Magazine: April 2010

Maricel's China Trip

I recalled my trip to China with fond memories, it was exciting to visit a new country and experience a different culture. At first I was nervous about travelling, my friends took alternative flights via Malaysia and Hong Kong which meant I needed to travel alone, a somewhat daunting experience as I have never travelled to China before and was aware that English is not widely spoken. It turns out that it was easy to make myself understood and I even had the confidence to venture out of the hotel alone and check out the shopping district.

Guangzhou was lovely and it was a welcome change to experience cold weather after living in a hot country all my life. The shopping is good and I was soon filling my suitcase with cheap clothing and souvenirs. After the others arrived we traveled to Dong Guan where we enjoyed the luxury of the Hyatt hotel. The rooms we great and the food delicious.

After the performance in Dongguan we returned to Guangzhou to a (lot) less luxurious hotel - it only had cold water and was freezing at night. I missed the Hyatt but it was only for one night. We decided to spend as little time in the hotel as possible went out shopping and stayed up all night partying.

Overall I fab time in China, the only problem was too days is too short to fully experience this amazing place. I hope to go back one day and explored more

By now you may be feeling that this one one big holiday, well it wasn't! We trained everyday for many hours for our performances in addition to running workshops for the participants. We did Salsa, Bollywood and Merengue .... some of the students improved so much during our classes that they came to join us in the performance. Most nights we ended the day with a party and dances to the early hours to the sounds of the live band. We also got the chance to become our own versions of Simon Cowell by judging the students and choosing the best dancer! The whole weekend was filled with fun an we had a great time joking around with each other and generally acting silly!

After the performance in Dongguan we returned to Guangzhou to a (lot) less luxurious hotel - it only had cold water and was freezing at night. I missed the Hyatt but it was only for one night. We decided to spend as little time in the hotel as possible went out shopping and stayed up all night partying.

Overall I fab time in China, the only problem was too days is too short to fully experience this amazing place. I hope to go back one day and explored more.

Angela's China Trip

Last November, I went on a trip to china with a few of the rest on a dance assignment. That was my very first dance assignment with Actfa. Due to certain reasons, Letitia, Tamil and I had to go on a different way from the rest. We had to take a bus down to Malaysia and from there catch a plane to Hong Kong and then to Dong Guan by train. I could say we took all kinds of transportation to reach our destination. In Hong Kong, we met up with Javed and had supper at the nearest MacDonald’s before bunking in with him till the next day. We were told to wake up at 6am because the train ride was at 8am. In the morning, we were awoken by the lively salsa that we jumped up of bed and got into a little social dancing. Met Joseph, Doris and made our way down to Dong Guan.

Although we had to go all around the world before we get to our destination, nevertheless our spirit was not dampen by the hours of long rides. Instea d it makes me feel even more excited to get there. Upon reaching China, we met the rest of them at the hotel. The hotel was luxurious and the food there was simply awesome. After a quick lunch, we were told to get ready for the performance the night itself. We got ready and started training for Cabaret and Salsa Una. As it was an outdoor performance, it was especially cold at night and we were dressed in costumes. We had no choice but to put on a jacket whenever possible. This make us step out of our comfort zone and adapt to different situation and circumstances which we as artiste has to know and adapt quickly.

The following day onwards, we were scheduled to teach salsa classes and eventually break down into a little of cha cha, salsa, merengue or bollywood depending on which the students prefer. I taught bollywood alongside with Tamil. During the class, I remembered some of the students got a bit frustrated when they could not get the steps correct or able to perform it skillfully. Nevertheless, with the encouragement of Mr Tamil telling them to enjoy dancing instead of “struggling” to do the steps, they found themselves immerse in the beauty of bollywood. Sounds of laughter were then heard throughout the whole class. Seeing them enjoy themselves gave me more inspiration and motivation to teach. After a day of hardwork, we invited them to join us in the performance which also included Bachata, cha cha and other genres of dance that they students picked up in that 3 days.

