CNY countdown at the Bund

Yup, the day after our 花木路 style steamboat, we headed to 外滩 for our Chinese New Year countdown! :D

We heard that there's a countdown to CNY at the Bund that's filled with massive fireworks and all...so off we were to the Bund :D

Chor Seng, Xuan Qi, Jiamin & I  on the train to the Bund :D

Take 2...in case the reflection-photo wasn't clear enough...haha!

We were off to meet the SuZhou gang - Yan Ling, Daniel, Sheng Jie and Zhong Da together with Shumin who's their tour guide. HAHA!

Yup, we met up and had lotsa small chats and all as we walked toward the Bund. The next few pictures will look VERY FAMILIAR..haha! The same background, but this time, with different faces :D

Xuan Qi, Me, Chor Seng, Shu Min & Jiamin at the Lover's Wall :D

Take 2 without the light shining in our faces...haha

Me with the awesome Bund backdrop :D

Me with the SuZhou guys :D From left: Da Zhong, ME, Sheng Jie and Daniel Ling :D

Me, Xuan Qi & Jiamin with the awesome night view of the Bund :D

Yan Ling, Shumin & I with some bull statue...HAHA!

After much walking, talking and laughing, we found out that the fireworks only start at 12am!!! Kthxbye...that meant we still had like 1hour+ to kill! So...meanwhile, we just walked around trying to find a place to eat.

We went to a nearby hotel near the Bund...If I didn't remember wrongly, it's Fairmont Peace Hotel...We actually wanted to eat there but realized our wallets couldn't handle the atas-ness...so in the end, we only went there to utilize its toilet. HAHAHA!

The toilet was SOOO NICEEEE that I had to do a self-portrait in there! LOL! I know...Only girls do such stuff...but the toilet was just sooo niceeee...LOL!

Me in the super nice toilet in Fairmont Peace Hotel :D

We then decided to have a lil' supper at McDonald's...haha. Not much shops were open by then sadly...if not I would never have eaten at Mac. HAHA!

As we walked along 南京东路 we randomly just ate some street food like my satay in the picture below :D

Me with my Satay...and with Sheng Jie on my left and Yan Ling + Shumin on my right :D

Ohh and in the photo above, that's the last picture of Shumin you'll see for this post. HAHA! Because after this, she went back home! :(

She wasn't feeling well luh...so we let her off. HAHAHA! Less Shu Min = less a lot of laughter and jokes and all... :( Haha...BUT, I'm still there! LOL LOL LOL! :D

When we arrived at McDonald's we realized we weren't the only smartie pants who had this idea of supper-ing till 12am to catch the fireworks -.-" haha

We then waited around until we finally got seats...but our seats were scattered...and I think Xuan Qi & I are the only 2 nuggets that took photo of each other in Mac...hahaha! And yes, we shared a pack of chicken nuggets. LOL.

Me :D

Xuan Qi :D

We're just too cam-whore already...go everywhere also must take photo. Haha! I guess this is one awesome thing we have in common in the sea of many differences that we have. Haha!

Nearing midnight, we went back to the Bund and guess what? EVERYONE was packing the circumference of the Bund...the area by the river.

Thankfully, we managed to find a spot for ourselves and we quickly squeezed in and even managed to squeeze out a group shot :D HAHA!

All of us!

The beautiful skyline of 陆家嘴 from the Bund

Now here's the best part, at 12am, everyone was expecting MASSIVE, MOUTH-OPENING, SKY-ILLUMINATING fireworks to shoot out around the Oriental Pearl Tower area...but none of that happened -.-"

Fireworks just began firing from all over the place...Behind us, in front of us and EVERYWHERE ELSE EXCEPT the main part of the skyline in the picture above -.-

Here's a shot of the skyline with fireworks toward the right of the photo...Y U NO PUT FIREWORKS AT THE MAIN AREA?!!?!

Take 2 :D

We were really disappointed...the closest firework display was the building behind us. It set off fireworks for a continuous FIFTEEN MINUTES!!

I think that'd cost a bomb...LITERALLY. HAHA! To release fireworks for a whole 15minutes would mean thousands of dollars spent (in SGD) haha.

Shanghai failed us all! :( HAHAHA! Ok, maybe we should've lowered our expectations. HAHA! We were kinda like expecting a light-show and massive firework display around the Pearl Tower kinda thing? Haha.

Anyway, to compensate for our disappointment, we all decided to light our sparklers at the same time!! HAHA!

Almost immediately, a voluntary constable (policeman) came up to us and tell us to put out the sparklers! LOL!

Xuan Qi actually video-ed down the whole spectacle but it's stuck somewhere in Chor Seng's computer...so...lemme try to pen it to life. haha...

When the policeman told us to stop, Yan Ling was like "灭不了!" And the policeman, in his awesome show of ignorance, retorted "把它吹掉啊!"

Yan Ling, overflowing with contempt and sarcasm, actually went to do what the policeman instructed and she was like "吹不掉! 吹不掉!" LOL LOL!

