Xu Jia Hui

86th-87th day in Shanghai(24/11/07-25/11/07)

Saturday was a day to do project!!! OMG!!!

Woke up at 10am to return the sofa bed to CF’s room as her parents came to stay with her.

Oh, Angela’s aunt and uncle came over and they bought pandan cake over!!! YAY =) I cant wait for my parents to bring all the Bengawan Solo’s kueh over!!! Sis, if u don’t know what to buy over, you can just buy everything that is in this page =) Bengawan Solo

Jie Ying came over to do project with us. She got her interim report and we got our multi-media project.

Slacked a bit and finally got all my photos organized.

Started project at about 1.30pm and by 5pm, all of us were super dead. Ordered MacDonald for dinner and slacked the whole night after that. That is so what I want in my life =)

Projects!!!

3 monkeys!!!

Woke up at 10am on Sunday morning with the plan to get out of the house by 1pm to some new places in Shanghai. Jie Ying and Joanne was supposed to go to one of the café nearby to write their reports.

In the end, Joanne, Jie Ying and I got addicted to my HK series show ‘The Dance of Passion’ as it was the last few episodes, which are also the most exciting episodes.

Watched until 4pm and in the end, we got out of house at 4.30pm. Jie Ying and Joanne decided to just stay at home to do their reports.

(Kim slept for a few hours waiting for me.. opps!!)

So, Kim and I took the train down to Xu Jia Hui, one of the shopping areas in Shanghai.

Decided to go to that place as my dad just reminded me that there is such a place in Shanghai after chatting with him online yesterday and he was telling me about the Peking duck we ate the last time we were there.

I remembered that Xu Jia Hui was quite a big place and decided to go there for a walk.

Some how, I think the structures/layout there are a bit weird. They have got all the departmental stores at one side (with a few fast food restaurant) and all the food areas at the other side.

Went to almost all the shopping malls to have a look and the whole feeling is that I am in Orchard. I think I will prefer that place more then Nanjing rd as Nanjing rd is too touristy already.

And we went to this small little shopping mall that is only 2-storey high. The whole feeling of it was that I am back in Far East mall. Just that the structure there is more fashionable then Far East Mall.
Or rather, that place seems to be a more high class Qi-pu road where most of the good are from Qipu Rd. Just that I think we can’t bargain there.

Got quite hungry and we got to search for quite awhile before we can find some proper food to eat. Ended up at this Chinese fast food restaurant eating Fried Rice.

Explored a few more shopping malls after dinner and we went to Metro (Mei Luo Chen). Didn’t know that Metro was a Singapore brand until I saw a breadtalk outlet there and that the basement was a food court selling all the Singapore food. They have got fried prawn noodles, laksa, Toast Box, curry puff, etc… And we saw 3 Singaporeans seating at the Toast Box area drinking coffee chit-chatting.

Took the train home and the moment I got into the train, I heard Familiar voices… We stared at each other ‘Singaporeans!!!!’

There was this big group of NTU student in the same cabin as us!!! They were here for study-attachment trip for 6 months.

At first, Kim was like STARING at them and I was just looking around. Then when I turned to her and asked why was she STARING at them, one of the guys was like ‘NTU??’ That was how the conversation starts. Haha

Then we got off the train and got excited about how coincident and how small Shanghai is and when we turned behind, we heard familiar voices again… ‘Singaporeans….’

In just one day, we met 3 different groups of Singaporeans at different places.

And I think the most unique/amazing thing is that we Singaporeans, from a super tiny whiny city, do actually have our own identity.

Most of the time I will think that most people wil refer us as just from one of the bigger Asia countries like HK, Taiwan, Malaysia. But the moment we open our mouth and talk-Singlish, immediately, we can identify our own people. I think it is quite amazing.

And I am also quite surprised by the number of Singaporeans in Shanghai, let alone in China. Before I came here, some of the lecturers were telling me the amount of Singaporeans here in Shanghai and I was still telling myself ‘are you sure you will get to see other Singaporeans around??’

But true enough; I will meet Singaporeans almost every time I go out for leisure.

Maybe this world is just that small.

