.:: Back from Shanghai ::.

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Finally I have the time to blog about my recent trip to Shanghai. Nothing much fancy about the trip though. I'll let the pictures do all the talking.

DAY 1 - 4th June 08

I'm suppose to meet up with my colleague at KLIA around 11pm for flight check-in and luckily the KLIA Express was early. After meeting up and checking in the luggages and briefed about the itinerary again I'm free to roam around until 1am.....and it's just barely 11.10pm...this sucks..

By 11.30pm I've chatted with some friends helped me shave off some time but by 12 midnight I'm already hungry...my colleague and I then decided to have a cup of coffee at a nearby cafe.

My "breakfast" - Tuna puff + Latte

Sat around and chat all the way till 1.10am and the proceeded to boarding gate. While waiting for the plane to prepare for flight...suddenly the pilot announced that there were some technical issues with the plane and there will be delay! WTF?...Well I don't mind the delay, it's just the "technical issue" that's bothering me...-_-"

30 minutes later. . .

Finally the pilot announce the technical issue has been resolved. As the plane was making its way to the runway, I couldn't help but to imagine what would happen if that technical issue or whatever it was had happened in the mid flight....perhaps I'm thinking too much.

DAY 2 - 5th June 08

5 hours 20 minutes later. . .

After a 5 hours and 20 minutes + 30 minutes of grueling flight, I finally reached Shanghai Pudong International Airport. It is 7.30am only, and the flight was supposed to be 30 minutes earlier. There's no time difference here so no jet lag and weather is rather same with Malaysia. This is considered the second day of the trip already.

Many people waiting for their luggage at the carousel.

As soon as everyone got their luggage, it's time to head off to the bus.

This shall be the bus throughout the whole trip.

It's just barely 8.40am and the tour begins from now on. I can only check-in to the hotel by 3.30pm! -_-" ...

First stop of the sightseeing - Wuzhen (Water Village)

The water village is an old village revolving around an area surrounded by water, something like Venice - except that it is a much smaller version of it.

1.30pm - Next stop Hangzhou

After having lunch, we set off to Hangzhou and to travel to there it will be a 2 hours of bus ride. I'm already very tired and sleepy by now. Just when I thought that I could finally check-in to the hotel and get some proper rest...the tour guide suddenly say that there is some problem with the hotel check-in and only able to check-in around 8pm...WTF?

With that minor setback, the tour prolonged until dinner time.

8.30pm - Reach hotel - FINALLY! - Four Points By Sheraton (5 star)

Everyone busy checking-in and getting their room keys - Finally!

Here's a nice bar that's just opposite the check-in counter.

Ahhhh finally my room!

Here's a look at that comfy bed!

The desk in front of the bed.

And here's the night view. But there wasn't much to see though from 17'th floor -_-"

There was supposed to be a night tour of Hangzhou but everyone voted to stay in the hotel.

Time to get some proper rest! Night!

DAY 3 - 6th June 08

7.30am - Morning wake-up call. *Yawn*

I woke up to see this...and no, it is not mist or your eyes are blur.

After the morning buffet breakfast, it's time to set off for a full day tour of Hangzhou. We went on a cruise tour of the West Lake - which was basically just a boat ride around a large lake. Next to Flower Harbour & tour of Yue Fei Tomb. Well don't ask me anything about China history - I have no idea >_>".

Here is the Tea House - Long Jing Tea (Dragon Well Tea - yes it is translated literally and it was on the signboard as well). You should buy the Long Jing Tea here.

1pm - Lunch time!

We arrived here for lunch - Mountain Beyond Mountain? Huh?

It was a slight hill up to this little restaurant.

What's for lunch?.....Well this was just one of the dishes available. lol

After lunch it is time to set off again to visit another temple..-_-"

Can someone read that for me please?

It's a huge temple...there was some procession going on in there.

2 hours of bus ride later - a visit to a "theme park" - here's a panorama shot of the entrance.


Here's how inside looks like. Please bear with me with the sound.

Here's some stall hawkers in full costume. The guy in the second picture was sleeping...

By now it's already 7.30pm, it's time for dinner!

The grand entrance....as expected of big Chinese restaurant - things must be grand!

After the dinner, the rest of the evening was free at own leisure. For me it was time to get some rest after so much walking and long bus rides..-_-". Tonight have to pack my luggage as well as tomorrow will be checking out and moving to another province and another hotel - Skyway Landis Hotel.

DAY 4 - 7th June 08

6.30am wake-up call...-_-"

By 7am, everyone's at the dining floor having their buffet breakfast. By 8.15am, time to set off to the next destination - SUZHOU.

I'm dread the traveling by bus which will take 2 hours and 30 minutes non-stop ride to take us to the next destination.....-_-....

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2 hours 30 minutes later...

