Lingzhi, who met us for dinner on a few nights, brilliantly described the trip to be a decadent one. We hit the bed early… Rise just before noon… 1st destination of the day was definitely for lunch… We pretty much ate, shopped and slept our way through the past week.

I saw a hotel commercial on the flight back- The stories you bring home are more important than souvenirs. (phrased somewhere along these lines)

I agree totally.

You know how people always bring back those little koalas from Australia? Let’s be frank here. Do you jump for joy when you receive one or do you think to yourself: Oh… Another one to collect dust at home…?

I reckon my friends won’t fancy panda keychains, panda tissue boxes, panda pencil case, panda whatever, so I didn’t contribute to the Souvenirs aka Rip Tourist Money sector of the Shanghai economy.

It was my first time doing some real exploring in Shanghai- the working trip in 2003 only had 3 places in the itinerary: Airport, Hotel, Stadium.

Since the Bush Administration and their friends in Europe were persuading (and extorting) China to revalue the Renminbi, I naturally assumed that I would shriek like a bird at every shopping mall and alley- Cheap Cheap Cheap!

Oh no. No No No…

I was in 淮海中路 and saw a sign proclaiming the stretch to be the Asian Champ Elysees.

My FOOT! My size 9 foot!

The people who came up with that marketing proposition have either not been to Champ Elysees themselves, or they were tragically conned to actually believe the French have such bad taste.

The place didn’t have any tangible factors to make me believe I was in the Asian Champ Elysees. But they tried very hard to create this illusion that I was in a high class shopping paradise by setting ridiculously high prices.

RMB $100 for a local brand T shirt that may not survive 10 machine washes?

RMB $150 for a obiang shirt that even the coffee shop owner downstairs might reject?

I ended up browsing the international brands. Most of the stuff e.g. Calvin Klein and Gucci actually cost more in Shanghai than in Singapore. Nonetheless, I got some stuff from G Star, FCUK, etc- items I haven’t seen in Singapore and things I wouldn’t buy back home. Yup, I’m already a spendthrift at home and I turn into a major credit card brandishing bandit when I set foot on foreign soil. If you want to see more entries on this site, please pray I don’t get a cardiac arrest when the bills come in.

(Btw, Champ Elysees is in Paris, and it’s pronounced something like Sean-se-lay-zay.. Correct me if I’m wrong… I always try to pronounce it like Jay Chou so that people won’t notice the mistake. Just don’t say Champ-E-lie-see ok?)

这是丁董在上海的越洋网上连线！那家酒店–妈的！宣传册子明明写着宽频上网，可是酒店人员一问三不知。我的膝上型电脑根本是英雄无用武之地。。。现在沦落到一间看起来很像风月场所的网咖上网。现在一边流汗，一边用着很脏的键盘打字。。。每小时才人民币2元哦！

这几天不断地吃吃吃！！

–排队拍了很久的小笼包

–第一口还好，第五颗让我想作呕的士多卑梨冰糖葫芦

–得过年度最佳餐馆，价钱十分公道的一间渝信川菜馆

–凌晨时分还人山人海的新旺茶餐厅

–东西不是很好吃，服务也不怎样，但有好戏看的避风塘–我们目睹一位凶悍刁妇和一个很丢脸的男人吵架接着打架。那个不知道是她男友/老公/情夫/客人的人真可怜。<

撑死我啦~~ 下个星期做龙虎榜的show不知道你们还会不会认得~哈哈哈！

刚从亚洲最高的铁塔–东方明珠塔下来。

昨晚在外滩被它迷人的景色深深吸引。

前天在襄阳市场逛。。它有点像香港女人街，曼谷的Chatuchat，台北的夜市。每走几步就有人要卖我LV, Gucci, Rolex等。

唯一比较失望的是和平饭店。他们说有Prada展览。。。我只看到几片从天花板吊下来的板子。门口也被海外银行的告示牌给破坏。

孝瀚说他没有看过周润发主演的[和平饭店]，昨天去买了DVD。结果发现Peace Hotel的中文电影译名是[老板的故事]。哈哈。

这几晚很早就睡了。十二点之前已经很想和周公约会了。。。太不[丁董]了吧？！我的团友们对我太好了。。。他们不是那种死命要在最短时间做最多事的人。我们每天都在中午之后出发！

下来还会去新天地等clubbing地区，还要去一间很特别的餐馆-新都里。打电话定位时，服务人员会给我们一个密码。到了门口，我们必须输入密码，才能入店。

好啦，我要回饭店了。。。这几天脸上痘子比平时多。要在Photoshop修饰一下才可以上载。还好有瑞明在。

Smile,

Cruz @ Shanghai =D

每到星期五，我总是忍不住在空中大喊 HEY HEY IT’S FRIDAY! 配合一首Retro英语歌，真是天衣无缝。今天播的是Heaven is a Place on Earth.

