Thursday, October 25, 2012

Top Ten Tips to Surviving China

So I just got back from China a couple of days ago, and even though it was a pretty decent trip where I stayed in an excellent hotel and had excellent tours planned out for me and my family, I arrived back home in (beautiful, clean, safe) Singapore thinking to myself "Thank goodness I survived it". So I decided to note down to myself just in case I find myself headed back to China again the top tips I need to remember. 

My biggest gripes about China are three things: 

1. The food
2. The people
3. The toilets

Firstly, the food tends to be overly oily and salty, maybe if you eat out all the time it's no big deal, but for someone like me, whose mom is an amazing and healthy cook, this is a helluva big deal. Especially if you head over to the regions like Sichuan (good luck to you mate) or the more mountainous regions, the palette is completely different. 

The people, well there are two sides to them. One side is the smiling and demure bunch who you interact the most with in the service sector. They're the ones who greet you in the hotel lobby or the tour guides who bring you around. The other side belongs to the rest of the locals, especially those from the big cities who are tourists in their own country. They push and shove and talk really loud all the time, even in theatres when the show has already started. 

Now the toilets, are definitely an improvement from when I was younger and first visited China. I remember them not having any doors, and the smell was so bad I would gag every time I visited the bathroom. Now most have doors, though don't count on them being able to close or lock properly. Obviously the ones in hotels and restaurants are fine, but the public ones.... watch out. 

Top Ten Tips (in no particular order) 
  1. Always carry with you hand sanitiser. It'll come in handy after you visit bathrooms (when you find you need to hold the door to keep it closed), after you've handled money (their Yuan looks like it's been around 30 years), and definitely before mealtimes. 
  2. Pack some of your favourite snacks into your suitcase, maybe throw in some instant noodles for good measure. These will be a lifesaver, best for those times when you're so damn sick of eating mala-everything, or when you feel like oil is about to spill out your nostrils. 
  3. Chinese tea is your best friend (when all that oily food is giving you a queasy feeling, the chinese tea like pu-erh will wash it all away), but also your worst enemy (you will need to go to the restroom constantly after you drink it)
  4. Wet wipes and tissue packets are essential, maybe more so than hand sanitiser. The public toilets rarely come equipped with them, so you'll definitely need it. 
  5. A small vial of perfume/deodorant goes a long way. The smell of a heavily frequented bathroom is enough to knock anyone's socks off. Spritz a bit into the front of your shirt/sweater/scarf and pull it over your nose before you enter. 
  6. If you do not speak the language, you definitely have to learn a little bit of basics. Otherwise, be super at charades, although it's hard to imagine how you would tell the locals you need a toilet... 
  7. Pack along shoes you don't mind throwing out after the trip. Those brand new converse sneakers are a no-no. They'll end up being so grimy you won't wanna touch them with a stick. I learned it the hard way with my shiny silver glitter Toms. 
  8. Always have Yuan on hand. Not all places accept credit cards, or to be more precise foreign credit cards, and more often than not cash is the way to make payments. 
  9. Carry bottled mineral water everywhere! Sometimes in restaurants the water is from the tap and your foreign pampered tummy might not be sturdy enough to withstand it, even if it is already boiled. 
  10. If people shove you, shove them back. My favourite rule is this one-- if people shove me to get on the bus/train quicker, you have to learn to shove back. When in China... do as the Chinese do. 

All I can say is, damn I'm happy to be home in Singapore. 

Thursday, October 4, 2012

30 minute love affair

The title of this post is dedicated to my inability to post constantly. Maybe if I were satisfied with just typing and putting my thoughts and heart into this place, I could do it better. But then it would feel more like a journal, and I would be telling you about mundane things like how this super rude girl at my fave restaurant threw a bitch fit at the waitress cos some tea was accidentally splashed on her, her father and her bag. Geez girl, get over yourself and your Givenchy, NBD it's just water (also just a Givenchy for fuck's sake). I would also be telling you stuff like how I scratched the car my parents bought for me within a month. Brava! But you know, nobody cares about stuff like that. Feeling mildly ashamed of myself, but here's some things that have happened since August, just two months ago that's all. Which is my favourite month ever cos it's birthday month, duh. 

Steamboat at Imperial Treasure with two of my citibank nextgen girlies! 

My birthday lunch with the Sydney girls, thanks for the tiara and balloons yver!!! x

Tea with my sunday usuals at Fullerton Hotel. 

