Last Lunch in Excelics

It has been a hectic final week. Finally, its a lunch-in in the cafeteria. Kathy's impressive vegetarian Pho have left a deep impression of the Vietnamese culture in my heart...or should i say, stomach?

After spending the entire day saying good-byes, i went to HR to surrender my badge, and settle the necessary paperwork. My final goodbye, was to my Boss, Eric, whom I surrendered all my keys, tools and documents to.

Lunch with Excelics COO

Yen & Roland brought me out for lunch today. Its a funny chinese restaurant with Korean signboards. Guess its because we are in Korean town. As always, Yen is a good conversationalist with anything to talk about under the sun. He has been a patient mentor to me all this while, and i respect his ability to organize people to work in a single direction. Although we do have disagreements, both of us know that we only have the company's interests at heart. Finally, we have a chance to talk about everything else, except work!

Lunch with Co-workers @ Black Angus

Many thanks to all my co-workers these 2 years for tolerating all my nonsense and blunders. I certainly would not be able to bring the products to customers' hands without their professionalism!

Lunch with my big sisters

I thank these 3 wonderful ladies for the nice dim sum lunch @ HongKong Saigon seafood. Le, Tuyet and Kathy often helped to lubricate the flow of my work. Being the best in what they do, they helped me to attain greater efficiency in my work. We really made a great team...I will miss them!

Lunch with Masa @ Totoro

A patient and kind mentor, who made a difference in my life. Kind, when i was not competent enough, encouraging when times were rough.

Resignation.

After delaying for months, i finally submitted my resignation to my 3 bosses. It has been a eventful 1 year and 10 months in Excelics. My emotions had been strongly coupled to the ups and downs of the company, and gone through emotional roller-coasters. It is a good experience, and i have emerged stronger, more resilient to the dynamics of a start-up.

Submitting my resignation left me lost in my cube. Struck with millions of thoughts in my mind, and several different emotions in my heart, i just stared at my blank LCD screen for awhile.

But like i said, i have emerged stronger. That only lasted for half hour. Ahh...peace.

Our Engineering Team..

We are known as the "Hardware Guys" in SV, well known as being hired to 'play' with expensive toys. Very soon, there wun be any left in SV...plenty of thanks to China.

20 Million People spending a weekend...

With 4.5million people in Singapore, most of us already feel the G.S.S(Great Singapore Squeeze)

Just check out 20million people in Shanghai.....




Transfer this amount of people onto Orchard Road....Unimaginable.

263m up on the Pearl Tower(东方明珠塔）

I was so busy with the videos that i had forgotten about a brief intro regarding the Geographical aspects of Shanghai..


Shanghai is mainly divided into 2 parts, Pudong(浦东) and Puxi(浦西) and are separated by the HuangPu river(黄浦江）. Amazing thing is, they actually managed to construct a tunnel beneath the river from Pudong to Puxi for vehicles, and the light rail.

As shown in the map, 外滩 is actually located in 浦西, and 东方明珠塔 is located just across 黄浦江 in 浦东。

Of course there is more to that. But i am too ignorant to explain further. I only know that Shanghai is further broken down into districts.

I prefer to feign ignorance and enjoy the view from above.....

In this video, you can see 浦西 on the left, and 浦东on the right. I have noticed that the structure of the buildings in 浦西 is a little more scattered and disorganized. 浦东, on the other hand, is more organized and orderly. Somewhat like dominoes. Probably because 浦东 is newer in development, and the government has learnt from previous lessons that a messy infrastructure can create tonnes of problems.

Cheng Huang Temple...(城皇庙）

It was nice of my colleagues from Excelics-Shanghai, Hu XiaoYan & Hong YaPing to bring me out for some sightseeing this weekend. Its funny how they treat me like a little boy, coming to the hotel to pick me up and their gentle persistence to see me safe in the cab before they take the light rail after the long day. After the independence and that was expected of me in the US, this treatment really required some getting used to!

城皇庙is pretty grand. With interesting statues and figurines. And not scary like the ones in HawPar Villa! They are pleasant, and emit a certain character in their posture & expressions. Interesting, but commercialized. Not that im complaining. But the appearance of Starbucks in such a place really spoils the rustic feel of the ancient temple.

People actually pay a 150RMB to place their names on tags to ensure good luck for an entire year? You mean i need to pay to be a member of good luck?... Aww man...

Darkness amidst the Light - Disparity between the rich & poor..

Managed to knock off a little early, and i headed down to 外滩（The Bund) for some sight-seeing. I chanced upon this little street off the famous, brightly-lit, 南京路(Nanjing road)

Very odd feel. 南京路 is brightly lit, with plenty of branded name shops. Poshly dressed gentlemen, and ladies throng the streets. But this small alley...appears to be at another end of the spectrum.




Notice how the dark alley emerges onto Nanjing road...

Shanghai "Lights"...

Shanghai is just another city.

But i must admit, their night scenary is impressive.

古浪路-Possibly the Worst Road in Shanghai...

Taxi drivers complain about this road all the time...
You can find the deepest cracks here...

Need i say more?

Note: Videos were taken with extremely steady hands, in an Extended-BMW 7 series

Disclaimer: Pls take anti-motion-sickness pills before watching the video clips.

Shanghai "Nights"..

Had been facing the raging winds and rains(due to the typhoon in Taiwan) on my 1st day in Shanghai, and i did not want to thread too far away from my hotel.

The 2nd night was dry enough to thread further to secure my mobile line and essentials. While im curious about how "outdoor cooking" in Shanghai tastes like, i think i will hold my curiosity until my stomach fully adapts to the conditions here.

Just an idea on what outdoor cooking is like: