Shanghai Day 1

29th Dec08, Saturday

Our plane landed at 6:25am at Shanghai Pudong Int'l Airport. Dad and Simon came to meet us at the airport. Walking out the airport, I immediately feel the cold crispy air and this brings me back to the time when I reached Glassgow, Scotland back in 1997. We checked the temperature the night before and the gauge was about 6-17degree celcius.

We reached my cousin's apt and had a quick breakie and headed for a short rest. It was a tiring journey as our plan to get Zach to sleep close to midnight fail as he went into LaLa land while we check in. He got up when we head to the departure gate and this is how he greets me :). Looks like he knows the time to wake up for his plane ride.

So, the roller coaster ride in the plane was 3hours without much sleep for MH. Zach seems very happy and excited and refuse to sleep. Finally, he decides to stop fooling us around and he settled the last 2 hours of sleep.

So, back to Shanghai. We had about 3 hours of sleep and this keep us back refresh. We decided to head to city centre. My cousin lives 20mins away from the city by train. We decide to look for food and do some sight seeing. Just stroll and walk around the Bund and taste the local delicacies. This is Zach's 1st trip overseas (beside Msia) and we plan to take it easy. We'll play by ears and there is No Must Do or Must See list in our itinerary. We'll just got with the flow.

Here's Mh, Dad and Zach outside my cousin's apt.

Walking towards the subway station . Look at their roads, clean and neat right. :)

and here's the human trishaw power by electric/human legs.

Across the bridge to the subway station . Surprise to see unpolluted river?

We took the subway to Nanjing East station. When we came out, here's what I see. Sea of people's head and tram bus (reminds me of Melbourne Burke St) but this only operates on the pedestrian st walkway.

We continue walking heading towards Huang Pu river where the Bund is. On the way there, we stop by a shop selling fish balls, meat balls and some identified balls which I couldn't read them in Chinese. Here's a photo I took to before I chomp them down. It was served in some soup base where I skip it as I see the lady use back the soup from where she boils the balls...Verdict of this: Just like any other fish/pork ball and as from the picture you can see, it looks pretty normal to you. But to warm my stomach, it just do it right and light for me.

Finally, many flights of stairs up and down up and down we have reached The Bund. Shanghai is not a baby friendly place and bringing our super light stroller doesn't mean solves all the thousands of stairs we have to go thru.

The Bund is like another river side or similar to HK's famous esplanade walk with skylines stand beautifully along the river during the day and night. I find nothing hooha to shout about. However, it was a different story when you are on holiday where you can spend time walking or having your evening walk. Strolling and watching ppl at the river side is relaxing enough.

On the way, we pass by some stalls along the Bund selling what looks like satay to me. I'm not so adventurous on food side street and I can't tell you how they taste like. Zach had his milk before we move on to Shanghai Old Street/Yu Yuan Garden.

We pass by Yu Yuan park where we see some kids roller blading.

Then came Shanghai Old Street. Here's where we are heading for our xiao long bao (meat dumpling in soup base). I'm a fan of xiao long bao and hubby brought me to this so called very famous shop where ppl will Q for their dumplings! Thankfully, we were there early and the take away station Q was ridiculously looooong! Hubby said we should go upstairs the restaurant where there's no Q and we should be able to have our seat.

We ordered 2 baskets of xiao long bao (meat version and another meat with crab meat)3 gigantic xiao long bao comes with a straw for you to drink the soup, a plate of vege spring roll and a plate of prawn balls fried with bread crumbs that it looks too good and we chomp it down before I remember to take any photos of it.

The bill came out to RMB250+ for the 5 of us. For a light snack consider expensive however for the quality and taste, is reasonable.

We decide to walk abit around Yu yuan street and this place is very cultural. It has a temple inside here, local knicks knacks, food stalls and many locals and tourist combing this area. Sky getting dark quickly here as winter is approaching. I took this when it's about 5pm.

We headed home back the same way where we came from to see the night scene of Bund. I don't have a tripod so I took this using hubby head as a stabiliser :p

Christmas time...

Yes...........Christmas is coming and I always love the end of the year as I enjoy the Christmas mood and.....I can feel the holiday season is here :). Well, this year we'll be spending a week in Shanghai and we will be flying off in 2 days time! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

After last week's birthday lunch in Shokudo we headed up to 3rd floor @ Raffles City for the toy fair. Infact, this time the toy fair is very small and not crowded. Everyone is watching their wallet as the economy this year is making everyone looking sad and gloom :(.

Anyway, we headed up as my sis-in-law wanted to buy a birthday present for Zach :). I'm so blessed that he's loved and cared by so many people.

We saw this big polar bear holding a harp at the toy entrace fair.

And so, I ask hubby to carry Zach up high for me to capture a nice pic for him. Cute little bears on a row sitting on the entrance arch.
Zach was attracted to the x'mas tress and I'm so afraid that he will use his almighty strength to pull down the deco baubles. So I had to position his stroller a little far from the tree.

Zach with his cousin bro Zach with grandpa, struggling to get down as he's still not satisfied of not able to pull down any of the x'mas tree deco :p


Hubby suggest we can buy 1 for Zach to hug to sleep......
X'mas deco in Raffles City

Zach's Bday at Shokudo

Last week Sunday, we decided to celebrate Zach's early birthday in Shokudo, Raffles City. It's a nice place with various spread of Japanese cuisine that you can order from the stall with your debit card issued to you upon entry. You will just need to pass the card whenever you make a purchase at each stall maning by different types of food and at the end of the day, before leaving the place you just need to pay at the counter. So, basically you are trap and no way for you to sneak out from the place by giving reasons that you need to visit the loo as they have a loo inside the place as well. Also, kids has their own space too whereby there's a small little playground near to the exit.

