The very first thing to do in the morning was to exchange money. And because this was during the weekend, the banks were not opened. So with the remaining "RMB" we have, we went to eat breakfast across the street from our hotel in one of those shabby looking restaurant. There was a middle age man at the front and a woman at the back kitchen. The kitchen is an open area and it is directly in front of you, so you can actually see the cooking process.
The menu was only written in Chinese and the boss could ONLY speak Mandarin. He spoke to me and my sister but we could only give him blank stares. So my mother ordered the food and it was so CHEAP. Everything together was less than $10CND.
My mother asked him where we could exchange money, and he told us that a
couple stores down from here, there is a cigarette store but you have to tell the owner that you want to exchange money and they will do it illegally? at the back
of the store. Once we got to the cigarette store (which was so TINY), there was a suspicious looking man at the counter. My mother told him that we wanted to exchange money, and he led my mother into a open door room with two women and two-three kids. My mother told her that we wanted to exchange HK for RMB and she was fine with it plus the exchange rate she gave us was not that bad. I was afraid that the money could be counterfeit. We're not familiar with RMB so we won't know if it's counterfeit. My mother, very slyly, told her that she hope the RMB money isn't fake, and the woman in retort, said she hope our HK money aren't counterfeits. I think we exchanged for a couple of thousands RMB or so.
The Baili Commercial Hotel is near the bus loop, so we headed over to the bus station to go to the Chimelong zoo to look at pandas. The bus ride was over an hour and half way through the ride, it started pouring and I was afraid that we would have to walk around the zoo in the rain and whether the pandas would even be outside. As we got closer, the bus drove pass many mountains and through deserted plains. At this point, I became a bit suspicious, it just doesn't feel like a zoo. Well, low and behold, once we got there it was the Chimelong Ocean Park. ARGHHH. At least the bus ticket was only 3RMB each, but it was a waste of time. There were workers there selling umbrellas for around 50-100 yuan! So expensive. We rather make due with the one umbrella we have.
My mother went to the ticket booth and asked the employee "isn't this the chimelong zoo?" Well, no duh, it's not a zoo. Reason to stay in Zhuhai was for the "pandas."
By this point, not only was it raining, there was also thunder and lightening plus we didn't know where to take the bus, so my mother went to search for the bus stop while me and my sister stayed underneath the covers. Well, at least there was a nice view of turbines in the far distance.
Well, we didn't know where to go next since our goal was the zoo that day.. So we got off at a random stop and hopped on a taxi since it stopped raining and took a taxi to somewhere that the taxi driver recommended. My mother told him to drive us to a shopping area and drop us off. Who knows if he took a roundabout way though.
Well, we ended up in a lively street with many boutiques around. Not too shabby. During lunch time, we didn't know what to eat, I wanted to eat at a place with a fan or AC so like always everybody was getting a bit hot tempered. We walked around in a circle looking for a place to eat and the heat was killing us!! In the end we went to eat at "Happy Toms" which is a fast food joint that's similar to McDonald but taste wise, its not up to par.
After this we continued to shop, but this time we encountered a MALL!! A MALL! Yes, A MALL. My mother bought a luggage and I too bought a luggage. At first the sales guy told me the luggage cost 280 RMB then my mother asked him to lower the price and he said fine and lowered it to 250RMB final. We said we will think about it and walked away then came back and asked for 200 RMB - SOLD. To my dismay, the next day I found the same luggage in some shady looking streets for only 180 RMB. Later we took the taxi back to our hotel to get cleaned up and then head back out. At night we went back to the same shopping district and my mother went into full shopping mode, buying heap loads of blankets and random junk.
Even though it's night time, it is still super hot so we got some cheap bubble tea. YUM YUM.
Even though it's night time, it is still super hot so we got some cheap bubble tea. YUM YUM.
And finally took the taxi back to the hotel. Relax in my double room by myself!
Total bus fare for the day: 18 RMB
Total: 63 RMB ($12 CND)
