OK, this is another one loooooong overdue post that should have been written & posted waaaaay before Christmas. I know, my fault. I was either busy or lazy. Legitimate excuses though! Hahahaha. But here you are, I finally completed writing this, pics & all, so don't complain ;P
Last November, I went on a biz trip to Qingdao, in China. I've never been there before. That was my first time. It was quite a pleasant trip. I took an overnight flight to Seoul, and transited in Incheon for a couple of hours, then caught another 1 hr flight to Qingdao. Both flights weren't full, but I didn't like the domestic plane to China. Too bumpy, and I'd say, dirty.
Upon arrival in Qingdao, I was welcomed by a cool 12 deg celcius weather. Actually, it was cold, especially when the wind blew. I found my way to the taxi-stand (which was quite a long walk from the arrival terminal) and headed straight to the hotel.
I stayed at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. No idea how many stars it was, but I was given "VIP" treatment, hehehe. My room was on the 18th floor, but it wasn't ready. So I was ushered to the lounge and offered a nice brew of Chinese tea. The front office lady offered to prepare my check-ins while I sipped my tea, and promised to have my room ready in under 20 mins. Very good service I must say.
View of the lobby from upstairs
Me & Jeslyn @ the lobby
Shortly after I was done with my hot tea, I proceeded to collect my room key and headed to my room for a hot shower.
View from my room - Sea view, in fact!
I walked around a bit in the afternoon, exploring the streets and shopping around my hotel. I didn't buy anything and neither did I eat anything. I wasn't too sure how the hygiene standards were like at that point, and was also worried after the series of food scares from China already. So after roaming around for about 2 hours, I headed back to the hotel, ordered room service and logged on the check my emails.
Me on the streets of Qingdao
Dumpling shop with a cute name 小倩倩馄饨
I managed to log on to Blogger and was writing this blog post halfway when a whole series of phone calls got me very distracted. And after that, I was too lazy to write anything. But, I must say again, that I could access Blogger/Blogspot from China with no problems.
Like the last trip to China, there was always a lot of fantastic food to eat. Some were very nice. Others were very exotic. Most of the time, it seemed very much like luxury. Someone once commented how disgusting we were, to be wining and dinning like that. 1 dinner might have cost some poor guy a whole year's salary! I can't deny that, but in comparison to the price we paid there vs what we'd pay if we ate the same equivalent in Singapore, food in China was cheap. See what we ate on the first night at the 良友名都 restaurant (I hope I got the name correct!)...
Jellyfish cold dish
Giant bean sprouts
Steamed Prawns
Salted goose eggs. Notice they all have double yolks??!! And they are bloody salty!!!
Some kind of mushroom dish
Sweet sour meat, either chicken or pork
Meat again... Ate too much to remember!
Fried leek
Deep fried shrimps
Bamboo shoots
Clams
My 佛跳墙... Buddha-Jumps-Over-The-Wall!!!
Check out the ABALONE!
My messy plate
Golden pomfret in sweet sauce
Sweet sour pork strips - tasted strange
Steamed dumplings - Staple food in China
Mitch & Joel shld never sit next to each other
Because this is what happens! Such a handful!!!
Happy Jeslyn & Vincent
And a very well-fed & satisfied Stanley
2nd day of the trip was of course meetings. Lots of presentations to do and look at. I think many of use were probably yawning away or almost nodding off during the rather intense meeting. But it was very informative and good to have. At least we knew what was happening in the other parts of the world, how everyone else was doing, how they were coping, and at least catch up a bit on gossips! Hahaha...
Later that evening, dinner was served at 东莱顺 Hot Pot restaurant. A lot of meat involved this time. Mutton & beef mainly. And I can't stand the smell of the mutton!
Traditional looking hot pot
Baby Joel trying to look cute
OK, OK, he's cute... (-_-")
And Mitch just has to do it... I was hoping the octopus sucks all 8 tentacles over his mouth! Hahahahaha... I is bad!
A plate of live clams...
... which ends up being tortured by Joel!
See, Joel spread chili to it. CRUEL!!!
I think this was dessert. Deep fried sesami ball, with Joel's finger on it. Grrr....
Me & Kevin (who's always trying to look cool
A bunch of happy people after dinner
After dinner that night, we went to the nite club on the 4th floor of the hotel. We pratically chased out all the other customers and literally booked the whole place to ourselves. Initially, there was a bit of confusion over the room & the hall. But after that, the whole place pratically belonged to us. Hehehe....
Me, Jeslyn, Haiyan
Fruit platters like this one were served no matter which corner we moved to!
Alcohol makes everyone happy!
Next day, we all woke up very early to have breakfast, and then proceeded to the exhibition hall. It was a nice and sunny day with cool breeze. I think it was abt 12 deg cel that day...
All of us in a mini bus that we booked, on our way to the exhibition hall
Forever cheeky Kevin with Joohee next to him
Stanley & me at the exhibition booth
Just before the show opened, we had fun snapping photos, arguing abt the placements of the tables, laughing at how our display had melted overnight and figuring out how our showgirls can lie so badly abt their height/weight/measurements & qualification without so much batting an eyelid when confronted. Mitch also repeatedly reminded me how the girls never shaved their underarms! I was not only horrified but mortified when they were dressed in halter bareback sleeveless dresses and raising their arms out to distribute leaflets, and everyone would be staring at that bush under their arms! One of them didn't even need to raise her arms and I can already see strands peeking out! Eeeeks!!! OK, I'm just not used to see armpit fur displayed in that manner in public.
Anyway, a few of us got quite bored at the booth and started to wonder off looking at other people's exhibits. Some were pathetic, others were impressive.
They call this Moonfish
No idea what the fish this was
Halibut & Kingcrab
Hungry crowd at our booth sampling sashimi for free. One lady grabbed 4 plates!
Some visitors playing with a live Boston Lobster. I was hoping the lobster snapped at someone :D
Various crustceans
And look who came? Brede the open-minded one. This was the old team. Notice there aren't any other females here!!
After the first day of the show ended. Our company hosted a dinner reception. We invited the Norwegian Minister for fisheries and Coastal Affairs and quite a few other Chinese Ministers as VIP for the night. All our customers & business partners who went to the show were also invited. It was a good catch up session we had with everyone, including old friends and colleagues from Hong Kong.
Very nice ballroom set up for the dinner reception
Sunny, me & Jeslyn
Stanley & me
We were all starving...
Me & the boss
On our 3rd day in Qingdao, we went to this huge seafood restaurant with a huge hall filled with huge tanks and huge amounts of live seafood swimming all over. As the last trip, we had fun picking what we wanted to eat there. The chefs would prepare it, and then serve it to us in the huge VIP room upstairs.
See this HUGE hall? It's actually the seafood restaurant's "live market"!
That's me amazed by the massive amount of live seafood that's going into my tummy later :D
Boss telling the waitress how we like our clams done
See the rows of tanks? Very classy "market" isn't it?!
See how huge this room is? It had a sofa set with coffee table and a full karaoke system complete with surround speakers & sub woofers in tow on the other side of the room!
OK, I think that was it. Pics and the trip. Now I've got to go sort out some more pics of other dinners and lunches and parties etc and then post them up here. OK, I'm slow, I know. lots of backlog, but I'm getting there. Have patience with me, OK? Come back soon!
