September 2011 - Shanghai 之 1st trip with 公公

21 September 2011 - 25 September 2011
Bay is 26 months old 

婆婆 went for a tour with her friends and the last stop of their tour was in Shanghai. We decided to meet her in Shanghai. This was Dad's first trip to Shanghai and Bay's 1st trip with 公公.

As 姨妈 had to go to work early and no one will be home during the day, Kippy went for a 2-nights stay with 二姨妈.

Dad packed a plastic bag full of bedding and titbits for Kippy.
Dad dont even have to pack his own lugguage as Mum already packed it for him before she left for her tour.

2-nights boot camp for Kippy with Nala, Bimmy

Day 1 (Travelling Day)
As usual we took the noon time flight. The last time I took the same flight with Dad was almost 10 years ago. I always wonder where I got my "on the flight 饿鬼" genes from, my mum and my other siblings cannot eat anything on the flight, Bini even said she feels like puking during meal time on board... now I know!
  

Our oriental chicken rice set with chinese sausage (Dad's favourite!)
See... finished every single drop, he must be very hungry.

Bay was very sticky to me during the flight and insisted on sitting on my lap for almost the whole time, even during his nap. But he could sleep better when I was holding him, he slept for about 3 hours.

 

My view...

Soggy chicken nuggets child's meal for Bay.
He finished half of it as I bribed him with ice-cream and a mini Chupa Chups. 

Having fun on board

Bay complained that his "ear pain pain" during previous flights, so I let him have a drink or sweet during descent. My new "秘密武器" is mini Chupa Chups. It's smaller that the normal one, so eventhough I would rather that he dont eat so much refined sugar, it's ok to take one.


"爱不释手"

I can't resist taking pics of the 云海... how I wish I have a better cam!

All eyes were on him when we arrived. Any vehical with signal lights on the top is a fire engine to him now.



@ 一茶一坐, our usual upon arrival dinner place

Day 2 (大拇指广场, 南京西路步行街, 外滩)
Mum was supposed to join us only from Day 3 onwards. Dad and us lazed in the house or hang around Thumb's plaza. Knowing my mum, she will want to join us and true enough, she called me in the afternoon and asked us to go over to 浦西 to meet her for dinner.


Morning: Running around Thumb's Plaza... and poor 公公 chasing behind him  

  

  

Evening: With 公公 and 婆婆 @ 南京西路步行街

  

Our dinner at 望湘园 (RMB228) - crab roe beancurd, very nice fried black fungus (dad loved it so much!), steam rice in a small clay bowl, the legendary 剁椒鱼头, claypot chicken (not nice and no pic), fried mix vegetable (no pic)

Most restaurants in China will give free fruits after dinner and we got some free watermelon this time. I dont eat watermelon and we hardly buy them at home, in fact this was the first time Bay encountered watermelon with the skin on. I didnt have to teach him not to eat the skin, he knows! I told him that he must eat rice before he can have another slice of watermelon. H will eat 1 mouthful of rice and then asked for a slice. He had 7 slices altogether!

After dinner, we wanted to take a walk to the bund but along the way we got attracted to the Open-top Double Decker City Sightseeing Hop-On Hop-Off Bus. (See more information here)

Tickets are RMB 30 per adult and free for Bay. (this is the cheapest hop-on hop-off bus service I've seen in the world!)

We got on the bus at Stop 2, Nanjing Road Pedestrain Street (West). Ticket is valid for 24 hrs and thus we can use it until next day's evening. I'll highly recommend this for any first time tourist in Shanghai as the route pretty much covers all the must-see area within the city. This was Dad first time in Shanghai and so we had to bring him to all the places. Definitely beats taking cab (fighting to get a cab) or driving (and looking for parking). We took a ride on the bus and it's really interesting to see the city at night from the top of the "cabriolet" bus.

