MTV’s "Global Art Of Mixing" Video Shots December 17, 2006

::Originally posted on Completely Random::

Yargh! I’m back from the company hostel. Slept at 3:30am one day because of production issues. This whole week is a “black week” at work, because strange problems have been cropping up. REALLY strange. Anyway, now OCM and I are buddy-buddy with the operators because we were there sooooo long troubleshooting various end-of-day errors. I’m really glad to be home and am really anticipating shopping this weekend!

Got back, found out that our dear organizer for the Shanghai trip, Vilia, sent us the production shots to be aired on MTV. OMG. I’m kinda glad that the metrosexual HK duo got so much airtime because that means there’s less of my face… but what there IS that’s shown of me ain’t pretty. Hold me.

Hmph! All of you get so much airtime, I’m going to give you VERY SMALL VIDEO SHOTS on my blog. Take that! >=P

Random shots that were interspersed (sp?) with the video.

Famous people playing that night.

Clockwise from top left: ‘Grand entrance’ into the concert area, Charming Me, my “THAT WAS AWESOME!1!!” line, Kim laughing.


Clockwise from top left: I don’t know what kinda dance I’m doing – The Funky Chicken? Damn embarassing wei! Must’ve been a retro number, the backdoor red carpet, all of us, a video capture of a photo.

Conclusion? I’m very scared to watch, but at the same time I know they won’t show THATTTTT much of me (it’s just scary that what they DO show is so damn embarassing). On the up side, I’ve been given the opportunity to make money during the weekends! Doing something super nerdy – teaching uni students, wtf. Lets see what becomes of that venture…

More tomorrow because I’m plain deprived of sleep, and too traumatised to continue anymore tonight. (P.S: Thanks to Maniacz for recommending all the video still capturing software!!)

SAYONARA SHANGHAI!! (The Goodbye) December 11, 2006

::Originally posted on Completely Random::

Before I begin my final instalment of the Shanghai trip, I’ll like to say that in my earlier entries, I mentioned that I would be seeing Han Yubin, Soler, Yumiko, etc. Well, they didn’t perform at the Hennessy Artistry Party that night because they actually performed earlier during pre-party events throughout China. Something like mini-parties to hype up the main event. Except for Soler (who are damn damn handsome!!) I don’t think I missed out… =p Now back to the main story…

Early the next morning, we phoned the receptionist up to clarify about the breakfast thingy. She said that the free breakfast for Hennessy contestants was on the THIRD floor and not the SECOND floor as we had been told. Felt so conned! Although the free breakfast was held in a function room, it was still delicious and had all my favourite breakfast goodies. Felt like crap for paying for the Yi Cafe breakfast the other day (not to say it wasn’t nice, just that… why waste perfectly good shopping money?).

It was here that we met the THIRD nonsensical talking people. This time, it was 2 guys from Guangzhou who had also won invites to the party, but without the meeting David Tao thingy thrown in. Which reminds me, when I signed an agreement form from MTV saying I had received my prizes, I saw “… and a Nokia N91 as part of the MTV Asia contest… ” and this part was crossed out. Whhhyyyy!! Nokia pulled out of the sponsorship? Hehee, imagine how awesome it’ll be if I got a Nokia N91 as well. Yes, I’m greedy.

Anyway, back to the 2 guys… they were really full of nonsense! They were talking in mandarin, and commenting about how strange I was to take pictures of the food that I was eating, blablabla. -___-” Since I just quietly ignored them (and Kim thinking I didn’t understand didn’t tell me), they came to the conclusion that we were not from China, so they asked us (suddenly, after about 30 mins of silence), “So , where are you from?” So then the small talk ensued. It was really funny because they have heard about Malaysia before, but have NO IDEA what the country is like at all. They asked questions like:

