On Saturday, I awoke early to get breakfast and catch the company shuttle to the location of the day's activities. It was a boring day. In the morning we had talks. After lunch, we went to Hot Springs Leisure City, a large indoor pool park with a large wading pool, other pools, slides, spas, saunas, medicinal baths, etc. After looking around, I relaxed in a reclining chair for a while, then left, bored. Soon thereafter (in early evening), I managed to get to the airport for an uneventful flight home. Getting to the airport was a mess, however, as no one knew where the company's airport shuttle bus was going to pick people up, and, when we managed to actually find it, learned it was going to leave about like thirty minutes late, which would've been too late for me. After a long taxi hunt later, during which time we declined three unlicensed cabs, I made it to the airport in time.
I took two pictures this day, both of meals.
Beijing: Saturday: Company Retreat
Beijing: Friday: Forbidden City and vicinity, and Company Party
Due to last-minute schedule changes, company events didn't start until 3pm. I had most of the day to explore Beijing! :)
I got up at 6:30am, took a shower, ate breakfast at the hotel, and was soon on my way with some coworkers to explore the Tian'anmen Square, the Forbidden City, and more. First though, I reveled in the hotel's extensive breakfast spread, eating many American items I hadn't touched in months including raisin bran cereal and banana bread. And it'd been very long since I had fresh pineapple. When I left the hotel, the temperature was cold (-2 C / 28 F) but I dressed warmly and thus being outside the whole day wasn't unpleasant.
I took numerous pictures this day, partially because I was walking around with a coworker who is a photography enthusiast. Had I been walking around alone, I probably would've only taken perhaps half as many.
After spending a while walking through the enormous blank expanse of Tian'anmen Square, we headed into the Forbidden City (a.k.a. the Imperial Palace). Aptly named, it's enormous and could fit a town. Part of the city is composed of large, palatial, expansive halls and plazas, alluding to the vastness of the sky and the world and clearly designed to impress by their sheer scope and magnitude. Another part of the city is composed of similar halls but felt less monumental; these were the emperor's and nobles' residences. Another part of the city has smaller buildings connected by long lanes. Concubines, housekeeping staff, servants, and secondary government officials lived there. I didn't greatly enjoy any of these buildings. Rather, the gardens are the part of the Forbidden Palace I liked the most. They're not actually particularly nice, but what can I say: I like trees and nature.
We also looked through the various museums/exhibits in the Forbidden City. The Treasure Gallery contains crowns, hairpins, tiny wine vessels, ewer flasks, tributes from provinces (mostly high-quality art or jewelry), royal accessories, jade sculptures, and palatial furnishings, all made with fine craftsmanship. We also went to the Clock Museum and an exhibit of jade carvings. The Clock Museum has clocks, all elaborate, made from various regions throughout China, as well as some imported from foreigners and some made by Western-influenced Chinese clockmakers. Of the China-local clocks, I liked the ones from Guangzhou the best.
After the Forbidden City, we walked up and through the neighboring park, Jingshan Park, then walked to another nearby park, Beihai Park (yet another park formerly considered part of the Forbidden City), grabbing lunch on the way (at the first place we saw after we left Jingshan Park).
In mid-afternoon, we returned to the conference center and hotel to do company-related things. In the evening, I attended the elaborate, extravagant company New Year Kick-off Party / gala banquet. When I say extravagant, I mean it: two large projection screens hung from the center of the hall on which were projected images from the party as multiple cameras, including one on a crane, roamed the scene; the front stage was illuminated with multi-colored lasers and spotlights like a concert; an A&V team in the back managed it all.
As for the party, there was an award ceremony, a number of performances (dancing, singing, etc.) by employees, and even an imitate-the-professional-dancer competition (in which dancers were thrown out one-by-one by judges and, near the end, by SMS voting), and more. I, however, found the evening rather boring, and not because I don't speak the language.
Beijing: Thursday: Arrival
Checking-in at Shanghai's Hongqiao airport, I saw a security measure I'd never seen before. Security guards ran a swab on about a dozen people's various items of clothing and carry-on items. Security kept these people in a separate, roped-off area while the swab got tested for chemicals, which took about thirty seconds, then released the whole group when the test came back clean. Then it's time for another group of about a dozen people and another swab. It's a nice compromise between efficiency (analyzing batches of people at once) and specificity (being able to easily identify the infiltrator), as the vast majority of swabs will come back clean.
On the plane, I ate oranges I brought. I didn't expect to be fed on the one-and-a-half hour flight. Nevertheless, the airline provided a sizable snack (a roll (with anonymous meat), fruit, raisins (from California!), and peanuts (overly salty), but I didn't particularly like most of it and was glad I had the oranges.
