It's been a while since I last wrote I had Mum and Dad's visit in April and then what can only be described as a whirlwind May. The reason why...a trip to Brazil for research. My journey to Brazil from Singapore was mammoth. 10568 miles to be precise and nearly 30 hours from door to door. Probably the furthest I have travelled in one go. My saving grace...my Business class seat. Or should I say bed. I can honestly say that my first long haul business class experience on Singapore Airlines was nothing but first class! Arriving in Brazil I was expecting to be tired and prepared to pass out on my bed. Instead I actually felt quite refreshed and Celeste and I decided to get involved as much as we could and on the recommendation of the concierge we made our way to a local restaurant. None of the waiters spoke English and after five minutes we are joined at our table by the restaurant owners sister, Elizabeth, who spoke very good English and recommends a local dish. Moqueca. A Brazilian seafood stew based on fish, onions, garlic, tomatoes and cilantro, slowly cooked with no water added and served in a huge clay pot. My first Brazilian dish was nothing less than delicious. All washed down of course with a traditional cachaca Caipirinha!
A day to kill before works starts, and thanks to our client Kim who is a fantastic organizer we take a tour to Embu das Artes, a city within Sao Paulo, but a 30 minute drive away from where we are staying. An interesting place full of local arts. Paintings, wood carving, jewelry, and food. All very colorful with lots of food to taste, drinks to sample and incredible people to watch!
Another traditional Brazilian lunch at Restaurant O Garimpo, suckling pig...again, absolutely delicious!
Having private drivers to drive us around the city was incredible. Supplied by our client they would drive us to wherever we wanted to go and wait for us until we were ready to move on. Our first stop...Shopping Vila Olimpia to see why Brazilian's love to shop so much! A very premium shopping mall with not many recognisable brands just lots of very unique boutique shops and lots of glamorous locals to go with them! Our second stop and time for dinner. Fogo de Chao. If any of you get the chance to visit dinner here is a MUST...
The first part of the week was spent in consumer research. Long days and attention demanding. From Wednesday onwards I spent the majority of my time in the office and in my hotel room making design refinements to the winning routes from research. But, again, thanks to Kim we managed to get out for the day on Friday to see some of the wonderful city. Highlights including, Parque Ibirapuera (Ibirapuera Park). Here is the Obelisk of Sao Paulo, the planetarium, Auditorio Ibirapuera created by Osacr Niemeyer, an architect specializing in international modern architecture who at 104 is still designing! What are the chances of me still designing packaging when I'm 104?!
From here we visited the Jardins district where the uber rich live! A short walk through Parque Trianon/Parque Tenente Siquira Campos (Trianon Park). Located along Paulista Avenue the park dates back to 1892, when it was inaugurated in that year with the opening of Avenida Paulista. This 45,000-square-meter park is full of mature trees and vegetation that features native Brazilian trees and plants. Some say there are 300-year old trees in the park, which reminds you of the Atlantic tropical forest that once spread across much of the Brazilian coast. Our day-trip continues to Julio Prestes Train Station which housed the Sala Sao Paulo and Estacao da Luz, which reminded me a lot of London Waterloo! We were now "downtown" and spend a few hours in Municipal Mercado, the central market which is housed in a stunning example of eclectic industrial architecture. Here there are thousands of food items on offer, literally from soup, to nuts, tropical fruits, meat, fish as well as meals upstairs. Here we sample mortadella (bologna)...enormous sandwiches! I am literally snap happy with my camera and can not get enough of the visual symphony that this city has to offer. Below two of my favorite shots from the trip. These buildings are super high and super cool, vivd and beautiful.
Edificio Italia is a 168 metre tall 46 story skyscraper, the 2nd tallest building in Sao Paulo. We were lucky enough to get taken up to the top where we had 360 panoramic views of the city. And what views they were.
No trip to Brazil would be complete without a trip to the Havaianas concept store at Rua Oscar Freire Street. According to Excellence Mystery Shopping International the Rua Oscar Freire is the 8th most luxurious street in the world and second in the America's behind 5th Avenue in New York. I was in flip-flop heaven!
So, our last night in the city. And what better way to spend it. On top of Hotel Unique celebrating my birthday at Skye Bar. On the rooftop of the hotel it has a crimson red pool and an underwater sound system! Stunning views over Ibirapuera Park and the entire Sao Paulo skyline. The food...innovative and delicious! A great end to the trip! Well, not quite, one more day left of work before the trek home! Not all bad I suppose. There could be worse things then spending your birthday in the air whilst travelling on a business class flight being served "poached" eggs and champagne for breakfast! So, Mount Everest last year, Sao Paulo this year...next years 30th has a lot to live up to and needs to be epic!
