Meanwhile, Sis was buying Starbucks just next door and the friendly staff, who saw the fuss Jolie was making, was kind enough to make her a complimentary "Kid's Cappuccino", which was cappuccino minus the coffee, which was steamed milk, with a chocolate smiley face.
So sweet right? Of course that made Jolie feel very adult-like. With her own cup of drink, she happily kept quiet and slowly dug at the milky foam with her stirrer.
We arrived Shanghai within a few hours and managed to check into the hotel by 4pm plus. Which was quite unexpected as I planned to reach the hotel by 5 plus and thus ready to go for our dinner. But I guess we shouldn't be surprised. The flight was quite smooth, so for the 1st time in my life, the flight time was actually shorter than what was estimated.
The taxi ride to the hotel was both a thrill and horror. The driver stunk of cigarettes and he compensated by dousing himself in cheap cologne. As you can imagine, the smell was absolutely HORRIBLE! Adding to the fact that we all didn't sleep much last night, the smell was giving all of us a terrible headache, even with the windows opened. Poor sis was sitting directly behind the driver, so she got the worst deal.
Apart from the smell, the driver drove like a F1 driver. He drove the car with such fierce intensity, weaving in and out through traffic at top speed on the highway. I half suspect that he doesn't know the way to the hotel, so he had to follow the other taxi (we split into 2 cabs) as close as he could so as not to get lost.
Anyway, we arrived at the hotel in one piece. And since it was early, we decided to relax a little, put down our stuff and wash up before meeting to go for dinner. 1st day and already my plans has been disrupted. The old food street that I was planning to go had been torn down! So we asked the doorman for recommendations and off we go into the unknown.
It was freaking cold that night as it was quite windy, so some of us had to go back to the room for scarfs and gloves before we head off.
The place the dude recommended turned out to be a tourist trap street. Where people would try to lure you into their restaurant like a bait to a death trap. After walking for awhile, we chose a tiny shop selling 小笼包, and it's filled with locals, so it should be good.
As the place was actually on the famous 南京步行街, we continued to walk and hunt for round two of our dinner. After all, we can't be easily satisfied with just a few dumplings!
It wasn't easy, but we managed to find another place to eat. After dinner, it was still quite early, so we continued walking, and our aim was to reach 外滩, which was the famous city view of Shanghai.
Photo-op on the famous 南京步行街.
My family...
Old people waltzing on the street to music. Cool...
Finally we made it! The architecture was magnificent! If you don't look at the China flag on top of each building, you would think that we were in Europe! There were so many tourist there even though it's even colder than ever by the river. But the view was beautiful!
We took many photos there before calling it a day and headed back to the hotel. We were all exhausted!
