It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

And I think Bruce said it best...

Merry Christmas everyone, here's looking forward to a cracking 2013.

The Mystery that is Shanghai

If Shanghai is a mystery, full of old school versus the new, not quite knowing whether the two should ever meet, then Malaysia is like a big warm hug you would get from your grandmother.  You know the one I mean, the one that envelopes you and makes you feel warm and safe.

I had the pleasure of experiencing both in a near month long trip.  I had visited Malaysia before and fell in love with it all over again.  The people, the culture, the food (spicy!) and the hospitality.  But this blog is dedicated to Shanghai, a place I had never visited. I experienced firsthand the dramatic difference a 5 hour plane trip can make when you are in Asia.

I am sitting in Pudong International Airport, surrounded by people from all walks of life.  There must be a dozen languages flying over the top of my head.  It is the first time I have heard a collective mix of Australian accents in nearly four weeks.  And I’m smiling to myself, thinking how much I loathed my first week in Shanghai.  And rather sad that after two weeks in this eclectic country how I am sad to leave.

Living in Sydney I experience the cultural differences between the two cultures.  I thought it had prepared me, even just a bit, for the adventure I was about to undertake as I travelled here.  I was so wrong it is almost comical.

Let me explain.

My grandparents travelled to Asia in 1977.  They returned, after many weeks away, with photos and slides of China.  The buildings were magnificent, the people smiling, the architecture amazing.  I remember the red dressing gown they bought me, it had a big blue dragon on the back of it and I wore it for years, even when it grew too small.  From their trip I had an image of China in my head that was architecturally beautiful and very old.

I arrived in 2012 to be met by huge buildings, a hell of a lot of smog and a country full of people who did not speak English and who, outside the hotel, did not show the slightest interest in speaking English.  I was overwhelmed just trying to communicate with people with my 10 or so words of Mandarin (that stretched to about 30 by the time I left..  Nothing when you consider the complexity of the language).

The humour of people running up to me in the street and taking my photo time and time again soon wore off as did the 11 marriage proposals I received in the first two days.   I expect to pop up in lots of family photos someday, such was their interest in the tall blonde woman. 

Week one saw me in many “humorous” situation.  I was with two Americans and we got chased out of a restaurant that was clearly open for business by a toothless woman sucking on a corn cob, she dead bolted the door after us just to make her point and stood there waving her hands and yelling.  I got chased around a park by the meanest looking dog you have ever seen in your life (it was a Chou Chou – gosh they are mean) eventually scared off by an 80 year old woman with a stick and one night in the pouring rain, a man jumped out of his car and chased me off the pedestrian crossing, furiously waving an umbrella, enraged I was obviously taking too long to cross on the “green man” (he chased me for about 100 metres and it was mortifying – god knows what he was yelling, thank goodness it was near the hotel and the concierge came out and “saved” me).

By week two I had had enough.  I was over the dismissiveness of the locals, frustrated I didn’t speak Mandarin and furious I had to spend another week and a half here.  Shanghai is a very lonely place when you don’t speak the language and you stand out like a sore thumb.

By Tuesday, miraculously something had changed.  Maybe it was the fact I just kept smiling, regardless of how I was feeling.  People were starting to talk to me in broken English (and me to them in VERY broken Mandarin), and what we didn’t understand we used charades to get our point across.  Slowly, things didn’t seem so futile. 

By Thursday night I drew the courage to catch a taxi to Yu Garden to go shopping, not fearful like I had been the previous week.  And by the time Friday night, the night I am writing this, came around, I was beginning to feel sad to be leaving.

I had experienced an ocean of emotion in a country who really don’t give a hoot for western ideas or western people.  They are suspicious to the point of ridiculousness.  They may have embraced technology and sky scrapers but they have not embraced “outsiders”.  That is until they are convinced you are there to do them no harm.  And I imagine that takes a long, long time.

I would not rush back to China, although I fear this may be to my own detriment as Beijing is apparently a cultural experience and a half.  Perhaps one day I will lose the feeling of not belonging, of being laughed at, mocked and photographed at every turn (and did I mention those 11 marriage proposals, funnily enough their English extended to that!).  This trip gave me a good old fashioned dose of what it must be like to arrive in a strange country, surrounded by people who don’t speak your language and who make no attempt to help you.  Perhaps remember that next time you are asked, in broken English, for directions by someone who is clearly struggling.

Farewell Shanghai, you taught me lessons I deserved to learn.  Maybe I will see you again one day.

Candylicious... And Victoria's Secret....

Last night I did two of the most enjoyable things in the world..  I went and did all my shopping in Victoria’s Secret (and I will leave that right there – I normally do this on my US jaunts but to my absolute delight there is one in Malaysia) AND I spent an hour walking around a magical shop called “Candylicious”.

Candylicious

Honestly, Candylicious is the happiest place on earth.  As a kid, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was my favourite movie (the original, obviously, I am old and Johnny Depp’s was not around back then..  And his was rubbish anyway).  This shop is the essence of Willy Wonka’s factory..  All that was missing was the oompa loompas...  And Charlie and his Grandfather.