Well, at least we all had that few minutes of fun with the sparklers...haha! We still had another pack of it actually...But, we didn't want to tear our backsides over such a small thing. Haha.

Next, we lit our 孔明灯! :D For those who don't know what's that, it's a lantern that will fly up to the sky when lit. Haha.

The practice is to write your wishes on the lantern and then light it up and let your dreams and wishes fly up high to the sky :) Symbolic eh? So cool..haha

Yan Ling's wish and her expressed love for ODAC and her respective OGs :D

Since there were like 8 of us, we bought 2 kong ming lanterns :D 5 of them wrote on one, while we wrote on another :D haha. Here's several shots of us with our 孔明灯! :)

Yan Ling, Me & Xuan Qi with our Kong Ming Lantern :D

After QC-ing the shot, Xuan Qi was like "EH, we never hold the 孔明灯 properly..." haha! So here goes take 2...

Take 2 :)

This time, the backdrop wasn't centralized...HAHA! And yes, that's considered proper holding of the 孔明灯. LOL! So here goes take 3...

Take 3 :)

Compare take 4 to take 3 and you'll know why take 4 meets all the requirements. HAHAHAHA! I'm also pretty OCD about my pictures too actually...HAHA!

Finally satisfied :) Haha!

After we were done taking photos, a GANG of INDIANS came up to us and wished us "Happy New Year" and wanted to take photos with us!!!

ULTRA RANDOMNESS!! But we were like "Ok...why not? Since it's Chinese New Year right?" Haha!

The thing about those ah-nehs is that, they kept wanting to take picture with Yan Ling and Xuan Qi!! HAHAHA! Jiamin was already hiding away. LOL!

They were really touchy and they'll just squeeze with you in the picture...so as much as Yan Ling & Xuan Qi were scared, we were also afraid for them. HAHAHA!

You can obviously tell who's tryna squeeze with us...haha

1 little 2 little 3 little Indians....HAHAHA!

In the photo above Xuan Qi was like...in an anxious whisper tone "Jonavan! I very scared!" and grabbed my arm. HAHAHA! Granted la...There like 6-10 of them behind you...really dammm scary. Later backside tear. HAHA!

Nervous shot 2....HAHA!

Last shot of our ordeal...HAHA!

Throughout all this squeezing and shuffling...Those ah-nehs TORE MY 孔明灯!! HAHAHA! I really think so. LOL!

There's another video of me SADLY throwing away the 孔明灯 that's videoed by Xuan Qi and stuck in Chor Seng's computer. Haha

I shall upload them soon...and if I never do...here's what happened - I simply dramatized the throwing away of the 孔明灯 in a Filipino accent. HAHAHA! KTHXBYE. LOL!

So...ours had to be thrown away :( And the 3 of us re-wrote our wishes on the other 孔明灯. And it came as no surprise that it is illegal to light up 孔明灯s too.

BUT, WE DID IT ANYWAY. HAHA!

We watched as the 孔明灯 rose up into the semi-hazy night sky in 上海外滩 :) It's kinda heartwarming seeing your written hopes rise to the sky in such a fashion.

Somehow, our hearts are created to hope, to dream to imagine, to desire, to want to do something meaningful in life.

I guess that serene moment of watching our dreams on the 孔明灯 contrasting the vast night sky sort of captures this feeling.

We watched until our 孔明灯 slowly become smaller and smaller and I'd like to imagine it as - It became a star in the sky. Haha.

OK, actual fact: It probably crash landed on someone's roof and that guy must be like "WHOA PIANG OEI! NEED TO CLEAR ANOTHER LANTERN -.-" HAHAHA!

Yup, that ended our little CNY adventure at the Bund :)

It's around 2am when we decided to go home...There were taxis ALL OVER and most of them were charging EXORBITANT PRICES.

We flagged a few cabs and they all offered really rubbish prices. Our trip back only costs around 30元. Some of them charged 50元 and some 60-70元.

I even dialed a cab but the company couldn't find any available cab to send down to fetch us -.- So how? We waited until 2 honest taxi drivers came and fetched us :)

I was the man to bring the ladies home :D HAHA! Me, Jiamin, Xuan Qi and Yan Ling took 1 cab :D And yes, Yan Ling's staying over at Shu Min's place.

Our cab driver was honest because he turned on the fare meter...BUT, HE DROVE SUPER SLOWWWWW.

In the end, the fare amounted to be around 35元 if I remember correctly...haha. Now here's the best part.

We sent Yan Ling back and when we called Shumin, she was ALREADY FAST ASLEEP and thus not able to open the door for us -.-

Thank God for Tingyi who is call-able at night. HAHA! We ringed her and she opened the lobby door and main door for us.

Whew...the grand finale is...when Yan Ling went back, SHU MIN LOCKED HER BEDROOM DOOR AS WELL. HAHAHA!

Now you know who not to find to host you when you come to Shanghai...HAHAHA! Yup, it was a memorable day indeed :)