Hunan Cuisine and The Bund

85th day in Shanghai, Out with the expats (23/11/07)

Finally it was the last day of the week. Everyday seems to pass very fast now. Maybe because we have got things to do although it’s like a routine.

Met up with Denis and Raymond, managers of F&B Shangri-la hotel and resorts, China (Big shots huh!!) as they wanted to bring us out for a dinner.

Took a cab down to this Hunan restaurant (spicy food) for dinner. And while waiting for the food to come, Raymond opened 2 bottles of white wine for us to try. Too bad we weren’t wine drinkers coz apparently he told us that one bottle of wine cost RMB1000+ (S$200)

Hunan Restuarant

(We went there for 2 reasons: They wanted to bring us out for dinner plus they were planning to have a business proposal with this restaurant to set up the restaurant at some of the opening Shangri-la in China)

After awhile, Mr Sunny Pow, VP of marketing Shangri-la hotel and Resort, China together with the VP of Assort (ex GM of Swissotel, Singapore) came over to join us for dinner. (A table full of Singaporeans)

So this whole table was filled with half Super rich expates (them) and half super poor interns (us).

The food there was supposed to be very nice but it was just too spicy. The only thing that I really like there is the fried rice coz that is the only thing that is not spicy.

Some of the dishes are quite unique where there is this bun with an arc at one of the side to put some meat fillings in it (which is super spicy)

Another one was tofu plus crabmeat and egg. The egg taste was quite strong and thick but I can still taste the crab. I think it is quite nice.

Some other things that we ate were pork ribs, sweet lotus with sweet glutinous rice in-between the holes of the lotus, some super spicy fish (after eating the fish, the waitress will put in the noodles which will be soak in the gravy. Super nice but super spicy), cucumber with some type of peanut/sesame sauce, Chrysanthemum cake and some others that I cant really remember.

And throughout the dinner, Raymond made us drink 3 cups of rice wine (48%alcohol) and a lot of white wine. So even before the dinner ends, Angela and Kim was like half dead.

After the dinner, Raymond and Denise bought us to the bund. Like finally!! After almost 3 months in Shanghai, we went to The Bund.

And I found out something new. The bund is only in Pixi. All along, I thought that the bund was that 2 stretch of road along the Huangpu river. Then I realized that they always show the picture of the pearl tower and the view at Pudong side as the bund is to show that that is the view you can get if you are at the bund.

We took the cab down to pick up Joanne first at Shangri-la and headed to #3 on the bund, Laris to look at the view of Pudong at the balcony. The view was really nice. Is exactly like the view you get from buying those postcards.

The restaurants there look really nice and super high class. I think one dinner can cost a few hundred SIN.

Next, we went to #5 on the bund, M on the bund, rated #3 for all Shanghai Restaurants. A fine dining restaurant there, we went to the bar just one floor lower, Glamour Bar.

The place was quite nice-high-class. Came beside the window but the view wasn’t as nice as the on at Laris maybe due to all the window frames.

And Raymond was quite a killer. He would make every single one of us drinks. Drank quite a bit and have some small chats with them before we head off to #18 on the bund, Bar Rouge.

Bar Rouge is one of the most popular pub in the bund. Wanted to go up and have a look but it was so popular that people got to queue up at the lift area just to get up to the bar. We didn’t want to wait so long and decided to head to Baby Face since Raymond and Denise haven’t went there for a very long time. (not very their age to go there=))

Reached babyface and it was quite weird at first. Like it was super not their social class to go to such places.

Comparing bars at the bund and Baby face, I would say it is heaven and hell. The feeling... no, environment is so much different.

Stayed there for a while and went to eat supper at this Hong Kong restaurant beside it. And surprisingly, this restaurant’s Pork Bun is like damn nice.

After a long night out, we didn’t spend a single cent. Even the cab home was paid by Denise =)

Very good experience for the night I guess as I get to go to all the places where I don’t think I can even afford to go now. (Maybe I will go but not to spend money there but just to look at the different structures of the restaurants/bars there)

Happy Birthday =)

83rd day in Shanghai (21/11/07)

This few days wasn’t very pleasant for me coz I am feeling a bit sick due to the change in weather.

