Thursday, November 17, 2005

Birthday Shanghai-Style!

I had a fabulous birthday yesterday! Thank you to all of my well wishers! Shanghai is an amazing city! I am having a hard time finding any lows about it. We had a great time and both Gemma and Angus were angel babies for me!

Yesterday we started off breakfast at the hotel and decided to hit the ground running with 2 kiddos in tow. Who cares if this is 9th largest city in the world! We grabbed a taxi and headed to The Portman, which is a fancy schmanzy Ritz-Carlton, where they have tons of Western restaurants like Starbuck's, California Pizza Kitchen, and Tony Roma's. We did have a coffee at Starbucks, went to the western grocery store and hit Lilli's a jewelry store recommended by some friends from Chengdu who used to live in Shanghai. After our Western experience we headed over to the knock-off market to do some Christmas shopping. We got out of our taxi and I could have sworn I had a hundred Chinese people coming over to me offering to 'hold my bag'. I kindly said 'bu yao' and went to find the market. As I got closer to the market I realized that they people were not offering to hold my bag, but to sell me a bag! I wanted in the market and was amazed by all the things there were to buy! I bought some lovely bags, keychains, and Ralph Lauren long-sleeve polo shirts for Christmas presents. I am going to head back again, so once again if you think you might be on my list, please let me know what you want. After our market experience I decided it was time for my birthday lunch. We went to a Shanghainese restaurant recommended by my friends called 1221. It was amazing food and so different than what we have become accustom to in Sichuan. The flavor was more sweet and sour than the hot, hot chili taste of Sichuan. I also treated myself to a lovely glass of wine!

We went back to the hotel room to lay down and wait for Jonny to return from work. Unfortunately for him it took 2 hours for him to get back. We then went out for birthday dinner at Simply Thai, a gorgeous Thai restaurant not to far from our hotel. It was a perfect birthday! I highly, highly recommend Shanghai to any adventurous traveler who love to shop, eat, and enjoys the big city!

My Shanghai of the day was spending my birthday in such a fabulous city.

My Shanglow was having to wait 2 hours for Jonny to get back from work.

2 comments:

VeryApeAZ said...

What a fun day! I think it's funny that you've been to Starbucks more often this month than me. :-)

Anonymous said...

So glad to hear that you had a nice, memorable birthday. Geez, Diddo on what Maura said. Miss you, Jill