Being Wise

The Temptations

It has been more than 9 months since the family made a tour to China ; Hangchow-Shanghai to be exact and there are still some matters to be shared.

Before we signed up for the tour we requested for an English speaking tour guide as we were afraid that we might not understand the local lingo. I must confess it was a total shame that we are Chinese and cannot speak the language; not me though...the girls. At some moments I was embarrassed that the tour guide knew our inadequacy and had to bilingually explain everything so much so that by the 3rd day he had already lost part of his voice. Young he may be, he is an ambitious guy already owning an apartment worth 1.5 million ringgit in Hang Chow. An only child, he told us that he sees his parents very few times a year due to his tight schedule. His mum will know when to visit him as her instincts tells her that it's time to clean up his apartment. He feels sad that his parents travel by train from the village to visit him and then he disappears before any meaningful time is spent. There is a price to pay for everything.

He introduced us to the famous 'siew loong pau' where the queue was a mile long. But it was out of the world.

In a village he introduced this fruit which for the life of me I cannot remember its name which sent dad to the toilet the whole night through. We kept ourselves away from it after the episode.

You don't have to buy ... but when he brings you to a factory outlet and you see live silk worms yourself you lose your discretion and just buy...

Everyone of them carted a silk scarf away which I believe is dumped in the closet now ... of no use anymore.

After losing his voice on the trip, the guide told us that the greatest remedy for the situation is to drink tea ; the longin tea. You don't have to buy too if you are disciplined. We were too mesmerised by the special performance on its goodness so we bought...in the thousands. No discretion again.

Wow when you see how they peel the oyster and you see for real the pearls... the womanly vanity in you cause you to lose mind and heart and you just forget its price ... you lose discretion and buy again. Hey, don't buy if you can...for the pearls will probably land in some drawers and you forget to wear them.

Busy fixing ... thinking the world of it ; very little discretion. You wanna buy the best and you think you have got the best...use your discretion.



Who can resist? Listen to me...resist.

The guide again brought us to a KFC outlet in Shanghai and told us that Malaysian KFCs don't serve egg tarts; so true. He confirmed that they were the best ever; even better than those in Macau. So we ate egg tarts in a KFC outlet. Not too bad.

But he's wrong now. The egg tarts have arrived at the Malaysian doorstep ! Now is the time that you need no discretion ... buy and eat.



How about this for good discretion? Sara wrapped herself to keep herself away from the dust and mite and lamented all the way about crowds. She has very strange manners in handling problems. But her ways can be revolutionary and practical at times too. Missing her.

So much for good buys. How is it each time we make a trip somewhere, uppermost in our minds is to buy, buy, buy. I have told myself again and again to resist but it fails. Nevertheless, I will still attempt to use more discretion the next time I travel and exercise more discipline.

But, but, but... I will still pamper myself whenever I deem fit and forget about discretion !