Brb lunch.
..
Mmm… cabbage and pork dumplings… Not that fantastic. Little meat, plenty of skin. It was from a little shop in one of the back alleys of Qipu Road so I didn’t expect much. It’s just like how I don’t expect good food from the food court at Sim Lim Square back in Singapore.
Anyway, first day.
Checking in at the airport was simple. Hong Kong Airlines was easy to spot. I was one of the first to queue up but discovered that the front seats that have extra leg space cost HK$160 more each.
I was given an aisle seat near the front of the plane and I was fine with that. I really didn’t care where I sat.
First flight from SG to HK was uneventful. A lady in her early 30s sat next to me, kinda pretty but X-Men: First Class was more interesting. There was dinner, some kind of stewed beef with mashed potato and boiled broccoli and carrots.
That last made me realize I could do the same. I had cooked the same before at home, except the broccoli just wasn’t salty enough. The key was the salt.
Intermission…
I’m having the TV switched on to make the room less silent and the ads made me ask myself this:
Do all the companies in China hire the same damn guy for all their ads? Because the voice always seems to be the same one, kinda like how Hollywood trailers always seem to have the same narrator.
End of intermission.
The wait between flights was shorter than expected.
The moment we got off the plane, we were hastily led by one of the air stewardesses to the next gate because it was going to leave in an hour. The gates always open 30mins before departure.
Then at the gate, after everyone rushed to queue up (other than myself and some others), we were informed that the flight would be delayed for another 45mins due to technical difficulties.
I was comfortably seated on one of the empty benches so it was fine. The rest, too bad.
The second flight was slightly more interesting. This time a cute Taiwanese girl, probably just several years younger, was next to me. The catch, and there is always a catch, was that her parents were also next to her on the other side.
Again, I didn’t give much of a damn. It was past 10pm and I was tired from the previous flight. The only reason we spoke to each other at all was because of the arrival card.
Initially when she saw that I took one of those, she asked me if they, as Taiwanese citizens, had to fill that too.
I’m really not familiar with their political situation so I told her I didn’t know.
I also wanted to add that she should just fill it because there was no harm in doing so even if it was unnecessary, while not having it done when it was actually necessary meant they would have to stand that the immigration point to complete it, slowing down the queue.
In the end I just didn’t give a damn.
Then she had to borrow a pen because apparently none of the three had one on them.
:\
The snack was just a chicken mushroom bun.
The tea was pretty good; the coffee was almost decent.
The way out of Pudong Airport was simple. At the immigration point they had a scanner for facial recognition and the officer was pretty friendly.
Then I took the wrong escalator down one storey. I probably wasn’t supposed to bring my luggage case on that escalator but I didn’t see the flat one on the opposite side until I was halfway down.
Nobody cared. It was 1am by then.
The taxi driver was quite friendly and tried to introduce me to the places we passed. I asked him when the shops at Qipu Road opens and he not only replied to that but also told me how to go there from my hotel as we approached it.
He even recommended that I use Hongqiao Airport instead of Pudong due to my hotel’s location. That was not news to me though.
Then when we discovered a different name on the sign outside the hotel, he came up with me to check if it was the right one.
After I confirmed that it was the right one, I asked him for a receipt and he ran back to his taxi for it and back up to the lobby.
Then I didn’t tip him.
I’m so sorry about that, driver of 970-70.853882. I should have just told you to keep the change. It was only 30RMB versus a 221RMB fare.
The hotel kinda small and the girl at the counter who greeted me at 2am when I arrived was probably sleeping on the job.
1) She sat so low I didn’t even know she was there until the porter pointed me to the counter.
2) Red eyes.
While she was getting me my room, a guest (probably local judging from his accent) came up and told her the room he was just given was already occupied by a "lao wai" (Caucasian foreigner) and threw his key card onto the counter.
Amazing. I wonder how awkward it was for both of them.
I made sure I locked the door with both the hook thing and the knob that night, in addition to the Do Not Disturb sign.
The room was pretty damn good, and even had an internet cable for guests.
