Our weekends actually started early here since my husband have to works on the weekend too. He switched his day off to Thursday and Friday, which is great too because when we go places it won't be as crowded as the actually Saturday or Sunday.
Yesterday he took us for lunch at the one and only Indonesian restaurant in GZ named Pandan. The traffic just to go there was really bad it took us almost an hour but I'm glad when we got there because the ambiance is great and very Indonesian. The food however for me is just okay, isn't the best. Like Daniel (the Indonesian guy that run the place) explained to my husband they have to alter some of the food to better suit the local Chinese palate and they have to just do with whatever ingredients available here. FYI, it is quite difficult to find some of the unique Indonesian ingredients here such as the sweet soy sauce. Daniel wasn't there as he's back in Indonesia shopping for the restaurant. We did however met some Indonesian college students from Jakarta there, they've been studying here for 2-3 years, long enough to make them feels like home.
After lunch, we went to Beijing Lu (Beijing Street) one of the famous shopping area in GZ. We were quickly 'greeted' by guys trying so hard to sell us knock offs wrist watches. From Armani to Rolex, you name it. These guys were persistent too as one of them actually kept following us until we're well off a few meters inside the area.
Beijing Lu is super crowded with plenty of stores from branded familiar names to McDonald and KFC, even Bread Talk (pretty famous bakery in Jakarta). I was so intrigued by the showcases of old Chinese underground city that you can look through a glass. Unfortunately, its one of the hardest thing to take picture of as the glass reflects so much. We walked down further and further until we reached the Pearl River. One of the famous spot of GZ. We will have to try the night Pearl River cruise one of these days.
There were plenty of street photographer alongside Pearl River offering a shot or more (the better) to passerby. They're equipped with a printer mounted on a bycycle or a motorbike. For a fraction of RMB (the Chinese money is called Yuan but locals here called it RMB) you can have your pictures taken. We opted out of this though and I just took some pictures of my own while we stroll. It's quite clean and according to Red Army (he works with my husband but since his Chinese name is a bit hard to pronounce, he said my husband can call him by the english translation of his name, which literally translated to Red Army), Pearl River is a lover's lane especially on Saturday night.
While we were waiting for a taxi to go home, a Chinese lady, slightly middle age came up to us out of nowhere and started talking in Chinese and touching Alex, not only touching his cheeks actually she was also pinching his nose. I was baffled but don't know what to say as it was obvious she does't speak english but she had scared Alex. After that women left, I quickly wiped his face with a baby wipes. But to my horror, as I fished for a baby wipes package from inside my bag, I turned around and looked at the women walking off, I can see people were avoiding her and she was still chattering to herself, even scratched her bottom. We were shocked to say the least, but you wouldn't think that this women is mentally ill or something because she doesn't look dirty and she seemed normal although a little bit too cheerful. After seeing that I scrubbed Alex's face even more.
After we got home my husband said he's glad we are not living in downtown GZ as not only the traffic is so bad but the pollution level is very high. You can just smell the pollution in the air and as you stand by the pearl river you can see the haze clearly. That sights makes me appreciate our place here where you can still see blue skies.
Hope you guys will have a great weekend.
Oh and because my internet is super slow here (that's why I typed and saved this first then copy paste it) I won't be able to visit most of your postings especially checking out the pictures as by the time the pictures are done loading, Alex will get himself into something LOL.
