I went to Shanghai for almost a week 2 weeks ago. Approval was pretty last minute, and the Chinese Embassy was closed for a whole week prior to my departure. I only got my passport at 9pm on Monday, 6th October night itself, and my flight was 3hrs later. Imagine my stress level prior to my flight.

The purpose of the trip was to conduct training to our clones new Shanghai colleagues. After months of being overworked, the management has finally decided to hire more people to ease our workload.

I arrived early morning on Tuesday. This time staying in Pudong (蒲东) instead of Puxi (蒲西) where we stayed last year. By the time I got into Raddison Hotel Pudong Century Park it was 9am. With less than 4hrs sleep in total the night before, I slept in for the rest of the morning.

The room was very nice and comfortable. I like the big glass panel seperating the toilet and the bedroom, making the place look very spacious.

The hotel is next to a commercial square with lots of restaurants and a Carrefour within walking distant. The only complain I have is there’s no MRT station nearby.

My first lunch, I just grabbed a fried noodle (blech!) nearby and then headed to the office, located in Pudong, in an isolated techology park. For the 3.5 days of training, I spoke mainly in Mandarin (I thank my parents for sending me to Chinese school, making me so ‘useful’ in my adult life), I wonder if I confused anybody since my Chinese isn’t that great. 😛

On my first day, I opted to be alone because I was still feeling tired from lack of sleep. Had dinner in a restaurant near the hotel. It’s difficult to order for one, I had a portion of smoke duck and pot stickers, and didn’t manage to finish them.

I spent the rest of the evening wondering around. Found a few road side DVD peddlers, so I did some DVD shopping (RMB5 for a movie, how about that?), and then also spotted a traditional massage place next to the hotel operating till 1am. I booked myself for a 1hr Duina (推拿) massage that night itself. I slept like a baby after the massage.

The next 3 nights, I have my colleagues accompanying me in the evenings, bringing me out for dinners. I had no time to shop in the malls, but thank goodness for all the DVDs peddlers which are opened till 11pm, I managed to buy quite a lot of DVDs. I also managed to go for another round of massage.

Here are pictures of my dinners.

2nd evening – with a colleague, at 鹭鹭酒家 (Lulu Jiu Jia) he ordered some of the more famous Shanghainese dishes. Chicken in wine; tofu with crab roe (蟹粉豆腐); some soya mock meat (四喜烤夫); steamed “many treasure fish” (多宝鱼), a type of sole which is only available in Shanghai.

3rd evening – Group dinner at Lang Yi Fang Restaurant (廊亦舫酒樓). Armed with a RM50/head budget, this was what we got.

5 types of cold dishes – I love the fried fish with sauce (熏鱼), they come in a stack.

7 types of warm dishes – Gosh, I thought there was no end to the food they dished out. The fried prawns and the cucumber and corn soup were really good.

The restaurant even has a very good view of The Bund (外滩).. For RM50 per head, I think it’s so reasonable.

4th evening, dinner was at Qiao Jiang Nan (悄江南). It took us almost 1hr 15mins to travel from MRT station (near office) to the hotel (to drop off some books I ordered) then to the restaurant at The Bund, all due to Friday rush hour.

This was by far the best meal. The fresh vege with sesame dip was so good, I tried to make it at home last week, and Daddy loved it too. Then there’s the famous spicy chicken (口水鸡) and the most delicious chicken pot stickers I’d ever eaten.

These few dishes were not too bad too. Prawn and corn fried with salted egg yolk; cold noodle; stir fried shredded duck with mushroom.

All these with drinks and beer for 3, came out to RMB300 (RM150). I think dining in Shanghai, is still cheaper than dining in KL.

If you think all my meals are this yummy, check out the lunch that they dish out in the canteen. Every thing is cold, and quite horrid tasting not to mention you have to queue around 10 minutes before you get your food.

Some sights :

The Bund (外滩) viewed from the Pudong side.

