Lightning Mist: Day 1 & 2 in SHANGHAI!!!

16/17 Aug 06

First I'd like to make a confession that it's only after my last blog that I realised I haven't been adding the Title in all my blogs before 'cos I didn't know how! How embarrassing! Well I've since changed that, but it hasn't really made myself more creative to be honest.

And here's a visual of my new turtle shell I bought over the weekend at Isetan in Singapore. My colleagues said they bought something similar (though of course of different quality) in Shanghai 七浦路 for 20% the price I paid. WHOAR!

I'm in Shanghai!!! Yes I was so excited I almost couldn't sleep the night before I left. And when I finally did arrive after 5 hours stuck in an aisle seat having gone through 2 movies and some MTVs and some soso plane grub, I'm finally here! And a gush of hot air greated me. Great, it's hotter and as humid than in SG.... But ah well, I still love travelling.

Made my way to the hotel my colleague helped me book (St Regis or 瑞级红塔) and took me 60 min from the airport and made me 240 RMB poorer. I was too tired to really think and eagerly got out so I could get some rest soon, that was almost 2350pm.... only to find out today that I WAS CHEATED! The taxi ride is usually 30min, and costs only 140+ RMB!!! According to my Shanghai colleague Jenny, she said if you do encounter such scums, just tell them that you know what the usual price is, and you will sue them if they don't charge you the normal rate. Harhar, or maybe just act really fierce? Tracy made me feel better with the help of some amazing MSN emoticons.

Our office in Shanghai is really nice and overlooks 黄浦, very near the Pearl Tower that looks really funky. Even our pantry is impressive with stash of DIET SNAPPLE, ice cream and WANG WANG!

After class, we went back to the hotel to drop off our laptops, and headed down to 七浦路, what Chayapat calls "Copy Market". So much to buy over there! Thuy & Pat managed to buy themselves a "team travel bag" at only 130 RMB each! Pat is great at bargaining he puts the girls to shame!. We then waited for Hong to arrive in his cab, which took another 20min of waiting. The cab driver overshot and asked if we could walk towards him! Who has ever heard of cab drivers asking passengers to walk to them?!!!!

Anyway, shops have closed by then, so we headed off to Xiang Yang Market (which doesn't exist anymore but the area is still full of shops). There, we met many touters whose persistance I admire. Found out that Pat's cab driver was perplexed that my colleagues wanted to go to a market that didn't exist anymore, so I had to convince him that we just wanted to see the area, we don't need to go to the shop! We ended up waiting again for 30min while Pat's driver made his way slowly towards us. Thuy & I decided to buy ourselves MacDonald's soft serve ice cream (at 3.50 RMB each). Yummy! It tastes different from the ones in Singapore, actually nicer! Must be the milk...

Food hunting was next. I was determined to introduce to my Thai colleagues the ULTRA SPICY SICHUAN food, since they claim chinese food isn't as spicy. Finally found a little hideout by accident which sells chicken & beef hotpot. These are my colleagues waiting eagerly to fill our tummies.

We could choose between mild, medium or ultra spicy versions. We had a mild and medium pot in the end. Here's a picture of my colleagues (Yot and Pat) after tasting the medium spicy pot...

Besides the 2 hot pots, we also had some 小龙包, yang zhou fried rice, pumpkin pancake from 永和. Too much food

After dinner, we decided we have to walk down the Bund. The 服务员 at the shop told us it's at least 20min away from where we were, so hey, why not take a nice stroll after a massive dinner? So we walked... and walked..... and walked even more... and we stopped to ask how far we were away, only to find it's another 30min at least!!!

That's Thuy & I, FINALLY, after 1 whole hour of walking!