My second morning in Shanghai, China

After a nice day and night last night I had high hopes for today and the foreseeable future, only for it to all come crashing down around my ears.

Some days are good days, some days are bad days and some days you wish you had just stayed in bed and refused to wake for anything except a natural disaster, well today wasnt quite that bad, but having said that its not a good day and it has barely reached midday.

I woke and knew that I had to sort out my Indian Visa soon, or at least check it out, or else I might find myself not flying on the day I planned and having to pay a nasty penalty at the airport for yet another change, and with the onward flight only a couple of days later it would be almost not worth leaving the airport.

The internet was not the most helpful, everything being in Chinese or saying that it would be a 7 day delay because I wasnt a local, which is of course not quite true and especially not if I am willing ( or have little chice but ) to pay for it to be express processed.

Knowing how useless the hotel was, I had little hopes of them sorting it out for me, so I looked for the biggest sounding firm in the city, got the address and went to ask for the to arrange me a taxi. After three members of staff and the taxi driver all arguing about how to spell or pronounce it, I gave up and stormed off back to my room to devise plan D.

Plan D was to get a flight or maybe even a night train so that I can get to Beijing earlier than expected and once there sort out my Indian Visa direct in the countries capital with at least 4 full work days for them to process it, which should be possible, plus in Beijing I have two good friends who speak Excellent English and should be able to help argue and cajole the locals a little bit more that me alone.

For anyone who wondered what plan A was, that was getting the India Visa while I was still in the UK, but they skuppered that the moment I learned that you cant apply more than 3 months in advance, and plan B was to sort it out in Bangkok but after dealing with the locals I just couldnt find a reputable travel agency that I was prepared to entrust my passport to for a few days. I also couldnt do it while in Phnom Penh as I already was pushing my luck getting both Vietnamese and Chinese visa's there and one more just was not possible.

So I packed up my stuff and went to check out and was hit by the largest laundry bill I have ever had. One pair of jeans, 7 t-shirts, 8 boxer shorts and 4 1/2 pairs of socks ( having lost about 5 1/2 in the last two months ... how, I have no idea ) cost me 340 RMB, with the average price being 15 RMB, or £1.50, for a single pair of socks to be washed. Had I realised it would have been this much I know that I would have preferred to go dirty for one more day and have then cleaned for a fraction of the price when I got to my hostel in Beijing or evne India for that matter, but it was too late, I had my clean clothes so I had to choke on their greed but pay it regardless. 

The act of getting to the train station and getting my ticket should have been relatively easy, as even the locals must understand train station, but this job was made so much easier by the phonecall that I received from my friend X' who wanted to meet me again this afternoon and was prepared to escort me to the station and get my ticket for me. Although I was fairly confident that I could manage on my own there are no points being awarded here for heroism or stupidity and so it would have been both foolish and unkind to my friend to not take up her kind offer, so I graciously accepted and together we went by underground to the train station.

My friend X' was very eager for me to get my ticket, so she literally pounced on the ticket clerk the moment he was finished with his previous customer and before I could even open my mouth she had already rattled off a long list of things to him and a price of 283 was soon after punched up on the LED. Knowing that this was cheaper than the internet said it was, I reckoned that my friends being a local had managed to secure me a normal non-tourist infalted price, and I just hoped everything would work out fine.

With still half the day to kill, we chose to first grab a breakfast and for this we agreed upon a japanese restaurant. I am doing my best to be greatful to my friend, and accept that she was giving up her time just to help me, but it was a bit annoying when I chose a mild dry meat and rice dish but she changed my order to be a scorching hot extra spicey vegetable noodle soup that had my eyes sweating the moment the first drops touched my lips.

My good manners were futher tested when she decided that instead of touring around the local Palace or Temple she would instead we to the world famous Shanghai Walking Street, a place where you walk and shop! To give her credit she did recover very well, when I almost collapsed by suggesting that we take the mini tourist train that slowly chugged its way along the street and back again, for 2 CNY each way.

After the brief train ride, in which I refused to ever get out the other end and just sat and waited til it was on its way back, I took charge for a moment and suggest we go to watch a movie, any movie, that was playing in the nearest cinema. I have no idea if she was actually interested in watching the cartoon conversion of Dragonball Z, but without any objection she sat with me and watched it til the end.

It was not one of Chow Yun Fat's greatest roles, but I am sure that he probably enjoyed doing something ligth for a change and certainly he didnt get the shakes from using any guns this time ( that was his biggest complaint after filming The Replacement Killers, he hands were shaking so much he could barely use chopsticks ).

