Daily Lessons from Life 15-22 April 2012 - A Week in South China

Was away for a week in China without access to blogger.com. The great firewall of China is still very much alive, probably stronger due to the Bo Xilai's incident. Anyway, thought a quick summary of what I see in person and on news in China will provie some lessons for me: 1. food is the main attraction for this 'gourmet tour' if you like. Roast pork, roast goose, roast duck, abundant seafood like oyster/baby abalones are best value for money vs. in S'pore, char siew, etc. Interestingly, the lobsters are NOT any cheaper than in S'pore; 2. do not visit Guangzhou during any Trade Fairs as the hotel room rates shoot up by 3x!! We were staying in the whole hotel on this trip and felt distinctly 'being taken for a ride'! Blamed ourselves for not checking the clash of dates with any Trade Fairs!!; 3. watched the Chinese TV programs and found that some TV stations are quite daring in their news reporting. While there the 'medicine capsule' scandal broke where some manufacturers used leather strips waste to make the capsules. The story about a girl with cancer fighting for her life while her father refused to take any money without him doing something - that triggered the mass 'haircut fund raising' since the father is a barbar. How the 'laws and crimes' programs showed under-covered cops videoing and capturing criminals on tape! etc. Of course I did not spent time watching the many 'commercialized reality' shows like match-making, shopping, etc. :-) 4. Tiptoed to Macau, the 'Gambling' or more respectfully 'Gaming' capital of the Orient, and found that IF you are not ready to gamble, you better not stepped into the casinos! I felt I did not prepared myself as I ventured into a few casinos 'wasting' HK$6k over 2 hours. A strange feeling came over me. I almost felt silly. Not that HK$6k is a lot of money but just that confused feeling of 'what were you doing my friend'!!; 5. while April/May is the raining season and some may advised against visiting during this period, I find that it is ok if you are mentally prepared and not too worry about sticking to a schedule or routine. If you can 'go with the flow', it is ok. A brolly or umbrella will be helpful and not resenting a perpatually wet pair of shoes help too! :-) 6. the extra bonus for me on this trip was to be able to watch the 2 1st leg semi-final matches live between Real Madrid vs. Bayern Munich and Chelsea vs. Barcelona though I was happy Real lost 1:2 but was upset that Barca lost 0:1. The 2nd leg will be this Tuesday Barca vs. Chelsea (and I hope Barca will win overall and proceed to the FINAL in Munich in May!!) and Real Madrid vs. Bayern Munich (and I hope Bayern Munich will win as the final will be at their home ground! And maybe lose to Barca in the FINAL!! Sorry about this biasenss!) 7. went for my Lose-to-win (LTW) session this morning and jogged and walked back from Sembawang to home after almost 3 hours. It was VERY hot as I started at 10.45 a.m. and got home around 1.30 p.m. BUT I was glad that I did it as this is the fastest way to 'burn' away the excessive eating of rich food on this 7-day trip. Live and let live as we only live once!!