Shanghai Photos (1) - The bund and Nanjing Road

For the benefit of our faithful fans, here are some treats for your eyes. ( Do not think about obscenity)

The Bund

River View on a cold night
Lu Jia Zui, We were there
The Pearl Tower
View from Zhengda after buffet
Nanjing Road
Financial Area
Big Coca Cola Bottle
Salty Tauhuay
Old Chen Huang Temple

New hostel room and a job offer from Shanghai

Last Thursday night , I moved into my new hostel room that is similar to a Hongkong 3 star hotel room. It is an upgrading for me, because the old hostel room i have been living in for the last 2 years is really in a bad condition. In this new room , i have my own tv , shower room with hot water supply , bright lighting and clean tiles. Best of all , i have a super single bed that is really comfortable , and i do not have to wake up with an aching body anymore. You must be wondering why on earth i am selling myself to suffer in China , but looking back i am still much better than the locals ( they have to share their rooms with at least 1 to 7 persons ), although not as good as other expats. Well, i can afford to pay for my own accomodation in Shenzhen city if i want to, but in that way i will not save as much. And now my agony has come to an end -my hostel room is now better than my own room in Msia. In Shenzhen , residential houses do not come with heaters (I mean the air heater), unlike Shanghai, Beijing and other northern cities and it is challenging my tolerance towards coldness. I have a friend from icy cold Hei Long Jiang ( Black Dragon River ) and she told me that she found the winter in Shenzhen is more unbearable as there is no heater indoors. It is now winter again and although I slept with my small air heater on, I still find it cold as it is below 10 degree c at night. Luckily, my new room has a built in bathroom this time and I do not have to walk a long distance to reach for my heater after my shower, usually only with a towel on.

I tend to have dry and itchy skin in winter. Piggy bought me a moisturising cream named Body Drench this year and I found it to be very good. I have no itchy skin during winter this year as this cream is more water based, easy to apply and absorb by the skin. I have less itchy skin problem this year when compared to last year.

And early this week, I received a call from my ex colleague in JE to recommend me a job based in Shanghai. I do not know why but this is the second time a job offer came from a place that both piggy and i just visited together. My previous job offer came from my exisiting Hongkong company just shortly after Piggy and i visited Hongkong . Maybe i should ask piggy to go to New York with me next time, so that i can land a job there.



Darby

Photos

In case our fans ( if there is any ) are wondering why i have stopped posting photos in my blog, here is the reason: i have stopped using my personal laptop to upload my blog after i terminated my internet service, and the company laptop I am using is so old that it cannot detect any sort of data from its USB port, which means i cannot upload any photos from my digital camera SD card. I will try to do it whenever it is possible as the photos are the records of what i am seeing here in China. That way, I can be the readers' eyes.

I did a tidy up work for the photos i have taken on my personal laptop today, and burnt a CD so that i can pass it to Piggy during my next home trip. I am always the one holding a camera and taking piggy's photos during our trips, as piggy is really a technology idiot. Dating back from our 2006 Bangkok trip till our recent Shanghai trip, all these trips are memorable to us, and there will be more to come.

A friend told me not to go to Tibet before I reach 40 yrs old , as I could be addicted to the place and keep wanting to visit Tibet after that. I am not sure how true that statement is. I have a few places in China in my mind that i want to visit. It used to be Peking / Shanghai / Li Jiang, Tibet is not in my list as i do not think myself fit enough to enjoy the scenes in Tibet anymore. Peking is now out of my list as i have heard how the Peking Government destroyed the old Peking buildings from Qing Dynasty. I do not want to visit a Peking that has lost its charm as an ancient capital. But i still want to visit Li Jiang of Yunnan, and spend a week there. Of course, the companion will be Piggy again if possible.

My ultimate trip : Iceland,has yet to come. I hope we can do it before 50 years old , as we could be too old to do it after that. Iceland is an expensive place to go ( estimated 10K SGD per person ), but a breathtakingly beautiful place. I learned about this place from Bjork s MTV ( ya , it could be 10 years ago ) , and began to read about it . Or i should learn from a famous Taiwanese author San Mao aka Echo, there is a Sahara dessert in everyone's heart (which Lee Ang invaded her copyright) , everyone has a dreamland in his mind that he may or may not visit in his whole life.