1. “How come you can speak chinese (points to Kim) while your friend cannot?” (Kim explains about chinese / Malay schooling, then has to explain what is ‘Malay’)
2. “Your friend looks Korean… is she Malay? (Points to me)” (Kim has to explain that Malays don’t look chinese / korean/ anything along those lines).
3. “So.. the Malays are considered as the natives of the land? Are the natives good or evil?” (total wtf moment)
4. “If you had a choice would you marry a chinese or a malay?” (Kim explains that you cannot tell who you’ll marry in the future) “If you don’t tell me it means you are not sincere in this friendship.”
5. “What is the famous food in your country? Only this nasi lemak thingy which is rice with coconut milk? In Guangzhou, the famous food is fox. All the hawkers sell it. Every where you go, you’ll see fox by the side of the road!”
6. “We also eat monkeys! Monkey brains (proceed to explain in detail what I thought was an urban legend). How come you don’t eat monkeys in Malaysia? There’s lots of monkeys in Malaysia right!”
7. We asked him if he knew why the Pudong Airport was closed for a while on Friday. His answer: “Oh yeah… that incident. I heard that 5 airplanes from China landed, and then 5 planes from Japan landed, so the pilots all got down to fight.” O_____o
8. “Is the language that she (pointing to me) speaking Malay?” (we were speaking in English, @#$%!)
9. “China has modern architecture and big, tall buildings. Does Malaysia have that? Do you prefer China or Malaysia?”

Funniest of all was not his (mis)conceptions about Malaysia, but a misunderstanding, due to communication failure. After asking Kim about the marriage thingy, he asked her, “So how do you register?” (that’s what she translated). We discussed it between ourselves for some time, wondering how to translate the answer for him, while they looked on quizzically. Finally, Kim said, “You have to go to a fo miao (temple)” They were damn aghasted and went, “HUH?? You registered to enter the Hennessy contest in a temple?! What did the two of you do? Pray to win contest? Ahahahhaha!!!” Damn paiseh kind of misunderstanding wei!! And no, we didn’t tell them what we THOUGHT we had heard. ^^

Although Kim was very frustrated by that duo, I thought that they were pretty funny and friendly. Kim said can die talking to them because they were so frustrating. Haha. Totally not serious type of people. Would have loved to stay and chat, but we had souvenirs to buy! Actually, we had bought quite a fair bit from the bund sightseeing tunnel place – I got postcards and a magnet for Simon’s mom, tee shirts for the family & Simon, two necklaces for don’t-quite-know-who yet and pretty Shanghai metal bookmarks for the team at work. ^^ However, pretty nothings are never quite as welcomed as FOOD are, so Kim and I were on a mission to get back some “famous Shanghai” goodies for our friends (and me also on an extra lookout for porky stuff). =p

Despite dismissing Super Brand Mall as an expensive place which is still undergoing development, we really had no choice but to shop there as it was the nearest place. However, while walking there, found out that there’s a mall called “Lotus” nearby, which is actually SOMETHING like Giant / Carrefour in Malaysia. It’s located in the underground level of Super Brand Mall, and boy was it bustling! Er, all together I spent more than RM100 on foodstuff for parents, colleagues and Simon’s family. =p We got these really nice eggrolls which have chicken floss inside – special Shanghai treat! Aside from that, I also got zhu yuk kon (dried pork), funky Lays flavours (like black pepper rib eye steak… wtf) and almond biscuits.

After that, we still had time to stop by Sephora to buy gifts for *extra special* people (expensive marrr!). Actually, was pretty disappointed with the Sephora collection. Was expecting something along the lines of Stila or Benefit, but it was more like… Fasio. Or In2It. Good, but kinda too ‘young’, I guess. I ended up getting some pretty random things there : two-way comb/mirror for sister, hair wax for Simon (try something other than Bedhead!) and a tortoise shell hair clip for myself. =)

Got back, and during check-out, we were charged 230yuan for the breakfast at Yi Cafe. Apparently the misunderstanding was that the receptionist who checked us in said that breakfast came with the room… as in came 50% cheaper. -___-” So although I signed for 400++ meal, it was only 200++.

