However, based on whatever interaction I had and saw, dealing pretty much with the souvenir sellers, they can be 'loud' and absolutely thick face. Sometimes, they are so persistent in selling like it's a life or death situation for them. And for that, I really admire their salesmanship.

Most waitresses are not so 'sociable' nor smile a lot. They would come with a dish and pronounce the dish in a manner where they do not care whether you heard it or not, leave the dish on the table and vanish!

The tour-mates in my group are just wonderful! Yes, I'm the youngest among them - the rest are all aunties and uncles and grandmas and grandpas! The best is that all of them speak Hakka! So, when Mr. Wong has something to say to us on the bus, he speaks in Hakka and this leaves our Xiao Kuok a bit out of spot!

Some of them take up dance class - rumba, cha-cha and tango! One of the ladies is 67 years old but my mom says she has the mind of an 18 year old. Very sporting and energetic. Some of them can crack really funny jokes. Mr. Wong cracks jokes like he's an expert in it. Sometimes we ask him to sing songs and tell us some jokes which he does obligingly. There was one song by the late Teng Li Chin where Mr. Wong changed a bit of the lyrics and had us all laughing like mad. I don't know the title of it but one of the verse had the meaning where - 'i remember but you already forgot, even my name you say incorrectly'. He changed it to something naughty to mean like 'i remember but you already forgot, even the place you touched me is incorrect'. And so goes where the entire song has the words 'touch' to replace the verbs that occur in the song!

The reason for the specific likeness in the 'touch' word is that each morning when we have all gathered in the bus, Mr. Wong would wish us a 'Good Morning', stressing the word 'Morn' to 'more' where it means touch in Chinese. He asked us to touch and feel whether our passports are with us just to make sure.

Initially, Xiao Kuok told us that for them, Beijing or China people in general, a normal greeting would be 'Ni che le mah? (have you eaten yet?)' And not 'Ni hao' (how are you). Beijing people are mostly not that hardworking. They would prefer to go home on the dot and most will take a rest at home instead of going out. He says a majority of men would be sitting in the their homes and fanning themselves to while away the time.

I like to watch the people in Beijing cycling. They can be more aggressive than cars! I always felt that these cyclists had to almost knock the bus before they brake. Then I realized I was sitting at the end of the bus. That's why these cyclists think that the bus is going to move on soon.

You've got to be quite an efficient driver to drive in Beijing city. It's a huge city with very good road planning and big, big buildings (unlike ours - tall buildings). You have to know the roads well and have to take care of the cyclists!

Mr. Wong mentioned something that I feel the same too. He says where in the world could you find so many people cycling so well-dressed, with ladies wearing pretty make-up and high-heels. Hey, this is a catchy phrase - 'high-heels on wheels!'

Mr. Wong challenged his tour members that he would give $50 to anyone who dares to wear formally and cycle around his hometown in Kuala Klawang. By the way, most of the members are either from Kuala Klawang or from Titi, Jelebu.

There was even a time when we saw a gwailo couple kissing in front of a shop, and Mr. Wong challenged any of us to the same in public and he would give $50 too! Err... nobody took the challenge upon knowing that he meant 50 dollars of rupiah money!

The responsibilities of our tour guides were pretty heavy. They have to make sure everything is alright - hotel accomodation, food and our overall wellbeing. Have to make sure that all of us are there whenever we're touring. Twice, both Mr. Wong and Xiao Kuok were alarmed when one of our members did not turn up at a mentioned waiting spot. It happened once at the Forbidden City where the search for the missing member was made more difficult with the large number of tourists around. We had actually gave up finding her, fortunately, we found her again at the next tour area in the Forbidden City. She couldn't find us and thought we'd already went ahead.

Although all of us have been thought that should this event ever occurred, we only need to get a cab and return to our hotel, Mr. Wong looked really worried. Goes to show he's heavy on responsibilities.

We thought that that event served as a reminder for us to stick together as much as possible but then it happened again during our trip at the crystal factory/store! Xiao Kuok says he feels so 'useless' that he could actually loose a person in a store pulak. Well, they found her too after 15 minutes of searching.

It's a small world when I found out that one of the members, Pau Chu, is a former schoolmate of my ex-secondary schoolmate, Chew Yen. No wonder she looked so like her. And the funny thing is that the tour members who took up dance classes were so familiar. I'd actually seen them performing at Chew Yen's wedding! They are from Titi, Jelebu, a small town where you can say 'everybody knows your name'.

I think it's such coincidence that our bus driver is quite well-trained as a dancer! He was actually showing his 'moves' to some of our tour members and you can tell he's got a flexible body and sways confidently. He actually works as a bus driver during the tourist peak times and as a dancer on other times!

As for Xiao Kuok, he's a university graduate and majored in Chinese History. He's 25, a bit chubby and cute! Please do not mistake that I'm head over heels over him! As you know me, I take a pretty long while for someone to actually pull my heartstrings and he's got to be someone whom I can talk to comfortably and vice versa. And let's not dwell into this irrelevant issue - this has nothing to do with the trip!

Of course, it helps that one can get a bit of infatuation with this guy! So there's a bit of inspiration for each day! Sometimes, he looks so cool with his black specs - really! My mom simply adores him as he's quite gentleman with mom - always helping her with her steps when need be and helped carry her stuff while at the Great Wall and taking pictures for us. He knows that I can't converse much in Mandarin as I told him so 'coz I felt that I needed to explain the reason why I didn't pay much attention when he's talking in the bus.

I do hope that he's found his bride-to-be. He mentioned to us that after this tour, he was to go for a 'siong tai' (a matchmake) by his parents. To him, he's afraid that the other party does not like him even if he felt otherwise.

I thought that it was quite sweet of him to talk a bit of his personal side. Initially, he was quite serious and I thought that he's going to be one of those 'detached' tourist guide who are just doing their jobs. But I think he learned from Mr. Wong. Later, he got a bit warmer and can be humourous as well.

As for Mr. Wong, I guess I'd already praised him a great deal. He knows about my language problem and so kindly offered some explanations in Hakka and English to me whenever there were important areas or points of interests. He would obligingly lead us around the streets even though he can choose not to do so as his job does not include guiding us through the streets of China. He makes sure our food have already arrived and then only he exits himself for a meal with Xiao Kuok and the bus driver at another table. He treats everyone on the bus with some tit-bits. (Xiao Kuok did that too). He helped me get some salt from a restaurant for my mom's sore throat. I think I'd probably left out other good deeds he had done. Anyway, should you be on tour with this guy, you can rest assured that your trip is guaranteed of excellent service!

Here's some pictorial explanations:

This is a candid picture I took while on the bus of Beijing cyclists. They have a special lane for these cyclists at most of the big streets.

That's our bus - not those big air-conditioned type. I like this one, the windows can be opened easily which is what I want to enjoy the Beijing air!

That's Mr. Wong on the left.

That's us on our final day to depart from the hotel.