Shanghai Telecom Building (东方明珠)

Love their road signs, so informative, telling you exactly what’s ahead, the name of the roads that are intersacting with the road you are on etc.

On the last day, before my flight, I managed to go to Puxi, and shopped for some Shanghainese cakes in Nanjing Road (南京路). If you are ever in Shanghai, you have to try the ShenDaCheng (沈大成) cakes. They are really yummy.

To get to the airport, I took the Maglev. RMB40, and it only took 6min to get to the airport (instead of the 30~45min taxi ride). The fasted it went was 430Km/hr!

(All photos taken in Point & Shoot, such vast difference in quality)

Zara was eager to check out what I got in a package a few days back. When I showed her the book, My Mommy’s Tote, she was eager to check out its content.

My Mommy’s Tote is a board book shaped like, well, a tote, with handles that you can carry around, and pages depicting sections of a tote.

A wallet, make up purse, a clock with dials, photos, mementos and a cloth handkerchief are just a few of the items you find in the tote. Witty writings as how a child look upon his/her mommy are included in each page, such as, “My Mommy is very kind”; “My Mommy and I like to do special things together”.

What the girls like most about this book is the detachable computer. They both ‘fight’ for it, and claimed is theirs. They will take it out and pretend to type on it, and ‘read’ the display on the screen. They also like carrying the tote around pretending they are going out. Zara loves the white board which she can doodle on and also the picture of mommy dancing with a girl; she said that’s the two of us doing some silly dance.

The book provides a lot of entertainment to the girls and allows a glimpse of what mommies keep in their tote, the closest they can get since I disallow them to dig into my bags. Haha.

We were in Sunway Pyramid over the weekend, and saw this road show that some company was running; as there’s a Bouncy Castle set up, I brought the girls over to have a look.

As the girls jumped in the Bouncy Castle, I went to check out the goods the company was selling.

Have you heard of Kawai Kanyu Drops? This road show was run by them.

This is a Cod Liver Oil supplement founded way back before WW2, and ever since 1932, children in Japan are required to take a Kawai vitamin every day (in schools). Still manufactured in Japan, what I like about it is the little ‘gummy drop’ like pill, not just the look, but the taste as well.

I got the girls to try since they were giving out samples, and both thought they were given sweets.

Seeing that they like it so much, and it was going for RM55 (regular ~RM68) I bought 4 tins, 2 for myself, 2 for the girls. Each tin contains more than 180pills.

Since then, the girls were each given 1 Kawai Kanyu Drop to start their day, and they eagerly open their mouth when I give it to them. Sometimes asking for more (but no, I don’t give in).

I have to give it to the Japanese who can make supplement taste this good; even the packaging is so appealing.

After the incident, we still went ahead and brought the girls to Bagan Lalang.
(Daddy said he’ll try to bring us there every once a month if not more.)

You asked how to get there? Where it is?
Bagan Lalang is actually after Sepang. So we took the KLIA highway, and then turned into Sepang. You’ll see the sign board pointing you to Sepang Gold Coast or Bagan Lalang, just follow that.

Why go there so often?
Because the girls like it. Imagine Zaria will suddenly say this at home while playing, “Want go Alang-alang. Play play sand.”
The water and sand is cleaner than Port Dickson or Morib, the waves are calm, and there’s a big stretch of shallow pool. We probably only need to worry about the jelly fish.
Daddy likes to see the girls a bit tan.
This is such a good place to take photos of the girls at play.

The only problem is bathing the girls after they play.
We bath them outside a shop, using the water from the hose, and pay the owner some money.

Photos for this round :

Daddy and the girls.

Zaria giving thumbs up to Bagan Lalang.

There are lots of crabs hiding out.

Zara combing the beach for sea snails.

Zara picking up sea snails.

Zaria loves the mess.

Zaria loves the mud.

Zaria playing in the shallow pool (big area of the sea is with this water level).

Migratory Birds (?).

