I know it's a couple of days late now, but to all of you,
Xin nian kuai le!
To celebrate, I called Singapore twice today. Well, it wasn't really to celebrate, but I did prepare a little Chinese speech, just in case the hotel and airline reps only spoke Mandarin (pardon the spelling and grammar; it's been a while):
me: "Ni shuo yingyu ma?" (Do you speak English?)
them: "Bu. Wo mei shuo yingyu. Wo shuo meilei he hanyu." (No. I don't speak English. I speak Malay and Mandarin.)
me: "Duibuqi. Wo de hanyu bu hao. Zaijian!" (Sorry, my Mandarin isn't very good. See you later!")
or
them: "Dui. Wo shuo yingyu." (Yes, I speak English.)
me: "Great! My Chinese is no good!"
Fortunately, everyone I dealt with spoke English quite well, since English is one of Singapore's official languages.
And as a little plug, if you're traveling to Asia and possibly other places, I'd give JustFares.com a try. You can get a price and schedule online, but you have to call to book the ticket. In the case of a flight to India (also booked today), they had a price about one-half to one-third of the major online travel sites. The rep I spoke with here in Seattle was very helpful as well. If we have any more trips to Asia, I'm definitely going to keep them in mind.
If only I were the one doing the traveling! I could stand some good Chinese and Indian food!
Posted by jonhanneman at February 10, 2005 9:25 PMIndia??? My ears (or eyes) perked right up. I, however, booked a ticket to the US 2 days ago. It's been almost 2 yrs since i and my kids and husband saw my mom and dad. Whohoo, just 1 1/2 months left...
Posted by: Rebecca O at February 11, 2005 8:12 AM