China Trip 5.0

[Pineau]

Will, where I lived if you found an all female barber shop it wasn't really a barber shop.  5 girls and only 1 barber chair. What do you think they were doing with the extra help?

[brett]

That must be a Zhongshan thing. Never seen women cut hair in Guangzhou. The ones in our local [legit] salon seem to be employed just to show the customers to their stylists.

I saw so much today it's hard to take it all in.

Saw the hawker again who has the amazing water pump in a bag. I'm only learning Mandarin so I can ask him how on earth it works, and how he makes money out of it. My suspicion is that he sells super strong magnets that you can maybe use to stop your water meter from working  .

I think I've got a part time job as an English teacher. It was inevitable really, given I'm one of only half a dozen native English speaking students in the whole place. Virtually all the students I'll be teaching are girls. It's a tough job but somebody's got to do it  .

Got 77% in my Mandarin test so I might progress to class 2 of 9. At least I don't have the humiliation of getting relegated to class 0.

Found some great beef jerky stuff in the supermarket. Maybe it's only a matter of time before I start buying packets of duck tongues, pork hair and chicken feet.

I saw something new - a load of armed police attending some kind of incident. Maybe a robbery. This neighborhood is a bit rough around the edges, probably because when the old airport was there the place would have been a few hundred feet from the end of the runway. But it's not as bad as the place in Baiyun my date and I ended up after getting on the wrong bus back in 2011.

I'm surprised there aren't more robberies and other incidents here though. The Chinese girls here aren't very streetwise. I often see them crossing the road without looking, and of course there are the many people who walk down motorways, drive bikes towards the traffic or the girls who walk in perilously high platform shoes  .

Saw traffic accident #11 today - Willy leave your new car in the driveway!!!! There's no point driving up here now anyway, I've bought up this Carrefour's entire stock of Heinz Beans so who knows if they'll ever get them in again.

[brett]

Cheers for the tip, ChinaBound.

Of course Willy has probably already driven up there and bought up anything worth eating!

Went to a Westerner bar tonight with an American guy who's passing through Gz on the way to somewhere else. They had an impressive menu of Western food including some nice Mexican stuff, but of course it's pretty pricey. Also I've finally found a place that sells cider, but at 60RMB a bottle it'll have to be for special occasions only  !

How massive will the culture shock be when I return to the UK in July? I fear it will be so totally huge that I will go mad. I can barely remember living in the UK now - it seems like a distant memory. But hopefully I'll recover my senses enough to pack my suitcase full of stuff that is seriously expensive here. So far I've discovered chocolate and health supplements (especially cod liver oil!) could be good to bring next time, I'm sure there's loads of other stuff.

[Willy The Londoner]

You be careful when packing your food stuffs in the UK to bring here! It could end up cheaper to buy here at very high prices than pay the excess charge on overweight suitcases and hand luggage!

When I came back early last year I bought back too much, not all foodstuffs though, and also met up with an over zealous check-in clerk and it cost me over 240 US Dollars in excess baggage. But the second trip in September was with my wife and we could share the load between us.

I am going back for a week next month to attend my eldest sisters birthday and attend to a bit of business and this time there is very little in the way of food stuff that I will need to bring back.

Willy

[brett]

Don't worry - I spent ages weighing my suitcase in February  . This time will be easier as I can leave a load of stuff here, plus I know what's easy to buy here now.

I don't have much stuff here though. My friend's apartment has boxes full of junk, but I'm enjoying my minimalist lifestyle. Plus if I get fed up with this place I can go live somewhere else.

If you want to maximise your luggage allowance maybe you can buy one of those fabric suitcases the migrant workers use  !

[Willy The Londoner]

If you want to maximise your luggage allowance maybe you can buy one of those fabric suitcases the migrant workers use  !

Have you ever seen how many of those are burst open going round and round at the arrival airports baggage arrival.

Willy

[brett]

Nope, I've still much to learn about China  . Still, today's lesson learnt was NEVER travel on Chinese Mother's day  .

[brett]

Well I'm just about hanging in there in this crazy place  . 3 consecutive days of thunderstorms, and my apartment's still here!