Upon landing in Beijing, I took a shuttle for ten minutes to meet some co-workers who landed at a different terminal. (Some terminals in the airport are quite a drive apart!) We then took a taxi to the hotel, during which time we were introduced to a Beijing-rush-hour traffic jam. The hotel didn't have my reservation, one item among many that showed this company event was poorly planned. After spending much time sorting it out with the help of some bilingual co-workers, I ended up getting myself placed in the room with the extra person on this trip (the person who happened to be assigned as only one person to a two-person room).
A big group of coworkers walked to a nearby restaurant for dinner. I have nothing more to say about the dinner because, despite the number of dishes, I wasn't enthusiastic about any of them. (No, it wasn't the style of cooking; it was simply the quality.)
My hotel room had a cool feature. I'm sad I forgot to take a movie of it. The wall separating the bathtub from the bedroom has a large window with wooden blinds. At the touch of a button, they angled open or closed, or slide up or down. A bit creepy if you were in the room with someone you don't know well, but nevertheless very cool to watch.
Beijing: Overview
I visited Beijing on January 28-30, 2010, for a company off-site / kick-off party in honor of the new Chinese year.
Because this was a company event, I had only two-thirds of a day to myself in Beijing to go sightseeing. I did get a bit of an impression of the city from the short time. First, at least judging by these three days, Beijing's sky is clearer and bluer than Shanghai's, perhaps due to lower humidity. The temperature, though colder, doesn't feel substantially colder (again, maybe because it's less damp). Second, the center part of Beijing has some large, nice, pretty parks: good for walking, and some with hills with decent views. Shanghai doesn't have large parks in the city, and I miss being able to take long walks in nature.
A Warning about Internet Booking of Airline Tickets in Developing Countries
Booking airlines tickets for my recent trip to Singapore was a headache. Though everything worked out okay in the end, I was frustrated and stressed for a week as I repeatedly tried to book tickets listed as available on travel aggregator websites (e.g., kayak/sidestep, orbitz), only to find those flights were not priced as promised or didn't exist at all.
This is my tale. I wrote this a few weeks after the incident--after my blood stopped boiling. My memory may be wrong: I may be confusing airline names or the details of the situation. Regardless, this tale captures my sentiments.
When I began planning for my trip, there were many round-trip tickets available with one stop in each direction in the four hundred dollar range, and some non-stop round-trip tickets for six hundred and something dollars. Many of these flights were at absurd times (e.g., take-off before 8am, red-eyes); I knew I had some work cut out for me to sort through the flights and find decent ones.
China Eastern, for instance, had good flights to Singapore. Though the return flights left at uncomfortable times (7am), I eventually convinced myself this was the best I could get at a reasonable price (under six hundred, which was my target given these had stops), but when I tried to book the flight the aggregator websites said they did not exist and the China Eastern website itself listed the round-trip itinerary at eight hundred dollars.
I looked at more flights and spent a night thinking about my next best option.
My next try involved selecting a direct flight. The only round-trip direct flights were on Malaysia Airlines. The return flight left at a god-awful 6:45am, but it was the best of a bad lot of flight times for <$700. However, when I tried booking these flights, the aggregator said the flights were no longer available. Checking Malaysia Airlines' website, I couldn't find these 6:45am return flights listed. The only returns they had were red-eye flights leaving around midnight, even worse than an early-morning flight.
I looked at more flights and spent another night thinking about the next best option.
China Southern seemed to have okay flights listed by the aggregator websites. However, one couldn't book through the aggregator websites, but only through China Southern's website, and, as it turns out, the English interface to China Southern's website--meant for international travelers--only allowed booking of international flights to a particular set of Western airports (NY, Paris, etc.). I couldn't book the flights I wanted on the English website. In contrast, on the Chinese website--meant for Chinese citizens/flights originating in China--, I couldn't book tickets using an international credit card. Only cards issued within China are accepted.
More flights, more thinking.
Air China was the next airline I tried, and, as I recall, the aggregator websites refused to book the flights ("the fare you want is no longer available") and the Air China website itself priced the tickets several hundred dollars higher.
More flights, another night of thinking.
I tried a multiple-carrier itinerary, but again the fares were no longer available.
I tried another airline.
More thinking, more searching for flights.
It's important to note that by now five days have passed, yet all the prices and flights listed on travel search web sites were exactly the same as when I began searching for flights. The travel search results were packed with flights that when you attempted to book them, you'd find they no longer existed at that price or the flight didn't exist at all. I started internalizing a set of rules: for this airline, round-trips that involve flights that leave at this time are actually priced at this cost, three hundred dollars higher than listed; for this other airline, any non-redeye flight is erroneously listed at prices the same as the redeye flights on the same day, but they can't be booked at this price; for one airline, this particular flight does not exist; for yet another airline, all prices are wrong.