Love this shot of the girls (I wouldn’t join in, afraid the mud will stick to me, since I don’t have a place to shower).

Zara showing Zaria how to dig for crabs.

Zaria picked up the skill very quickly.

See how dirty she got?

After Zara stopped and left the beach, Zaria still wanted to dig for crabs.

The short stretch of sandy beach at Bagan Lalang.

We stayed till sunset. And the view is marvelous.

However, we also got attacks from sandflies, and all of us got bumps all over when we got home.

Got some sample packs of sunscreen (from UVA/UVB) from Screen Inc (a Made In USA product) the other day. I tried them on Daddy, the girls, Jelly and of course on myself.

Screen Inc sunblock comes in 4 varieties (makes life interesting):
1) tweenyscreen – for kids
2) manscreen – for men
3) chicscreen – for anybody who’s chic
4) teenscreen – for youngsters

It’s meant for the neck up, safe even on the lips.

Screen Inc mantra is “Screen: Make It Your Routine”, that’s why they’d make their cream so light weight and does not feel like a sunscreen at all.

I love the non-greasy and smooth texture of the sunscreen, I don’t get a layer of white residue on my face after applying, and it doesn’t have any chemical smell that comes with most sunblock. It feels very much like wearing an expensive facial sun protection cream.

All the cream is unscented except for tweenyscreen which comes lightly scented, probably to appeal to the little ones. Zara says it smells like fruit, and she makes it her routine to put it on her face in the morning before she goes to school. It helps to protect children’s delicate skin from the harmful rays of sunlight, especially she plays outdoor a lot.

Hmm, I’ll have to hunt this tweenyscreen down next time I go for another work trip overseas.

The coackroach porridge was from Hong Kong. I didn’t complain because I packed and had it in the office. 🙁

I was in Hong Kong with Mom2Ashley for a week for work from 30th March to 7th April. Our meeting ended on Friday the 4th. Mom2Ashely returned home on the 5th, I stayed on another night and slept over in my ex classmate’s house. A classmate I’d not met and contacted for almost 15years! It was really nice to catch up and meet up with her, her husband and her extremely friendly 2 sons!

Before you say, “Oh.. lucky you, another overseas work trip.” Hold it. The shopping was nice, but we worked hard. Everyday, we started at 9am and never ended earlier than 8pm except for the last day since it was a public holiday for our Hong Kong colleagues. It was a tough week, long hours, lots of heated discussion and even a shouting session. It wasn’t fun at all. Luckily, the shopping kind of make up for it.

My shopping partner, Mom2Ashley.

I’m still recuperating from the mental and physical exhaustion from the trip. Ha. Anyway.. here are some of the photos captured during the non working hours.

♥Food♥
Upon arrival, Mom2Ashley and I headed for the nearest restaurant for a bowl of wonton mee. It’s just the size of a rice bowl, and cost HK$26 (RM11) for it.

This is our only lunch the whole team had togather at the same table. Hosted by our Hong Kong colleagues.

Tuesday dinner was Vietnamese, in a very nice setting.

While in Hong Kong, you should not miss the famous Yee Shun milk custard (義順雙皮燉奶), I ordered the one with red bean.

Had the worst lunch in this Macau Char-Chan-Teng. I ordered Portugese curry chicken, yucks! The white chocolate coffee was good though.

The most expensive dinner was in this Teow Chew Restaurant. HK$1500 (RM630) for the below dishes for 4 (one vege dish is missing from the below collage), expensive!!

This is the exterior of the Teow Chew Restaurant.

Last breakfast with Mom2Ashley before she left. The stew duck was rather tasteless. The fish skin that can be ordered separately is my all time favourite.

My last lunch – Roast Goose noodle and La Fermiere yogurt (best yogurt in the world! Too bad only found this on my last day, or else I’ll be having this for breakfast daily, and won’t be having the coackroach porridge)

My ex-classmate treated me to lobster dinner on my last night in Hong Kong. It was yummy! Lobster with Bee Hoon (米粉/rice vermicelli).

