Wow.. finally, I finished this blog after nearly a week of writing about this trip! Sorry for the delay.. Was busy catching up with work and everything… Happy reading!
Once in a while, in the hectic world today, there comes a time we takes a few days off to recharge our batteries. Most people thinks that travel is a luxury. Mostly they are… However depending where is your destination is. There are some places that is quite affordable to go if you do not mind the condition of the hotels or the mode of transportation or the standard of food and no shopping, then it can be slightly more affordable for the travellers.
Travelling is one of my motivation in life. I love to travel to see other places, to see their way of life, their culture, to experience their climate, their local dishes, local transportations and many more. In a year, I have 19 days leave and mostly are being utilize to visit other places. Yes Yes.. I hear you mum.. will try to come back more often.. But whenever the thought of having a chance to visit another place.. the temptation is too great to resist!
Recently, I just had a chance to go for a holiday with my boss… Yes.. with my boss and it is not a business trip. I think not many people goes for holiday with own bosses, do they? Hei.. it is not that I am her favourite ok.. I am still stuck with this position for 2 years already… But its not just 2 of us, our GM secretary, Mei also came along with us. She always goes for holiday with my boss, so she knows all my boss travelling habits and vice versa.
Last Friday we took a flight to Shanghai and stayed a 5-star hotel – Le Royal Meridien for 06 nights. My boss ex-colleague, Daniel met up with us at the airport and brought us to the hotel. The room was very spacious even with the extra bed and they have a open concept bathroom (pic below) and even their ashtray they have wordings! (as shown). The first night we had our dinner at one of the restaurants – Comely Restaurant which is just next to the hotel. We had pastas and pizza and of course Heineken! Food was not bad. After that we walked around the Nanjing Road (Pedestrian Road) where this is where all the shops located (something like Orchard Road) and it is packed with people as that is the Golden week in China. So many people from other province comes to the city to celebrate the occasion.
The next morning, we explored more of the Nanjing Road and Me and Mei bought some jackets from MetersBowne and we had a quick lunch at Ajisen Ramen before rushing back to the hotel to meet up with Daniel, who brought us around. He brought us to the opposite side of The Bund, where there are some cafe and you are able to see the opposite view of the entire stretch of banks! (Pic. below). There is also a huge Chinese Restaurant and we can see they are all setting up for a grand wedding, with the flowers decorations. At the Bund, we can see the old Bangkok bank which is still surviving, the AIA building and also the peace building which was the one of the oldest building there. Of course while we were walking along the river, there are the local people trying to sell their souvenirs, food – rotten tohu, which is a delicacy for some people.. for me.. nah.. not a fan for it..
After the long walk, we went into the convention centre where normally government meetings are being held there. It was a shape of a globe in glass. We went exploring by ourselves to see their function room and got to admit they are HUGE! When we were there, there are 4 weddings being held at the same place, at the same time.. and of course different room! We had some drinks and cakes for tea. After some chit chatting, we decided to visit my boss ex-hotel – ex Westin which is now the Sofitel. A nice cozy hotel in the downtown.. and met up with another ex-Japanese Staff whom they call Tatt. He is a very cute and comical guy. They sat down for another cup of coffee and drinks while catching up with their stories. They have a very nice cool bar – Chelsea bar (really wonder if only Chelsea fans are allowed.. hmm) and they have a corner decorated like a country study area. Pics below.
At night Daniel brought us for dinner at a Chinese Restaurant called – South Beauty. Food was very good but their food presentation are really supurb! Since Daniel is the local, we leave the food ordering in his good hand and it really was. However, we do not know the name of the dish. We had a pork roll presented in a rattan basket (see pic), a spicy beancurd which they shown us how they make the dish, vegetables and many more. We went back to the hotel with our belly full.
The second day, Daniel picked us up at around 11am and brought us to visit his resort – Le Meridien Resort which is about 1.5 hours away from the city. The place is huge, if you walk from one end of the building to the other end. They have a huge lilly pond with a man-made beach for the kids to play. They also have a small chapel for any weddings (for any religion), conference center and huge auditorium that can take up to 350 persons. They also have a outdoor and a indoor swimming pool, spa and gym for their guest to work out. After the tour, we had a Sunday Brunch and their spread are quite huge – from Western to Asian cuisine. Of course knowing me, I had some eggs, some porridge, tom yam soup, some main course and then.. dessert. here I come.. I had a plateful of cakes and pastries. Not only that, I had something that I had not eaten for a long long long time… guess.. cotton candy! Just imagine, i cannot even remember how we used to eat it – instead of just biting on it, i tore it to pieces. haha.. really getting more and more like a mountain tortoise. Oh..not forgeting, we had the sparkling wine or rather champagne, which was included in the package!
