Today is supposed to be Shanghai Expo day, but Ann and I decided to just skip it entirely. We’ve been hearing horror stories of lining up as long as 6 hours (!) on the pavilions that are worth visiting (e.g., Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Germany). That’s gonna be one heck of a waste of time. After that nightmarish trek at The Bund last night with that mass of people from every nationality imaginable, we thought going to the Expo on a Sunday is going to be hell. We also thought RMB160 is too expensive for a photo-op outside the pavilions, so we decided to just change the itinerary and visit Shanghai itself. We can buy Expo merchandise (available just about anywhere) and pretend we did go there, anyway.

We decided to go to Zhou Zhuang water town instead. Well, at least that was the plan. See, we were so tired last night that we woke up late this morning. We had planned on trying to catch the 2:10pm bus to Zhou Zhuang and since we left the hostel at 12:00nn, we skipped both breakfast and lunch and headed straight to the bus station located, according to the directions Ann got from the ‘net, “close to Shanghai People’s Stadium near Xujiahui.” As you can see, the directions were very vague. For one thing, distance is relative. What is near to some people may be far from others. For another thing, how the heck do we get there?

Since the directions mentioned Xujiahui, the first natural reaction is to go to Metro Station Xujiahui. Which turned out to be a bad idea, because to get to Shanghai Stadium, you must go to Shanghai Indoor Stadium station, not Xujiahui. Or maybe there is a way through Xujiahui station once you have mastered your way around Shanghai, but for first-time, non-Chinese speaking people like us? Na-ah. Long story short, we ended up on the wrong station, which cost us an additional RMB3 each to go back to Shanghai Indoor Stadium station. Once we got to the correct station, here comes dilemma No. 2: where exactly is “close to Shanghai People’s Stadium”? The stadium itself is huge. We might end up walking the entire circumference of it before we see the bus station.

After a looooong walk and some missed turns, we finally found it. It’s near the stadium ticket booths. We got in, but not before some guy stopped us to say that there is no bus for today (!!!) and he is offering a private tour service in case we still want to go to the water town. Of course, that’ll cost an arm and a leg, so no, thank you. We proceeded to the Tourist Information counter, and true enough, the tour guides said there is no bus today. But the service resumes tomorrow, and we can buy our tickets now to reserve our seats. We decided to get the 9:30am trip.

Ok, tour tickets? Check. Now we must eat. It’s already about 2:00pm at that time and we still haven’t had a single meal. I promised Ann that I’ll treat her to Ding Tai Fung in Shanghai as a belated birthday gift so we decided to head off to Xintiandi. But not before we stopped by a Family Mart to grab a sandwich and drinks because I still don’t have any idea how far Xintiandi is from where we were and we were already close to passing out from hunger.

After a few missed turns mainly caused by vague directions such as, “get out at Exit 2 and walk 200 meters along Madang Road” without specifying if we should go left or right once we reach Madang Road, we finally found Xintiandi. But before that, there’s little amusing incident that happened. You see, the reason why I decided to choose Ding Tai Fung’s Xintiandi branch to treat Ann is because this restaurant happens to be Rain’s favorite. He was seen dining at this particular branch when he was in Shanghai. So it’s basically a Rain trip but as soon as we got out of the Metro station, this is what welcomed us:

We went there for Rain; instead, we got Song Hye Kyo. Is this a sign? And I should stress that I did not see any traces of the ‘puor homme’ model in there.

Anyway… Ding Tai Fung. Can I just say that I love this restaurant? I little bit pricey especially if you know that food in Shanghai is generally dirt cheap, but the food is awesome. I ordered xiao long bao (of course), pork and shrimp dumplings, double-boiled chicken and shrimp fried rice. The soup from the double-boiled chicken is heavenly; it reminds me of good ol’ nilagang native na manok. As for the xiao long bao, it met all my expectations. Except that I botched on the proper way of eating it, that the waitress had to approach our table and handed me a guide on how to properly enjoy xiao long bao:

This is the second time I majorly failed on eating this dumpling. Yesterday, we got some Yang’s Fried Dumplings (actually, I had wanted steamed dumplings from the one across Yang’s but there was no English menu so I had to regretfully turn away) to take home to the hostel and I just ate it as I would normally eat any dumpling. The result is that all the soup squirted out of the dumpling and drenched my camera. I think I should’ve had a clue since this thing is called “soup dumpling”.

For the second time, the soup got drained all over my plate because I forgot that I was supposed to place it on the spoon before biting it. Thanks to the instructions, we also figured out what that mound of ginger is for.

After that delightful meal, we strolled by East Nanjing Road until our feet ached. We also emptied our pockets - in my case, scratched the hell out of my credit card - on Expo merchandise. We decided to call it a day early since we have to check out early tomorrow for the Zhou Zhuang trip. But not quite yet. We’re just resting; we’re gonna go out and pig out some more after this.

Hello from Shanghai, China!

