Tea Party, anyone?

March 30, 2006

What a busy day! After breakfast in our rather crap hotel (I am quite spoiled sometimes), FG and I left for the Bund. A precious little homeless girl followed us around for a good five minutes, which was sad. Especially since her Mom followed a few steps behind. I guess that is better than letting her walk along alone, but it’s not better by a lot. Maybe they really don’t have alternatives though. I guess I haven’t really put much thought into what it would be like to be incredibly poor in a communist country – especially China.

I enjoyed the walk along The Bund. On one side you see lots of old buildings and history. On the opposite side of the river, you see the Batman scene with tons of huge modern buildings. I didn’t want to spend my entire time in Shanghai in the city, so we made plans to get out of the city for our second day there. As I mentioned, my hotel was a bit crap, so I decided to exercise a little trick that I picked up since I left the States. We’ll call it, “No, sir, I do not have a room at The Peace Hotel, but yes, I would very much like to use your concierge service to book my tour for tomorrow.” I’m pretty proud of myself for coming up with this one. The concierge makes a fee off of the tour, so he doesn’t mind doing it. I get to go on a tour that is recommended by a decent hotel. See? Win, Win for both parties.

After walking around the Bund (which is a historic area along the river), we decided to go through the tourist tunnel to Padong (aka Batmanville). No, Batman wasn’t filmed there, it’s just what comes to my mind. Well, the Tourist Tunnel is certainly aptly named. Think of Willy Wonka’s elevator, only this one travels horizontally and goes under a river. The path is filled with a big fancy light show. It’s cheesier than I can describe, but I still liked it. It’s just one of those things you have to do.

Sometimes traveling with boys means you get to do things that you might not ordinarily rank highly on your list of things to see and do. For me, that was going into the TV Tower. It’s the 3^rd largest Tower in the World. FG really wanted to get tickets up to the top. I had already figured out that I would get the same view while having drinks at the Grand Hyatt next door, but boys like tall buildings and fast trains. The second will come up again later.

After a brief walk around the French Concession, which isn’t particularly interesting or French for that matter, FG and I headed to People’s Square which is the city center. This is where I think I was swindled, but I really enjoyed it, so I can’t really complain. FG and I were approached by three Chinese people who wanted to practice their English with us. That isn’t uncommon. They then invited us to join them for tea. We did join them and we had a very nice time. We took some fun photos, tried some interesting teas. It ended up being more expensive than I expected and I heard later that this is a bit of a con game. The people who bring you in get a cut of the purchase basically. Whatever. I enjoyed it and I prefer to remember it that way rather than taint it with a con.

After tea, it was time to head back to the less than Magnificent “Magnificent International.” My bed was comfy, but since I live on an extra long twin most nights, I’m really pretty easy to please when it comes to bedding at the moment.

But, I’m not off to bed yet. FG and I went for drinks at a place on one side of the River, then headed over to dinner at M on the Bund. Dinner was nice. I enjoyed a Bellini and a Tropical Champagne cocktail in honor of Kath. Kath, you would have complained about the Champagne cocktail, but the Bellini would have ranked highly. FG and I wrapped up with a drink at the Grand Hyatt which is one of the top things you’re supposed to do in Shanghai. It was nice, but does an extra three floors really matter when you’re 87 floors in the air and looking down on water?