Day 6 in shanghai.

We initially wanted to go Suzhou, but after the amazing race to hangzhou, we didn’t think we could manage 2 of such intensive days consecutively and dropped all plans on Suzhou. And chill we did.

Lunch at pizza hut! I have heard raves about pizza Hut’s menu in china in my ex job and have been dying to try it. Their kitchen set up (and HK’s) is also different from other countries so they have a lot more flexibility in the food options they can serve. They have a special afternoon tea segment that was largely successful and I was curious to check it out.

Our salad from our set meals, chicken karaage, and fried sweet potato balls with cheese. I bit off one of the balls to show the inside. It’s purple sweet potatoes and they are delish. Very amazingly yummy and I was so inspired to make my own when I got back to Singapore, which I didn’t of cos.

Our soups – minestrone and chicken. My soup was bland and totally disappointing.

Do you know the chinese name for Tabasco? Now you know..

Baked escargots, pepperoni pizza and lasagne.

My verdict? They have a rather extensive menu with a lot of interesting drinks, I had some milk tea with chocolate bubbles pearls that burst in your mouths oozing chocolate and some other exotic concoction that I totally couldn’t recall since I didn’t take a picture. Despite the extensive menu, I find most of the items i ordered quite average, or below average. The potato balls was the only thing that I was interested in so I guess I won’t make a return trip, unless it’s just for tea where they serve a drink and some cakes.

With our tummies filled, we went shopping! Window shopping I mean..

At the famous nanjing pedestrian walkway. It’s stretches to 5.5km long!

A vintage car on display at one corner..

Random strangers on the street.

Stretches on and on..

The apple store in nanjing road. We walked to one end of it and I was going to walk to 上海老街 (old shanghai street) when Bernice freaked out at the extend I was prepared to walk and grab a cab and shoved me into it decided to flag a cab.

Arriving at the street! At one glance, the architecture blew me away. Some of the buildings date all the way back to the Qing dynasty! Talking about ancient times.

Self shot.

Check out the elaborate ceiling at one of the gates to Yu yuan/chenghuang temple area.

Some random building in the middle of some pond that looks somewhat like a tea house of some sorts.

The Xiao long bao of this restaurant is famous. There is a super long queue at the side of the building for take-outs. I wanted to try but the queue puts me off. You can also opt to dine in the restaurants but you’ll have to pay more as compared to the take-out version. I didn’t try in the end. Boo.

At the door of Yu yuan, which is an oriental garden. I wasn’t very keen to join the crowd in the heat so I skipped this.

Roasted quails on sale. Or was it deep fried?

Cheng Huang temple（城隍庙). one is supposed to visit this place when in shanghai, else it would be deemed as not visiting at all. I was merely at the entrance as the temple has already closed when I made my way there. I was 5-10 minutes late, the gates were closed and when i peered inside, they were washing the temple grounds already.

By the roadside. We walked a bit in the surrounding malls and I stood here waiting to be picked up by my uncle for dinner. Bernice wasn’t feeling too well so she headed back for a nap and some rest.

The bund! This was on my to go list and my uncle offered to bring me here. Viewing deck on my right.

Pudong across the Huangpu river from the bund.

Isn’t it lovely with the sun setting? Pardon my crappy pictures taken with my iPhone.

With my aunt, whom arrived in Shanghai that morning from singapore. She stays in shanghai with my uncle and makes random trips back to Singapore to visit relatives.

The clock tower.. Pardon my need to camwhore from the viewing deck.

We had a drink in a little cafe for a short while as when I came out, the sun has set and it’s a totally different sight!

The stretch of the bund lit up.

Across the river where pudong is.

I only had a few minutes as the driver was waiting by the side of the road, so I only managed to snap a few pictures before I hopped into the car.. Cruising along the bund. Very lovely sight.

Dinner was with a bunch of fogies that were my uncle’s classmates in school. There were at least 6-7 of them. Gosh. I didn’t know about it else I wouldn’t have gone. I thought i was having dinner with my cousins! =( I was bored to death on their topics and 95% of the time, I didnt know what they were saying. I don’t mean to be rude, but it really takes more than just nice food for a dinner to be enjoyable and I spent my time thinking how I wish I was having dinner with Bernice instead. It didn’t help that the dinner was painfully slow and I was watching the time because I was supposed to meet Bernice for after dinner drinks at the bund area.

Dinner at Jesse restaurant, apparently quite popular and famous (and winner of many awards) and we had to wait quite a while for a table since the dining area was so small and it’s toilet is prolly the most crammed toilet I have even been to in my life.

There were only 4-5 tables on the ground floor with a narrow stairway leading upstairs which has a few more tables. Never been to a more crammed restaurant than this!

The menu.

And the food.

Bean curd skin in chilli oil and some wine chicken in the background

some jelly fish thingy. actually, im not very sure but its crunchy and yummy with a very interesting texture/taste but i couldnt resist second and third helpings

Totally no idea what this is already. My memory is failing me!

Lotus root with glutinous rice in its holes. A rather interesting dish that’s a little sweet.

Braised tao pok.

Bamboo shoots.

We had some Chinese wine together with all the small dishes. Kinda potent for me. I took a sip but didn’t drink anymore cos I was still expressing milk and storing them in shanghai. Yes. I was still at it while on holiday.

Some crab roe sauce.

Chicken in clay pot. This was very yummy and flavourful! Can’t recall what it’s called, besides if you realized by now, my Chinese kinda sucks.

A fried fish amidst a bed of straw. Very interesting way of preparing the food and serving it up as it is.

Some bean curd roll..

Stir fried celery with mushrooms.

Anther fish, done in a different style. I prefer this a lot more. Crispy, fresh and yummy.

Doesn’t it feels like there were tonnes of dishes and they didn’t seemed to end? I felt the same way during dinner. My dining companions also find it amusing that I was taking pictures of everything. I was really trying to keep myself occupied and not look bored!

Halfway through, I think I did the rudest thing ever. I just announced to my uncle that I had to leave and was meeting a friend. I stood up and said my byes and got out.

Rude, yes. Happy, definitely yes. Relieved, super! It was such a pain at such a long dinner with no one to talk to. Goodness! I immediately called Bernice and made plans to meet her for our drinks!

The gorgeous view from vue bar, the grand Hyatt shanghai.

One of the main reason why I was in such a hurry to leave dinner was because I wanted to catch the lights going out at the bund at 10pm!

I made it there just in time, 5 minutes before the lights went out.

The pudong side.

The building I was in..

I heard the clock tower chimed, then one by one, the buildings’ light went out! And then.. It’s all gone!

I took a video of it actually, which explains why I dont have pictures of it happening!

Right where we were seated, it was an open top and the winds were so strong, it’s actually pretty cold to hang around!

We did make small chat with 3 guys who asked if they could share our table for a while and then promptly finished our drinks and ended the day there because we were both shivering despite our jackets and our phone battery were been drained drastically from the cold.

It was a lovely, relaxing day and it would have been perfect less that draggy dinner. I know, I sound like an ingrate.. Haha!

And there, day 6 in shanghai gone in a flash. I didn’t think my holiday would end that fast! I was really enjoying every bit of it, enjoying the freedom and not have anything to do with baby. It was a great sanity check for me to be away and doing girly things.

I’m dreaming about it more as I type this!

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