Passport to the World

Yesterday, we took the opportunity to bring Hayra and Emyr to have some fun in Berjaya Times Square Theme Park. We wanted to spend some quality time with our precious, after almost 3 weeks of staying-back-late phase (..which will be continued for the upcoming weeks) and lack of bonding-time-together with them.

Yes, we were still very tired. But, we wanted both Hayra and Emyr to have some fun and be very happy spending time with their parents (..because deep down I knew that they missed us so bad).

Once we reached the entrance, we went straight to the Fantasy Garden which has eight fun rides amid the beautiful scenery and colourful Garden Avenue.

First, we queued at the Botanic Drive to experience a leisurely drive around. Then, Hayra tried the Molly-Cool’s Swing - a boat ride that rocks like a cradle. She screamed and laughed so hard while being inside the swinging ship (..I had such a big smile by just looking at her expression).

Then, we went to Buddy Go Round where both Hayra and Emyr sat on unusual creatures and watched the world go round on this colourful carousel.

After that, she was so brave to try the Flying Bumble Bee all by herself (..masa ni mak hayra yang terlebih kecut perut). She had a buzzing good time by flying with the bees around the Fantasy Garden.

Next, we proceeded to the Fantasy Trail - a train ride through the theme park.

It was 2.30pm and I said to hubby that we need to bring Hayra and Emyr somewhere to have their lunch. In the end, we took Hayra and Emyr to KFC.

Later, while Emyr was already went to his dreamland, Hayra requested me to bring her to the Kidz Playground. When she noticed the presence of cute animal ride in front of the Fantasy Stage, she proceeded to experience it.

Last but not least, the Crazy Bus attraction where she climbed on board for an exciting journey on this wacky bus ride.

Then, after almost 5 hours being at this place, we called the day off and went back to Cempaka.

I wasn't really convince at first. 'Best ke Shanghai ni?'

I got the opportunity to attend a workshop at Shanghai National Accounting Institute (SNAI) last week. I wouldn't proceed with my interesting experience inside the institute because let my 'As Time Goes By' do the work. Here, let me share with you my story of 'Exciting Shanghai'. I told Mr.hubby that I was confused at first with this city. At some part of it, I thought I was in Tokyo...sometimes I thought that I was in Europe and could probably..New York. You will see all of these in Shanghai.

1 July 2012

I reached Pudong International Airport at 2.30pm...a 5-hours-40-minutes journey. Once I was out of the airport, I could feel the summer effect of Shanghai. It was really hot!!! The secretariat was already there and almost an hour later, we (myself along with Danny and Yazmin from Bank Negara) were already in front of the SNAI registration building. Then, we settled down in the hostel room and at about 7pm, I joined the Ministry of Finance Malaysia (Hasnida and Maznida from Finance Division) group. A while later, after a little bit frustration with the food, Danny suggested us to go out. So, that was when the Shanghai adventure began.

We (myself, Danny, Hasnida and Maznida) were lucky when a taxi honked at us. But, it was a funny story explaining a destination to a Shanghai taxi driver. We decided to go to the Bund, however we didn't know how to say it in Chinese. So, a local people helped us to explain to the taxi driver when Danny (who can speaks Mandarin a little bit) said that we want to go shopping. About 10 minutes later, we were in front of Carrefour. Hachooooooo!!!! I suggested for us to go back to SNAI and ask the registration staff.

...and we were really glad that they could speak English and the sweet lady wrote 'The Bund' in Chinese character. After the taxi driver read the small paper, he laughed so hard and happily brought us there.

The Bund - a famous waterfront and regarded as the symbol of Shanghai for hundreds of years - was really far. It took almost an hour for us to reach the town area specifically The Bund and it cost us about RMB98. I looked around the place and I was really amazed. The crowd was massive and the weather was really really really hot.

Then, we saw the famous Oriental Pearl Radio and TV Tower. Wow!! It was really amazing.