My ex-classmate brought me to those neighbourhood shop, I ordered porridge (can’t have enough of them) and cha-liong (炸两), which is not available in Malaysia. Yiu-tiao (油条 or fried dough) wrapped with Che-cheong-fun (rice roll). Quite delicious.

♥Sights♥
Whatever time that’s left after dinner, we spent walking about the streets in Hong Kong. Around Causeway Bay, and Women Street (女人街) at Kowloon.

Since we stayed in Causeway Bay, spent our last day shopping in Time Square.

Fruit market at Causeway Bay, and fish market near Sai Wan (西环). Most seafood sold is alive and swimming.

Around Central, IFC Mall.

When you are in Hong Kong, you should try to go on the ferry ride to and fro Kowloon and Hong Kong island. It’s a cheap way to see this great view (I think it was HK$1.20 per ride).

View of Hong Kong side from ferry.

View of Kowloon side from ferry.

My ex-classmate’s appartment in Pok Fu Lam (薄扶林) has this killer view!

♥Strange Sights♥
Girls dressed up as angels hired to stand and block the exit of the building, so that people are forced to walk through the rest of the shops in the building.

Spotted a car decorated with Sanrio characters.

Back from my trip of 8 days in Japan, it was super! This is my fifth trip to Japan, but the 1st four was spending a night in Narita town while in transit to US.

I have always loved Japanese food and Japanese snack; so being there in Japan, was like being in ♥gastronomic heaven!♥!

I stayed 5 days in Hachioji (八王子) which is 1hr train ride from Tokyo downtown. We worked hard everyday, so there was no time to sight see. And then when we moved to Ueno (上野), which is in Tokyo downtown for an additional 2 days, we spent most of our time shopping. So most photos taken were food shot!

Breakfast is near the hotel or the office (walking distant from each other).

Breakfast menu : Green tea latte that beats any other latte; Mos burger; fruits (the dried one is persimmon, which is abolutely devine!); Noodles and Rice from Donut King

Lunch is always some where near the office, which normally comes in a set, about RM21 to RM30.

I have mainly fish or tempura. Delicious!

We have more time for dinner so we’ll walk further. Japan really have fantastic fish and seafood menu! One day, we had Sashimi, and even though the fish was sliced up with its head still in tact, its mouth was moving and its eyes were clear and silvery staring at us. It was difficult, but I still stomached one slice of that sashimi. Blech. I also discovered Sawa (サワー), Japanese cocktail. Love it, especially the one with melon syrup!

Try spotting the fish with its silver eyes, staring back at you.

The best meal we had was the king crab meal. It was expensive (but not as expensive as my crab meal in Shanghai); we took 2 sets and shared it among the four of us.

Boiled crab, crab roe (so delicious!), crab sashimi, BBQ crab (at your table). Delicious! 美味しい! Oishi!

The cheapest meal we had was a ‘fast food’ restaurant, where food is ordered through a coupon vending machine, coupon is then passed to the chef, and your selected meal will be served to you in a minute or two. No seats! Stand while you eat. But, quite Delicious! And then there was the RM30 green tea crème brûlée that I have which was oh-so-heavenly.

My RM12 Tenzaru soba; the coupon vending machine; the box that held my RM30 green tea crème brûlée; the box came with 2 small pack of ice to keep the crème brûlée fresh.

On our last day, while walking to lunch and realised there was actually a temple and a shrine just at the back of the office.

Some nice scenary around the office

We stayed in Hotel Park Side in Ueno (上野) on our last 2 nights. It was near to Ameyokocho, a shopping street for snacks, seafood and apparels.

Seafood in Ameyokocho, the last picture are Bonito pieces. You shave it, and you get bonito flakes!

♥Japanese culture♥
People are so polite there. They took the time to explain the menu to us with their limited English; they offered us help when we looked lost; they queue up in train station and wait for their turns; they seem to always have time for us when they are so busy! This is so different from the Shanghainese.

