Back to Shanghai

After one night in Beijing, it is time to leave to Shanghai. When you have the next one week full with meetings and discussion, the last thing you want to face is the turbulence sitting in the Air China.

 

I decided to take the High Speed Railway train this time.

 



It is convenient too, considering that the train is available every 20 minutes or so. It offers the flexibility for tourist and business travellers who wish to commute between the two cities.

But the price can be expensive.

 

The first class coach cost me around 933 Yuan (Equivalent to approximately MYR 400 in Malaysia)

for the 4 hour and 50 minutes trip.

 

 

If u come to Shanghai and wanted to try the High Speed Rail, make sure you have the "G" letters front of the train numbers. Like mine it is G125. So it is one of the fastest train around. (Up to 380 KM/H).

 

 

I must admit the train was quite cosy. (For the first class). The seat is adjustable with a lot of leg rooms so you can have a good sleep during the trip.

 

Also similar to when you are flying, you also get served with drinks and foods. (Free).

 

But. the main difference was.

 



 

For 933 Yuan, all I get was a pack of snacks (Peanuts and Chips) and a small bottle of Coke as complimentary.

 

 

Screw it. I had my early breakfast and the food on the train is the last thing on my mind anyway.

 

For this trip, I took the train all the way to Shanghai Hong Qiao station. Arriving at 5pm in the evening, I decided to take the subway to the nearest station to my Hotel for the week - Holiday Inn Pudong in Dong Fang Road.

 

 

When I arrived in the hotel lobby, my counterpart who has arrived a day earlier, greeted me and while I am doing my check-in to the room, he told the guy over the counter to upgrade it to the "Club Room".

 

 

The hotel lounge.



 



 

If you are the guest staying in the "Club Room" in Holiday Inn, you will be treated " a little bit more differently".



 

Apart from a bigger room and toilet with Jacuzzi.

 

 (Fruits in the room are complimentary too I supposed).

 

You also get the complimentary Holiday Inn Lounge access for breakfast, tea-time, and free flow of beers and wine from 5.30pm to 8.30pm every single day.

 

So me and my friend will just jump into the lounge to have some foods whenever we feel hungry, and beers whenever we felt wanted to do so.

 

Price? You are looking at somewhere between MYR 800 per night of stay in the club room. But I am a lucky guy considering all the expenses was covered for the meeting.

 

On the ground floor of this hotel, there is this one pub called the Flanagan, the Irish pub with Live band for us to sit down, have a beer and listening to the music performance.

 

But since you are in Shanghai, one thing you will noticed is that there are always some Chinese ladies in the bar, doing nothing but just sit there all day long with their phone and ipad.

When I dig further in, apparently they are the so called "sex workers" who charge their customer for a fee. Whether for massage or sex.

But the rule of the hotel does not allow them to approach customer. Only customer will be allowed to approach these girls or else the girls will be chased out from the hotel.

The last time around when I was in Shanghai, I visited the night scene in Hengshan Road, so this time, I managed to make my way to the Xin Tian Di, another popular night spot in Shanghai.

Most of the cafes and restaurants feature both indoor and outdoor seating.

Xintiandi has an active nightlife on weekdays as well as weekends, though romantic settings are more common than loud music and dance places. It is considered one of the first lifestyle centre in China.

A Dutch and a Chinese guy tried a selfie after two round of beers.

As for this trip, it is more on business rather than travel so nothing much I could update. You may wanted to check out my previous post on my first trip to Shanghai.

 

Maybe another trip in July I will try my best to fit in some tours around the places.

 

Tell the world I am coming home!

 

 

 

 

 

 



One Night in Beijing

The incident of MH370 never stop my plan to visit Beijing, China.

 

I was having a business trip to China for the second time in three months. This time, for a week.
The plan is fly to Beijing, stay for a night and then take a train down to Shanghai.

My mate is suggesting me to take a train for two reasons:

1. For the sake of the experience of China fastest train (They called it the G code Train) - which literally means any kind of train that starts with the "G" code would be the fastest train in China.