So, have been taking cab to work for the past 2 days as both Kim and I got lazy and wanted to slack a bit at home first before heading to work.

And for the past 2 days, I have been dozing off during work coz work is way too boring.. Imagine I got to face the computer from 9am to 6pm keying in data (okie, I do surf the net sometimes but still, it is way too boring… I am so not office girl type).

But well, today is my birthday =)
Went to work as usual, surf the net for one hour before they got DGS (Global Distribution System) for me to key in. After awhile, I heard someone quite far away saying ‘Happy Birthday’. I raised my head and realized that it was Nancy’s birthday too.

Wow.. I got the same birthday as my boss…

Waited very long for lunch time and we went to Zhen Da in hope that there wasn’t any queue at the Chinese restaurant coz we wanted to eat congee. But bad enough, there will always be a queue esp during lunch time.

Headed to level 8 to try out this pasta restaurant, Saizaiya which was strongly recommended by Joanne and the food there is just CHEAP!!! One plate of pasta cost RMB 9. The serving is quite big and best of all, the food is nice =)

I can’t even get a plate of pasta for $3 in the hawker back home let alone in a restaurant. Both Kim and I are so going to be regular customers there.

Went back to the office, ate Nancy’s birthday cake-fruitcake and waited even longer for work to end.

Finally 6pm reached, went to change out and met Joanne on the train. And again, it was the super peak period where everyone will just squeeze into the train. (it was my 3rd time taking the train during peak period???)

Met Jie Ying at Raffles City to try out this Brazil Restaurant, serving meat buffet. But the dinner was super disappointing.. Compared to the one at Sixth Avenue, Brazil Churrascaria, this meat buffet is super sucky. The meat was tough and dry, the service sucks like hell, the variety was super limited, the pineapple wasn’t gilled, etc…

There is this incident that totally pissed me off. So in this restaurant, they will clear away all the dirty food on your plate so that u will have the space to put more meat. In other words, they do not change a new plate for you.

So while the rest went to take deserts then one of the waitresses came to clear the plates (in Chinese)

‘excuse me, can I clear away the unwanted food?’

‘yea’

(she was putting all the unwanted food on another plate)

‘er, why not just give her a new plate’

‘oh, our restaurant do not change plates for the customer. We just clear away the food’

‘then the plate is so dirty already. How do you expect me to eat it using that plate??’

‘er.. okie, I will go and change it. Do you want me to change all the plate?’

‘forget it’

Then she came over to my seat, took my plate to clear away all the unwanted food. I have got a lot of food on my plate coz the food was quite terrible for consumption.

And as I placed my folk and knife nicely on the table, she can just happily take my folk and use it as a wiper to sweep all the food on my plate to the plate of rubbish.

‘Excuse me, I still want to eat with that folk. What the hell are you doing?’

‘oh, I know. I am removing all the food from you plate so you can use the pate.’

‘And do you expect me to use the folk again?’

‘er.. because there are a lot of food of the plate so…’

‘so am I suppose to use the folk that u are using to sweep away all my unwanted food to the plate of rubbish??’

LIKE WHERE THE HELL ARE THEIR BRAINS LAH!! OMG!!!

‘nvm, get me a new one.’ (rolling my eyes already)

I really don’t understand why do they even have customers patronizing their restaurant. They hygiene level is near negative already I think..

After the disappointing dinner, I wanted to eat ice cream so we ended up at this Haagen Daiz shop nearby. Eating ice-cream in the cold!!! SHIOK!!!

Waited for Angela to come and join us before I cut my birthday cake=)

While eating the ice-creams, there were a lot of beggars that came over to beg for either food or money.. One of them was even carrying a baby boy. How idiot can all this people be?? All of them have got their limbs and there they are, not working but begging for money!!

So as I thought that the place was very near Nan Jing Dong Rd, I took Angela to give me a call when she reached and I will go and find her. Little will I expect that the Train station is like 300m away from Haagen Daiz.

Found her, went back to Haagen Daiz and cut my birthday cake, Black forest =) one of my favorite cake hehe

My Birthday Cake!!!

