Melbourne

Hopetoun Tea Rooms
Block Arcade
282 Collins Street
Melbourne 3000
03 9650 2777
www.hopetountearooms.com.au

Yummy cakes, for afternoon tea you need to book in advance. Located in the Block Arcade in the centre of Melbourne.













the Fawkner Bistro Bar
52 Toorak road west
South Yarra 3141
03 9867 5853
www.thefawkner.com.au

The steak was fantastic at the Fawkner, would definitely go back again.

Joanne Kee
www.ceressolutions.com.au

More Shanghai tips - language

Contrary to all that I had read beforehand I found it really easy to get around Shanghai, without having any Mandarin.

I had studiously learnt how to count, but found prices in English and Chinese. Where there could have been confusion at markets, there were calculators.

Metro has fares in English and Chinese.

One thing though, it does help to have addresses written in Chinese if you want to catch a taxi.

Joanne Kee
www.placesandspaces.com.au

Shopping areas in Shanghai

Definitely have your hotel translate these addresses or locations into Chinese before leaving the hotel, as you can then show it to your taxi driver.

Otherwise, you can manage most places without too much problem by catching the metro system.

Shopping area

Hongqiao International Pearl CityHours 10am to 9pm
Hongmei Road and Yan'an Elevated Road
(Near Longxi Rd S metro) but tricky to find because of multiple exits from metro, you need the address written in chinese.
However it is quite well known
Bags, stationery, Chinese stuff, shoes, videos, games, curio shops
2nd floor has jewellery, especially pearls and jade. I am told that the stuff here is real, not fakes.
There is a really good video/dvd/cd shop close by, but outside the complex.

Xintiandi
Hours 10am to 9 or later
Taxis will take you to taxi rank at the complex
(Near Huangpi Rd S metro)

This is another really well known tourist area where shops have been built in an upmarket laneway system. Places like Shanghai Tang, Tony & Guy for hair etc.

Lots of good restaurants, bars and shopping.

If you keep on walking through you will come to a warren of shopping malls
with western brand shops. The first one has restaurants like Crystal Jade, Dai ting Fung and a cinema complex. The next mall through is a really up market mall that is just opening November 2010, very chi, chi.

Taiking road
Hours 10am to 9 or later
Dapuquao metro - though quite confusing getting out in that Shanghai way, it is not obvious where the Taiking Road complex is. It is a warren of laneways, so just walk into the laneways.

Up market craft, pottery, Chinese curios, t-shirts, clothing, jewellery etc. You can find similiar things at the markets for cheaper prices.



If you are in this area don't miss the shop at the Liuli china Museum
25 Taikang Road.

This is a glass museum, exhibitions, building and layout are really worth catching. The shop has some very hip objects of desire. These include beautiful glass sculptures.

www.liulichinamuseum.com

Yuyuan Gardens and bazaar
Hours 10am to 9 or later
Yuyuan Gardens metro.
There are more markets than you can poke a stick at here. From very basic down at heel looking warrens which sell scarves, jewellery, stickers, stationery, sort of like a paddy markets, through to the shopping laneways near Yuyuan Gardens which have souveneirs, chopsticks, clothing etc. I found beautiful business card holders and keyrings for 20 yuan which sold for 120 in the art galleries in town.

People try to sell you bags all over the place, they will often show you pictures and offer to take you to their place. It is generally quite safe to go with them.

There are also household things for sale in one of the warrens of markets and an area that sells gold.

Nanjing Road and Peoples Park
Hours 10am to 9
Peoples Square metro.
This area has No. 1 Department store on Nanjing Road East and West. There are the things you would expect to find in a shopping strip.

There are also underground shops and mini markets that sell things like wigs, toys, scarves, bags, clothes, etc in the labyrinth of retail opportunities that connects to the subway.

Shiliupu Fabric Market
2 Zhonghua Road
Xiaonanmen metro

This is a treasure trove of fabrics and you can have tailor made clothes. A good tip is to take what you want and have it copied.

