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Never before have I felt so disconnected from my friends whom I have not been contacting.

Thankfully, it has been a rather enjoyable trip to China. This trip to Hainan Island and Guangzhou has indeed opened up my family's eyes. Various lessons have been learnt, especially when dealing with the Chinese people. Yes, although this sounds rather racist, believe me, we Malaysian Chinese are somehow far better than the Chinese in terms of ethics, humanity and many more. I will tell you more later.

As I landed at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), memories begin to flood my mind. I began forming a list of names whom I would contact upon my arrival. And sure enough, I gave them either a "missed call" or a short message or even both the moment I stepped into the terminal. Never before have I felt so disconnected from my friends whom I have not been contacting. Before I went to China, I have been trying my best to keep in touch with all my friends, both from university and from my school, either via MSN Messenger or even Friendster. I felt a sudden need to contact them, and I felt the same upon my arriving at KLIA.

It is also for this reason, I suppose, that I am so eager to write this post. Although I have stated in the chatbox that I am back, it seemed so insufficient.

My travels in China were just a temporary leave from my worries and my dilemmas. Now that I'm back home, I feel the days drawing closer for me to address all my problems once and for all. Soon enough, there will be at least one heart that I have to break by pouring out the truth, and that one heart is actually so tender and so dear to me that I feel so reluctant to do so. Yet, I shudder in terror to think of how even more badly shattered that heart would be if I delay matters.

There have been people whom I have not stopped thinking about while I was in China: my parents, my friends back at home, my friends in university, my one friend in Suzhou (China) and... a crush of mine.

There is a mixture of various emotions running in me: relief, joy, anguish, concern and so on. As I sign off now at 0530 hours, there is this one thing I look forward to.

My day of breaking that one heart. Very heartless of me, I know, but it's for the happiness of the future.

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However, that is strictly not so. While Haikou is very much developed into a big city, Sanya is still lagging behind quite badly (except for a few streets with high-rise buildings). While the people in Haikou are more ethical and more well-behaved, you have to be more careful about your personal belongings if you are in Sanya (that is one of the reasons why I did not take many pictures in Sanya). While the 4-star hotels in Haikou are quite OK, 4-star hotels in Sanya are comparable to those of 2-star hotels. But one thing both have in common: the mentality of the people are still quite poor. I shall explain about it more detail when I return to Malaysia.

There isn't much to see in Sanya, and there is almost nothing special about Sanya. We joined a local tour and it was indeed a regrettable experience. In Haikou, the people are still very honest. In Sanya, in order for the people there to survive, they must resort to cunning tactics that are utterly deceitful, which is in a way a trademark of the Chinese people in China. I'll tell you about my experiences in Sanya later.

Now, what do you say to snorkelling? Yes, I have had the experience of snorkelling here in Hainan. It was indeed a wonderful experience diving underwater at the South China Sea to see all sorts of marine life, from corals to various types of fishes (clownfish, lion fish, etc.) and dangerous species such as the spiked pufferfish and sea anemone. Thankfully there was no jellyfish. Although I'd like to have a picture of me snorkelling to be taken underwater, each picture of it costs RMB35 (which is equivalent to RM17.50). That's expensive! I'd rather take pictures of me snorkelling in Australia or even Pulau Redang!

I've got so many funny stories that have good moral lessons behind them during my travel especially in Sanya and one in Haikou. As my schedule on the Internet is quite tight, I can't write them all here. With that, I shall sign out.

P/S: Brian! OK, I'll take pictures of the food in Guangzhou. Perhaps I'll even get something from Guangzhou as souvenirs for you!

P/S 2: Another eye candy from Blogger. I've changed the settings of my aunt's computer to Dutch, and this is how the Blogger Dashboard and New Post pages would look like in Dutch:

(Bragging "unintended") Did Henry ever mention that he understands some Dutch as well? Well, he can! =p

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How has my trip been so far, you ask? Well, it's nothing short of enjoyable and breath-taking. Let me state this frankly. Haikou, or more specifically Hainan, went through rapid development for the past three years or so. Before 2004, much of Hainan is still rural. Now, skyscrapers fill the air-view. Highways wider than our Malaysian highways are everywhere. New houses are sprouting from every corner. In fact, there are more high-rise buildings in Haikou than Kuala Lumpur! Within a year or two, it can be more advanced than Kuala Lumpur! This is totally the opposite from what we initially expected.

Hainan is an island that is about 600 kilometres away from Guangzhou. Only three years ago the people here were still in poverty. But now, surprisingly very few beggars are seen on the streets. Cleanliness is comparable to that of Singapore although the people's mentality needs some changes (will talk about it next time). The people here are polite and the food is just as good as our Malaysian food! In fact, their taste is very similar to ours!

Communicating with the people here isn't a problem at all for me. I put up my apparently Beijing accent (that Joe and Melissa agreed on) and I did manage to fool some of the locals here. Some guessed I am from Beijing, some thought I am from Shanghai or Hunan. They were surprised when I told them we are from Malaysia. The people in Hainan speak Mandarin which is influenced by the Hainanese dialect accent. Nevertheless, their intonations are clear although the pronunciation may run a bit.

I wonder where Brian's (Gungrave1988) hometown is. He is a Hainanese and here I am, Brian, in Hainan! On the 21st of June, I'll be travelling from Haikou to Sanya (三亚) which is three hours away, so you can imagine how big Hainan Island is generally. On the 23rd, I shall be flying back to Guangzhou (广州) where I shall stay for another three days before flying back to KLIA on the evening of 26th. For those who don't know, Guangzhou is the FOOD HEAVEN of China. In fact, the best food can be found here in Guangzhou. The Malaysian Chinese food that you taste locally are heavily influenced by the Guangzhou taste because the great majority of Malaysian Chinese originate from the area of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton).

Well, I shall be updating you all soon about my overall trip. I shall be posting up pictures as well then. But here's an eye candy and some information for you. You see, in China, Blogger blogs are blocked from being viewed (so even though I can post this I can't view it!), but surprisingly I can log into Blogger to post this! And best of all, by default when I browse into Blogger, everything is in Mandarin! Here are some pictures of the screenshots that I took:

Fortunately I can understand all that is written in Mandarin (although I'm not Chinese educated!). Otherwise I'd have some troubles trying to post this in the first place.

That's all for now. Cheers! Remember, I can't check on how my post would turn out to be. I'd like to ask for assistance from the administrators if my post turns out wrong, as in looking strange or something like that.

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