Thanks Girls =)

Making a wish =)

Jie Ying said that the cake was freshly baked coz when she went to buy it, the cake was already sold out and she got to wait for 20mins for the pâtissier to bake one (I think just assembling everything together coz all the ingredients are ready already).

Super fresh cake=)

By the time we finish eating and crapping, it was near 11pm already. Wanted to go to some clubs but since Jie Ying was in the wrong attire, Kim’s shoes lost it’s rubber and Angela wasn’t feeling very well plus I am quite tired too, we decided to give a miss.

On the way home, as i was holding on to the left-over cake(for tomorrow breakfast) that we cant finish, there was this lady beggar holding on to a small boy came begging for the cake. The little boy wanted to snatch the cake from me and that lady, which I will assume is the mother kept asking him to say 'thank you jiejie. I very hungry can give me the cake?? (in chinese)'

Like why on earth will these parents be so irresponsible towards their kids?? Teaching them how to beg.. SHit them lah!!!

Reached home, slacked till midnight before heading to the bed.

And I am quite happy to receive all the birthday wishes from emails, Friendster, Facebook and even phonecalls from family and friends =)

Far away from home and I can’t celebrate with them.. But well, so gleeful that they still remember my birthday. Thanks guys!!! for all the wishes =)

Late Nights out + Joanne's bdae

79th & 80th day in Shanghai (17/11/07&18/11/07)

Finally, after one day of cold water, we got our heater back yesterday=)

And it’s a brand new one so I can’t be bothered anymore since I got my thing back without paying a single cent. But my house is still without a stove.

So, this few days have been doing a lot of late night activity.

After 5 long days of boring work, it was finally Sat, the day we plan to go shopping!!! But in the end, Kim, Jie Ying and I got too lazy to get out of the house and we stayed at home the whole day watching HK series show.

So after my dinner, which was eating a banana and some snacks at about 9+pm, Joanne called to ask if we want to go to this club call Muse, opened by the HK actress Carina Lau.

Was hesitating if we want to go and Tracy called and asked if I want to go to Paparozzi, another club in Shanghai

Was super lazy to get out of the house already but since everyone seems to be going out to party, we didn’t want to miss out any fun so all 3 of us decided to cab down to Muse, since it was Joanne’s birthday after 12am (sort of celebrating her birthday).

Reached there at 12 plus and the place is quite nice. Don’t really like the music but this time, at least we have a table coz Jason was paying for it.

Started off with playing dice and we went to dance for a while.

Went back to play with dice while Joanne and Jie Ying continue dancing. I think I drank too much and too fast that I started puking in the cups (was waiting for Joanne and Jie Ying to come back so that we can go to the dance floor tgt so that I can sweat it out but they came too late. I was already puking)

Oh, at that time Kim was already half dead.

Felt much better and we went to dance for a while before going back home.

Took the cab and I was so worried that I will puke in the cab so the moment we reached home, I hurried Kim out of the cab and the first thing I did was became Merlion for 3 times.

Vomited everything out (the drink and my dinner-tidbits) and went back home, continue puking my gall juice out.

After feeling so dead from all the puking, I still managed to find the energy to bath, washed my face and blowed dry my hair before going to bed (this shows that I am not drunk and I am still clear of what I am doing.. some ass kept insisting that I am drunk.. stupid ass)

Some of them cant be bothered and just went to sleep..

Slept at about 4am and woke up at around 7am when Yu Hong woke up and went home. Then woke up at 10am when Angela woke up and get ready to meet her aunt for lunch. Rushed to the toilet the moment she came out and started puking again (almost nothing came out. There wasn’t anything left to vomit out already)

My whole stomach was so uncomfortable. Was super hungry but didn’t have the appetite to eat.

Then all I feel like eating was congee and not knowing where I can get congee near my house, we decided to go Zhen Da for Dim Sum (coz that is one place I know confirm got congee and will be nice)

So we had our lunch at 4pm in the afternoon when we are meeting the guys for dinner at 8pm. How great!!!