Eventually, I selected a multi-carrier itinerary that involved a direct flight to Singapore and a one-stop flight back to Shanghai. One travel aggregator would actually allow me to book the ticket at the price quoted (a bit under seven hundred). As is my habit, I tried to cut out the middleman and book the two one-way tickets directly on the two airlines' web sites. Naturally (as you should've expected by now), I couldn't book the two tickets together (despite the airlines being entirely unrelated) for anywhere near the price the aggregator was offering. I found this surprising, as I'd learned that the aggregators listed countless flights and prices the airlines wouldn't honor. Now I'd found a set of tickets the aggregator would allow but the airlines wouldn't provide directly. Nonetheless, after all this frustration hunting for a passable flight, I had finally found a reasonably plausible flight and I wasn't going to pass it up.
I booked the ticket with more than a little angst, wondering how it would be issued given that the airlines didn't seem like they would honor it for the given price. However, now that the trip is over, I can happily report that there were no unpleasant surprises at the airport.
What's the take-home message? Regardless of the final success of one aggregator, the horrors of the multiple attempted (and failed) bookings over the week make me say one shouldn't use travel aggregator websites when looking for / booking an itinerary on an airline based in a developing (i.e., non-web-savvy) country. Judging by this experience, the feeds given to travel aggregators by this class of airlines are just plain wrong.
Addendum: Later, I learned that english.ctrip.com is useful for travel in China and neighboring countries and doesn't have any of these problems. By mid-February 2010, I researched and booked tickets for three separate trips using ctrip, with none of the frustrations I previously had.
Singapore: Jan 2: Returning to Shanghai
Saturday was uneventful. We awoke before dawn, caught our pre-arranged taxi to the airport, and checked-in. I had a breakfast of kaya toast, remembering the kaya I had the last time I left Singapore. Security in Singapore's airport was in an unusual location -- it guarded the individual gate we were to use. I recall my previous flight out of Singapore had the same setup, though in that case I thought it was because the destination was the United States.
We needed two flights to get home, first a long flight to Beijing then a short one doubling back to Shanghai. This time we flew China Air. We enjoyed the long first leg. The seats were more spacious and comfortable than China Eastern (which brought us to Singapore). Our lunch was also acceptable.
From Beijing airport's windows, the landscape looked cold and frosty. A dusting of snow (or ice?) covered the ground. The mid-afternoon temperature was -5 C (23 F), quite a contrast to the 30 C (86 F) we experienced in Singapore. Happily, the airport was comfortable (actually probably warmer than Shanghai's), and the short train that took us between terminals was quite well heated. By the way, it was a good thing we made it through Beijing this day, as that evening they reported heavy snowfall that delayed and canceled flights.
The short flight to Shanghai wasn't as nice as our earlier flight this day or our flight to Singapore. The seats were still comfortable like our first flight. However, unlike how on those two flights we had a row of two to ourselves, on this flight we were in a full row of three. Furthermore, the dinner they served was so bad as to be inedible. Nevertheless, everything else was fine. Customs was easy. Our planes arrived and departed on time. Our baggage arrived safely (though Di Yin's was slightly damaged, but the airline reimbursed her a value that was actually more than the cost of the bag).
I knew I was back in Shanghai when, while waiting for our baggage, I hear someone loudly hawk a loogie. Because it was in the airport, he was kind enough to do it into the garbage, a courtesy not normally exercised outdoors.
Singapore: Jan 1: New Year's Day Party and Katong
On New Year's Day, we were obliged to stay at our host's place for a family reunion potluck lunch. Our host's/friend's parents have seven siblings each, so even though only one side of the family came to this reunion event (and not all of them from that side), it was still a crowded, lively party. All of our friend's relatives were friendly; we were made to feel very welcome, as if we belonged there. Our friend's father made his famous dish, a Portuguese stew called curry devil. Another relative made kueh kosui (the coconut rice cake dessert we previously tried and somewhat liked) (this one was a bit better) and even gave us instructions on how to make it for ourselves. There was also roasted ham, pasta salad, delicious fried prawns, and more.
