Destination: Langkawi

Since the TW fiber optic cables had been down for a while, it has been hard to update my blog despite there are so much to say and to post... Anyways, hopefully tonite i'm lucky in uploading this. My second destination: Langkawi which is a small island 1hr away from KL by flight, and is actually closer to Thailand more. This tropic paradise comprises mainly of Thai and Chinese decendants and featured only 2 seasons: raining and sunny. Being here in Dec, I was able to enjoy great weather throughout my trip. Langkawi island isn't too big and only takes around 40mins from end to end of the island and is mainly a relaxation location with sunny skies, beaches, and water sports. Despite having much visitors from abroad; it still doesn't feature much shopping, nor western restarants. Instead, it has much local shops and restarants. The shops were cool as one can relate to how locals live, but the restarants were *ahem* so-so. I was only able to locate a more 'westernized' eatery towards the end of the trip to make my stomach comfy... Eitherway, Langkawi still has one of the worlds most beautiful scenery due to it's tropic climate, and their island locals are very friendly as well (you feel really safe here).

Destination: Kuala Lumpar

And so I lied, didnt get the chance to update my blog while travelling so I've left all my blogging after i enjoyed the nice sun and fine sand :)... Anyways, I arrived to Kuala Lumpar late Friday nite and got settled into Renaissance hotel around 11:30pm. The hotel is close to the Petronas towers which looks pretty nice. Phoned up Charlize, and she was so nice to head out at such a late time from her place. After she picked me up, we headed to the tourist bar streets who's skyline was guarded by Petronas :) Many of the shops along the street were closed already, and we still able to chat and chill for the night.
Then Lizzie took me to a local night market street (Jalan Alor) and ordered us exotic fruit drinks, shrimp noodles, and the feature of the night: fried stingray. It actually tastes very good, and was one of the highlights of my trip. The local street compared to the tourist street was packed till late. After that, I was a bit tired; so headed back to the hotel, but still slept around 5am (woo, i feel young again)... haha. It's so nice to meet with Lizzie in such an exotic and beautiful land as Malaysia :) Here's some pics!

Into my 3rd day of holidays

I haven't updated my blog in a while already, don't know why i'm feeling all tired lately; maybe it's because of the humidly cold weather in SH. Cranking up the heat to those portable heaters doesn't help either (SH does not have those furnace unless you live in a hotel), along with those things can make noisy chunk-gloo-glook sounds if you turn it up too high. Geez, what place is this? I'm wearing 2 sweaters and underwear to keep me insulated even inside my apartment. These three days were good so far; played games till late at night (hooked on 天龙八部), joined gym next to the place (package comes with a free trainer but too bad it's not a pretty girl), hitting the pubs, and shopping around town with friends during weekends (weekdays they all had to work...) Last night the friendly waitress at a coffee diner also helped me get www.qq.com working on my laptop (afterall, I eat there like 3-5 times/week so everyone recognizes me there). The program is a China communicator tool similar to MSN but features lots of functionality. Talking about the waitress, she told me she has to work from 10am-11pm everyday and there's only 2 days/ month that can rest up at home (no weekends). Wow, that is insane; and i used to complain about so much OT work in ATI and when I was working as a customs officer in terminal 3. $$$ sure is hard to earn over here and I can somehow relate there's much rude people everywhere; so after watching how locals live, my tolerance level has increased slightly, just slightly... :p Oh, btw, will fly out on Friday (picked up tix today), and looking fwd to warmer weather!

Holidays begin!

A nice way of starting holidays is to have my internet connection restored. Gosh... I feel so much better after I can log onto MSN and surf the net at home! Last night after work also marks the beginning of my vacation and I didn't waste any time; started out for dinner at a 四川 restaurant clashing beers with the guys in my team (learned that it is actually 巴蜀 where 刘玄德 started his quest in the Romance of 3 Kingdoms). After dinner as I was a bit woozy after all the alcohal, a colleague from Toronto on biz trip here gave me a ping and we headed out to a pub (I'm not really a pub person, but since there's no internet, pubs wouldn't hurt :p), after more alchohal, we headed to the Bund; he wasn't satisfied and suggested we continue bar hopping, and so we went till around 3:00am... Ho, I feel young again, lols; I don't think I had barhopped ever since I graduated some 4 years ago... ha ha ha

Not internet... again...

