It all started on a fine night on the last week of April. Having just came back from my Great Asia Trip for around a month, the withdrawal syndromes of not getting onto a plane has gotten into me. This struck me, "Should I fly back to China one last time before going into NS?" I could have very well done Singapore to Kuala Lumpur return on AirAsia for just S$59, inclusive of taxes. However, that also means a flight too short to enjoy it.
It could have been my luck as I stumbled upon Tiger Airways' website and saw a real bargain for Singapore to Shenzhen return at S$219 all inclusive and it should cost me around S$260 inclusive of the seat selection and such. When I finally convinced my father, I decided that it would be better for me to fly Singapore-Shantou-Guangzhou-Singapore to utilise Singapore Airlines. More on that later.
Several calls and clicks later, my itinerary was finally settled. I will be staying in Shantou for 10 days before moving on to Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and finally flying back from Guangzhou. I have set my date of departure as 4th May 2011, Wednesday. At around 10.30am in the morning on that day, I lugged on my heavy luggage and went on my way to Singapore Changi Airport for my flight to Shantou. The flight was smooth and soon I landed in Shantou with a temperature of 20 degrees celcius, cool and refreshing way to start the trip!
Shantou and Singapore are 2 different worlds. Once you arrive, you feel like you are in the 1990s instead of 2011. The very first piece of evidence would be the airport that looks very simple with only 7 gates equipped with jetways and a single baggage carousel for domestic and international flights respectively. As you travel on the roads of Shantou, you can't help but to notice that there is a distinct difference here and the nearest major city, Guangzhou. The traffic is very messy with honking all day round and cars travelling in opposite directions of the road instead of staying in their own lane. Furthermore, the roads here have no road marking - Simple concrete and you determine where you should be. There are also lots of portholes on the ground and people crossing the road from all directions which simply adds some challenge to the driving here.
If you are from Singapore like me, be prepared for a culture shock when you arrive. You might think that you are fluent in Teochew or Hokkien but when you arrive, you will notice that they have completely different accents from what we are used to there and they speak like a rocket. Having visited here the last 2 years and being my 3rd consecutive year here, I am still unable to get what the locals here are trying to say with the exception of my relatives. As I arrived into my usual adobe, I was greeted by a wide mattress placed on the floor next to a double bed at the room right opposite the Master's Bedroom which will be my home for the next 10 days. This is not my usual bed but as my usual bed is occupied, I have to make do with this.
Another distinct difference you notice is that there is a switch which writes "pump work" beside each water source, be it in the kitchen, laundry room or in the toilets. This is because at times there is not enough pressure for the water to reach the tap and you have to turn the switch on for water to flow. However, be aware that the tap might behave weirdly like a child trying to cough out phlegm. Even after you get the water flowing, be prepared that the water pressure is not as strong as what we are used to in modern cities.
If you are not someone that is used to proportions, be prepared for a "fun" time when showering. There are a total of 3 knobs on the gas operated water heater in the bathroom. The first switch is for adjusting the intensity of the fire in the water heater. There is a small hole that you can peep into to watch the fire as you adjust it. The second switch alternates between "winter" and "summer" modes whereby you get warm water when you switch to "winter" mode and you get cold water when you switch it to "summer" mode. The last knob controls the water temperature that comes out of the showerhead, either hot or cold. Why do I say that you need to be someone that is good at proportions? Even after adjusting all the knobs to my liking, the water came out was steaming hot. You can literally see the steam coming out of it. Since it is summer time, I turned all 3 knobs to "small", "summer" and "cold" respectively. This gave me comfortable showers all the time.
However, there is still another problem. No, the water is not yellow in colour. However, you can feel your body is soapy even after washing off the soap from your body and even after several washes it does not change. Basically there is nothing much you can do besides wiping your body dry and the feeling is gone.
You might be asking, how do I survive here without internet? True enough, without internet you will not be reading this post. Internet is readily available in most homes in China now but it is still censored like you cannot access Facebook, YouTube and Twitter here. The only way to access them is to get a VPN or routing software to get you past the system. The internet here is much cheaper than in Singapore but also much slower. I am now using a 2MB internet shared among 2 computers while at home I get 15MB (sometimes it can go up to 22) shared among 3 or 4 computers. Despite having used 1.5MB internet before, the speed is still amazingly slow here.
With 5 more days of slow internet to endure and all the other different stuffs in Singapore, I hope I can survive.
