Day 1 & 2- Shanghai

Our hostel in Shanghai. Letour Hostel, registered under Hostelling International.
At first thought nothing of it but my sister asks me to count my blessings cos there are worse hostels.
After counting, I find it really a pretty decent hostel.


The cosy 'living room'


Our 4 persons dorm. One person ~SD $15/day.

See the difference of the state of the room after a few days. Can't imagine myself sharing this dorm with other travellers if I were to be on my own. I need a big space to put my things and move about!


Behind me is the famous stretch of Nanjing Lu Bu Xing Jie. A whole street of shopping centres which we merely breeze past cos shopping wasn't our main agenda.


Eating was our much look fwd activity, despite various disappointment with the food that we have tried and eaten. Poor luck on us. Only our first stop at this Xiao Long Bao shop is worth mentioning.


A must-go tourist attraction- Shanghai Wai Tan, The Bund.
The day and night scenery of the place look different. Night view to be posted in future posts.

Big and juicy cut slices of watermelons and my favourite rockmelons sold at only 20cents each! The sellers were seen fleeing away speedily when spotted signs of patrolling police.

The past colonial history explains for the European architectural style of the surrounding buildings at The Bund.

Trip to China (8 Sept 2007 to 16 Sept 2007)

Prelude

Actually China is the last Asian place I would ever think of visiting if given a choice, among all other interesting places that I can rather go. But given the opportunity to meet and travel with my sis and others, I have no reason not to go.

A trip to remember

If there is one thing most enjoyable about this recent trip which I am back from, it must be the company that I went along with. Yeah. Its my dearest mother, lovely sis and cheeky cousin brother. This is the first rare opportunity that 4 of us can come together to travel together. My cousin even changes his reservist dates to make available for this trip. During the trip, 4 of us shared alot of funny and interesting conversations back in our hostel dorm at night. Oh ya staying together in a 4 person dorm is definitely the main highlight. My sis shared with us alot of her stories and encounters from her past 3 mths of travelling through HK, Korea, Beijing and Inner Mongolia. I really get to understand my sis better from this trip. Her thoughts, sentiments, point of views on various things that she has seen and felt. I guess it is through such a trip that creates various chances of communication between us that has brought us closer which we otherwise will not in the comfort of our home. My sis is leaving again for US in a few days time to meet her bf over at Minesota. I guess my distant relationship with her is going to restart once again.

The backpacking nature of this trip adds spices to the journey. Alot of uncertainties and trial and error. Disappointments, frustrations, tiredness and surprises along the way. But my sis loves to take charge so she was the one who oversee most of the things. I also witness how she manages to 'argue' with the ticket counter staff with seemingly good usage of Chinese to win our rights in passing an entrance gate. Like what my mum commented, my sis has indeed 'hardened her wings', we don't have to worry for her anymore. She is free to fly on her own. Indeed.

The People

If there is anything not worth mentioning about this trip, its the disgraceful and uncivilised behaviour of the Chinese people. They love to spit anywhere on the ground. They have bad customer service attitude. They cut queues without battling an eyelid. They knock into you without saying an apology. Never will I want to associate myself as a Chinese as I am proud to identify myself as a Singaporean Chinese. But I guess the behaviour of people usually progress slower than the socio-economic aspect of the nation. We have to understand the transitional phases that the nation has gone through in order to make sense of the citizens' behaviour.

Regrets

Anyway, I dismay with the fact that I have very limited knowledge of the rich cultural history of China to be able to appreciate the beauty of the historical sites that we have visited, unlike my mother who is very well versed with the stories and characters that we have come across. Good for her.

Will perhaps post some photos in my next few posts. Taken some videos as well but very lack of memory space. But I find it very fun to take videos. Shall fine tune my videotaping skills in my future travel trips.

Ciao for now.

These are the tree trunks I'm talking abt!

Sentosa Retreat & Updates

I was back from my staff retreat at Sentosa! Guess which resort my company has arranged for us to stay? It's siloso beach resort! The one just opposite the siloso beach cum cafe delmar! Rem the black exterior building that we walked past during our 2/4 outing to sentosa last sat? thats the resort! Quite excited to get to stay in the new resort which was also featured in magazines and tv. hehez.

The characteristic of the resort is being close to nature...so close that you have tree trunks brunching out in ur hotel room! Yes Yes! In my four people bedroom, our beds were right staring at two tree trunks behind a glass showcase panel! In my colleagues' bedroom, they have a similar phenomenon but theirs have no glass panel at all! What they have is a plot of land with soil and two tree trunks growing right up through a hole towards the sky! U literally can trace the branch right up into the sky! Amazing rite? I really wonder what happened when it rains man!!! Cos there is no cover above the hole where the trunk shoots out. hahaha. I look at it in disbelief when i walked into their room man.

I am still waiting for my colleague to send me the photos to show to u guys! The swimming pool looks great too. Got mini waterfall and mini slides to play but I dint bring swim suit! Next time can slip into the hotel to see see the hotel and use use the pool as nobody cares one!

I like everything and anything nature but whats so irritating is the insects and mosquitoes. I have some mosquitoes bites on my legs out on the beach at nite during the retreat. Sianz. Now still very itchy! If only nature can eliminate all these pests and insects!

Btw, can the rest pls upload the sentosa pics somewhere before everyone forgets abt the outing totally? My cam not many pics as it was kept in the bag for most of the time. Still, i am uploading the link via email to u all. Pls check ur inbox. I am still waiting from the rest to get the pics ok! Dun act blur forget hor! And thanks to pei for the ever prompt and well written update on ur blog!

And yea, yokie, of cos i still rem our swimming date. Think have to wait for me to come back from shanghai le leh. Oh yes, for you guys information, I will be off with my mum and cousin to meet my sis over at Shanghai next weekend for a week! Any outings pls postpone till i back! ;p


I am back to my salsa lessons once again after a pause of like 5 mths or so. In the end we cant afford to wait for the nus salsa club to org for us anymore and decided to just go to the sch to sit in the intermediate classes which is open to anyone who can just pay on the spot and sit in the class on whichever Friday during that timeslot. Flexible system....I like.
Though sometimes I must lament that my salsa friend cannot lead me in the dance due to his 2 left feet, I must commend him on his very positive and never say die attitude. I think he feels more stressful than anyone in the class due to his very limited background in dancing and his far-from-streamlined and way-too-bulky body. Infact he is more eager than me to want to practise the steps during the past few mths. He is basically a very disciplined person who strives to achieve what he sets out to do, from what his academic results and sports achievements have shown. I believe he is holding this same mentality towards challenging his kinesthetic abilities. For me, I don't have flair in dance but have the interest but may lack of perseverance and tend to give up easily.

Okie thats all folks.