Because of the party, we didn't make it out of the house until mid-afternoon. I had hoped to leave earlier because we had planned to explore the Katong/Joo Chiat neighborhood of Singapore this day, and I wanted enough time to make sure we could see it all. When we were finally heading out, one of the family members (who was also leaving around that time) realized he was already driving in the same direction and offered to give us a lift in his convertible. On the way to Katong, he showed us around Singapore, including driving past Dempsey Hill (military barracks converted to shops). Also, he owns a catering business and a couple restaurants, so he detoured to stop by the catering area to give us a brief tour. He also owns the restaurant where the prison officers eat. (This isn't near the prison but rather part of a complex reserved for recreational activities for the prison workers.) He brought us there too. Finally, we made it to Katong, where he drove us past the highlights before we convinced him that we actually wanted to walk around the neighborhood to get a feel for it and to see the sights without being hurried by other cars behind us.
Starting with this last segment (driving through Katong), I began to take pictures. Di Yin took many pictures this day, including some from the party and from our drive around Singapore. The link goes to the first picture from this day in her Singapore album (picture #272). When you see a picture of me shaking a container of milk (picture #331), you're done with her pictures from the trip. (She took that one after we got home.)
Once afoot in Katong along Joo Chiat, we explored the Joo Chiat complex mall, then walked down Joo Chiat. We found many pretty shophouses nearby. We also noticed most of the restaurants on one block of Joo Chiat Road are Vietnamese: interesting, as the Vietnamese population in Singapore is minuscule. Much the middle of Joo Chiat is comprised of bars.
Due to our late start, we had to call off our exploration of Katong for darkness when only a third done. As it turned out, Di Yin and I would get to finish exploring Katong on our next trip to Singapore. As we headed back to the main road to catch a bus, we spotted a lively street west of Geylang Serai, including a supermarket, a hawker center with some 24 hour stands, and, in general, lots of people. We'd spend more time in here in Katong on our next trip to Singapore.
For dinner, we returned to Food Republic on Orchard Road, where we also ate on Monday night (Dec 28).
Singapore: Dec 31: Botanic Gardens, Singapore Flyer, Sentosa, and the Quays
These pictures, though not extensive, represent everything I did during this day, New Years Eve 2009-2010. Di Yin took many more pictures, and her pictures are more fun, prettier, and even better quality than usual, and also include more pictures of yours truly than usual. The link goes to the first picture from this day in her Singapore album (picture #185). When you hit a picture of a "backyard garden" (#272), you're done with the pictures for the day. I'll link to the rest in later posts.
Due to my activities the previous day (much walking in the sun, a late night), I needed lots of sleep so we had a late start this day. Eventually, we made it down to the Clementi town center / hawker centre for a late breakfast, finishing at noon, then boarded a bus to the Botanic Gardens. I'd previously explored part of them, so today I used my re-visit (with Di Yin) to see the rest.
On this visit, we walked through the marsh garden (ick), by the swan lake, through the ginger garden (which I've previously visited), along palm valley, through the rainforest section, by the bandstand, and through the fern garden. Our route took 1.5 hours. It was a nice (though hot) stroll; sorry, I didn't take many pictures.
From the Botanic Gardens, we took a bus down Orchard Road to City Hall, then walked underground most of the way to the Singapore Flyer. Along the way we stopped for a late lunch at a food court in Marina Square Mall. The Singapore Flyer is the world's largest ferris/observation wheel. Each pod holds 28 people, sitting and standing with room to walk around, and goes more than 500 feet high. The Flyer ride was alright. The view straight down was precarious, but it didn't feel as high as it actually was. The free audio guide was acceptable to tourists, pointing out all the obvious sights.
When we left the Flyer (after 5pm), we began to see the New Years Eve holiday crowds out and about. We walked to the metro station, and rode the metro to the monorail to Sentosa, a resort island minutes from Singapore city centre. We made it just in time to go in the water before the guards closed the beaches due to darkness. The ocean water, though up to international cleanliness standards, made me nervous due to the many industrial ships we could see parked offshore.
Leaving Sentosa, we passed many people coming, likely for a large exclusive beach party and for an elaborate sound and water show that we caught glimpses of (see the movies I took).
A monorail, a confusing mall, and two subway rides later, we were strolling down the lively waterfront promenade that is Boat Quay. Though with beautiful views and dense with restaurants, I forgot how pushy its restaurateurs are. After dinner, we continued down Boat Quay, crossed the river, and went through Clark Quay. Despite how lovely the river views were and how pleasant the temperature (a nice change for Singapore), we found the density of the crowds and activities (even a costumed parade) overwhelming. We crossed the river again near the other end of Clark Quay, and headed back to a subway station. A subway ride and a transfer later, we found ourselves headed home at 10:45pm in a subway car full of other psychologically old fogies. We stopped by our metro station's late-night hawker centre for some more food--we didn't order enough at dinner--and were home a bit after midnight. (Yes, 2010 started on our walk home.) We decided the temperature in which we walked home was perfect.
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