2. China airlines can be crappy at times. Old seats, cramped with people. Oh ya, and I hated turbulence too.

I took some time off after my meeting for my usual activities - Touring around.

The "Tiananmen" - one of the great monument that you shouldn't missed during your stay in Beijing.
Constructed during the Ming dynasty, it was once the main entrance to the "Forbidden City".

But funnily enough, it was not the monument that impressed me.

It was this instead.

One I would classified as "a cute police vehicle".

Wouldn't have imagine that what would they put on a police car in Malaysia. Najib picture with his kitten could be the best bet.

A few more pictures.

As it was raining, I decided to move on.

Remember there's once the Olympic games was held in Beijing in the year of 2008?

 

 

I was thrilled when upon check in to the hotel, I was informed that my hotel was actually walking distance away from the Bird Nest - the Beijing Olympic Stadium.

 

And yes, of course, I made my way there.

But the sad thing is when you are travelling alone, you have no one to rely on taking photographs of yourself.

 

And I must admit that I am really poor at taking a selfie.

 

So I took this photo of my cock instead.

 



Sorry. My Coke, Coke bottle.

And of course, not forgetting the Beijing Aquatic Centre. Where Michael Phelps, the American swimmer won the whopping 8 gold medals and make a name of himself.

And of course, he told us all he had was luck and perseverance.

 

 

Ok.

 

The attention to details by the Chinese is so great, that even the lamps around the stadium was constructed like a Bird Nest.

 

 

Then suddenly I saw this.

 

Honestly, I really thought when people mentioned to me about the train to Beijing, they were talking about this train.

No way.

It would take me days or even months to reach Shanghai.

If you have followed my blog, you would noticed that I will almost never failed tell you guys where I have stayed and the price for the reference.

For this trip to Beijing, since it was a last minute arrangement, I just settled in to the Beijing Grand Continental Hotel. (5 minutes walk from the Olympic stadium, half and hour from airport).

The cost of the room? Approx. 800 Yuan (MYR 400) per night of stay.

Room is good, staffs are friendly, but communication in English can be handy at times.

Last but not least, for those of you who have never travel to China, I have an advice for you.

Always try to get your destination or places to go translated in mandarin prior to your trip. Without doing this, you could pretty much ended up in all the wrong places.

Do not underestimate this, this will really help a lot in term of saving your times and money.

Secondly, bring your international travel plug adaptor.

Some hotel do provide the international type of socket, but mostly wouldn't have one. Unless you are staying at a high class hotel like Holiday Inn in Shanghai, which I will cover more in my next post - One of the coolest hotel I have stayed in my life.

I will write more on my journey to Shanghai in the next post.

Stay tuned.

 

The Voice (Malaysian) - Joke

During the time of writing, I must clarify that I did not, nor do I intended to, have any kind of interest in any political organization or whatsoever. This is only my voice, a voice of a Malaysian.

When I was a young kid I used to hear my parents lamented on stuff about the government, the ministers, the economy, and the list goes on and on.

It doesn't bother me at all.

At that age, why would I worry? I am living off my parents money, I am not paying taxes yet as I am still studying. I was having the so called "time of my life" when I was told that I should be concentrating on my studies, only.

Now that I am older, having a career of my own, suddenly things became a little bit clearer now. As a Malaysian, we are always worried. About everything.

Things like.

Rising cost of a house. To get a place called "My Own Home".

 

 

The so called "Fuel subsidy" control.

 

 

 

 

Rising cost of living.

 

 

 

Criminal Activities.

 

 



 

 

Well, this is the "Real Thing" that's is happening in our country.

 

Should we be worried? NO.

 

We are not supposed to worry about stuffs like that. I am not worried at all.

 

Money can be earned, petrol can be saved and self security issue can be handled by having more friend around when you are out at night.

 

The thing we should be worried now is the government.

 

With all the problems we had in our country, this is what we get from the government.

 

Two Pandas.

 

And One Hudud Laws.

 

 

OK forget about the Pandas.

 

They are cute. And it signal the close relationship and bonds between two countries.

