American v Korean SUV cars - No match!

One more series of shots from my Nikkor 40mm f/2.8 Micro DX today ...

4 litre, V6, American made ... Mercury Mountaineer, discontinued in 2010. Price in the UAE, 130K AED or RM$105. Looks crap!

2011 Kia Sportage ... Korean, 2 litre 4-cylinder (A 2.4 litre variant is also available), only costs about 70K AED here (RM$55K - That's Myvi money!).


Looks fabulous!

Taiwanese food at Bellagio, DBS Tower - Puxi, Shanghai

Add: 68 Taicang Lu, near Songshan Lu, Puxi - Shanghai, China
Located: B1/F, DBS Bank Tower
Tel: +86 21 6386 5701
Opening hours: 11am - 10pm, daily

WK's favourite Taiwanese eatery in Shanghai, and it was good :-) Thanks so much for the wonderful treat!


I could do with another Taiwan beer :-)


Some local starters :-)

The mains arrived :-)

Signature ... Oops, national dish I mean. Taiwanese sausage :-)

Wow ... more mains, WK? How many did you order!

Minced chicken and shrimp, lettuce wrap ... Refreshing!

Pork and tofu dishes ... we were in heaven!

And there was dessert too ... a HUGE Taiwanese ice kachang which the 4+3 of us shared!

Shanghai - Driving from Pudong to Puxi

Pudong is home to many of Shanghai's best-known buildings - Oriental Pearl Tower, the Jin Mao Building, the Shanghai World Financial Center.
These modern skyscrapers face directly across from Puxi's historic Bund, the remnant of Shanghai's former concessions.
In fact ... Pudong was formerly a little-developed agricultural area linked only by ferries, Pudong has grown rapidly since the 1990s and emerged as China's financial and commercial hub.

Here's some shots as WK drove us across from Pudong to Puxi back in summer 2011...


Welcome to Puxi!

Puxi (Chinese: 浦西) is known to be the historic center of Shanghai, China, and remains the home of approximately 48% of Shanghai's residents in an area of 288 km². Puxi is separated from Pudong to its east, by the Huangpu River. Despite the growing importance of Pudong's Lujiazui area, Puxi remains Shanghai's cultural, residential and commercial centre.

Singapore's DBS was spotted... as we headed to dinner :-)

Din Tai Fung, Xintiandi - Shanghai

Add: Xintiandi entertainment area / mall - Unit 11A, House 6, 2F, Lane 123, Xin Ye Road
Tel: +86 21 6385 8378
Other branches: DTF website
Opening hours: Daily, 11am-3pm (Lunch) and 5pm-10pm (Dinner)


I just realised that our summer 2011 trip to Shanghai was not completely captured in my previous write-ups, here's bbG's first visit to Din Tai Fung :-) After all, we can't come all the way to Shanghai and not have Xiu Loong Bao!

Pretty ginger!

Reasonably good egg fried rice with pork chop on the side :-)

Cha Chiang Mien ... slurrrrps. I can still taste it :-)

The masterpiece! Yes, its good. Very good :-)

Shanghai - The Bund by night

Here are some photos from our trip to Shanghai in summer 2011 :-)

SLR: Nikon D80 (with MC-DC1 remote shutter release - I like the cabled version, rather then the remote-control option)
Other photos: Wuzhen by night, and more Wuzhen by night ...
Lens: Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8


The Bund :-)


More shots of The Bund ...

Fiat 500C - Luigi is in town

This car has beautiful little exterior features ...

In a market like Abu Dhabi, you are likely to find many more Hummers, Land Cruisers, and even Maybachs, Phantoms or Ghosts then the Fiat 500C. Starting at just under 80,000 AED, or RM$65K, its cute... oops, good value?

Remember that the classic 500 was first launched in the year of Malaysia's independence, 1957 ... this version was launched in 2007, with the convertible being released in 2009. It recently arrived in Abu Dhabi as a 2011 model - 1.4 litre, 16-valve engine which is the same as the hardtop, producing about 100 horsepower. A 5-speed dual transmission is used to deliver the power, with a "tiptronic" function which my friend KCL liked.

Yes, a family of 4 can fit snugly inside. Ask KCL and LEH whom I did this shoot for :-)

Pretty features :-) and gorgeous symmetry.


The interior somehow could not match the exterior in terms of flair ...


Good to see Fiat back on the streets of Abu Dhabi :-)

Up .. or down ...

Pretty. Most certainly YES!
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