Shanghaied in Jan 2010

It's winter.... and not really a good time to be travelling in the Northern hemisphere! Just had about 2 weeks in London and Paris with relatively mild weather (except for 2 days of snow). So when I was monitoring the weather in Shanghai before my travels, i was getting a little bit concerned as the average temperatures was a few degrees below what we had experienced in Europe. On the morning that I landed n Pudong, it was -5 deg C!! Bloody negative 5 degrees C!! Oh oh... Looks like I am in for a cold stay.

(I was staying at the Holiday Inn Express, JinQiao - pretty economical)

But it sure looks like wherever I travel, I bring the sun with me. When I was in Shanghai a few months ago, the whole week I was here, the weather was warmer than expected. When I left, it turned cold again. Same thing in London and Paris. Heh heh heh. So today, Saturday, I was going around Shanghai with just a short sleeved tee, a sweater over that and a jacket just in case.

I promised EC to check out Longchamps prices to see if it is worthwhile to buy from Shanghai.

(The station at Jufeng Road)

So I took the metro (Shanghai rail transit) from Jufeng Road station (line no.6) to East Nanjing Road station (line no.2). Surfing the net, it shows that there is an outlet for Longchamps at West Nanjing Road. I forgot to check the address - it was at 1618, West Nanjing Road!!

So in my leisurely walk from East Nanjing Road to 1618, West Nanjing Road, I almost cramped up my legs!

(a new shop opening on Nanjing Zhong Lu)

Which idiot in Shanghai go and restart the numbers when you cross from East Nanjing Road to Central Nanjing Road to West Nanjing Road?

(A L'Oreal promotion booth outside one of the bigger shopping complexes)

I did not realize this until I crossed the street from Central Nanjing road to West Nanjing Road and saw that the addresses restarted from 2!! Shit!! That walk was longer than our walk from Crowne Plaza in Republique place to Notre Dame in Paris. And that was a pretty long walk too.

The walk was educational to some extent as I normally associated only Central Nanjing Road (Nanjing Zhong Lu) as the shopping area.

(There is a Madame Tussaud's near the beginning of West Nanjing Road!)

That's sort of like Orchard Road on a smaller length.

(Many trees are fully wrapped in gold foil!!?? Why??)

I did not realize that Nanjing Road stretched so far. I have travelled and visited places on West Nanjing Road many times without realizing where I was previously.

The whole stretch of Nanjing Road from East to West is much longer than Oxford Street in London and

(This Marks & Spencer outlet is bigger than any M&S in Malaysia)

have almost all the branded names setup along the way. If you want an idea how affluent the Chinese have become in general and Shanghainese in particular, you can more or less tell from the kind of showrooms that you can see. For example, I saw this Ferrari/ Maserati showroom across from the Porche and Mercedes showroom. This is on the ground floor of the J W Marriot hotel.

You have LV and Prada in one of the up market malls.

(and you do get garish decoration - for Xmas??)

And when I reached my destination - Shanghai Jiuguang Dept Store - it was like deja vu!! The layout was very similar to that of Galleries LaFayette in Paris where we bought a bunch of LongChamps. EC even remembers that there was a Tiffany & Co at the entrance. Trust that girl to know where all the expen$ive places are. Despite a 30% discount, the prices are still higher than in Paris. As the sales lady told me - imported mah..

Just outside, stalls have been setup to sell Chinese New Year delicacies.

(Seems like the shopping mall has a similarly idea as mine. First dress up the Xmas tree for Christmas, then redecorate it for Chinese New Year)!!

I am still wondering if this is a waxed pig or a waxed dog?? Looks about the same size.

Luckily next to the LongChamps store was the JingAn Temple Station (line no.2) so I did not have to retrace my steps to the next Metro station.

On the way back to the hotel, I saw this peddler selling a local vegetable/meat burger. I wasn't hungry, so I did not try this. But his customers look like they like it quite a bit.

Oh!! Anyone hasn't seen the limited edition LongChamp Le Pileage?? It has the Eiffel Tower on the side!!

A basin of vegetables

Poon Choi - literally a basin of vegetables. This is a dish that is peculiar to the Hakkas ( a dialect group of the Chinese).

(Eagerly waiting for the dish to be served)

I have heard about this dish for such a long time but never did get to eat it - until last night.

I was always under the impression that everything was cooked together.

(The dish when served - before we attacked it)

Last night's experience showed me that I was wrong.

(Photos first before we start)

Having eaten the poon choi last night, i think i can make a reasonable effort to duplicating something similar for the coming Chinese new Year.

(about half way through)

The dish we got yesterday was essentially layer after layers of different meat piled one layer on top of the other.

