Starbucks cafe & Counting Stars

there's a newly established Starbucks outlet at Wisma Scope, nearby my office. It's rather spacious...and I like it being that. Those who are working in the office above will be the lucky ones coz it's so convenient to get their coffee fix and would be the early birds to enjoy any seasonal promotion...

Plenty of seats available, potential place for chillout, appointments and meeting...I went there after lunch on one fine day...and it was quite empty, I wish to lie on that long sofa bench! (ahh, the long bench is so 'inviting' but of course I never do that)

here's this week's Friday song (aka "weekend entertainment") for u guys, n'joy!

a similar rendition from Chrissy, Alex Goot and Kurt...not bad though I prefer the original version by One Republic.

H.A.P.P.Y W.E.E.K.E.N.D



Wuzhen, Day 2 - Part 2 (Lunch)

The group meet up at the village restaurant for lunch. Due to some Muslims joining us, what we hav here are pork-free dish...so dun expect to have "Tong Po" pork...

Starter 1:  Plain "mantou" bun in star-shape. The bun is soft & fluffy, other than that, nothing hoo-haa about it.

 Starter 2: Hard boiled 'lou dan' ("lou dan": Chinese dark sauce braised egg? not sure of the English translation name).
This was nice! Not too strong taste, jst nice.

 Dish 1: Scallop...Appetizing, but limited to one piece for each diner at our table...ok, I'll leave my stomach for other dishes.

 Dish 2: Steamed fish. This was not too bad except that is has many tiny bones.

 Dish 3: Soup (can't remember what stuffs in it). Can't remember, so no comment.

 Dish 4: Shrimps with cucumber and carrots. Like this dish coz the shrimps are fresh and bouncy!

 Dish 5: Fish fillet with pickled veggie. Another appetizing & flavorful dish, i like it too. Goes well with the plain rice.

 Dish 6: Unknown, some-sort-of-stir fry-plant/melon. Well, if u like clear melon taste, this could be refreshing after taken up spicy food.

 Dish 7: Unknown pickled some-sort-of-plant. Tasted weird, dislike.

 Dish 8: Unknown, texture abit like sugar cane...but it isn't sugar cane & isn't sweet. We only chew those sticks coz it was hard and not meant to be swallowed. Dislike.

 Dish 9: Lala, but the lala's nowhere to be seen. Too tiny and torned out from the shells.

 Dish 10: Fish fillet cooked with bell pepper (capsicum). This dish came when most of us had finished our meal...By then, we were too full with all the scrumptious dishes earlier, otherwise this can pair well with the rice.

 Dish 11: Veggie in oyster sauce...the last dish

Crazy, they put in so mch oyster sauce!? Dislike!

 11 dishes + 2 starters were certainly too much...Plenty of leftover, coz some dishes were jst too weird for us (referring to the Unknown dishes). I feel sorry for those leftovers. The muslim group hardly touch their food though, coz most are sceptical as the restaurant isn't a certified 'halal' place...so imagine, their portion of leftovers is even bigger.

 cooling air, natural fresh breeze, thankfully it is early spring, else it would be stuffy inside here, coz this place is non air-conditioned.

from the restaurant window, u can see a floating stage...not sure if it is a stage though.

I dun know the restaurant name (can't read Chinese), but this is the place, our group occupied the entire upper floor during lunch.

After lunch, we have to walk thru some narrow alleys to get back to the entrance (to reach for our bus), we passed by some very ancient corridor at certain corners...

this place seriously need some face-lift...

Wuzhen, Day 2 - Part 1 (Wuzhen Water Village)

Day 2 started off with our trip to Wuzhen, a historic scenic town in northern Zhejiang Province, approximately 130km southwest from Shanghai which is famous for its water village...Travel time is around 2 hours by bus.

we departed from the city at around 9am, passing by the streets and watching the morning rush of the Shanghainese working folks. While most of the working class drove, many do walks, take subways and even cycle to work.

the highways connecting from Shanghai to Wuzhen and it's neighbouring town are very well constructed. I guess China has been putting lotsa effort in boosting up their image. Huge toilet building being built at the rest area, police booth set up along the highways and clear signboards everywhere.