After the whole event, Actfa team then travelled down to Guangzhou where we were scheduled to conduct private classes and also teach a couple of other genres of dance like kizomba, bachata. Night time was all occupied with social dancing and more social dancing. This opened my eyes to the night life in China where I always thought that the Chinese there are more conservative and salsa is definitely not their cup of tea. Instead, I found myself immerse with people from all walks of life who came together to SALSA!

Other than just being able to teach and perform, one thing for sure I had enjoyed the most was the ridiculous cheap shopping! I shopped and shopped and shopped, before I realized, my luggage was too small to contain all the stuff that I bought. During the shopping spree, we also took a lot of photos which included jump shots with our legs either splitting, or some dance poses. This makes us the center of attraction as people stopped to see what we were doing and they must be thinking “where are they from? What are they doing? HAHAHA! “

One last thing that I got from the trip was my improved relationship with Brenda! I got particularly close to Brenda and a lot of people commented that both of us look like twins! HAHAHA. I learnt a lot from this trip and certainly one of the most memorable trip I had with Actfa.

Tamil's China Trip

It was a memorable evening where myself, latitia & Angela had arrived in Harbour Front, for departure to K.L Airport where we have to board the flight bound for Hong Kong.

We boarded the Aeroline service coach which was fully booked but nevertheless we had a smooth 4 and half hours journey to Kuala Lumpur. We had Chicken Rice being served in the coach which was very delicious and filling for us. We rested for the rest of the journey.

We arrived at the Coral Hotel final stop where we took our luggages and were trying to locate the hotel which was booked earlier by Latitia. Then Out of some where came an Indian man Shouting aloud "Taxi! Taxi! Taxi!" as if he was selling his taxi. He approached us and asked "where you want to go?" We had no choice since it was the wee hours we responded to him the Hotel name. He said " Oh That one very far La but nevermind i charge you only 25 RM" After a small thinking we agreed and went over to his Taxi which reminded me of the 1980's taxi. We stacked our luggages and set for our hotel destination. He was a non stop talking machine asking where we were from why? what? the best person who answered him freely was Angela!

Here came the hotel within 5 min -7 min where earlier he claimed "very far la". We paid him and in exchange he passed me his name card. The porter of the hotel was very helpful with our luggages and finally we checked in.

We entered the room which was clean and inviting. We laid our stuffs and had our shower turn by turn. Latitia was busy with her work on the laptop. I messaged Mr Justin that we have arrived in k.L. After shower the time was 3.30am, without further delay Myself and Angela surrendered ourselves to the bed except latitia who was just working just too hard on the laptop Bravo! but bad for health anyway Good night! I woked up at 10.30 a.m and told the rest " Let's have our Breakfast". Angela said 5 min, then Latitia another 5 min together 5 min plus 5 min became 50 minutes in total. They woke up nearly 12pm.

We washed up, drew the curtains it was a sunny day perfect for a start. We went to the nearby coffeeshop where we were touted by few of them. Since they started serving lunch we started ordering. We had a nice lunch then we headed towards the mall to purchase some stuff for the rest of our journey. Times up! we had to be in the airport so we went back to the hotel to packup. Latitia checked the Taxi price with the hotel to go to K.L International airport. It was reasonable and fast we were driven out to our next destination. The sky was clear & blue, there were very few vehicles moving. This time round the driver was dead silent until i fall asleep. When i woke up we were still traveling and i got a rude shock the cab meter showed "75.00" that's where i realised taxi business is good in big countries luckily not in singapore. There came the Airport finally and we were charged 85 RM.

The airport was very crowded we had to check in our luggages and moved on for some fast food. Bingo! we just finished all of our malaysian ringgit on food.Then we satisfyingly went through to the flight gates due to Hong Kong. We boarded the plane and said hong kong here we come. The journey was smooth we departured at 1645hrs and landed in Hong kong at 2010hrs. We had arrived that's where i was starting to have weird stares even two securities stopped me and asked me in halting english " where are you from your passport!" I was frustrated at the way they approached me, when i took out my passport they recognised i was from singapore. They immediately changed their tone and said "thanks you may go". We were suppose to stay over at DJ Javed's place in hong kong so as per instruction we arrived to take an express train to his place in Kowloon. I was totally impressed with the system that they had thou it was very expensive. We shared the price and we got a package much cheaper.

