Reporting from IMRC 2008 Chongqing (China): Day 4

Had breakfast with Sumathi at 8:00. We should had met Liang at her hotel at 9:00 but we seems a little late, so I called her to wait at the exhibition center. Before 10:00 we met at sesion D. We took taxi to Ciqikou Ancient Town... around RMB30 from the exhibition center. Very nice place... maybe they want to keep its image like Kyoto in Japan. But China is far more civilised than any other country in East-Asia, that makes an ancient town in China more valuable for a visit than any other places in East-Asia (in my opinion lah, other people may have different view).

Took countless number of pictures and videos... and bought many souvenirs. But... alas... you know... I'm a 'kedekut' (mean) guy... all those souvenirs are for my family members, and very close friends in Japan. Others... I MUST say NO! I bring just a small amount of money here... and I'm in a very tight budget. I spent too much before coming here... new bags, new digital camera, new suit, new neck-tie, new black shoe, ... but didn't made any new girlfriend. I like to be single... having a girlfrind is tiring... it's like keeping a hamster in your room. If you don't clean it properly, your room will smell weird. A girlfrind is the same i guess... so, to play safe... being alone is a million times better. I love my life. If I had a girlfriend, it must be very hard for me to go out with my other friends, etc... it might be hard to xplain when your girlfriend get jealous, right? To me, to play safe is not "use condom", but "don't do it"!

[Update: I think I might need a girlfriend right beside me right now... my life is too lonely...]

Ohh... back to my story lah... bought a flower vase (extremely beautiful!), some "gantung-gantung" (hanging) thingy for cars, some "gantung-gantung" things to get good luck ("福"), some foods (like biscuits lah... not sure its name)... etc. The vase is very nice. I would recommend you to go to the Ciqikou if you visit Chongqing, it's a MUST!

At 19:00, Sumathi, Gadkari and I went to the muslim restaurant I went with Songying last Sunday. This time, a little wiser. I ordered a mutton hot-plate (also has meat, but Sumathi and Gadkari is Hindu, so they don't eat meat). And I ordered a Dapanji also (dapanji is like a chicked curry... with potatoes, etc inside, just like Indian curry). We got rice and Nan bread also. You know how much is it? ONLY RMB72! And it feeds 3 person, with some foods left on the table! It's damn cheap! Averyone was so excited, because we spent around RMB100 just to get a plate of nasi goreng/ vegetable curry at our hotel. The food we ate at Ciqikou was also at nearly the same price... RMB78... so generally speaking, RMB60-90 could feed around 3 persons at a good restaurants in this city. Quite OK... just like Malaysia. At cheap places, you can even get a meal at around RMB5/person, but I cannot eat pork/meat so the price I paid for what I got is just nice for me... even though I'm a little bit picky when eating. I remember what Gadkari told me a couple nights ago, "Good people should stay at a good place, and eat good foods!" I agree with that... but for me, I'll try to "Take the best at the lowest cost!" That's my "kedekut" policy... everybody knows that already... haha!