To be clear; I am not a big chocolate fan at all.  If I eat sweet things, I actually prefer Gummy Bears and the like, but I walked around this place for an hour, YES, an hour, and marvelled in the 1000’s of different types, designs and brands of candy (okay, lollies) and chocolate….

The music suited the place!  I did a jig to Ghostbusters, I shimmied to the Spice Girls and I hummed soulfully to Brother Iz’s remake of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”.  All the while as excited as a kid in a candy store.  Oh, that’s right, I was.

 

 

It Only Happens In The Movies

Supposedly these things only happen in the movies..

After a day of shopping and pampering, I ordered room service, ate a delicious Malaysian dish, drank an icy cold diet coke (because we all know diet coke cancels out every calorie in any meal) and decided to be a model hotel guest and put my tray outside the door to be collected.

The tray wasn't light and it took some manoeuvring to open the door. Smiling to myself when I had accomplished the feat, I then turned around only to see the door close behind me. I was in my pyjamas with no shoes, wet hair and not looking my finest. I immediately cracked up laughing and went to the phone near the elevator to ask for assistance, only to be told I had to go down to reception. Still laughing, I got in the lift and went down stairs. A few people took a cursory glance (after all, it was 9.30pm) and the two hotel employees were smiling broadly as I approached reception. I am not sure whether they just always smile broadly (probably) or were quite amused to see someone approach them in pyjamas (possibly). I quickly explained my dilemma, a new key was cut and I returned to the elevator. Only to have a party of about 40 American IT consultants, who are here on a conference, arrive at the lifts just as it arrived to take me back to the safe haven of my room.

They got a good 60 seconds of laughing and joking in, I was laughing as well.

Just as well I was wearing presentable pyjamas I suppose..  Next time I will be careful or won’t bother trying to manoeuvre the tray outside.  It can wait till morning.

No More Good Hair Days...

As I disembarked from the plane I realised I was kissing goodbye another good hair day for at least a week..  It was 9pm at night, they are in the middle of monsoon weather (and believe me the rain was torrential last night) and even that late it was 34 degrees with over 80% humidity (bad hair day = ever tried having lots of, very fine curly hair in high humididty - not going to work).

Welcome to Malasyia!

I surprised myself.  Everyone knows I am very capable and independent but I have to say, when we go on holidays I leave EVERYTHING to my husband.  He says "where do you want to go?". We talk about it, decide and then hey presto.  I just pack and rock on up to the airport, flash my passport and get on a plane..  Not this time! I planned the whole trip (with assistance from a travel agent via work) and managed to navigate Kuala Lumpur airport, jump on the sky train, get through customs (here's a tip: if you have permanent french nails they cannot biometrics test you - i.e. record your fingers prints, something to do with the white tips interfering with the technology..  I passed through uneventfully), jump in a cab and arrived at the hotel just after 10pm. 

Hotel is just lovely!  It is now 6.20am and I am wide awake (9.20am to me) so I am sitting her writing this blog wondering what I will do till Kuala Lumpur wakes up on a Sunday (things open at 10am).  I do know when it does wake up I will be hitting the shopping centre attached to the hotel - over 700 stores...  Paradise and definitely the right hotel for me to be staying in.



Up & Away...

So it has nearly arrived - jetting off for just over 3 weeks for work. A week in Malaysia, which I am really looking forward to and then two weeks in Shanghai.. Which I am kind of in two minds about. Out of all of my Asian travels over the last 7 years I have not been to China, so it will be a good chance to acquaint myself with it and decide if it is a place I will go back to one day as a tourist.

Over three weeks away from home is going to be interesting. It's a long time.

I will endeavour to blog regularly and tell you everything I am up to and the sights that I see! The food I eat (I love, love, love Asian cuisine!), the people I meet and the shopping I do (which I am really looking forward to!).

Catch ya.

A Beachy Kinda Girl...

I never was a beachy kind of girl..  I didn't grow up in a beach environment, we were actually lucky to have a BBQ once a year..  Tassie was just that kind of place, we weren't big on BBQ's or the beach on our family (but we were very sporty and did other things!).

 

I've lived in Sydney for 23 years next April and while I have lived near beach side for most of that time I didn't ever go swimming or near the beach..

 

Then my husband suggests we buy a place near the beach, I was a sceptic.  I don't really "do" the beach, as such.  I have a  pair of swimmers reserved for Thailand and Hawaii (where no one knows me..) but I wasn't sure about buying a beach retreat..

 

Fast forward a few months and I can't imagine life without my weekender!  I love waking up the waves crashing against the rocks (that took some getting used to, I used to think it was the wind!) and walking along the beach and yes, even swimming!

If we move somewhere else in the world in a few years I don't know what we will do with it and to be honest, how I will live without the weekends away...  Till then, I shall just enjoy it for what it is.