Everything’s going on smoothly, so far. Ann and I arrived at Pudong International Airport at about quarter to 12mn. We got out at past 1am and the only option we had to get to the city is via taxi. We already know that it might be difficult for us since we neither speak nor understand Chinese, and it’s true, it proved to be difficult. Luckily, through the recommendation of a lot of travel forums about China, I had the sense to print out the name, address and telephone number of our hostel and gave it to the driver, who automatically called up the hostel to ask for directions. Thankfully, we got an honest cab driver. It was a long (and expensive) journey from the airport to the hostel, but we reached it safely with only a few minor hitches, so it’s fine.

We’re currently staying at Beehome International Hostel at Dong Chang Road. It’s a nice hostel. For one thing, the rooms are HUGE and clean, with nice amenities such as free wireless internet. Of course, we’re in China, so there are sites that we can’t access. But I can live without Twitter and Facebook as long as my blog and my emails are available.

First order of business? FOOD. I love it that there are restaurants around our vicinity which are open even at the ungodly hour of 2:00am. We were so hungry so we just followed our noses and went inside this restaurant that serves hotpot dishes. They have a sort of English menu, meaning there is an English translation but it’s a bit garbled and they don’t have photos on the menu. The waiter knows limited English, too, so he can’t help much. We just pointed at what we think is chicken, vermicelli and meatballs, and then pointed at ‘moderately hot’ and waited for what they will bring us. It turned out to be a nice hotpot chicken stew (think chopseuy without the veggies), and ‘moderately hot’ isn’t exactly moderate. I don’t want to think what ‘extra hot’ tastes like. But the dish is quite tasty and the servings are good enough for four people and we only paid RMB39. That’s not bad at all.

Mission for later: pig out on xiao long bao. Must find that restaurant that Rain always eats in when he was in Shanghai a couple of weeks ago…

I haven’t finished blogging about our Malaysia trip yet, and here I am blogging about the aftermath of that trip. I’ve mentioned several times before that I’ve been having cravings for nasi lemak ever since I had that at our Air Asia flight going back to the Philippines. It basically made me regret not trying that when we were in Malaysia because the Air Asia version was quite good. I’ve been on the lookout for good restaurants in Manila that serves nasi lemak, until I chanced upon Chef Gene Gonzales’ review of Nasi Lemak Restaurant in Robinson’s Galleria. He pronounced it as authentic, so of course I had to try it. Somehow, the fact that I botched my China visa application worked to my advantage and I had to meet Ann again last night at Robinson’s Gelleria to fix that. Since we’re there, we ended up having dinner at Nasi Lemak.

The place was full when we got there and only the outside tables were available. We initially wanted to eat inside because we felt so ‘exposed’ as Ann and I have this habit of ordering too much food (which shouldn’t be an issue because we’re gonna pay for it, anyway, so who cares?). But we’re too hungry and I really have to satisfy my craving so we did end up getting an outside table. We perused the menu and it’s actually a combination of Singaporean, Malaysian, Thai, Japanese and Chinese cuisine. It took some time before Ann was able to finalize her order. On my part, I just want my nasi lemak fix so naturally, I ordered the nasi lemak set.
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People travel for different reasons. For some, traveling allows them to explore new cultures and experiences to widen their perspective. There are others who travel purely for business, and there are those who travel purely for pleasure (and a few lucky ones who manage to do both at the same time). There are those whose trips won’t be complete if they don’t go shopping, and there are those who can’t live by without taking a snapshot of every nook and corner he or she goes to.

For me, I’ve discovered that I travel because (1) I want to see how people in other places live their everyday lives; and (2) I travel to eat. Photography, as I’ve found out in this latest trip, is just incidental to the entire thing.

This trip to Malaysia was funded almost entirely by my friend Ann aka. this blog’s resident Psychic. This is only her second trip outside the Philippines (the first being a trip to Bangkok with a few officemates last February, which she didn’t fully enjoy) and the first time for her nephew and his new bride so she asked me to accompany them. She availed of the Air Asia promo from last year and got tickets priced at just below php400 (less than USD10) one way, inclusive of fuel surcharges. She took care of my airfare and accommodations; the only thing I have to pay for are travel tax, terminal fee and pocket money. How could I say ‘no’ to that?

We spent the past 6 months researching about Kuala Lumpur and Kota Kinabalu, and that’s where I fully realized what my interests are when it comes to travel. I declined to take the HOHO bus because the stops were almost nothing but museums, and I have no interest in museums. One museum trip is enough for me. (It is for this same reason why I don’t take the Seoul City Bus Tour: because one palace and/or museum visit is good enough for me.) I don’t have to enter mosques, because I’m fine with just looking at the facade. I don’t mind if I don’t climb the Petronas Towers or the KL Tower. Why should I look at the view from up there when the towers themselves are the view? In short, I’m not really a “I must go to as many tourist spots as possible!” kind of traveler. I’m more interested at taking my time observing what the locals do in their everyday lives, which is also the reason why I am drawn to visiting shopping places. Not because I want to shop, but because shopping is a culture in itself. I was amused at the amount of information I gathered just from hanging out at shopping malls.

Of course, the other stuff that I took note in my research are the must-go places to eat.

And with that long introduction, I commence blogging about my trip to Malaysia.

