Category Archives: Travel

no importa

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Last weekend, I put this post up, without content, however. Fortunately, today, I came across an old quote that goes well with the title. Awesome.

To give some context, I am a sucker for science fiction and space. I haven’t read too much, but that doesn’t mean I don’t get sucked up into the movie, television, or video game lore of this genre. I think the greatest draw of this topic is summed up pretty much in this quote:

We were born to soon to explore the cosmos, and too late to explore the earth. Our frontier is the human mind; religion is the ocean we must cross.

Can’t say that religion is the ocean we must cross, per se, but the first line and a half really nails my sentiments.

Thinking about this puts a lot of things in perspective, for example, how petty our struggles really are. In the grand scheme of things, most of our daily issues, personal problems, or insecurities are so puny. I mean some big things, such as financial crises, morality, and/or duties as a human being remain relevant, but most things seem to fizzle out once you broaden your field of view.

I recently took a ferry ride from Civitavecchia to Barcelona. Even though we were just hanging out in the Mediterranean Sea, the vastness of it all was kind of unsettling. Imagine how ridiculous it must have been for explorers back in the day to decide to just cross into the Atlantic. Took some balls to do that.

Taking things to a more contemporary time, think about the last time you were in a vast middle of nowhere. For me it was when I stared across into the distance at Independence Rock. I sort of just stood there taking the vastness in. Let’s take it a step further. Imagine what a feeling it must have been to be Yuri Gagarin, to be the first to leave our planet. How epic it must have felt to be him, radioing in and saying,

Let’s go!

before blasting off. How awesome it would be to reach beyond the atmosphere and see the world as no human before him had ever seen it.

This is why I play Mass Effect.

Last day

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Five days went by at a moderate pace. I wish I could come and go as I please though, but alas, that is not the case. Anyway, we went for another round of sight-seeing today. It only took me 5 days to reach the highest point in Shanghai. The analogous journey in Taipei took me 4 years to complete.

Today we went to the observation area of the Shanghai World Financial Center. Taipei once had a World Financial Center as well. It’s now called the Taipei 101. Anyway according to Wikipedia, the Shanghai WFC actually has a higher roof than the Taipei 101. Taipei 101 wins in terms of height based on a technicality, its antenna adds about 50 meters of height. So today, I reached the greatest vertical height inside building ever in my life. Cool, but Taipei 101 is still the ultimate champion because it manages to explode every new year’s eve in increasing intensity.

I’ll spare some of the details about the other parts of the day. Department stores are pretty common everywhere in the world. Actually the coolest part about shopping today was that I got a duck related product and that the mall was next to 靜安寺.

On a final note, a foot massage followed by a bowl of noodle soup is a good way to end my stay in Shanghai.

Running out of touristy things

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At dinner tonight, we decided that we’ve seem to run out of things to do in Shanghai. This is probably a premature conclusion. In any case, let’s talk about what we did do today.

Today we visited 七寶老街. The best part about this place was the rooftops when you walk through the alleys. If you’ve seen kungfu flicks set in ancient Asia, where people jump around the rafters, et cetera, then you know what type of architecture I’m talking about. There was one especially powerful viewpoint of the rooftops on the other side of the creek. Unfortunately, I did not take a photo of it. We got banana rice bamboo and Coco though, which was just as nice but not as immortal.

But now, back to the initial discussion. What exactly have I done to run out of things to do here? Actually, I probably haven’t even scratched the surface of things to do in Shanghai. I really wish I had more time.

Also, as an aside for people who like to shoot film, you should always pack ISO/ASA 400 speed film otherwise no photos after 4:00 pm.

Being a tourist

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Sometimes to see a city for what it is, one has to avoid areas designated as ‘too touristy’. But in other cases, going to tourist attractions and being a typical foreigner is the perfect experience. That is, I envision a nitty-gritty China with seedy shopping districts, old buildings, and laundry hanging from the windows. Beyond that, I also wanted to see a China fully of intrigue and mystique à la 色戒. I finally got to see this today at 慧公館, 田仔坊 and 豫園.

Personally I don’t enjoy visiting shopping centers beyond going to the food court and Coco. These places are a dime a dozen in any reasonably sized city.

Also, I wish hand soap were available in all public restrooms.

On a side note, I think I am going to stop eating spaghetti bolognese. I’ve given up searching for that elusive flavor they had at Mousse Fantasy. It’s a kind of indescribable rich, slightly salty flavor with a  hint of wine. They also had an amazing spaghetti omelette, which is completely indescribable. It’s such a shame they had to die and become a half Beard Papa loser store. Yelp seems to suggest that their cakes are still good though, which is nice to hear. But to me Mousse Fantasy will forever be remembered as the place where I became a fat little boy every Saturday afternoon.

Oh hello Shanghai! Where were the festivities?

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Food in Shanghai is good. Coco is better than most drink places at home. The city is beautiful. The jellyfish exhibit at the aquarium was the best I’ve seen. So apart from some tremendously rude people, this place is great. I’m going to be shooting a bunch of photos in the days I have left here, though they won’t be developed until I get back to Taipei.

One last thing. The Bund would have been THE place to host an epic fireworks show. I really thought there would be something! There were lots of policemen bullying people around, which made it seem like something cool was going to happen. Hundreds of thousands of people were packed next to the river waiting in anticipation. This surely must have meant something, right? How this show failed to materialize after so much buildup was sorely disappointing. Maybe next year. I can’t wait.

Happy new year everyone.