After all the sumptious meal, we were looking forward for an activities for us to burn off all the calories, which Daniel brought us to the perfect place for 3 ladies – FACTORY OUTLETS!!! Before the trip, I told my colleagues, family and friends that I will not be buying anything – don’t think there is anything to buy.. how wrong I was! It was a really like a shopping spree.. There are so many brands there and due to the golden week, they are still having some sale going on that makes the clothes there even cheaper. Most of the shops that we went in, we ended up coming out with paper bags. We spend at least 3 – 4 hours there. I ended up with 2 pairs of Nike shoes (casual wear & running), 2 pair of jeans (one from espirit and one from pierre cardin), 2 khaki pants (one from nike and one from espirit), 1 vest from ashwood and one sling bag from nike. All these are less than 30 Singapore Dollars each. Pretty cool, eh? It was a great accomplishment for someone who seldom go shopping and the thought when the credit card bill comes next month.. burr.. shall not think bout that, shall we?
After the fruitful session, after meeting up with Daniel we ended up having our dinner at the chinese restaurant at the factory outlet. We had “siao long bao”, some vegetables, wan ton noodles and desserts. Even when the day grew late, after Daniel drop us back to our hotel, we went to the nearby shopping centre and I bought another bikini so that we are able to enjoy the hotel swimming pool the next day. After the busy shopping day, we end the day with a cool heineken.
After enjoying a short swim and relaxing in the jacuzzi, we went exploring on our own by their local metro. Due to the fog we decided to go the The Oriental Pearl Tower instead of the Yu Garden. Mei and I decided to go up the tower to the peak while my boss goes shopping at a nearby shopping centre. It was quite fun going up to look down from 350 ft above. We even went for a roller coaster ride which is in the middle of the tower. After the tour we went to join my boss at the shopping centre and I managed to find a vest that I was looking for at H&M.
We ended up at the opposite site of the Bund again and decided to go back to our hotel. We went to the Raffles City which is a shopping centre (probably a franchise from Singapore as it is similar to the one we have in Singapore) nearby our hotel for look see and decided to try out their food court. The food really sucks! Most of us did not even put a dent in our food and we left the place. Ended up at the hotel Chinese restaurant.. however, I managed to try the hairy crab, which was suppose to be the delicacy in Shanghai! As usual, on the way back to the hotel, we strayed and went into the Espirit shop. Ended up buying somemore stuff. So added to my damage, I got myself a trendy cap and a black formal belt. That’s it… I am done with my shopping!
The next morning, we took a taxi to the Yu Yuan Garden which is a chinese garde in the old town of Shanghai. Before reaching the garden, along the pathways are all the shops selling souvenirs and teas and while walking along the walkway over lilly ponds was quite a nice scene. There are some chinese restaurants as well. Apparently there is a restaurant that serve “Xiao Long Bao” is very nice and quite popular, but we did not know which one and ended up in another restaurant but food was wasn’t what we expected. There are also starbucks in the oriental buildings was quite a trilling change.. to see a western establishment in a chinese architectual building.
The garden was full with bridges, stones, lilly ponds and green trees which was quite refreshing especially when you comes from the city where its all concrite buildings and it was quite amazing that they have a garden in the middle of the city. Shanghai being the financial centre has becoming very cosmopoliton and much more advance from other cities in China and some even better than other countries. One thing for sure, they are really into recycling which the program does not seem to work in Singapore!
After the relaxing walk in the garden, we met up with Daniel at the hotel lobby in the afternoon. We were so touch that he purposely took a day off to bring us around. We went to their flea market and had a walk around. Since there isn’t anything that catch our eye, we decided to go to the bund again! But he brought us to the Bund side this time which we had not been. So we have another view of the Bund.
After some photo taking session, we left the Bund and Daniel brought Mei and myself back to the hotel as we decided not to join the reunion session, instead both of us took the opportunity to experience their karaoke there. Mei was very impressed with their room and their system. Well for me, I still prefer Singapore, maybe due that Singapore system has english instruction! It was so increadible cheap as we just paid RMB 75 for 3 hours for minimum of 3 persons which is SGD$15! That is just for the room only. They will then show you to a grocery session where you can buy their water and snacks from the shop before proceeding to the karaoke room. They do not have karaoke fees or any compulsory snacks that you need to purchase as what was charge in Singapore. Overall both of us enjoyed themselves…After the full 3 hours of vocal exercise, we went to Raffles City again for dinner (NOT the food court). We tried another restaurant which serve something like a steamboat but with porridge based. Then we ordered some vegetables, meat, fishballs and a few other dishes and we just poured into the pot and wait for it to boil. However the broth was just the water from the porridge and there is no taste. It was really quite a dissappointment.