But after we further explained to MR RAYMOND XU (super nice guy in SHANGRI-LA PUDONG), that we were actually looking for the free breakfast for Hennessy winners, he TOTALLY understood and waived the charges ON THE SPOT. It’s so hard to get this kind of service in KL that I was totally stunned. Kept thinking that there must be a catch, but there wasn’t. At least in KL they will try to delay or push the blame by saying, “It’s not me who can say whether the fees can be waived or not”, but this guy, once he heard our story he straightaway said, “Yes, I understand what you mean. Since it’s the hotel’s fault, let me print out your new receipt where I waive your charges. No, no problem at all, this kind of thing is EXPECTED of the hotel.” *more in love with Shangri-la Pudong*

Went to the Hennessy table and this time we got airport transfer from the hotel back to the Pudong International Airport. There, we met our FINAL “like to talk nonsense” guy, the German who was a client of Hennessy (who made the funny comments about Yu Quan and Juliette & The Licks). He was saying how nice the Shangri-la bed was and I said, “Yeah, even their toilet was nice” and he replied, “Yeah, I prefer sleeping on the bed though”. T_T” He also found out that Kim had trouble with the automatic curtains and he stated, “The place is really modern. Everything is automatic. Even the toilet paper was automatic. Just press a button and the right amount comes out.” Damn love to talk crap. ~_~” But he was also really nice and friendly.

The flight back went without a hitch. While boarding a plane, met this uncle, who told us the REAL reason that Pudong International Airport was closed. It was because they needed a security / military run through for the Olympics. ~_~” Wtf. And they closed the airport again on Saturday. T_T” Anyway, on the flight back I watched tonnes of Family Guy (Simon, I wanttttt. ), Love Inc., Malcolm In The Middle (so happened both episodes on Select were episodes I’ve watched before. *sigh*), The Simpsons and Futurama. That’s one good thing MAS has over Air Asia. Indulging pigs like me would rather pay more for the little luxuries. Oh wait, I didn’t pay for this flight either. Muwahahahhaa!!

Got home around 10-ish, and my family were dead happy that I wasn’t caught and sold to become a prostitute in China. They loved the souvenirs, and now they are talking about going on a trip there themselves. What can I say, I inspire. ^_~

Just found out I won movie tickets from a Stormbreaker contest, movie tickets from a Cinema Online contest, and tickets to the Hitz FM Met 10 Awards party here. Small wins! And my sister just came back from her Paris / Amsterdam / England / Spain trip, and got me a souvenir from Champs-Elysee. *sigh* Looking through her photos + souvenirs has filled me with wanderlust again. ^^ Can’t wait til my next trip. ~

SHAKIN’ SHANGHAI!! (The Drinker!) December 10, 2006

::Originally posted on Completely Random::

Ok, now about the Hennessy Artistry Party. Wooh… this was when we first got to meet the other winners. They were all friendly and dressed soooooooo nicely. Ok, I blame it on the fact that their countries all have cold climates and Malaysia doesn’t! How many Malaysians actually have fashionable winterwear in their closets! =( And I didn’t go overseas to study, ok.

Luckily, I bought an RM75 (RMB160) coat while I was in East Bei Jing Road. The lady there said that I spoke mandarin well, but then again she didn’t know that Malaysians could speak mandarin. I loved how people think that, made me proud of my half-past six mandarin. Sorry chinese Malaysians, for I give all of you a bad name. ^^ The lady thought that Kim was a chinese national though, so that shows how good the “real” chinese educated people in Malaysia are. ~ (On a side note, I decided to NOT feel guilty about my bad mandarin in the future. I *do* try to learn, but not my fault that people laugh more often at my attempts than anything else. I didn’t go to a chinese school – which wasn’t out of choice – and most of the people I hang out with DON’T speak mandarin. I *do* try to learn, and that’s the important part, aight! Ok, so now piss off arrogant bilingual trilingual quadlingual people!)

The winners from Shanghai were a couple (the guy won) – their cuddling made me jealous (especially when it was extremely cold).

The winners from Guangzhou were students – they made me jealous with their youth.

The winners from Taiwan were models – they made me jealous with their insanely good looks, style and make-up techniques.

The winners from Hong Kong were two metrosexual guys, they made me jealous with their ability to mingle with anyone and their laid-back personalities. (pictured here with Joey & Irene from MTV)

And finally, the winners from Korea made me jealous with their “don’t give a fcuk” attitude about everything and edgy style.

They were all damn cool! Felt super zhi bei!

