Tourists in Shanghai

This morning we had a relatively slow, relaxed start to the day. About 10am we headed to Blue Frog for breakfast then headed to Pudong to visit the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium and the Oriental Pearl Tower.

The aquarium was surprisingly good. We lost Glynis for a while but found her by the penguins :-). After wandering through the exhibits and going on the travellator under the huge aquarium, we headed up to Cold Stone Creamery for some icecream.

Next up was the Oriental Pearl Tower. While the boys bought our tickets, Glynis and I read the safety sign which as it's first rule included the following:

"The ragamuffin, drunken people and psychotics are forbidden to enter the Tower."

Gotta love bad English translation! Although I am not too sure exactly what they were trying to say.

After having a good chuckle at the sign, we headed inside. First stop was the 263m observation deck. It was a bit of a smoggy day so the view wasn't great but at least we could see the tall buildings down town and the river. Into another lift then up to the Space Capsule at 350m for a slightly different view.

In each lift that we got into, we were greeted by a young Chinese girl who gave us a brief outline of the tower. I can't say any of the girls were enjoying their jobs and their English was limited to their memorized speech - we tried to ask them some questions but got no response. :-)

After the Space Capsule, the next lift took us to the 295m observation deck which was kinda cool because at least you could get outside. From there, it was another lift to the ground floor. They really made you go through the ropes as there was no way to simply get down from the top!

By the end of the Tower experience, we were all pretty exhausted. We headed home, Glynis and I had naps while the boys headed to a massage parlour down the round for foot rubs. Although we had intended to go to one of the fancy restaurants on the Bund for dinner, we were all a little tired so we walked down the road to a Tapas bar which was great. On the way home, we stopped outside Green Court where a lady had set up her stall on the side of the road selling DVDs. Ross and I went a bit nuts buying DVDs to take home.

Once up in the appartment, we watched a bit of TV then headed off to bed just in time to listen to an awesome thundrestorm that moved over the top of the apartment.