Day 6: Enjoying the Shanghai rain

After a somewhat restful night, we got up at 6:30. I'm beginning to think babies have alarm clocks implanted into them into them at birth! We pack up and get ready to check out since we have our flight to catch back to Beijing in the evening. After breakfast we head to the Bund.

The Bund is part of old Shanghai with remnants from the semi-colonialism that it experienced during the Opium Wars. It starts to rain as we get there, so we bundle up Sanay in the Bjorn, put a sheet over him and head to the promenade. The Bund has sweeping views of the Pudong. We enjoy the view from here, take our touristy pictures with the Oriental Pearl in the background and then head out from there, since we don't want to get drenched...the rain means my bad hair day has started and all my efforts at the salon on Friday are to waste :(

We head to Nanjing Dong Lu, sort of like China's 5th Avenue. The analogies to the US are instinctive. Perhaps it helps us put things in perspective. It has huge stores and malls and a cute pedestrian only walkway flanked by stores on either side. Since we're only window shopping, we stop here for a bit. We also purchase two umbrellas for 15 kwai(local way of saying yuan). You get what you pay for! :) People's Park, serves as the green area of respite from the urban sprawl, so we head there next. The only problem is that the rain has picked up now. After another 10 minutes of fiddling with Sanay's stroller, Bjorn, diaper bag, camera case, etc. we head to the park. The rain is pelting now, and Sanay's protests of dislike for it are getting louder. So we run through two tents full of people- I don't know what they were even doing there, and head to a covered area. We find a Haagen Dazs where Sanay lunches and the rest of us have our dessert before lunch. We don't really get to see People's Park, but my list has cheated a check mark against it nonetheless. Perhaps, next time.

Its now time for our lunch at Xintiandi. There is nothing Chinese about this place. Its an upmarket urban restaurant area with a feel of Santana Row. There's plenty of food choices here. Sunil wants to eat Bavarian, but Manish and I don't have much of a stomach for sauerkrat and sausages, so we elbow everyone into yet another Chinese meal :) We head to South Beauty, a very popular chain of Sichuan food. Sanay is taking his afternoon nap, so we get to eat without distraction. The lunch is outstanding, and the presentation would probably put some of the finer restaurants in SF to shame. After lunching on spicy food, we're all really sloooow.

We head next to the Jing'an Temple. It used to be a place for ancestor worship, but because of its current location, is now used to pray for wealth and financial success. So we dutifully look around and toss our coins into the giant incense burner there. Chinese architecture with its flying eaves, beautiful pagodas, and ornate wood work does not cease to charm.

We're now headed to the airport. For a small change fee, we all get to go back on the same flight home. Ritu and I are craving some black tea, so we use Sunil and Manish's lounge passes to get into the Star Alliance lounge, act like kids, get some cookies and tea and head to our flight. Sanay is crazy excited on this flight as well, and can't stop cooing. He doesn't stop amusing us. On arrival, his checked in stroller is all wet. Ritu lets them know that the bugaboo is going to need some cleaning. Without batting an eyelid, they give us 200 to clean it up. I would never expect this in the US.

Another great day comes to an end. We get home and crash after a long eventful day.