Business trip to Shunde/Foshan, Guangzhou, China.

It is unusual for me to wake up early when I go on trips. Due to the long day ahead and the fact that we are taking the public transport to Foshan(佛山)in Guangzhou today, I woke earlier than usual.

1st,we take a public bus..

I noticed that every time the bus pulls into the last station,there will be cleaners cleaning up the exterior of the bus. Therefore even the air is more polluted,the bus still look cleaner as compared to Singapore..I wonder how often are our SBS buses given a wash..
The interior of the bus is clean and quite comfortable. No matter how far your destination,as long as you are on this route,you pay 2RMB..This is what I call "public" transport..

The bus interchange is at the famous Guangzhou Railway Station..I have never seen so many people walking about all together at the same time before I came here!

We had to take the inter-province' bus at the Provincial Bus Station nearby..

and arrived at Foshan Bus station..

and switched to take a taxi to get to Shunde..

In Shunde district is this approximately 10km(no,I did not type wrongly) stretch selling furniture..the Shunde Furniture Wholesale Market.

It looks something like this..many of them 3 to 5 times the size of Ikea Tampines stretching as far as the eye could see..

In fact, the interior of the furniture super-mall looks very posh and it was really out of my world to know that they are all selling furniture.

..and they classify each section by using the word "World"..not an over statement to me..

After ordering our furniture and confirming the delivery arrangements, we decided to make our way back using a different form of public transport: The Subway!

The thing that impresses me about the subway train service here is the free umbrella rental service. Riders who need an umbrella can rent it by placing a 20RMB deposit and can return it at any subway stations..seems like both bus and subway service is at least a notch above Singapore's "world class" transportation system..(note in the photo below inside the office the Chinese Characters "Service from the Heart"..can someone please teach SMRT these 4 words please?)


Anyway, this trip was finally concluded when all our orders were received and loaded into our waiting container at Nantian to ship back to Singapore..

Business trip to Haizhu, Guangzhou, China.

I have got some China friends here in Singapore. One of them wanted to open another branch for his eatery and wanted to go back to China to buy everything there as it is 5 times cheaper than if were to buy it in Singapore. All my China friends go back to buy due to this reason.

Out of curiousity,I decided to go with him to Guangzhou and we got the '2 to go' offer from Singapore Airlines to fly direct to Baiyun International Airport(白云机场). 

I was seriously not expecting the airport to be pretty modern,in fact, there were upgrading works going on when I was there.



We very quickly got to our hotel,just beside the Nan Tian(南天)Wholesale Market. The hotel is the only tall building in the vicinity named Guang Xuan Hotel(广轩大厦).
This is how my room looks like..

There is basically nothing much around there..Only the wholesale market..


And its really huge! Everything in China seems huge nowadays..

And from early morning to about 6pm..its always a hive of activities. People come from all parts of China and the world to buy China made products here.

Of course,our interest for this trip is in kitchen equipment and we spent a total of about 5 days shopping in this place.(i mean ladies..can you imagine guys shopping non-stop for 5 days??)

After Nan Tian, we also have to order furniture from another prefecture Foshan(佛山).

We decided to take the public transport so that we can compare if Singapore's public transport is really world class like what the operators have claimed.I shall share my report on the next posting.

A night of simple entertainment..

It was the eve of Vesak Day and I have been informed by friends in the drinking circle to 'fall-in' for a night of drinking at Good Cheers Pub.

Under normal circumstances,I would be very happy to oblige.. but I was still recovering from my illness and my body was loaded with a few kinds of medication, so I painfully declined the invitation.

Thus, my Friday evening started with a movie "the Ramen Girl"..it kind of tickled my funny bone such that my friend Alfred thought I was crazy. Straight after the movie, there was a very strong urge for me to eat ramen(you know,the other time alfred & myself saw a stingray swam past the screen,we had a strong urge to eat BBQ stingray too..and we did!), so me & my friend visited a Japanese Restaurant off Upp Thomson Road..Have not visited this place for a very long time, apparently, we over-ordered because we barely made it to 'last order'(..the group that came in after us was send back hungry..) and the irony was that we could not finish our 'ramen'.

After the 10pm dinner,we racked our brains thinking of any location(s) that we could go next without touching any alcohol. Seems to me like there are actually very limited night life in Singapore except drinking places. To cut it short, we ended up in Arab Street vicinity with the intention to smoke the shisha', carefully chose a Reis Turkish Cafe and was seated on a carpet inside.