This is such a stupid place. I got home last night to find out that my network doesn't work again. Called Chinaman telecom 2 times as the first one can't answer my questions and hung up; turns out cuz last time apartment mgmt helped me escort the workers to wire up the signals. But, China telecom insists I will need to be home personally for them to wire it up and explained that the last few days on internet access was just for 'try'. $%#!@&! Idiots. Now I'm without internet at home until Sat when I'll be at home to meet up with their workers personally. I was told that China telecom is the best place to work with high salaries and gov't subsidized, but they sure have a dumb system.

Next destination: Malaysia

Hoho... I've decided where I want to be this X'mas: Malaysia. It's a change of scenery of the traditional white X'mas that I have grown so accustomed to back in Toronto. I've just placed my order in today... Will arrive in KL for one night and fly out to the beach resorts floating on water in Langkawi for the next 5 days. Too bad the package doesn't allow me to stay longer in KL since my friend is there. I can only meet her up for one day in KL along with talking a glimpse of Petronas (next to my hotel that nite). However, this itinery is the best i can find cuz the price is cheap - if I book air-malay or sing-airlines; the flight alone will cost the same as the whole package I have which includes hotel. Nevertheless, I'm highly looking fwd to this relaxing, exploring, and meeting more ppl around the world X'mas :) he he...

Relaxing Sat

Everyone's Got to relax once in a while...! Woke up late, applied some bugspray around the building (gosh, those things can bite!); and headed out to 新天地 to meet up with Crystal-san for lunch. We shopped around and it was good to have a friend to talk to and vent about work stuff and other things. Afterall, most close friends are in Toronto so it was good to have someone neutral to talk to outside of work... (we talked about you too Lucy-san :p ha ha) Gosh it was cold today with temperatures dropping to 0-5 deg. Bear in mind that Shanghai doesn't have as good insulation, cars, and infrastructure so it was cold everywhere - even at home surfing the net (now). The rest of the day I just took a nap until Yida called me up for dinner. We headed out to 上岛咖啡 for dinner as there's free wireless there.... It was just a soothing and relaxing day to rest up and attend to something stuck on my mind from last week, and it was good. But tomorrow will be workday for me... oh well, all's well and things are under control :)

Connected back online.

As Dr. Nick says: 'Hello e-v-e-r-ybody' I'm back! Finally, after 1 weeks time of living without internet at home, i can finally see again! ha ha. Yeah, it is really THAT important. Today I want to talk about smiling. Never did I thought it can have such a powerful effect. This past week was just insane; bosses after bosses flew in from around the world to Shanghai to lay out the roadmaps. Guess what? It was just dang political as one would expect as there were so much upper mgmt. The outcome wasn't that bright either as it will take some time to execute and plan out what's going to happen. However, one bright side was that I met a new friend from Taiwan. She's ALWAYs similng, regardless of being in meetings that doesn't make any sense or businiess dinners/lunches like 4 days in a row (no complaints there tho, but sometimes it's hard to come up with topics with lots of bosses around). Ok, i'm not talking about those dumb laughing like drunk people, I'm talking about that warm reassuring and encouraging smile. The gatherings were sometimes tough and rugged; but when I looked at my friends' smile, all the uncertainty and worries just melt away like sun shining on a big lump of iceberg, it feels great even if it only lasts for several seconds. Wow. I really never thought I would write this strange thought, but; the world is an interesting place eh? The people who we meet are endless and the feeling of different strangers around the world being friends is just mind-boggling, isn't it? Nature does works mysteriously. Wow.

Cut off from the world

And so, I never thought how big of an impact I can have without internet. Yes, it has been 6 days after I moved into the new place that doesn't have internet. I applied for it 4 days ago but guess what's new? Chinaman telecom efficiency is 0 so i'm stuck with nothing this weekend. How am I getting online? I am currently eating at a finer coffee shop that boosts wireless so I can send out my weekly work report out. Ha ha. Never did I think that without one of man's best friend of the 21st century - internet; the SH winter feels cooler, the mosquitos bite harder, the floor is colder, and time moves very slowly when in the apartment... lols. Anyways, aside from internet problems, the winter here is pretty bad so far. It's nowhere near as cold as Toronto, but since these buildings doesn't have ANY insulation at all, I'm resorting to opening those portable heaters and blowing hotair on myself 24/7... ha ha... a story for another time... Back to work~....