Darby

Shanghai shanghai

This year , we spent about 8 days in Shanghai to celebrate our anniversary and Xmas. Out of these 8 days, 1 whole day is dedicated to Hangzhou West Lake and the last day is spent on our return trip, so we have about 6 relaxing days to move about in Shanghai itself. Porky pig has booked a very cosy 4 star hotel near Shanghai railway station, which offers buffet breakfast everyday. In Shanghai itself, we visited shopping districts such as Nanjing Road/Huai Hai Road/Henan Road/Yu Garden/Zheng Da Plaza ... , sight seeing spots : The Bund/Ming Zhu Tower/Tong Tai Antique market (where porky pig glued his eyes watching Shanghai old folks playing mahjong and i had to pull him away with his feet stuck onto the floor) ...... , and old building sites such as Duolun Road. We also tried Chinese tui-na and fire bottle treatment (i do not know what they call this treatment in English ).


Shanghai is quite a different place from the other parts of China. The Shanghainese ppl is probably the most materialistic and capitalist ppl in China. It is a very prosperous big city and full of commercial activities for everyone in a communist country, whether you are a shopper or a a banker. However, i would still rate HK as the best place to shop as it offers cheap and good product and really branded and well designed consumer goods. As it is winter time in Shanghai now, we couldn't get much of the stuffs we can use back here in Singapore for the both of us.


And surprisingly , contradictory to most China cities , Shanghai has very few big bookstores. I feel it is far behind Taipei in this respect, where you can find big bookstores easily. We managed however to spot a few rich Shanghai tai tais. One of them, whom we saw when we stopped for a glass of tea at a Huai Hai Road cafe, has a Poodle hair style and stares at ppl like a bull dog.


When it comes to food, i like Shanghai Gyoza/Fried dumpling, soy milk , and not forgetting "salty tou huay " with salted vege and dried prawns inside, something which I cannot find here in Singapore. We had a great buffet at Xi Duo Wu ( Japanese international buffet ) at Zheng Da Plaza and spotted a mistress fighting with her rich old man at the neighbouring table. Interesting experience. Other than that, we find Shanghai food is salty and oily as it is well known.


In Hangzhou, we visited places such as West Lake (Yang Bridge/Island in Westlake) and Lin Ying Temple. We had our kiss inside the bamboo forest on the Island in Westlake, which is a really beautiful place for a kiss. I recommend every couple to go there for a kiss. Lin Ying temple is really beyond my expectation. It is grand and beautiful and has a very merciful looking Buddha statue as high as 2 to 3 storeys sitting in the main hall. At the back of the hall is a carved wall about 3 storeys high and full of deities looking down on me, giving me a very 3 D feel, and a very huge Godness of Mercy at its center. When I heard the monk chanting rapidly , it has a very enigmatic feeling and i wish i can have them recorded, as it is not like the usual buddhist chanting that will make one fall asleep, but more like a Gregory chant group named Enigma. It is a good choice to visit Lin Ying temple if you are travelling to Hangzhou because it's still well kept and maintained despite being an ancient temple.


When i realised i was about to say good bye to Piggy again on the last day morning, i could not help but have tear drops falling down my cheeks. I will miss the time we spent in the hotel room watching tv with me twisting and turning his ears and nose, biting his arms, hugging him from his back like he is a bolster before sleep.

It is a good trip because i have a good companion for the trip. Overall , we have a relaxing memorable trip and it is a good closing ceremony for Year 2007.

Darby

Happy Anniversary My Loved One :-)

Darby and I watched "My Blueberry Nights", a new movie by his favourite director Wong Kar Wai when we were holidaying in Shanghai a few days ago. It's been a long time since we went to the cinema together and I was secretly glad I was able to persuade him to do so. There's something about being holed up in a cinema with a loved one, which I like. Maybe it's the physical closeness that this brings. Maybe it's the simple fact of just doing something together, however passive the activity may be. Or maybe, the truth is I just don't enjoy watching a movie alone anymore.

