I was ambitious last night and thought I would wake up at 8am this morning to take more scenic shots of The Bund. The 2 shots taken for me last Saturday were so bad that everything was in focus except ME. So I set my Chairman Mao alarm clock to 8am. Of course, I couldn’t wake up that early (and didn’t). Anyway, I did manage to get some good shots at the Bund this time, so now I have photographic proof that I did in fact visited Shanghai before, haha. Off I went for one last minute round of speed-shopping at Nanjing road. Managed to get myself this awesome winter jacket for 449RMB. I could have bought so much more stuff, but my backpack was already close to bursting at it’s seams from all the bulky winter clothing I’ve brought over, along with the big and heavy stacks of books I’ve scored from Book City the last 2 days. Oh well. Quick breakfast at McD and I scrambled back to the hotel for check out.
I was contemplating what transport to take to come to Pudong airport. 4 days ago I took the Maglev train from the airport to Long Yang Maglev station (apparently there’s only 1 stop) and then took a cab to my hotel at the Bund. It was far cheaper and faster than taking the taxi all the way from the airport, which would have costed me 3 times the price. But my luggage was so heavy (my weighing scale indicated that the check-in bag was 18kg plus), so I guess it would be the wiser choice to pay up for taxi and save myself the hassle of lugging stuffs more than half my body weight.
Check-in and stuff was swift. In fact, I was the first in line to check-in, among the throng of crowds that queued behind me. What an accomplishment, lol. So now I am at gate D84, waiting for my flight out at 3.25pm. I love free WIFI. Not sure how long the battery on this laptop could last me though. As I am writing this, a chinese family of 4 were running past where I am sitting. Mom, dad and daughter were running as if they were in a marathon, with a chubby kid running far behind, panting and shouting in chinese: “MOM!!!WAIT!!! WAIT FOR ME!!!” I grinned. It kinda reminds me of the Home Alone scene where the kid was left at the airport.
And why is this man sitting opposite me staring at me? Typical Asian. Why do we Asians do this? Go away, you creepy man.
My strategy for the 4 hour flight? Sleep through it, as always!
Why do they have to be so LOUD every time they talk? Stop shouting.
Today is the last day of the conference. Highlights of the day would include a very interesting talk by someone from Rovio Mobile – the studio that made Angry Birds. The room was full as always. I had to sit on the floor, along with bunch of people. A western man was sitting on the floor in his business suit too.
Angry Birds is a really simple game – basically puzzle game where you slingshot couple of birds to a couple of pigs. I’ve heard of the game before but somehow was never interested in it (puzzle games are not my cup of tea), but during the presentation I was truly surprised on how big of a global phenomenon has Angry Birds become within such a short span of time since it was created. The concept and game play and just so straightforward, but it’s raking in all the big bucks (I am talking millions) from all the sales generated from downloads. They are even making Angry Birds stuffed dolls (which was quickly sold out), thus generating even more profits from additional merchandise. People were playing the game. From very young kids to old people, even celebrities (Conan O Brien) or politicians. All these from a 2d puzzle game! This kinda proves that you don’t necessarily need complex graphics, known branding, etc to make great games.
Another interesting talk was by the CEO for the studio that made ????, yet another successful chinese web game which was created 3 years ago. The CEO mentioned that while the game is now considered a little obsolete in terms of graphics, etc, people still do play it until today. It was truly interesting to hear him describe how to keep the fans happy, by doing constant updates, prompt feedback etc. He even went undercover into forums and joined guilds as a newbie player. And from there he got plenty of feedback/criticisms from players’ conversations and made improvements to the game accordingly.
One of his quote was truly interesting: “When players are angry, they rant, scold and curse us and our game, it’s because they love us. These are the people that are truly passionate about the game, love the game and honestly wants the game to become the best that it could be. It’s just like scolding kids. If you see your neighbour’s kid misbehaving, you might just frown upon that, but just stay silent – he’s not your kid after all. If it’s your own kid misbehaving, you would scold him and make sure he corrects his mistake and grow up well. So the criticisms from these players, they need to be taken seriously and acted upon accordingly.”
