28 August 2005 — First of all, today is William’s birthday. Happy Birthday Pipi-pie! I know I know I so mean to be away during his birthday, but I didn’t forget about him entirely. Before leaving for China, I had already prepared a surprise gift package for him, filled with all his favourite things, including his must-have black sesame cakes and of course a few scratchies!

And now back to Shanghai. Remember a few days ago we were at IKEA to buy cushion covers. Yup, so today with one of those as a sample, we’re going to the fabric market to make duplicates of it. With the costs of buying fabric and tailoring in Singapore today, nobody really have their clothes made anymore, much cheaper just to buy off the rack. Well, not the case here. Tailor-made clothes are still very much in fashion, and you’ll soon see why.

For a change today, instead of grabbing a cab, we took the public bus. Very fun, I’ve always loved double-decker buses, haven’t sat on one for the longest time, don’t think they exist in Sydney?!?

And see, instead of fare cards, the bus conductor still comes round to sell you paper tickets!

But don’t you go thinking the Chinese are backward, ‘cos on that very same bus, look, a LCD TV screen?!? Very clear somemore, the transmission is definitely much better than those on S’pore buses. Isn’t that a fascinating paradox?

Enroute, in the Xu Jia Hui (downtown) area, we saw a building on fire, but no one seems to be particularly alarmed. In fact, people were still heading INTO the building. What was going through their minds I wonder? No one’s going to stop us from shopping!?

From the bus-stop where we alighted we had to walk past this little old-world, poverty-stricken part of town, filled with decrepit buildings and wrinkly faces that seem to have grown old together.

The strange sights and sounds and smells were absolutely fascinating! Like a walk back in time through Singapore’s Chinatown in the 60s? Not born yet, but I imagine that’s what it would have been like.

And as you can see, the living quarters of the residents here are teeny-tiny, a whole house is probably no bigger than a room by our normal standards. No wonder the people here have no notion of personal space.

Huge you-can-almost-swim-in-them underpants are a very common sight, often just nonchalantly hanging right above the main door.

Yet in this outmoded place, guess what we found — an adult shop. Well I guess even poor people have their needs.

The kitchen is the shop is the bedroom is the entire house.

Lynn’s favourite corner pau store.

More strange sights and sounds…

Hoo hoo, would you dare to eat the food cooked here? Or rather, would you survive it?

And finally our first stop for the day: Pan-fried Paus! Tommy spent all but half-hour last night going into its intricacies, and I guess I have to give him some credit. They were very yummy, but beware, unbeknownst to some, the paus are filled with hot soup, and if you’re not careful, it squirts everywhere with one bite of the pau!

After all that excitement, we finally reach the fabric market, and now the fun really begins.

Fabric of all shades, textures and colour you can possibly imagine! 真的是看得眼花料乱!

Here I am in front of a costume shop. (My toes just kena crushed by some auntie, or mebbe I’m whincing from all the gaudy colours?!?)

haha, how do you like my ballroom gown? (so matching my top too!)

So what’s the deal here? First of all you go through the shops scouring for all the materials you’re after. In addition to cloth, there are shops selling lace, buttons, ribbons, zips, piping and even fur! With all your purchases, you then go to a seamstress/tailor that you like (there’s one attached to every fabric store, but you don’t necessarily have to use the one that you bought the cloth from) to get these materials transformed into anything under the sun — jackets, pants, dresses, cushion-covers, tablecloths, etc, etc, etc.

Here I am happy with my purchases of some Thai silk. I bargained them down to 38 RMB per metre.

And here’s Tommy trying to cut a deal for his cushion covers.

Another Singaporean auntie in the shop, not impressed with the price that the boy tried to quote her. Her acting oso not bad hor?

Sending the queen to nab a deal for me ‘cos I already foiled it by showing that I am too gian — worst crime one can commit when bargaining.

Lynn’s favourite seamstress. Very reasonable prices. For each skirt, she only charges 25 RMB! Hee hee, but she’s too shy to look up ‘cos she knows we’re snapping pictures.

So this is all my “before” cloth, which I’m making into 4 different skirts. Next week show you the “after” products ok?

And if you thought that the fabric market is only about cloth and clothes-making, you couldn’t be more wrong. It’s also the place to catch the latest in hair fashion!

e.g. the beehive revival (complete with thick arched eyebrows)

…and the green-curlers do (doesn’t matter that I’m walking around in public)

yes, seeing is believing

Our final stop for the day and also dinner: this little wonton place.

You thought half-hour on the pan-fried paus was bad, Tommy spent 1 whole hour talking about this place! I know those of you who have personally met Tommy would know that’s no exaggeration.

This little girl is not only 乖 but also so bright. I overheard her telling her mum that she can understand bits of what we were saying in English, her mum was of course gushing with pride and praising her, to which she actually replied: 小孩子小, 心不小. wah liao!

As for the wontons, never knew that such simple fare can be so delicate and so delicious!

Just check out these braided steam dumplings!

And the wontons themselves, simply to die for. Not only are they super-tasty, they are so smooth they can practically slide down your throat! See how happy Tommy is? And guess what? See all those bowls of wontons in the picture? Those together with the steam dumplings came to a grand total of 10 RMB (A$1.65)! You tell me, next time how I ever bring myself to eat again in Sydney?!?

Last but not least, this is Tommy’s dog, 宝宝. I thought only Bubble is greedy, turns out all dogs are the same.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 30th, 2005 at 11:40 am and is filed under General Ramblings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.