Buddha

Traffic jams in Shanghai are the best place to write my blogs, he h eh he. It is really nasty here and the reason is that they are layin some pipes for god knows what an the 3 lanes is raod is now 2 lanes. Friday night was horrible as there was a release and I was not prepared mentally to stay back for it…..:-(. Saturday morning I went to play football with my office friends, this time there were a lot of people and the size of the ground was not sufficient to hold us. We were I guess 8 a side and it looked like playing football in a crowded street. It was fun though. Some skin from my foot got chipped off and the clot in my toe nails is not yet gone. Thanks to the shoes that I am wearing it. Then went back home and had a nice lunch which Rags had prepared. Later I had a small nap before we went out. I wanted or rather desperately wanted to go to the Jaded Buddha Temple, but these guys are too old to travel. So we were just there near the river side and walking. We did some enquiry about mp3 players to buy It for others back at home. We walked and walked and walked. On the footpath there were some native Chinese who were selling some jade jewelery and something really caught my eyes. It was like the claw of a tiger in stone and had some carvings on it. When I decide to buy all the other guys selling the same were behind me to but this and that. One guys even came along with me some distance to sell his stuff to me. He was hell bound to sell it to me and I was not to but it ;-). All the guys in the street were looking at us as to what the hell is happening here. As we walked on there was a guy on the street who was making animals from grass. He was rather weaving it. It was really impressive and very intricate. I could not resist myself buying a dragon. It is really beautiful. And as we walked along there was a pile of live small lobsters and some freshly cooked ones was sold. It was a sight to see smell to relish. I was afraid of tasting it as my tummy had already showed signs of churning out some exclusive dishes before I left the hotel. So we continued our walking. And then a time came when I felt that my leg muscles are stiffing. Phew that pain had come after a really long time. And now we had to decide about the food. I was promoting Chinese veg to these guys but they were not ready to buy that from me and finally we landed up eating in Nepali. The sleep that night was awesome except for a dream that literally shook me off the bed in the wee hours.
On Sunday I was glad that I was going to the Jaded Buddha Temple. History has it that the jaded statues of the Buddha two in numbers were brought by a Buddhist monk from Burma. The Chinese visit to this temple the way people visit Tirupathi. I took a bus and then the metro and then a taxi to the temple. I thought that the temple is far away from the metro but it was not. It is in a narrow street. And when I reached there I saw a huge gathering in front of the ticket counter, and these guys were old Chinese guys, I guess from a village. They made a havoc there to get their tickets and the foreigners who had come there were really wondering what to do, some of them felt great to take a picture of the scene. Finally the crowd disappeared and all of us got a chance to buy the ticket in a disciplined way. As soon as you enter the temple, you will see some smoke from the burning fire and the insect sticks that the people were offering to the Buddha. It was a calm environment with a soulful hum from the monks there. There are many statues in the temple. There was a sleeping Buddha also. The main temple has three big statues of Buddha of may be around two floors high. You really need to look up to these statues. And all over this statue there are other figures some which are the guards of the lord. They were also very huge. All the statues are in golden colour. There is a vegetarian restaurant in the temple which is run by the monks and serve veg food. I had my lunch there . There was another statue of Buddha which was white in colour at the top and as you move down the colour changes to grey. It was very beautiful and you are not allowed to take pictures here. This place was segregated from the entire temple area, it was exclusive club privileges. The roof of the temple had the carvings of miniature Buddha and they were many of them In the backyard there was a pond with fishes. The colour of the fishes was white and orange and there were many of them in all shapes and sizes. There was also different colours of lotus floating on the water. But these were not growing there, it was left by the people who visit the temple. So after this I was done in the temple and walked back to the metro station.
The metro was about 2 Km from the temple. From there I went to a place called Qi Pu road. This road is like going to Alankar Plaza. This street has clothes and clothes and only clothes. Sadly I could see clothes only for girls. Hardly anything for the boys. I was in no mood to check the place in and out for clothes. So decided to go back to the electronic market to enquire about something. I took a BIKE TAXI to go to the metro. Yeah a bike which is a taxi. This guy was telling me I will drop you on my bike come come……and I was excited about the idea. I cannot resist a bike ride so took it and for 10 bucks he dropped me to the metro. The ride though small was good enough. By the time I reached home I was half dead. Had dinner and slept like a log. There was a visitor from the US and we decide to take him out to see downtown shanghai. The day we left for sigh seeing after office was raining all the day and it was pretty cold. We went near the bund and damn it was so cold so cold that my hands froze. I could feel the numbness even the next day. To add to the cold weather there was no taxi available for us so we were waiting for a long time in the rain to catch a taxi.

