7th June 2012.
It was a free and easy day of the congress, whereby the organising committee had arranged for us bus trips for sight seeing around Rio city. Why would they gave us an off day from the cold and wet congress site? So I asked Daniel, a German who speaks Mandarin. Basically, with his knowledge on Latin language, the day was called Corpus Christi (Well, honestly, it reminded me of Corpus luteum, the yellow body which secretes some female hormones in the ovary). It would probably be my first time to hear about Corpus Christi Day. Literally, 'Corpus' means body, and 'Christi' refers to Jesus Christ. So this 'Christ's corpse day' was about a day to celebrate the body and blood of Jesus Christ observed mainly by the Catholic Churches. On this public holiday, some shops in the shopping malls in Rio city were closed, some operated half day, and some even rest between 12-3pm.
There were restaurants of buffet styles where they generally weighed your plate and rated the price by kilograms. You could have many vegetables in a plate which is lighter and cheaper, or many meats. I guessed people in the congress who had enough of the vegetarian food would choose to eat the local meat product. Actually Brazilian food was very wide variety due to their hundreds years of culture background and rich in various spices and food products in their country. A Brazilian food won't be considered as a Brazilian dishes if it was without feijões, one kind of beans favoured by all Brazilian. So, eating Brazilian food must accompany with Guarana soda drink. It's as common as drinking Coke among Brazilian. When I took the first sip of this drink, I couldn't stand its high soda level but, later on I started to like its taste. I drank it slowly with the ice cubes as if I was drinking beer (though I don't drink beer).
So, due to late departure, endless waiting and waiting, we went to the famous Copacabana Beach, shopped in a mall somewhere in the centre of Rio where we got our first free wifi. There I grabbed a chance to exchange money and bought a Brazilian Samba music "Lapa 2". It required many paperwork for foreigner to exchange money, they will prepare a document in Portugese language and ask you to sign even though you don't understand a single word of it. The rate to exchange from US dollar to Brazilian Reais is 1 to 1.9 (roughly) including tax. Therefore, because of this restricted process, it took a long time and long queue for everybody to get their Reais.
Before we ended our trip, we jumped out to Maracana, the football stadium for World Cup 2014 which is now in construction stage and took a photo outside of its compound. We shopped in Barra shopping mall which is the largest shopping mall in the city, it's newer and trendier to young people. Barra is a newly developed neighbourhood where it attracts younger generations to live compared to Copacabana. Don't believe? You'll find more old people walking at the wavy black and white mosaic pavement but more youngster in Barra area. One more thing, Barra beach is the longest beach in Rio and it's good spot to surf!! So, let's back to Barra shopping. I was impressed with a huge music shop and a guitar shop in lower ground. Me, Daniel and Ezra from Singapore were looking for Tim phonecard, but sadly we couldn't get one because it required Brazilian document for registration work and our passports didn't work for this! So I randomly grabbed a girl, Marion whom I have spoken to at the CD shop earlier and asked them what we could do for a basic phonecard. Thankfully, for being so lucky, that Marion's mother was willing to help us to purchase the simcard with her Brazilian ID. Along with the R12 simcard, we got to enjoy free 3G for 10 days!
The weather in Rio was really... unexpected. Its temperature can go up to 28 degree in sunny day, but can drop to 16 degree in the rainy day. I'm type of easily get cold. So, the day was very, very cold as it's rainy day (It's been raining for 4 days in Jacarepagua) as I didn't prepare any winter clothes or jumper for my trip in Brazil... but thankfully I have Nukleus the organic cotton T-shirt kept my body warm and comfortable in these cold days.