The building structure in the east bank of The Bund reminded me of the European buildings' architecture. However, it was totally a different story for the modern side of Shanghai in the west bank of The Bund.

We took some pictures and we just walked along the Huangpu River. We tried to find some cold drinks but they just have a not-so-cold one. Haiyaaa.. At 9pm, we got a taxi to bring us back to SNAI.

3 July 2012

We didn't go out yesterday because we have to attend a welcoming dinner arranged by the secretariat. So today, we decided to go to Nanjing Road. We asked the registration staff to call a taxi for us this time around.

At almost 7pm, we reached at the end of East Nanjing Road. This was one place where I thought that I was whether in New York, Europe or even Tokyo...a little bit confused.

Mmm...while walking, I asked to myself 'Hari ni hari apa ye?...mmm..Selasa kan. Ngape ramai bebeno manusia?' It was Tuesday and I couldn't believe when I looked at the crowd. It was crazy!!! Now I know why this street is being considered as one of the world busiest commercial areas. I rarely see tourists wandering around at this area. It was totally the local people of Shanghai who in my opinion gave such a big portion in the domestic economic activities and public consumption.

While we're still clueless with this place, Danny was curious to see a sign of mosque and some arabic words a.k.a tulisan jawi at this one place. We decided to explore more about this place later.

We thought that we could find some souvenirs with reasonable price at this place. A'aaa...how wrong we were. It was really difficult to find even a nice shop to buy those things.

Then, we saw this sightseeing bus (..not a free one) that people used to travel all along the East Nanjing Road pedestrian street.

After a while, Yazmin was hungry (..kesian dia..preggy mother yang kena berjalan jauh), so we stopped by for a while at Plaza 353. We found a McDonald and she went there to buy the french fries.

After that, we continued walking until the end of the East Nanjing Road (..we thought). I told them '..Eh, dah 5km ke kita jalan ni? Kejap je..' (Later, when I looked back in google, we were only half way through the East Nanjing Road and we supposed to walk further until the beginning of East Nanjing Road which started from The Bund area. We decided to walk back at the starting point where the taxi has dropped us before. But, there was still hope for us to contribute a little portion into China's GDP. We managed to find one souvenir shop (..an expensive one) and we went to Giodarno (..if I'm not mistaken) to buy a 'I Love SH' t-shirt.

Next, to the last pit stop...the place when we saw the mosque sign. We were still very curious about the halal status of this place. Once we were inside the restaurant, we still have some doubts and we're starting to make a move. Danny made a last attempt by saying 'Assalamualaikum' to this lady and surprisingly she answered 'Waalaikumsalam'. Then, he asked for a place to pray and she pinpointed us to the surau (...a big one for a restaurant..I suppose). We were relieved and we ate some better food than we had so far in Shanghai.

The next morning, when I looked from the internet about this Hong Chang Xing Mutton Hotpot restaurant, I was surprised. It was founded in 1891 (Qing Dynasty), the oldest halal restaurant in the city and one of the best and the most popular Muslim restaurants. Wow...we just barged in this restaurant which happened to be one of the best in town.

It was almost 10pm and we have to battle with the difficulty to find a taxi. We have to find 2 taxis actually because according to the taxi rules in here, they could only take the maximum of 4 passengers only. To make it worse, it was raining. We were really concern on Yazmin's condition because she has been walking for quite some time and now, she has to wait for a taxi with no seat around for her to sit.

I made my ultimatum attempt by walking in the middle of the street (..almost), and tried to stop a taxi and I succeeded. Danny and Hasnida were on the other side of the road and I told them that we're going to take this taxi and they said ok. Once we were inside the taxi and the driver made his move to SNAI, suddenly he told us '300'. Haaaaaa...RM150 henggetttt wehh...nipu betul orang China ni. Memang dasar betul!!!! We didn't argue and we just said ok because we were really tired. What a bad experience.

