Ni Hoa from China
Trip Start
Apr 20, 2004
1
8
21
Trip End
Mar 30, 2005
Shanghai,
China
Thursday, June 17, 2004
Well, here we are hanging out in Shanghai - and it's fantastic. Every thing in China has been terrific so far.
We arrived on Wedensday last, after a long flight from Delhi. Even though we were exhusted we decided to take a public bus rather than a taxi into the city from the airport, to save some money (we are backpackers after all).
The girl at the tourist information booth, was none too friendly went we asked for directions, she just wrote something in chinese on a piece of paper and pointed us to the door. So we set off with our piece of paper to find the correct bus. Every bus driver pointed us to the next, which should have served as a warning to us, but no, we kept going.
Eventually we found the bus, but after driving through the city for about an hour, the driver dumped us on a traffic island. We were then set upon by about 20 hawkers screaming in chinese and pointing towards taxis, waving hotel brouchures. We struggled through these, got off the traffic island and jumped in the frist taxi that would stop. Thinking we were all sorted, we breathed a sigh of relief, however, this guy didn't speak or read any english. After ten minites of trying to communicate, Martin decided to use the phase book in the back of the lonely planet. What we didn't realise in our tiredness and confusion was that there is actually portugese phrases also in the back of the chinese lonely planet. Suprisingly, this did not get us any further, and the taxi man abandoned us within ten minites at the train station. We walked arround for a while and eventally found a taxi man who could take us to our hotel. So we arrived at our hotel absolutely exhusted, 5 hours late, but it was all worth it as we saved the princely sum of 1 euro!!
Aside from this adverture everything else about Beijing was super. We visited lots of sights such as the summer palace, which are these gardens containing lots of accient temples and palaces where Emperors used to spend their summers. They all had names like Gardens of Heavenly Pleasures or Temple of divine goodness. They were turly beautiful, and we sat in a tea house drinking peach tea overlooking the lakes for ages.
The language is a problem here, and for this reason we have a guide for the rest of our chinese travels. Or should I say we had a guide, on day one he took us to the great wall, gave us an hour, then herded through some tombs for about 30 minutes. The next day he told us he was sick and had we had to go on to Shanghai without him - and that we would have new guide here in Shanghai. We have a new guide now, who looks about 14 years old, but he doesn't seem to know where anything is. I asked him to show us where we were on a map the other day, and he had to go and make a phone call!. We hope he gets better or we may have to buy him a copy of the lonely planet so that he can find his way home when the tour is finished.
But by far the best thing about China has been the food. We have discovered two things - chinese food markets and dumplings. I will leave martin to cover this - as I think both of these have made him happier than I have ever seen him before.
bye for now
roisin
Dumplings
Real meat mixed with varioyus vegetables bolied or fried in pastry and topped off with some soysauce or chilli!
Absolutley beautiful. They are about the size of campbells meatballs and you can buy 24 fresh on the streets for about a 1 Euro. I am thinking off opening up some dumpling stores in Ireland when I get back as they would be excellent for those long trips home from the pub. This could be the death knell for the burger and chip or kebabs. They where just so nineties. The new millenium has arrived and it will be known in the history books as the Great Dumpling Dynasty era.
Food Markets
Madness Madness Madness
Hundreds of little street stalls crammed into tight little dimly lit alleyways with thousands of insane chinese screaming at you to try their wares. A dream land for anyone who likes food.
In Beijing we walked to one such street market where you could basically get anything you wanted! There was Kebabs of lamb, chicken, shrimp, beef, kidney, liver and tofu. Then there was the more exotic such as live skewered Scorpions (the skewer was through the sting). They also had massive starfish which you could have deep fat fried. It really is what I imagined a chinese food market to be like. Needless to say I tried lamb and chicken kebabs (I think) and had a plate of fried noodles.
Yes I am now eating with chopsticks! However I am fairly useless at it but just get stuck in. On a positive note it makes the meal last longer which isnt a bad thing!
Today in Shanghai we disciovered what is locally called a food mall. Sounds tacky but the food is excellent. Its about the same size as a Dunnes stores but is basically just a massive resturant. Think any kind of chinese food and meat and vegetable then multiply what you are thinking about by 100. The food is prepared as you order it so it is fresh. I am going to try about 50 different dishes tonigh. It should be ok as the way back to the hotel is fairly flat and I can roll back in the case of an emergency.
We found a similar resturant in Bejing a few days ago. Nobody spoke a word of English and we wanted some duck. I thought I spotted some duck and was trying to verify if I was correct. There was lots of pointing and poking at the meat but we just werent sure (you know how everything looks like chicken) Eventually a manager came who spoke some English. I told him I wanted DUCK! He didnt understand we conversed for a while and then he went, you want DOG. I said no and started quacking to imitate a duck, he replied by barking like a dog!!!. He then laughed at me. The dish was chicken in fact! A whole bloody wok full and I could only eat a third of it. The chef who cooked it then laughed his balls off as I tried to tuck into this meal with my trusty chopsticks. Mission Impossible!!!
What an experience!!
I know that the canteen at work is probably cooking better food than what we are getting here, but I just thought you guys would want to know the situation!
Will write again soon!
