Things to Do In Shanghai and What To Expect at Disneyland Shanghai | Tips and Travel Story

Call it audaciously sculptural or pared down and pristine , the architectural ingenuity of the old town in Shanghai engages with the eyes and imagination in such a way that you can't put your head down for a second .
Be prepared to bump into people and poles as you gaze up to appreciate the beauty .
You can't understand this unless you are over and around it .

Shanghai a city and the most idyllic location to find a  sleek and a savvy vibe that you would never run out of things to do. Its a city with modern and an interesting twist to tradition.

I absolutely loved globe trotting in a new era of personalization and identified a whole lot of local secrets and adventures the city has to offer.

Trying to sum up what to expect in the city in a wildly unfiltered way and revealing much more from a local's perspective. Resourcing it all in this blog post , so be patient lovelies.

We were booked at Hotel Howard Johnson Plaza which is straight opposite Nanjing road, one of the most happening streets of Shanghai, also coz you get to do all the touristy things around like the most famous Bund river sightseeing, which is about 750mts .I have a panoramic shot of the beautiful Shanghai at night which could just light you up .Check it all out here.

Nanjing road, is a shopping heaven . And in case your motto is to shop , this street would eat your entire two days.Nothing like walking out of the hotel lobby and bang suddenly you are in the buzz  of it all.

You can get used to the skyscrapers and sit with a beer along the Bund riverside for hours . The twinkling ferries ushers the passengers along the riverside and delivers them to the waterfront . The ferry ride is a package deal with the Pearl tower sightseeing and  should not be missed.

The locals do not speak English. Its very rare that you find someone who would jump onto having a conversation with you. I figured a few were even scared to even share some broken sentences in English hence totally ignored us when we asked them directions. I realized this on Day 2 , and after that totally figured everything out via google maps.

Shanghai is a paradise for food lovers. And those who feel a vegetarian could not survive , damn I put on weight despite all the walking. Shanghai can literally spoil you for food. And boy you can get Vegetarian food in Shanghai almost everywhere. The hotel had a vegetarian menu , plus we discovered a lot of local restaurants who could just switch any dish to your preference. There are some stand alone shacks who sell rice noodle salads, with cucumber , bean sprouts and peanuts, and you cannot miss that too. There are a lot of dotting restaurants at the Bund riverfront along with gorgeous river views, and the staff can communicate well with you for the kind of food you want..

The most popular and another must visit place is Yuyuan Graden , and the city gods temple.Its staggering lovely. It keeps the integrity of the old 15th century charm { the only temple from the ming dynasty ( that's what the sign boards told us )} It was just one stop from our hotel, and the train ride was so much fun. 

Yu yuan was stately , and inviting and boasts of the old world construction and a never forgettable china town experience. The houses and shops even starbucks is designed to keep the structure of the whole place authentic. Beautiful photos of the temple follows after the post, so don't miss any. 

We shopped for some local souvenirs and about 50 chinese fans from the market which begins just after the exit . Great to take home some inexpensive trinkets and local chinese tea and chinese toys.

The only proper way to get around Shanghai is by a Taxi, and the train.  The weather was too hot and humid . After reading some vague reviews about the hop on and hop off bus , which practically gets you around most of the sightseeing places we dropped the idea. But it sure is fun for a day, only if the weather outside doesn't get the better of you. I would still recommend sticking to taxi or the sub.

Nanjing road has this cute little toy trains - almost only a dollar expensive easily making out way on the pedestrian street carefully honking . Even if you are an adult, you would just freak out.

Now coming to where it all started . The planning , and why did we pick Shanghai this time.Well Disney may have a hand in this. Thanks to the commercials we were continuously hammered by our daughter that how eager she was to visit Shanghai disneyland as all the Frozen princesses have their legit squad there . Turns out she was right. Disney is not new for us, its magical, everywhere but a little less in Shanghai . Blame it on the sizable number of people inhabiting the city , Disney was overtly crowded. Also because Shanghai disney just opened up in June and is a little more Disneywise  trending than others.

Be prepared to walk , sweat and stand in the queues for most of the rides. People were just rattling all over the place. 

Disney Day 1 we decided to take the most newest rides first and the ones which has the maximum hours for waiting . Turned out it was everybody else's  plan too. Enter Plan B - Forget everything and just concentrate on the princess. But the good part was that we managed to catch all the shows 

( although in Mandarin ) and they were hilarious and funny . Unlike other Disney's this one is humongous ,and would impress even the most jaded tourists and locals alike.There's a reason why there is a huge waiting for most of the rides, but there were a few which were outrageously boring. Truth is you need minimum three days here, although it deflates you completely ,but I would still suggest that if you want to go to Disney , Hong kong Disney is way better( crowd wise ). Or wait till till the craze dies out a bit, Chinese wants to be the first one to taste everything , so let them do that first. Rest of the world can wait.

Disney pictures with the captions are all below. Have fun browsing through them.

I wore this striped dress from Zaful on one of the days in Shanghai. I have already mentioned how hot it was, and I needed some ventilation. Its a cute shirt dress with some trendy patches . A lot of you asked me about the bag . Its from Zaful too. It was a perfect companion for my entire trip.

