We walked back the way we came. I guess knowing we were heading back to the hotel to rest for a bit before the big dinner made me feel light and relieve because I was suddenly noticing all kinds of photo composition in front of me.

I particularly loved this photo because it separated Shanghai’s three well-known landmarks. In Chinese, we call the buildings the three kitchen tools. In the center, you have what looks like a needle to inject jelly into a donut, to the right of the white high-rise is the bottle opener, and then there’s a whisk next to it. You can’t see the bottom of the third building but Cousin M explained to me that the base of the building is like a whisk. Hmm…

I was like a puddle when I collapsed on the hotel’s loveheat the moment we arrived back in our room. My mom took the bed. In those few precious hours, I would have so much to do. I needed to edit my photos and manually back up my phone’s photos praying I wouldn’t need the VPN to upload photos to my cloud. The internet started and stalled many times and eventually, I did settle for a nap, rather than to lie there frustratingly and wait.

At a quarter to five, we gathered once again outside the hotel as Cousin M called a taxi to take us to the Radisson Blu where we have a dinner reservation. It was the one meal I’ve been looking forward to ever since my mom told me about it months prior. When we arrived at the hotel, it was still too early for us to head to our reservation, so we decided to take a walk outside, although, for the life of me couldn’t figure out why we couldn’t walk inside the shopping mall where there was AC.

At almost half past five, we returned to the hotel and took the elevator to the 45th floor. It only took a minute but it left my ears ringing. The restaurant was totally unexpected. As we dined, we would get a 360-degree view of the city because the restaurant is a revolving restaurant. The view is always changing minute by minute.

When the plates of appetitizer arrived, the table was shocked by how amount of food there were. Everyone at the table were used to large plates of food completely piled with food, not like this where the food was creatively arranged in the middle. I mindfully sampled each plate of food, carefully exploring the tastes in my mouth because any chef that work at this restaurant would’ve put some thought to the taste and presentation of their food, right?

We dined and talked into the night and soon, the light in the city below came on and we were counting the empty plates on the table. “Do you know how many courses there are?” Cousin M asked and my mom just shrugged.

It was a 15-course menu. 15 dishes of food! For four people!

When dessert came, I was full and simply couldn’t eat another thing. Still, my mom scooped a bowl of the dessert and placed it in front of me. The dessert was, along with the rest of the meal, quite good. It was after I finish my bowl that I was informed that there’s booze in the dessert. “Alcohol?” I squeaked, “how much?”

“Probably not much.” Cousin M replied.

I didn’t feel anything until I was outside crossing the street and found myself fearlessly making the cross. That voice in my head was gone, I noticed, the voice that was always playing frightening scenarios in my head was gone. My mind was blank and light, like nothing would bother me. It was like all the tabs that were opened in my head closed for the first time in a long time.

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