Created At 2026-05-14 • #life

My Tours to Southeast Asia

My employer organizes a summer tour every year. The destinations are usually beach resorts in the Asian countries where our offices are located.

I noted my feelings and thoughts in this article.

Cebu

We landed in the Mactan Airport and checked in the resort. I was quite astonished by the strong contrast between the inside and the outside. The hotel is kind of faded but clean and well-maintained. The staff were consistently kind, greeting everyone with warm smiles. On contrast, in the street outside, the houses were incredibly small and overshadowed by a sense of despair. There were shabby and poor area in the city I was born, but I can hardly see them nowadays. Even the town in which my grandparents were raised up, looks bright and has essential modern facilities at least.

I took part in an activity. It was a race consisting of a few interesting games. The team member needed to work together to achieve the goal. My team was composed of Chinese and Filipinos. The lady was so generous that she bought everybody a bottle of water, which must have costed her much in the holiday hotel. We really enjoyed it. And then the game ended, we went to our separate tables for lunch, just like we’re strangers. I preferred sitting with people speak the same language, even if we barely talked when having the meal, so did them. That’s why communists always fail finally maybe. Once the common goal (or ‘revolution’) vanishes, people return to their natural tribes. This suggests that artificial unity, like that attempted by communism, struggle against the grain of human nature.

A young man has at least half Chinese lineage and also a typical Chinese family name in the Thai team. However, as far as I saw, he was so longly and didn’t belong to any group.

I moved to the Cebu City the other day. We encountered the people walking in the street against the Mr. President. The policemen just stood aside. You can never imagine that occurs in PRC. However, I can’t help thinking that — Is democracy truly a silver bullet, or just one possible route? After all, Korea, Taiwan and Singapore were not developed under a democratic manner as we all know that.

Cebu is an island, but it doesn’t seem to be a major agricultural area. I live in the inner land south China, which is distant from the tropical area. But in the supermarket in Cebu, that was the first time I saw bananas so stale. Things as fresh as that are dropped into the trashbin in my opinion.

The whole Philippines is like the human resource provider to Western world. There’re too many islands in this tropical country hinder any industry from developing. The people speak good English comparing to many other places in Asia, so well-educated people can migrate to US easier, and it makes the local industry even worse. And of course the US doesn’t have any responsibility in developing but just absorb the energetic young men.

Pattaya

We landed at Bangkok and took a bus to Pattaya. The appearance of street and houses resembles tier-3 city in China apart from the CBD. But it’s obvious more international than most Chinese cities. Indians, Europeans and East-Asians were everywhere. Two years had passed since my last visit. The market share of Chinese cars grew really slow. Toyota and ISUZU logos still dominate. I felt the good price had increased. A bowl of soup and a plate of rice charged me around 100 RMB. Even pineapples offered no advantage over China.

I walked through the red light street with colleagues. We were curious, looking around like businessmen. To be honest, I didn’t see the attraction. A man paying for such services usually wants one of two things: the sex itself, or the feeling of power — being able to act superior and command a woman. But buying a drink for a foreign lady in a bar gives you neither.

I felt a bit disappointed at the buffet. It didn’t have many local specialty. Instead, it’s full of ordinary cooked in a Western style. Why do I want to eat French fries or bacon in a hotel at an average price higher than 1000RMB?

I was regretful that I didn’t go to shooting.