I paid in advance and had clothese delivered to my hotel and am happy with all my purchases, shirts, cashmere jackets, dresses etc. Though I have a little split in my cashmere jacket that I will have to fix. However my husband is very happy with his tailored shirts. There are also scarves, belts etc downstairs.

Tailoring takes 3-4 days. Shirts cost from 80 yuan, dresses from 200 upwards, cashmere jackets from 600 upwards.

French Concession East
This area also has loads of shops and the streets are interesting to wander.

Benny Peng
For beautiful stationery, photo albums, this is the warehouse location.

Benny Peng
Rm 509, No. 56, Lane 767
Wan Hang Du road
shang Hai 200042 P.R.C.
www.benypeng.com
There are so many shopping areas, you could spend all your time shopping, but that would be a shame, as there are lots of interesting things to see and do. However, it is nice to browse and wander the streets and absorb the different flavours of the various shopping areas.

Top 10 general tips for airport and currency exchange in Shanghai

1)Currency exchange - definitely the easiest and quickest way to do it, not to mention best rate, is to exchange at airport in Shanghai or the currency exchange there. They have one at the baggage carousel, so you can do it while you are waiting for your baggage.

2)Once in town, they have made it super easy to exchange money at banks. There is a green and grey symbol at a lot of banks and some shops.

3)You should also check out your hotel currency exchange. The hotel I was staying at offered currency exchange at no cost, using the Bank of China exchange rates. It was so easy and totally different from a lot of the information I had read beforehand about how changing money can be difficult and not easily available.

4)Taxis are very easy. However trip is long, an hour to central Shanghai. Cost at October 2010 is around 150-200 yuan.

5)If you compare cost of taxi versus Maglev, taxi is probably cheaper if there are 3 traveling, if 2, it is a closer call.

6) If time is important catch the Maglev, it takes only 8 minutes to town. Plus if you travel in peak hour, will probably be more efficient, as being stuck in traffic may well add to your time and the cost of the fare.

7) You might also want to catch Maglev if you are a train buff, apparently it travels at over 400 miles an hour.

8) You can use your airline ticket for a discount in price.

9) Always useful to have your destination written in Chinese characters. Many taxi drivers do not speak any English.

10)At the airport, the maps you can pick up for free are detailed and very useful when working out where you want to go while in town.

and one extra general tip for finding your way around

11) Don't use an old guide book, the conventions for street names seemed to have changed over the past 3 years and can prove quite confusing.

Joanne Kee
www.placesandspaces.com.au

Shanghai - 10 more tips

1) There seem to be public toilets everywhere in the central shopping areas.
2) It is useful to have a small purse pack of tissues as public toilets often run short.
3) There will often be an option of Eastern or Western toilets.
4) Newer more modern places, particularly designer shopping malls tend to have western style loos.
5) They do security checks of your bags at metro stations.
6) They seem to have soldiers at subway stations, they look amazing, I had to do a double take to make sure they were real.
7) Of course, taking a photo of soldiers is a big no, no.
8) Metros stations I went to all seem so big and clean.
9) Trains run quite often.
10) As with undergrounds all around the world, reorienting yourself with where you are once you get out, is often the tricky bit.

Shopping tips Shanghai

It seems you can't move in Shanghai without stumbling across an opportunity to shop. Be it a market, a mega mall, a tourism complex, or the old style communist shopping opportunity.

If you prefer not to enter the melee of bargaining and you have a taste for luxury there are so many luxury malls around town that it is hard to imagine how they can all operate.

Tips

1.Most market places will show you prices on calculators so there is no problem with the language.
2.The happiest way to bargain is to decide in advance how much you are willing to pay, if you and the vendor are happy it is a good deal.
3.Sometimes in retrospect it seems churlish to have bargained hard over 50c.
4. If you would have happily paid $20 for something in your home town, don't miss out from getting into the moment of feeling as though you have to drive a bargain.
5. If you are of Western build, you might not find it that easy to buy clothes off the rack, the Fabric markets and having clothes tailor made may be the best thing.
6.Department stores have fixed prices, as do luxury stores in malls, it seems there is room to bargain in most other places.
7. I like to shop around before I start buying to get a sense for how much people are charging for things. Even the starting price can vary from stall to stall.
8. You really can get ridiculous instances of reduced prices, my friends bought a kite for 15 yuan that started at 200!
9. Rule of thumb is at the very least go for less than 50%, if you are brave go for a lot less.
10. the vendors will pursue you, if they really want to seel there goods.