4 July 2012

We didn't want to go to the town which would cost us about RMB200 to go there. So, we decided just to go to the nearby place...Carrefour - another attempt to find a souvenir. It only cost us RMB14 to go there. We went to all the shops nearby - Carrefour, Decathlon, Media Markt and Shanghai's version of IKEA. However, it was another failure effort. There was no souvenir around.

One thing we noticed...Shanghai is very expensive. We looked at the price tag and we were surprised to see the differences of price range between stuff in Shanghai and Malaysia.

Another thing we noticed was that people in Shanghai liked to stare at us with a top-notch weird expression face. Maybe, they were a little bit curious looking at us with our tudung fashion. It was a little bit annoying to us.

When we reached at the front gate of SNAI, we took a momento picture for us to remember our visit at this nice place.

5 July 2012

A field visit to.....drummmmmm roooolllllllllll....... Shanghai Museum (....mmmm, best la sangat!!!!). We were instructed to be inside the bus as early as 8am which we managed to do successfully.

On our one-hour journey to the museum, I wasn't stop looking at the surrounding of Shanghai. I was still wondering about a few things.

Once we were there, I knew that we would taste the heat wave summer in Shanghai. I heard from CNN this morning that, it would reach up to 38degrees today (...mak aaaaiiiiii....pengsan).

We have to queue first for the scanning process and they asked us to drink our mineral water just for some security check.

Wargghhhh...look at our excited face (...sangat la kan), look at our eagerness-to-explore-the-museum expression!!!!!!

The museum itself is a large museum of ancient Chinese art. I went to 5 galleries only out of 11 - Ancient Bronze, Ancient Sculpture, Ancient Ceramics, Ming and Qing Furniture and Minority Nationalities.

Then, I suggested for us (myself, Danny, Hasnida and Maznida) to take a picture at the front entrance of this museum.

Even though it was scorchingly hot, but we proceeded with the idea to have some interesting piccas moments and we didn't regret it at all. The surrounding of the People's Square was really nice.

Next stop....Yuyuan Garden. With the exotic design, no doubt that this place is a must-visit attraction for tourists. Originally there was just a temple (the City God Temple) that built in the 15th Century.

The tour guide took us straight to the restaurant for lunch.

About an hour later, it was time for shopping at Yuyuan Market. First, the tour guide showed us a good place to buy China's own expensive silk (..well..you wouldn't want to invest for RM100 per meter). I wanted to see the place so I asked Danny to wait for Hasnida and Maznida because they were still in the toilet.

Once I went out of the Silk World shop, I thought that I would see them and we could continue our bargaining price war at this place together. But, I couldn't find them so when Yazmin asked the tour guide to drop us at the better quality shop, I just followed her with the thought that I could have a tag-team-along in our bargaining session with her.

Inside the shop, at last I saw a silk tie that I have been eying for quite some time to buy for Mr.Hubby. While I was concentrating myself to pick the best one for my dear love, suddenly Yazmin said that she wanted to make her move. I didn't want to delay her so I just said 'OK'. But, a little panicky feeling occurred inside me. I erratically tried to call Hasnida and Maznida but they didn't pick up the phone.

In the end, I bravely walked just by myself at this area and tried to bargain alone. About an hour later, I managed to find Carrie and Azlin from SC and joined them. Then, I joined Dyah and Romi from ASEAN Secretariat.

At about 3pm, the tour guide asked us to gather in front of the restaurant that we had our lunch earlier. There was when I saw Danny, Hasnida and Maznida. They apologized for leaving me and at first, honestly I was a little bit frustrated especially when we compared the price that I managed to bargain with theirs, it was quite a huge gap different. But, it was just a small tiny-weenie thing (..sambil ambil konsep rezeki masing-masing..janji selamat jumpa balik kengkawan).

After that, we proceeded to Huangpu River to experience the River Cruise. Huangpu River is a branch of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River - the largest river in China and the third largest in the world after the Nile in Africa and the Amazon in South America.