It was only at that moment when I saw it that I realized I didn’t have the right adaptor for my laptop’s plug.
Oh wow.
The view was quite good.
(These were NOT taken on the first night!)
Explored the TV and realized the OK button was faulty and therefore I couldn’t do much with the TV.
But it was late, past 3am by the time I showered and all, so I just went to bed.
And woke up too late for breakfast. Got up and 9am and down by 9.50am.
Breakfast ends at 9.30am for the normal breakfast buffet for the lower class guests on the 3rd floor, and 10am for the VIPs at the restaurant on the 18th floor.
Didn’t matter. I just went to a nearby store and got myself a bottle of yoghurt drink.
But not before I went back up to apply moisturizer on my face. The wind outside was so cold and dry my face felt like it was freezing (and maybe petrifying) 10mins out of the hotel.
Walked the 1km to Qipu Road and realized that this particular 1km was harder than expected… only because I thought it was going to be a straight, flat path.
Nope. There were staircases to climb, bridges to cross and motorbikes to dodge.
At Qipu Road, I learnt that there was indeed more shops than I could possibly fully explore within the two days I have.
I strolled through the milling crowds, many pulling trolleys and some bringing hot food. Apparently some shops offer lunch delivery service to the sellers there.
Today, I decided to just look and see. I can go back and buy tomorrow.
Honestly, there were so many designs of sweaters and jackets they just overloaded my mind.
Halfway through some random guy persuaded me to follow him to his shop where they sold good imitations. Very secretive.
I was also kinda worried it was some sort of robbery trap but I felt confident enough to follow him. The gate was kept closed until one of their own shouts to the gatekeeper (I guess that’s the best name for him) outside to open it.
I looked through many but in the end, I didn’t buy a thing. I can’t sell those, and I don’t need a new jacket despite the fact that I feel so out of place wearing it.
It’s just such an old design that I pretty much stand out from the crowd. I’m wearing it only because it was the newest jacket for this temperature range that my business has got that had my size and wasn’t sold out.
Not to mention I seem to be the only guy in Shanghai wearing a waist pouch.
Got his business card though.
By 2pm I was tired enough to just call it a day. If the malls were like the ones in Singapore, I wouldn’t be exhausted so quickly, but:
1) The number of different products in each shop on the lower floors is just mind-blowing.
2) There are so many things to dodge while looking, like trolleys and young children. I kicked a few of the former accidentally; fortunately I kicked none of the latter.
I know, probably another wrong move to get out so early but I was tired and hungry.
Bought the bowl of rice dumplings for 20RMB I think. Or maybe 15. Pretty large bowl.
Then got some of the roasted chicken (6 sticks) also for the same price. I definitely got scammed there but she looked so poor I wasn’t about to make a fuss over a few dollars.
Anyway I’m still kinda suspicious about all street foods after my bad experience in Malaysia so I’ve only eaten a single piece so far. It’s good but… suspicious. Smells like satay. It could be a Shanghainese variant of satay.
The biggest issue I have with living here is my nose is suffering from the dryness. I think the winter is freezing the mucus in my nose.
How does one handle this problem? I really need to find out before I return next time.
Today’s catch is more than I thought I’d get. I didn’t even plan to buy anything but I found something that looked pretty nice on one of the upper floors.
At Qipu Road, the height on which a shop is located is proportional to the quality (and price) of its products, as far as I can tell.
Despite its appearance, I fear it probably won’t be accepted by my buyers. They prefer practicality over appearance, and I don’t have much confidence in its insulation.
And it’s really a bad idea to haggle too hard on the upper floors. After she quoted me a price that’s 50% of the one on the tag, I asked for a price that’s roughly 25%. She just gave me a pissed off face, turned away to put it back, and told me it wasn’t negotiable.
EPIC FAIL!
So I bought it at her price. Most likely it’s too expensive but I’m sure it will be lower when I order in bulk.
Intermission
It's been 30mins after I ate the rice dumplings and the piece of chicken. I don’t feel any discomfort. Phew! Maybe I’ll eat the rest when dinnertime comes.
End of intermission.
