And we’re back after another successful adventure which included planes, trains and terracotta warriors.

We started out in Shanghai which is really only a quick three hour flight from Tokyo (on which we saw all but the last 15 minutes of Slumdog Millionare – Thanks NWA for all of the in flight announcements about duty free, I didn’t really need to see the end of the best movie I’ve seen in a really long time!- I digress.) and turned out to remind me quite a bit of New York’s East Village. Well, the East Village if you were to replace the hipsters with old men hucking up spit from their toes…that sound, it makes me shudder. Every.Single.Time. One could also argue you would need to cut the prices of the restaurants by 95% but personally I view Shanghai as an upgrade in that regard.

We ended up staying in a small B&B called Quintet in the French Concession which turned out to be a great selection as that part of town was very walkable and lined with small boutiques and cafes. As we ventured around the city we gradually found our way to the Yu Gardens, a bit of a tourist trap on this particular day but the dumpling restaurant we found made up for the crushing amount of humanity and yelling we were surrounded by.  Did I mention China is a lot louder than Japan? And that the Chinese are very, erm, passionate in their discussions. Passion of course is proportional to volume.

From the Yu Gardens, we were able to walk to the river front on the Puxi side of town known as the Bund.  That is where I found these:

I could tell you the name of the cobbler where they were hand stitched. I could also tell you their website and hint that they deliver globally. I could but according to my mother and husband, sharing is not a strength of mine. If you would like it, feel free to e-mail me and I will ponder the art of sharing.

Our visit to the Bund is also  when I was  greeted by my own, personal, fleet of paparazzi but that is a story for my husband to tell.

Perhaps if he recovers tomorrow from his bout of drinking tap water, he’ll let you know. That is a big if but I have faith he’ll pull through just fine.