Following on from the film we took a stroll around Peples Square before she escorted me back to the train station where I then was able to check in, have my bags scanned upon entering the main terminal and then sit in the comfy leather armchaired waiting room for the last hour before my train was due to leave.

My overnight train, which I hope is in the sleeping section, leaves around 19:25 and should arrive at 07:00, light enough for me to be able to make it to the new hostel that I booked this morning, one where the staff speak great English, have free wifi and I dont really care if I share a room or not as I won't be there when I am out with my Beijing friends, both who replied to my text and said that they are happy that I wil be there sooner and are looking forward to meeting me.

My first day in Shanghai, China

The hotel where I stayed in last night didnt have any English speaking staff, so I had to call my friend S' to act as interpretter and through a combination of her and another guest I managed to check out on time, and catch a bus where my S' was waiting for me. When I say catch a bus, I mean that I stood by the road side along with a few of the other locals and waited for a bus to pull up along side, not that there was any signs or postings that this was a bus stop, and it was only the other friendly guest who told me exactly where to wait that prevented me wandering on for ages, getting lost looking for the signs or arrows that just were not there.

For the longest time I was wondering on the logic of catching a bus from nowhere to a stop that I didnt have a clue where it was instead of grabbing a bus back to the airport and taking a organised shuttle to the city centre, but when I saw my friend out of the window waiting for me and realised that I had just saved myself about an hour and 50 RMB or more I had no complaints.

S' saw me almost as before I saw her, but then me being the only westerner on the bus with a huge rucksack on my back I was hard to miss, and together we jumped in a taxi and took us to a hotel that one of her good friends suggested. I normally would welcome such news, but the price was quite high, it was in the middle of nowhere central and none of the staff spoke English here either, so once she left me I would be at the mercy of struggling to get them to understand me.

My room had the largest bed I have ever seen, it could have fitted a fivesome with ease, and the bathroom and facilities were spacious and comfortable, so I knew that it was not a bad hotel, just not really geared up for tourists as it had no tour desk and no maps, etc.

After checking in, I handed over my dirty laundry and then we were ready to head off into the City and see what fun we could get up to. The first stop was a bite to eat, before we then headed ff to Yuyuan gardens, a place of peaceful beauty where there were decorative rockeries and temples hidden away inside an area overrun with restaurants and street hawkers.

Wandering around this fakers paradice I saw plenty of buildings that looked great on the outside, bullied past so many jewellery and wallet hawkers that I began to spot them before they even knew I was there and saw an advert for a Kung Fu Shaloin performance, that sadly finished a few months back ( not that the poster gave you that information of course ).

After we finally found the island within the city we whiled away a very pleasant and relaxing hour taking photos and enjoying the fact that the high walls and trees managed to block out most of the sounds of the hectic traffic outside and gave us a chance to hear ourselves think.

Our next stop was to buy tickets for tonights Acrobatics performance at 200 RMB each, almost half the cost of getting my laundry done, go figure, and then for a nice walk around where she used to work. The weather here was mild but warm and sadly all the trees that lined up both sides of the avenues were naked on their leaves, so we took turns pretending to be trees and took photos of each other before we then ent for Pizza and endles coke.

There were cheaper tickets but I wanted good tickets up near the front and chose some two fairly central tickets only 4 rows from the front. As the lights went up I took a look around and noticed that for once, the tourists heavily outnumbered the locals and this bears out that such shows rely on tourists for much of their revenue.

The acrobatics performance started at 7:30 and was amazing from start to finish. Tumblers, balancers, jugglers, ribbon fliers were in equal measure but what took most peoples breath away was the girl who could balance 6 trays of glasses while rotating and rolling around on a raised platform without spilling a drop.

Towards the end of the show a knife thrower came up and asked for a volunteer from the audience, and it must have been the cheaky way that I pointed to S' moments earlier but instead the spotlight settled on me and I got a big hand for going up on stage. I have seen plenty of magic shows live and on tv to get a good idea that they wouldnt actually through them at me, but then this is China with my life and health on the line all bets were off.

I wondered wheather to ham up my performance a bit, but then when they came and strapped my arms to the sides and threw a jacket over my face I felt that apart from wobbling my knees there was very little I could do except stand still and not seem too confident. The knife thrower spoke fairly good English, and whispered instructions to me about remaining calm and was I ok, to which I just tried to nod and smile with a mix of fear and confidence in the same act.

In total I had 5 knives 'thrown' at me, including bursting the balloon held between my legs, I was released and got a big hand from the crowd, and a wonderful ornate fan as a reward for my bravery, which was perfect as I used to collect fans and only stopped as I found them hard to find in Eastern Europe and South America.