 

But discussing about Hudud?

 

F**k me. Are your serious?

 

Every single time when a serious situation came up, the government will always have the way to lightened the mood up.

 

When MH 370 disappeared, the family was distraught.

 

This came up.

 

Then came a guy who think he know "Mario Balotelli". 

 

 

Then this came up. (Issue of a pig DNA in Cadbury chocolate).

 

 

Way before this, the cow-condominium news.

 

 

Seriously, the government is what we should be worried about.

 

 

 

World Cup - It is important to us, ladies.

Football is a RELIGION.

While some of us may not have the discipline to be church on a beautiful Sunday morning or praying in the mosque on a Friday afternoon, we never failed to catch a match on s Saturday night.

If Ramadan is for the Muslims and Christmas holiday is for the Christian, in couple of days time, we are going to experience one of festive season shared by billions of people all over the world, regardless of their race and ethnicity.

The World Cup 2014 in Brazil.

 

Once in every four years.

 

Even if you are not a real hard core football fans, you would still feel the presence.

 

All of a sudden your boss ranted less about work, more about Marco Reus is out injured from Germany team.

 

Your colleagues started to organize a world cup pool game in the office.

 

You bought toilet roll from Tesco, and received world cup printed tissue pack as free gift.

 

Your fiancé/boyfriend/husband started to do stock-checking on the fridge. (But beers only).

 

Forgive us.

 

That is how BIG the occasion is.

 

A woman will never understand the passion/attraction for a game of football.

 

This is football for guys.

 

 

 

But with woman, is a totally different story.

 

This is "The Football".

 

 

 

 

There was one occasion when I am having dinner with a bunch of girls and all of a sudden, the football topic came up.

 

Girl A: World cup is coming, who you guys supporting?

 

Me: As for me, I am a pretty loyal England fan, so I will take that.

 

Girl B: Why not Manchester United?

 

Me: .................

 

Girl: Yeah yeah, they have this cute Cristiano Ronaldo and David Beckham on the team!

 

Me: OK, No.1, world cup is a competition between countries. By the way, No.2, both of them are in Real Madrid now.

 

Girl A & B: Whatever, they looked gorgeous in their underwear advert. Isn't it? (Grin**)

 

 



It happens. EVERY SINGLE TIME.

 

I am pretty sure that whenever a woman asked a guy "When is the match between Liverpool and Germany for world cup? 3 am", the guy will feel like strangling himself (or the woman) with a wire rope.

 

So, ladies, we understand your lack of knowledge about the football world, and we forgave you.

We understand totally.

 

But during this one month period of the World Cup, please do remember to abide by these 10 rules.

 

1. Do not ask us what a offside rule is. It doesn't matter. We don't care also. All we wanted is a calm and peaceful environment for us to enjoy our football show.

 

2. If your friend is having a wedding, you have two choices. Go by yourself, or get him/her to postpone the wedding. Nothing else matter now.

 

3. If your family wanted to have a reunion dinner, refer to rule No.2.

 

4. 20 Meter radius within the television is our territory. Please apply for permission to enter the zone, if you really need to. Trespassers will be prosecuted. That is why I bought you an Ipad.

 

5. Do not laugh/insult when my team is losing. It will make me feel like you are insulting my mum or my dad.

 

6. Do not tell "Honey, you got to sleep early". or "I can't sleep without you". This is like our "pregnancy period" for 1 month. And what we need is not our wife. Is the TV. And the Astro connection.

 

7. Do not panic when we went nuts looking for batteries. It is for the remote control. It is a life and death situation. So let it be.

 

8. Do not try to seduce us by wearing those sexy lingerie, your self esteem will be blown away. TV is sexy to us. Not a lingerie.

 

9. Do not threaten to divorce us because of the lack of attention issue. It is because we would probably sign it without looking at it.

 

10. We will still survive without home cooked dinner, but not without beers and chips.

 

These set of rules is just for one month. But it could ended up saving the marriage.

 

Cheers.

 

Time to stock-check on my beer compartment.