Anyway, we were given scripts to rehearse on what to say on camera. And then we were off to Pudong Expo for the show! Although the concert officially only starts at 8pm, we left at about 6:30pm. Ben, although you were so hyped up about the red carpet, ours was a “different” red carpet BEHIND the building with NO audience and NO celebrities! We had to tramp up and down the carpet a few times, acting all excited and waving to imaginary fans. Hahaaha! And it was sooooo cold! The coldest I’ve felt in Shanghai. The thin coat and top I had on did nothing for me. Though I tried to act nonchalant, I was VISIBLY shaking, and every word that came out of my mouth was in stutters. FREEZING! Everyone was like that!

Thank God Kim and I didn’t have too many ‘NG’ (No Good) takes, so we were done with our part pretty fast. After that, we had to pretend to muck around and “have fun activities” outside, like taking pictures of each other and camwhoring and such. Don’t ask… I said don’t! At this point, I really felt like whether I end up watching it on TV or not, I wouldn’t mind. =p I mean, I would LOVE to watch everything again, just minus any scenes with my face.

Finally, we were allowed into the concert… to the pre-party! Awesome or what? We have a pre-party, party and after-party. All designed to get you intoxicated and in the moooood to party. Hehe. Once we stepped into the VIP area, we were all amazed at the amount of drinks and bartenders there! Basically, the alcohol was free & free flow, but there were only 3 types – which were Hennessy Miami, Hennessy Shanghai (but of course) and Hennessy VSOP cognac on the rocks. =p I just tried the first two, damn scared to drink drinks without any mixers. I think Hennessy Miami is really yummy and sweet, and the Shanghai one was pretty strong and bitter (could do with more oj). The Guangzhou girls disagreed with me (said that its the opposite), so what do I know? Lots of finger food available as well, still following the Miami / Shanghai theme.

At the VIP area, we were allowed to watch the big-screen TVs to see what was going on on the “real” red carpet, mingle, camwhore, drink… and be filmed. The funny thing was, they didn’t allow the Malaysia or Hong Kong winners to be filmed DRINKING, ironic considering that its organised by Hennessy. I mean, what do you THINK the winners would be doing at a cocktail pre-party by Hennessy? But I guess what you don’t see, you can pretend never happened, so whenever the cameras panned across me I would dramatically fling my glass away (or lower my glass-holding hand, whichever causes less damage).

The party was for about an hour, after which we headed for the concert. The area was actually quite small, a pretty exclusive concert. Please don’t think of it like the Guang Liang concert at Bukit Jalil this year. It’s even smaller than the Pussycat Dolls concert in Sunway Lagoon. Sizewise, it’s a bit larger than the Tata Young showcase only. (Wow, I managed to brag about all the concerts I went to this year within one paragraph, go me!). The concert area also had two bars at each end, where the free flow of cocktails continued.

Yu Quan came up as the first act of the night. Don’t know them? Neither do I! They are a famous rock duo from China though, and their songs were pretty good considering I didn’t know them at all. They were also excellent at hyping the crowd up. Later in the trip, I met a German who said, “Why invite Yu Quan? Who are they? They are not even good looking, call Andy Lau next time!” Lol. But they were gooooood, don’t discriminate them just because they don’t look pretty-boy. ~_~”

DJ Sky Nellor from Australia was up next, spinning dance tracks from the 80s to the noughties. It was a really good mix, and she is so freaking gorgeous. Erm, she wasn’t wearing a bra either, so when she danced to the music, her chest was really… engaging. O_o But anyways I really had a good time dancing during her set. I almost forgot I had a camera filming me. Almost! It was such a shame that after about an hour, she had to go. What I found strange was that most of the CHINESE people in the crowd weren’t dancing along, I thought her music was the most dance-able of the night!

Following up was Juliette and The Licks, with an hour plus long session. I didn’t really like her music when I heard her on TV, but somehow it was really good to mosh along with during the concert. The same German said, “She was so stoned, come on she kept announcing that she fcuked up and couldn’t remember her lyrics” in a disgusted tone, but I couldn’t tell. Hahah! I thought Juliette was really energetic and was a great performer. Musically, I thought the band was great, didn’t really pay attention to her voice, but I guess it goes with the type of music they are playing. She sang a few from her Four On The Floor album, like Sticky Honey, Smash and Grab and Purgatory Blues. Despite not liking DJ Sky Nellor, most of the Chinese crowd danced like mad to Juliette and the Licks. Guess they are more fans of rock than pop.

