China Journals 8: A Trip to China Without Lumpia and Pancit

Sunday; April 30, 2006

• Pechay farewell
• $45 meal and 3km dash
• Sa wakas, mga FALAPINOE!

Bitter aftertaste of booze, body aching from the contortionist’s sleeping position and still high from the laugh-trip ala-SIYAM-SIYAM. I shouldn’t have chugged-down Liquor number 2. Haaaayyyy… This is how I woke-up on my last day in China. DAMN! 5am is too early!

Today’s activity: ferry ride to Hong Kong then flight back to the Philippines.

At the Shenzhen’s seaport, we bade farewell to each other and took pictures on the process. I still couldn’t believe that the 8 days trip to China was over. Time sure flies especially when you are enjoying every moment of it. Choosing to sleep 2 hours a day is a hint. Saying goodbye is not a big deal… when bonds isn’t strong. Our group had a good relationship maybe because we were divided by mainly two age ranges. Our parents are all aged 50 ±5years. Our young group ranged from 16 to 23. Aside from the age range, most of us shared common interests, same schools, same friends. We also came to China enjoying pechay and left loathing it. HEHE!

Our group almost got separated at the airport. Eight of us were still on the boarding area when the ferry started to move. I dunno what the reason was but we all managed to board the ship. It was a short 40 minute cruise. We landed at the Hong Kong Seaport which was located at the same area of the airport.

Hong Kong International Airport is gargantuan! It is the biggest thing I ever saw. It is so immense, it has its own train station that transport passengers from terminal to terminal. It has a shopping center INSIDE as large as most of the malls we have here. We were waiting at terminal 45 when I got hungry. I asked my mum for money. She gave me $2 US and $30 HK. Carlo and Lora, my sibs, accompanied me to buy snacks. We thought that the snack bar was just near but to get there, we took 10 walkalators, 5 escalators, countless aisles, a total of 20 minutes. Finally, we reached the snack bar. EGAD! One meal costs more than 30 bucks?! SHIT! We went there for nothing? It couldn’t be. I searched my wallet for remaining change and I was lucky enough to find a $20 HK bill. (Note: I got this bill from Herbert’s (a thesis mate) last trip to HK. THANKS HERBERT!)

On the way back to the terminal, we rode a train. This chopped down our travel time by 10 minutes. We arrived there just in time. The plane was boarding. CEBU PACIFIC. At last, stewardess I could actually talk to!

2 hour later…

FAREWELL PECHAY! It's funny how we stayed in Shanghai without tasting lumpia, Cantonese Shenzhen without pansit and siomai, Beijing without fetus and Panda meat. LOL