19th Oct – My First Queue Day

Decided to spend my 2nd expo day today. Was alone this round, so took my time to have breakfast first and reached the ma dang road entrance by 930am. The queue was not too bad. By 10 I was inside. But the security screening was quite interesting. They asked me what was my "Fu" (Chinese blessing paper) is?! I even overheard the other security staff asking who were the person in the religious pendant!!!

I went straight to the Japan pavilion. On the way, I saw sign indicated 5 hours for the Saudi Arabia pavilion!! I thought that was bad enough, but the queue to the Japan pavilion was 7 hours at 1015am! So I went to their robot presentation instead. One of the machine there detects your smile level between 2 participants!! I tried and my smile level shoot so fast and hit 100% in seconds. Obviously I was the winner. I was so proud of myself!! The robot show was very interesting. Murata brother and sister even has a zodiac sign =] they are good at balancing themselves! Brother can ride a bicycle. Sister rides a unicycle!

After the performance, I just walked to a couple of small pavilions but nothing really interesting. So just went around the different pavilions and took pictures of their exterior building. China, morocco, israel and nepal were among the nice one today. Didn't get to the Europe section yet.

Then, Ben and family were also at the expo. They were at the car pavilion and asked me over. Since I am coming back on Friday, I went over and was so lucky to get in not long after I reached. They had been waited for about 4 hours! Coco just missed it by 10minutes. I joined them for late lunch only and left after that.

Today I started to doubt if some of those on wheelchairs are genuine!! I mean, you see young and old in them and the first i see so many wheelchairs at the same time. But I surely respect the patience of these china people. They can wait for 4 to 7 hours each from pavilion to pavilion, probably just to take photo of each and every possible objects that were exhibits and then rush to get the stamp!! I heard much about the spirit of the Chinese, "been there done that"! Now i understand why! Having said that, I tested my patience as well today. On usual days, I would never wait for something (be it food or to buy stuff) for more than 20minutes! Today I tested my patience to the utmost!!! I reached the japan pavilion again at 430pm. I heard the staff saying 五个小时 (5 hours)! can I really do it?!?! 5 hours is 300minutes which is 15 times over my threshold!!!

I started my stop-watch! After 20 minutes, we moved to second section!! I then realized a potential issue!! I can't go to the toilet!! By 49min, nothing happened. I was getting impatient. 1 hour passed and still the same. Shit, it's already dark. I thought, am I going to make it home by 915pm!! 1hr 10minutes. I noticed some already given up. How long more can I stand?! 1hr 18min, started to get bored. I looked at many of the people around me. Some watching video, some listening to music (like me), some putting their head down trying to rest, some already asleep, some looked shacked, many yawn. I felt like interviewing them why they are doing this. Wait. Maybe I should ask myself why I'm doing this first. ehh... I really don't know except just curious to see what's inside. I'm just one of them. How I wish there was a babe waiting in the same queue with me to chat with. 1hr 26min, I was testing my luck a bit too far. I was trying to check if there was wifi access. And then bang!!! Someone were spotted quarrel in the queue!! Can't really see what was happening but everyone was looking over there. Security guard arrived after a few minutes. Nothing serious. Things back to still. 1hr 45min. Yeh!! Finally my section of the queue moves!! Finally I see the entrance where people goes in. But the staff said 3 more hours from my area. I SMS yap that I'll be late. 1hr 55min. Yeh!! We started moving again before I could take a picture. As if I mind. 2hrs 7min. Suddenly I thought I was probably the only one waiting alone! So sad... 2hrs 9min 给我一首歌的时间 on my iPhone. I started to dance like a crazy man in the queue. 2hrs 28min! Yeh!! The queue was moving again. I was so close now and got a bit excited!! I made it thus far! 2hrs 43min! Yeh. The queue was moving again. The next round when it moved i would be inside!! =p
Finally after 2 hours and 50 minutes, I managed to get in!! So it was not as bad as the 5 hours initially estimated. But still, this is the longest I have waited for something. So was it worth it?! U bet! Looking at those pretty Japanese staffs was already worth the wait!! But seriously, I would rate it a 5 out of 10. Belgium pavilion was still my favorite. A 7.5 maybe. Perhaps it's the theme "better city better life" for this expo. So many only concentrate on how the country will improve the standard of living! While I was looking at more on the culture and introduction of the country and what they are famous for.

The visit took an hour or so. After that, I took a cab back home immediately for dinner with Yap together. Then, we had a couple of the best German beer that I have drunk so far in a neighbourhood pub just opposite his place. It’s bottle and already top my German list. Imagine if it is draft!!