After the show was finished I picked up a genuine dvd of one of their performances and got it signed by one of the stars of the show, before I had to say goodnight to S' and took a taxi back to my hotel.

I was expecting that to be the end of my night, but my other friend in Shanghai, X' texted me soon after and said that she wanted to meet me and that was it too late or not if she and her friend popped over. Although I was feeling a bit sleepy and had not got much sleep, but still it was only 9pm, so I said it was fine for them to come over and for us all to meet up for a few quick drinks.

X' and her friend came over and together we all went to a nearby leisure complex almost on top of my hotel and here we listened to some good classic brit rock and metal and i head banged and sung away while they looked on and laughed at the crazy englishman.

I wanted to play them at pool but some other locals had already grabbed it and painfully took turns trying in vein to teach their female friend how to pot a ball. After almost two hours of them carefully positioning the balls over pockets they still had not finished a single game, if game it in fact was, and as I had foolishly been watching this I had by them time given up with will to live and exhaustion overtook me.

Just before midnight I wilted totally and although X' and her friend were up for more fun and drinks I personally couldn't keep my eyes open any longer so had no choice but to end it here and drag myself up to my room where I was asleep in seconds.

Travelling to Shanghai, China

After a much better nights sleep and waking up at a sensible time this morning I had the tricky task of getting from Hong Kong to Shengzen where my next flight from was booked.

The hotel check out time was midday and as it was not much more than a large apartment in an apartment block I did not feel it was the safest place to leave my luggage for a few hours and just go walk about, even if I did have more than a few hours to kill.

The hotel owner was good enough to suggest that the best way to get to the airport was to take the MRT to the border, cross over and then get a bus, which was almost correct but I'll get to that.

With his directions, I went off in the right direction to find the correct MRT station, only its not that well sign posted so I had to look quite a bit to find it, but once I was there it was just a quick touchscreen ticket and off I went.

Arriving at the end of the line I followed the others who were all heading in the same direction and the immigration and border inspections was actually inside the MRT terminal, so I didnt have to run around or try to find it, just fill in the simple enty and exit forms again and then go through securuty.

Out the other end I asked the information desk there where to catch the bus to the airport and instead she gave me a route map and circled a different station, saying that it would be quicker and cheaper to go there first and then get a bus from there.

Realising that I had already cleared customs and was both hungry and in need of converting my remaining HK $ into CNY I bought the MRT token but then left the statoin and crossed over the road to get a bite to eat first. Having eaten I then took the train to where it was circled on my map, via a little interchange and it is here that things got a little tricky.

The woman at the Wall Street English advertising desk ironically ( i think so anyway ) didnt actually speak English, and so was no help whatsover in getting to the bus, unless her shaking her head and saying no repeatedly was her way of helping. I felt that the english speaking informatoin desk would not have sent me to the wrong statoin, so I looked around for someone else to ask and on the third attempt got a security guard to take me to the exit nearest the bus station.

Leaving the MRT station I stopped at a bank to change over some notes and had to fill in a form just to get hold of more Chinese CNY, but it was 600 worth and so was way better than a kick in the teeth. After searching around I finally spotted the bus staiton, typically it was behind me, and the bus 330 was going to the airport in just a few minutes, so I hopped on after paying my CNY 20 and that was that.

Around half an hour later I arrived at the airport where thankfully it had free wifi, a restaurant where I could charge my laptop up and a check in desk that would allow me to dump my main rucksack hours before I could in most places, so things were looking up.

From then on I just flicked on the internet, sent a few emails and updated my blog a bit. It was a shame that I arrived at 4pm and my flight was not until 9:20, but then I had no idea that getting here was going to be this quick and relatively painless or else I might have rethought about spending more time in Hong Kong during the daytime before jumping on the MRT to bound for the Chinese border.

The only minor thing at Check-in was that it would appear that my tiny mosquito clicker aroused the interest of the security guard who removed it and spend a happy few minutes clicking it and wondering what it did. I tried to explain but she wouldnt believe me, but once she realised that it wasnt exploding anything she gave up and returned it.

I reread the paperwork for my hotel, realising that I was arriving at about midnight and thus the shuttle services would have finished for the night, and was horrified to find that they suggested taking a taxi for 260 CNY, which is an absolute crime, so instead I used the Mango travel service at the airport to book me a hotel, free airport pickup service and a nights sleep for only 198 CNY, and THAT was for a hotel and not a shared hostel.

I have no idea why they thought that anyone woudl pay so much for a taxi and that is also why I hate airport taxis, cos they are such a rip off that its not even funny.