Back from a magical trip

We returned from our trip yesterday. We had such a fabulous time in Shanghai. It was a challenging trip in its own way. Foreigners are called 'aliens' there. Not being able to communicate fluently in Mandarin was not a handicap to us as we imagined. I felt a sense of accomplishment everytime we ventured out to a strange new place all by ourselves and not being able to speak the language made it even more fun and thrilling. Soaking in the atmosphere of the colorful chinese culture was truly enchanting . Being a vegetarian, it was challenging as usual to find meat free dishes, especially in a foreign land where you have no clue what is kind to your stomach and what is not but that did not stop us from being adventurous nevertheless. I loved exploring Shanghai and stumbling upon its various delicious street food. I immensely enjoyed letting the vendors know that I'm a vegetarian and yes I have to emphasise that I dont eat meat, otherwise they would just slide in a few pieces of seafood here and there. I had a ball everytime I said "wo chi su. bu you rou" literally translated to "I eat only vegetables. No meat". I got addicted to this deliciously sinful street food called jian bing big time. It is a little slice of heaven that consists of a very thin batter poured onto a hot round flat griddle (think crepes) and with added elements of egg, green onions, cilantro, some hot sauce and then all wrapped around some crispy fried dough. I got high everytime I ate it. Kinda experiencing cold turkey back home now.

Enough about food. I want to stop drooling. How were the people you may ask? Especially those of you who sensed a slight apprehensiveness in my last post? Well, they were...FANTASTIC. Differences in language, culture, skin colour, food were never an issue to us nor them. There is this one particular chap who has left an everlasting impeccable impression on us. He was one of the waiters we came across in this historical vegetarian restaurant. Why historical? Well, it is the oldest vegetarian restaurant in China. It was founded in 1875 by the Qing Dynasty Emperor Xuantong.

From the moment we stepped into the restaurant, I fell in love with his energy and exuberance. His smile and mannerisms were so endearing. Infact, he was so infectious that everytime he came to our table to chat with us or serve us, we would be burst out into laughters. Strangely enough, we even bumped into him once again while strolling through the night streets. Guess what we all did. Yes, we all burst out into laughters again....middle of the street. The Chinese would have thought we were nuts or something. Or maybe it was just us being high on jianbing. Seriously, its souls like him who make our trip simply enchanting and memorable.

All in all, we love Shanghai and whatever it had to offer us....not to mention the addictive mouth-watering jianbing and that infectious waiter :).

p.s: when we have a child, i think we would name him/her jianbing.