Alright, so I couldn’t finish the last post since I was getting a little tired. If you haven’t read it yet, you can find it here:
So we took a cab ride to the Motel 168 that we were going to stay at. It ended up costing like 50RMB (~$7USD) which isn’t too bad. We actually could’ve taken the subway there for about 2RMB a person but we didn’t yet know how to take it. To be honest, being in Shanghai almost feels like any other city that I’ve been to. What I like most about Shanghai though is the weather since it’s definitely a lot cooler compared to the south. Some photos:
Finally found the Motel after walking around for a bit and by this time we were really hungry:
The restaurant we ate at along with my lunch. By the way, I really love dumplings so I just had to order the xiaolongbao (soup dumpings). The price wasn’t too bad actually as the whole thing cost about $5 USD:
A view from the top of where we stayed at:
It might look a bit ghetto at first, but it’s actually not so bad walking around. The Bund is only a 10-15 minute walk which is where we’re headed! In this area though, there are literally music shops after music shops just lining the street. Kind of interesting to see. I don’t have a picture though…
Some pictures while walking to The Bund and pictures of The Bund itself:
Pictures taken while on the ferry:
Up close view of the Oriental Tower:
And some buildings:
So we actually had a whole itinerary printed out along with bus schedules and places to see but unfortunately… it was left in the car as we got dropped off so we just ended up exploring around. There’s an aquarium near the Oriental Tower so we went there. Before we went though, we stopped by Starbucks real quick just to get some coffee. Surprisingly, the prices are actually about the same compared to the States. If anything, I thought they would be cheaper but go figure. Some pictures of the aquarium:
I took a bunch of photos so I’ll be posting some of them here:
I think these are Piranhas but I don’t remember..
These are the world’s biggest scale fish:
This guy was swimming fast so it was hard to get a clear photo:
Seeing all these fish bunched up together reminds of that scene from Finding Nemo:
Not sure what these are, but I thought they were kind of interesting. They look like sting rays but underneath they look like crabs:
This king crab was staring right at me:
At first, I thought this was a rock but if you look closely it’s actually another fish:
When I saw these jelly fish, I literally stood there for like 5 minutes just staring at them:
We were actually inside the aquarium for a good hour so I would say it was well worth the admission price. Anyways, there was actually a super mall nearby so we went to walk around. This was literally the biggest mall I’ve ever been to. We even got lost just walking around:
There was actually a Toys R Us in this mall and there were a couple of things I wanted to buy but didn’t have enough funds for it. That’ll have to wait until later… 🙂 It was around dinner time so we went to Hooters to get some wings and beer. Of all the places in Shanghai, we ended up choosing an American based restaurant but it was awesome. For one, all the waitresses there are all asian which makes it that much more appealing compared to the Hooters back in the States. They even did a little dance for everyone at the middle of our dinner! The only thing I didn’t like though was the fact that they charged a 10% service charge on the entire bill. I’m really used to not paying for tip anymore so this just really surprised me.
Around this time it was starting to get dark so we decided to take the ferry back to the Bund which actually looks a lot better at night time:
I took a lot more photos but these were the only clear ones that I was able to take. Just looking at these buildings though is really amazing to see the feats that people are able to accomplish. I stood there in awe as I watched these buildings tower over everything else. After visiting the Bund, we took the subway to walking street which is just basically a street of shops and restaurants:
At this point, we were getting a little hungry after walking around these streets for about an hour or so. I was actually trying to look for a dumpling place but couldn’t find it 🙁 Actually, it was on the second floor of this building so we had to take an elevator to get there but I didn’t feel comfortable seeing that there were two other guys there who looked rather suspicious. One thing I’ve learned pretty quickly about China is that you simply cannot trust others so you need to watch your personal belongings at all times. I actually have a friend that had her purse stolen while walking through the streets. Fortunately, nothing like that has happened to me but I’m still pretty careful regardless. We ended up going to Pizza Hut! Their menu is actually a lot different compared to the ones back in the States as they have actually have a lot of Chinese dishes like noodles, soups, etc.
There was actually a club nearby where we went so we went there for about half an hour or so to get some drinks and to just chill. One thing about clubs here is that they play their music REALLY loud to the point where you have to scream in the other person’s ear just to have a conversation. It’s actually kind of annoying but the people there don’t seem to have any complaints. I was tempted to dance with a few people but I got a little nervous. Maybe next time though 🙂 At this point, it was way past midnight so we decided to head back to our rooms to call it a night. The following day, we planned to go to a few museums so until next time!
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