A little birthday treat to myself at Thumbelina, super quaint nail salon at Bukit Timah 

National Day! Happy birthday Singapore, you are always home. 

YJ's birthday dinz complete with embarrassing balloons. (This post is so old that Brasserie Wolf, where we went for dinner, is closed down :( too sad!) Also, I have just realised we part our hair the same side... uh ok. 

Max's birthday at Pepperoni's! This was a week or so after I got my braces, WHADDAFUG my smile is so awkward....

And of course, my Seattle family came home to me :D But only for a while and they are gone again. Miss you already guys. 

Dayum August was awesome. 

Sunday, August 26, 2012

La Coruna-Bilbao

Yet another Sunday almost over!! Here I am trying to extend my weekend by posting more delicious photos from the cruise. This leg brings us from La Coruna to Bilbao, a little spanish city made most popular by a single building alone known as the Guggenheim Museum. Perched by the waterfront along a river that runs through the city, the Guggenheim in Bilbao is a perfect case study of human geography in the instance of post-industrial redevelopment-- taking a decrepit area in the throes of post industrial decline and transforming it into an arts and culture hub. It's success is due to the architectural magnificence of the building itself, the shell a shining beacon of titanium designed by Frank Gehry.

Ok pardon the obligatory plate/food photos. BEST SHRIMP CAKE EVERRR. HANDS DOWN. 

The building is all curves and angles, inside and out. This is probably the coolest elevator around too. 
A super fun permanent exhibit, it's interactive so you get to walk through the structures (which are made from old ships, if I remember correctly), and sound echoes all around it. 
The requisite Jeff Koons sculptures, duh. 
The biggest sculpture ever made by Louise Bourgeios, entitled Maman. Yep thats yo momma right thur! The idea of it was that like a giant spider, your mother is both a protective creature as well as a fear inducing one. I don't know about anyone else but that kinda sums my mother up quite accurately. (kidding mom, I love you!!) 

I'm quite glad I got to see this Guggenheim. I never went to the one in New York when I was there all those years ago, but this one is such an icon of Bilbao. The gleaming titanium panels in the sun and the reflections by the water makes it a breathtaking specimen. The exhibits were also very good! When we were there, a huge David Hockney exhibit was on. He's a contemporary artist who has now adopted the ipad as his main medium, but I like how he revisits places and redraws them, with time and space a constant evolution in his paintings. Check his work out here


And then I leave you with a panoramic view of Bilbao and a shot of my feet in my new cheap shoes. 
Peace out kids, happy monday (ugh)  

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

London - La Coruna

Day 6 of having my braces in, and I still can't eat solid foods yet. The most solid thing I've had is half a slice of spam that Maylene very graciously offered me when I was dying of hunger while at work. Just thought I'd share this update with whoever cares. Moving on, I thought I'd finally put up some photos from my cruise!!! Which was in May this year and therefore just 3 months too slow, but whatevz. I just got timelined so I hate facebook. I'm not putting any of these photos up just cos I'm trying to boycott them hahah 

The first night on the cruise we were just sailing along to Spain, so all I have are photos of food. This is the most amazing mushroom tarte I have ever eaten. Trust me when I say that all you do on cruises is eat. 
 First stop was La Coruna, but my family decided to take up one of the day trips to head out of the city to the medieval city of Santiago de Compostela. The cathedral there is a pilgrimage destination for many Catholics since the 9th century, because apparently the apostle St James' remains are there. The cathedral itself is a impressive building, the outside grubby from years of wear and tear but so beautiful in its gothic way. Also, they had a pretty damn impressive organ inside. HUGE. 
Hello kitty everything everywhere!! Also, the pilgrims we saw hiking to the cathedral wore these sea shells on their backpacks. It is the emblem of St James. Apparently you could only be counted a pilgrim if you travel a certain distance by foot. I can't quite remember the stats that my tour guide was throwing at me, but it was something like maybe 100km by foot, and then if you were travelling by horseback it would have to be double, and then double again if by boat. 

After touring around the area we headed into some medieval dungeon like place for lunch!! Spain has the BEST FOOD EVAR. Ok I just really like their hams. Look at that iberico! And the fresh seafood! Ok really torturing myself here considering I can't even bite into anything solid for the moment. 
The Santiago de Compostela was truly a breathtaking sight. Maybe not as awe inspiring as the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, but here the quiet determination of the pilgrims with their staffs and shells along with the general reverence of this medieval city was a novel experience.