Hands down, my favorite part of the all-too-brief trip to Shanghai: our little sojourn to 50 Moganshan Road, a group of warehouses transformed into contemporary art galleries. It still carries some remnants of its indie past, but has clearly become increasingly developed over the years. I got a bunch of postcards from my favorite exhibitions, including Yu Lin’s Red Guards series and Xuanmin Jin’s Shikumen series. Sadly, we didn’t spend as much time in the galleries as I would have liked, since most were closed for the Lunar New Year. When I next find myself in Shanghai, though, this will definitely be a major to-do item.
(The photos above were snapped inside the galleries and during our walk through the art district’s graffiti lined streets.)
I desperately need a hat like this. Found this baby in Shanghai and probably should have bitten the bullet and bought it. Now I’ve gotta find another way to keep my scalp warm this winter…
Am seated on my flight to Los Angeles (where I’ll be spending Chinese New Year with my mother). Missing my other “home” back in Boston. Patrick just emailed me this photo, which his friend took yesterday. The forgotten stuffed elephant dog toy (bottom right corner) is pulling at my heart. Nearly a month since I’ve seen our pup!
Side Crane in Merdeka Square, Kuala Lumpur.
Besides striking the peace sign/head tilt pose like a good Asian tourist, I’ve been also been trying to get a photo of myself in this yoga position in each city during this trip.
I’ve sort of become a caricature of the prototypical Asian tourist during the course of this trip. Exhibit A: I’ve fully embraced the Head Tilt/Peace Sign as my signature pose. (The above, taken during the Hong Kong Light Show, is just one example out of … twenty.)
My goal is to now get a photo of myself taken in said pose in as many exotic locales as possible. I feel like the exaggerated tilt and single visible hand sort of makes it an updated version of the more commonly known double peace sign. Ugh, who am I kidding? I’m basically a race traitor.
My first time eating popiah, a crepe-like roll of savory goodness originating in Fujian and Chaozhou :)
Satay may have been my favorite thing about Malaysia :)
Taken at the Lot 10 Hutong Food Court in Bukit Bintang. Came with the recommendation of our hotel concierge and after trying several food courts, gotta say this was my favorite so far of the trip!
See this feisty little fellow? He’s a bit of a ladies’ man.
He significantly enhanced my trip to the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park (the world’s largest free-flight walk-in aviary). A little while after this photo was taken, a female peacock tentatively peeked around his feathers and quick as lightning, he pounced on her and humped furiously … for all of ten seconds. Mating peacocks less than a meter away from me: definitely made me feel like I got my money’s worth out of the admission tickets.
I’m going to assume, given my complete lack of knowledge about birds, that she signaled it was cool, since another lady passed by sometime later and didn’t seem to show much interest. He let her go without a fuss. Nice to know the dude believes in consent? Or maybe I’m just seriously anthropomorphizing these creatures.