The next day I and Mei joined a day tour to Suzhou. My boss is meeting up with another of her friend in Shanghai. Suzhou is just around 1.5 hours drive away from Shanghai and we have a good tour guide, Cornie that brought us around. In our tour there are 05 of us including us. 01 from US who is a fat vegetarian guy who married an Italian lady, 01 Aussie guy and 01 Malaysian guy who just came to Shanghai for holiday. We went to Tiger Hill where there is pagoda and with some stones and pond with stories which Cornie explained to us. As we climb up the hill with about 100 over steps towards the pagoda that was on top of the hill, Cornie was explaining that the China emperor went there a couple of times and wrote poems on the stab of rock that was being preserved near to the pagoda. The Pagoda was a special one as it is slanting. Maybe this is going to be the oriental leaning tower of China!
During the journey down, Cornie showed us some other meaningful ponds and rocks with names being printed and tell us the story on a couple of these stones. After the hill, we visited another garden. This garden was actually the garden of a rich family in the olden days and was being preserved and became the tourist attraction. Here you see the beautiful halls of their residence, stones that was planted in their garden – apparently the stones represent their wealth. To determine how rich the family is, it is to count how many such big stones in their garden, the more it is, represent the more money they have and these big stones are not those that are smoothly faced but are with holes! Just imagine, last time the people have such a huge garden! wow… and was being maintained till today.
After the garden, we went to the temple. After praying the buddha, we went up the pagoda to have a look on the scenery up there (a different one from the Tiger hill). However, we made a mistake in going into the shop, as the girl there just talk non stop! About the buddha la, then ask us to bring back the buddha pendent la.. you got fortunate that you are able to bring back the buddha.. and on and on.. Unfortunately i departed with a buddha pendent and a hole in my pocket..But I take it as a part of a donation and hope that Buddha will give me his blessing and my wishes will come true!
With our tummy growling, calling for food, we were brought to a hotel restaurant for our lunch. We had quite a sumptous lunch.. with beef, pork, vegetables, chickens and soup. Not bad for tours.. Normally they bring you to a not so good restaurants, but this one was not bad. After the lunch they brought us to the silk factory where we see them how they process the caccoon and how they extract the silk from the caccooon, how they make the quilt (I even have a hands on on how they spread the silk layer by layer till its thick enought to make into quilt), see how they weave the threat into a silk cloth to be made into clothings. As usual, at the end of the silk factory tour, they bought us to their shop hoping we will purchase some souvenirs there. Which we did. Mei bought some silk fan while I myself bought some chopsticks for souvenir. Before we head back to Shanghai, we did a stopover at the Grand Canyon for some photo taking. This is how they brought their goods from Suzhou up to Beijing in the olden days. But now the canyon is not in use.
Once we reached Shanghai we met up with my boss and planned to have dinner followed by drinks with Amanda, who is the previous Spa Manager (my ex-boss) However somehow we skipped dinner and went straight into drinks at one of the wine bar with a couple of Amanda’s friend. After consumed about 3 bottles of white: I had 3-4 glasses, Mei had 1/3 glass while my boss had about 5 – 6 glass and she started to get tipsy, luckily with Mei we manage to get her back to the hotel safely without much damages. However once we were back to hotel, we decided to order some room service since we had skipped our dinner. Unknowing on the serving and the thought of french fries and club sandwich sounds good, I ordered it. However, to my horror, the portion was so huge! I was a little high myself but only managed to eat half of the sandwich and the french fries.
The next morning, Mei and I went for a last swim at the indoor pool and enjoyed the steam and sauna room before we start to pack for our departure. We went to the brunch of the chinese restaurant that we had our dinner at the Outlet factory for lunch. However, to our dismay, their service sucks! The face that they gave us is like we owe them 1million dollars .. well.. right after we finished we left the place.. thank goodness.. But knowing us, on the way back to the hotel, Mei and my boss saw some nice oriental blouse and jackets. Imagine that, just going for lunch and walking back, we still go back to the room with paper bags!. After finishing our last packing, we settled our bill and checked out. Daniel being a kind soul took a half day leave to send us to the airport.. how sweet of him.. however before departure we went for a round of beer and with the remaining RMB, I bought some small souvenirs.
At least the 5 hours flight home is much better than the our arrival flight as we have more channel to watch. Just imagine how bored we were on our arrival until we resort to playing “Chor Dai Di” in the plane – just the two of us! Anyhow the entire trip is quite a relaxing one since there are some morning we need not wake up so early that we are able to sleep till 9-10am! This is the first time I am able to do so in of my trips.. But do I want to go back there again.. hmm.. there still have many other areas in China I have not visited, which I don’t mind going.. but Shanghai..I don’t think so.. But if got the opportunity, might want to go there to work for a couple of years.. that should be quite interesting!
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See those building opposites.. those are the banks
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