Sunday, May 24, 2015

World Expo - Day 1

Time to visit the World Expo then ! We tried to be there early, to avoid queuing. Alas, in vain. The queues just to get in were just ridiculous. I think it's impossible to avoid queueing.

Anyways, we started off by visiting the introductory exhibition, called Pavillion Zero. So the theme of the expo is "How to Feed the World" - obviously an extremely important theme, since it is one of THE biggest challenges for the 21st century for mankind. Especially, the question of how to feed everybody without messing up our planet in the process of it. So Pavillion Zero is supposed to give a history of mankind's relation to food and the challenges we face. Unfortunately, this exhibition kind of personifies what I really dislike about some modern museums. It's all about fancy visuals, without any substance. You get some fancy slogans, and sure, some pretty exhibits, but not the feeling you've actually learnt something. Oh well...

The Expo itself is basically composed of pavillions created by, let's say, bigger/more well-off countries (although some countries, like Finland, are absent), some exhibitions related to the theme of the expo, and then some prefabricated structures where smaller countries can host exhibitions.

Fearing queues, we decided to try to visit only pavillions where the queues were reasonable (otherwise we would just spend two days in queues!). The first pavillion we visited, Sudan, was a bit of a dissapointment (they basically just sold local products from Sudan - it was a bit like being in a bazaar, without the charm of a bazaar).

Brazil's pavillion was more impressive. They'd constructed a kind of climbing net along a long corridoor. We didn't climb on the net, as the queues were, hmm, ridiculous, but happily we could visit the exhibition inside the pavillion without queueing. The exhibition was pretty interesting, showcasing Brazil's ability and role in feeding the world (obviously no mention was done about the rainforest destruction and other environmental sacrifices that comes with it...).

We then, kind of randomly, ended in Bahrain's exhibition, which was housed in a rather unimpressive concrete structure. The pavillion was pretty interesting though - Bahrain is a country I knew very little about so it was kind of interesting. We also had an excellent lunch there.

The next pavillions we visited were Czech Republic, Nepal and Belgium. Of these, Belgium interested me most. They managed to get their pavillion pretty much spot on - the pavillion was impressive architecturally speaking, the themese discussed were contemporary and relevant (they showcased some pretty impressive cylindrical indoor garden devices for growing plants and herbs and also discussed the role of insects in the future in food, yummie!) and some Belgian culinary specialities were on display as well.

Czech Republic put on a pretty good display too - I liked their band playing Czech folk music and their Pilsner Urquel tent (didn't have any, believe it or not?). Nepal was less impressive (I suppose they have more important things to worry about with the recent earthquake and all).

We then checked out Azerbadjan (impressive from the outside), Hungary (not so impressive) and Spain. Spain was particularly disappointing - we queued for quite a while, and I didn't like the pavillion at all (again a case of "let's try to put up some fancy slogans and multimedia, and not worry about the information/learning bit").

After checking out what a supermarkets will be like in the future (hmm, OK, so the prices and names of fruits and veg will be on digital displays rather than printed on paper, not so revolutionary if you ask me. The robots making fruit juice were more impressive), we headed off to the French pavillion. Bravo les Francaises - one of the better pavillions we've seen so far. Similar to the Belgian effort, the French pavillion provided information, impressive architecture, fancy multimedia, information about French gastronomy in rightly judged proportions.

But my favourite "pavillion" of the day had to be Holland. Basically they had put together a kind of fun fair instead of a pavillion, and it was all very cool in an off-beat way. I especially liked their Ferris Wheel restaurant, where the "lady" serving food was actually very obviously a man dressed up as a lady. LOL.

I really liked Poland's effort too - there was a really cool video summarizing Poland's history, and a really nice mirror garden on the rooftop. Not sure the whole pavillion had much to do with feeding the planet though ? Be that as it may, I liked it.

Next stop was the Tree of Life, one of the showcases of the Expo, a big tree-like structure (which rather reminded us of Gadens in the Bay at Singapore - one of our favourite spots over there). We checked out the light and music show (from the China-sponsored, impressive Vanke Pavillion, designed by the American architect David Libeskind) - not that impressive by delight (sure more so at night).

Obviously, we had to visit the Japanese pavillion - and this time we were willing to queue (and queue we did, for more than an hour!). And was it worth the wait ? Sadly, no. We liked some bits of the pavillion, but overall, it was a bit disappointing. (especially the weird restaurant show at the end).

After checking out Russia's contribution (impressive from the outside, less so lon the inside inspite of the free food samples we were given), Estonia (quite OK) and Oman (quite interesting and informative), it was time for some more food! Since we were, after all, in Italy, the choice was easy - Eataly. Eataly is described by Wikipedia as the "largest Italian marketplace in the world". Pretty good way to describe it I suppose - they have restaurants, food counters, grocery stores all around the world. In Italy at least, it's all about local, responsibly sourced food (they collaborate with the Slow Food movement). In the Expo, the concept was a great one I thought - it's like a big food court, with a counter/stand representing each part of Italy. Great food, and not too expensive either. We really enjoyed it.

To finish off an extremely busy day, we checked out the light show at the Tree of Life - and I can confirm my previous statement - it's much more impressive by night time. Worth hanging around for the show, I would say.


So, first impressions of the Expo ? The crowds are way too big, the queues too long. And there's something a bit hypochritical about a hugely commercial enterprise (sponsored by companies like Nestle...) that talks about sustainably feeding the planet. And of course, one has to ask what's going to happen to all the infrastructure that was put in place (metro/train stations, as well as the Expo site itself) once it's all over and done with? Yes, the entrance fee is rather steep (at 39 Euros), but on the other hand, there is plenty to do for a full day. (and apart from the food, the rest of the stuff is free). I won't even go into all the corruption and supposed mafia involvement... But, the bottom line is, we still enjoyed it a lot. Fantastic architecture, and mostly interesting exhibits - we went away very happy.

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