Couplehood, as I have come to realise, has its prons and cons. Love songs seem to speak out to me more strongly after I became attached. Happy love songs and sad love songs now stir my emotions the way only a good movie can do when I was unattached. When I miss darby and feel melancholic, I will turn on my pc and immerse myself in the numerous mp3s that I have saved in the folders. Soon enough, I will be fine and back to my cheerful self. When I hear a happy love song, I will be reminded of the moments (similar or otherwise) which we have shared in and outside Singapore.

The downside (if you consider it a negative) is that I wouldn't now make certain decisions without getting some feedback or help from darby. The reasons are varied. It could be that darby is the more informed among the two (such as when it comes to IT and gadget related matters). It could be that I felt it necessary to keep our relationship 'equal' and democratic. Whatever the reasons, I have found my discussions with darby to be a good form of interaction, and it has helped to improve my understanding of him.

4 years is not too long a period of time, for couples who are committed to each other. That said, it's still a little milestone for a "first timer" like me.

I want to tell my loved one it's a happy milestone that I have crossed, with my short legs astride. Happy and grateful, cos I know I am not crossing it alone, but hand in hand, heart to heart with him at the same time.

ILU and happy anniversary :-)

Mcdull

Another new department again

After the transfer to a new department in Oct 07 , and tasked to support a new product group in department A , i am now being given the task of supporting another dept B (since 7 Dec last friday) . it is record breaking among exec level employees - that within 3 months i have worked in 3 different departments. I am quite uncomfortable with the posting to dept B as it is well known for its harsh working environment, which is notorious. Many managers / engineers from overseas have tried to work there and failed and resigned. I guess i have to plan for the worst, if it comes, and take it positively in the best way that i can.

From yesterday onwards, I began to use my glass tea pot (only costs me 4 SGD ) that i bought at Taipo market in Hongkong to make my Pu Er tea , which is well known for detoxifying and lowering blood pressure. I have taken much more meat here in China as the local ppl does not like to take vege, or they will cook it in a very salty/oily manner. These plus poor control on the food safety/pesticides, makes me wonder know how much toxic i have taken in. Yes , i have no confidence in China local products at all. Taking Chinese tea was my habit since young ( mum will also boil a big pot for us in the morning). That is why every time i have very low blood pressure whenever i go for medical check up. I have stopped taking Chinese tea and grew addicted to English tea and coffee after i began to work in Spore. Every morning i will make myself a glass of hot tea or coffee to go with sandwiches. And i am very much a coffee lover now, but i only take those grounded coffee powder in small sachets like Lipton tea bag. It tastes like Kopitiam coffee in Spore , and it reminds me of Spore / Msia.

The locals are not very crazy about coffee, let alone tea. So you cannot expect to find good coffee or tea shops here, and they like to use artificial flavorings/ coloring to make their tea or coffee especially in remote places like where i am living . The most i can do is bring back coffee powder/ tea bags from Hongkong , but i still like the taste of old Hainanese coffee made from powder best. The local breads taste horrible with oily smell that really put me off. I can only buy more imported biscuit from Hongkong such as McVites to go with coffee every morning.

So that's what I have for my breakfast in China, very pathetic.

Darby

Warning letter

I regret to inform Mr Porky Pig aka Mcdull that due to lack of monthly maintenance and contribution to this blog by you over last few months, you risk losing your membership rights to this very popular blog site (when the time you have spent on the mahjong table is sufficent for any writer to publish a book). Your membership to this blog will be cancelled in two months' time, if there is no response and sufficient blogs submitted by you within two months from the time this warning is issued. Upon failure to fulfill your abovementioned duty, you will be fined for the delayed blogs installment and breach of contract. The fine amount could go as high as one carat diamond ring for Darby.
Thank you.

Yours truly
Darby
9 Dec 2007