My Mandarin is getting better and it's great that our class are talking to each other in Chinese, plus a combination of Spanish, French and English. I can now read quite a few bus timetables, and I was pleased to be able to do a big circuit of the city the other day, and all without pre-planning my trip.

Oh, and I seem to have a new lady - Miss Huang  .

The latest is that we are going to Macau and/or Hong Kong together. I don't know when but it will probably be super short notice. It reminds me of when I met the stunning Miss Xiang - the first I knew she was coming to meet me was when she phoned me up to tell me she was in Guangzhou East station  .

Anyway, Miss Huang is very special and much less of a princess than Miss Xiang. She's actually been on my QQ for ages but I kind of overlooked her. My sister thinks she is my best lady so far. As well as having the most spectacular legs ever, she's also great to talk to. She's as fun as Miss Woo was. And she's got that mysterious something that so few women here have.

On the downside she lives in another city and spends incredible hours in work. So it seems I'm back to long distance relationships, lmao. Still, at least we're in the same timezone  .

Well if things turn out OK I'll bring her to meet Mr and Mrs Willy.

Incidentally, she's from Guangxi and is the first girl I've dated from there. Hmm, maybe this has been an overlooked province?

By the way, if any more guys are coming here I've managed to make contact with an introduction agency with 1000's (maybe millions!) of ladies on their books. And there are any number of friends/friends of friends I can introduce you to  . The standard of lady here is just incredible  .

[Willy The Londoner]

Probably disappeared again in embarrassment.

Willy

[David E]

Management rule # 1

"If they are looking for you....hide.
"If they find you....................lie

 

[Willy The Londoner]

Management rule # 1

"If they are looking for you....hide.
"If they find you....................lie

 

Wow. So I have been following the words of the Perth Philosopher for years then.

Willy

[Henry]

Hi Brett,
I am a newbie, so I am kinda intimidated and careful.... LOL.
I have laughed so hard reading your posts and the "brothers'" answers, I do not remember the last time like it.
Thanks for sharing your experience... Well, I am thinking of getting about 6-9 months off my job, starting Jan 2014, and live in China, learn the language, and experience life as I imagined it would be (tough times included).

Well, I am stuck with ChinaLove because of the large amount of $ and resources I "invested" there... i kinda know that I've got to stop kiddin' myself and quit this sh..! But, it is hard man, just like gambling!!! I actually got off gambling when I was young, and wouldn't touch it with a 6-feet pole, but CL is different...
I'd love to meet you in Guangzhou if you are up to it, and if you like scotch, a fine bottle would be on me with great pleasure.
Your "li'll bro" Henry.

[Willy The Londoner]

Brett is like the Scarlet Pimpernal. 'They seek him here, they seek him there but where is that damned allusive pimpernal.'

He comes and goes like a 'Will of the Wisp'.  But maybe hiding from the authorities now?

He has not visited this forum since his latest exploits were exposed for what they are a couple of weeks back.

Sharing a bottle of Whiskey? When we met up it was a lot of work to get him to share a bottle of beer! Let alone spirit.  He is a day dreamer with no interactivity with real women. The lady I set him up with to join us at dinner did not get a word from him all evening and she speaks good English.

Both his blog and website have been taken down now as it contained photos taken in secret of ladies going about their normal day to day activity in the street. Mainly those in shorts, taken from the back showing their butts and legs, and not one of the 'DOZENS of beautiful ladies' he has said he dated in the last couple of months.

He is without doubt a modern day Walter Mitty.


Willy

[Henry]

Hi Willy,
great to meet you! I've been reading the exchanges... Well, it is on me, as a junior, to bring a single malt scotch along and offer humbly!

I hope to see you and your wife in a wonderful occasion...

Henry

[Henry]

Do you mean one bottle of scotch won't do, and must carry a second in my handbag just in case?!
Gents, I am humbled by the congeniality and the wealth of information...

I read the "Seven things..." There are new questions in my mind that I never asked before... I see the point now, why take the time to make the choice (or the compromise) that works for me.

One issue that I have come across is the way "pieces of personal information" are manipulated, or just the "imagination" of the lady (or translator) in the on-line match making sites. The total amount of BS in the letters that I have received...

In real person-to-person dating in China, is there the same kind of staggering exaggeration in background, family status, wealth, world travel experience, education...?