The China Diaries // Day 12 and Day 13
Day 12
Like the 'park' day, today we did not have to get up early to visit aquarium; so I slept nicely. After getting ready, dad's secretary called saying few men were coming to fix the hole the rat had made. She said they would come in a half-hour. However, after an hour, when they hadn't turned up, my dad called secretary saying they weren't here yet. She called those men and called us again saying they would be here in fifteen minutes. Still after twenty minutes, dad called her to cancel the work, and that we had to go to aquarium and the Oriental Pearl Tower; and it would get late. She did so, and we started off for the aquarium.
I was dressed in a yellow Lee Cooper t-shirt, a Levi Strauss Signature shorts, Move and Moda brown handbag, and a beige coloured bellies. We sat in a taxi, which we got after waiting near Walmart for five minutes. It was very humid. We hadn't had the habit of a sunny and humid weather of China, so we felt exhausted till cool breeze started coming inside the taxi. And as the weather is mostly cool here, we bath with hot water; this added to the hotness and the uneasiness.
We left and witnessed a different road/route towards the aquarium, today. This aquarium--Shanghai Ocean Aquarium--is located at one of the Shanghai's poshest areas. Just like there's Bandra-Kurla Complex, there's this area of Shanghai; tall glass buildings, beautiful flowers, clean roads, proper signaling, and posh cars. It was a delight! I started liking Shanghai even more today!
We stopped near the aquarium, and went to the ticket counter. After that we waited for ice creams, and were delighted to see an Indian family there! We smiled at them, and the conversation began. The couple had a little daughter, who was busy licking ice cream. They were from Kharghar (Navi Mumbai), and they instantly recognized we were from Mumbai as well. I really wonder how they guessed that. They also had with them one elder man and his daughter. I suppose they were colleagues who were Indians, and hence were together for a day-out.
The lady told us that they were in Shanghai because of her husband, who was a part of ship-something. They were living in a ship! And that they had reached Shanghai just yesterday, and the ship would board tonight. We told them they should visit the park next time they're in Shanghai. They will halt at Hong Kong next.
I would love to roam in a ship and get to see different places like these. It must be such an exciting voyage!
We entered the aquarium. We saw different species of fishes. We saw a crocodile which was so close to us! We saw SHARKS, and every time I saw one, I started humming the music from the movie Jaws. I was happy to see a shark in real life (because I wanted to, eagerly). We saw seals and two giant sea turtles! We also saw little penguins.
I wanted to see many animals/birds/fishes, and I could see them here. I am thankful to dad and mom for bringing me here.
Apart from these fishes, we also saw different types of jelly fishes; and I was wondering how marvelously God has created everything. Jelly fishes are amazing, and it felt like I was dreaming after seeing them; they're so dreamy.
After clicking and failing at clicking many pictures, we finally exited the aquarium, and sat in the food court which was just outside the 'exit' door, on the same floor as the aquarium. We were searching for a clean table, but couldn't find one. Many empty tables had used tumblers, plates and tissues on them, and many tables stank. I cannot take in the smell of non-vegetarian food.
Anyway, we finally got a table, where only two tumblers of drinks were kept along with two straws. This table seemed nicer.
We were searching for a table in a corner, because we had to eat curd and rice, which we had carried along. But as we couldn't get one, we sat on the same table where the tumblers were kept. We had curd and rice, and two tumblers full with mango-peach juice. The juice was damn tasty. I recommend you guys to try it.
After the food, we left the place and escalated to a sky-walk. This sky-walk was a stairway to heaven. From there we saw the Oriental Pearl Tower, however we didn't go inside the tower, as the atmosphere up there was foggy. So we stood on the sky-walk, marveling at Shanghai's beauty. I really loved this particular area; the infrastructure is massively advanced here.
After clicking few pictures from the sky-walk, we went to a nearby mall--Super Brands Mall. This mall was huge. And the crowd was immensely wealthy. After roaming in the mall, we came out of it, and headed towards the metro station, which was through the sky-walk itself. We took the tickets, and sat in a train towards Century Avenue station. From there, we came to the JuFeng station, and went to Carrefour near the metro station itself. We wanted to buy milk and other groceries.
We entered Carrefour, and I was surprised to see t-shirts at cheap rates! I hadn't seen a t-shirt less than Rs. 500 here, and the t-shirts I saw here were for Rs. 120, Rs. 150 and so on. Of course, I picked up few.
As our legs were hurting due to the day-out since morning, we didn't roam much. We were tired. After picking up essential items, we paid for the bill, and sat in a nearby KFC. I wanted to have French fries, so we ordered two medium fries. We also ordered an orange-peach juice and a milk tea for dad. After relaxing our leg-muscles, we caught a taxi, and drove towards home.
Home felt good. After changing to pajamas and t-shirt, I started making ready-made bhel for dinner. After that, we all sat in front of the laptop, and went through today's photos and videos, with a plate of delicious bhel in our hands.
If you are visiting any country, and have to eat at home more than outdoors, do carry packets of ready-made bhel.
After the bhel, we went to our rooms, and I started writing blog. I kept the topic simple, and faster to write. After publishing, I dozed off.
Day 13
Mom woke me up saying there's a cute baby-boy at home. I thought I was in dreams; but when I heard a cute little voice saying something in Chinese, I immediately got up from bed.
I have started loving babies; so much that I could look at their cuteness forever. And on top of that, this was a Chinese baby. They're so cute; and I felt like it was an icing on top of the cake.
He was a cute, naughty kid. He was small; you can say a boy who still wears diapers. He didn't sit silently even for a second. He was very, very mischievous. He really made my morning! It was fun playing with him. Though neither of us knew each other's language, still we could play. This tells us that language has no barrier.
I gave him three Toblerone and bade him goodbye. Mom and I have decided to buy a big chocolate bar and give him. We just have Toblerones and Kisses here, so we need to buy a bar.
After he went, I had bath, and lunch followed by that. There was cabbage bhaji for lunch. I don't like this bhaji much, so I told mom I would have something else. Yesterday we had bought ready-made frozen paratha from Carrefour to taste the food dad eats here. The paratha was yummy, guys. I seriously recommend it.
After lunch, mom asked me to fold the laundry clothes, and put on the wet clothes on the bar. The drying-up system is fun here; so I readily agreed. After that, I sat on laptop, to write today's blog. I finished writing Day 12 in the afternoon itself.
Well, later my dad came; today at 5:45 itself. After that we had evening tea and biscuits, and watched news. Then four things fell together at the same time--brother's video-chat, workers to fix the hole, dinner cooking and Narendra Modi's Prime Ministerial oath ceremony.
At around eight, my brother called us on Skype. At the same time, there was a knock on the door followed by a Nihau; two men had come to fix the hole. One was the worker, and another man was his boss. As the oath ceremony was at 6 IST, which means at 8:30 in China, we had to work faster. Today there was dal, egg bhurji, bread, poli, rice and curd for dinner. It was all a mess.
Finally after everything, we peacefully had dinner on sofa with TV switched on in front of us. Dinner was over, and we continued watching TV. In a while, when it was 10:30, we switched off the TV, and went in our rooms.
Right now I am blogging, and surfing on Facebook. It is 1:52 here. Goodnight.
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