We got to kowloon and transfered over to a shuttle service bus. By Then it was 10:40pm and we were totally famished already. The scenery in hong Kong was so beautiful at night i appreciated it. Here comes our stop but Javed was no where to be seen we waited. 10 minutes surpassed then Javed shouted loud "hey buddies!" Firstly he hugged Latitia then Angela then he turned towards me "Welcome to Hong Kong!" sounding more like "welcome to India!" Haha it was a delight to meet him but he was disappointed because we came so late at night that he couldn't show us around. I suggested that we could have our supper. Then we headed towards to the nearest 24hrs Mc lung tao! After Supper we headed to his apartment which was super small and Javed explained that the houses in hong Kong are like this and expensive. Well it was a new experience for me but of course i appreciate his hospitality.

We watched some movies and went on to sleep cause the next morning we had to catch an early train to Mainland China. Javed woked everyone up we packed and hit the street to catch a cab.

Angela was so excited and started taking pictures everywhere! We reached the train station meeting up with Mr Joseph and rest of them. Suddenly Javed said "Tamil you bring my bag in first will meet you below at the platform" I agreed and carried his heavy luggages having DJ systems and other electronic stuffs. I never expected there was a super tight police security in the station. Firstly all eyes on me, secondly scan me thru three times and finally brought me into the room the official said "Open the Bag!" quite firmly. I went to open then i realized in this huge bag our dear Javed fixed a small padlock where i did not have the key! I turned and politely told the officer that i don't have the keys for this bag it's another person who is coming in. There they started interogation as if i have a huge warhead hiding in the bag. Then far far away Javed was relaxfully walking over. I explained to the officer and Javed what has happened. Javed said "no problem i'll open for you" They wasted 20 min.

We went over to board the train bound for Dong Guan. Upon reaching there the sky was grey in colour and surrounded by totally heavy industries. This time the china military was in the customs. The person serving me looked at me at least 5 to 6 times and checked my passport at least for 10 min. He asked me what's my purpose of the visit i told him for leisure, after a while he relented and said "Welcome to China" Then we waited for our driver to pick us up to Grand Hyatt Hotel. We received weird stares from the locals while were on our way to the hotel. We reached the hotel i was amazed how big and beautiful the hotel was. I enjoyed the room especially the serenity was calm and peaceful. We met up with Mr Justin, Libin & Yan Qing we had buffet lunch together.

The food was very good naturally gained 1.5Kg of weight after 3 days of food. As for the performance i realised it was a company's vision outing so we performed Salsa Una & The girls cabaret for day 1 the next day we conducted workshop in the early morning with Mr Joseph Enin on salsa and i was given a chance to conduct bollywood workshop as well the people enjoyed it.

The third day was different the Swire Beverage company people had to run early morning runs and stop by in our dance station on their way and dance salsa! That was fun! Finally in the night dinner all the employees had a chance to showcase what they learned in dance.

All of them enjoyed the moment well as for the 3rd day we had to check out to head towards to GuangZhou, Mr Justin and Yan Qing went ahead early in the morning. The rest of us hired a van to travel to Guangzhou the bustling city. The Traffic was terrible, the highway seems bad and worse the driver does not know how to go to the hotel. Then after much rounds we found the hotel which was hidden in the midst of shopping area. We 4 people had to carry 7 heavy luggages. The locals don't seem to give way so we had to force our way into the place. The price was relatively cheap. My impression on the place was miserable they had only one lift which all the people in the building used. They smoked inside the lift like chimney where i felt very angry. The moment we opened the room my head went ringing, the smell was unbearable cigarette smell. The toilet was stinking, the aircon was coughing, the pillow had cigarrete butt burns. The blanket was badly stained don't know what was that & the walls were leaking water. I just felt hotel 81 is 10 times better. After that we went to grab some food in pizza Hut and some shopping for my family members the prices was very cheap and good and of course they aren't originals. We headed back to the hotel. Latitia said it's alright only for one night we are going to rest. It's true i beared with it but i slept in a yoga position not nearing pillows.