We reached there about 11, it was sunny but cold. Wuzhen Water Village is a popular tourist spot...visitor need to purchase ticket at the entrance booth, but ours have been paid ;-)

the scenic view as what u normally seen in some Chinese movies

despite the crowds...this place looks absolutely perfect for dating photo shooting

crowds everywhere, but there are also some secluded corners...u can easily got lost in this village

we took the sampan cruise along the river...some 15 minutes ride to the other side of the village.

plenty of houses have been converted into home-stay, while there are some original tenants who are still staying in those houses. I wonder how would they survive the nuisance of visitors passing by every day, peeking in and snapping photos, is like no privacy living in there.

Here are some local specialties in this famous town...seriously I dunno what are the other 2 bowls...

local cakes...

bought some of it, but dun enjoy them much...is all flour with flavouring and coloring, nothing special.

some houses are in dilapidated state, but surprisingly it has occupants!

below is one of the pictures taken from the bridge...

went into one of the exhibits hall and saw some wood carvings of the ancient scholars

and here's one olden days fire rescue station

all-in-all walking around the village is pretty boring if u dislike olden-days architecture...our visit is mostly to see the architecture and scenery, but with the crowds, one can hardly enjoy the scene..

Anyhow, our group were given freedom to linger around to do our shopping...We disperse our way and meet up at the village restaurant for lunch in an hour later...

Shanghai, Day 1 - Part 4 (Radisson Hotel & Evening activity)

Here goes my long & winding Shanghai travelogue...continuation of the previous posts...

Upon check-in, we were given each a traditional Chinese attire to try on. You will see it in this post as you read on...

By then, I was already half-dead-tired coz I've been awake since 5am plus when the flight touched down in the morning...

we (me and roomie) got into our room and while she took her quick shower, I snap pics of the room.

As usual, some basic necessities from the snack bar

plenty of drinks...but beware that the hotel will simply overcharge u on consuming those drinks or snacks even if u dun take any...u gotta check ur hotel bill during room check-out!

alrite, enuf of the room, lets move on to the.... 

TOILET!

:-)

i'm always fascinated with any 5-star hotel's washroom, somehow I tink it is classy with dim lights and shinny mirror...some even have flower pots...

after an hour of rest, the group adjourned to the next destination

while waiting for the group to assemble at the lobby, my itchy finger started to snap more pics

the green pillars and the golden decoratives

and the conventional red carpet

the lobby looks good

it has some resting armchairs

and the revolving glass door...so classic, I like it!

am sounding too amaze as if I haven't seen a hotel in my entire life! lolx

okie dokie...not gonna bored u with that, let me show u the 'Chinese attire' that I got...

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TADA!!!

yea, it is cheongsam which comes in various sizes as we've pre-booked earlier prior to this trip. All members in this trip are supposed to wear the Chinese attire, whether it is cheongsam, Chinese blouse or those classical 'wong fei hung' kinda attire on our Gala Nite which is to be held on the final day.

Unfortunately most of the cheongsam doesn't have its sizes right...well, it's not easy to have a fitting cheongsam unless it is tailor-made that customize to one's body (yea the curves and shapes).

I found mine abit tight at the bottom, and the opening slits are too high...so I opted for the Chinese blouse instead. Goodbye cheongsam, gonna return u back!

the weather was nice...something like Genting-kinda-temperature...so I went out to breathe cooling air while waiting for the rest of the group members to settle their 'attire' issue. 

Tourguide: Next, we adjourn to our dinner...

Dinner, u say??

I thought it was too early for our dinner at 5 plus...

but we have to catch up with our next program which is the acrobatic show

soon after, we were on the road again, passing by the buildings across the city.

evening view, but the jam has not started yet, probably it's still early for that

I kinda like this part of the city, it's clean and everything looks well-maintained

reached the 'makan' place at 6 sharp. We hardly have time to savor our food, coz we gotta make a move by 7, and the dishes came out quite slow. I was rather sleepy and tired of the day's activities, but that doesn't dampen me to 'taste' my food...Practically I m chowing down every dish without knowing the ingredient...Some dishes were jst weird (the cold dish and some bamboo-like dish especially)

bottles of beers were served on the table, kinda norm even when we dun request for it.

The acrobatic show was held at Shanghai Centre theatre, the show was awesome! Unfortunately, no pics were allowed to be taken during the show...so, sit tight and enjoy the show.

The show ended slightly an hour and half later.

By 10 plus, I was already back at the hotel...while some people went for supper, I stroll along the shopping district of Nanjing Road and accompanied my roomie to buy some snacks. The malls were already closed then, only some eatery places that opens till midnite.

Here's Nanjing Road at nite...

There goes my 1st day in Shanghai.