夜上海! Hop-off at the bund

Day 3 (豫园, 东方明珠塔)
We waited for mum at home before heading out for our own sightseeing. The plan was to go for lunch at 豫园 (城隍庙), tea at 新天地, followed by dinner around Pearl tower.



豫园合影
Wanted to bring Dad for the famous 南翔 buns but it was too crowded and he was not interested to queue.

We went for a walk in the old streets around 豫园 and Bay fell asleep on the stroller. I have been to this area many times but have not got a chance to explore the surrounding streets. Just behind the new mega shopping mall are really old streets with local streets side stalls, such big contrast!



Guess what mummy did while Bay was taking his nap?



Shopping at my favourite H&M! I always head for the discount area first and there were loads of summer clothes on sale. Brought some shorts for Bay (50-70% off), 顺便 grabbed some accessories for RMB10 each (60-80% off)



We run out of time to go to 新天地, so we went straight to Pearl Tower on the City Sightseeing bus instead.  Hop-off at the Pearl Tower stop and then cross the mega circular bridge to Super Brand Mall. 

Running around on the mega circular bridge

Dinner at 桥江南 - 蒜泥白肉 (must try), 鲜青椒水煮鱼 (less oily version of the original 水煮鱼), roasted chicken, salad with sasame-peanut sauce, seafood 锅巴 (so so only)
Kudos to 桥江南 management who had decided to stop the sales of shark fins and bird nest in their chain of restuarants. 

Day 4 (朱家角古镇)
Yeah! It's Saturday finally. After a lazy start, we finally decided to go to 朱家角古镇, which is about an hour drive from Shanghai city. A trip to Shanghai is not complete without visiting any of the 江南水乡. There are also 乌镇 and 周庄 but they are slightly longer drive away. After a take-out lunch on the car, we reached our destination.

Getting there
We drove. There are also bus services available from Shanghai city

There are different types of ticket packages. We bought the Line 1 package which includes a boat ride and entrance to 9 attractions. There is a 20% discount for online purchase of the tickets for Line 1 and 2.

The sales assistance at the ticket booth told us that we do not need to take the trishaw as it is just a short walk from the car park to the entrance. Somehow when the trishaw peddler approached us, we took it! It cost us RMB100 per trishaw for about 4 hours. Actually we were on the trishaw for less than 30 mins altogether as trishaws are not allowed in the old town! The plus point though was that the peddler doubled up as a tour guide to bring us around the town, if not we would be hopelessly lost.

New mode of transport for Bay 



Zoom!!!

Map of the old town area



Stop 1: 城隍庙

Stop 2: 廊桥

Stop 3: 圆津禅院

Stop 4: 泰安桥

Stop 5: Strolling and snacking along 北大街

Stop 6: 童天和药号 (medicine shop)

Stop 7: 永丰桥

Stop 8: 大清邮局 (Post office during Qing dynasty)

Stop 9: 延艺庭 (a shop selling artifacts)

Stop 10: 放生桥

 Stop 11: Boat ride

Stop 12: 课植园 (previosly home of a rich man)

For dinner, we went to the highly recommended 吉士酒家. We first tried this restaurant serving authentic Shanghainese food during the previous trip and I had been wanting to bring dad to this place since then. Each one of dishes we ordered are nicely prepared and delicious. 

I will definitely bring all our guests in Shanghai to this restaurant. It is a small restaurant though with only about 10 tables and have to make reservation 2 weeks in advance in order to get a table. We tried to booked a few days ago and had to use Mark's colleague's connection to get a slot at 6.30 pm. Must try their 葱烤鸦片鱼头 (Baked Cod Fish Head with Spring Onion), remember to order this dish when you make the reservation as supply is limited. My cam ran out of battery and thus no pics for many dishes. Boo!

My koala bear and me (I had to 抱抱 him throughout the dinner!)