Our Japanese colleagues threw us a dinner party, and forked out their own money to pay for the party. We told them we were on expense and they should let us settle the bill, but we were told this is their way they show their hospitality.

In almost every toilet in Japan, you get this toilet seat with gadget! To be discreet, you can play a ‘flushing sound’ for 10seconds while you do your business. Your seat is warmed, and you get bidet, and a spray. One of the toilet we went to, even have blower to dry the royal a** after you are done! My bottom never remain so clean before!!

Toilet seat control panel

And just before I left, I got this!
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And everything went white!

Snow covered Tokyo! (and imagine dragging a heavy suitcase, notebook bag, handbag, 2 other hand luggages with all the shopping 1Km in this weather to the station!)

Japan, I really love it there!

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♥Happy Chinese New Year to all who celebrates! 新年快乐!♥

What is Beauty, what is pretty? Who is it to judge if one is beautiful?

Even Zara at the age of 3, judges beaty by its appearance. I had this conversation with her a week back :
Me : Zara, will you still love mummy if mummy is old and wrinkly.
Zara : No.
Me : *teasing* So you want to have another mummy?
Zara : Yeah. Next time when mummy old already, not pretty any more, Daddy will marry another girl.
Me : You want to have a step-mother?
Zara : No. No. Daddy will get married with a kind girl (she relates step mother to wicked)
…. Giving her father the go-ahead to marry another, if I got wrinkly.. o.O” ….

I talked to her further about beauty, and taught her to judge beauty by the heart and not the looks, or what people wear. Etc etc. In the end, when I repeated, “So now, Zara, will you still love mummy if mummy is old and wrinkly.” Her reply was,“Yes, because mummy is a kind mummy.”

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How many young girls out there think they are not pretty enough, how many even think they are ugly? How do most define beauty?

Dove Self-Esteem Fund, a global program, invites us all to play a role in supporting and promoting a wider definition of beauty, to raise self esteem of girls and young women to make them feel more beautiful and confident every day.

As a mother of two girls, I thought this is a wonderful program, but I wonder how they intend to reach out to more people especially outside of the US. My two girls will grow up one day, and would be part of the crowd who are hung up on looks. This same crowd may have their self esteem affected if they think they are not the stereotypical beauty.

This program will help young girls out there understand what is beauty, and it’s not just about looks, which in turn may help raise confidence of these young girls and women.

The program is looking for passionate and genuine real beauty advocates to be part of this online community of supporters. If you are interested, do drop by their website.

Note : This is not a paid post…Oh well, I only got a t-shirt to spread the word. The conversation I have with Zara is 100% real, not made up at all.

Continue from here.

This is the last bit of the trip. Bear with me as I don’t go on trips like these often, and I plan to record the trip in detail for my future reading/referrencing as my memory these days really suck!

♥Nov 9th (Fri)♥
Our last day in Shanghai and I was planning to do all the shopping needed on this day.

Our first stop was to change some money as we were running short of cash. Do you know that there’s no money changer in China (unless it’s black market) and besides hotels, the only place you can change foreign currency is from Bank of China and not any other banks? Also, not many shops and restaurants in Shanghai actually accept foreign credit cards; quite inconvenient for the tourists like us.

After getting some cash, we went to the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum (上海科技馆) in Pudong. Not to visit the Museum but actually to go to this shopping place opposite the Museum. This plazy houses lots of little shops selling counterfeit shoes, bags (Le Sport Sac mainly) and clothings, but it was quite dissapointing actually as the designs and items were the same in most of the shops. (What a contrast huh? 1 side it’s the Science and Technology Museum; directly opposite, it’s this place filled shops selling counterfeit goods!)

I bought a dress for Zaria and a pair of shoes for Zara (later I found out the quality isn’t really that good). That was all I got. Not a very fruitful shopping trip.