Ok, so now I have 4 games to play in my list when I go home:
- Osmos (after the session by Andy and Eddie yesterday, I must download it when I am back)
- Angry Birds
- ????
- Marvel Super Heroes (next year)
I managed to squeeze in a quick trip to Yu gardens during lunch break at the conference. The garden itself wasn’t all too impressive (at least not impressive if you have already visited places like the Forbidden city), but the Old Street close-by was pretty interesting. The buildings were actually new but were built to look like old chinese architecture. I was a little turned off by all the Starbucks, McDs, Haagen Daz etc in these fake buildings. The place was madness. So many people (tourists) shopping, taking photographs or just plainly standing in my way DREAMING. As I was on my way to make a hasty departure to the conference venue again, a shout caught my attention. 2 Caucasian tourists (presumably mother and daughter) were running across the street. A younger woman, chinese, was grabbing tightly onto to the older tourist’s right arm. The tourist (older lady) shouted: “CALL THE POLICE! CALL THE POLICE!!!”. Her daughter was desperately trying to release the chinese woman’s hand from her mother’s arm. Apparently there’s a dispute on a money belt. The tourist said it belonged to her, while the chinese local insisted it’s hers and refused to let go. I doubt it’s hers. Why would you be using a money belt if you live here? Wouldn’t a purse make more sense? A crowd quickly gathered, and of course, no one helped. As I left the scene in a taxi, I saw both tourists frantically running down the street again, with the local woman still chasing behind – For their sake I hope they managed to escape from this madness without a scratch.
After the conference I revisited Shanghai Book City again and this time stocked up another 4 chinese books on 3d, web design. The total did not cost more than 45usd. Just to put it in perspective – books like these in Malaysia would cost me AT LEAST 45usd EACH. If only I can bring carry more books home in my luggage. Ah well. I spent more than an hour browsing the books there and then went on to stroll around the city at night. The shops were already closing when I was walking back to the hotel. Even the Oriental Pearl has shut down its lights when I arrived the Bund at 10pm. So much for wanting to take night shots there.
Can’t believe it’s already 4 days I’ve been in Shanghai. Everything has been such a blur, I wish I could stay a little longer to do some real exploring and shopping in the city. Flight back to Vietnam will be tomorrow and I will be back to work on Thursday. It’s quite a nice city and as much as I like the endless shopping opportunities here, I don’t think it warrants the expensive flight cost. So I don’t think I will be back anytime soon. At least not for now.
Nevertheless, I will miss you, Shanghai.
How does it feel if: You try to help people. But people refuses your help. And yet weeks later complained that you didn’t help?
I feel jaded and dejected today. I offer advise as best as I could, but was met with sighs, rolled eyes and unappreciative replies. I offer help as much as I can, but no one took up the offer – until it’s too late.
“Please check my work and reply me faster, it’s due tomorrow.” sent to my in-box at 10pm at night. You write up a full page of detailed reply, offering straight on advise on how to salvage the hideous and embarrassing last minute effort. Of course it’s not going to sound lovely.
And of course, I received no reply. Not even a simple “thank you”.
And then there are those that don’t listen. Rolls eyes and just plain rude when you report to them the work is…. bad. You offer advise on how to improve it further but it just met deaf ears.
“So I have to redo this?”
Hey, if you can’t take criticisms, or if you are not intending to listen or make an effort to improve yourself, then don’t seek advise. Plain and simple. Why are you wasting my time?
I try not to let my emotions get the best of me, but I am just so sad today. And there is not a single soul in this foreign land that I can talk with to share my sadness.
I wish I could take the next flight out.. and just leave. I bet no one would even notice.
