Day 4 in SHANGHAI!!!

Day 4 was great fun!

21 Aug 06, Sat

Thuy had to catch a flight at 10+. We woke up early morning to grab breakfast from across the street (along Dong Fang Road) at Noodle Brat. Unable to find 豆浆油条, we stuck to 小龙包, zha jiang mian, and 锅贴. All these cost only 30 RMB and was shared between 4 people!

That's Jane checking out one of the 小龙包s, and Thuy explaining something to Tien.

No other drinks were available in the shop as it was too early (yeah they didn't even have time to boil water!!! No tea!) , so we grabbed some tetra-packed soya bean from the convenience store next door.

I bought the chocolate 'cos the packaging was fun! My first time drinking milk out of a pillow!

Thuy left for the airport, while Jane, Tien & I headed off to Shanghai South Railway Station to catch a train to Hang Zhou. We were pretty impressed by what we saw!




Jane & I were bored on the train (it's a 2 1/2 hours ride), so she bought some dried tofu snack, and I cut a peach.

Reached Hang Zhou about 12.30pm, and managed to buy tickets back to Shanghai. Here's Hang Zhou's famous 西湖, where the lovers' stories (白蛇传记, 梁山伯与祝英台) were based... Jane claimed how all lakes would have monsters (like Nessy) but here in 西湖, only love stories instead. She almost wanted to stay behind, soaking in the scenery and make poems under the trees!

We tried to walk to 搂外搂 for lunch along the causeway (驻地?).
Tourist shot! Jane is so funny, peering out at me like that!

The walk proved to be too long, and we needed to get to lunch soon, so we hailed for a ride which cost only RMB 20! I didn't manage to capture the picture of 3 of us squeezing onto a little bike/wagon thingy which is meant for 2 people. We were stuck at one of the bridges and couldn't go over 'cos we proved to be too heavy a load. A kind pedestrian actually helped pushed us over. I had to jump off briefly too, and run to hop back on! That was hilarious!


Lunch at last! That's Tien's beer.

Beggar's Chicken

东坡肉 with 馒头

Fried bean curd skin with chee cheong fun sauce and Tien's chopsticks 'cos he couldn't wait.

馒头 close up! I though the pattern was pretty cool!

东坡酥, tastes like the pineapple tarts we have, can't remember what the filling was but it was nice.

note: check out the pun - 东坡酥 vs 苏东坡

That's our other dessert, Hashima in steamed papaya. Yum!

After lunch, we managed to find a nice cab driver who brought us around in the leeetle bit of time we have left. 1st stop to the famous 龙井茶 place. Tea is SO EXPENSIVE!!!

Dragon Tien in Dragon Seat.

note: Dragon Seat 'cos Qian Long sat on it apparently.

龙井 (Dragon Well)

note: Dragon Well 'cos Qian Long peered into the well and a strand of his hair fell in, so the water hence forth is deemed to have 龙气

I like this rock so I took a picture!


We rushed back to the train station, with only 6 minutes to get to dash across the ticketing guards, pass the waiting rooms, down 2 flights of stairs, and into our train. THANK GOODNESS we made it! Otherwise we'd have to wait for another 2 hours!
Hang Zhou is great! We'd love to go back and have a better visit next time round. This trip was too hurried, and we spent the same amount of time there and on the train itself.

We were so tired it was great to be back at hotel. Jane was so tired she had to go for spa. Tien & I went to dinner with his colleagues (based in Shanghai). We still had energy to go out with Tien's ex-colleague (Zhen Ze) after. He brought us to Cloud 9, the bar on 80th floor of Hyatt. Very very good view of Shanghai. Jane & I had hot chocolate which tasted like hot milk with a little bit of chocolate smell harharhar!

We then went to xintiandi (新天地) but didn't manage to find a nice place, so off we went to Babyface. Entrance fee was RMB 80 each, with no drinks either! Expensive. The girls clubbing were all head turners, very well dressed, made up, definte eye candies! The guys.... well.... erm... we'll leave it as that.

Quite a tiring day I must say!