06.25.06
little vacation in shekou
Sunday night, home we are, Gordo and I. Each with their own computer.
Back from a small vacation from Shekou.
We used to visit my folks there in Shekou once a month. Lately with much less frequency though.
1.My cousin had a graduation ceremony here in
So Saturday afternoon after I rushed my drafting final about 3 hours earlier than it was supposed to be, Gordo and I were on the way to pick them up and head to Shekou.
Antie and uncle have both aged(what a surprise…), but what I mean is, god I was always a kid and they always looked like young adults, and now I am a young adult and they are a pair of post-middle-aged, slow-metabolism -resulted to overweigh couple. What time did to everybody….wooooo…………..
And I got to practice chaoshanese, a dialect that gordo finds so interesting.It has nothing to do with mandarin or Cantonese—probably interesting because of that.
It is a shame to call guangshen highway a highway, especially on Saturdays. It’s no highway, just a way.It took 2 boring hours to get to my parents home.(The other thing time does to me — its so natural to call my parents’ home “my parents home†while at the beginning of my marriage I had to struggle to shift the naming, and differentiated 2 homes as “this homeâ€and “that home in shenzhenâ€â€¦)
Anyways, we dropped antie and uncle downstairs and had to rush to check in the hotel.
2. Now the hotel is what I am interested to talk about. I’ve been to many decent hotels but this one is the one that impresses me. Not because it’s that luxurious, rich or beautiful.It is actually a residential hotel.(little side notes here:I’m sure the points we’d collected are entitled to a free night stay in the Venice 5 star hotel not far away from my parents’ home, yet I did not make much noise when gordo said he booked a room in a new hotel which we had to pay from our own pocket, cause I also had the curiocity to try, hehehe).
This hotel offered a very peaceful piece of mind and gives a vacation-feel.
First of all because it’s located in the quiet area where its very close to the mountain and looking towards the sea from the other side.The lobby is not grandeur, splendid of sorts, instead its small, with very high glass roof and clean, neat, cozy. One part of the hotel is for longer stay which I guess is used by the petroleum companies to accommodate their expatriates. Little villas, cute looking. The other high building part is for guests like us that stay for a shorter time.
For less than 100 usd, we’d paid for a room, no, an apartment with kitchen, little balcony, toilet , sitting room and one bedroom with huge windows overlooking the hill. It felt like some stranger’s home at the beginning, but after a while I was already walking around barely dressed:P , like its my other resort home….(dreaming… to own a house here…)
Hotel has a nice outdoor swimming pool that I’d been drooling over. Pity I didn’t forsee this and was without proper equipment. Figure they wouldn’t like it if I swim naked.And this is a reason enough to come back again.
Let alone the breakfast. Not a fantastic breakfast with big variety of food but with rmb 40 one eats a good breakfast. Considering I have to pay rmb 200 more in HK just to eat more smoked salmon and the rest of the food only amount to an eye-feast, this is a very worthy breakfast….
Just imagine we could wake up to swim before the breakfast…..woooooooooooooooo……
Its basically the homie feeling and quietness that attact me so much. And ok, enough for the advertisement….
3.We could never find a nice place in Skekou to have dinner.First of all because my dad is soooooooooo easy that he only eats Cantonese food. Then the whole Shekou decide to dine out on Saturday nights to make it more fun. Almost no place to park.We waited until 8tish to leave, and the restaurants were still so full…sigh,at least the bill was small…
4.Every home visit is about eating. For gordo it’s about dieting, but its ok. My stomach is too easy to please.I’d eat anything my parents put in front of my face.Anything.
Serving food is the best way to show love and care in a short period of time. Accepting is the best way to show acceptance.( Am I making sense….?)
Ok, I did not manage all the stuffing, as a result, I took dry pork, dry fish, preserved meat and peanut candy back to panyu. They are my favorite snacks. I have tons of favorite snacks….
The “vacation†ends here. Now I am sitting in the studies with huge windows overlooking a small hill too, and it’s a real home.