(the last layer)

By the time we got to the bottom layer, it was kind of saltish and oily (all the oils oozing out from the fatty parts of the meat.

We had our poon choi at Restaurant LYJ (in Chinese, it's Lei Hoong Kei) in Sungai Buloh New Village. It cost RM480 per dish and you really really really should go with at least 10 people or you may not be able to finish the dish.

Burp!!

London and Paris - a new perspective

Had a wonderful 11 days in London and Paris and immensely enjoyed it. More so since Elaine C also joined my family and I in our holidays. Having her along meant a slight change in the normal things we did. In all our travels, all our schedule was set by me with little or no input from the wife. My son would only have a few places to go to, like London Dungeon. With Elaine, we also put in a few days of shopping in London and Paris as there was the Christmas sales, the Boxing Day sales and end of year sales. We literally walked till we almost dropped.

My sister has a 2 room house in Walthamstow and all four of us (wife, son, Elaine and I) took up one room in front. this room has the best view as it overlooks the forest reserve and in the wee hours of the morning, you can see the foxes wandering around. Some of the convenience that we are used to had to have some adjustments. For example, there is only one bathroom and one toilet. So bath time was one long waiting session.

For friends and friend of friends, you would probably have seen my photo narrative on facebook, so I am not going to duplicate that here.

It has been a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thanks for the company Elaine. I hope you enjoyed the holiday as much as we did.

London in December 2009

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. May all of you have a Blessed Christmas and may the new year be one that is filled with Health, Wealth, Happiness and Peace (not necessarily in that order!!)

For the first time (in a very long time that I can remember), we are spending Christmas away from home. My wife, son and God daughter Elaine C joined me in London for the Xmas week. We are crashing out in my sister's house in Walthamstow. I have also planned 2 days in Paris and am keeping my fingers crossed that Eurostar is back to normal before we depart to Paris on the 28th!.

We flew L class on MAS, which I dub the Low class, since there are so many restrictions on the ticket. To make up for that, I had 4 vouchers to access the business lounge. 2 were courtesy of CIMB and 2 were redeemed from MAS Enrich points. So we all had breakfast in the lounge before the flight.

For Elaine, this is here first trip to London or that part of the world and she was certainly bored during the 13 hours it took to get to London. Now she knows she will need something to occupy her for the trip home.

So far (I am into day 5 today on Christmas Day) it has been drizzling or snowing except for one day. I was almost hopeful for a White Christmas!! But that was not to be. It's a nice chilly morning today and much of the snow has melted or washed away by the rain. Darn. Still, it was great to have been able to capture the landscape blanketed with snow. Alex even managed to make his first snowman (looking more like a snow alien).

Ah well, I think that is enough to hang you up high and dry wondering what else we did.

Updates later - Xmas lunch is almost ready.

Xmas around the shopping malls in KL

Christmas and Chinese New Year are when the shopping malls are beautifully decorated. There is some level of decorations during Deepavali (or Divali) and Hari Raya Puasa (or Eidil Fitri), but they do not look as nice as during Xmas or CNY. Maybe that's coz I am bias!!.

For this year, I took photos at

Sunway Pyramid. They had some kind of a French theme for this year. A lion was walking around with 2 pretty girls giving out sweets. I think it was a lion from one of the food snacks sponsor. Santa was everywhere. This particular Santa shakes around a bit when triggered by sound. It should be a good advertisement for exercise as the belt seems to have fallen off due to excessive exercise!!

Then there was The Curve - along with Ikano Power Center and the other parts linked together. I like the centerpiece of The Curve - colorful and full of Xmas trees!! Even their tenants decorated their premises, like the one shown here- at The Marche.

Mid Valley Megamall and The Gardens was just as nicely decorated. The Gardens had a bird cage theme. I also noticed bird cages sold all over the place in KL. Mid Valley had a more fairy tale setting, with castle, hanging candles and even fairies walking around for shoppers to take photos. They also had a stage in front of the castle to accommodate shows- like a fashion show by Elle. The number of pro/ semi-pro and amateur photographers was astounding!! One guy opened his bag to prepare his gear and you can see that it was a dedicated bag just to hold all his paraphernalia.

Last but not least, I heard that The Pavilion was quite attractive. It was not bad with attractions both inside and outside the shopping complex. We arrived around 5pm because I heard that most of the attractions would be lit after 6pm. By 7pm, the place was crowded - almost impossible to get a photo without a bunch of strangers in the background! At 8pm, they even had pseudo snow generated. I wouldn't want to stand under a bunch of soap bubbles being spewed from about 5 stories up!! and the floor became very slippery after that.

One last comment. I like the standardized cart that Famous Amos put up. I saw the same thing at the Curve and at Mid Valley.