Smogged out

Trip Start Sep 10, 2008
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Trip End Sep 03, 2009


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Where I stayed
Shanghai Lakeside Holiday Inn
(Shanghai hotels)

Flag of China  , Shanghai,
Thursday, June 11, 2009

Upon ripping my second pair of trousers in a week, I started to wonder if the God of trousers was trying to tell me something. Thankfully the second time it happened slightly less publicly in the hostel, so at least I had a chance to change into something else. It turns out that Shanghai isn't a great place for shopping on a budget, but thankfully I managed to find a replacement on our arrival into the city. In the evening, we tried to find a view of the famous river in  Shanghai, the Bund, which turned out to be a little more difficult than expected. A huge building project cut off all the paths onto the river, and it took us an hour of wondering and hopping over a couple of barriers in the road, to finally find our way down there. We decided to sit in a bar that was overlooking the river as a way to pass the time before heading back to our hotel for the night.

The next day, and after a very long and involved discussion about the fact all the buildings looked like spaceships and debating which one was the mothership we headed into the Museum. (Which incidentally was the first ship that landed, just so you know). A couple of the group had decided that the rest of us had gone a little potty at this point, or perhaps just been abducted by aliens. The museum was OK, but didn't really hold our attention. It was interesting seeing all the ancient coins and Jade carvings, but none of us were really enjoying it, so we all met outside once we'd had a look around. Whilst waiting for the last couple of people to join us, we were descended upon by a group of students wanting to take our photographs and pose with us. It seems that no-where is safe.

Next it was time for us to head off to the markets. First was an "antiques" market. Although I was intrigued by clocks which looked like tiny birds in cages and fish there wasn't really anything here that captured my attention. One of the problems, or perhaps, blessings, of backpacking is you can't really buy anything as you have to carry or post anything you do buy, which puts you off buying anything substantial. We were starting to get pretty hungry by this point. Unfortunately there was no food place in sight, or at least no food place with English or pictures so we could at least have some idea of what we were ordering. After another good hour of walking, we finally found the main shopping street with food a plenty, to the relief of all of us.

In the evening we had time to get to a pub quiz in a British pub. Apparently, the portrait of Winston Churchill hanging over our table qualified it for this title, but the place was all a bit strange and random. Pretty much an American/Chinese take on our British institution. We did pretty well in the first round of the quiz, but really let ourselves down in the final round which was all to do with music. Needless to say, we didn't win, but at least we didn't come last..
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