Along came a 6yr old boy by the name Javier, still in his kindergarten uniform,sat himself down beside me and suggested playing a card came. Boy..his card game' is super boring & meaningless, but Alfred & myself took turns to entertain him while he kept telling us what is going to happen next in the movie on show(think he watched them many times over).My main concern was why Javier was hanging at a place like this since his schooling hours and why he was not tucked in bed yet(he sat with us till we left at almost 3am)? We later learned that his mum is the owner/operator/partner(something like that) of the cafe.

Javier is like a mascot of Reis Turkish Cafe, everybody seems to know him.When I saw Javier, I insisted Alfred to use his phone to snap a picture of Javier with me. He is a very nice kid, well behaved and well mannered..this some how brings out the 'fatherly nature' in me. It makes me feel like its about time for me to be a father! :P Well..I am still a few steps away..must find someone that I can marry 1st.

Maybe I should just make a trip down today to try the Turkish food..but hopefully i'll see Javier again.

Happy Vesak Day !

T T Tan wishes all Buddhists a Happy Vesak Day!

Bangkok- Friends (will you believe in friendship for life?)

People come and go in and out of your lives.

Well, I am certainly not referring to just any strangers because they always come & go anyway.

Does the word 'friend' mean anything to you? Are they just someone you approved to be added to your friend list on Facebook or friendster? What do you really look for in a friendship or rather I should say,who do you really consider your friends to be?

I'll leave you all to answer the questions yourself. For myself, a friend is somebody who had shared a certain part of my life experience with me in good faith,no matter how small that part may be. I may not be able to remember all my friends' name or everything about them,but it is the mutual attitude & respect towards each other that counts instead. They can be a familiar face at work, a neighbour you bump into, a drinking regular at a pub, a hawker at a stall you patronize regularly,a business partner or even someone you hate..the list goes on.

Since I had arrived in Bangkok by train, I definitely will take this opportunity to keep in contact with my friends there. Now that I try to recall,I have known them for years (how time flies) despite not having the opportunities to meet up too often.

P'Ja & Pui told me they are waiting at the MacDonald's at Siam Paragon..we got to learn from this meet-up that there are more than 1 MacDonald's in Siam Paragon because we were at different Mac and could not find each other. Luckily nowadays got mobile phones :P



We made appointment to do a tour of 7 temples in the old district with the rest of the gang..most of them are former school mates from Thammasat. I was very impressed that they took efforts to organize a trip like this to stay in touch so many years from school..Makes me feel like calling a class gathering too.





Another group of friends who have been my long time drinking buddies(our friendship started with a Singapore vs Thailand drinking competition on board a barge on a dam years back) and the meet up for this trip was at their company's Christmas/New Year event.

Just when i thought the party has ended(because we already drank quite some),Nong 'A asked me to abandon Aey and join her gang for disco.We squeezed into a cab and head to Ratchada 4. Got a surprise when we got of the cab and i turned around and counted 7 ladies..I was really shocked the taxi could allow 8 passengers in his cab..up til today,I am still scratching my head wondering how it could be possible..

I felt like i was a Guest of Honour attending their "Girls nite out" becoz they refused violently to let me pay for the bottle of whisky..I have confidence that our friendship will not end even if the drinking stops :) Cheers!

Next up is a group of pretty rude,but very humorous friends..P'Ti & P Aey..They are like my big brothers,always taking care of me,helping me..and they are super good drinkers! Only now I just heard P'Ti has been banned from drinking by his wife because of his poor health..I did not know that the last session we had could be the last 'drinking' session..



I believe in fate and destiny..how u got to know your friends among the billions of people in the world.
I take reference from my Bangkok friends here because these are the groups that even if I have not met them for a long time,when you meet up again,you can know that there is no distance between you.

How many of such friends can you count in your lifetime?
How many friends had you promised to stay in touch with over teary goodbyes when u left primary,secondary,college,army,reservist or even your last job? ..will you remember this friend when you bump into him/her on the streets or you try to look the other way because you cannot remember the name?
A true friend is willing to accept the imperfections you have because if he/she cannot,you may not be friends anymore. People come and go, its part of life.

So can friendships really be for life?

When you lose contact with your friends for whatever reasons, if you remember the happy days together..if you remember what good that he/she done for you..if you hold no grudges and come to terms with the concept of forgiving, friendship can really last forever in your heart for the duration of your life.

Even if there is really no God or heaven or hell and you know you will never get to see your friends again on your dying bed, you will still have good memories of good friends you made in your lifetime.

Today is not Friendship Day..its a normal day just like any other you may find on you calendar,but i'll pay a tribute to all my friends wherever you may be..Thank your participation in my life(in part or in full). Thank you for the friendship!

