30pm. They left when asked to do so by police.

You see how co-operative the Opposition guys are? They only "tried" to have a gathering, and they dispersed when you asked them to. So, you could have done the same, wait for the guys to march towards the Parliament, then respectfully ask them to disperse, for which i'm sure they will. No need for the roadblocks, eh?

Like its not enough suffering for us poor citizens lah... Thanks a lot!!!

Boodyboy, out!!!