5th. day in Beijing: No more Beijing food!

Another dinner at a local restaurant? No way!

I was invited by a colleague to go and try the Peking duck - Beijing local dish. Gulp! Err ... Sorry. I only take seafood and veggie. I told my him. OK. So we ended up eating at nearby western restaurant.

Fuewh! Thank god. I can't take no more of the local food. With all due respect, it's just not my taste. I would rather eat pot noodles.

4th. day in Beijing: It's not that difficult to haggle

For anybody out there who plan to visit Beijing, you should spare some money for shopping at this place. The place is huge, the quality of the goods are fine, and the salesgirls speak pretty good English and friendly. One thing you must remember, do not ask for the price until you are sure that 1) you really like the thing, 2) you definitely want to buy it and 3) you have a price in mind. Stick to your price no matter what. If in the end they definitely cannot give you the price, just leave nicely. They are OK with it. They don't shout or harrass you, or whatever. You may come back later if you find that other stalls also cannot give your price. That's what I learned from my first visit Yya Show market today (Thanks William for taking me there!). Since I didn't carry that much RMB and my account was quite tight, I didn't shop that much despite the temptation. I got two pairs of knitted sweater; one for Aum and another for our baby and a couple of table runs which I know Aum likes.

See what I got for my baby. Cute eh? Knitted, and for 35 ringgit I think it's not bad although I'm sure I could've got it cheaper had I tried harder.


Advised by William, I visited a night spot called "Lotus Lane" downtown. It is situated on a river bank and located along the lane are pubs and restaurants. And if you are looking for girls, then this is one of the places to be. Bear in mind that prostitution is illegal in China! So, unlike Bangkok, things are not done openly. There were probably up to five persons approached me offering the "services". Since I was so hungry I had no time to layanlah. They left me once I got into one of the restaurants.

3rd. day in Beijing: First encounter of the sexual kind

Having had experienced Beijing food the day before, I was determined to have something more "normal" for lunch today.

The Subway Sandwich outlet was just a short walk my the office. It was hidden inside a small building that was largely occupied by a supermarket. From the outside one would not realise the existence of the outlet until he steps in. As compare of the Subway outlet in KL, this one was much smaller and there wasn't much choices of fillings - not that I could try them even if there had been. I got myself a tuna sandwich in parmesan and a bottle of gatorade and sat at a table outside the outlet while watching the army guarding the surrounding area marching on the street. At last I got a real edible food.

I took a walk around the area afterwards. Apparently there were a lot of different restaurants ranging from local to western along the street on which the subway outlet was. I should not run out of non-Beijing food choices until Friday.

Unlike the embassies in Malaysia or any other parts of the world for that matter of fact, the security arrangements for the embassies here are quite uniformed. Every embassy building is supplied with one or two army guards that will stand still AT ALL TIMES in front of the gate while slowly turning their head left and right in a continous fashion in real guarding act! It is kind of funny when you first look at them. Some of these guards are also placed by the sides of the streets away from the embassy buildings.

Although this area is well taken care of and can be considered as quite posh, I could still find a few beggars on the street.

After work, as I had planned yesterday, I dropped by at the market place opposite my hotel. Almost 90% of what was sold there were clothings mainly for women. The price tags did not seemed to indicate they were that cheap. I guess haggling skills are very important if you were to shop here. I had not thought of purchasing anything, so I just took a stroll down the ailes and pretty much observing the shoppers who were mostly foreigners. One thing I noticed, since majority of the stalls sold clothings, each normally would have a curtain that could be drawn to act to form a fitting room. However, most of the of the local shoppers were not very particular about it. So, you could pretty much see the half naked bodies changing ha! ha!

Tonight's dinner was at the nearby Hard Rock Cafe. You know what, I don't understand why non-smoking areas in most restaurant are normally hidden at the back of the place, in some corner that isolates you from the rest of the patrons. This was not the first time I experienced this. Even in Paris it was the same case! And here, I ended up sitting next to a huge pillar near the kitchen with people sitting at bar blocking my view of the band performing on the stage.

On the way back to the hotel, I bumped into some girls who were very keen to "accompany" me for the night. Sorry. Not interested. One even dared to grab my arm offering me massage, karaoke, sex and all sort of things. Wow! This place is really happening. While I was just about to enter my room I saw one local guy who was definitely not one of the hotel staff acting in a very peculiar way and just stood there waiting for me to open the door. Once I was inside, I got a another "card" slipped under the door. Aha! He was just a pimp ;)

2nd. day in Beijing: Fish doesn't always taste fish

I decided to walk to the office this morning and not taking cab since I had been told it's not that far. So, it shouldn't take very long. At least it would give me the chance to see how people of Beijing begin their day.