Putting down all the details of the outfits below. This post is already becoming so lengthy, or may I say word- crowded . At least I braved Disney on a weekend and that too in chinese school beak holidays. A superpower that I can add to my list of achievements. I deserve a pat or some emojis thumbs up would also suffice.

Ending my travel stories with this post. I am always available to actively engage with your queries on social networks. Come let's Chat.

More on my Instagram. See you with a next outfit next week.

Can you spot the Toy Train ??

Can you see the Tiger Kissing the Panda ?  The theory of glass full or empty in full practice

A Day In Loungewear | The Club Emerald - Mumbai

These summer holidays were a perfect time for me to gussy up and go out, but hubster was too less inclined to spend time with family. It was a holiday vs Work Tug-O -War situation at home.

The work kept him busy all throughout , and he was a living example of Ass Jack of all trades,( work front ) engrossed in climbing some Mt. Kilimanjaro, Disconnected and not reachable. It was time to break a bottle of some old wine, alone at home,when an idea struck me to follow him everywhere.

Co-incidentally both of ours work made us land in Mumbai at the same time. Now it was a golden opportunity to take a break from solo-parenting and just throw everything and perform my laid back couch potato edit. 

Things became slow. Mumbai was rainy and sluggy, not that I am loving Delhi at the moment, but its that time of the year where the pattern of sweat don't know the city its trickling down from. Yes, Monsoons !!

Obviously we don't have a different wardrobe for monsoons,like we do for winters, but casuals and lounge-wear only seems like an obvious directional choice in this weather which on a side note, also lets me achieve the bonus of every conceivable form of daily activity and save me the Gusset between my legs too ( I said that on Instagram already )......

This Kurti and the linen pant set was the most dressed up I needed to be on a rainy day in Mumbai. You can see my hair is tied up already in a bun. Kurta's can prove to be a Mecca for lounge-wear and also maximise your chill time and that's what precisely I was doing at newly launched Sports Club -Emerald in Chembur, Mumbai. I think there is room for style and taste in every part of women's life. But its only when a fancy place like Club Emerald which is full of luxury notes provides a vantage point for me to swaddle myself up with a cup of coffee in the quietness of the library and loose myself to a book.  After hours of curling up on that library sofa couch, I got in a mood to hit the playground , play some squash and it was exactly when I found out that this Fab India outfit proved every bit in the righteousness to obscure my secondary sex characteristic, unencumbered and non fussy.

Victorinox Luggage – Discover Fine Swiss Craftsmanship

looking for ideas to make an investment in luggage that will stand the test of time and look great for decades to come, no matter how hectic your usual travel schedule, then look no further . Introducing - Victorinox is a new found brand to look at. Victorinox luggage claims to be one of the highest build in quality, which I feel is something extremely reassuring about having your luggage made by a company with thinking of its extensive heritage and 
prestige – (you know you are getting something special as well as stylish.) 
Here, we take a look at just what makes Victorinox luggage a reliable and beautiful option to your carry on and check into.


Where Have I Heard That Name Before?
While Victorinox are well known for their luggage, which has received rave reviews from consumers and is also extremely popular with celebrities, the product they are most famous for is the Swiss Army knife. Victorinox has been producing official pocket knives for the Swiss Army since the late 19th century, and everybody is familiar with those iconic red knives that also feature all manner of  handy implements like scissors, tweezers, corkscrews, toothpicks, nail files and dozens of other tools.

Travel In Style with Clarks #MyShoeDiaries - 1

Today I created the whole look around the shoes. Its summer holidays and that means travelling on cards, not only for me , but am sure for a lot of us. So just because our schedule includes planes,cars or trains , it doesn't mean that our wardrobe has to suffer, especially when all the while we have a selfie fever tapping on, and it's got to be always a winning one. That's correct. Everyone wants to look good and have good travel pictures .

So this holiday season Its all about travelling in style and when it comes to that, I think, laid back look, breezy outfits, lots of sunscreen, and comfort shoes for that  endless slip on and offs in the car and flight.

I was thinking to go super casual, but also wanted to keep my individual style intact. And since we were spending the weekend at  Heritage Select Manesar, I decided to blend in with the alcove style village interiors , and bring my gypsy style to play. The bindi, layered semi-precious Jewellery , deep kohl, helped me play the case of cool and casual. I really felt that these pretty Ennis weave Dusty pink shoes from clarks were the only thing that I needed to make my travel style pop. They even lent a good amount of style emmo to the Jewelry I wore which I sartorially layered skipping anything which was overly trendy and less than anything loud, helping me show a bit off my Indian roots with a side of cool. 

Knowing that it was gonna be the hottest day on record, I wanted to keep the outfit airy,but at the same time injecting the flavour I wanted , and nothing could demonstrate that than a pair of hot shorts and an off sleeve blouse.

So this was my take on tripping out of town in style  and a way I could meld travelling hours without looking boring.

Bonus: This look could go straight from travel to dinner to drinks, or even sightseeing. 

Someone rightly said- "Good shoes take you to good places " So behold as I take you through my next episode of #shoegasm in #myshoediaries with Clarks.