Before I end my blog today, I'd like to thank Mr. C.W. Tan, the CEO of Nukleus for sponsoring 7 organic cotton t-shirts and cash worth RM1000 to me and I presented two to other two Malaysian delegates, Bernard and Yu Kin Len. It's good to wear these basics because the shirts are made of organic materials from GOTS and Lenzing. Their products are manufactured under environmentally friendly and socially responsible conditions (the packing box is made of recycled items and environmentally friendly ink, too). Besides, Nukleus supports the WWF conservational work too. So, if you are interested to know more about this organic cotton inner wear or basics, you may surf www.nukleusshop.com. =D
Further read up:
Copacabana beach, Palace: http://www.copacabana.info/copacabana-palace-hotel.html
Barra shopping: http://www.barrashopping.com.br/
links:
nukleus: www.nukleusshop.com/
YB Shuhaimi's blog: srimuda.blogspot.com/
En Nature Marketing： rose888tan@yahoo.com
It was a free and easy day of the congress, whereby the organising committee had arranged for us bus trips for sight seeing around Rio city. Why would they gave us an off day from the cold and wet congress site? So I asked Daniel, a German who speaks Mandarin. Basically, with his knowledge on Latin language, the day was called Corpus Christi (Well, honestly, it reminded me of Corpus luteum, the yellow body which secretes some female hormones in the ovary). It would probably be my first time to hear about Corpus Christi Day. Literally, 'Corpus' means body, and 'Christi' refers to Jesus Christ. So this 'Christ's corpse day' was about a day to celebrate the body and blood of Jesus Christ observed mainly by the Catholic Churches. On this public holiday, some shops in the shopping malls in Rio city were closed, some operated half day, and some even rest between 12-3pm.
Queuing up before hook onto bus, and it took us an hour or more. It's so hard to coordinate 300 and more people in one time.
A view of Tijuca National Park, one of its peaks.
On the way to the city, we saw a lake here, I hope it's Lagoa.
An unknown statue to me.
Brazilian Dish (Typical Asian newly developed habit: snap the photo of food before we eat. hahahha!)
Tadda! My lunch worth 25 Reais (about RM40!)
Quiet shopping mall, I guess is Rio Sul, due to public holiday.
There were restaurants of buffet styles where they generally weighed your plate and rated the price by kilograms. You could have many vegetables in a plate which is lighter and cheaper, or many meats. I guessed people in the congress who had enough of the vegetarian food would choose to eat the local meat product. Actually Brazilian food was very wide variety due to their hundreds years of culture background and rich in various spices and food products in their country. A Brazilian food won't be considered as a Brazilian dishes if it was without feijões, one kind of beans favoured by all Brazilian. So, eating Brazilian food must accompany with Guarana soda drink. It's as common as drinking Coke among Brazilian. When I took the first sip of this drink, I couldn't stand its high soda level but, later on I started to like its taste. I drank it slowly with the ice cubes as if I was drinking beer (though I don't drink beer).
So, due to late departure, endless waiting and waiting, we went to the famous Copacabana Beach, shopped in a mall somewhere in the centre of Rio where we got our first free wifi. There I grabbed a chance to exchange money and bought a Brazilian Samba music "Lapa 2". It required many paperwork for foreigner to exchange money, they will prepare a document in Portugese language and ask you to sign even though you don't understand a single word of it. The rate to exchange from US dollar to Brazilian Reais is 1 to 1.9 (roughly) including tax. Therefore, because of this restricted process, it took a long time and long queue for everybody to get their Reais.
Christo the Redeemer in the mist. It's not a good day to go up the mountain. You won't see anything from the top.
going to have heavy rain. Beach football is very common in Rio.
Copacabana Palace is one of the best places for very important people in South America since its opening in 1923. Built by French architect in stucco-fashioned style. It's the landmark of Copacabana. I didn't have that luck to live there, but I stayed in Capanacopa hostel. (just a shift of the word, the experience can be so much different>o<)
Maracana will be standing in the eyes of the world in 2014 World Cup.
Before I end my blog today, I'd like to thank Mr. C.W. Tan, the CEO of Nukleus for sponsoring 7 organic cotton t-shirts and cash worth RM1000 to me and I presented two to other two Malaysian delegates, Bernard and Yu Kin Len. It's good to wear these basics because the shirts are made of organic materials from GOTS and Lenzing. Their products are manufactured under environmentally friendly and socially responsible conditions (the packing box is made of recycled items and environmentally friendly ink, too). Besides, Nukleus supports the WWF conservational work too. So, if you are interested to know more about this organic cotton inner wear or basics, you may surf www.nukleusshop.com. =D
Further read up:
Copacabana beach, Palace: http://www.copacabana.info/copacabana-palace-hotel.html
Barra shopping: http://www.barrashopping.com.br/
Me and the Future We Want banner, sponsored by nukleus shop, Ronson Printing, En Nature Marketing and YB Shuhaimi Hj Shafiei, member of the Selangor State Assembly.
links:
nukleus: www.nukleusshop.com/
YB Shuhaimi's blog: srimuda.blogspot.com/
En Nature Marketing： rose888tan@yahoo.com
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