My office happens to be in an area where all the embassies and some multinational companies are located. You pretty much see caucasians all over the places. And exactly opposite it is the Beijing British International school.

For lunch, my collegue took me to a Taiwanese restaurant opposite the office - my first taste of Chinese food in Beijing. I realised one thing - a sea food dish does not necessarily mean all seafood. I dunno about veggie dish though.

At around 6.30 PM we went to have our dinner in a restaurant not very far from my hotel. I was told that the place specialises in cuisines from Sichuan (or something) province in the south west of China. It was such a crowded place indication of how famous it is. It's common among the Chinese that they judge the quality of a restaurant and it's food by how crowded the place it. (I guess it's common sense) The more crowded it is, the more likely people will be attracted to drop in. So, some would resort to giving big discounts and even free food when they first open a restaurant, just to pull the crowd. I noticed the waitresses were very petite in size with very fair, smooth skin and reddish cheeks. Kind of cute. They were not too skinny, neither were they fleshy. The fingers weren't that long and slightly broader than the normal Chinese girls. Apprently they have been brought all the way from Sichuan to work there.

I wasn't involved in deciding what to order, except that I asked only for seafood or veggie dishes. The first couple of dishes were vegetarian and didn't taste that bad. Then came the duck and chicken. And lastly a 1.5 kg shredded fish which supposedly tasted good. But, erkkk ... I don't know how they cooked it, I don't even know if it was a fish at all - it looks more like a snake than fish to me. The smell of the spices was extremely strong. I'd known the smell from before, but I just couldn't recall where. It must've been some weird fish species that is only found in this part of the world. I took a small a piece of the meat and that was the only portion of the fish that went into me. I just could not bear the taste and the smell.

We left at about 8 PM. On the way back to the hotel, I discovered a market where they sell mainly clothes and some female accessories, leather bags, sun glasses, and fake watches. Quite a sizeable place with rows and rows of stalls. May be I'll check it out more tomorrow.

I was thinking of heading straight to the Hard Rock Cafe to get some real dinner since honestly I was damn hungry. A tiny piece of fish meat and a few leaves of veggie are not what I would consider dinner. Then, I decided to just order something from room service - Tuna sandwich and fries. BURP! Now, that's a good meal.



Hey! I think somebody is looking for business. Look at what I found under my door:

1st. day in Beijing

I arrived in Bejing just after 3 PM today. The immigration clearance got done pretty fast. Even KLIA can't beat the speed. What I had in mind before was a pretty strict security and immigration policy. But, it wasn't like that at all. My horror came soon after when I stepped into the arrival hall. Hundreds of people were waiting in there and I had to slowly walk from one end of the row to the other looking for the hotel concierge who was supposed to be there to fetch me. It didn't take me long to locate him since he was standing at the far end holding my name together with other guys from other hotels. Man, I was treated like a VIP. The 20 minutes ride to the hotel costed RMB 300 (which is roughly about RM150). What a waste of money. I would never have taken it had it been at my own expense. The limo was of course very luxurious.

The road from the airport to the hotel was quite nicely built with sufficient signboards in both Mandarin and English. I reached Hotel Kun Lun at almost 4. Straight after I got my AMEX swiped for deposit, I was taken to my room which is located on the 19th floor facing the city. The concierge boy was bit reluctant to leave after placing my luggage ot the stand. I knew he was waiting for tips but I just couldn't be bothered. He left after realising he was not getting any. Felt a bit bad though, but, hey too bad, I just arrived and I had no small change. Some other time mate.

Wow! China chicks parading in swimmming suit on tele.

OK now let's continue ...

After hanging my clothes in the wardrobe and arranging my toileteries, I left to do a bit of exploration of the surrounding area. It's always a good idea to immediately get some inital feel of the place .. oppps the chicks are back. I think it's some sort of beauty pageant.

So, with a simple map supplied by a colleague in KL, I took a walk to a nearby shopping mall called Lufthansa Shopping Mall. Initially I was a bit wary of the people around me. Having been to India, I would think I should be a bit careful. After a while I realised it is much safer here. You don't see as many homeless people on the street as you would in Mumbai and Delhi and plus the area is much cleaner as well. The first thing that stroke me while walking to the mall was the quality of China girls. .. oh oh .. back to the tele. It is indeed a beauty pagent. They just announced the new Miss China. Wow! She's a real meal!.

