Its often a daunting experience when you’re put in an uncalled for situation; then having to go through shit without being able to do anything about it. As dramatic as that may sound, it appears that it might be equally just as dramatic in real life for some. Its often at times like such where we question our stand in things, and if you do remain unshaken & headstrong about it, you might just pull it through.

Just a random rant for the night.

The process of editing the photos, processing them and then posting them up on Facebook has obviously taken up way too much time and brain juice off me wtf that I literally fall blank in front of the computer screen. I have to admit that I’m pretty happy with the thorough amount of pictures I’ve taken, you know how it is that sometimes its more than just about the technical quality of the image; its the double layered experience that you take home with you.

Even way before I set foot onto the grounds of Shanghai Expo, the main issue which my dad brought up was the insanely long queue that stretches up to eight hours for some & weather it would be worth the trip considering you’ll be spending so many hours queuing up just for one pavilion. So based on observation of the heated situation for most people about the Shanghai Expo:

1. Firstly, on a completely unrelated note; you don’t get access into Facebook/Twitter/Youtube not even MissyCheerio.com wtf in China. So that was obviously quite a major booohoo for my side.
2. The weather is hot & dry; thirty-five was the highest for my visit but you can literally feel the heat cooking the living flesh out of you the moment you’re exposed to the sun. I’m loving my tan though !
3. You’ve got to drink tonnes of water with that sort of weather, but I find their policy of not allowing any drinks into the pavilions pretty interesting. You’re each allowed to carry a bottle of empty mineral water bottle around the expo because they have the auto-refill stations all over the place. Yes, free distilled water. The only thing which annoys me most, people don’t seem to know how to queue in Shanghai !
4. I’ve been to Shenzhen, Yunnan, Beijing and a couple of other places in China; but what shocked me most was the queuing part in Shanghai. People don’t seem to get the idea of being in a queue correctly. Its almost as if they’re so used to being in that I’m so desperate to get in front that it doesn’t matter whether I’m be cursed at for doing so wtf. This is not a small issue where you can just laugh off, even when you’re getting up public transports, toilets, paying at an official store cashier, and obviously the queuing up process into the pavilions.
5. According to my local tour guide, 95% of the visitors are domestic tourists while the remaining 5% are international ones, like myself. So on the record breaking amount last Saturday of 550,000 people, 95% were local Chinese possibly from other parts of China which probably explains the lack of manners.

Sherene, Hsien, Tzi-Li, Chui Nee & Matthias.

The queue was initially quite intimidating, its not everyday that us Malaysians who only queue up for movie tickets wtf get to be in this position queuing up just to enter the premise. It was a one hour queue for us, being squashed like sardines early in the morning is not funny okay. Thank god, people have not exactly perspired yet wtf.

Yee Cheng, myself & Matthias.

I was still all smiles and cheery in the morning as I should be.

The queue at one of the many entrances!

I brought two cameras, most of the pictures are taken using the SONY NEX3 unless stated. Karlson surely have made good use of the DSLR on my behalf with a staggering 2000 shots in 5 days. I’m speaking non spamming shots.

The much talked about China Pavilion. Fantastic !

We were warned that cases of pick-pockets were pretty serious in Shanghai especially for this Shanghai Expo. You have local desperate petty thieves who prey on innocent tourists like us wtf, by gambling their luck buying a ticket into the expo just to pick-pocket. Be careful with your belongings, they go pro on this!

This is probably the standard length of queue, probably 3-4 hours for a normal pavilion. Just imagine being stuck in a middle of smelly armpits wtf.

New Zealand.

Malaysia.

Singapore.

Philippines.

Australia.

Commercial break. More pavilions after this, I’d like to apologize in advance because I can’t recall all the names for all the pavilions.

Lunch break !

Wished I was up this Switzerland’s pavilion,they had cable car rides. How awesome! Thats it for the first day, now for the second day; I’m separated the night shots of the pavilions for the next post. Then you get to see for yourself, the amount of time & effort each country has put in for their respective pavilions.

Chui Nee, Sherene, myself & Tzi-Li while queuing up for the UAE Pavilion.

Some were so prepared to even bring a fruit peeler.

Poor little girl was so tired waiting in line.

It was a long,long queue. Would you have the patience?

Can gladly claim now that I’ve been in one of Norman Foster’s works.

My perfect camwhore partner.

This was the Saudi Arabia pavilion which was apparently the most expensive one with a queue time ranging from 6-9hours. Thats almost an entire day at the expo and as tourists we wouldn’t be able to cover other pavilions if we were to queue for this. So guess what happened?

We went in through the VIP Lane!

In case you didn’t know, as long as you flash your ID/Passport showing that your citizenship; for my case I’ll get the VIP access through the Malaysian pavilion. Thankfully we had this coursemate who managed to get all of us skipping the queue, and boy that feeling was amazing and unexpected.

The Expo passport.

Thanks Mustafa

Chinese Muslim food for lunch. Now a couple of shots of the Malaysian pavilion.

The twin tower.

Batik & Wau.

Royal Selangor and Ali Cafe.

The amazing China Pavilion !

For the love of the world cup, Spain !

Denmark Pavilion.

Candid group photo

Sometimes I wish that we’re all kids all over again,so carefree about the world; and fun is all that matters.

Anyway,its a really really long post & I hope it sorta opened up your eyes to how the Shanghai Expo is like without even travelling all the way there and queue up for it wtf. Sometimes pictures can paint a thousand words about what we observe, & I’ve recorded some videos which will be posted up tomorrow. May I state that it was in a no cameras allowed area, but I did manage to record it down anyways? Do give me some feedbacks about the Malaysian pavilion, if you even think that its awesome in the first place.

Apparently a couple of million were spent on it.
Are you kidding me?

Related posts:

1. Must Watch: Shanghai World EXPO 2010.
2. Malaysian di Kaki Lima Shanghai Expo.
3. Shanghai is Sexy!

Posted on Saturday, July 24th, 2010 in Blogosphere, Events & Gigs, Shanghai 2010, Shanghai Expo 2010, Sony NEX3, Travel. Subscribe to this comment feed. Leave a response, or trackback from your own site.