Shen Zhen (5th - 10th Dec 2008) - what I see...

I have been thinking about how to summarise this Shen Zhen trip. It's more of a "get-to-know-your-family" trip for my husband and sister-in-law (HL) as we went to visit my father-in-law's brothers and sister living over there. Since it was also my very first "visit my overseas relatives" trip, I didn't really have much expectations. But still, there were things to be shared...

Before we even landed in Shen Zhen, there was already some bit of action on the budget airline we were travelling in. Anyway for HL, the husband and myself, we decided that this shall be the first and last time we are travelling on a budget airline. Call us pampered or spoilt or whatever, but we are never ever going to sit in that tiny space with my knees practically pressing to the back of the seat in front of me, and those to-and-fro 6 hours plus flight time were most likely the only time I felt myself sitting so upright in my entire life.

Anyway, back to the story. Please refer to the picture below.


The husband and I were seated at 24D and 24E, and this uncle and was sitting behind his kids at 23C. Sometime along the way, he started to play with his kids by pushing and pulling their seats front and back, which we were sure that he did forcefully, in another words, spoiling the mechanics of the seats. This was only the "lead-in".

The "main show" happens when we were approaching landing time, when we were supposed to get the seats upright. I didn't know what came over him, maybe he was soooo excited to be taking the budget airline for the very first time in his entire life, he started to hold back onto the foldable table edge to prevent his son from pulling his seat upright. Then we heard a "pop" and hello, the table just popped down and the pin or whatever it is securing the table was bent outwards. The uncle could still laugh and turned to the person beside him to say something while trying to secure the table back. But it didn't seemed to work that well. Just when he thought he got it secured, the table popped right down when the plane started to descend.


To the Uncle wearing glasses with a white polo top with squared patterns, at seat 23C on flight TR952, leaving Singapore on 5th Dec 2008 at 1915hrs to Shen Zhen : We saw, we remembered, we shared.



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The place where my father-in-law's sister is staying at is like a privatised area, with their own entry gate and private guard house, except that the area and the number of buildings in the area is much much more than what we have as a private condo area here.

According to their building code, or whatever it is called, only buildings with 9 or more floors are allowed to have lifts at each storey. So, with their block at only 8 stories high, we have to climb up and down the stairs so many times that I have lost count. And it didn't help that they are staying on the 5th floor and my stupid foot was starting to hurt again.

Anyway, my father-in-law said he was considering to go and stay there, which I felt was not too bad a place for retirement. Even though the apartments were a symbol of modernisation, the feel about the place is still very laid back and relaxed. Neighbours were out chit-chatting with one another while the kids play with one another, and they even brought tables to play cards and mahjong outdoors.

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The place where my father-in-law's youngest brother is staying, is the older, typical Chinese houses, where we entered into a open courtyard and then on one side is the living room and bedrooms, and the opposite side is the kitchen area. It's not as big as those shown in movies, just a humble little house, with their water supply coming from underground.