You have to love Virgin Atlantic's Economy Premium when you're not flying on company's dime...10+ hour flight from Heathrow to Shanghai was a cinch! We landed early morning so I took the metro to my hotel in the old French Concession area. Not knowing where I am or the city made finding the hotel interesting and challenging....but I did find it without getting too lost. The hotel said "it's a 5 minute from the metro", but not if you're carrying a 40+ pound bag and a backpack!
The Old House Inn is a "boutique" hotel that has all the charm of 1930's Shanghai era. The room is decorated with simple yet elegant traditional Chinese furnitures. The room felt a bit dark but added the "great Gatsby" vibe.
Finding a restaurant for lunch was an adventure onto itself...by the time I checked-in, changed, and freshened up, it was almost 2pm and I was starving. The front desk told me there are several restaurants around the corner - "just turn right and then left and I should be able to find Xi Jia Garden restaurant". So I turned right, then left to a side street where I passed a sushi place (no!), a Chinese restaurant (not the one I was looking for), an Aussie bar (beer? no food!), another restaurant that I couldn't figure out (no one was inside, pass); but didn't find the restaurant I was looking for...so I turned around and walked back to the beginning of the street. Now it's almost 3pm and all the restaurants I passed by were closed, and I still haven't found the restaurant. As I'm about to the give up, I saw a security guard and showed him a piece of paper with the name of the restaurant - he points to the direction behind me, says something and goes back his post. I walked in the direction he was pointing and finally find the restaurant...success! But they're closed. The hostess tells me to come back after 6pm for dinner (ugh!). Now starving and no chance of finding food, I now look for any place that has food. Cafes, maybe...KFC, no! As I'm about to give up, there's a restaurant (more like a diner) that looks open. The menu is a book with pictures (hum), but at this point who cares. I skipped the frog's leg dish and ordered a bowl of noodles and pork bun...yum! If anyone's up for trying frog's legs, the name of the restaurant is Bi Feng Tang.
Now that my is belly full, it's time to explore the French Concession area...oh wait, I still need a haircut. I didn't get a chance to get a haircut in New York or London...so Shanghai seemed like the best option. For 50 Yuan, I got my hair wash, neck massaged and a hair cut, now that's a bargain!
With only few hours left in the day, I decided to just explore the immediate French Concession area. The Bund will have to wait for another time. The French Concession is sort of interesting with numerous French colonial style homes and buildings but it's very spotty and hard to know what's what. There's plenty of boutique stores along the major streets, but the alleyways were far more interesting. After walking in a loop, I'm back at the hotel and I'm exhausted since I haven't really slept in four nights. I put my head on the bed and next thing I know, it's 8pm. Well there goes the idea of having dinner at Xi Jia Garden, instead I went downstairs to The Purple Turtle (popular with ex-pats) and had a great dinner outside on the patio. I felt like part of the ex-pat community, enjoying the surrounding environment and various conversations around. This was a wonderful way to get my first taste of Shanghai - cheap local restaurants to high-end restaurants, plus there are plenty of clubs and flashy bars in the district, but I was too exhausted to check them out. I have an 8am flight to Lhasa, which means I need to leave the hotel by 6am...ugh!
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