Category: Misc

Sep 04 2009

Last day in South America

Took a metro to Villa Madelena this morning. There are some very nice houses there and then walked to Ave Paulista which takes around 2 hours. Passed by Rua Teodoro Sampaio (which has many stores selling musical instruments) Oscar Freire (an expensive shopping area).


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Met up with Thiago at Barra Funda on the west side at 1pm and visited the Latin American museum and a few others spots.
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Thiago got us some pastels and sugar cane juice for lunch. Met Renan (a michael jackson wannabe)
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in the Latin American museum and we went to Rock Galleria (mall for hippies and rock music enthusiasts) and Rua santa Ifigenia (a place selling all kinds of cheap electronics from China, they are all OEM products because Brazil has a high tax rate on branded electronic goods. You can get a 128G of USB thumb drive for around $25 or maybe less).
Someone tapped me on the shoulder while I was walking at downtown turned around and it was the malaysian guy I met few days ago. I can’t imagine how small is the probability to meet the same guy in this city of 12 millions twice.

Played soccer with some Brazilian kids at Thiago’s apartment and those kids do move fast and are very skillful, they live by soccer.

Had dinner at one of Thiago and Isis’s favorite restaurant.
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One of the best part of the cow, I forgot the name
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Then Thiago sent me to the airport. Had some issues with my passport at the airport because I am flying to Egypt after London and they thought I will need a visa and a yellow fever certification to Egypt. Cleared things up and managed to get on the flight and like always, Brazilians at the airport are very friendly and very easy going.

I am quite impress with Brazilian culture. Brazilians are very clean and neat people, no matter inside the house or on public road, it’s quite clean. People here respect the laws and follow it. For example, car doesn’t park on the parking line, apartments are quiet and people are considerate. Brazilians line up everywhere and I have not seen people cut queue so far. The most important thing is the friendliness of Brazilians, they are the friendliest people I have met so far.

Sep 03 2009

To Thiago’s place

Moved to Thiago’s apartment this morning. I met Thiago and Isis at the hostel in Santiago and they invited me to stay with them. Took the subway at 6.50am to Itaquera which is on the east side of Sao Paulo.
Thiago the man
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Thiago is super nice and taught me some Brazilian slang and introduced me to some Brazilian music. We made a Sao Paulo dish called Cuz Cuz Paulista.
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Thiago and Isis.
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Thiago showed me around downtown and we went up to Edificio Altino Arantes and got a nice view of the city.
Sao Paulo city is huge with tons of high rise buildings
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Suddenly rain poured, we got all wet and we went to a juice bar. Juice bar in Brazil is popular because Brazil has a lot of tropical fruits. Some popular local fruits are Guarana ad Acai. Thiago has classes in the evening so I just wandered around the city. I still have not watched the movie Bruno so I called up Bomi and it’s very nice of Bomi to accompany me to watch the movie. What can I say, Sacha Cohen is one crazy actor and we had a good laugh. On a second thought, maybe it’s not a good idea to watch Bruno with a pretty Brazilian Korean girl.

Still standing after Bruno
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Thiago picked me up from Paulista Mall and we went to a bar at Itaquera to have vaca atolada soup. There is a live music at the bar, they are playing MPB which combine Jazz with Samba.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Went back to Kuala Lumpur again to settle some visa stuffs.

On the way to Kuala Lumpur, passing by some hills.

Visited the Skybridge which connects the twin tower.

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