Seaview Hotel Zhoushan

... LAH!

It was sooo good to see everyone! We talked for a bit then off we go for dinner! Then the problem started.... "Where are we going to eat lah....." We them met up with Emily, Katie, Lika and Linda. Same question "Where are we going to eat LAH!" Everyone started looking at ME! Not my fault that I don't know where to go for dinner... I don't eat out everyday! I cook to save money lah. So then instead of following me everyone decided to follow Lika ...

... our first flatmate meal together, the other was recorded right before @SJTU LCP election started. (he was dissing my lah....that was so not cool! All my supporters for LAH should smack him!) He kept saying lah is so cantonese....you will see how serious my face was when he said that! my serious lah *****y face xD

Today is the second I spent at this kindergarten but this time we had a secret weapon, WEN!!! We spent the morning with the older children we are organising a World EXPO themed Christmas play for colouring in country flags from the song we will be singing, well hopefully they will be singing. Thanks to our limited experience with children we have clearly understood their extremely short attention spans, so we played games with them. Soccer and their favourite game, doesn't really ...

... to see the lush, mountainous islands as we passed.

When we arrived at Putuoshan we bought our ticket onto the island (you have to pay 160 Yuan because the whole island is a national park) and went to look for the hotel representative. It was a boiling hot day and we couldn't wait to get our bags off our backs and change into cooler clothes.

We found the guy who was to drive us to the hotel and he asked us to follow him to his mini bus. We walked (at ...

... back to hotel and lites up, then the heat vent just circulates it into our room. So Troy went down to the desk to see if there was a non-smoking section to the hotel. When he went to the desk attendant and said there is smoke in our room and he wanted to know if there was non-smoking section of the hotel, she thought he meant smoke like in FIRE! Then she was all excited that there was a Fire, so it was harder for troy to explain....NO FIRE, cigarette smoke only.

... have been rebuild to accommodate trees growing 'through', 'over' or 'out of the wall'. The last night on the island I befriended 3 men at a temple; one was a monk and tai shi trainer and the other two were "voluntary monks." Sun Li is from Manshouli, close to the border with Russia and therefeore he spoke about 3 words of russian. Jet is from Beijing and spoke english, so our converstaions were a trilingual mix of chinese, russian and english. Both had been there for ...

... so much better. I'd been hoping that the boat would dock in the heart of the city and that we'd cruise into the city as the sun came up with the Pudong skyline on one side and the stylishly designed Bund on the other. I don't know exactly where we docked, but it was further upstream, and the buses heading into town were absolutely jammed, which is problematic when you're carrying a 60 litre backpack. In the end I opted for a taxi ...

... had obviously put on a show and there were all manner of decorations and special effects machines being removed from where they had been hidden on the upper parts of the temple. I also reflected that this religious island was a big industry. The boats to and from, the RMB120 entry fee all visitors must pay to set foot on the island, the tickets to enter the temples or to ride cable cars, the fairly expensive accommodation, the expensive food shipped ...

Since I had seen the Shanghai sites on my last visit hadn't really planned to do much here. The main thing was to meet up with the local Taipan owners and go for a sail. The new owners are quite keen, but a lack of wind put a dampener on the sailing. Had some big nights in Shanghai. Lots of bars and clubs to chose from. Going with a couple of guys from the hostel made for a great time.

... should have visited it at least three times. Therefore, it's a busy place! But as I said before, the beaches are still quite empty! The temples are all very beautiful and the statue of Guanyin on top of the mountin is just breathtaking. We went there by ferry, spending Friday and Sunday night on the boat. But there are also the options of flying from Shanghai's Hongqiao airport or taking a speed boat from the shore.