By the time DJ Sky Nellor came back for her 2nd set, the party had inflated in size, and there were more people who would groove to her music. She played more hip-hop and rock the second time around (less pop), and it was about a 30 minute set only. After that which the “main attraction” came onto stage… DAVID TAO!! ~~ *cheers*

Like I said, I don’t know much about David Tao, except for his excellent “Rain” (Zhao Zi Ji – Finding Myself) song, but I really fell in love with his music during the concert. Especially after I repeatedly listened to his Tai Mei Li Album back at home after the concert. He kicked off his concert with Zhao Zi Ji, and everyone in the crowd went wild, singing along “Hwalalalala, tian jai xia yu, Hwalalalalala yuien tsai koo chi…” Even the foreigners in the crowd knew EVERY SINGLE WORD. So embarassing for me, ok! =p

He followed up with the extremely excellent Wang Bu Liao (Cannot Forget) from his latest album. I love that song, even though people say its too repetitive. Other songs that he sang included Tai Mei Li (Too Beautiful), Susan Shuo (Susan Says), Ai Hen Jian Dan (Love is Easy), Jin Tian Ni Yau Jie Gei Wo (Marry Me Today), Somewhere Over The Rainbow (his voice ‘zhao nyam’ like mad here… damn funny!), a medley of Bee Gees songs (he has a pretty good falsetto) and some others. To be honest, I had to sit down at the bar during his session (was dancing like madcow for the rest), besides the girls behind me kept elbowing me. I thought, ok la, since I’ll be meeting him backstage, then no need to be so kiasu and hog up place in front. Besides, I badly needed to give my feet-stuffed-into-4inch-boots a rest.

About 10 minutes before his concert ended, we were huddled up by the David Tao manager to meet the man backstage. Could see on the big screen TV that the girls standing right in front of the stage kept collapsing onto the stage because they leaned to far in front to take his pictures. -___-” And then he would “help” them up again. Kim was swooning and telling me, “David Tao really takes care of his fans!! I can’t wait to take picture with him / get his autograph / blablabla.” Haha, the whole night we were carrying along his Tai Mei Li album, anticipating to meet him!

But what a disappointment! Later backstage, the manager split the 12 of us into 2 groups of 6. Then when DT came into the room, we clapped and then he stood in the middle of the 6 of us for a picture. Kim stood next to him so she started hyperventilating and going “oh my God!” multiple times. David Tao said, “It’s ok, you can come closer” and Kim says that DT put his hand around her waist. =p BUT….. we don’t have photos! Because his manager refused us to take personal pictures with him. In fact, all we got was that ONE group pic, and he didn’t autograph stuff for us either. Very disappointing. It’s like they just wanted us there for one measely group photo and then ushered us out like sheep. REALLY felt depressed. Kim was even more distraught cos she claims her moment of glory is not on camera. Hahaha! At first I was damn angry with David Tao because he treat us like invisible plants, just someone to boost his “mr nice guy” image. BUT.. later I realise it was his manager who was handling everything and didn’t want us to “delay” him. Anyway, I guess its good that we got to see him up close? -___-” Got no pictures though, can’t get over that!!

It was about 1am when we finally headed towards Attica, which was actually the estimated time of DEPARTURE from Attica. ^_^ All of us were damn tired, and the girls were limping about with sore toes. Some more, Kim and I were like super duper craving for SLEEP since we had such a LONG day of being tourists. ~_~ But left for Attica we did, and film we did. We didn’t actually get to spend that much time there because we were required to be back in the bus (after filming) by 2am! So we only spent 1 hour tere, and the only place we saw was the VIP area (2nd or 3rd floor, not sure) where we can look down on the people dancing downstairs while ‘lounging coolly’ with our free cocktails. Sounds luxurious, but not really. Cos when the camera pans over to you, we have to stop lounging and act alive, dancing and all that. Hahaha. It was very funny! Too bad we didn’t get to check out the Zen area, all see the Shanghai bund view at night from Attica. It was all over pretty fast.