Dishes: 凉菜－老醋海蜇, 干煸刀豆 (I loved it but forgot to take a pic);
热菜－红烧肉 (no pic), 蟹粉粉皮 (Bay loved it!), 葱烤鸦片鱼头 (must try), 红烧海参 (I prefer this that the meat), tomota chicken clear soup (no pic); spicy chicken and prawn;
甜品－酒酿汤圆 (no pic);
Total price: RMB 900 and Mark had to give the manager RMB 100 tip for arranging the table for us at such short notice

Satisfied diners!

Day 5 (Home Sweet Home)
After a quick lunch at Thumb's plaza foodcourt, we proceeded to the airport.

Bay's performance while we were preparing to leave for the airport

I'm glad I took this trip with my dad. After spending 5 x 24 hours with Bay, 公公 has finally been promoted to playmate status!
 

August 2011 - Cheap SQ Promotion Trip

20 August 2011 - 28 August 2011
Bay is 25 months old

We managed to catch the super sweet SQ promotion. Return air tickets to Shanghai was only S$488 per person, taxes inclusive! The only thing though was that Bay is more than 2 years old now and I had to pay for his ticket which is almost S$488. This was the first trip which he was officially entitled to his own seat.


Day 1 (Travelling day)
As usual, we took the mid afternoon flight and reached Shanghai in the evening. Although Bay's got his own seat but it was difficult to keep him seated in it, what he wanted to do was either to stand on it or to sit on my lap. In the end, the crew got to give me the infant seat belt and he sat with me during take off. The good thing was he fell asleep at the moment when the airplane wheels left the ground.

Before take-off... windows of the plane goes up and down, up and down, up and down

K.O.

Hoot! Meal time... My oriental chicken rice set and they gave me one with the breast meat (I hate it!)... but I still finish everything. "Give face" to the chilly sause and I was really hungry!

Kids' meal - Chicken spaghetti, he finished half of it

After meal entertainment... It's like watching with the sound turned off. So cute!

      

Half way through the flight, Bay took his trolley bag, dragged it to the front of the plane and said to me, "Mama, let's go. I dont want aeroplane already!" Haiz... Ok, nap - checked, meals - checked, ice-cream checked, in-flight entertainment - checked... what else can we do? It's going to be a long remaining 3 hours...

When we reached our destination, I'm totally beaten by an hyper-active toddler on board who only wants to climb up and down, left and right the seat instead of sitting on it. So tired that I couldnt take anymore photos.


Day 2 (玉佛寺)
We will visit this temple quite often per mum's request as it was where she went for the 水陆法会. We had vegetarian noodle lunch at the temple cafeteria. The taste is pretty ok but it is oily like the usual normal chinese food. For 10 RMB per bowl, I am not complaining.

Bonding with papa

young devotee

feeding the kois

On our way home

Day 3 - Day 7
I should amend this post title to "August 2011 - 病猫之旅" but it was so awful and unauspicious!

All of us fell sick with different degree of seriousness. Mark was on MC for a day for gastric pain (He hardly take MC one!). Kiiron and me were having tummy upset. Mum's case of stomach flu was the worst. She puked and had stomach cramps which were so bad that she could not even get up the bed. So we stayed home for almost the whole week. Other than that, our days were quite uneventful... lazing at home or walking around supermarkets & Decathlon. I even bought a new Dino Baby stroller for S$40. Hahaha! cheap cheap!

Nevertheless, I kept to my "A Pot of Curry" date... a few days later. Better late than never right! My mum did the cooking, not me! hahaha!

Our pot of curry from Shanghai

Bay must be so bored at home that he helped to clean the house by mimicking the cleaning 阿姨. It was more like a game.

Day 8 (Presidential Election Day)
Mark had to go do his duty as a Singapore today. The plan is to go fo lunch with his colleagues first before heading to the embassy. Mum was still too sick to go out with us.

Lunch was arranged at 吉士酒家, a small restaurant serving really good chinese food. Apparently, we had to make reservations 2 weeks before in order to get a table.