Time was 5 am it was super cold outside, myself and maricel took a cab to Guangzhou Airport it was a huge place. Safely we took the plane bound for singapore and Home sweet home! The journey was a good experience for me since i've never travel this far...

Brenda's China Trip

The trip to china was considered one of the longest trips I had travelled within my entire life, reason being I participated in the salsa cruise before it. I had visited Malaysia, Thailand, Phuket, Dongguang, ShenZhen and GuangZhou within that one trip. During those two weeks, I had found myself experiencing moments that happen very rarely in a span of one lifetime. I learnt to see the world and taught myself to open my eyes wider in the future, to recognize the ugly side of life, and witness the most beautiful events.

Don’t be misunderstood; this trip was definitely fun and exciting! It was my first trip to Thailand and China, and it was really cool to interact with all these people who live in a country I could only see through technology. The best thing that ever happened was being able to see the world come together to SALSA wherever possible.

The Salsa Cruise was the first ship I had been on board for about 3days, it was BIG and full of every facility you can think of. I met many Dance artistes from all around the world in the event and definitely expanded my knowledge of dance. I also performed and taught at the festival; these opportunities made my parents very proud of who I am, and also gave me the drive to push myself further in dance than ever before. Although the Salsa Cruise was not a very big event, it was an especially enriching one, with plenty of learning chances for a training dancer like myself to expand my horizons beyond what I have learned in the sheltered environment at ACTFA. The amazing performances presented by the famous artistes who came from all over the globe opened my eyes to the standards which i must try my best to exceed. Through teaching at the cruise, I also gained valuable insight into adjusting to the different types of students and their different learning paces. It was also pretty fruitful to make friends who love to dance as much as i do, as we share a common burning passion and also to learn from each other.

The food at the Cruise was also much better than what we have expected and there were different variety of cuisines, which made me looked forward to every meal! The scene at the rooftop was also breathtakingly beautiful to enjoy with the blowing wind. All these made for a thoroughly memorable experience for my first Salsa Cruise I participated in.

After which, we moved on to China where I was given the opportunity to teach at Dongguan, ShenZhen and Guangzhou. The team of us ACTFA, were working on a project with Joseph, a renowned organizer of salsa events all over Asia. We collaborated with him to teach a company’s event which consisted of a hundred over employees some basics of salsa which was well received by them. As the number of students was very huge, we managed to gain extra skills in handling large classes. Other than teaching them, we also performed quite a number of dances which consisted of salsa, cha-cha shines, cabaret and etc. I remembered it quite well as we were dealing with the cold temperatures in our costumes as it was an outdoor performance. This was also a learning point, as being an artiste; we should learn to be able to manage ourselves well under different circumstances and situations. This particular project happened in Dongguang.

Moving onto to ShenZhen, Justin, Yanqing, Libin and myself went to ShenZhen to teach a few classes of isolations and Salsa. Oh did I mention, I think I managed to travel on every means of transportation that was available; car, taxi, bus, trains, planes and etc. What a comprehensive trip it was!

We stayed only for a couple of hours in ShenZhen, which we then travelled to meet the rest in GuangZhou. GuangZhou was an eye-opener as I got to do much more than just being able to teach and perform. I travelled to different places within the city to give private classes, perform, dance and teach in clubs, and I especially enjoyed the shopping. The prices were ridiculously low as compared to retail in Singapore and I managed to bargain more than I could ever imagine. We managed to also visit different restaurants to experience their culture through their culinary dishes. All in all, it was such a fruitful and memorable experience, as I did many things for the first in my life within 2 weeks of traveling.