Outside Attica, we had to say something like, “Wish you were here!” and rave about how great the whole experience was. There, we met the #2 nonsensical person. I was in the middle of my “It was AWESOME” line, when I suddenly felt someone put his arm around me. Turned around and there was this rather tall gwailo with one arm around Kim and I smiling at the camera also. So extremely wtf. I looked up at him and was like , “Errr…” and somehow Joey and the cameraman (from MTV) managed to shoo him away. He got out of the line of the camera, but he stood by the steps amusedly watching us. I felt sooooo paiseh doing my exaggerated “It was AWESOME!” line while he was there. SWEATDROP BETUL. After multiple takes, we walked away, and that guy was STILL there. He turned to me and asked me, “So what was so awesome?” SWEAT!! -___-”"”"

Only the HK guys stayed back to continue partying at Attica, while for the rest of us, once the hour was up, we headed on back to the hotel. Such a pity, we had such awesome VIP wristbands with access to VIP levels. We even saw DJ Sky Nellor there! But we were all too tired and was minutes away from being permanently disabled from walking about in 4 inch boots. ^^

Guess what??? I justttt got an e-mail from the organiser of this entire event (Vilia — who is awesome, hope you get super-promoted, always 12 month bonus, etc etc) sent me our group picture with David Tao! Finally, Kim can no longer be depressed and feel like she’s got no evidence that she stood *soclose* to David Tao…

Stay tuned for the final instalment on the trip to SHANGHAI. =)

SPARKLING SHANGHAI!! (The Tourist!) December 5, 2006

::Originally posted on Completely Random::

Heh heh, decided to overnight at the hostel tomorrow only since the users are having their annual dinner tonight (no point staying back when they aren’t testing anyway!). So I can tell you about the 2nd day at Shanghai, there were a lot of activities that day! Basically, I have to split it into 2 parts : the touristy thingy I did (1st half of day) and the Hennessy Artistry Party (night!). Enjoy! =D

Freaky loads of pictures ahead. It’s barely the first week of December and I’ve already had to archive my entries to save webspace!! O____o”

The previous day, we had asked the receptionist at Shangri-la Pudong if we would be getting breakfast with the room, and he said “Yes”. The name of the restaurant is “Yi Cafe”. When we went down for our breakfast buffet, we were AMAZED at the restaurant. Seriously gorgeous, and with all kinds of breakfast that you can imagine! Shangri-la Pudong consists of two towers, and these two towers are connected to each other on the 2nd floor, which was the glorious Yi Cafe. Sooooooo nice, seriously!

Halfway through eating, this waitress came and asked me to sign for a bill, so then I knew I was fcked due to some serious miscommunication going on, because we thought the food was free! Breakfast + room, right? And the bill was for 440 yuan (about RM100+ per person!). Was seriously kissing my 500 yuan allowance from Hennessy / MTV goodbye. O_o”

The pictures really do the place no justice, but can you blame me for my lack of initiative in taking pictures when I just discovered that breakfast which I thought was free was gonna cost me RM100++ per person?!

With a depressed and grumpy outlook, the both of us set off for some sightseeing. Found out that the Technology Park was just a few minutes walk from our hotel. Technology Park is the place with the Oriental Pearl Tower (the so-called “Mushroom building”), Jinmao Building, etc.

Tried to take a picture of the Oriental Pearl Tower…

Kim tried to take a picture of me with the building. Key word is TRIED. In all fairness, it was damn difficult to take a proper pic with the building from that angle. -____-”

Not much to see, unless you want to go up the OPT to see the view below (supposedly much nicer at night). The Lujiazui subway was nearby too, and with a RMB3 ticket, we took the train to Nanjing Road for some shopping.

At the Lujiazui subway station. I think subways are really cool. ^^

Reaching Nanjing Road. I’m no photographer, but I think the buildings here are really worth snapping a shot of. This place is the “pedestrain road” according to Kim. Means no cars can turn in here. =)

Shanghai Landmark hotel, with lots of distinguished looking old people milling about.

