25 August 2005 — Here we are at Carrefour again. The mission today is to get Lynn a washing machine and a mattress protector.

Check out these blue ones! They’re made entirely of plastic and are so light you can even balance them on your head! The only problem is that they do not have the spin dry function, so have to wring dry your clothes by hand?!?

After that we made our way to… haha the pirated DVD shop!

but just as we were going to step into the shop, a sign two doors away caught our eye…

“Are you Lonson tonight” anyone? With her new mattress protector in tow, Lynn is all ready to take you on!

As for the DVD shop itself, simply amazing! It was so “professionally” set up and had the biggest range of things — from the latest Hollywood blockbusters to Jap/Korean serials in box sets to arthouse films to TV classics like “The Golden Girls”! And of course we figured porn heaven is prolly just under the counter or behind some secret door, all you have to do is ask…

Tommy wandering down the Anime section.

Wah lao, I think if the hardcore anime fans come here, they can just die lor. The selection is just astonishing and Tommy says there are titles here that you can’t even get in the real shops! As for “quality”, the DVDs even had “HMV” and “anti-piracy” labels on their covers, you say pro or not?!? Frankly, at moments I actually forgot this is not the real McCoy until of course, the prices remind you. From 10 RMB each = S$2, wah liao, even cheaper than renting back home! Sadly, I very bo-ji, actually left the shop empty-handed?!?

Just outside the DVD shop was this bookseller pedalling his goods on a cart. A hardcover copy of the Da Vinci Code caught our eye. Had never seen an edition like it, complete with pictures and all, and the paper quality was rather suss as well, like very thin and poor quality… hmm you wonder…

The “fake” tour continues. For dinner today, Tommy brought us to a vegetarian buffet place called Vegetarian Delight.

At first I was like “huh? Vegio ah? er, a bit sayang to come all the way to Shanghai and eat vegetables right?” but this place is nothing like I’ve seen!

As you can see, really clean and pleasant surroundings. And the service was really excellent too. The waiters/waitresses were all very attentive and smiley, though it did disturb us that there was this one waiter (yes waiter not waitress) who would coyishly stick out his tongue at us every time he walked past our table?!?

But here comes the highlight: check out the wide array of dishes, both hot and cold!

They were so beautiful to look at, like all painstakingly hand-crafted, labour here must be cheap. But what really stunned us was the extensive selection of “meat” dishes — from sashimi to pork chop to siew mai to can you believe it chicken feet salad?!?

Doesn’t it look like the real thing? If you look carefully, the chef even bothered to create the wrinkles on the skin!!! Again, very pro indeed. And some of the dishes, you know it can’t be meat, but it looks like it, smells like it, and even tastes like it! Lynn, Tommy and I were like little kids discovering something new with each bite we took, you can just see our eyes widen in awe and fascination! It was so much fun!

Here’s my first plate for the evening, it certainly wasn’t the last.

After dinner, which was just 60 RMB per head, we left the shop and directly opposite us in the park, we saw a huge group of people gathered. Of course as kaypoh as we are, we had to go see what the “commotion” was all about.

Turns out they were having a mini concert organised by the 百姓 (common people) of that particular suburb. There was lots of singing and dancing, it was great! So festive, and people seemed to be really enjoying themselves, both the performers and onlookers.

And just a few metres away, there was another group gathered. There was music playing, and at first we thought orr, must be Qigong classes. But guess what? It turned out to be ballroom dancing! Yes, in the open air, in the park! So cute! All these old fuddy-duddies in their dancing shoes. and man, were they taking it seriously. Whirling round and round in circles with partners they just randomly select from the crowd. So much vigour and life at their age! and yeah, some of them were actually pretty good, well much better than me anyway, can’t ballroom-dance to save my life. And the look on their faces, priceless. These little old men who look like they’re at least 70 beaming from ear to ear.

Tonight we got home earlish, 11+, so I thought oh good, can finally get some sleep. But guess what time Tommy and I chit-chatted until? Actually I oso don’t really know the time, but I panicked (for him, who has to go to work) when they sky started to lighten!

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