Spatrachina Volume Ten

Back in Shanghai, and finally managed to sleep a bit more!! Think I slept 8 hours in total cos there is no need to rush anywhere but Shanghai City itself. And what do people do when they wake up? Breakfast! I brought Jeremy back to the WuJiang Rd where I had those delectable snacks for breakfast. This time, we had the same ShenJian Mantao and Stinky Toufu. We also had BBQ squid which was slowly grilled to perfection. The squid was cooked jus nice, spongy and tangy with the marinate used, yet juicy and tender. Simply heaven.

WuJiang Rd
Me with my ShenJian Mantou

BBQ Squid Store

Hot Squid in my Mouth!

After a great and filling breakfast, we explored the Shanghai city in Puxi on foot. The day was clear and blue, and the city-scape was contrasted with gleaming new steel and glass structures as well as old but well preserved historical buildings.

Le Meridian with Raffles City on the right

Space ship top Radisson Hotel

BuXin Street

As we walked along BuXin Street, we chanced upon this familiar yet strange logo. Clio Coddle was the brand. Talk about imitations. Now that Singapore's Crocodile brand opened a new store in Shanghai, I wonder whether they will start suing this company.

Clio Coddle

As we continued our walk towards the Bund, I saw the very famous Peace Hotel! Lotsa dignitaries, including Sun Zhong Shan, stayed in this hotel. Definitely a photo taking session for me.

Peace Hotel

The clear sky cast a positive glow on the Bund. The Pudong district almost sparkled, while the historical buildings on the Bund stood majestically in the bask of the sun. This is definitely not the China I saw when I first stepped foot into this country in 1991. The metropolitan definitely will put to shame several more developed cities in the world.

Pudong

Me with the Pearl of the Orient Tower

After immersing ourselves with the sweeping views of the Bund, we began to head for the bath house I went a few days back. Along the way, we crossed the road while the red man was still alive and blinking. Then suddenly we heard a loud whistle. We were spotted by the policeman jay walking!! Oh gosh.. breaking the law while overseas!! That's what they say about Singaporeans... behave nice nice at home but turn ugly overseas.. haha. We were more bemused than remorse when the super friendly policeman issued us our fine or 5RMB each. He even joked with us and gave us road directions!! What an experience! So cool, hahaha..

Me with the ticket

Tram lines, Historical buidlings and the Tower

We finally reached the bath house. The same bath house, but now with a fren. It's really strange to be totally naked with a fren in such close proximity, especially when sharing the same bath tub. Well, eventually we got over with that awkardness and enjoyed the various baths like I had the last visit. We went for the scrub again. But this time on top of the scrub and GuaSha I had the last time, we went one step further. We tried the HuoGuan. Basically, the attendants will heat small glass bottles with flames and placed them on our backs. This created a suction and the skin will be sucked upwards. After a while then the pressure is reduced slightly, the glass bottles were removed and reused on the other parts of the back. It was not as painful as I would have imagined. But the aftermath was a shocker. Those who scrolled down too fast would have seen the scars of my attempt. Those who bother to read, note that the following photo might be of disgust to some.

Me with the HuoGuan scars. Actually not scars, just heat marks. Took me over 2 weeks to fully recover!!

After the bath session, we met up with Katt again, this time for the famous Hairy Crab!!.. The crabs were really small in size, even though we had the bigger male crabs, which was in season then. However, the crabs were simply delicious! The Gao, or the sperm, was very rich and creamy while the meat (u need some technique to extract them) was sweet and tender. One downside though: U need to be patient eating the crab. I took 1/2 hour tackling this small creature.

The dinner restaurant

Hairy Crab

The richness of the crab

Great times always ended fast. Soon it was time to part. That very moment it dawn to me that the next day would be my last full day in China for my trip! So sad.

Katt, Jeremy and Me