Ground Zero

KB warned us that Saturday and Sunday would be the coldest days in our entire trip and his weather forecast proved to be accurate. During these days, the highest temperature was 5 degrees and it dipped to as low as zero degrees in the evening. My gaaaaad, it was freezing!

As mentioned in the last post, we decided to head back to Yuyuan since we were pressed for time during our first visit. We opted to have lunch at the World Famous Dimsum Restaurant located at the center of the Market. We weren't sure if that was just a description for the restaurant or its name was written in Shanghainese. Either way, the place turned out to be a treat! They had a variety of xiao long dim sum which I thoroughly enjoyed! My dad was also very happy because he found some pork siomai and hakaw -- low end dumplings according to our english speaking server. He was so frustrated with the xiao long bao! Lagi daw siyang napapaso! Heehee.




After lunch, we all parted ways. Cousins Inc. decided to spend the afternoon at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum (SSTM), Samahang No Kids went to the Urban Planning Museum while the Oldies stayed at Yuyuan to indulge in a little retail therapy. The cab ride there was long and tedious. Just entertained ourselves by taking pictures of the busy streets and the huge and imposing structures. When we get to SSTM, we have to wait another hour as KB and family decide to take the train because they don't allow 4 adults plus one child in one cab. Hello! The 'adults' were aged 12 and 8! Oversized nga lang. Heehee.



Since so much time was wasted sa 'hintayan', we opted to just watch the 430pm showing at the IMAX theater instead of going around the SSTM. We were advised that two hours would not be enough to go around the whole area and so we wouldn't get our money's worth. Pero naman, yung movie, in Mandarin! Ano yon. Oh well, we might as well go along with the plan since we went all the way there na rin. Of course this did not seem to affect my two angels who were amused regardless of the chinese audio. After the movie, we made our way back to Nanjing for our 630pm appointment with the rest of the gang.


Since this would be our last stress-free dinner in the city, we opted for the buffet in the Tatler Restaurant at the JC Mandarin Hotel. To this family, buffet means eat until you can't breathe. Which is exactly what we did! Im sure nalito sa amin yung resto because even the kids were big eaters! They had to continously refill all the stations because parang dinaanan ng bagyo.

After dinner, the four of us crossed over to Plaza 66 to look around a bit and try to work out the calories we piled on. Plaza 66 is super high-end and you can go around the whole day without buying a thing. Ang mahal kasi! After our short stroll, we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep.

The 30th would be our last day here. As usual, we started at 11:00am na. We made our way to the Shanghai Uncle Restaurant as recommended by Dondi's HS pal and Shanghai resident Candy. I first caught a glimpse of the resto's ad in the cab we were riding. It looked a bit sleazy but open heart, open mind diba.

The place turned out to be the best restaurant we had eaten in! All the dishes we ordered were wiped out! We had noodles that looked like soba with little bits of chorizo sprinkled all over. It was also my first time to taste hamonado na duck (imagine duck jerkey). My dad also took a chance on boiled/braised pork. OMG. To die for. Melt in your mouth pork liempo--hard to explain. But my favorite dish was the shrimp wrapped in dory fish in black bean sauce. I wish I was one of those foodies who could eloquently describe a dish and its taste. But Im just your regular Joe and my kindergarten explanations will have to do. But you must, must try the Shanghai Uncle Restaurant while there. You will not be disappointed!

The rest of the afternoon was spent at the Westgate Mall on Nanjing Road. As mentioned, it was an extremely cold day and so we had to look for an indoor activity. This was also the only time we had to go shopping and buy something special for the kids. Believe it or not, I did not buy anything for myself. Nor did Reymond. We just bought remote control helicopters for the kids para lang masabi na may remembrance of Shanghai. It was just so cold (kahit indoors). It was difficult to enjoy the stores. Besides, hardly anything was on sale so we just saved our money. Dinner was just at the food court so that we could rush back to the hotel to pack up and catch our 12:30am flight to Manila.

To end our memorable holiday trip, KJ gets into a fistfight with a middle aged man at the airport, right before immigration. He, together with his children, my mom and her yaya get detained by the airport police. I was not around when the incident happened because I had to run to the restroom but as per the blow by blow account of the others in my group, nasingitan daw si KJ sa line and middle aged guy was talking down to him when he began to protest. Dahil bastos daw si middle aged man, binigyan daw niya. OMG. It was really a scary moment. I was so afraid to get stuck in this communist country where the term human rights is close to obsolete. Thankfully though, KJ had the sense to just swallow his pride and apologize to the parties concerned. We got delayed though for 40 minutes and everyone was giving us the evil eye when we entered the airplane. Oh well. Happy New Year nalang. What else could we say. We were just too happy to get on that plane and go home!

Ok ba? Ay naku. My family is never complete without any drama involved. So since nasa watchlist na kami sa Shanghai (heehee), I guess we'll have to settle for somewhere other than China next year. Abangan....