And now I've just discovered… I'd also forgotten my deordorant.
Bathing 3 times a day in this cold isn’t fun. Luckily the bathrobe provided by the hotel fits me, so it’s not all bad.
Speaking of the cold, it is AWESOME. Well, other than the issues with showering and nasal dryness. I don’t sweat other than my arms from holding my jacket while indoors. How nice.
The best thing about staying alone in a hotel room meant for two is that I get all these extra towels. It's interesting how one can come up with all kinds of uses for towels when there are too many of them around.
For example, I can wipe my lips after meals with one.
Intermission
Just saw a Pizza Hut ad on TV. It's giving away a free bottle of red wine with every order of the Cheesy Bites pizza meal or something.
Then again, it's Chinese red wine. Not sure if want.
End of intermission
Third day.
Breakfast was kinda disappointing but the bacon compensates for the lack of variety. There was also a plate of steamed ribs but it was empty and not refilled by the time I got there.
At least the hotel breakfast had decent coffee.
Took three cups of that with three plates of food because I was planning to skip lunch. Accidently spilled some coffee onto the tablecloth.
After going back to the room to put on my moisturizer, I went straight to Qipu Road. Took an alternate path there, ie a different bridge.
Nothing much.
This time, I walked from 10am till 3pm non-stop. I’m really getting the hang of strolling really slowly.
The guy who pulled me to his secret gallery of imitation branded goods recognized me and tried to start a conversation with me by commenting that I'd finally found something I want (I had bought one item at that point).
I just ignored him.
Got a little lost and went to the same mall twice but in the end I think I had gone through most of the shops along that road.
I’m not saying I’ve seen everything sold there. Looking is one thing, seeing is another. By 2pm I was pretty tired, so I probably missed quite a bit.
Still, I managed to find 3 more items that look good. The prices, on the other hand, are going to be a problem.
Mainly it’s because I just can’t seem to find good stuff till I hit the 3rd floor. Only one of the three was bought on the second floor of one of the buildings.
The worst was probably the sweater that cost me RMB300. It appeared to be selling so well they didn’t even have the time to hang another one after the last piece on the racks was sold. I only saw it because they had one on a mannequin at the window.
I looked at all the important details but pretended to have missed the price tag and asked her for the price. Tag said 980RMB; she said 400. (All prices listed on the tags are fictitious. Any resemblance to real prices is purely coincidental.)
At first I told her directly that that was a little too high, and explained I was buying a sample and may order a shipment from her. She dropped it to 350 and told me there were cheaper designs at the 100RMB and 200RMB ranges. She even showed me a kinda similar one in the latter price range.
I refused 350, then 320, so she stopped lowering and asked me what I was willing to pay instead.
I tried 250 and she just turned and put it back onto the rack like the other one I met yesterday.
When I said 300, she had to ask her boss if it was ok. Either the sweater was that good or it was all an act. Most likely it was the latter, but I seriously never saw another one of the same design before and after that.
Service was good but that wasn’t important. Still, I must say it was nice of her to pack one of the my bags which was starting to break (after like 3 hours of swinging on my hand and getting kicked) into a new bag.
I think they're actually trying to make it feel like a branded store instead of what it actually is.
After 3pm I decided enough was enough. So I went in the direction of my hotel, which was south, and looked for food.
Found a little shop selling beef dumplings at 25 for 7RMB. It appeared to be a family business and the kids were helping out. The boy who cooked my dumplings was probably 12 or something. I gave him a 10 RMB note and told him to keep the change.
Walked back to the hotel. Nice doormen there at the Bund Riverside Hotel. Opened the door for me every time except for once because the one handling that door I was heading to was busy with another guest.
I’m satisfied with the hotel, mainly because of the location. Walking to and from Qipu Road is not boring at all. Even the climbing the stairs to the bridge didn’t feel like an annoyance.
For example, today I watched this old guy pushing his motorbike up the bridge. Couldn’t get my phone out in time to take a picture of that but I did catch him with his bike on the bridge.