You won’t get arrested for public shows of affection here. So hug away. =)

Although cars / bikes cannot turn into this road, the trams can pass by. I think they have a clause that protects them from hitting oblivious tourists because they sure as hell didn’t slow down when trundling towards me (standing in the middle of the road, taking pictures. ~_~”)

Pretty & fashionable Shanghai chick.

This statue was in the middle of nowhere, with no similar statues around. o__O Anyway, I was amused by the toddler who was amused by the fake statue baby. =p

Trees lining the sidewalk, ala Orchard Road. Too bad Bukit Bintang isn’t like this place. It’ll be so nice and shady, don’tcha think?

For some reason, everyone in China likes to link hands and walk in a row. Imagine how the street looks like when there’s a group of 10 of them or so!

Haha, random pic of Jay Chou advertising dodgy winter clothing.

Was extremely cranky because Nanjing Road wasn’t what I expected it to be. So we went back to Lujiazui and discussed what to do next. EXTREMELY CRANKY AT THIS POINT. Went to Super Brand Mall and it was like, partly under construction. Most of Shanghai seems to be under construction. The view from the hotel room was of a construction site. -__-” Got even more cranky. After consulting some maps, we found out that if we walked far enough, we would be able to get to the Shanghai bund (of course, not CROSS it, just SEE it). So commenced walking we did, cutting through the Technology Park. It was damn nice, k! Beautiful park, lovely scenery.

The under-construction Super Brand Mall with hideously expensive goods.

Me with the Oriental Pearl Tower and… I don’t know. They said that modern architecture in China is strange, so here are two samples. Basically, me and Kim just called it the 3 balls building. ^^

Monkeying around. You can see Super Brand Mall and Shangri-la Pudong in the background. =)

“Old Shanghai” lies beyond the river. Interesting boats and cargo ships go by.

It’s not skyline… it’s riverline. Correct term? *dies laughing*

Ignore my corny poses and cornier face. =p Most of the “old” buildings are banks. See that “A” shaped building? It’s actually a monument for war heroes.

From afar. You can see how many tourists there are that day.

This was after we had exhausted the bund and wanted to find other sources of entertainment for my short attention span. ~_~” Thank God we didn’t have to resort to the wild insect farm. Butterflies give me the heebie-jeebies.


Beautiful flower garden. This was outside some hotel. =p

Thought this couple was funny because the bride was posing with all she had while the groom had some fcked up tulan face put on. Sigh, men!!

So basically on one side of the bund, you have the “modern Shanghai” (and you look across the river and see old architecture), and after you cross the bund, you see “oldern Shanghai”, (and you look across the river and see the new buildings). It’s superduper photo-worthy, and we took the most pictures here. It was also here that we tasted the lovely Shanghai dessert – dates / mandarin orange submerged into syrup and crystallized. Very yummy. *swoon*

Here we met the first “nonsensical talker”, which was an artist. He kept insisting on wanting to draw our portraits, never met a more desperate-to-draw person. He started at 50 yuan per person and ended with 5 yuan for 2 people, before saying, “I’ll draw for free, then you pay me what you think its worth”. We walked away (what we would’ve done earlier, but we were eating the yummy desserts), and later saw him harassing other girls (even those who were with their boyfriends). Yeah, he’ll draw any GIRL, as long as it’s not an OLD LADY.

You see, some old lady tried to ‘help’ him by telling Kim, “Only 10 yuan, just let him draw la!” and when Kim said, “Since you think its cheap, why not you have a go?”, I saw the artist face FALL to the ground. Haha! Really don’t know if he wants to make money or he’s doing it out of interest.

After we finished camwhoring, Kim, being the crafty travel agent person she was told me that we ought to take the “bund sightseeing tunnel”. Its basically a tunnel connecting both sides of the Shanghai bund. That was seriously the nicest thing ever! On one side (Lujiazui), we took this unpiloted carriage across the tunnel, lighted up by fibre optics. It’s SOMETHING like the JW Marriot lights, but MUCH trippier. Plus, with a play on the lights, they made it seem like we were going through cross-sections of the earth, like “Magma”, “Heaven / Hell”, “Fossil Burial”, etc. VERY NICE. Oh yeah, and the place to buy the bund sightseeing tunnel tickets is also an awesome place to get souvenirs. I got 70% of my souvenirs here!