As it is well known, bicycle is a common means of transport among the Chinese in the city. You pretty much see them everywhere you go. Check out this chick.


If you have read The Wild Swans, you will realise that China has taken a gigantic step into becoming what it is now. The traces of the social rule that forbidded its citizen from practising even the most basic human rights described in the novel can no longer be seen. May be I need to see more of the country and know more of its people to make such a conclusion, but whatever it is, it's nice to see such a transformation is taking place.

The mall turned out to be nearer than I thought. It was huge and of a posh sort. I spent some time there checking out the prices of some eletrical goods. Not much different from Malaysia. Oh ya, even the sales girls are lovely and over here they don't follow you around like in KL. So, you can do your shopping in peace.

I shot off to Beijing Hard Rock Cafe soon after. A short walk from the mall. What a deserted place. And with homeless people (who I suspect are Mongolians) hanging out outside it's nothing like any other Hard Rock Cafes I've been to before. The merchandise prices are not bad. A cap is priced at RMB100 which is about RM48 (half of the price of a Paris Planet Hollywood cap) and the cheapest T-Shirt is sold at RM120. Apart from the hotel, this is probably the only other restaurant that I have seen so far that provides English menu. I was tempted to have my dinner there and then, but thinking of the two pieces of chicken I brought all the why from KLIA, I decided not to and this is what I finally had for my dinner:

A sweet conversation

I had a conversation with Miss R yesterday while installing the "XXX" software on the server. Such a lovely lady. Professional in her work and man! I tell you, she's pretty. The funny thing was she thought I was 25. 25!? Wow, do I look 25? I wonder what makes me look young? My glasses? hairstyle? (do I have one?) voice? eyes? (yuks!) flat tummy (quite)? (could be) ... I'm puzzled. OK, may be I should take it as a compliment. And she was surprised when my Finance colleagues told her my age and the fact that I would be a father soon. Hey hey ... I'm a cool, young looking, hairless dad. Not bad.

I got to know that she was previously from Indonesia but has been away for more than 10 years, earlier in the States and now in Singapore. We started talking about racial integrity in Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia, and how they differ from each other. When she told me how amazed she was when she first saw how the different races here mix well with each other here, it made me realised that we Malaysians have achieved so much in maintaining racial stability. Apparently it is not the same in Indonesia. Although on the surface the level of assimilation looks significant, the good relationship between the Chinese and the rest has never been "real". The Chinese never really feel comfortable being at home, which is pretty sad. Out of fear being rejected, most resorted to changing their name to an Indonesian name and over time they have also stopped using Chinese language. Which is why even Miss R cannot converse in Chinese despite being able to understand some Mandarin.

Miss R is right in saying so about Malaysians. In general yes. And we as the whole should be proud of it. But, this is not to say we are perfect as I told her. On the political side, of course there are still those that are not happy with the government's policies etc and I agree that some of these policies are in favour of one or two groups over the others. But to make every single person happy ... nah ... I don't think this is achievable even in another one thousand years. It's a delicate thing.

What you need to do after an accident

Just a guide to those who are not so sure of what to do when involved in an accident in Malaysia. If it's quite a serious accident resulting in injuries or worse, you must immediately call the police and ambulance or find a way to sent the injured persons to the hospital, before doing the following.

1. Exchange your Identity Card and license details with the other party who is also involved in the accident. Make sure to also note down the other car's registration number and the name of the road on which the accident took place.

2. Within the next 48 hours you must make a police report if you intend to make a claim from your insurer or a third party claim from the other party' insurer. Failure to do so may result in a summon being issued against you. If you decide not to make a police report you must get the same agreement from the other party involved. If the other parties make a police report and you don't, again, you may get a summon issued against you.

3. Bring your police report, your car registration card, insurance certificate, Identity Card and driving license to your insurer and inform them that you'd like to make a claim. They will give you one or two forms which you need to fill in. You are also sometimes interviewed. Once this is completed you will be given a letter which you need to take to your workshop. If you do not know which workshop to go to, you may ask the insurer to recommend one for you. Whatever it is, to avoid complication in the process and delay in the repair, always make sure that you send your car to a workshop that is in your insurer's panel list.

4. Take your car and the letter issued by your insurer to the workshop. If this is the insurer's panel, they should be able to start repairing your car immediately.

One rule of thumb with regard to car accident: If you crash into another, automatically you will get a summon for RM300, and vice versa.


My recent police report. Click to enlarge.