Day 74 : Sao Paulo

After 5 hours bus ride, we arrived in Sao Paulo at 5am in the morning.  It was cold!!!  It was too early to go to our friends’ place at that hour, so we spent the next 5 hours at the bus terminal and tried to get some additional sleep.

We left the bus terminal at about 11am and my first impression of Sao Paulo as we left the terminal.. It’s so city-city!!! Lots of buildings, highways, cars, fog etc. Not sure if I am going to like this city…

Aliang and I separated ways half way to head towards our respective friends’ house, and not knowing if we may meet again over the next few months, we said our goodbyes and exchanged well wishes.

Met up with my friend Melissa and subsequently went to the largest park in Sao Paulo – Parque de Ibirapuera.  It is a huge park and even though I spent about an hour walking around the park, I still did not completely finish walking the whole place. 

One can also almost get lost here!  Nevertheless, it is a really pleasant place to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city, with a large lake in the middle and lots of tracks for joggers and cyclists.

I headed towards Paulista Avenue, the famed street in Sao Paulo, and it just emphasised further my initial impression of the city.  This seems to be the heart of the business district, filled with tall buildings and lots of cars. 

Spotted a few rhinos though… Of course not real ones, but rather life-size with painted bodies, and it seems like there are many of such rhinos scattered across the city. 

My next stop, Liberdade.  Liberdade is supposed to be the so called Japanese district and this is probably the only place that I have found so far that makes me like Sao Paulo, and that is because there are many Asian food markets here!  I heard that Sao Paulo is the city with the highest number of Japanese population living outside of Japan, and it is probably for this reason that there are a number of Asian markets here, with about 50% of the store carrying Japanese products. 

Things are not cheap though, but if I were staying more days, I would probably have bought some Asian ingredients and do my own cooking.  Nevertheless I still managed to buy something Asian here for my dinner – Korean Shin Ramyon!  Yippee!

It is nice to have some Asian food after much time, even if it is instant noodles.  Hot and spicy and perfect for a cold day!