FAQ

I've been having this intermittent problem of not being able to see my own blog and this is one of those moments again. So, in response to the question from Duanneng, the answer is "probably yes" and to landd, i am determined to save 50yuan a day for 1.5years to fund future travels, heh heh.

And lately, i have been fielding questions from all manner of curious friends, ex-workmates, and kaypohs so to save myself from having to repeat my answers all the time, i will publish them here.

• Q: So..how long have you been here?

• A: The last i counted, 5 months 2 days and 4 hours...

• Q: How's work going?
• A: Its going.. Has its ups and downs, learnt tons of stuff you can get on text books. Expanding my repertoire which is great. Getting to know Chinese working culture (which can be uh, challenging at times). Cafeteria lunch tastes the pits though.

• Q: Do you like living in Hangzhou?
• A: Yep, pretty much so. Its freezing cold in winter with no indoor heating, and blazing hot in summer (already 37 degrees today and its only beginning of summer). Plus the reckless driving here makes me fear for my life each time i'm in any sort of vehicle, or just trying to cross the road. But apart from that, its very green, lots of hills just within the city itself where i can escape to for fresh air, peace and quiet. There are different flowers in bloom throughout the year instead of just boring bouganvilleas and orchids in Singapore. In feb, there were magnolias. March -plum blossoms. April - Tulips. May/ June - i don't know what they are called.
• Taxi drivers here don't try to rip you off and taxi queen here has taken a taxi way too frequently. Buses are easy to navigate. Its generally a wealthy, developed and clean city for China, with a good standard of living for locals, has lots of affordable Chinese and Western restaurants, cafes and bars. It's not as big and polluted as Shanghai and if i really need to go there, its only 80mins away by bullet train.
• Carrefour saves lives with pasta sauce, pasta, and good cheese.

• Q: How much is beer here? (Yes that was a real question that someone asked)
• A: Tsingtao is only 10rmb (SGD$2) during Happy hour. Tiger beer 20 RMB for half-pint. And in fancy restaurants, its double the price. I've found restaurants selling Siwo (Xihu) beer for only 5RMB with the yummiest beef satays to go along. And another place with G&Ts so strong i've keeled over after just 2.5 of them. and they are only 30rmb. Huangjiu (yellow wine) is the local favourite and a specialty from this region. If you dare, go for Baijiu, the local potent drink that's only 7.5 RMB a bottle. Its so strong you can get high just from the fumes alone.

• Q: Do you foresee yourself staying here for long?
• A: Too early to say but the cheap beer might be swing a vote. Just kidding. i honestly have no idea.

• Q: Has your Chinese improved?
• A: Yes, from being an idiot in January, i have graduated to writing presentations, marketing articles, and business documents and arguing in Mandarin. But i still delete lengthy emails from the admin department in my company because it still gives me a headache to read long rubbish, useless paragraphs of chinese text. Nonetheless, i feel a sense of accomplishment.

• Q: What do you normally after work? Do you have a life? Any friends?

• A: Yes i'd like to think i do. i signed for yoga a few months ago so i do that 2-3 times a week. Now i can finally touch my toes. I'm working on a hand-stand next. I go out for dinner with my colleagues couple days a week. Sometimes we go for retail-therapy together. They managed to drag me to a karaoke once. Polite refusals and excuses to sing ("but i don't know any chinese songs!") were futile because they found me a Boyzone song. But they've been immensely helpful and patient with my stupid-foreigner questions ranging from "Where do i pay the electricity bill?", "How does xyz work?" to "Do you really eat duck's tongue?". (Answer to the last question is yes). On weekends i sometimes go out to explore bits of Hangzhou. Recently i've joined the hash hounds here in Hangzhou so every sunday we are out running in the hills, and i get to have a decent chat in English. We share our tales of woe. We share information about where to have really good sandwiches or buy pasta sauce. Intake of alcohol units have increased significantly again (as evident from my beer research). When i don't feel like sharing space with my fellow 6 million comrades in the city, i stay home to read, listen to music, do housework.

• Q: Are you dating?

• A: Yeah but i prefer to keep it low profile for now so i'm not entertaining any further questions about it.

• Q: Really??! Who?! What?! Since when?! Where?! How?! How many?!

• A: see answer from above.

• Q: what do you miss in Singapore?

• A: Friends. Family. Food. Cleanliness. Zouk/ Velvet. Swimming. Kinokuniya. Safe roads

"Pero el viajero que huye tarde o temprano detiene su andar."