So, were currently sat in 30 degree heat in the rooftop bar in our hostel (they are cunning people fortunately and have a way to bypass the great china firewall hence we can blog and facebook). Weve had a well packed 3 days in Shanghai. My flight over was just lovely, I got a complimentary copy of HELLO magazine and a cadbury cream egg, this teamed with a whole host of good t.v made me a happy bunny indeed. The woman next to me kept trumping in her sleep though.
Scott met me at the airport, and this time around I arrived with my bag, much to Scott's amusement I wheeled out my backpack, its too heavy for my back but I couldn't take the wheely thing out of the airport unfortunately. We hit Xiabu Xiabu after hours of Scott searching, the second the sesame paste hit my lips I knew i'd arrived. We then stumbled across 'Mr Big Stomach 2011', with the tagline 'This spring, this city', e.g. a line of chinese people ramming as much pizza into their mouths as possible. One of those moments when you realise you've been awake for 24 hours and wonder what on earth is going on, along with the dancers for entertainment, and the sharks swimming round in a tank in the shop window opposite. Got to love China.
We spent the first morning getting aquainted with the city in the Shanghai museam, by the end of it we were both bored as hell, but more culturally aware (it was free). We have also been up the oriental pearl tower which was beautiful, and we went up as it was going dark so got some lovely views of the Shanghai skyline in the day and night. We did a river boat tour where we paid 10 pounds to get on the boat, was led to the roof to find a big piece of tarmac and a lovely VIP room, airconditioned with seats, with a frickin 3.50 entrance fee! Having a laugh, so we sat down on the tarmac and Scott got the Tsingtao in. Its day 4 in Shanghai and weve managed to fit in 4 Xiabu Xiabu meals, the guy even knows our order off by heart now. Im managing fine with my vegetarian diet, apart from the night I had to order two meals in seperate restaurants after I had to walk out of the other one leaving my meal fully intact as it made me want to vom. We went into the restaurant opposite in the hope they couldn't see us through the window. Scott tried to take me to an actual 'Vegetarian' restaurant but the menu seemed to misinterpret the meaning, offering fried chicken rice and pork. As you can guess we didn't sample the delights on offer.
Today Scott got his geography fix when we visited the Shanghai Urban planning exhibition, which I was actually quite impressed with. The chinese were proper bigging themselves up with how fantastic Shanghai is now it has grown but there was an amazing 3D visual model of Shanghai, the size of a 5 a side football pitch nearly, imagine Scotts face. We also had a little ride in a boat simulation made for kids, we waited for 2 kids to get off it then ran over.
Were off to Hangzhou in the morning tomorrow after our final farewell meal at Xiabu. We have 2 days there before our trek up the mountain begins so a serious amount of rest and relaxation are in order. Straight after this we are going for a 2 pound foot rub, whoop!!
Love to everyone at home,
Kate and Scott xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
P.S in regards to the blog title, we will also be compiling a list of things never to say to your girlfriend when you are travelling. After hearing a scuttling sound during the night above us I joked 'That sounds like a dog', Scott then replied 'That sounds more like a rat'. I then sat bolt up right, had the light on the whole night and spent my time waiting to contract the plague. Luckilly for Scott just after he'd made this statement he fell asleep, apart from the two times I woke him up after I heard scuttling after that (I decided this was a useless activity as I would say 'did you hear that' and he'd say 'yeh' and then fall back to sleep.). Not a good night for me!
What was it that made you want to vom? was it roast dog?
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