After the very satisfying lunch, we headed down to Ke Ji Kuan, Shanghai Science Center shopping area, which is known as the New XiangYang Market, planning to get a jacket.

Saw a few coats that I like but decided to get the cheaper one since I am going to wear it for like 2 months only. (Saw a red color one and I think it is super duper nice but the auntie won’t sell me no matter how much I bargain. She coated me RMB500 and I think it is too expensive!!!)

So in the end, I bought another black coat. Met up Angela shopped a bit more before heading to Shan Xi Nan Rd Metro Station to meet the guys.

And since we were not very hungry, we went to Crossroad to eat some Singapore Snack.

Ordered a lot of food like Mee Goreng, Singapore Fried noodles, Rojak, Vegetable, duck, Curry Puff and Laksa. Everything there is not too bad except for the Laksa that sucks like hell. Totally disgusting!!!

Bought a cake for Joanne and we took some crazy photos outside the restaurant. And oh, the service in the restaurant is totally sucky.

Joanne's cake

There were a few incidents, which make me think so:
- when we need to call for a staff, none of them were around on stand-by
- when we call for them, one of the staff was still talking to the chef, EATING!!!
- when we need the staff to bring the cake out, the one and only staff we saw was combing her hair getting ready to go home!!! (it was only 9.45pm only!!)
- when we need the staff to refill the water, they actually said ‘again (in Chinese)’
- when it was at about 10pm, the time they are supposed to close shop, we were still eating the cake and one of the staff closed most of the lights in the shop.

Their service is just… CANNOT MAKE IT!!!

After the dinner, we wanted to try out the club G+, one of the more famous club in Shanghai and Tracy strongly recommend that place. So besides Angela and Kim that didn’t want to go, the rest of us took a cab down.

Reached the place there were very little people. Stayed there for a while and we decided to head to Babyface which seems to be more happening.

And when we reached there, for the first time someone approached us to ask if we were Singaporeans.

Made new Singaporean friends, partied for a few hours until 1.45am before heading home to rest for work later on.

Reached home, washed up and wash my clothes (putting my clothes in the washing machine) before heading to the bed.

FHC China + my house has been openly robbed!!!

77th day in Shanghai (15/11/07)

My house has been openly robbed!!!

WHY?!?!?!

It all happened in the morning when I was still changing my clothes when the doorbell rang.

Kim went to open the door and saw 2 guys standing outside. The whole conversation is somewhat like this (in Chinese)

‘yes? Who are you guys? I don’t know you’

‘The landlord asked us to come maintain your house water heater and stove’

‘No, he didn’t tell us about this. Come back when he is around’

‘Your landlord is Mr Weng right? You guys are Singaporeans and u stayed in the house beside before right (that time when we stayed in Jie Ying’s and Chang Fangs house). They are also Singaporeans. He told us to come for the maintenance of the water heater and stove.’

‘Er.. hold on, my friend is still changing.’

(At that time, both Kim and I thought that it was quite weird about the whole situation coz why didn’t Mr Weng call us and tell us about it first. Both of us were thinking whether to call Mr Weng first but it’s like they seems to know a lot about us. Our landlord’s name, we are Singaporeans, our neighbors are Singaporeans, etc… and we thought that Mr Weng would have called Joanne or Angela and told them)

‘Okie, you can come in already’

So they took away our water heater and stove and wrote us a receipt with his name. And he even asked us to see if the name on the receipt is the same one as in his IC. So I thought that maybe China got a lot of swindlers that is why they want us to confirm that they are not, something like that…

After removing the heater and stove, they asked us to move the tap to the ‘hot’ side and said that there will not be any water for the time being until they return us the heater in the evening.

After they left, I was like ‘they just remove the heater, why will the water supply stopped?’

But we were already late for work so didn’t bother to think much.

So while going to work, a few things really irritates me.:
-While wearing my boots, I realized that my tights got a hole on it and I got to change out.
-After changing to a new one, I realized that it is a bit too big.
-After wearing my boots, somehow, I feel very uncomfortable. It’s like the boots became smaller

Today is just so not my day!!!

Didn’t think much of what happened and when I came out of the locker room walking toward my office, Mr Weng called me and asked if there was a few people that went over to our house and besides the heater, what did they took.

