431kmh/h at 14:21

23rd June 2009, 3.13pm

I have arrived, and dustily so. Have successfully navigated my way around a foreign country and its transport system which, in my opinion, might as well be monolingual.

Did you know that the gantry gates to the MRT in Shanghai look exactly like the ones in Singapore? Right down to the colour of the arrows on the sidebars. Only they haven't learnt the automated gates technique.

I have become extremely excited about being in new, unexplored land and kept smiling to myself in the MRT (Two Chinese boys thought I was a very queer personage).

On a sidenote, Shanghai's mulptiple unpaved roads and trolley bags do not make a good match. I keep clanking around.

Ethereal Places

23rd June 2009; 7.14am
So this is what the waking earth looks like.

(Although at this point of time, booking an 8.05am flight is an act that can only be termed as overly enthusiastic/optimistic)

I am sleepy but at the same time, so thrilled and exhilarated. It makes a strange combination because while part of me wants to run around the the travellators at the airport, another part wants to curl up on them and fall asleep to the hum of its strange lullaby, amidst unsuspecting travellers.

I can't remember the last time I walked so slowly.

And when it was 11 minutes to Gate A21 (nowadays they tell you how many more minutes it is to your gate which is crazy since people only care when they are late and when they are late, they will be late regardless of whether they know the time or not), I got scared. Of being alone; of getting lost.

Did you know that the colour of morning is a greyish green, with threads of gold?

In Between Here And Now

23rd June 2009; 4.40am

When you finally admit to yourself that you’re not sure of who you really are, the world becomes infinite. There’s nothing left to keep you in, but there’s also nothing left to keep you from falling off the edge of the earth. This uncertainty is terribly frightening, but it’s also oddly liberating: when nothing’s for sure, how many mistakes can you possibly make?

This, I guess, is my really strange way of explaining why I bought a plane ticket for one to Shanghai.