We then got out of the mall and walked about outdoor, where we could get a glimpse of the modern Pudong.

The modern Pudong : Dragon at the Science and Technology Museum, we caught sight of an airship cruising above; Modern buildings in Pudong; Century Ave (世纪大道); Old folks dancing outside of a mall, for some, they danced with their imaginary partners

It was then back to Nanjing and Fuzhou Road (福州路) for more shopping.

Brightly litted Nanjing Road; Last pic is a photo of our Motel which I took at 5:30am before we left for the airport

The thing I like about China in terms of shopping is the books, DVDs and CDs there are really cheap. Fuzhou Road (福州路) has lots of multi-level book shops. I was spending a lot of time there glancing at books and CDs. Daddy who doesn’t read Chinese, kept himself occupied by going through CDs so he didn’t mind the wait. I bought quite a lot for myself.

While glancing at books, I probably left my own guide book on the shelf and later could not locate it any more. Luckily, this happened on our last day of the trip, and I no longer need to reference it. Still, I was a bit upset because I like to keep my guide books as a remembrance/record of a trip. 🙁

Luckily too, we’d identified the restaurant to have our last dinner before the guide book went missing. We headed to an old restaurant Lao Zheng Xing (老正兴) on Fuzhou Road for our last meal in Shanghai.

Our last meal in Shanghai consisted of : Fried fermented or smelly tofu (臭豆腐); Toufu with crab roe; Fried local vege; Fish and turnip soup

♥Nov 10th (Sat)♥
We headed back to KL in the early morning flight.

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Because I speak and read Chinese and Daddy doesn’t (he actually speaks passable Chinese but he didn’t want to do any talking), I had to do all the ordering, enquiries, directions asking, navigatitions, ticket purchasing, forms filling etc etc. Tired, you know.

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How are the people in Shanghai?
Besides my colleauges, I think most people are quite rude or maybe they are too busy to be nice.
When we asked for directions, it was never nicely told. They would be pointing impatiently and said, “那边!” “”There!”
When we were blocking someone’s way, instead of saying “Excuse me”, they shouted at us, “EH! EH!”, like it’s your fault for inconveniencing them.
In those lower end restaurants, waitresses were impatient you took time to order or checked out the menu.
You find spit every where. People smoke in restaurants!
Men who are alone get approached by pimps offering them female companion in the busiest street. Daddy was offered that service from a very decently dressed man when I was not by his side for 1min!

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Do you wonder how Zara and Zaria cope?
Zaria was fine, as she’s used to us leaving her at home while we go to the market or bring Zara for her lessons.

Zara on the other hand was another story. The first 2 days, she eagerly waited for my return. When the door bell rang, she rushed to the door and happily announced, “My mummy come back already!”. When we called home, she came to the phone and said “Mummy, you bought me any surprise or not?” or “I miss you mummy. Are you coming home?” and then she’ll be sobbing.

Then on the 3rd day onwards, she used a different technique to fight her feelings. She kept telling Tuyam she didn’t like me any more. She said things like, “Ask mummy don’t come back any more!” “I don’t like mummy.” “If mummy come back, I will put her in naughty corner!”. She refused to come to the phone when we called home. However my maid said occasionally, she would cry sadly for no reason.

Both girls were very happy to see us when we got home.

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What happened to breastfeeding?
I expressed 3 times a day when I was in Shanghai. Morning and night was easy, because I did it in our room. The afternoon session can be a bit of a challenge. I did it in the toilets at the Museums (which is cleaner); did it in a quite corner of a restaurant with jackets drapped over me; did it in smelly toilets in restaurants. The worse was in the Shanghai Airport nursing room. It was labelled a nursing room, but it was also a place where cleaners store their carts with all the detergent and mops. In the 30mins I was there, many cleaners attempted to get into the room, even male cleaners! I had to be really fierce and shouted at them, and then they stopped stepping in and waited outside instead. 😛

I should have brought my nursing cape, which would make expressing easier. 🙁

What did I do with the milk? After this experience, I didn’t want to store and bring them home. I drank them all. Yes! Every bit of them. I expressed, I drank. No wastage! Daddy said I actually had better complexion and I glowed after a few days. Haha. Belief it or not?