We went there for lunch with family members as I wanted Zach to spend quality time with us and his 1st birthday with his loved ones :). We had various dishes from sashimi, yakitori (BBQ skewed meat/vege), ramen, grilled salmon, rosti (thou this is not truly Japanese), tempura, waffle ice cream for dessert and lots more. I couldn't track how much we had ordered as Zach keeps me busy all the time :p

According to internet food review, the waffle with ice-cream and the egg omellete is good. We tried it and turn out it's crispy and soft inside. The picture says it out as everyone is attacking the waffle and left this half portion for me.

The sashimi is fresh and thick enough. Good value for money.

Yakitori s0-so only...Oops, where's the stick? Hubby removed them too fast for me to capture them.

Zach still not accustom to cold things. He keeps shunning away from us. We are trying to feed him ice-cream.

I'm shutting my mouth...

Go away...I don't wan anymore ice-cream...

Argghh..... Enough!

I shared ramen with hubby and some nibble here and there. This place is good especially for big groups as we can order various of dishes and we can try ea and everyone.

I fed Zach some rosti, chawanmushi and some ice-cream and last his milk. :).

All in we paid SGD317 for 10 adults and 2 kids. I feel this is another way of ala-carte buffet and not hurting pocket. We are satisfied and we headed to the top floor to get some prezzie for Zach!

Here's the address for Shokudo @ Raffles City

Shokudo Japanese Food Bazaar

Raffles City Shopping Centre252

North Bridge Road#B1-44E

Singapore 179103

Tel: 6837 3793

Opening Hours :

Sunday to Thursday: 11.30am to 9.45pm

Friday to Saturday: 11.30am to 10.00pm

Birthday treat

Last weekend, we celebrated Zach's 1 year old birthday in Shokudo. This place is something similar to Marche whereby they give you a card for ea person and you can debit the card on any purchase you made. I'll blog on more on this and the food in my next blog.

Here's Zach with his birthday treat - Chocolatair ice-cream.

Mummy and Zach had flu jab

We decided to give Zach flu jab before we fly off to Shanghai end of this month. It's just a precaution we can do for him but not 100% fully cover him from all flu viruses.

After registering him, I decided to take the flu jab too. It makes sense as in if I caught the flu virus I'll be not well to look after him. And for $28 to last me a year or so, I'm game for it.

The queue was pretty long tonight and we have to wait for about 50mins to see the PD. Oh, first time I see a PD at the age of....*ahem* old enough to categorize as adult.

We went for our dinner and by time we are back it's a short wait. Zach was curious on his surroundings and Dr. Loke did a quick check on him before giving him the jab. He has to be well to take this jab and most important of all he has to be non allergy to eggs. Whole eggs. I'm lucky and fortunate that Zach is pretty good baby to handle and he's free from dairy allergy and I too tested him with eggs on last Saturday by steaming the whole egg for him. He loves it and he whallop the whole steam egg.

So, all clear and Dr Loke telling us to hold his hand upright close to his head and ear. Zach didn't like to be hold this way as he knew we adult are going to do something serious to him. He whimper and looking at the needle going in to his thigh. WAaaaaaaa.....! was his first reaction to the jab :p.

MH pick him up and soothe him. He stop and looking and staring at Dr. Loke. We ask him to wave goodbye and giving a kiss to her but he just stare at her from distance :). Thinking and wondering if she's going to give him another jab.

Ouch! Pain Pain...!

On Friday evening after picking up Zach at his nanny, we headed home. As usual, I will put him down on the floor for him to crawl and look for his toy. I will just rest and look at him playing and talking to him.

He was playing with his toy ride and suddenly he trip on the edge and he had a fall. I heard a konk on the floor and waited for him to pull himself up. I was waiting for him to cry but it only came 5 secs later. So, I quickly pick him up and soothe him. He was crying and crying and I try to look for any bumps or redness on his face, head or body. All clear.

He cried quite badly that makes my heart ache. Suddenly he stop and between his sobs, he mutter.... "pain pain" sob sob.... ????!! Did he just said pain pain??? I thought it was just coincidence. And then, he continue crying again...soothe him, cry again, soothe him...and he stop again and between his sobs...he utter again..."pain pain"....?!?!?!? This is REAL! So, I told him is Ok, mummy know is pain pain, and i will help you to rub.

At night when MH is back from work I told him about this incident. He was surprised and he wanted him to say..pain pain!!! Craziiiiii.......!!

On Sunday, while I was having my lunch at my dining area and MH is watching tv with Zach, it was unfortunate that he had a fall from the sofa. Lucky this time, I had the playmat as a cushion and bumper for him to reduce the impact. I believe he had a fright and was crying again.. So I pick him up again and soothe him. Heart aching and looking for any possible sign of bumps or redness...and then he DID it again...sob sob...pain pain..........!!!!

Zach can communicate! I'm delighted, not the fall but Zach can communicate his feelings at least to us now. :)

Watermelon Pork Ribs at Soon Wah, Klang

This was another visited makan place I had during my trip back to Klang. It was very easily located as you come from Klang or Bukit Raja toll. The restaurant was packed with diners aorund 7pm on Saturday night. You can opt to sit inside with the ai-conditioning or outside to enjoy the Klang breeze. As always, I love the air-cond but it was fully occupied so no choice we had to enjoy the free breeze. It was pretty hot that day and I was sweating profusely under my armpit :p.

Here's what we ordered. We had the recommended Watermelon Pork ribs, Fried Long beans with Egg plant and dried shrimp, Fish head soup, golden pillow homemade taufoo and 2 large bottles of soya bean. The price came to about RM80 for the 5 of us. I find the food a little tad salty but nevertheless tasty. The Herbal Chicken was sold out and we didn't get to try that.

Here's the map to Soon Wah