Traffic Signal

Guess what I am writing this siting in a traffic jam on my way to office he h eh ehe. Well this weekend Iagain went to Malones. I don’t know why but I am loving that place. Great live music, nice crowd and not to mention the beer;-). We were there in Malones till 2 in the night. We were completely carried on by the music. These guys played a very popular Punjabi number. When he did so, my friend I danced like hell. Not to mention that my friend took the entire show light. IT was fun to dance for a Punjabi number in Shanghai. Then they started palyin some rock number from U2, Metallica and GnR. What else do you need to finish the night with. There were two British couples who were very impressed with my friends enthu that they got him beer and started dancing with him. They were all ga ga ga about him and India. Good for us. From there we went to Judy’s. The crowd there was usual. I got to know that Judy’s Too was closed down and reopened in a different place. So I guess I could find all the Judy’s Too girls here. We ate some Pizza’s here as both of us were hungry. Oh yeah forgot about Hot Pot, where we had our dinner. This place is on Loushan Lu. The idea is nice to eat, you order what all you want and they bring a pot filled with two different kinds of soup and pour all that in those compartments and start boiling. So you get to eat hot boiling food from a Hot Pot. IT was nice spicy Chinese food that we had along with some Pejo. The waitress who attended us was very sweet and she gave a personal touch serving us and making us eat almost everything that we ordered. After that only we went to Malone’s.
Well I got a Philips DVD player to do some time pass, but now it has become our entertainment box. We are totally three in numbers now from India. Over the weekend we watched five movies. Piracy zindabad!!! We are cooking now in the hotel as one of them is a Veggie. Atleast one time in a day we land up cooking in the hotel. After lunch on Sunday we went to Nanjing Lu. Took a long walk the entire Nanjing Lu and came to Bund Area. It was day light and the weather was really good, just perfect. We went to the Bund Sight Seeing Tunnel. These guys have built a tunnel for crossing the river and inside they have made it a tourist attraction. You need to pay 35 RMB for the ride. I was just impressed by the way they had put this show and the ride. The capsules in which you travel is a beautiful engineering example. There are twol lines ferrying people from either side of the river and we were wondering how the Capsules changed directions at the ends of the line. They would just rotate the capsule and the base and put it on the other lines. It was a neat work. The tunnel is brightly lit with different kinds of light and variation giving a feeling of cosmic travel or time travel. Something different and pleasing. Then we had our dinner …Pizza in Pizza hut. The Pizza here was really good. Better that what you get in India. Now I wonder if these guys really cooked well back home. After that we came back to the Bund area to see the bright lighting which has always awed me. After spending some cold time there we headed back to Carefour got some beer and ration and back in the room to watch Déjà vuuuuuu….!!!

Shanghaied

Alright I am gonna have tough time writing the stuff for two weeks flat. The interesting thing about being in Shanghai is weekend starts exactly on Friday night and boy o boy…phew. Last Friday and this Friday we were at Malone’s. Once with my colleague from India and this week with my Chinese friends. Both the times we enjoyed the live band music and the atmosphere of the bar. From there we went to another pub called Baby Face. Now you may think naam mein kya rakha hai….man if Malone’s is flock of Americans and Europeans, Baby Face is a sea of Chinese. Man the place is fully jam packed. You have to pay 60 RMB to get an entry. And as you enter for sure u gonna rock. The music is awesome hip-hop and they keep belting awesome songs thanks to the Dj. We were there for about 3 hrs and I was sweating it out. There is no place to just free yourself. You have to literally push people and go any where in this place. It was like traveling in a BMTC bus back home. It was great fun till 2 in the morning. I was exhausted by the time I came out of the place. Oh yeah two consecutive weeks we have been playing football. And that 2hrs flat. Boy the first week I was bowled out. After the game my whole leg was frozen with movement inhibited. It took me two days to get it free. This week was fine no issues. Had a nice time. These guys play a nice game. It is really fun. The best part in the game is that after 5 goals the team who scores gets the other team members to do 5 push-ups for every goal from there on. It was fun to watch the opponent team to do pus-up’s for hmmm…..(I am counting)….We had to do it thrice. On Sunday I went to the Science and Technology Museum. This place is huge very huge, three floors of exhibition in two separate buildings. The exhibits are on a wide range of subjects, science, human life and evolution, space, IT, animals and more. They have put a very impressive and interactive museum. People come here more for fun than for knowledge. The exhibits are really nice, you know you can go and play games and see videos which are 3D in the midst of artificial factories, play foot ball and boxing and get o know something. The best thing that I liked in the Museum is the 3d and 4D movie that I saw in the I Max theater. The 3d movie that I saw was about helicopters. IT was about how they work and their roles in day to day life. It was nice except for the language it was in Chinese. Then was the 4 D movie, I was wondering what as the 4th dimension. Guess what it was the feel of the movie. The movie was about Lego Racing, in which a driver goes about driving his car in a race and there are crashes and falls in the race. These things are what you get to feel. The crashes make your seat to go down and when you bump into somebody it vibrates. When driving in snow they put up the foam and when somebody drives ahead of you in the snow water is sprayed on your face. Wow it was fun. After that I was exhausted and crashed back in the hotel.
On Wednesday we went to a Korean restaurant, the Chinese call it Barbeque (BBQ). This DIY (Do it Yourself) restaurant. Meaning to say all the ingredients are got to you and a stove in the middle of the table is used for cooking. You have to cook it. It was fun, my colleague was doing most of the cooking and I was enjoying the meal. What all did we have, sheep, chicken, octopus, some Korean rice dish and veggies and not to mention Pejo. It was a great dinner. I especially like the chicken and octopus. I guess it was the way it was cooked. Ah I am having a nice time eating nice food and now I need to get ready to go the Museum and Peoples Park.
The Shanghai museum is a huge place housing the Chinese history and art. It is really good. I like the way these guys have preserved their art and artifacts. The preservation is really good. They have so many things to display spread out in 4 floors. Phew it took me 4 hrs to see them till they actually threw us all out. The museum closes at 5 PM. The museum has bonze sculptures, stone sculptures, calligraphy, Chinese pottery, Chinese currency, Chinese painting and some miscellaneous stuff. I was literally lost in the sculptures, painting, carvings and pottery. Mind blowing images and intricate art. It was some sight to see and feel. Hats off to their collection. I was too tired to go to Nanjing road to have a stroll.