I’ve always thought that bean bags are awesome. No room is worthy of being proclaimed as “cool” without the presence of a huge, colourful beanbag. It’s shapeless, it’s comfortable. You lie on one and it forms a concave around the arch of your back (and ass), transforming into the most comfortable furniture in the world. Given my firm belief on the superiority of bean bags, I finally got myself one when I visited Australia many months ago (70% off, booyah!). It costed me about 30aud. Though it’s not as huge as I hoped it would be, the fabric was thick, the size was good enough to fit a person. I couldn’t wait to sink myself into it!
Except there is one problem. It only comes with the fabric cover. No beans.
I came back to Vietnam and brought the empty beanbag with me anyway, hoping to find the foam beads when I had the time. Asked around and was told by a dear student that a shop in District 5 sells them in large 1kg bags, somewhere around Binh Tay market. Being busy that time with moving and stuff, I simply shoved the empty bean bag somewhere and forgotten about it.
Half year later (yesterday), I just recalled that my bean bag was still… beanless. I dug it out and there it was, the way I left it. Deflated. Thus I decided that today shall be the day it fulfills it’s purpose as the best-furniture-in-the-world. So off I went to District 5 to hunt for the shop that supposedly sells foam beads. Despite living here for close to 3 years now, I have never managed to overcome the fear of heavy traffic in Saigon. I mean, you could dodge potholes, the under-construction roads, the motorcycles coming from the opposite direction, ignore the taxi drivers honking at you from the back and demanding that you give way (although they are at the bike lane to begin with) or clueless pedestrians crossing the street and expecting you stop for them immediately… but I’m always a nervous wreck on the road. Having fallen off my bike before and getting swollen and bruised kneecaps (due to people’s idiocy) made me even more of a nervous wreck than I already was. The streets in District 5 somehow has always gave me the impression of being more crowded and chaotic than the other places I have been (District 1 and District 7 only), so I avoided riding there at all costs.
But I don’t know what was with me today. I grabbed my trusted Ho Chi Minh city map and ventured off to unknown territory. The last time I attempted something like this was when I wanted to look for a pet shop that sells guinea pigs a month ago. I took a map too, but I ended up so off-course that I was in some unknown district, across the Saigon river, heading towards Dalat and Hanoi. It was so far that the location I was at was not even printed in my Ho Chi Minh city map. It took me 2 hours of frantically circling around to find my way back. I figured today’s adventure wouldn’t be as catastrophic as my last, since District 5 is just bordering District 1, which I am already quite familiar with.
Traffic in District 5 was intimidating as always, but the sights were rather interesting along the way. District 5 is considered as China Town in Ho Chi Minh city, so as you enter within the area you will begin seeing shops with signage in Vietnamese and Chinese. Many chinese-vietnamese live here and speaks mandarin/cantonese (sometimes even better than me…). There were shops selling opera costumes, lionheads, wedding decorations, etc. One row of shops seem to be selling nothing but scissors and knives, along with knife/scissors sharpening services. The locals all seemed to be busy going about their daily businesses. Shirtless men swaying in and out within traffic, stacks of foams/boxes tied tautly behind their bikes. A delivery boy was riding steadily at the cross-junction using one hand, while the holding a tray (and 3 plates of food!!!) with the other. A long and narrow alley was cramped with little shops that were selling countless variety of fabrics, with women busily feeling the textures while haggling with the shopkeepers. It all seemed like a different place and it probably would be cool to be able to experience all this by foot someday when I have the time. Today’s mission was to look for beans.
I circled along the roads near Binh Tay market. While there were many shops selling hardwares, wheels (for wheelbarrows), artificial plants, lazy chairs, etc., I am not sure what kind of shop I was supposed to be looking for. Definitely not a beanbag shop. I recall my student telling me it’s one of those shops that sells Styrofoam boxes, but I couldn’t find any. I’ve probably missed it because while looking for the shop I was also keeping an eye on the road and hoping not to hit anyone coming from the wrong direction. It was about 30 minutes of circling around and the traffic is beginning to scare me a little, so I decided today’s mission was a failure and I shall head home with shame and just fill my beanbag with… cotton??? I stopped and took out my map to figure out where the heck I was. When I looked up at the shop’s signage (to find the street address), I saw it.
