Thanks to my new job, I've been traveling. First to the east coast, which I'm not sure why I didn't blog about - was a very interesting 5 week trip - for being in the east for the first time.
Now, across Pacific in Shanghai.
Even before I talk about Shanghai, the most intriguing part is the prep before travel. Lot of people talking lots of things - some know it, some heard it, some assume - but anyway, I was warned, especially as a vegetarian. So the most important part of my packing was:
And the other was VPN. Damn, nothing works in China - google, Facebook, or ANY thing else. We had to go around and do some hacks to figure something out - download WeChat, setup family on that, etc.
Coming back to Oct 22nd 4:20 PM, we set out on our big journey and after a dueling 13 hour United flight, finally landed in one of the biggest cities in the world.
Got a taxi from the airport. One striking thing is how the drivers have a thick plastic and transparent shield around them. It probably does make sense if you think about it.
So we reached pretty late, around 12:30 AM and thought we were too tired to let jet lag get to us.
I woke up to find out that I slept for an hour. Drag. And slept again.
The hotel we were put up at is a pretty international friendly one. We got good breakfast, worked out a bit in the fitness center, and headed out for a first day in Shanghai office.
It was our team lunch day! So my teammates being so nice as they are took us to The Buddha Tree, a vegetarian restaurant! (WTH, yes, these exist in CN)
GREAT food - all the myths busted.
I loved the fried chicken equivalent. YUM.
The other interesting part of lunch were the drinks -
I loved the one on the left - its called 'red bayberry' juice. the right is the passion fruit + something else - meh. But the left one was amazing. A teammate told me its an anyday solution to stomach/bowel problems. :D
Went back to work, fighting sleep. Oh, and got boba on the way! Well basically got lemon green tea with coconut and grass jelly. The tea had a pretty strong and intense taste here - goood.
In the evening, we were back out to feed our stomachs. We went to this place called 'cabin in the woods'.
The last photo is about the Chinese baijiu (literally meaning White (clear) alcohol). Its a 52% - YEAH. These guys are pretty strong and can stomach it pretty well.
The 3 sips I had were enough to get me go LA LA.
Oh, and the other interesting thing I saw one of my teammates use is a massage hammer. Damn that thing is sooo gooood for your back. (one souvenir down and I know for who too. ;) )
Here's the link incase: http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/custom-wooden-massager-natural-wood-massager_60608000970.html
That's probably enough for day1.
Stay tuned for more!
Si Sie, Wine Shang Haoooooo
Shamp