I chose to do a guided shopping tour, as it has been a long time since I was in China and I figured I wouldn't mind a bit of guidance. The Shopping Tours Shanghai were highly recommended on Trip Advisor.

So I debated about whether or not to use the cost of the trip towards shopping, but in the end the reviews swayed me. I can recommend www.shoppingtoursshanghai.com. I did the best of everything tour.

We visited the fabric markets, pottery, jewellery, handbags and other stuff, plus DVDs. In between we also managed to have a good lunch at a Shanghai style restaurant.

See my other blog posting for location of various shops.

Joanne Kee
www.ceressolutions.com.au

Parks in Shanghai

These are like most people's backyards, where everything happens from cards to tai chi or opera singing. Though have to say the people dancing don't seem to crack any smiles, though I imagine they are enjoying themselves?

This is opera singing in People's Park



Next up is dancing in Fuxing Park



and line dancing at the same time, just a different location

Restaurants and shopping Buenos Aires

El cortijo
Santiago del Estero 20, Cap. Fed

An old fashioned, very good value restaurant. In particular the daily specials are worth checking out.

Vegetable soup of the day for only 5 pesos.
We had a meal with people having steaks, wine, beer etc. For 10 the bill was 415 pesos.

Definitely worth a visit.

Mundana
Beautiful jewellery at this shop. Locations at 5 different places around Buenos Aires
http://www.mundana.accesorios.com.ar/

Bits and pieces from Bueos Aires

Fantastic city, even though it has been freezing cold and raining.

We have spent time in Palermo. A great place to wander around if you like shopping, the interiors are like works of art themselves

Had lunch at Bar 6, Amenia 1676, Palermo
www.barseis.com

Ultra cool place to hang.

Had dinner at Sattua, vegetarian restaurant
Montevideo 446, BA
www.sattva.com.ar
An atmospheric quirky kind of place, great veggie food, we recommend the tacos, rice was good.

Tonight we had the most amazing buffet and grill at a place called
Brasas Argentinas
Alicia Moreau de Justo 1108
Puerto Madero
Reservas al 4331 4386

They had the usual buffet, plus chefs making fresh pastas, seafood and meat grills, sushi, parrilla and we were just too stuffed to have dessert. We went at peak time ie Friday night and paid $35 each for loads of food, beer and wine and as we said, we were too stuffed to move afterwards.

We love the Argentinian way, if three people order a bottle of wine, the wine gets poured in one go into all three glasses.

Hotel Tribeca
Downtown BA - good location, big rooms, great place to stay

Disfida Restaurant

In my newfound infatuation with Haberfield we went to Disfida this week.

109 Ramsay Street
Haberfield
02 9798 8299

We had a great meal here. Starters were mussels, caprese salad and venetian sardines.

We then shared a couple of pizzas one with prosciutto and one with fresh tomatoes which were pretty good.

The service was great, attentive, efficient. Total bill was $102 with one glass of wine. By the way really good wine list.

We'll definitely be going back Joanne

Kawa, Surry Hills

On what is fast becoming the very trendy part of Crown street, full of posh fresh food with Thomas Dux and a specialist butcher.

This is a welcoming, nook in the Crown Street landscape. Tables outside or an air conditioned space inside. Very friendly staff.

The feel is healthy and organic, but not overly so. Fresh juices here and good coffee.

As you can see my meal was huge. I had corned beef salad with hash browns, beetroot and other good things. Sandy had the big breakfast, which he didn't think was huge, but it was a decent size. He had poached eggs, which were on the point of just becoming solid. Personally I prefer my poached eggs runny, but I guess that is personal preference.

Reasonable prices that fit within the food trek budget. There is a surcharge on Sundays and public holidays.

They are open all day and also do some dinners.
346-350 Crown Street
Surry Hills 2010
9331 6811

Joanne
www.placesandspaces.com.au