A huge bag, filled to the brim with little white beads. Can this be it? I walked over for a closer look. It is! Each bag is 1kg and costs 60,000d. Damn cheap. So I bought 2kg. The shop lady hastily tied couple of strings at the back of my bike and pointed me the direction to head back to District 1. 60 seconds after I left, the bags were almost falling off my bike as they were poorly secured onto my bike due to the lady’s half arsed effort just now. Had to stop and tie them taut.
After more circling around, I managed to find my way home. Excitedly cut those bags open and began pouring them into my bean bag cover. Maybe I was too hasty, or too excited, or I simply needed a funnel to do the job – the beans spilled EVERYWHERE in my living room as I was filling the bag and those little bastards were rolling off around my house in all directions. Sweeping them was such a pain as they were so light that they flew everywhere as I moved my broom. And I don’t have a vacuum. It looked like my house was decorated for Christmas with “fake snow”. ARGGHHH.
The aftermath.
So after 2 hours of sweating (had to turn off the air conditioning because beads were flying EVERYWHERE), filling and sweeping, I now have the best-furniture-in-the-world. 2 kgs of beans was perfect and it is oh-so comfortable to be lying there using my laptop, watching tv. I am never gonna leave this bag. In fact I think I shall sleep on it……. 
I love you, bean bag.
I can’t remember when was the last time I didn’t have a Tuesday to Saturday work schedule. So I never had the luxury of saying “It’s Friday night baby!!!!” or “Let’s hang out on Saturday morning and party all day!!!” (ok maybe this one is a little far fetched). Could this consistent arrangement possibly be because I am single, have no social life and am not worthy of having my Saturdays off like others?
Work today was ok. It’s a repeat of what I have already taught yesterday and the day before, so it’s all good. The work day just breezed by unusually fast. Usually on a day like this I would head home, crack open a Budweiser, surf the net and end my day tucked in my bed, running a Desperates Housewives marathon on my iMac (positioned by the window sill and rotated to the optimum angle so I could watch and comfortably doze off as necessary). Today was different. I made a pact few days ago with 2 colleagues that we would visit a restaurant after work on Saturday and grab some beer. I said “grab some beer” but realistically I was only planning to have at most a bottle. Being a light drinker, I wasn’t really keen with the idea of turning pink and swaying zig zag on my scooter in Saigon traffic at night.
So off we went – 2 guys and 1 girl – to this hotel at Phu My Hung. The very same hotel which I resided for a week when I first arrived to Vietnam almost 3 years ago. It’s a small establishment, just one of those thin and tall buildings (about 4 stories) that you would typically find in Vietnam. There’s a small restaurant/bar/cafe downstairs. Everything looked exactly the same as it was 3 years ago and being back here again sure brings back memories. I remember about all the uncertainty and nervousness when I first arrived. Surfing the internet in the lobby every night to download course notes. Having breakfast at the hotel restaurant before heading off to work every morning. We got seated at the small but cozy restaurant and got right down to business – ordering the booze. We had a round of Saigon beer. It was my first and last round as I was already turning pink and a little tipsy at the end of the bottle (PATHETIC!). Upon ordering the 2nd round, a waitress came over to inform us that they were out of Saigon beer and recommended Tiger beer instead. Of course, I believe this is all just a lame scheme to get us to order the more expensive alternative. It’s very typical in Vietnam so don’t blame me for being skeptical. 3rd round’s order – they were still saying that they were out of Saigon beer. After insisting on it couple of times more, a waitress finally duly served Saigon beer to the guys.
