traveling oddities

If you know me fairly well, you'd know that I talk a lot about things that I'm passionate about. If you follow this blog regularly, you'd know that i like listing miscellaneous thoughts from time to time, and on occasion, I will embark on a rant. This is a mix of both I suppose:

Apparently I have an aversion to busses. As a matter of fact, if there is a subway station that will require a bit of walking, or a bus that will take me straight to the doorstep of my destination, I will opt for the subway.

It's become shockingly apparent that the one child rule was an epic failure. After recent conversations with some ppl in the older generations, I've come to realize that the one child rule in china has bred a generation of children so spoiled that parents don't even trust their children anymore.

I hate kids. Well, let me clarify: in certain circumstances, I hate kids. They're cute when they're nice to me and smile and are polite. They tolerable when they're not polite but aren't annoying me too much. However, when I'm on a 10 hour flight that is 85% kids from a Chinese school field trip to the US, and they're sitting all around me, and a foodfight erupts, I hate kids.

China becomes less appealing to me each time I go back. I'm not sure why. There was a time when I thought I'd be perfectly content working and living in Shanghai. Now the place just gets on my nerves.

Singapore's mascot is the Merlion. Apparently the Merlion is a mythical creature. If you show up at the Singapore zoo and ask where the Merlion is kept, they will laugh at you.

The xiaolongbao's in Shanghai's YuYuan has garnered such a reputation for long lines that people are now readily willing to pay the extra $$ to go upstairs and dine in. Apparently nobody wants to wait the reputed 2+hours to get some xiaolongbao's to-go, which means the wait time has gotten surprisingly shorter. How short? I only had to wait 11 min...

The food pricing scheme in Singapore confuses me at times. I love that I can get a bowl of laksa or fish-ball noodles for $3, but a bowl of ramen set me back roughly $20.

Humid weather and I do not get along. Never have, never will. Don't get me wrong, Shanghai has been fun, and I love Singapore, but I never thought I'd long for Sacramento weather so much.

Stingray's pretty tasty.

The maglev train has gotten slower. I guess the HSR accident scared officials, and so now the train goes at a top-speed of 301km/hr (it used to go 470km/hr). Sad to see that instead of learning from accidents and implementing safety improvements, they just curb technological achievements and leave it at that. At this rate, the maglev will be doomed to the same fate as the Concorde.

I love the fact that Singapore's a city and a country at the same time. I made the mistake of asking if I was in the international terminal. Apparently when there's only one airport, it's kinda hard to have domestic flights.

Well, with a 2 year multi-visit visa, I could totally see myself going again...