frutti.gummi

1. Passport
2. Air/train/ship tickets
3. Cash in local currencies
4. Credit card
5. Insurance card
6. Camera + Charger
7. iPod + Charger
8. Phone with local sim card (if I have) + Charger
9. Book
10. Umbrella/Water-proof shoes if weather forecast says it might rain
11. Cap/Hat/Sunnies when I'm going to sunny places
12. Travel card e.g. Oyster in London (if I have)
13. Maps/Guidebook
14. Clothes
15. Toiletries

Hope I don't miss anything.

Having spent the last few years living in non English-speaking countries, I've pretty much got used to seeing words and hearing conversations that I don't understand. Although I don't understand the words, I still could read them because they consist of Roman alphabets. So when I was deciding whether to go to Shanghai, I was a little apprehensive because it's more challenging. More challenging in the sense that I can't read Chinese script, in addition to not speaking much Mandarin. Then I  thought it shouldn't be that bad since it's Shanghai where lots of expats live so people there should understand some English.

Having convinced myself that I'll somehow survive, I decided to volunteer in Shanghai for a month at the end of last year. Overall, it was a rather unique experience and I shall expound on that in another post. Coming back to the language challenge, there is another element which I did not take into account. Because I look Chinese, people expects me to speak the language and it takes them a while to realize that I actually don't speak their language and they get confused and don't know where to place me. And this in turn makes me feel like I don't fit here nor there, and sometimes like an outcast. I could sense that they are uncomfortable talking to me but I don't blame them because it is out of their normal experiences. 

I did manage to go about town on my own because the street signs and subway have English words that I can match with my map. However, the English words are not useful for asking the locals where a certain street or place is located because the words have no pinyin intonation. Chinese words can have totally different meaning in different tones and some streets have similar sounding names. So it's possible they point you to a different place! Furthermore, some of the name of the landmarks are in English and not a translation from Chinese, e.g. The Bund, People's Square, and Oriental Pearl Tower. It took me a while to know the respective Chinese names because when my co-workers asked me if I've visited any place, they said the name in Chinese and they don't know the English name. Eventually I managed to match the two together. Hahaha. Besides street signs, the ticket machines for the subway and train stations have English version. So if you can read a map well, you shouldn't have any problem getting around Shanghai.


Besides fast-food and upscale restaurants, most of the restaurants and food stalls do not have English menu and the staff don't speak much English, if at all.  As a result, I had limited choices when I'm on my own. There is a small restaurant around the corner from my aunt's apartment and we order food from there once in a while. I memorized the name of the few dishes I like from the menu so that I could order them when my aunt is not around.  Otherwise, I could still cook instant noodles. Hahahaha.

After spending a month in China, I'm now more comfortable speaking Mandarin, not that my Mandarin improved much though.

Back from vacation. Some things to note...

Check if travel dates fall on a holiday so that I can get home with public transport. There is no bus after 9pm on holidays. August 15th is a religious holiday for most countries in Europe.

Allocate at least one extra day when there are friends living in the area to spend some time with them according to their busy schedule.

Knowledge of another foreign language is useful when people do not speak English. Our German lessons came in handy for directions. And luckily Menar can speak some Turkish when we got Rambi to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance. We were surprised the paramedics don't speak English.

Beach clubs have private beaches and rent umbrella and deck chairs. Very nice and comfortable outdoor setting. They sell some simple food and drinks. Not exactly the place to go if you're looking for a shady spot as the umbrellas don't provide that much cover. My friend with fair skin still got slightly burned after 4 hours staying inside the umbrella.

Ohh... I've spent so much money in the past month. I knew I bought various stuff but the total amount only hit me when I checked my statement. Bits here and there really adds up. And it's not so noticable when the transaction is non cash. I've bought quite a few flight and train tickets. These add up to a significant amount but at least I earn miles with my flights. Also bought some books from Amazon. And there are still more books that I wanna get. The one week vacation had cost on average 100€ a day with 40% on transportation, 25% on accomodation and the rest mostly on food, some admission fees and etc. I'm not sure if it's expensive but it does make it an enjoyable vacation :D

