Silence and Shanghai

Posted by Stuart at 09:32 AM on October 09, 2006

I suppose that I picked a bad time to take a two and a half week break from posting anything to this site. But don't worry, everything is fine here, regardless of the coup and visa situations that we have been dealing with lately.

Part of the reason for my silence is that Piyawat and I went to Shanghai, China for a six day holiday. But unlike most trips that I take, I haven't yet found the motivation to write much about it. To be honest, my main take-away from the trip was that Shanghai is way over-hyped. It was "nice", but not terribly interesting. Unfortunately the government decided to destroy most of the interesting sites (like temples) and, as I have noticed with other communist countries, history started when the current ruling party took over. Everything that happened before that has been bulldozed, erased, or just forgotten. (Or so it would seem.)

It was also a bit difficult to get around, as not many people spoke English. And the food wasn't terribly exciting either. Chinese food in Shanghai is very bland, at least when it's compared to the Thai food that I adore. Prices were a bit expensive too, again at least compared to Thailand.

On the good side, I secured a visa at the Thai consulate that will cover me through the rest of the year. And the weather was nice and cool, which was definitely a welcome break from the Bangkok heat.

Perhaps I will find some time to talk about some of the things we did see. I'll be sure to at least post some pictures at some point. But I just wanted to give a little update for now.

Shanghai Photos Posted

Posted by Stuart at 01:09 PM on November 14, 2006

I finally found some time to post a few pictures from our trip to Shanghai. You can view them in the Shanghai Photo Album. I didn't get a chance to write much about our trip, but you can see what I had to say in Silence and Shanghai. I tried to add a few comments to the pictures to tell more about our trip, so check them out in the Photo Album.

So I guess I have been posting here more than usual lately. (8 posts in the last 10 days. Wow.) I guess that's a sign that my life is under control. And for the most part, it is. I've also been working on the new business paper work as well as starting on creating the technology for it. I've also been planning upcoming trips to Tokyo (my first time) and to the US for Christmas. Fun stuff...