The French Concession

The city of Shanghai China has many distinct areas. There is the old school money area called “The Bund”, there is the futuristic Pudong area and the shopping mecca Nanjing road. In addition to all of this the city boasts one of the most charming neighborhoods I have ever seen: The French Concession. This area of Shanghai feels like Paris mixed with SoHo with a dash of Los Angeles topped off with a sprinkling of Bangkok. The streets are lined with beautiful and leafy trees and the architecture ranges from Asian to European. There are churches, posh boutiques, cafes, salons, etc. We walked this area for hours and were simply amazed at its unique character. During one of our trips we stumbled on a little juice bar that made a frozen Oreo ice drink that was INSANE! We ended up going back numerous times and the employees would just smile and make our drinks. :) Shanghai is a city with lots of character and the charming French Concession neighborhood stole me and Lindsay’s heart.










The closest we have ever come to death….a taxi ride in India:
After visiting Varanasi India we needed to catch a flight back to Mumbai. The small airport in Varanasi is about 20 minutes outside the city so we arranged a driver from the guesthouse we were staying in to take us (essentially he was a taxi driver). We followed him through the narrow alleys of the old city until we finally emerged at his SUV idealing on the main road. Once we were in the car I remember thinking “this will be a nice chill drive and a chance for me to see some streetlife.” Nothing could have been farther from the truth. What proceeded next was more thrilling than any amusment park ride I have ever been on. The streets of Varanasi, India are full of everything you can imagine. For example: numerous wondering cows, old women and men, children everywhere, stray animals, rikshaws, bikes, people hauling everything in the world in carts, cars, etc, etc. Honestly I would probably drive 20-25 mph tops. Our taxi driver took off and consistently kept around 60 mph as he dodged everything mentioned above. There were so many close calls where Lindsay and I would just close our eyes hoping that we did not have a head on collision with a cow! We spent the entire ride trying not to laugh as we were both being thrown around by the constant swerving and maneuvering by our NASCAR like driver. I busted out the camera to try and film it but it just didn’t do it justice. We finally made it to the airport and were extremely relived (and a little sad) to be out of the taxi. To this day we will never forget the experience.