葱烤鸦片鱼头 (Baked Cod Fish Head with Spring Onion)... a must order dish.
Have to preorder when making reservation

Other must order dishes...
spicy chicken & prawn, 蟹粉粉皮, 红烧肉
(Bay took the right most pic!)

Voted!

Day 9 (Home Sweet Home)

Time to pack... 姨妈's loot from taobao

We took the evening flight back and will reach Singapore almost midnight. Not very good timing for a toddler.

A little accident happened just before take-off! Our plane has just began to taxi and I was trying to get Bay who again was standing on the seat, to settle down. Then there was a sudden jerk and Bay fall backwards and hit the back of his head on the turn-knob of the tray table! I felt a soft lump on his head and immediately took a clean wet tissue to compress it. He stopped crying rather quickly and the plane took-off. To my horror, I found that he was actually bleeding. A small area of the skin was scraped off. Luckily it stopped bleeding after a while and he didnt show any signs concussion. I have to insisted that he must be seated in future!

May / June 2011 - Shanghai "寻父之旅"

It's been almost 2 months since little Bay had last seen his daddy.  Mark had been very busy at work and couldn't take any leave to come back to Singapore.  So I, the wonderful wife and dedicated mother, decided to take a week off work and fly the little boy 2000 over miles across the ocean to see his old man.

It's good that there are so many flights to Shanghai to select from and we took the mid-afternoon one so that we can sleep until "自然醒" and then enjoy a nice lunch at the transit area before boarding the plane.

What should I have for lunch? ... Chicken rice, of course!

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Butterfly Garden
We still have some time before boarding (dedicated mummy had forgo all the shopping plans!) so we went to check out the Butterfly Garden.

Getting There
Singapore Changi Airport, T3 transit area (behind Cheers mini-mart)
There's skytrain connecting the 3 terminals so you dont necessary need to fly from T3 to visit this place

Admission
Free for all. 24 hours.

Facilities
The area is not big and there are 2 levels with only stairs.  When I was there, there were only 2 other people inside the garden, so not crowded at all. It is a really beautiful garden with many different types plants, trees and of course butterflies.

Rating (4.5/5)
Will definitely bring Bay to the garden again. As we didnt go down to the lower deck this time, will check it out next time.

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As usual, we were the last few to board...

One quick snap with Grandma before boarding

En-route...
Bay is still entitled for an infant ticket, so he was not allocated a seat. The ticketing officer did advice me to get him an infant ticket with seat for him, but that means I have to pay $1k more! CRAZY!!! Anyway, I never liked to take the front rows with bassinet seat. Although there is more leg room, but usually the arm rest cannot be lifted. I prefer the back rows if there is an empty seat next to mine. I will do a seat selection during internet check-in and block out the 2 aisle seats, leaving the middle one empty. When I check in at the airport, I will be "boey paisay" and ask the ground staff to lock the middle seat for me so that no one will take that place. Most of the time they will do so if the flight is not 100% booked. This trick works 90% of the time. Lucky us! This trip we got free seats for Bay on both ways.

Sharing a seat with Grandma

Bay is usually quite well behaved on most flights and will normally doze off right after take-off. As we had a seat for him during the 2 flights, he was able to lie down comfortably and he slept for more than 2 hours. I would too if I can lie down flat!

He's such a darling!

I'm one of the rare few who love aircraft food. For some reason, I'm always hungry during the flight and I look forward to meal times.


Grandma's oriental veggie meal

My international set. Not so nice, but I still finish every drop

Bay's kid meal. Soggy chicken nuggets with BBQ sauce. He ate a bit and I finish the rest!

Having fun with not one but two controllers!

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Bay's reaction when he first saw his papa after 2 months was priceless! His eyes lit up and he smiled shyly, then let out the softest but the sweetest "papa" ever.

Our 1st stop is to head for dinner.  一茶一坐 @ 世纪莲花, one of the restuarant chain that we frequent often in China with clean and tasty food.  Child friendly too.




