Life by the river

When work gets a bit crazy, its nice to look back at these photos and reminisce the wonderful times we had at Xi Tang, a time when i was still the free-spirited wanderer.


Xi Tang is a quaint traditional water town near Shanghai, with lots of eye-popping reds against a backdrop of grey dilapidated buildings. I like especially my set of red-accented photos. Turned out pretty well :)


There are many small alleys to explore, and if you find yourself lost in any of them, always head back to the canal to get your bearings right again.

The man and his craft
A little bit of home

We didnt do much except sit around and moan about life. And in the presence of such tranquility possible only from a life of simplicity, a certain member from our group found inspiration to compose a poem (in chinese mind you).

Mademoiselle and her laundry

Bye bye!

On the street

Work is a lousy excuse, but I am keeping up here!

Cheng Huang Miao

Nan Xiang

A must have when you are at Cheng Huang Miao!

Yu Yuan Garden
Xing Tian Di

To the ends of the world

and back again.

Singapore

The Singapore Pavilion was a big disappointment. If not for the priority access we had as citizens, I would never have joined the snaking queue just to catch a 2 mins long mtv by our local artistes.

Switzerland

The highlight of the Switzerland pavilion was the ride on the ski lift up the roof of the pavilion, atop a bed of yellow and white flowers with the sound of cowbells ringing in the distance.

Serbia
China

Joining the queue outside the China pavilion would get you nowhere near the insides of it. Only a ticket (see above) would guarantee you an entry. Getting there an hour before opening hour would not get you anywhere too. What you need is a friend who after queuing for 2 hours decided that she didnt want to see the pavilion after all (: Thanks aman!


And the award for the most elaborate exhibition would have to go to the Chinese. Well what do you think, they have a monorail running inside the pavilion.

Saudi Arabia

And its a pity we didnt get to see the Saudi Arabia pavilion. The most expensive pavilion yet, with a 8 hour long wait. Madness i say.

Israel
Pakistan
New Zealand

Good job ting! *winks

Australia
France

As usual, the French with their simple, chic, tastefully done up pavilion. J'adore.

*stifles a laugh. Our inside joke.

US of A

I wish I had some photo proof of how much I enjoyed the USA pavilion. From the start with flawless delivery of the welcome speech (in mandarin) by the mc and random americans on the street, to the strong messages delivered by the head of states, there was a resounding theme of unity, perseverance and vision throughout the 3 acts. Good job!

Germany

Poland
Sweden

Japan

It was another 4 hour long wait at the Japan pavilion, which we unfortunately did not have the time for.

South Korea

We settled for the South Korea pavilion, the last for the day. An unfortunate choice really, no pow wow way to end our expo journey.