The Opera Populaire

Shanghai is a very cosmopolitan place, although it made me feel slightly claustrophobic with all that tall buildings. But it has very nice parks. It also has the most authentic Western food resturants and indeed, as our local guide Chandra told us, when you come to Shanghai, the buildings remind you of Europe due to its heritage as a Western enclave.

The winter is not a good season to see Shanghai though, not only because of the cold, but also because of the rain and fog. The leasing company that sponsored our trip was good enough to arrange for a dinner atop the 东方明珠塔, in the revolving restaurant which served international buffet. It was a very romantic spot, with the restaurant lit with candles. But the fog prevented us from seeing the view of Shanghai from the tower! Very, very disappointing indeed.

The rain also made our trip to 豫园 and 南京路 inconvenient. Many of us had to purchase umbrellas. My Dad was experienced enough to pack umbrellas for us beforehand, which came in really handy.

But 豫园 is worth a visit when you are in Shanghai. It was simply astounding to see the corruption that enabled the owner to build such a lavish house...a miniature palace, I must say! But sadly, our guide did not explain the place well or enough, just basically tumbling through the entire place.

I loved our cruise on the Huangpu River. Indeed, Shanghai at night now rivals the view in Hong Kong, as we told the head.

A group of us youths (excepting Mom, who tagged along heehee) went to the famous 新天地 after the day's programme was over. The atmosphere was truly great and I think Orchard Road could learn a thing or two about X'mas decorations from them! We went to a pub called Paulaner Brauhaus and it was really happening! I liked the live band there. A drunk guy at the next table suddenly lit up a sparklers costing 100 yuan and sang "Happy Birthday", which we immediately took up with the Indonesian version. A lot of interaction went on between us that night, to the point where the guy even nearly kissed one of our group member, Michael! He also challenged one of the guys to a beer drinking competition! We had the house beer, this one called Munich Lager, which was really good! The guys filled up my jug again when I finished the last drop and I drank till my head spinned when I stood up. Our handsome tour guide from Indonesia, Teddy told us that most of the cafes in 新天地 are owned by movie stars. Definitely worth a visit.

Shanghai girls are known to be very good-looking and this gal at the pearl shop was really lovely, having the prettiest eyes I have ever seen. The bachelors in my group were endlessly happy muahahaha.

Recommendation: Strawberries at this time of the year is good! I bought mine for 10 yuan from a roadside peddler.

Try the 小笼包 at 豫园. The queue was very long and we were quite full so we did not try it. But someone else did and enjoyed it. They have some interesting flavours like crab meat that I hardly see in Jakarta or Singapore.

Overall, I enjoyed this sponsored trip in my own little way. It was new in the sense that it was the first Indonesian tour group I participated in. The language took a bit of getting used to and as I wrote, some stuff were lost in translation. But it was not as bad a thing to travel with biz associates because, contrary to what I had expected, we did not know many of them and thus it was much like travelling with any other tour group. Outside of work, everyone is fun to be with and shy as I was, I do try to open up and make friends.

Of course there were moments where the line between friendship and the practical necessity of biz networking started to blur. Some people obviously chose their "friendship" carefully and did everything to cement relationships to further their own biz interests. I was a bit upset when Mom pointed out something to me, but I thought better of it later. Whoever everyone talked to were also sometimes scrutinized by others. Still, you couldn't help but admire the social skills of some of them. I just got a call from one of them this afternoon and had had requests for personal English tuition in S'pore and outing before I go back, many of which I truly wonder if it was just basa-basi （客套话). But it was an eye-opener and learning experience. I also discovered something about myself that is rather startling, which is a bit too private for public blog but not to any close friends who may wanna ask me about it.

Labels: Travel Diary