Chilling with papa during dinner

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The 1st thing we did the next day is to go to Thumb's plaza for breakfast and most importantly to buy some supplies at Carrefour. Well... in supplies I actually meant toys!

Doting dad bought a cart load full of toys and story books for little Bay

Bought this yummy korean fried chicken for lunch. It was so spicy... even for me, the self-proclaimed top spicy chilly-hot lover. Totally addicted to it!

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静安寺

My mum had wanted to visit this temple for the longest of time but didnt have any chance during the past few trips. Parts of the temple are still under renovation but the works on the main area are done.

Bay is try to show the "peace" sign. No sight of Grandma as she refuse to have her pic taken

 Getting There
上海市静安区南京西路1686号
We drove there and there is no parking at the temple, so we had to park the car somewhere behind, in one of the courtyards.  Very easy to get to via subway line 2, alight at the 静安寺 stop and voila! you are at the doorstep.

Admission
RMB 30 per adult. Free for little Bay
Open Daily from 7:30 am - 5:00 pm

Facilities
As with most temples, there are long flight of steps leading to the main hall.  I dont see any lifts so we took turns to go up as we dont want to manually hoist the stroller up. 
 
Rating (4/5)
This is one of the recommended place to visit, especially so since it is so easy to get to and right on the famous 南京西路 itself.  There are many parks and shopping malls around it, so bundle it with a day trip around the area... which was what we did.
 

  

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We went for an early dinner at 久光百货 next to the temple.  Spicy Hunan style.  Ordered steam egg and some non-spicy veggie for Bay.  Those typical little clay bowl steam rice served at Hunan restuarant as so cute and the portion is just nice for Bay... unfortunately he does not like the chinese 大米, so he only ask 1-2 mouth full.  I love eating the 剁椒鱼... my staple food when I live in China.   

  

  
On the week we were there, it's China's Children's Day (1st Jun), so many department stores are having 70% sale for kids items. What a bliss! haha! No bargaining needed.  Bought these in 1 hour
  

All these things for one little boy...
Best buy: Combi shoes (RMB100), Thomas the Train (RMB50) and a nice top for Reuben's wedding

    

Happily playing train with papa

 

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We spend most of the days nuaing at home, hanging out at Thumb's plaza or at carrefour while Mark is at work.  Mark promised that he will take care of Bay if he is not working... so little boy will bath in the evening as papa is in-charge of "bong bong". 

  

Fun time in the bath tub

  

Little boy will literately "cry" when washing hair... either he thinks that the water are his tears or he is threatening us that he will really cry. He hates to brush teeth too.

  

 

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We get to use the car for a day as Mark has a day trip to Nanjing, so we went to check out the Bund.  Driving in Shanghai was actually not too bad as people dont drive as fast and are more willing to give way.  Nevertheless, I've not driven there for 1.5 years already, so it was still quite nerve wracking.  Getting the GPS to work was much more challenging than the actual driving.  I decided to park the car at 正大广场, then take the tourist rail across to the bund.  I spent a good 30 mins trying to search for 正大广场 on the darn GPS. I almost wanted to crash it.  Well... once that was done (not crashing the GPS, but getting it to work), driving to the place was rather uneventful.

    

Our route for the day...

    

Stop 1: 正大广场

Super Brand Mall (上海市浦东新区陆家嘴西路168号)

My favourite mall in Shanghai Pudong. There are many international brands like Zara, Mango, UniQlo and best of all H&M.  If you are looking for cheap bargains, this might not be the place for you though.  We parked the car here as we intend to come back to this place to shop and eat afterwards.



Having some snack while waiting to start our trip

Stop 2: 外滩观光隧道

Bund Tourist Tunnel.  I took this with Jean back in 2007 when she was in Shanghai for holidays.  I thought little boy would love to take the train as he is obsessed with trains now.  It's about 5 mins walk from 正大广场 to the station at Pudong side.  This will bring us across the river to the Puxi side, right at the Bund.   

