Surviving Shanghai: Day 1 (Official)

Sept. 21 (Friday)

By "official" I meant, it's the real deal...those activities we sort of planned to do.

Since we started out late, we were not able to do everything in our itinerary for this day.  First thing we did upon leaving the hotel was to find a place to eat. We walked along North Sichuan Road, until we saw a mall with signages of food stores. There we tried Happy Lemon (it's cheaper there than here in the P.I.) and a Chinese restaurant. We order a roasted duck and a set meal like that of a shabu-shabu. Then we ordered "mi fan" (rice) but we were given a black rice that tasted sweet, which we felt was a dessert haha! There, you'll have to pay your food right after the waiter has gotten your order.

cute Hello Kitty cake! I want!

So after our late lunch, we took the Metro train to the West Nanjing Road. It's a long road of lots of boutiques! Truly a shopping haven! It reminded me of Shinjuku and Harajuku wherein all the brands are on the the both sides of the road.

From Nanjing Road, we took the Metro train to Century Ave. There we were on an elevated walkway and we got a perfect view of the best buildings and structures in Shanghai, most especially the Oriental Pearl TV Tower. We originally planned to have a dinner buffet at the tower but it costs around Php 2,500 when converted. So we opted to find something else to do. We wanted to go to The Bund, so we had to cross the Huangpu River. We went through The Bund Sightseeing Tunnel wherein we rode a see-through covered cart on a rail going to the other side of the river. The ride costs 90 RMB/pax. We didn't actually pay much attention to the voice over and the effects shown inside as we were passing through the tunnel, but for sure, it's not worth 90 RMB! haha

Jin Mao Tower

 Oriental Pearl TV Tower

 BFFs and the Oriental Pearl TV Tower

 I was surprised I can take a photo this nice!

it's very evident on this photo how tired I've been from walking the whole day

 that's our ride going to the other side of the river

That's the tunnel! Kinda scary haha!

Besides the Huangpu River, we also got a nice view of the French Concession on the opposite side. And to cap our night, we headed to The Apartment where we had our late dinner and some drinks. They serve sumptuous Italian dishes and good cocktails. Just like what its name suggests, it's a 3-storey apartment with a roof deck that somehow felt like Skye. One of its rooms was for house music and it felt a bit like Relik, while the other room was playing RNB and HipHop, which felt like Republiq. There were lots of expats and tourists at the place. We headed back to the hotel at 1:30am and it only took us around 36 RMB via cab.

I used the HDR effect of my Camera 360 app on iPhone 

 The ferry ride costs 2 RMB only. We should've taken this instead on the tunnel thing.

 So funny that this looks like the Empire State Building in New York haha!

 The French Concession

Felt like Paris over here!

Price Range: 70-200 RMB (drinks at 70+, food at 100+)

 the dining area (resto part)

 Roof Deck

 Shanghai party :)

 the room for "house music"

the room for "RNB and Hiphop" music

It's so cool because we found flyers/invites for Maroon5 Shanghai concert's after-party at The Apartment scheduled on the coming week.

Tip: Download the Wow Shanghai app because it's very useful in finding the perfect places for shopping, dining, partying, and more! It's complete...with directions!:)

So that's our 1st day in Shanghai! I got more to share about our second day. Stay tuned!:)


xoxo

Awesome Hong Kong-Macau Weekend (Part 4)

We we're really starving after our whole day activities in HK Disneyland, good thing we're bound to our friend's Italian restaurant in Wan Chai, where we'll celebrate her birthday in advance.

Our friend Rein's family owns an authentic Italian restaurant named La Piazetta, with branches in Central HK and in Wan Chai. Rein actually works in the Central branch but her step dad works in Central so she had to take us there for our FREE authentic Italian dinner. And since its her advanced birthday celebration, she was the one who chose our food. we were served with lots of authentic Italian dishes, from soup to pasta to pizza! (How I wish I could recall their names haha!) We even had several bottles of wine! I consider this night the most unforgettable dinner of my life! All the food we had were actually expensive but it came unlimited and free! We're really lucky to have such a good friend.:)

 on our way to Wan Chai (do we look hungry here?)

 red wine to start the night

 sparkling wine after meal

 Rein's 25th birthday

 girl friends

 THUMBS UP!!!

After dinner, we decided to have a nightout. We went to Rein's apartment in Central where we had a couple of drinks then we proceeded to Lan Kwai Fong (LKF) for a fun Saturday night party. It was a cool place 'coz it's where all the party places were. There were lots of expats, tourists, and locals who were drinking and dancing everywhere!

pretty cool that Rein's coat and bag matched the train station's theme

first stop: a freezing bar - fur coats were available for use

 it's where we had a round of vodka, courtesy of Rein

 we were trying to spell L-O-V-E-!

Then we kept walking around LKF to try other places. We had a stopover at almost every bar we saw. But since we're already so tired of walking, we settled at The Basement. A Filipina waitress who's working in that place invited us there 'coz it was ladies' night and all the girls were entitled for free drinks. That's how lucky we were! What an all-free night! haha!:))

 random people who crashed in our picture

 pls. don't get bothered of the image in the background lol

 clubbin'

 LKF!

 people dancing outside the bar like Step Up!

 Lan Kwai Fong

 The Basement

After a great night, we headed home. Since the MTR was close, and there's no bus trip going to our condo, we had to stay at rein's place for a sleepover. We woke up after a few hours of sleep and headed home. It was a blast!:)

(To be continued)