weird news

reading the news of today, something caught my eye for 2 reasons:
-Philippines
-'My way' karaoke

Philippines, because yesterday two friends just left on a 6 month trip towards Asia and the first stop happens to be Philippines.

"My way", because it is a Sinatra classic which i love, and also due to another version that came out in my young adolescent years sang by Sid Vicious (Sex Pistols).
The Sid Vicious video clip video happens in a theater, where he performs in front of a snobbish audience. He starts in a soft tone, and ends in a puck rock rhythm where he shoots with a pistol some of the audience.

For different reasons this happens to be the first song I ever sang in a karaoke.

The news of today are quite weird, and I feel lucky for trying karaoke in Portugal:
"Sinatra "My Way" Karaoke Killings Plague Philippines Bar Scene"
"Sinatra Song Often Strikes Deadly Chord"

Take care and have fun my friends, and whatever you do there don't do "My Way", but instead enjoy it YOUR WAY!

experiences

life is made of thin slices called experiences

to believe

"To believe that God exists is a profound conviction, but to believe that He doesn't, curiously, isn't. Someone, carrying a special measuring device, measured the dept of peoples convictions and deliberated that those of the believer are deeper than those of the atheist.
When someone says that he believes in God, he is legitimately expressing his faith; when an atheist dares to affirm that he doesn't believe, it is an assault to the conviction of those who believe. To be a believer is worth respect, to be an atheist is a crime against humanity"

"Acreditar que Deus existe é uma convicção profunda, mas acreditar que não existe, curiosamente, não o é. Alguém, munido de um aparelho próprio, mediu a profundidade das convicções e deliberou que as do crente são mais fundas que as do ateu. Quando alguém diz acreditar em Deus, está a exprimir legitimamente a sua fé; quando um ateu ousa afirmar que não acredita, está a agredir as convicções dos crentes. Ser crente é merecedor de respeito, ser ateu é um crime contra a humanidade." Ricardo Araujo Pereira/comedian.

Shanghai

Yes, Shanghai is for sure not China.
and, I doubt it is something from this world.

I went to the highest tower in China, third tallest in the world, oriental pearl tower.
It looks like a space rocket made of two giant pearls.
We went there at around sunset, to enjoy the night light, but when we finally got to the top it was already dark.

The view from up there?...astonishing.
Shanghai is a city with more than 18 million people. and its big!
One can see light from buildings as far as the view allows.
Around the tower there other giant buildings such as the shanghai world financial center, and a countless number of other skyscrapers.
It does't look real, maybe because of the magnitude of the whole thing. Its difficult to mentally conceive such a construction, thats why its easy to imagine it in miniature, like toys.

The buildings seem to be alive, because they are covered with lights that change colors or dynamic commercials.

Down there, is a town full of life. A friend said that it is like a fusion of oriental with occidental, maybe its true. Skyscrapers growing like mushrooms on top of old china markets, scooters, traffic, people selling all kinds of fruit, fake stuff, strange roasted animals, clothes, together with big banks, shopping centers, and the asymmetries go on and on.

I am impressed.

First impressions of shanghai.

I was starving. I had had only breakfast and some water during the train trip, we agreed on a recommended LP restaurant,1221.
Result: The Best meal ever!
Crispy duck, dumplings, sweet and sour pig, eggplant with ginger, fried rice with chicken and pineapple, fried noodles and mushrooms, special rice with banana plus a few other dishes, mixed Chinese tea, served in a acrobatic manner red cabernet sauvignon/merlot for 12 eurs. It was just what i needed.

From there we moved to a bars street, and went to Zapatas,
Its a club with a with big garden outside and bar with two floors inside, there is quite a lot of expats.

It was a lot of fun, most of the songs were a bit outdated, but most of the people were having a lot of fun, I had caipirinha!!

Yes, Shanghai is a city like no other, if I thought Geneva was the babel tower, where nationalities mix, i might have to reconsider my opinion.
Shanghai has for sure the same as Geneva, embedded in the asian mix.

Leaving hefei going to shanghai

The conference finished and it was time to move to Shanghai.
Since there were a lot of people from the conference leaving hefei, we had to wait in front of the hotel for a taxi. I travelled with two Italian colleagues, and since there was quite some luggage and most taxis run of gas (not petrol), meaning that most of the trunk is occupied by a gas cylinder, we had to go in two taxis to the train station. The Italians shared one, and I went alone in the other one.
Although I tried to tell my driver to follow the other taxi, the bastard did the opposite.
And there I was, in a direction that was probably not the right one, with my luggage and some of the other friends, going to a place I didn’t know how long it would take, with no references on how to meet my friends, and hoping that both taxis would arrive to the same train station (because there is more than one),
After driving through crowded hefei center for 50 minutes I arrive to the train station, that seemed to be still under construction, and arriving at the same time, the other taxi with my friends.

The entrance to the station was not clear, since there was just a big square, and some boards displaying information in Chinese.
There was a lot of people queuing to something that looked to be more like a bus terminal, but we were told that it was there the train station.
We queued, being smashed by a big crowd, we passed an x-ray machine placed on the street leading to what seem to be the terminal.
It wasn’t, that was just a pavilion where everybody going in the same train had to wait before going to the train platform.
The train was packed all the way to shanghai, we had seated seats, but there are other ways for traveling such as standing or seating on newspapers in the corridor.. The train was quite good, air-conditioned and fast, with a top speed at 260 km/h, the landscape shifted in between little lakes and farmed lands, to cities with buildings under construction,

When we arrived to shanghai it was night, and a big ocean of people traveled through tunnels until we reached the city surface. Skyscrapers, neon-lights and a city full of life.

We negotiated the taxi ride with a non-taxi driver for 5 eur, it took 1h30 to go through the rush hour traffic in the city center. The driver was fun and with a happy spirit, he made us repeat some Chinese phrases over and over. When we arrived to the hotel he asked for 10 eurs, with the excuse that it had taken a long time to get there, only because he was a fun guy we payed 7 eurs for 1h30 traffic ride and Chinese language class, ta-Buu-txi, pingwa.

Being a turist in hefei

In general, Chinese people don't look exactly like us, they have a different shape of eyes, different skin, different height, etc etc.

In the same way we are interested by their looks and culture, they do feel the same about us.
Although China has been receiving an increasing number or tourists every year, somehow we still are subject of interest.

Its common to see them looking/staring at us, sometimes giving us a big smile, waving, pointing etc. Somehow while walking around in hefei, i could feel like an exotic specie.

My experience so far makes me thing that chinese people are shy, curious, and kind.
yesterday in the center of hefei in a very busy walking street, while asking for directions, people stopped to look at us and others trying to help giving directions, at some point there was already a quite big group of people surrounding us.

In the first bar we went, the music was very loud and most of the chinese seemd to be playing drinking games. In the second one the manager at the door received us speaking english, his name was turbo kong and lead us to the bar. here also most of the people was playing the same drinking game.
He explained that the game consists in rolling a set of 5 dice, the person that has more dice with the same number wins. (the game is a bit more complicated since one can cheat and lie about the result, but if you are caught you loose).

In both bars, We were the only 'whites', the bar 'No 88' was decorated with lamps and red laser lights. most of the people was ordering strange drinks served in big jars, that all the people from the same group would share. time to time people would come and cheer with us.
The music in the bar was ok, and a few times some performers came to sing (like karaoke) to cheer up the whole crowd.
They played the best "Happy Birthday" version ever :). I had never seen so many people dancing to 'happy birthday'

It was fun.