Of Trains and Stations

The train is often my least frequent mode of transport back home in Singapore(unless you are referring to the subway) and I do enjoy my time on a train. Time on a train is about the journey,it is not as fast as flying, it is noisy, and sometimes,the loo stinks..We could have flown back to Bangkok via Vientiane,but I planned for this train journey and got my friend in Bangkok to purchase the 1st class sleeper tickets way before the actual journey as they are usually sold out.

Hanging around the train station for half a day is really pointless,that I did not plan in advance.However,we observe some things that we normally would not think of..the train is a good cargo transporter judging by the amount of goods unloaded at this out of the way station.

My most distant memories of my 1st train ride were with my parents when i was still a kid.The journey must be to Malaysia..I mean where else can you 'train' to from Singapore?I think back then,the train must have looked like the below picture..non-air-con cabin.

One of my favourite part of the train..they always have a canteen' area where they serve food and drinks.I can barely remember eating an egg back then on the journey with my parents while watching the vegetation and the villages zoom you by.
Nice memories..but since now,since its about the journey,I am glad we were very comfortable in our sleeper cabin.

pardon my socks..I think my sister has got nicer ones.. :P

Nongkhai to Bangkok by train.

After a good night's rest..I was woken up by the sounds of drum beats and trumpets. The music came from a building a few blocks away,I assumed it must be a school band.

As I made my way down to scout around for a breakfast place,I noticed traffic was stopped at the small lanes and the music is drawing nearer..

It was actually some kind of celebration for a bank down the road and the band marched all the way across the town.
I decided to focus on the breakfast I mentioned earlier and came across what I deemed to be a suitable menu for breakfast that day: The Danish Baker.


This kind of reminds me of the Scandinavian Bakery the day before,only that this place is not as cool in weather and here,they offer 2 warm buns!

I also added to my order a chicken pie,since I have not had one for a long while.When the Chicken Pie came up after my 1st set..never did i expect it to be a set too! I thought it would just be a pie.

I took the brown gravy and poured it onto the pie.

The pie was pretty good..but maybe i was too full to really enjoy it.
12pm was the time to check out of our guest house,but our train schedule was at 6.30pm,and with our big bags and boxes of the the famous Vietnamese food,we decided to go super early to the train station and wait till our train is ready to move.


There were not many people there when we arrived..its like we have the whole station to ourselves..With so much time to wait out,we just go around taking pictures..



I did came across a staff napping on the stuffy cabin in the hot sun..


Thinking back..we must have been very bored spending so much time in waiting..

Crossing into Nongkhai, Thailand.

After crossing the border into Thai soil across the Friendship Bridge,my feeling back then was like finally returning to familiar grounds again.

Despite the tattered flag in the above photo,we were really glad to see it again. It signifies our completion of one part of the journey and coming back to a familiar part,altough none of us have ever been to Nongkhai before.

Of course,just like any parts of our journey before this on the trip,we did not manage to book any hotel here and thus,our 1st task in this border town is to look for a place to put up for the night.

Simple,clean air-con room with TV at only 400 baht a night..this place is known as Huan-Lai Apartment.

We only managed to find this place with the help of some very helpful tuk-tuk drivers that picked us up from the bus station. The tuk-tuks here are not like those from Bangkok,instead,they more influenced by the Laos type. Here's a photo of how it looks like..

After putting down our stuff at Huan Lai,we started to go around exploring the surrounding areas. A short walking distance away(about 8 minutes)there is a very huge market where you can find anything from clothing,toys,food and all other necessities.

Right beside this market,if you can find any pathways along the rows of shops or walk through any of the food shops that open up at the other side,you will actually come to a seemingly newly built walkway along the length of the river that overlook the other bank belonging to Laos.
We managed to take a rest right after the sun had set and soon,its time for dinner plans. Our plan back then was..we had no plans. We got a tuk-tuk(since they are so helpful and friendly) and asked him to bring us to the most famous restaurant in Nongkhai.We even asked for him to send us back after that because this restaurant is outside of the town.The price for the ride was 100 baht per trip,but there were really no regrets!
The food was really wonderful!I guess all of us enjoy Thai dishes more..
The 1st to come on the table..Tom Yum Gung..hot,spicy and full of ingredients..its better than what we had in Bangkok.

Then along came "Braised duck with mushroom"..

..and also our usual fried egg with minced pork(I still think this dish in Laos may taste better)..

Last but not least,deep fried shrimp cake..crispy on the outside,juicy and soft on the inside..the photo actually cannot do justice to this dish..

Everything about the dinner was right..the location,the cool weather,the hot food.I really wish to have dinner there again.