:*:...FoRevEr & EVeR & eVEr...:*:: March 2008

There you go with the Guangzhou pictures....

Warning: Super Long Post with Pictures Overloaded

It was only 5.00am when we reached the Budget Terminal. The sky is still dark outside...

Boarding @ 6.10am

Touching down soon, both of us getting excited...!

In Bai Yun Airport

Waiting for Long to pick us up.

Day 1 - 17Mar2008
Day 1 was the most tiring day, waking up in the wee hours then got to struck in that pathetic small space for 4 hours with no comfort and all those un-glam sleeping pose, that's enough to kill my day.

Luckily we have minimum worries once we reached mainland. We had a nice Dim Sum lunch (no pics cos i still a little shy to bring out that shutterbug), then back to their nest to have a short rest before we plan for further activities (sry, still pics).

Long and his wife actually took some time off purposely just in order to make arrangement for us, we were very concerned if we caused any disturbance to them till they showed us to their work place.

Cool office they have there...

OMG! I look so chubby in this pic.... (NIGHTMARES!!!)

The lovely couple

Drop down window view from their office

They explained that their job doesn't required them to be in the office all the time, the operation would be performed by their guys, usually a few phone calls can solve the problems...! Hmmm... impressed by their capabilities...!

This trip wasn't a full relaxation one, so after they were done with the work, we were off to do some surveys and on site-visit to their so call IT Mall. (No pics taken there cos i was like a walking zombie throughout the whole session)

But i was fully awake when its time to tug-in...! keke.. (From here on, the shutterbug is put to work)

Look at the amount of food..! We were stunt when more food came into serving, this is the usual amount of food they would order when there are guests around. According to them, Guangzhou people has very high esteem or face value, if they were to go on the tabs, they would rather their guests can't finish the food then to under treat them..! Its in their blood, their culture.

And can you imagine, this goes on for the 5 days we stayed..!

The lady scooping out the meat, lotus root and something lotus look alike thingy. But according to culture again, all those are seldom eaten, people only drink the soup...!!!

Another culture rule for Dinning Etiquette: Bowls are for containing of food and main use; Plates are for placing wastes or unwanted. Eat from bowls instead of plates!

In any case, i am still not very used to it, when it comes a table of multifarious array of yummilicous gourmet, how on earth am i going to contain them in my tiny bowl..?!?!?!?!

This is my favourite, they call it Char Siew. Look and taste extremely different from what we had before. It is a piece of fatty meat coated with a thin layer of egg yolk, and then bring it to roast in the big traditional oven!

None was really wasted! Only one word to be said....

Fabulous................!!!!!!!!!!!

Almost all the restaurant we went have its very own style and luxurious layout that makes you feel VIP. Like this building you see here (where we had our sumptuous dinner), it belongs to only 1 restaurant by itself, humongous right?

Next activity: Beauty

Long's wifey had a massage cum face appointment, and the parlor had some sort of promotion, i tagged along and did an eye massage. It was so comfy or am i too tired, i zonk out half way through the session.

Classy Chic Ambience isn't? A scent of solemnity with the dazzling lighting.

The guys came to pick us up, and Long was a little hungry~

Super time~
There is this small eatery, walking distance within 5 min from their nest that they highly recommend. (Open 24 hours a day)

Crab roe wanton mee

Their signature dish is this crab roe wanton mee with their very own chilli recipe or vinegar as dressing (optional), and it cost only freaking SGD2.00 for a big bowl you see above...!!!!! They have "S" size ones which is only for SGD0.80...!!!!!!

Day 2 - 18Mar2008
It was after Noon when we stepped out of the house~

They knew we having craving for Jap food, so they brought us to this very high-end yet modern fine Japanese dinning. Along the way, i saw these trees blooming with red starring flowers only.

木棉树

They told me that the flowers are called 木棉花, after the flower dropped off, fruit will start growing and the fruit is COTTON~ These cottons are mainly for mattress or pillows. Surprising wor...

Piggy in the high ceiling jap restaurant. Notice that there is one 1 pic for the whole of lunch?

Cos the food is so lavishly good that we are enjoying and totally forgotten about the camara.

Program of the Day was in fact: Shopping

Piggy is so sweet loh.. he wanna make me feel relax about the trip, not solely work nia. And hor, how frequent could we go shopping together...

So after lunch, Piggy said, "Ok, today we should do some shopping before we start out intense sourcing." Haha... But actually hor, it's because we did not do any research before we set off, thus we had minimum idea where we should head to. And the IT mall we visited the previous day is more for consumers instead of retailers.

Talk about shopping, the lower-end shopping centers there are very similar to HMV, Far East and Bugis Street, selling from garments to accessories to trendy hip-hop wears. They have shopping centres like Paragon too, selling more on brand stuffs and a super market within.

Mrs Long wasn't feeling very well that day, so we decided to do some simple cooking and have healthy meal for the sick lady, while we do some homework. But....end up, she was the one frying Bee Hoon, preparing lotus soup, making boiled apple cum pear sweet desert soup. Our only contribution was ours infamous Meat-ball Congee which can't form into balls in the end. Keke...

That nigjt, we sat down to have some home-cooked food, watched some drama series, R&R and that ends our night.

