In line with my dad's encouragement for me to travel while in uni, Patricia and I spent our last week of the winter holidays in Shanghai with our two Malaysians-living-in-Shanghai friends, Melody and YP.
YP was really the ultimate tour guide, asking us where we want to go and planning our itinerary a week before our arrival. If it wasn't for her, we wouldn't have been to half the places we went.
Upon arrival, I was supposed to take the MRT to Melody's place where YP was to meet me. The MRT ticket counter was closed, and the machines only accepted notes below 100 yuan, which was the smallest change I had. So I was trying to ask people to exchange my note for smaller change but most people ignored me. Then a youngster took pity on me and gave me 3 yuan in coins.
While slotting the coins into the machine, I was stupidly still holding on to my 100 yuan note, which a man came up and took from me before I knew what was happening. He told me that he'll change it for small change but only gave me 70 yuan in return, then asked me if it was OK. I was like, "Of course not! If you don't have change then give me back my note." But he was like, "Oh, but your note disappeared! Let's just count it as me having a drink or taxi ride on you," with a cheeky grin, showing me the metal fillings in his teeth. I was furious but 1) I was in a foreign place, 2) He looked creepy 3) It was around RM15 and I felt it wasn't worth it; so I gave him a glare and stalked off to his delighted cries of 谢谢！
When I told YP what happened, she gave me a crash course on "How to Behave and What to Expect in China". I solemnly promised myself never to be scammed or tricked again for the duration of our stay (which I achieved! I am, at times, extremely blur).
There were stalls selling tea in milk bottles, so I firmly told Patricia that I was getting one for her on the condition that she lets me take a picture of her drinking it. Looked like she enjoyed it xD she even brought the bottle back! Anyway it started this thing that all 3 of us had to do a dare during our stay in Shanghai. Mine was to eat a whole chili (not sure what kind it was) while having dinner with YP's family. HOT DAM. It was an...enriching experience, though. YP's was to wear a garland of flowers around her head in public in Hangzhou (pic below) (which I also think she enjoyed, because she wore it all the way home!)
Street foooooood.
Me love smelly tofu
Yu gardens
Took a whole lot of pictures here...it was like a maze of old buildings and courtyards.
Art museum
Hangzhou
We were walking along the West lake (couldn't see much due to the fog), and there were people selling bubble....makers? along the way. I though it'd be fun; so before we approached them we settled internally on a price (5 yuan). They started off with 20 yuan, and after some disgusted looks and pretending to walk away they settled at 5 hehe. Patricia and I each got one, and were making bubbles all along the bridge. Crazy amount of fun being the Bubble Ninjas! We also found an appreciative audience from a kid walking alongside us =)
It started to snow (my first properly-snowing-not-just-light snow!) and rain, so we abandoned our walk-around due to the cold. YP found a massive karaoke center which was also crazy cheap so we spent the rest of the afternoon yelling in there instead.
*atm*
