Beijing has unveiled its official flower bouquet for the medals presenting ceremonies of the Beijing 2008 Olympic and Paralympic Games…
Seems a bit ordinary… but nobody really cares about the flowers, it’s the medal that counts ain’t so? That makes me wonder… why do they need to present flowers besides the medals?
Moscow is the world’s most expensive city for expatriates for the third consecutive year, according to the latest Cost of Living Survey from Mercer.
Mercer’s survey is arguably the world’s most comprehensive cost of living survey and is used to help multinational companies and governments determine compensation allowances for their expatriate employees.
The survery covers 143 cities across six continents and measures the comparative cost of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment.
Top 10 most expensive cities in 2008
Moscow (Russia), Tokyo (Japan), London (UK), Oslo (Norway), Seoul (South Korea), Hong Kong (China), Copenhagen (Denmark), Geneva (Switzerland), Zurich (Switzerland) and Milan (Italy).
Surprisingly US have only one city in the top 50 (New York at 22nd)… and Canada don’t even make it into top 50. Perhaps we should migrate to that region instead lol.
USD1 = 16,500 Vietnamese Dong, which literally makes me a millionaire in during my Vietnam visit (well, who isn’t?)… it’s actually quite a pain though, for foreign travellers who are slow in counting lol.
Vietnamese Dong (đồng), if not mistaken, is the second least valued currency behind Zimbabwean dollars. The face value of Dongs started rising since late 80s because of inflation; in 1985 the largest banknote was 500, but now 500,000.
Despite the high inflation rate, Vietnam’s economic growth is quite decent over the time span… most Vietnamese are probably living better now as compared to a decade or two ago.
Korean pop diva Lee Hyori is back with her third album “It’s Hyorish”… it has been more than two years since she released her previous album.
Hyori made her comeback live performance last week (July 18) on KBS Music Bank, performing “Invincible Lee Hyori” and “U-Go-Girl”… [edited, video no longer available]
Frankly, I think the songs are just ok; like the live performance though.
There are speculations for the past year or two that Hyori is not as popular as she used to be… but with the charts-topping album sales and the media craze with her latest comeback, Hyori has just proved that she is still invincible.
Below is the full MV of U-Go-Girl, featuring hip-hop artist Nassun…
Popular Korean actor Kwon Sang-woo, 33, announced last week (July 18) that he would be marrying actress Sohn Tae-young on September 28, 2008.
The wedding announcement is not entirely welcomed though; some overfanatic netizens are objecting to the marriage, pointing fingers at Sohn for her past romances.
Some others are speculating that the 28-year-old actress is pregnant and hence the sudden announcement of marriage.
The rumours and criticism were spreading like wildfire, to the extend that Kwon has to make a second announcement (online) to clear the doubts and defend his wife-to-be. [Read more about the saga from Coolsmurf]
It’s tough to be a celebrity, it’s tougher to be a popular one. They have my blessings though… congratulations.
Update – Wedding day is here, with truckload of celebrity guests here and here.
Hong Kong showbiz couple Tony Leung and Carina Lau have tied their knots in a Buddhist inspired ceremony in Paro, Bhutan on July 21.
The wedding was attended by Bhutan’s royalty and celebrities-friends like Kenny B, Cecilia Yip, Brigette Lin and Chang Chen etc. The press were not invited to the wedding, but the couple was considerate enough to release some of their wedding photos to the media…
My first visit to Hanoi, Vietnam, in July 2008… first impression? Chaotic.
Took a cab from Noi Bai Airport to my hotel in Hoan Kiem District… the traffic was quite disorganised by modern standard; rules were almost non-existent, as if whoever had the loudest horns ruled the streets.
Plenty of cars, plenty of motorbikes and plenty of bicycles… Hanoi was definitely a happening city in traffic sense. A bit too chaotic for me to begin with, but I think I got used to it at the end of the trip.
Sharing a few photos taken during the taxi ride; pictures might speak a thousand words, but these pics couldn’t really reflect the noise and buzz of Hanoi…
A group of former South Korean elite soldiers slaughtered live pheasants, Japan’s national bird, outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul last Thursday (July 17) in protest against Japan’s sovereignty claim on Liancourt Rocks. Video below…
The Liancourt Rocks are a group of small islets in waters between Japan and Korea; the islets are also known as Dokdo in Korean or Takeshima in Japanese. Both nations are claiming sovereignty over the islands… and the dispute heated up recently following Japan’s fresh claim of ownership in their textbook guidelines.
The South Koreans protested heavily as expected, and I don’t blame them for doing so. However, cruelly slaughtering live birds in public? That’s too much.
Most foreigners don’t have enough knowledge on who actually owns the island. We can only learn a bit of the story from news and websites; and this kind of bird-killing gimmick certainly won’t go well in global opinions… it achieved nothing besides showing the world a bad image of South Koreans.