Arrived at Suzhou city and straightaway the tour starts by visiting Hansan Temple. Upon alighting from the bus I saw something cute...


After lunch the tour proceeded to a local silk factory of which it has nothing much to see other than buying silk made products. Later on, the tour continued with a visit to Tiger Hill Pagoda - this pagoda was said to be leaning aside and it is dubbed as the chinese version of the famous leaning tower Pisa...lol.

Some nice scenery along the path to the pagoda

Does it look like it's leaning?

View from downhill heading back to the bus to depart to Shanghai.

Another grueling 2 hours and 30 minutes bus ride to Shanghai. Checked-in to Skyway Landis Hotel - Shanghai.

Tired day. . .

DAY 5 - 8th June 08

8am wake up call...

First item of today, a change of tour plans.....Instead of a tour of Shanghai Oriental Pearl TV Tower, we proceeded to do another Temple tour and followed by shopping at a bazaar.

Heading to the Jade Buddha Temple.

Squeezing and wading through a sea of human flesh...-_- and it's hot!

It's one of the local festive season...people mountain people sea!!

Some nice architecture.

After getting all hot and sweaty going through the crowd of people, it's about time for lunch...finally!

Well, I'll skip the lunch details and go to the next item of the tour for the day - it's SPA time!

Okay, there are no pictures for this session as there were many naked things happening - LOL. Well, I had foot and body massage both Thai and Chinese style...I'd recommend the Thai style if you do not wish to be whacked like a rag doll. Spa and sauna and followed by another session of foot massage.

Well after the spa session, it's time to go to the place I had been looking forward to. The Shanghai Oriental Pearl TV tower.

I see it finally - still on the bus...and it's drizzling..

Finally reached! But too bad, it's near impossible to take a Human+Tower picture...

On the way in to the tower

Well the visit to the tower was rather short and disappointing - the visit was ad hoc and it was drizzling...sigh..

It's about dinner time and there's something else that I looked forward to as well...

Shanghai Siu Loong Pau - I do not know what other word to describe this. This was the most authentic ones that I ever tasted - Delicious!

Here's a dish that was on display that was available on the menu - Tasty fried Silk Worms

After dinner, it's a free and easy session for the night time and it's shopping time. The tour bus dropped everyone off at Nanjing East Road.

The hustling and bustling city of Shanghai - this tourist spot is equivalent to that of Malaysia's Bintang Walk district..

Well this sure seems familiar...Lizard brand?..LOL!

Nice building of which I have no idea what it is called...


Looking around

Well nothing much to buy here though other than nice buildings and neon lighting. It's the final wrap of the trip and it's time to head back to the hotel and pack my luggage.

DAY 6 - 9th June 08

Wake up call at 9am.

After having a quick breakfast, it's time to checkout and head to the airport.

Time to check-in the luggage - Destination? Kuala Lumpur

Time to say goodbye to Shanghai - It was a nice trip overall.

P.S.- To those who read till the very end of this post, thanks for staying along ride! Haha..
All pictures are taken using my trusty Sony Erricson K750i - Love it! Well ofcourse the pictures were enhanced abit la.

That's all folks!

When things happens • For those essentially concerned

.::Post bookfest - a 9 days story::.

Bookfest has ended finally after a 9 days marathon of fun and excitement. Lucky for me I've managed to meet a funny "son" and cute "daughter". Both had made my 9 days much more enjoyable than I had expected initially. Without them, it would have been an extremely boring week to pass. Thanks. As I'm the OLDEST....I became "father" to these two youngsters.

My "son" and "daughter" for 9 days. Hahaha.

Well basically we had nothing else to do and this father-daughter-son thing was just a joke to pass our day. Too bad both of my "son" and "daughter" doesn't even wanna pay their "father" any money for daily living expenses! Ceh...Hahaha just joking. It was a fun time.

As with all other Fairs that I had worked with, bumping into friends has become a routine. Here's two who dropped by to "bump" into me. Hahaha. Thanks for dropping by to have lunch with me.

Thanks~ Panda Eyes VS Tok Janggut hehehe..Appreciate it!

On a side note, sorry to Jo-chan for forgetting about your HDD. >_<" Hontoni gomen na!

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Okay, skipping all the details to the final day, there I encountered for the first time the worse ever logistic crisis. Well I would like to go through the details but I think it's far too long to spill it here, so to sum it up, it was a total logistics disaster.

11.00pm: Everyone queuing up waiting for their "turn".

11.30 am: Everyone still queuing and waiting their "turn"

11.50 pm: Still waiting....

We finally got our turn by 12.30am. At that moment I just wonder and pity those who thought of taking LRT back home. Tsk tsk.

P.S. - I will be leaving to Shanghai tomorrow already, so see you guys and girls next week la!

When things happens • For those essentially concerned