Some pics outside the Toursit Tunnel Station at Pudong side 

Ticket: RMB30 for one way and RMB40 for return tickets

There are some crappy exhibition which they had bundle with the train ticket.  The ticket sales person will always push you to buy the bundle tickets, which I did.  Like I said, I knew the exhibitions were crappy and I dont know why I bought the bundle tickets, perhaps I thought Bay would love to see some sea creatures... 

In the end, I bought the RMB55 bundle tickets with admission to 1 exhibition (underwater creatures).  We were in and out of the exhibition in 10 mins. Small and dusty exhibition hall and some fish tanks.  I'll give this exhibition a 1/5 rating

Finally, we are ready to take the Tourist Tunnel train, they are not really train but more like a bubble capsule on the tracks... The whole journey across the river takes less than 5 mins, I manage to capture the journey on video because I forgot to turn off my camara. haha!
    

Look mama, TRAIN!!!

   

They made the journey like a Disneyland kiddy ride, with bright neon lights and music throughout. Quite fun for kids. I dont mind bringing little Bay back for another ride next time, minus the exhibition.
Rating (3.5/5) for the train ride.
  

Stop 3: 外滩
The famous Bund needs no introduction.  It was under renovation for the past few times we were in Shanghai, so mum didnt had a chance to walk on it yet.  Our main mission for today is to walk on the Bund.


Mission accomplished

Stop 4: 和平饭店
Peace Hotal, a landmark made famous because there was a movie with the same name.  Actually I think I've never been inside... or maybe once long long time ago before it's renovation and I cant remember already. Anyway, no lasting impression.


Boring...

Stop 5: 南京路步行街

Next stop... lunch. We had 过桥米线, it's basically thick beehoon in chicken broth.  It's one of my staple diet in China, I had it almost 2 times per week when I was preggie then.  After lunch, some walking / shopping on the Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street. This is one of the main shopping belts in Shanghai... Actually it's better to come at night, so you can see the neon lights.  Shopping is ok, lots of things to see but I felt it's mostly overpriced.  If anyone asked, the shop that I'll recommend you to check out is Meters/bonwe, a local brand of fashion store endorsed by Jay Chau.  The products quality is good and reasonably priced.  At least if you cant find anything to buy, there are still posters of Jay to look at. keke!

Stop 6: 地铁2号线

I forgot to buy the return ticket for the Tourist Tunnel and luckily I didnt, if not we'll have to walk all the way back to the Bund.  We took the Subway line 2 back to Pudong Oriental Pearl Tower (1 stop). RMB3 per person.  Bay got to take the train again... Lucky boy!

Stop 7: 东方明珠塔

We alighted at this station and walk on the mega pedestrain bridge to get back to Super Brand Mall.   

More pics with Grandma

 

Stop 8: 正大广场

We are back to our starting point and we spent 5 hours in this mall!

Taking a break @ 满记 dessert store 

Mummy shopped while Bay naps... and soon its time for dinner... We went to 俏江南 to have our favourite 水煮鱼 for dinner on the top most floor of Super Brand Mall.  You could get very good view of the Bund from the restuarant if you dont mind paying extra for a window seat. 
  

Yum! Yum!

We reached home at almost 9 pm. It's a 10-hour long day for us... exhausted!

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Fun weekend with papa...

PEACE!

Shanghainese lunch...



Korean dinner...

Shanghai and Beijing are suprisingly quite child friendly cities.  I dont need to hoist the stroller very often, unlike Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan which are super stroller unfriendly.  Most of the restaurants do provide high chairs and kids cutleries but dont expect small eateries to have such services though.

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It's time to go back to Singapore



Hello!

   

Aeroplanes!



We change our flight and I forgot to order the kid's meal for Bay.  He had our adult meal set and he finished more than half and lots of apple juice!

Enjoying the in-flight entertainment and a free cap