I guess that's why motorbikes are more common there than in Singapore. They have an advantage there that bikers here lack: the ability to use the pedestrian pavements and bridges.
4.30pm now. I really should eat the beef dumplings. They must be so damn soggy by now.
No picture for them. They look pretty much the same as the ones from yesterday except for the brown beef soup.
Even if they're soggy, I’m going to eat it. I’m so tired, I’d call for room service if I don’t.
They do have some affordable stuff here, like the dim sum set that included a bowl of fried rice, a bowl of soup, with a platter of dim sum pastries and 3 spring rolls that was priced at 68 RMB. That’s about S$14, and I think it’s pretty worth when I’m this tired.
Decent dumplings. Can’t really tell that it’s beef but at least I can taste beef in the soup.
Intermission
It’s so cold my breath condenses right in front of me when I’m outside. But that stops after a while. I think it just freezes before it even leaves my nose at that point.
And my nose stops being runny outdoors; I just grow nasal icicles.
End of intermission
Tomorrow I return to Singapore.
7.55am flight. That means reaching the airport by 6am, or 5.55am to be exact. I forgot to time my taxi ride the first time. I think I’ll go early just to be on the safe side. Maybe check out of the hotel at 4.30am. If I don’t find a taxi right outside the hotel, I’ll just ask the hotel to call one for me.
This trip has been a failure as far as my main objective goes.
But it’s also been a pretty expensive lesson that drove home a lot of things I didn’t expect to learn, many of which aren’t mentioned here.
Most of the time when people are in my way I just make my footsteps louder. When it’s crowded and noisy, I just nudged them out of my way as I strolled through the largest gap.
The air is so cold I avoid talking and breathing hard as much as I can.
But there was once when there was no gap at all, and without thinking, I just instinctively said,” Excuse me.”
I think everyone turned their heads towards me expecting to see a lao wai.
At least the path cleared quickly.
Speaking of lao wai, I didn’t see any white person there at all. The only one I spotted was eating a roll of waffle near a small Western-style confectionary on my way back to my hotel. For some reason they roll it up when they sell it after toasting (or whatever the process is called) it flat.
I’d expected more to be there given that Qipu Road seemed so well-known online when I was researching it before the trip.
So many people were there touting for secret shops selling pirated goods that I realized that I needed to ignore them like the locals did in order to stop them. After getting harassed by 3 of them in half an hour I realized saying no was only making them more determined to pull me to their shops.
Ignoring them, on the other hand, worked perfectly.
Seriously, one of them went to me three times when I got lost as I had mentioned previously.
Didn’t get to try most of the food I saw. The suspicious-looking food sold by the carts were automatically filtered from my sight and the rest just didn’t seem to interesting.
The sticks of roasted meats seemed interesting but I wasn't hungry at that point, just tired, and they didn’t sell them in bags, I think.
Aaaaaaaand…. I didn’t buy anything for anyone.
On the bright side, I’ve also not spent much this trip. I haven’t and most likely will not spend more than S$1000. Right now there are about 500 RMB in my wallet remaining and I expect to get the entire 700 RMB deposit back from the hotel.
There’s still the 200 RMB taxi ride, so it looks like I’ll be bringing back about 1000RMB. That’s just for the stack I removed from my luggage. I brought more in case I decided to order a whole shipment.
Total expenditure is now going to be about S$800, excluding plane tickets that cost over S$600 but including the hotel charge.
The hotel’s worth the S$65/night mainly because of its proximity to Qipu Road. The walk to Qipu Road in the morning after a heavy breakfast is really pleasant.
And it’s called “Sietong Hotel” or something like that out at the front of the building.
The Bund Riverside Hotel sounds far better than that to me, but I guess they need an English transliteration of its Chinese name for the Chinese citizens who make up the bulk of the guests in this hotel and still maintain a degree of Westernization.
The English name is still carved above the main entrance but it’s hard to notice at night.
I'm typing this now at home at 10pm.
Last night was alright. This morning wasn't.
There was this child getting punished or something next door and he/she kept crying till 2am. I barely got any sleep before 3.50am when I gave up on sleep because I kept thinking about the rest of the day.