Having private drivers to drive us around the city was incredible. Supplied by our client they would drive us to wherever we wanted to go and wait for us until we were ready to move on. Our first stop...Shopping Vila Olimpia to see why Brazilian's love to shop so much! A very premium shopping mall with not many recognisable brands just lots of very unique boutique shops and lots of glamorous locals to go with them! Our second stop and time for dinner. Fogo de Chao. If any of you get the chance to visit dinner here is a MUST...
"Welcome to Fogo de Chão® (fo-go dèe shoun), an authentic Brazilian steakhouse. In 1979, Fogo® began sharing the gaucho way of preparing meat in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Today, our gaucho chefs still expertly grill each of our 15 cuts of meat and offer you continuous tableside service. We invite you to enjoy the delicious preparations of our gaucho chefs along with our gourmet salad bar, authentic Brazilian side dishes, and award-winning wine list. Welcome to Fogo de Chão."
It is a meat-lover's heaven! Gaucho chefs grilling all sorts of different meat. Amazing food and unique service. The whole experience was incredible. Once you are seated we were explained to the basics of how the service works and each given a round disc, green on one side, red on the other. Similarly to traffic lights, if you flip your card to green the signal is sent to the servers that you are ready to eat! Within seconds of turning the card to green I was surrounded by servers hovering over me with over sized skewers of meat. Beef. Lamb. Chicken. Pork. You name it, they had it! They carve and you collect with miniature tongs. The tastiest meat I have ever tasted. Even the lamp chops were divine! All topped off with a salad cart that puts the Harvester to shame that's for sure.
I often have moments in my life when I want to physically reach all the way around the world and pick people up to drop them into whatever scene it is I'm currently in. In this instance I know that my dad would have loved this experience! The only disappointing thing for me...the fact that we had had such a big lunch not that long before. This is definitely one of those places where you have to have a small amount of food during the day to well and truly take advantage of what this restaurant has to offer.
The first part of the week was spent in consumer research. Long days and attention demanding. From Wednesday onwards I spent the majority of my time in the office and in my hotel room making design refinements to the winning routes from research. But, again, thanks to Kim we managed to get out for the day on Friday to see some of the wonderful city. Highlights including, Parque Ibirapuera (Ibirapuera Park). Here is the Obelisk of Sao Paulo, the planetarium, Auditorio Ibirapuera created by Osacr Niemeyer, an architect specializing in international modern architecture who at 104 is still designing! What are the chances of me still designing packaging when I'm 104?!
From here we visited the Jardins district where the uber rich live! A short walk through Parque Trianon/Parque Tenente Siquira Campos (Trianon Park). Located along Paulista Avenue the park dates back to 1892, when it was inaugurated in that year with the opening of Avenida Paulista. This 45,000-square-meter park is full of mature trees and vegetation that features native Brazilian trees and plants. Some say there are 300-year old trees in the park, which reminds you of the Atlantic tropical forest that once spread across much of the Brazilian coast. Our day-trip continues to Julio Prestes Train Station which housed the Sala Sao Paulo and Estacao da Luz, which reminded me a lot of London Waterloo! We were now "downtown" and spend a few hours in Municipal Mercado, the central market which is housed in a stunning example of eclectic industrial architecture. Here there are thousands of food items on offer, literally from soup, to nuts, tropical fruits, meat, fish as well as meals upstairs. Here we sample mortadella (bologna)...enormous sandwiches! I am literally snap happy with my camera and can not get enough of the visual symphony that this city has to offer. Below two of my favorite shots from the trip. These buildings are super high and super cool, vivd and beautiful.
No trip to Brazil would be complete without a trip to the Havaianas concept store at Rua Oscar Freire Street. According to Excellence Mystery Shopping International the Rua Oscar Freire is the 8th most luxurious street in the world and second in the America's behind 5th Avenue in New York. I was in flip-flop heaven!
So, our last night in the city. And what better way to spend it. On top of Hotel Unique celebrating my birthday at Skye Bar. On the rooftop of the hotel it has a crimson red pool and an underwater sound system! Stunning views over Ibirapuera Park and the entire Sao Paulo skyline. The food...innovative and delicious! A great end to the trip! Well, not quite, one more day left of work before the trek home! Not all bad I suppose. There could be worse things then spending your birthday in the air whilst travelling on a business class flight being served "poached" eggs and champagne for breakfast! So, Mount Everest last year, Sao Paulo this year...next years 30th has a lot to live up to and needs to be epic!
To finish ... a picture taken on my last day in Brazil. The colors I think most certainly sum up Sao Paulo as a city. Vibrant. I am so chuffed that I was given this incredible opportunity to spend as long as I did in Brazil. From my taster of South America I am sure that I will be back! Very soon!
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