Told him the whole story and he said that he didn’t know these people and they were all cheaters. And these cheaters contacted his father and not him.

And the weirdest thing was that Mr Weng said that these people who took away the heater and stove went to extort money from him. I mean how much can a heater and stove cost and why the hell did they get those things to extort money. There are more valuable things like television, washing machine, and refrigerator.

Don’t they realize that Mr Weng can just buy a brand new heater and stove for a cheaper price compared to being extort by them. Are they really that stupid or do they think that we are dump.

So after hearing what Mr Weng told us, I just couldn’t believe what happened. It is just so unbelievable. Extort someone using a water heater and a stove???

And Mr Weng was saying that they didn’t want much money but just a few thousand dollars, which is only a few hundred SIN bucks.. Like HELLO!!!! U are risking being caught by the police for that few thousand Yuan?!?!?!

But well, heard from some of my friends that a few thousand Yuan can mean a lot to them esp those village people.

And somehow, I find that the 2 man that came over to our house look quite familiar.. This whole thing is just so fishy.

Anyway, work was quite slack for the way coz we are working half-day =)

Told Nancy that Raymond and Denis, Pudong Shangri-la manager of F&B China asked us to go and explore this event/exhibition, FHC China at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre.
This event is introducing more suppliers to the food and hospitality industry in China.

Was supposed to leave at 1230 but she wants us to finish calling one whole list of people who are going to check in the hotel today, asking for guarantee.

Left at 1pm in the end and headed to Zhen Da Guang Chang for Sushi =)

Was hesitating if we should go home and change coz we weren’t quite appropriately dressed for the event. Yu Hong told us that people there were dressed in smart casual.

Cant be bothered in the end and took a cab down. The whole expo is quite big and we got pass the registration area quickly.

Went into the hall and look for Yu Hong and Gabriel at Kelvin Tay’s Wine speech. It was like a private room where they are introducing New Zealand’s wine.

There were a 9 different glasses of wine placed on the table for us to taste.

Saw Denis and some other Singaporeans working in Shangri-la and had some small talks with them.

Denis told us that it wasn’t as grand as what he expected coz a lot of suppliers didn’t dare to invest in China due to the high rate of duplication.

Isn't it cool!! It's all chocolate

All these are just free =)

Walked around the hall and tried different types of ice creams until about 5pm when we met some of the hotel chefs and took the hotel van back together.

Walked home after that and when we reached home, after seeing the empty cupboard without the water heater and a hole at the stove area, we started screaming and laughing about the whole situation. DRAMA!!!

Called the man that came in the morning and told him that he can bring back the heater and stove but he said that he haven maintain finish and got to wait till tomorrow. We then started screaming and shouting at him but failed to get him to bring back the stove.

(they can be so unreasonable at time.. he said something like what if the heater explode. Like WTH!!! After 2 months of using it, you are telling me something like this!!!)

Called Mr Weng and continue quarrelling as he said something like we need to pay part of the cost for the new heater and stove coz we are the one that open the door for that STRANGERS!!!

But the thing is how the hell will the STRANGERS know that we are Singaporeans, our neighbors are Singaporeans, our landlord’s full name and everything. Everything became so suspicious!!!

CHEENAS ARE SERIOUSLY NOT TO BE TRUSTED!!!

Some how Angela told her manager about it and her manager called our landlord and somehow, the thing is like half settled?? Like we don’t have to pay a single cent???

Oh, and apparently when Kim tried to use the tap in the toilet again, it works and we tried the other taps, there wasn’t any running water.

I think it is so super weird that while running the water, I started turning the tap from the ‘hot’ water the ‘cold’ water. And when the handle is turned towards the hotter side, the water stop running.

So conclusion is that since there is no heater, obviously there will not be any water running out of the tap when the handle is turn to the hotter side.

No wonder they asked us to turn the handle towards the hotter side in the morning.

OMG LAH!!! Do they really think that we are dump or what!! Something seriously fishy is going on…

This whole story is to be continue…
*seriously got no idea what will dad and mum say when they know abt this…