Our second day in China consisted of eating, shopping and travelling from Zhuhai to Humen by car.

One could fall in love with China if you knew the places to go to!

Our day started off at the hotel cafe for breakfast.

It wasn’t a good choice because the food was rather blah, but it was raining outside and VERY COLD and we (the girls) didn’t feel brave enough to venture out in search of food.

Back to the hotel room to pack after breakfast!

(Although it seems like we were doing everything but pack.)

We had a few hours to shop in Zhuhai before having to make the trip to Humen. There’s this huge shopping centre, just beside the border to Macau, which has pretty decent stuff. We left our luggages at the hotel and went shopping.

The mall is huge! Minou and I kept getting lost! We tried to shop systemically so we didn’t miss any spots but it was impossible. (The guys were off doing their own thing.)

There’s a bus stop inside the mall. Heheh.

Shortly after, Elyxia flew over from Hong Kong to join us for part of our holiday.

We had a snack of roast goose, char siew pau, soup and vegetables before leaving for Humen. Well, it was supposed to be a snack until someone went to order so much food.

The food was quite lousy, though. Strike two!

You can find private “taxis” for rent on the streets. They will take you to other cities/towns for a fee.

There was this guy who was so insistent on getting our business that he followed us for, like, 100 metres as we walked down the street, while the Goonfather bargained with him.

It was finally settled and we told him we’d call him when we needed him. I think we got it at S$72 (RMB350) for a 1.5-hour ride.

While waiting for our vehicle:

We kinda got conned. The guy told us he would get us a 7-seater. (There were five of us + the driver.) We ended up getting a small, beat-up, 5-seater sedan.

The Goonfather didn’t feel like bargaining for another hundred metres so we endured being squashed for more than an hour.

Along the way, we saw this abandoned structure where someone had spray-painted his grievances for the world to see.

“Grant me justice,” it says, “Give me back my company and properties.”

I don’t understand the line on the right. Anyone knows?

It was dark by the time we arrived at Humen.

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE THE HOTEL IN HUMEN!!! <3 <3 <3

It’s so cheap, S$34 per person per night for twin-sharing, yet looks so grand and majestic!

It’s called Oriental Glory Hotel (东方锦河大酒店). Ironically, the lobby is decorated with Victorian-inspired chairs.

Inside the elevator:

The room is nice and spacious, and the bed very comfortable!

The only dodgy thing is the blinds covering the glass wall between the bathroom and the bedroom. It’s kinda broken and doesn’t cover very well, lol.

What I really love about China hotels is that they all provide free wi-fi. The only downside is that their sockets are different from ours so we need to use an adapter. But the hotels provide them so it’s not so bad.

This hotel even has PCs in every room.

Of course, the other big downside, as we all know, is that you can’t access Facebook, Twitter and Plurk in China. T_T

The Goonfather then took us to the shopping district in Humen for a quick tour before dinner. It’s full of shopping centres, many of them specialised centres. At night, the shopping comes out into the streets, too!

Dinner was perfect. No strike three!

Almost everything was good!!!

They have flavoured Tsingtao beer, about eight different flavours. I tried the grape beer, which is quite nice! It tastes sort of like if you mix F&N Grape with beer. Haha.

A cold cucumber dish. It was so good we ordered another plate near the end of dinner!

Another crowd favourite, a fatty beef dish cooked with salt and pepper:

Baby lobsters marinated with peppercorn oil:

This was really hard to eat cos there’s so little meat. But tasty!

The only thing I didn’t like that meal: Man tou with condensed milk. The bun is tough and the condensed milk tastes like White Rabbit Candy.

Oops, I forgot what this dish is. Some chicken thing. Very good. And very spicy:

(Most of the dishes were spicy.)

Corn with pine nuts:

Mala fish:

I was only okay with it until I discovered the huge bunches of giant tau gehs inside. I didn’t take a photo of the bunches cos I was busy eating them up, but here are a few strings… all that was left by the time I was done and remembered to take a photo. =P

Hmm… I forgot to take a photo of the mutton satay (Chinese-style). I hope we’ll have a chance to go back to Humen again because I love the food!

We went to a foot spa after dinner. There were seven of us by then (two more friends joined us from China) and we got an eight-pax room.

This is the spa where the receptionists wear red Cinderella-style ball gowns. They didn’t allow me to take photos, though. Sad.

The Goonfather said it’s because the girls are ashamed of working in massage parlours and don’t want to be seen.

I LOVE THE FOOT SPAS IN CHINA.

While soaking your feet, they massage your body. Then they massage your feet. Then they massage the rest of your body. (It’s all dry massage with clothes on, except the feet.) Very, very nice! And you can just add hours on the spot so they’ll massage you for as long as you like.

It costs about $8 an hour.

The girls are really sweet and friendly, chatting and joking and giggling with each other and with us all night. It turned out to be a really fun social activity.

I was originally planning to blog while having my feet massaged. The Goonfather didn’t tell me they also massage the rest of your body, so I ended up not being able to blog at all, duh.

I even took a cab from our dinner place back to our hotel to get my netbook while the guys were finishing their beers, then cabbed to the spa to meet them.

DUH WASTE MY TIME.

By the time we returned to our hotel, it was, like, 2 or 3 am, and I only had a few hours of sleep left, so NO BLOGGING.

That’s the trouble with holidays. Never enough time!