The night train from Vienna to Verona was the most uncomfortable of all train rides I ever had. Even worse is that we had to be on it for about 12 hours! It was so different from the German night train that I took last time. If I knew it was an Italien operated train, I would not have booked the train. We should've just taken a flight. When we board the train at about 19:30, it was extremely hot and stuffy. There was no AC. We complained it was too hot and the conductor just rolled down the windows for us and said it'll be cooler later when the train starts moving. We went to check on the other cars and they were nice and cool. We wanted to move to the other car but the conductor said we're not allowed to do so. We can only stay in the compartment that we have booked. Sigh! I guess we're really unlucky to have been assigned to this lousy car. It got a bit cooler (from the wind) when the train starts moving. Then the conductor came and asked us to shut the window and said that the AC is now functioning. Well, after we shut the window, the AC was still not cool. Anyway, we got to enjoy the amazing mountain view only for a while as it started to rain and the sun was already setting. Then, we went to bed early but couldn't get much sleep.

Schmap Guides is an interactive travel guide where map and guide content are dynamically connected. It gives a nice virtual tour of a place as you go along the streets on the map and see slideshow of photos. It's quite a handy tool for planning trips. Anyway, one of my London New Year's Parade photo was selected to be included in the Schmap London Third Edition guide. They've made "schmapplets" of some sections of the London Guide and I thought I'd post one of them here.

The night train from Bonn to Milan was quite a nice experience. They even served breakfast! Arrived in Milan central station at almost 8am and headed to the tickets counter to buy a ticket to Trento. I was told that there would be a strike that day and trains would not be runnning. Even if I leave with the next train, I might still be stuck in Verona. The girl at the counter asked me to return later in the afternoon to get the latest update. So I decided to walk around the city and checked my luggages into the luggage deposit. Bought a day transport ticket for 3€ and went around the city. It's such a shopping heaven! Anyway, I went back to the train station at 2pm and was told that the next train leaving for Verona would be at 4:30pm. I insisted to buy the ticket anyway coz I didn't want to queue when the train starts to run again as it would be a very very long queue. Plus I know tickets for regional trains are valid for about a month so even if I ended up staying over in Milan, I could still use it the next day.

I went back to the city to continue sightseeing, mostly window shopping as no luggage space and returned to the train staton at 4pm. I checked my luggages out and found a spot to sit and stare at the information board. The board finally updated the platform number for my train and I quickly rushed to get my ticket validated and get on the train. There were already dozens of people on the train. I managed to get my luggages into the luggage compartment and an old gentleman was already sitting there. I stood next to my luggages and more and more people boarded the train. Since it was the first train out to Verona, the whole train was packed. We barely have space to stand and people were standing inside the toilet in the next compartment. When the train finally moved, everyone felt relief. After an hour, the train became less packed and after 2 hours, I finally got to sit but I started to worry that I might be on the wrong train since it shouldn't take so long to get to Verona. Another half an hour went by and I started to see familiar landscapes and I confirmed with a fellow passenger that we were finally in Verona. Got off the train to board the next train to Trento. This time the train was already there and there were plenty of seats. While waiting for the bus home in Trento, I met my friends who also got stuck in Milan. They reminded about strikes on Fridays. Oh, now I'll definately remember to keep that in mind. Well, I finally got home at around 10pm.

My flight from Paris was supposed to depart at 8:40am. There was a long line going through security and I was quite nervous that I might miss the plane. It was 8:45am after I cleared security but still the screen did not display the gate number for the flight yet. About 10 minutes later, there was an announcement in French and German calling passengers of my flight to a certain gate. Then another announcement was made and we were told that the flight was cancelled and we had the option to take the next flight to either Stuttgart or Düsseldorf. Not much information were given out and also lack of coordination between airline crew. When I asked when's the next available flight out to Cologne/Bonn, I was told 4:30pm. So they expect people to wait from 10:30am to 4:30pm in the airport! What if that flight is also not coming? I didn't want to take the chances and I knew there's a train leaving at noon so I went to train station in the next terminal to ask if there are still seats available. By the time I went back to retrieve my checked-in luggage and headed to the counter to purchase the ticket, the express counter was closed. I had to wait in line in the normal queue and I missed the noon train. Luckily, there's another train in an hour and I took that and finally got back to Bonn at about 5pm. The bank was still open and I managed to get my banking matters done. Headed back to my old dorm to my friend's room and started packing my stuff into the luggages. By the time I finished, it was time to leave for the train station again. I didn't have the time to do Asian grocery shopping as planned. Still, managed to grab nuggets from the McD nearby the train station for dinner. :)

