Trip: Xiamen Part 1

* I’m unsure what I’m going to write but I’m certain it will have certain lewd, disrespectful, maybe racist and most definitely there will be loads of mention of pork or babi. So if you are uncomfortable with this I’d strongly suggest you to disregard the following entry.

On the eve of my flight to Xiamen, I meet up with Logen and Lenny at Decanter. We enjoyed each other’s company, we drank and we exchanged stories and jokes. I left late that night; I knew I had to repack my luggage, as at the last minute I had to take extra stuff. With the excitement I barely could go to bed. The plan was to get on the plane and doze off for at least couple of hours. I slept around 1 and woke up at 4.30 I was eager to be at KL Sentral at 5.30. At Sentral I checked in and waited for my colleague to arrive as usual he was late. He arrived at 6 and by the time he checked in it was already 6.30.

It was a very quite train ride you couldn’t see any scenery cause it was still dark outside. Eddie and I sat quietly hardly talking to each other as we both were lacking of sleep. When we arrived KLIA, we decided to have breakfast at Café Marche. It was a rip off Delifrance. It was a nice though compared to Delifrance it had nice bigger pastries. We took in the sight, we looked at the people that came to dine in and we listened to some of their conversation. We weren’t eavesdropping but people seem to forget to speak softly these days’ especially Chinese folk

Around 8-ish we decided to head to the boarding area, we noticed that our flight had a lot of ladies an all of them in hot sexy woman boots on them. We decided to be one of the last few people to check in, as we wanted to check out the ladies. The flight was quite comfortable and we served brunch with ample of wine to intoxicate us. The in-flight movie was Prestige a movie I’ve been waiting to see or even get a DVD copy. It was an excellent screenplay and cinematography. The cast, Jackman was convincing, but I truly admired Christian Bail in the movie so much that I am now a fan. Did you know his British?

Needless too say Eddie and I didn’t get and slumber we so planned. As the plane touched down at the Xiamen runaway it passed by a guardhouse and outside stood an officer saluting our plane. We thought it was weird, we got of the plane and headed to the toilet and my nostril sense was shocked by the scent it was pee it was something else. Well Eddie inform me that was the scent of the china people (being political correct here). That’s how they smell; my logic is they think it’s a cold place so they think they don’t need a bath for long time.

While we walked down to the custom’s checkpoint I had certain weird glances from the people like I didn’t fit in. When it was my time to see the customs officer I was of course scrutinized with questions of what I was doing in Xiamen, my purpose of my visit, etc. Eddie of the other had had no problem getting through customs. It took me about 20 minutes to clear it with them. I honestly wasn’t afraid as I had proper papers and wasn’t carrying anything illegal. Worst case I would fly back…. I did fear that.

Chew, our Head of Xiamen office was there to receive us. We got into the cab and headed to our hotel called Yi Jing. It wasn’t too cold. I perceived China to be loads of bicycle users, oily food and military people forcing strict laws. Well was I so wrong. Anyway on the way to the hotel we stop at the traffic light the window is open and I see a guy cross the road and walk straight towards me. He had tattoos on his arms and he looked fierce. Damm another bad experience is about to happen… He came to my window threw a bunch of cards and ran. I picked a card and it was one of those 24 hours sex service cards it was then I knew I’m going to have a blast in Xiamen, China.

The rooms were quite comfortable; I think it was a 2 star hotel. It wasn’t dodgy in any way there were lots of new business people staying there and it was a new hotel so not loads of people haven’t slept on my bed yet. I started to unpack, I didn’t want my office clothes looking too crumbled and besides I just wanted to settle in. I took a short nap and by 6 we were told to get ready for dinner. Eddie and I were quite antsy and we wanted to get out the hotel rooms as soon as we could. Chew did show us where the office was and he told us which floor it was. Eddie and I decided to be lil bold and head to the office, it was freaking cold so I was in my leather jacket.

While on our way to the office Eddie and I got stopped by the security. We told them we were heading to AKN Mtech but they had no clue what we were saying so we told them which floor and asked us if it was called ‘Kai An’. Eddie kind of figured it out that how AKN is called in China. We went on top and surprisingly the office looked very much like mine in Phileo. DJ the assistant in charge of Xiamen office greeted us. We hanged around for a while till we were brought to a restaurant near the office; it was an 8-minute walk from the office we got to take in the sights and lights.

Nighttime Xiamen is different from the day all of the buildings are lit with many striking running lights. We walked to what looked like a shopping mall and took the lift to the 6th floor as the door open I was in the restaurant. It didn’t have any doors. I guess the owners wanted to make full use of the restaurant space. Amy and Dj went to place and order while we sat down and enjoyed a nice cold beer, a local brand called Hui Qun. Meal was served there was buttered prawns with green tea leaves (Nice!!), A frog dish, a Fish dish, a pork dish, a beef dish and a French beans dish.

As the food came in front of me, I knew I was expected to eat it as a sign of courtesy and respect to my host. God did I have to lay it thick. I ate the food pretending it was good but deep down it was not really my cup of tea. The food really was extremely oily, I had one of each and drinking much tea and beer to wash it down. After the dinner we headed to browse through the mall. I wanted to see if they had any Nike stuff. I was hopping it would be cheap since its made in China anyway. To my disappointment it was 20% much more expensive that the Malaysian price. They had their own china brands with International ambassadors like Kobe Bryant and Shaq.

What I’m a bout to tell you is the truth and I’m not making this up. I was standing next to Shaq’s poster and Amy who speak very lil English points at me and says Shaq. She is obviously laughing but the shop owner thinks I’m Shaq and whips out a pen and paper for me to autograph. I of course say no but the owner forces me. Eddie shouts at me jokigly to sign the thing and I do. The owner is quite happy thinking Shaq was in her shop.

After the celebrity ordeal we head to this nice karaoke place. China pastime is to karaoke. This was a nice place. As china has vast amount of land it wasn’t stingy with building quite spacious karaoke. The place we went was a 4-story building, with at least 100 rooms in it. Before you think this was some kind of dodgy karaoke picture Red box but more classier. After you book a room at the ground floor you take the escalator to the 1st floor where they have a supermarket where you buy your drinks and tidbits. It was very cheap and then u go to the your room. My room came with a bathroom. Cool.

They sang the night away; I’ve heard some of them as Caroline always play a couple of hers during work time. Suddenly somewhere through the night I was asked to sign an English songs. And in the library they only had Backstreet Boys so I had to sing cheesy songs like Everybody, As Long As you love me, etc. Through the night too we played this game where everybody had a canister and in this canister had 5 dices u shake the canister and guess how many dices no it showed. Obviously being new to the game I sucked at it and I had to drink allot. This all finished at 3 in the morning. What a way to start you business trip.


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