home sweet home...bah
First off: I am SO sad that my holiday is over, especially after the week in Shanghai. I am so in holiday mode and I cannot believe I have to go back to work on monday. It just doesn't seem right.
Second off: I spent $1300 in HongKong (amogh: I can't even conceive of enough things to buy with that amount!) and approx 3500 yuan in Shanghai (thankfully most of it was relatives' angpaos), so I am really broke. Plus I forgot to give in my claim form before I left for HongKong, so I'm not gonna be seeing any money until the end of June from SPH. eeks.
My holidays were weirdly polarised. I love HongKong - the place. At first I was put off by the sheer amount of people, the bustly-hustle, the noise. But then I saw Shanghai, and realised really what was TOO much people, what was modernity without character, and came to appreciate the dustless and spit-less Singapore.
HongKong was really fun in the sense that there was always something more to explore... I think I had the most fun when I was alone that day - trying to navigate the thousands of MTR exits, speed-shopping with a vengeance, having that egg-pancake thing and dongnaicha from little roadside stalls, and just enjoying the ugliness of HongKong - single tall buildings crusted with dirt and adorned with laundry next to posh hotel-esque condominium blocks; the people - who at least say "sorry ah" when they bump into you on the train, and whose fasion sense is alien to mine, but at least not cringeworthy
There's a certain liberation in being faceless and totally alone in a huge city. Although it crossed my mind that I could have died there and then and no one would have noticed, it just felt good feeling totally lost and alien, feeling that I could turn the corner and end up in a totally different universe, that I would not run into anyone I didn't want to see, that all my troubles were farrrrr awaaaaaay..
Shanghai-wise, as my sister observed, the city really did develop faster than the people. Really primitive manners, frightening lack of social grace...and just uncouth and unpleasant.
In Shanghai I really wasn't that interested in sightseeing. She tried once to bring me to some ancient town, but someone pushed me, someone stepped on me, someone spat on me, and NO ONE said sorry. And so I was like - I'm outta here. haha
On that last night while I was having dinner with my sister's NTU friends at that cool si chuan ma la place, they asked me what sights of Shanghai I had seen, and were horrified to find that the answer was not much at all, that we had spent our time at buffets and getting manicures, and shopping.
But I couldn't explain to them that it had been an awesome 4 days. That I had so much fun just hanging out with my sister - going for facials, visiting relatives, on the night cruise around Shanghai Tan, shopping, and watching DVDs. We would meander down a certain street - ok I know the name ok: nanjing lu. I'm not TOTALLY useless - chatting, laughing.
Everytime someone asked if we were sisters - that singaporean couple at Golden Jaguar, the pedicurist, the pirated DVD seller - I felt kind of weirdly proud that they knew the answer before we replied, that somehow it felt like a relief that I resembled another person so detailedly, and the relief was that it was my sister that I resembled.
And when that singaporean lady at golden jaguar said "so lucky" after we affirmed her "sisters?" question, I knew she didn't mean just having someone to grow up with (although I did put forth the "only child" theory only to be shot down), but because she could tell we were sisters and friends..the best kind to be.
Of course she was pissed when I got the toilet wet; I was pissed when she wouldn't let me spend money as cavalierly as I wanted to - but the disagreements felt like water off a duck's back, it felt like things we've been arguing about since we could talk, and would be arguing about until we died. It felt inconsequential and unimportant, that is. It was the best holiday because I had the best company.
I am lucky..it took this trip to remind me just how.
Second off: I spent $1300 in HongKong (amogh: I can't even conceive of enough things to buy with that amount!) and approx 3500 yuan in Shanghai (thankfully most of it was relatives' angpaos), so I am really broke. Plus I forgot to give in my claim form before I left for HongKong, so I'm not gonna be seeing any money until the end of June from SPH. eeks.
My holidays were weirdly polarised. I love HongKong - the place. At first I was put off by the sheer amount of people, the bustly-hustle, the noise. But then I saw Shanghai, and realised really what was TOO much people, what was modernity without character, and came to appreciate the dustless and spit-less Singapore.
HongKong was really fun in the sense that there was always something more to explore... I think I had the most fun when I was alone that day - trying to navigate the thousands of MTR exits, speed-shopping with a vengeance, having that egg-pancake thing and dongnaicha from little roadside stalls, and just enjoying the ugliness of HongKong - single tall buildings crusted with dirt and adorned with laundry next to posh hotel-esque condominium blocks; the people - who at least say "sorry ah" when they bump into you on the train, and whose fasion sense is alien to mine, but at least not cringeworthy
There's a certain liberation in being faceless and totally alone in a huge city. Although it crossed my mind that I could have died there and then and no one would have noticed, it just felt good feeling totally lost and alien, feeling that I could turn the corner and end up in a totally different universe, that I would not run into anyone I didn't want to see, that all my troubles were farrrrr awaaaaaay..
Shanghai-wise, as my sister observed, the city really did develop faster than the people. Really primitive manners, frightening lack of social grace...and just uncouth and unpleasant.
In Shanghai I really wasn't that interested in sightseeing. She tried once to bring me to some ancient town, but someone pushed me, someone stepped on me, someone spat on me, and NO ONE said sorry. And so I was like - I'm outta here. haha
On that last night while I was having dinner with my sister's NTU friends at that cool si chuan ma la place, they asked me what sights of Shanghai I had seen, and were horrified to find that the answer was not much at all, that we had spent our time at buffets and getting manicures, and shopping.
But I couldn't explain to them that it had been an awesome 4 days. That I had so much fun just hanging out with my sister - going for facials, visiting relatives, on the night cruise around Shanghai Tan, shopping, and watching DVDs. We would meander down a certain street - ok I know the name ok: nanjing lu. I'm not TOTALLY useless - chatting, laughing.
Everytime someone asked if we were sisters - that singaporean couple at Golden Jaguar, the pedicurist, the pirated DVD seller - I felt kind of weirdly proud that they knew the answer before we replied, that somehow it felt like a relief that I resembled another person so detailedly, and the relief was that it was my sister that I resembled.
And when that singaporean lady at golden jaguar said "so lucky" after we affirmed her "sisters?" question, I knew she didn't mean just having someone to grow up with (although I did put forth the "only child" theory only to be shot down), but because she could tell we were sisters and friends..the best kind to be.
Of course she was pissed when I got the toilet wet; I was pissed when she wouldn't let me spend money as cavalierly as I wanted to - but the disagreements felt like water off a duck's back, it felt like things we've been arguing about since we could talk, and would be arguing about until we died. It felt inconsequential and unimportant, that is. It was the best holiday because I had the best company.
I am lucky..it took this trip to remind me just how.
