Day 212: Margaret Turns 40! — Lijiang to Shanghai — Shanghai Tower — Dinner at M on the Bund
I’m forty! At the risk of sounding smug…I’m happy with my life at this milestone. So lucky — and I know it.
I wouldn’t say it was a day of particularly deep reflection or me-time or pampering. Every day of this year has been that, so I was content to get up and get on with our day.
That meant a 5:45 am wake-up call today, btw. It was pouring rain in Lijiang and we had to be in the taxi by 6:30 headed to the airport.
The minivan driver spoke no English and his taxi stank of stale cigarettes — and lacked enough seats for us all. Blasting Chinese pop music as the sun came up.
We got our flight to Shanghai with no trouble. We made the kids sleep for the first hour of it, which they did, thank god.
At the Shanghai airport, we were greeted by a guide named Joyce, who accompanied us on the hour-long drive into our hotel — the Portman Ritz-Carlton. Sounds extravagant but it’s a relatively inexpensive hotel actually.
Comedy ensued from the moment we pulled up. Alerted by our dear travel agents at Small World about my 40th, the hotel rolled out no fewer than 8 different staffers to help us with arrival and the check in process. There was a guest services gal, the head of rooms, the concierge, our guide, the bellhops, two women who did drawing and coloring with the kids at a check in table, etc.
Everyone knew it was my birthday and everyone was grinning and waving and greeting and offering warm wishes and offers to help us — a swarm of helpers stumbling over each other to be of service.
We couldn’t help but start giggling at the scene. Like…really? For us? The four grubby dirtbags crammed into the double room on the 44th floor? Ha!
And when we got to the room — accompanied by not one but two staffers — we saw that they had decked it out for the occasion. A cake, rose petals spelling happy birthday on the bed, a cake made of towels, animals made of towels, stuffed toys for the kids, and the sweetest little bit: balloons hanging from the ceiling that had family photos from our trip dangling from the end of their strings. Each photo had a little handwritten note from a staffer on it!!
I mean….so sweet. And they were SO EXCITED about this project. We spent 5-7 minutes just standing together in the room oohing and aahing and thanking them.
Once they left and we got settled, we quickly turned around to go find food. Fortunately, there’s a Din Tai Fung chain restaurant in the hotel’s mall complex, and we got our first taste of their famous soup dumplings and pork buns.
Hooked!! Even James loved it.
After a quick dip in the pool, we got dressed (up) and ready for our evening outing: A visit to the top of the Shanghai Tower, a walk along The Bund and dinner at M On The Bund, a rooftop restaurant overlooking the river to spectacular skyline views.
I wore my new skirt from Lijiang — which will go back in the next shipment — and Willa wore her new dress.
Shanghai Tower is the world’s second-tallest building at 118 stories (I also went to the top of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest, with my dad in May). It has the world’s fastest elevator.
We added it to the list of summits topped this year (so many cities tout mountaintops and tall buildings among their tourist attractions and we almost always go for it — to mixed reviews).
It was, like every tourist destination in China we’ve encountered, completely packed.
Despite the shoving and elbows, we were able to get that great bird’s-eye view of the city for the lay of the land.
Next we went to the Bund, the iconic riverside promenade with views onto Pudong across the water. This too was a crowded, hot shit show (found a few pockets without crowds like this one:)
We managed to get a few family photos and stopped for some selfies with provincial Chinese pre-teen tourists curious about James and Willa (and one group even asked for a selfie with me because, according to our guide, they said I looked like a Hollywood movie star — I’ll take it!!!!!).
James was zonked from the early wakeup and so not having the crowds or the walking. Honestly I couldn’t blame him at that point. I was ready for a cocktail.
We made it to our restaurant and took our seats out on the gorgeous roof, where it was cooler but still warm and breezy. Aaaaah. This view!!
Dinner was really great. In a nod to the kids’ favorite game, Top Three, Teddy asked them what their “Top Three Favorite Things About Mama” were, and James blurted out “She’s BEAUTIFUL!!” And I think I died right there.
Willa added that I do really good voices when reading stories out loud, and Teddy toasted my being so easy-going. I’ll take all three of those with pride.
With martinis and wine and a sugar-high, the dinner took a silly route with funny stories and James doing some of his impersonations of me and Teddy.
Eventually we got a cab home, and the ride was such a highlight.
Our driver spoke English — like if someone were doing a joke Chinese accent — and he was super hyper and friendly and excited and laugh-y. When we told him about our year of travel he went totally speechless, stammering and stuttering “What! Wha! Eh! Uh!” until even the kids were belly laughing in the back at his losing his mind.
Spent the rest of the ride rattling off our stops so far and him spewing his knowledge on each country. He concluded by acknowledging that this was a great thing to be doing with kids: “So many food! So many language! So many danger!”
Went to bed with huge smiles on our faces after a(nother) great day.