Got to the lobby at 4.30am and was pleasantly surprised that this receptionist, although resting her head on her hand and sitting really low, didn't have red eyes.
She did sound a little sleepy but it was 4.30am.
Service was prompt for the most parts although the guy who was responsible for checking my room required several calls to wake up.
He did finish his job really quickly and I was relieved he said nothing, because I was kinda worried I had left something behind or put something belonging to them in my luggage in my haste. I do stupid stuff like that when I'm tired, that's why sometimes in some rants, I make particularly more grammatical and spelling mistakes.
Anyway while they were settling all that, I went to the door to check for taxis. When I arrived the first night, I noticed one just waiting outside. There was none this morning.
So I told the receptionist-cum-clerk-cum-cashier (and now, also -cum-concierge) to call one for me to bring me to Pudong Airport.
She delegated that to the bellboy who walked out and in less than a minute, summoned one right to our doorstep.
Didn't even need to call, so I didn't have to pay extra for booking, if such a thing exists in Shanghai.
The taxis don't have anything explaining the different charges so I don't know.
The bellboy came back to tell me a cab was waiting, so I pointed at the cashier.
The cashier then handed me the receipt which didn't include the final night's charge.
According to her, it hadn't been entered into the system yet.
Kinda understandable, yet not.
4.30am is a rather unreasonable timing, but hotels are supposed to be better than that, especially one that boasts a 4-star rating.
In any case, at least she calculated the total charge right. I thanked her and carried my luggage to the door.
The bellboy came right away and offered to help me with it.
How nice. He could have stayed in his dark corner to rest and I wouldn't have cared, but he didn't.
Got into the cab and told the driver my destination.
He replied that he'd need to go to the petrol station because his tank hadn't been refilled since the day before, which wasn't that long ago given that it was like 4.50am at that point.
So I told him that was fine with me, but I'd like to get there asap to get something to eat.
In the end he just decided against it. Instead, he kept his speed at 80 to conserve fuel. The journey, according to my two receipts, was between 45-50km.
I think the best thing about going for flights at such unholy hours is that there roads are just so empty, so the driver can go at any speed.
Took me a while to realize he was going so slowly because he was conserving petrol.
When I got there, only the 24-hr convenience store was opened, so I got a crappy bottle of coffee at 8RMB. Not worth it at all, but it was the only coffee available in the airport at that point.
The earliest the restaurants open was 6.30am AFAIK.
I sat around, caught a few winks and walked around.
At 5.50am I was the first person not in a group to check in.
Got the same window seat on the same row for both journeys... and later on the way back to Singapore, they were also on the exact same plane.
I wish they could have let me stayed on the plane. I could have slept more if I didn't have to go through all the trouble of walking through the huge airport just to go back to the exact same seat.
The first ride was ok. I was sleeping for the most parts, and near the end, a old man from across the aisle asked me if he could switch seats with me because he wanted to look out of the window.
I got his meaning. I was sleeping the whole time anyway, so the view was completely wasted on me.
Hence I went to his seat and continued with my nap.
Hong Kong International Airport has free wifi internet access for everyone. I didn't even have to log in!
Changi Airport also has the same but I have to talk to the service counter or something to log in.
Anyway, nothing really happened. I got on the plane, and this time the person sitting next to me was some guy in a black suit who really wanted the armrest between us, so much so his elbow kept poking into my body.
I kinda understand. He couldn't fold his arms like I did because it had to be pretty warm in the two layers of clothes, but he could have tried to avoid poking me with his elbow.
>:(
I wonder which one of us made more money last month. Nice suits don't mean shit!
However, I didn't bother telling him because I was just so sleepy. Leaning onto the window to sleep was simpler, and prevents my head from landing on him later.
Not sleeping at all overnight doesn't really bother me at night. The real impact starts only after sunrise. I still don't know why.
So now I'm back. 4 samples I'm not really confident of and lots of experienced gained.
Just don't ask me for advice on travelling to Shanghai. I wasn't there to "travel" exactly, as you can tell by now.
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