Continue from here. (If you wonder how many more parts there are, there’s only one more left).

♥Nov 7th (Wed)♥
With an overnight bag, we rushed to the train station early morning to catch the fast train to Hangzhou (杭州). We got a first class ticket, the coach was really comfortable and it only cost RMB68 per tix. Daddy and I slept through the ~1hr20min ride.

When we arrived at the Hangzhou station, there were so many elderly ladies offering their help (accomodation? maps? directions?), but we just shook our head all the time. With the information listed on their website, we managed to take a bus from Hangzhou Train Station, walked for 10mins and arrived at Mingtown Garden Youth Hostel (明堂-杭州湖中居青年旅舍), located at West of Xihu (西湖), which is the best place to stay as it’s not as busy as the East (high rise and buzy streets on the East).

We had some problem checking in as Daddy left our passports in the Motel back in Shanghai. The staff in the hostel was helpful, although they could have rejected our stay; they called our Motel, requested the Motel to provide them with out info. Motel168 wasn’t very cooperative, in the end, we promised we’ll fax them our passports and Visas and they agreed to let us have our room (which was pre-booked by phone).

Just like what was written on the guidebook, and the website, the hostel is surrounded by lakes and gardens, absolutely beautiful! We have a room all to ourselves with ensuite bathroom (just in case you wonder if we needed to share our room or toilet). The room was very comfortable. Clean room, clean white sheets, beautiful pine wood ceiling and a window opening to the back garden. Best of all, it didn’t stink of cigerette smoke.

After our lunch, we rented a bike each, and started exploring the area.

We cycled up some slopes and visited the Dragon Well (Long Jing) tea plantation (龙井茶园). It was lovely, so green every where!

Then we rode through Xudi Causeway (苏堤), which cuts across Xihu from North to South (~3.5km), and then have dinner in Wei Zhuang (House of Taste) (知味观。味庄). This restaurant serves the best food that we’d tasted in our trip, every thing tasted so delicious especially the nice dainty dim sum dessert. Too bad I was running a flu, some of the taste were a bit muddled.

Bestest duck! A cold dish, but very delicious; prawn triangles; I didn’t like the fish (baked and accompanied with home made creamy sauce), but Daddy thought it was uniquely prepared; the dainty dessert : some pastry with lotus filing and chestnut stuffing rolls.

After the yummylicious dinner, we cycled another 5Km in the dark to get back to the hostel. This was when we could really feel the chill, but it was still bearable with just a light fleece jacket on.

♥Nov 8th (Thurs)♥
In the morning, we woke up to birds chirping outside our window. We had a simple breakfast at the hostel and started exploring the gardens around the hostel by foot. The gardens are actually very beautiful, with lakes and bridges and streams everywhere. We also took an hour boat ride (battery operated so we just needed to ‘steer’) at the lake, pretty relaxing.

Beautiful views around West Xihu

Some of the plants and objects I found in the gardens

Then it was time to check out. We left our baggage in the train station, and explored a bit of the old town. Things here are actually cheaper than Yuyuan, and I was really amused by the street food available. 10 fried scropions for RMB5 anyone?

We didn’t try any of these, but we saw quite a lot of people buying them.

♥A Chinese Medical Hall which has been listed as Historical Heritage in Hangzhou, they were giving away free herbal tea, which Daddy and I took two cups each.♥♥Street performer getting to work♥♥Xihu beer that Daddy took with words : Free From Formaldehyde (do they actually brew beer with Formaldehyde in China?♥♥Hangzhou station, people were trying to get into the platform to get into the train♥

We headed back to Shanghai on the 5:20pm train, and back to the smokey Motel168.