Chatuchak weekend market on the first day!

Second day lunch was A&W! super shiok waffer ice cream. shopping was at platinum fashion mall!

My part time job in bangkok, tuk tuk driver! hahaha just kidding..

Well, those are some pics from my bangkok trip. had a fantastic time. 4 days really passed by so quickly! still feels like it was only ytd that we were at the weekend market. a really fruitful trip and we enjoyed ourselves very much. guess that's whats most impt. i hope to do this again soon! haha..

Well, its a 1 day break for me tml and then its off to Vietnam, Saigon on friday! will be missing sunday soccer and the IT fair. cos i will only be back on monday. hopefully this vietnam trip will be fun too! i will miss you dear! =)

Super cute rite? she's even looking at the cam!

Anyway its my eldest niece's bday today! she's 4 this yr! and very cute, pretty and smart! we all at home love her to bits. tho she can get qt stubborn n naughty at times. so we celebrated her bday for her at home today. mom prepared a nice dinner with her fav food and den we had a cake after that. her dad bought her a huge present too! and she loved it. =)

She looks like she's gonna gobble the whole cake!

Now it looks like someone's gonna gobble them up! haha..

She's excited over her bday cake...n i was afraid Barbie might start burning as well..

N dats her with her new plaything! =)

Products of mike's "studio". The last one reminds me of prisonbreak..haha. to get this angle, mike was up on a ladder armed with his cam!

Lovely breakfast for my darling!

Got up to another bright and early day..Today we're exploring Shanghai proper! and we were honoured to have mike bring us around, haha. look at him all dressed up man! took a train from the Shanghai Science Museum station(nearest to mike's place) to Nanjing Road shopping district. First up was brunch! had Da Niang Shui Jiao where we had dumplings. james and i each had this giant pork knuckle with glass noodles, haha. looks qt gross rite? haha n i had soya bean. funny thing was that it had no taste and they told me it was sweetened alr. guess they like it that way, not like our singapore's super sweet soya bean milk.

Below: Shopping ard Shanghai! Check out the crowds man. everywhere in shanghai is just full of ppl!

Went to the Wai Tan in the late afternoon. This place rocks! haha. super windy and the sun was so shiok. super crowded too. cos everyone was here to see shanghai tan and the famous Oriental Pearl Tower. didnt get the chance to go up tho cos there was no time. its actually that slim tower u see in the pics below.

Above: Artistic shot of our shadows at Wai Tan. Thats from left, mike, me and james. detong was lost in his own world as usual, haha.

Below: The famous Peace Hotel that dates back many decades. it was made famous by the movie Shanghai Tan starring erm Chow Yong Fatt?? haha..we were surprised to see an adult shop there too but we went in excited, haha. nth much tho, just a lot of dildos n vibrators, n some porn vcds, haha..

We had an early dinner cos det and i had a train to catch. we were going to beijing that night. dinner was at a fancy italian restaurant that wasnt too ex. food was qt good too! tho the service cld have been better. but seriously, the food was damn cheap la, haha...

And so, that concludes our day in Shanghai, and Det and I are off to beijing on an over night train! Keep checking for our Beijing trip!





Preview of whats more to come...

Next stop is this themed park called Song4 Cheng2, meaning Song Dynasty. the themed park was modelled after the Song dynasty. we were supposed to eat there but we cldnt resist but end up playing the whole time there. there was just too much to do besides eating! det and i played dress up, den we went to shoot traditional chinese arrows and den watched ppl get dunked into the water, haha.

Presenting...Emperor Ryan and General Detty! Emperor Ryan china ruled from 19th April 07 to 19th April 07. Under his reign, nothing much changed cos there was just no time. his most favourite(or rather only) concubine was Lady Geri who cldnt reach the capital in time for his coronation. General Detty was Emperor Ryan's closest friend and despite his specs, he is known to be a fierce warrior during battle. his famous fallen enemies include ants and cockroaches. hahaha!

Cosplay at china's best! haha...



Shooting arrows..the traditional way! super hilarious n fun!