Day 3 - 19Mar2008

We were up slightly earlier that day, intending to go Shenzhen to meet up with one supplier, but after hearing from their very experience advise, we had a chance of mind. Long found us some info and contacts that actually could be quite useful, so we just gave it a shot.

After having some of previous last bee hoon and soup, we set off. However, in the car the very first thing Long prompted us was,

"Are you hungry? We better bring you for lunch before we left you hor?" (*Sweat* I thought we just taken bee hoon + soup breakfast leh....) Really appreciate their well-being for us, we had Italian cuisine for lunch.

Dark Dear Dear

Happy Me

My Too Sweet Strawberry Ice-blend

The rest of the afternoon was spent in the wholesale market, Long only managed to find the rough address, we got to search for the specific ones. The place there were amazing, the whole area is filled with 3~6 storey height complexes. And in individual building, there are hundreds of stores sticking to each other selling spare parts but mainly handphone components.

We weren't in great luck, we roamed about 3 or 4 buildings, but they are all into mobile phones, only a few carries some gaming stuffs. The time pushing late (FYI: all the wholesale closed at abt 6pm) and we had decided that it would be the last building we pinned our hope on. Ground floor is filled with memory cards, hp casing, china hp, and PSP pouched. We were delighted to see 2 stalls having those.

As we proceed further up, we noticed more stalls doing gaming stuffs but they are drawing their gates. Phew~ our effort got paid off, we managed to talked to a few, linked up some, and made appointment with some too. We were in the midst of it, Long actually called up and they were ready to pick us.

But we were glad, at least we were at the correct place. And off we went for our dinner.

Now you get what i meant by a table filled with food for only 4 person..!?!?!

Up-coming Activity: Massage

Long decided to bring us for a trial on the famous Foot Reflexology. Both Dear and Me never tried foot massage, and they assured us its very relaxing.

There we go~

A room to ourselves for massage, a feel of being extravagant. I didn't take pictures of those have their massage in the open area, then you will know the comparsion, so packed and closed to each other...!!!

The pictures clearly tell whether Piggy's enjoying it.

The only part Piggy truly enjoys was the foot scrap suggested by the 师夫. Piggy has thick dead skin on his foot, but after the scrap, his feet feels so soft and smooth wor... keke... But me went back with a painful backache~

Day 4 - 20Mar2008
Continue our expedition in the wholesale market, but before that, we must fill our stomach.

Long brought us to this oranggie restaurant that served Chinese + Western fast food. It is built in the basement of a shopping complex.

I like the feeling that the restaurant creates, sort of brighten up mood.

My Roasted Chicken + Curry + Rice set, Mrs Long having 荷叶饭, not Glutinous rice wor... Smell really nice..!

Piggy's Bake Tomato Chicken Rice - Superb combination

After lunch, we went separate ways to get our stuffs done. A day there made us spent about SGD2K on components, accessories and etc, we got ourselves 3 huge cartons of loot. No pictures cos that place is really messy and not meant for photographing, more like a big bargaining market.

Till abt 7pm, we met the couple again of some more programs they arranged.

KTV Sing-a-la-a-la time~

When we reached the lounge, it looks just like other normal hotels, but.... when a lady lead us upstair, up up up we went.... we noticed that all the 5 floors of the hotel belongs to "Party World". They had converted the bed rooms to KTV facilitated singing rooms...!!!!

Each lever there is a foyer where the buffet is set up, they served simple chinese food, finger food, deserts, and all kinds of drinks (I abit shy to stand right infront to take pic....! Too grand wor)....!!!

My Stylo Boi~

A personal toilet attached to each room.

Cam whoring in the full length mirror.

Deco-s in the room

Relaxing in the room

Super again~

Famous 猪肠粉

This place is visited by Choi Lam 蔡澜 (columnist cum food enthusiast), he even hand written the Chinese calligraphy for the shop (。.0)

Snapping away while waiting for food... Aha.. here it comes....

Then home sweet home~

Day 5 - 21Mar2008

We had a quick breakfast of the Crab Roe Wanton Mee and dashed to wholesale market again.

Last available day in Guangzhou, so still soaking ourselves in the wholesale market to finalise our last buy and arrangement for shipping.

Time always flies when you are in a rush, Long arranged his driver to pick us up for a late lunch at 真功夫。A Chinese fast food chain (popular in China), they serve set meals that comprise of soup, a vegi, a meat and rice.

All were done when it come close to 6pm, so we got a little free time to snap a picture or two.

This street is where we roamed for 3 days!

Later into the night when most of the wholesale stalls are close, Long brought us to the famous shopping street in Guangzhou, 北京路 - 步行街。

Before that, i actually caught sight of mobile hair dressers. People having hair cuts or shaving at their portable stalls.

Me at 步行街

Us

9pm - Late Steam Boat Dinner

Cute right? Those are actually "Tau Ji Per" made into ball shape, we usually see flat types here.

This resturant we actually visited thrice throughout our stay. This place is open by some Hong Kong bosses, the resturant is well-known for its Dim Sum and Steam Boat. And Long told us, the resturant offer amost 1/2 price on the food after 9pm...! Hmmm... just nice for us who eat late into the night.

Day 6 - 21Mar2008

6am - last preparation before leaving for airport.

Last glance from the balcony...