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My staff gave me a surprise belated-birthday bash at the office last Thursday. They even wore my pasalubong Kuala Lumpur t-shirts for the occasion. It feels great to know that even if the higher-ups don’t appreciate me as a person, some people at the office still do.

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Anyone here knows where I can get some nasi lemak in Manila? I’ve been craving for it for almost a week now. I’m craving for it so much that I want to jump on the next Air Asia flight to anywhere just to order their in-flight nasi lemak.

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I have exactly one week to finish all my reports and yet I’m not flustered at all. I think I’ve come to the point that nothing, work-wise, makes me care anymore. I’ve been numbed out.

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I’m actually more concerned about other matters concerning my everyday life. One of which is: I should be posting my Malaysia blog entries by now, but I haven’t done so yet.

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The other being, why is it that everyone, as in EVERYONE in the Philippine Kpop Community seems to have at least heard (for some, they are dead sure about it) that Rain is having a concert in the Philippines very, very soon (September, from what I heard? They didn’t say what year, though) EXCEPT his own Philippine fan club?

I find it very insulting because if this is the case, apparently, the local promoter is seeking promotional assistance from somewhere or someone else that is not Cloud Philippines. And as far as I know, there is no other Rain fan club here aside from CloudPH, unless someone is secretly plotting on creating one that will only sprout once the concert is confirmed. Hey, it’s not like fan groups that suddenly appear once the artist is in town and act as if they’ve been there all this time has never happened before, ya know.

And I find it very amusing that even if I quote confirmed sources like… I dunno, Rain’s agency J Tune … they’re still like, “there’s been talks about it for months now”.

Dear Pinoy Kpop fans: In Rain’s world, “talks” doesn’t equate to “confirmed”. In fact, in Rain’s world, nothing is confirmed until he’s actually there in the flesh. In fact, he could be there in the flesh and it may still get canceled at the last minute. If you’re really his fan and not just a simple bandwagoner of Kpop, you would know this very, very well.

I honestly can’t see how he could hold a concert here when his filming schedule is so packed and he doesn’t have a scheduled Asian tour at the moment. Someone said maybe he would do a concert especially for the Philippines. My reply to that is: “I’m sorry, but we’re the Philippines; we’re not Japan.” And ok, assuming that it’s indeed true… September 2010? Are you kidding me??? It’s one week ’til August now and we’re hearing NOTHING about this concert yet. What is the promoter planning to do, just make Rain appear here out of nowhere with near-zero promotions and insane ticket prices? Do they want another U-KISS/Beast-KHJ?

I read somewhere that even if you ask J Tune now, they wouldn’t even confirm his filming schedule for Fugitive here in PH even if press releases have been saying that PH is one of the filming locations (which leads me to believe that there is a possibility that he won’t be in the scenes to be filmed here). Then again, it’s J Tune. That company doesn’t know anything at all.

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Call me selfish, but my mood now is, I don’t want Rain to come here and be hounded by fans who are not really his fans but mere bandwagoners declaring to be his fans but if you ask them some Rain trivia, they don’t know shyte about him. They just want to see his hot body in the flesh, period.

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Speaking of Rain fans: I wonder what’s gonna happen to Cloud8? With all the trouble J Tune is facing now, I’m a bit apprehensive as to how they are still going to manage this. It’s been badly managed even when J Tune wasn’t in trouble, how much more now?

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Aaaand speaking of J Tune… I’m sorry, no offense to the other Clouds, but I really don’t see how trending a topic at Twitter will help solve this issue. I actually think it will make it worse. Why? Because right now, only those in Korea and overseas fans who have been following the Korean news about him religiously would know about Rain’s issue with J Tune stockholders. If this topic trends at Twitter, now all the world will know about it. That’s not something worth shouting to the world especially if we’re trying to build Rain’s image in the international scene, right?

Oh well. Your choice, your actions.

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Edited to add:

I decided to just include this here instead of writing another blog entry since it’s full of random thoughts.

Charice is back for the 3rd time at the show that officially gave her the big break in Hollywood: Star King. Here are the clips (credits to TheSpoopke at YouTube):

Part 1

Two things I want to note on part 1:

(1) I love how Kang Ho Dong looked like a proud father when Charice entered the stage;
(2) I love it even more how Charice was not “sapaw” in her duet with the girl (meaning she didn’t try to outsing the girl even if she clearly can do it). Certain female singers from that Sunday noontime musical variety show from her home network here in PH should learn a lesson or two from Charice.

Part 2

I think I got more jealous that Charice got to hug Ho Dong and CNBlue’s Jung Yong Hwa.

Part 3

I think Charice was told to sing like the way she used to just for Star King. She doesn’t belt this way anymore because David Foster taught her to tone it down. Still, the improvements were very obvious, especially with the tone of her voice. Not to mention the vast improvement in her clothes and make-up as compared to how she looked like when she first guested at Star King where she was made to look like a kindergarten student.

Final random thought: Comments at YouTube pointed out the lack of reaction on f(x)’s Sulli’s face when everyone else were excited about Charice. Some said maybe Sulli was jealous; I say maybe the plastic on Sulli’s face doesn’t allow her to react anymore.