“Space Exploration”

“Heaven”

Simply, The Light Fantastic!

On the other end of the tunnel was where the old architecture we had been photographing the earlier part of the day resided. It’s called East Bei Jing road (I think). More picture taking! The buildings are seriously gorgeous. Sigh. Wish I could take more “Gotham” like pictures ala YongFook.com. =((

Going down the East Bei Jing Road Underpass to get nearer to the bund.

Fancy banks in China.

Old school style cop. For some reason “cop” sounds so strange to describe them, but “jing cha” seems so right, wtf. They mean the same thing

Old school fruit sellers! The lady is so strong! See, she carries the same amount as the guy. ^^

“On The Streets of Shanghai…~~”

This is actually the China Allbright Bank. Hehe, the bank I work for looks nothing like this!

Another fancy bank, but I don’t remember the name…

Do you remember seeing these buildings in the background on the other side of the river?

China’s modern architecture… (crap, nothing more that I can say about it.)

I think this picture is nice. =)

More oldschool buildings.

And more… more… more buildings!


Cute and stonkingly warm baby.

Maple leafs! Pretty!

Man-made waterfall #1

Man-made waterfall #2

The hero’s monument up-close. Can you see the faces?

Some explanation about the monument… can’t translate for you. Can you translate for me instead?


Nice picture, Kim!! I’m lighted up while the rest are in shadows! ^_^

A lovely garden near a hotel.

Oh I feel like I’m in a period drama!

Gongxi fatt chai special.

From afar we thought he was Wisdom Mao… but the name on the statue isn’t his. Besides, Mao died in 1976.

Posh hotel, with nice seats with view of the bund. Must be lovely to dine here at night. In the afternoon they bar you from using their tables / chairs.

Also, the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel ticket came with 3 other exhibitions that we could go for (so-called package deal la!), which were 25 yuan more than just going for the tunnel alone. The extra exhibitions were Sex Exhibition on Culture & Health in China, Deep Sea Underwater Creatures and Fantastic Sounds Exploration. Sounds like DAMN enticing right? So we went la. Altogether RMB65 only what! =D

Ended up… the Deep Sea Underwater creatures were like, a FEW pathetic aquariums with normal fish. I think if you go to Unique Seafood, there’s more variety and larger species there. Maybe the most interesting thing there was the remora. *shrugs* The really big “underwater creature” exhibit were stuffed fish (??) or bones of supposedly mystical sea creatures. Out of nowhere also had stuffed turtle, alligator, etc. Wtf?

Stingrays, the new OJ Simpson of the underwater world.

Various types of fishing nets… wtf.

The worst fate ever for a fish.

So fake, wtf!

The fakeness continues

Prehistoric fishman

A very rich walrus.

Salted fish, hehe

Souvenirs, anyone? I want salted fish!

The Fantastic Sounds one was the most con-artist thing ever! Everyone would sit in a supposedly old and creepy dining hall, and each chair had a pair of headphones slung over it. You put on the headphones, and then they’ll switch off the lights. Some stupid horror sounds will come out, and its sooooooo not scary (maybe cos I didn’t know what the ‘ghosts’ were saying in mandarin). The funny part was that Kim was scared and she was chanting. Mwahahhaa!! I know its evil for me to laugh, but it was seriously funny! I asked her, if she was scared how come she didn’t just take off the headphones, and she said, “Scared after I do it, I can still hear the sounds… coming from who-knows where!!”

Guess the funniest was the Sex Exhibition, because every random thing that was remotely phallic was on display. There were “old” carvings /pottery showing sexual positions (the women having sex were labelled “prostitutes”, hmm… so sexist), even STONES that supposedly “naturally” had a phallic appearance, etc. For “modern” sex exhibition, they even put a penis salt shaker (“from Mexico”) on display! Very random…

This doll is used for sexual communication between husband and wife. If the wife feels like it that night, she’ll put the ‘lever’ up. Otherwise, let it remain downwards.

Supposedly natural phallic tree root.

A carving of an excited horse.

Animals in the wild going wild.

Finally, we rushed back to the hotel to get ready for the Hennessy Artistry party. Stay tuned! =)