After playing so much at Song Cheng, we went to the tea house next, to taste Hangzhou's second most famous export besides silk - Long2 Jing3 Cha2. its actually green tea. was qt funny cos we all had free samples to try but in the end, nobody bought anything! and the woman was so pissed cos ppl just finished their drink and started leaving. was pretty rude of them, but that lady's pissed face was funniest! its the lady in the pic above. after the tea hse we went to this other shrine to see the monument of this deity. its something like the temple of Fate. so those who are able to come to this temple together have Fate, like james, detong and me! the below pic is taken with the word Yuan2, meaning Fate. at the shrine, all 3 of us had our fortunes read. mine was abt love and it was a good sign! it said to get married asap! hahaha! i liked it nonetheless, haha.

We got back to shanghai ard 9plus in the night and as the night was still young, we decided not to waste time gg back to mike's. instead, 3 of us headed over to Xin Tian Di, a place like clarke quay in singapore. it was where the nightlife was. the pubs and bars were so cool!! there were so many to choose from, along with starbucks and coffeebean. there was also a mall there with a club n cinema. the cinema's pretty cool. it has lady's night. meaning a girl can go for free on wed nights if an accompanying guy pays for his ticket. and i realised my dream of drinking beer outdoors at a cold country! haha..we settled at some pub along the street which has an outdoor drinking area. was so cool la..even after some time the bottle of beer was still cold! c'est magnifique!

China trip started the morning of 17th April 07 at the Singapore Changi Airport. Bro and mom came to the airport to send me off. we were early but was still surprised when the China Eastern Airlines counter had no queue! usually, there wld be a lot of china ppl queuing up and cutting queue! so after checking in, we had a nice bk breakfast before i entered the departure hall. i bought the wine for mike's parents and the United mag cos i expect the plane trip to be pretty boring. well actually, the flight was super boring! there were no movies; the place where the screen wld normally be had a chinese painting in its place! n i still thot "wah so hi-tech, later the painting will become a lcd screen?" haha..and guess what was the in-flight entertainment? it was a Q&A session abt facts on china hosted by the air stewardess!! i almost died la. what a joke. really budget man haha. the in-flight meal was qt crap too. the chicken i ordered looked like it came out of a can of dog food.(below) the whole trip was =s la, except that i had the Straits Times for company.

Arrived at Shanghai, Pudong Intl Airport ard 3plus in the afternoon. it was a rainy day in shanghai! met up with mike(our host) and det & James(they were on an earlier flight). luckily mike brought me an extra jacket cos it was qt cold that day. dun think any of our next 6 days were as cold as the first. we had "smoke" coming out of our mouth as we breathed and talked! how cool is that? we were all super excited by that. not to mention the rain that came down felt like ice water, haha. we took the Magnetic Levitation Train to a connecting train station, after which we cabbed over to mike's place. the Mag Lev train is super cool. apparently it "hovers" above the track, "binds" onto the track via magnetic force, thus cutting our friction and voilah, top speed was 431km/h! faster than the bullet train in japan i think!

Reached Mike's place(Ding xiang lu, jin xiu lu) ard late afternoon. greeted his mom, who was preparing great Jiaozi and dumplings for us! i just love his mom's jiaozi and dumplings soups! part of the reason i went man, haha! well, we settled down, awed at his house, ate the delicious food and went for a walk in his estate. it was really a big estate and the clubhse rocks la! it has almost everything! from billiard room, to private movie room, indoor swimming complex, its own library with librarian, large children's playgrd, supermarket, hair salon, badminton courts, squash courts, table tennis courts, music room, tuition room and super duper cool gym! the treadmills all have lcd TVs attached la, with cable channels like ESPN n HBO!! cool or what?

After dinner, sumptious n prepared by mike's mom, we walked over to this place called "Da Mu Zi" which literally means Big Thumb in chinese. its like a mini shopping area for the ppl in this neighbourhood. walked distance. it had restaurants, a Carrefour and a nike factory outlet. at Carrefour, we bought our fav sausages, chewing gums and snacks for our hangzhou trip the next day. wanted to check out the nike outlet but it wasnt opened yet. so we went back home. it was till raining and super cold. Back at mike's place, we had to do what we love to do..which is...Winning Eleven! haha, yes, even in shanghai china, some things nv change. we started mucking ard, playing winning, gg online and finalising our plans for hangzhou n beijing. and we anyhow took pic of mike changing..hahaha! it was just fun hanging out with ur good friends at a foreign land! lotsa mucking ard!

Mike changing..we were all laughing out loud as i was taking the pic..heh heh..

Our happy faces after finishing the meal!