The day started with taking the 9:34 am bus to the train station. We forgot to press the bell for the stop but luckily we could still make it on time to take the train from town at 11:05. It's a direct train to Venice. When we arrived in Venice at 14:30, we decided to have some lunch first before heading to the airport. We arrived at the check-in counter at 16:00 and we saw the board showed the expected time at 19:30. Our flight was supposed to depart at 18:10. At first my friend thought it's the time of arrival, which is correct. I was the first to check-in and I asked what the expected time means? The lady said that that's the time the flight is expected to depart. So I said "There is a delay then" and I got a typical Italian reply. "Maybe. We're not sure yet. Could still depart on time" Just great! So we had to hang around the airport instead of walking around Venice town. When it was close to 18:00, there was no call for boarding and no change on the board so we knew for sure the flight was delayed. We continued to wait and 19:30 passed and still no plane in sight. 5 minutes later, there was an announcement and the expected time on the board was updated to 20:30.

The expected time had been updated several times between 20:30 and 23:00 when they announced that the passengers could get refreshments from a cafe. Earlier we heard that the airport in Paris will be closed when we arrive so the flight crew may decide not to fly. Well, they started boarding at 23:30 and told us that the arrival airport will be changed to CDG (north) instead of Orly (south) and a shuttle bus will be provided to take us to Orly. With the airport and subway closed, we were concerned with how/what we are going to do. After all the passengers have boarded the plane, the captain made an announcement explaining the delay and the expected departure time will be 00:30 and arrival in Paris at 02:00. Since the airports are way outside of the city center and taxi fare will be very very expensive, we also asked the stewardess if the shuttle bus can make a stop in the city center. They told us that the company had chatered the bus to Orly only and we have to ask the bus driver ourselves. Sigh! Finally at 00:45, our flight took off.

We arrived in Paris past 2am and found out that there were two busses. One to Orly and one to the city center. We took the bus to the city center. There were night busses running and a couple of us took the bus to head to their hotel. The others didn't have anywhere to go since their hostel check-in was already closed. I only had subway directions to my hotel so I hung around with the rest walking along the almost empty Champs Elysees in the direction of the Eifel Tower. The tower is no longer lit but still barely visible. Past the tower, we decided to walk to the hostel but we kinda got lost with no proper map with us. It was nearly 5am so we decided to go to the nearest underground station. We spent some time in the station deciding what type of tickets to get which will be the cheapest. The guy at the counter was very helpful indeed. I finally got the hotel at 6am and the check-in counter was open and they speak English. :) Got to my room, showered, rest a bit then head out to explore Paris.

I think I spent more than 6 hours on the train today. First it was 2+ hours ride from Bonn to Frankurt. I went to collect my Italy visa. The guy was late so I had to take a later train back. Since I still had some time till the next train, I went back to the japanese store I saw last time. It's not a fancy store though. More like one of those ugly chinese stores in chinatown staffed with japanese. And they make fresh sushi there so I bought some to eat in the train. They are really delicious, especially the salmon. The texture is like the fatty tuna. Yummy! It's so good to have sushi again after four long months. Anyway, the train from Frankfurt departed 10 minutes late due to some technical problems. It kinda managed to catch up to the scheduled time when it reached Bonn so I didn't get off. I thought I could still manage to catch the train to Aachen in Cologne. But from Bonn to Cologne, the train stopped in the middle for some time. So by the time I get to Cologne, I missed the train. Then, I thought I might still make it to the german exam on time if I catch the next train. I waited for a while until it was announced that that train would be about 5 minutes late. I will definately be late then so I decided not to go. I got on to the next train back to Bonn. The train only left the station 20 minutes later than the scheduled time. Seemed like there was some problems with the tracks. Again, the train stopped half way, this time a lot longer. I wasted about one and a half hour betwen Colgone and Bonn.

About the exam, I just wanted to see how the exam is like and what is the level. I know the chance for me to pass is very slim because I didn't have enough hours yet and I also didn't put much effort on my own either. But since we get 3 chances, why not try it?