we’re back

after a 4-day slog through shanghai's cold streets, we're finally back in philippine soil. our plane landed around 8:30 last night and we immediately felt the difference even inside the air-conditioned terminal building. it was hot and humid, and there were a lot of unnecessary personnel and hangers-on crowding along the hallways (we're home allright).

okay so now i'm back in the office, and getting some flak for not telling anyone in advance where i'd slipped to last weekend. like everyone else, my officemates only learned about my location through my blog. i also had to endure a lot of ribbing for my spelling (which i can fortunately blame on the chinese keyboard i was using… nyahahah)

sights around The Bund featuring Shanghai's distinctive skyline

On our last day (yesterday), we took an early morning stroll that stretched to 3 hours (translation: we got lost! heheh), we arrived at our hotel shivering and strangely exhilarated by our crazy misadventures. i guess it was inevitable. compounding our inability to read chinese signboards was our reluctance to ask for directions (what, and get laughed at all the way to timbuktu for mispronouncing significant terms?). armed with our sketchy memory — anything that looks remotely like our hotel was instantly labeled as familiar — and a fatalistic shrug, we zigged and zagged through Shanghai's streets and got a mini-tour of the city's shopping district.

A centerpiece of the Xujiahui shopping district 

when we got back, i took advantage of the hotel's wi-fi service and, in a defiant show of independence, slogged down my 4th cup of coffee, while most of locals were swilling their insides with tea.

oh yeah. the food. hey, you can't go to china and leave without bragging about the dishes you've managed to down, so here are a few snaps. drool on, mateys…

as for shanghai's buildings (which are a major point of interest for me), they are best viewed at night because of the clever use of lighting and the contrast they made with the dark backdrop.

shanghai cityscape at twilight (we would have loved to stay here and stroll around, but the bitter cold drove us back to our van)

Shanghai Museum, a popular spot for twilight strollers

my only regret was that we couldn't stay out for long because of the cold. after 2 minutes of snapping pictures in the open, i wimped out and ran to our van. i had no choice. the pictures i took were beginning to get blurry towards the end because my fingers were no longer able to hold the camera steady.

… .  .   .   .  . …

here's a funny incident. i tried to use the first newly minted Chinese phrase i ever learned: "Zhì shì shenme?" (What is this?) and had the shock of my life when the merchant answered me with a torrent of rapid-fire Mandarin and began shoving items into my numbed hands. raising my hands to ward him off, i turned tail and backed out of that place in a hurry.

Moral lesson: if you know diddly-squat about a dialect, do yourself a favor by keeping your mouth shut.