Shanghai III

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5th Oct: Our first day in Shanghai was totally uneventful. We had taken the new super fast train from Beijing and it was really nice. My friend and I were impressed with it. I introduce my friend to one of my favourite restaurants, Gil Wonton, in the train station. I love the shrimp and pork wonton soup and the honey tofu stuff (at least that is what I think it is). My friend wasn't too impressed with it, but it did mean I got to eat her leftovers. We headed to the hostel and chilled there. I did some laundry and we sat in the cafe/bar. The cafe/bar was much nicer than the one in Beijing. There wasn't as big a selection of food and drink, but the surroundings were a lot nice. It was a lovely place to relax with some beers and have a good natter. Also since we were going to Hangzhou the next day, we decided that we would leave exploring Shanghai until after our day trip there.

7th Oct: I don't know why, but I was feeling a bit rough today. We got up and went down for breakfast, and then I ended up going back to bed for another few hours as my head wasn't feeling too good. I really hope it wasn't a migraine starting as they really debilitate me. After a while, I dragged myself out of bed so that I could show my friend some of the sights of Shanghai. We took the subway into the centre and had a stroll along Nanjing Lu. The weather was so much warmer here compared to Beijing, it felt like I was back in summer. Beijing had, at times, been pretty chilly, and I definitely hadn't packed enough of the right clothes for it. We were hungry again by this point, so we headed to a cafe just off the main street. I have been to this place before, but never eaten there, so now was my chance. I ordered the fish and chips and they were pretty decent. I would definitely have them again.

After our food, we went for a wander down Nanjing Lu, we didn't get too far at first, as there was a foo market that looked interesting so we went in there to check it out. The lower floor was pretty normal and sold loads of Chinese snacks. My friend bought a good selection to take home for presents. Then we headed upstairs, that's where the food got a bit weirder. I have been living in Asia for years, so I am kind of used to seeing things that we wouldn't normally find in a grocery store in the West, but it was cool for my friend to see all the weird and wonderful stuff that was available for purchase. I loved seeing her reactions to the various things. The skinned pig's head (i.e. just the skin and eyeballs left) definitely provoked a strong reaction! After the market, we headed down to the end of Nanjing Lu and the Bund. Of course, there were a million people there, so it took us even long to walk down the street and get across to the river, but we made it eventually. I had been telling my friend how amazing the Pudong skyline looks at night as it is all lit up and how the Oriental Pearl Tower changes colour. Well, I should have known that this would not be the case this time. When we got there, the skyline was all lit up red. It looked really pretty and we were waiting for it to change colour, but it never did. It seems that to celebrate the National Day holiday it is only lit up red. It was a bit disappointing as it is really cool to watch the color changes.

8th Oct: I still wasn't feeling 100% percent when I woke up, so ended up sleeping a bit more and I finally dragged myself out of bed and after some coffee, dragged myself away from the hostel. We headed back to the downtown area, but this time to the Oriental Pearl TV Tower. We had seen it from across the river the night before, and today was our turn to explore it. The weather was so much better than when I had been in the area only a few weeks ago. Last time I was in the same spot, you could barely make out the tower the rain and clouds. We headed over to the tower and bought tickets in the basement. I warned my friend that when I had been here years ago, I'd had to queue forever to reach the top. However, we were in luck, maybe it was because it was the end of the holiday week, so a lot of people had returned home. We barely had to queue at all, I think we must have waited less than half an hour. Up on the viewing platform, we got to look out over the Shanghai skyline. The views were beautiful. Also the sun was just starting to set when we got to the top, so the sky was a lovely warm colour. I really enjoyed wandering around and seeing the sprawl of Shanghai below us. We went down to the outside viewing platform, which was also really cool, but all the mesh that was in place to protect us, kind of made it hard to get decent photos of the views.

It was time for our final dinner together as my friend was leaving super early the next morning and I was heading down to Shaoxing for a couple of days before making my way back home. I had been in Shanghai the month before to meet a friend from Korea and we had tried to go to a Thai restaurant, Simply Thai, in the IFC mall. However, we had wanted to sit outside on the terrace, but it was unavailable, so we had went elsewhere. The restaurant had looked really nice, so I had stowed it away in the back of my mind to return to if the opportunity arose, and now it had. We were in luck when we went as there were plenty of spots available and we were lead out to the terrace. This is a great spot as you can see the Pudong skyscrapers all around you. It is so cool to look up and see all the fancy, lit up buildings. We had a look at the menu and there were so many delicious things that we wanted to try. For the location, I have to say that the food is pretty reasonably priced. It isn't cheap, but it is not extortionate. We made our choices; opting for a sharing platter to start with, followed by some curried shrimps and a beef curry. The food was really delicious, better than my local Thai place. It was the perfect end to our time together. And we even got to see the Oriental Pearl Tower change colour this time.

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