下个星期六要去上海。。现在已经进入了倒数阶段。

我们的饭店换了又换。结果瑞明找到一间即将在来临星期一开幕的饭店。真好。应该会非常干净吧！应该不会有人在营业的第一个星期就在那里死掉，进而闹鬼吧？*呸呸呸*

这次去上海主要目的是找老朋友。她移民到英国好几年了。卸下名人的光环，她找了一个可以托付终生幸福的人，在一个人生地不熟的地方落地生根。每次和她通电话，她都显得非常兴奋。一个在华人地区成长的人，在那里没有什么机会用华语和他人交谈，还要入乡随俗讲“非常道地”的Queen’s English。

她这次回中国，是为了母校的百年校庆。她说，她的同学如今是某报社主编，某电台台长，反正就是各自领域的佼佼者。言语间，我好像探测出一丝的羡慕。但我说，她才是最勇敢最幸福的。有多少人会在事业顶峰放下眼前的荣华富贵，心中充满无限的未知，跟着另一个人离乡背井。所以人家羡慕的应该是她。

还记得那个晚上，没有雷电交加，也没狂风暴雨。我们到她家里搬行李。接机送机，我经历了很多次。但是那一次很不一样。大门关上时，里头已是空荡荡的了。那次关门，也没想要再次打开那扇门。

她走进闸门前，没有哭哭啼啼的场面，只有依依不舍反复地说着Take Care。她离开新加坡标志着新生活的开始。应该开心才对。

这次见面，不知道要说几次Take Care。。。

My test is on the 5th, and I’ve yet to touch “Advanced Theory of Driving (6th Edition)- The Official Handbook to prepare students for the Final Driving Theory Test” !!!

Wish me luck yeah?

And by the way, unless I post my results slip with a PASS printed on it, or initiate a conversation about this, please please please do not ask me about the outcome ok?

By the way, I am so dying to hop onto a flight and get out of Singapore.

Not out of Singapore for good lah… We’re a FINE country leh! What’s not to love about Singapore huh? Not forgetting IR1 and IR2 coming up in a couple of years- sure very exciting hor? Most importantly, where else in the world can I use Singlish? Those angmohs understand meh?

My next trip will be to Shanghai at the end of the month. Andrew and How Han have started an email thread discussing which airlines to take, which hotels to stay, which itineraries to follow…

Erm. Absolutely no comments there.

Spoilt brat Cruz is more used to people telling me which airline to take, and which hotel to stay. For business trips, people don’t ask me.

As for leisure trips, people tell me which airline and hotel they’d booked. Similarly, they don’t ask. Cos the only answer they get is “随便lor”.

I’m sure my travelling kakis are trying to be nice and don’t wanna seem too pushy.. That’s why they have to ask.

Hee… I hope I don’t piss them off by saying “随便lor” to everything. But V2 has survived my series of “随便lor”s, so I reckon everyone else will be able to take it as well.

I’m not trying to shrug any responsibility here… but frankly, I’m very very bad at this.

Had this harrowing experience once. (Heng ah. I go to Bangkok almost every year- so no one knows who I’m actually talking about here.)

No one wanted to lift a finger, so I troubled my mum. She used to be in the travel industry, so she has plenty of contacts there.

A Free N Easy package was booked and hey…the trip created so much commotion…

“Why the hotel look so run down?”

“Why the hotel so far away from Mahboonkhrong/etc..?”

“Why the departure timing so late?”

“Why the return flight so early?”

… so much so that I wished it didn’t happen in the first place.. else I wouldn’t have to waste so much energy in answering stupid questions.

“Why the hotel look so run down?” – If you’re Paris Hilton, then we wouldn’t be staying here…

“Why the hotel so far away from Mahboonkhrong/etc..?” - If you’re Paris Hilton, I’m sure your lackeys can get us to anywhere we want in double time – maybe once they’re done with the tape…

“Why the departure timing so late?” – Your grandfather owns SIA ah?!

“Why the return flight so early?” - Cos your mum might be worried if you go home too late…

Given a choice, I want to check into a 5 star hotel and fly business class.

“You cannot afford that? Me too!” — So 随便 lor….

By the way, when you say “随便lor”, please make sure you mean it and don’t behave like the above mentioned people.

Note to my present and future travel companions: Please do not ask me about which flight I wanna take, or which hotel I wanna stay at. I’m a moron at travel planning. Just tell me. I’ll be a good boy and report at the airport on time.

只要不让我搭那些信誉很不好，让我很不安心的航班就可以了。新航虽然对外国人的服务态度比较好，但至少上机之后不会提心吊胆，时时刻刻埋怨自己干嘛没有立遗嘱。如果起飞时间太早，我可能会在这里说你是神经病，但我还是会准时到机场的。

饭店如果闹鬼或是很差，就换房或干脆搬到其他地方。。。有什么大不了？

亲爱的瑞明&孝瀚，我会尽量很“随便”的。

（改正： 应该是随和-我不是一个随便的人。谢谢。）