It was fun. Drinking, chatting away while having some delicious finger food. Despite the constant playing of 80s and 90s love tunes (think Bryan Adams, Celine Dione..), the lighting was good, location was quiet and the ambiance was great. After couple of hours, we decided that it’s time to lay off the booze.
Let’s go for Kentucky Fried Chicken instead.
So off we went. In less than 5 minutes, we were switched from this cozy, quiet hotel restaurant environment to a brightly lit, noisy, colourful good ol’ KFC around the neighbourhood. It was also halloween night, so there were kids wearing costumes there… probably heading to a party nearby. Our junk food cravings satisfied, we bade goodbyes.
Going out isn’t so bad after all, maybe I should make more effort to hang out a little more.
PS: I think the night out just now must have costed me like 10,000 calories….
I can’t remember when was the last time Facebook was banned here. There were lots of hoo-hah when Facebook started mysteriously failing on everyone’s network (with no one admitting being responsible, of course). Then there’s also the whole debate on internet censorship and worries on future banning of other sites like Twitter, Youtube, etc. But as time progresses things sort of quieten down and Facebook is still commonly used here anyway. (On an unrelated note, I wear a T-shirt that says “Find me on Facebook” and enjoy the irony from time to time…).
Today’s entry is not about Facebook in Vietnam though. It’s about friends in Facebook. I try to add only people I know as friends. Colleagues/ex-colleagues, classmates, friends and most of the time, students. It is probably not a good idea to be sharing my somewhat bland personal life with students, but whenever someone sends in a request I have the sense of obligation of adding the person as long as I personally knew the individual, most of the time out of politeness. I equate this with a scenario where one extends her hand for a handshake and I am obliged to extend mine to complete the gesture. Maybe it’s silly to take matters on the internet so seriously but that’s just me.
I was browsing Facebook last week (my social life in the real world is NIL…) and saw a picture in my “Top News” feed. It was a club poster designed by students, no biggie. But what attracted my attention was seeing my name appear in the comments section. Someone was commenting that poster was poorly designed and one should be meticulous in the entire process of design, in which another person replied that he sounded like me (and I would agree. I do repeatedly tell people that one should always strive for perfection in every piece of design work and NOT be sloppy). Someone then replied:
“Look here, look here. Hey! Are you ok motherfucker?”
If you didn’t get this, the words “look here” and “are you ok” are phrases I use a million times in every class. To the point of annoyance. It’s a habit I am trying to kick but it has been difficult. The words “look here” are used when I need to get people’s attention during tutorials, especially the ones too busy trying to impress themselves (look, I know how to use Photoshop filters!). The words “are you ok” when you have the quiet ones struggling with the software but are too proud/shy to ask. It’s all with good intention really. I don’t want to annoy anyone. I really just want to make sure they learn.
But what bothers me the most was the “motherfucker” word added at the end of the sentence. If you know me I do not use vulgarity in my daily conversations. The last thing I would ever do is to utter the word motherfucker to anyone, let alone my students. I am offended and hurt that someone has mocked me – at the expense of my integrity. I don’t use profanity when I talk. The comment sure made me look bad to other students who could have read it. I totally understand the need for mocking your teacher. I mean, I sometimes did it when I was a student. But at least use some intelligence in doing it. Not on a social media site like Facebook where everyone can read it. Especially if you’ve added the said teacher.
Now I have to think twice when adding a person on Facebook. Especially a student. I spent the day removing some of my Facebook friends that I didn’t know. Hopefully I’ll be able to filter out the ones that added me to make a joke out of me.
And to the person who wrote the comment: Just so I wouldn’t see your “tasteful” jokes in future, I have un-friended you. Are you ok motherfucker 
?
Yet another new blog to chronicle the all the great adventures (and misadventures) in Vietnam. Will have to settle with a WordPress standard theme for now. Too preoccupied with life outside the internet.
Yes, I DO have a life outside the internet. And yes I should be out a little more 
