11-14.10.24

Quite frankly I’ve been having such a good time in East Asia so far that I haven’t gotten around to writing about it! So here we are, blog one of round two of travels.

Alex being Alex and immensely clever with Avios and the Virgin Atlantic equivalent (think they’re different, not really sure how it all works) we got fancy pants seats to Shanghai. This included a special drop off area, check in and lounge. Ooh er. Rather glamorous and very welcome as I was still feeling rather feeble having managed to be pretty bloody ill for 8 of the 10 days we had been in the UK. Classic. I seem to have the immune system of a sickly Victorian child, or Colin from the Secret Garden.

The flight itself was great and included fab food, a completely flat bed and pyjamas. Didn’t sleep great because I effectively went to bed at 2pm to try and get on Shanghai time, but it was great to be able to lie down in my own cosy little pod.

When we arrived in Shanghai, the customs was hideous. Big queue, little slips of paper, one of which we were only pointed to after we had got to the desk… thankfully didn’t have to queue again. After waiting for an age and listening to the bloke next to me trying to explain via sign language that he was there to referee the international kayaking championships, we got to the desk having given all our details and fingerprints already, and started again. Then they took our passports to check them somewhere else which they hadn’t done to other people… I was too tired and oblivious, Alex was panicking that we were about to be denied entry on the 144-hour visa thingy. But it was all fine.

We couldn’t check in at our hotel once we got there (metro line took us straight there in an hour which was easy), so left our bags and wandered Shanghai in a jet-lagged haze. It was far more western than I was expecting and it was also far less of a culture shock than I had been led to believe. Of course Alex and I did get stared at rather a lot, mostly by old people, for being such giant, blonde (in Alex’s case), freaks.

We then returned to the hotel, checked in, and went to our glorious hotel room. Very posh, very swish. Super fancy. We chilled (but crucially did not sleep – power through the jet lag) showered in a lovely and massive shower, then went out for some delicious noodles for supper, followed by an early night.

Unfortunately despite going to bed at 9pm local time, the jet lag and recent illness caught up with me and I effectively didn’t wake up for the majority of the following day. Just lay there, occasionally snorting Otrivin and taking paracetamol and feeling sorry for myself. Alex was very understanding. I rallied a bit in the afternoon, so we went out for dinner at a delicious dumplings chain – big dumplings, hot n sour brothy noodles. We ate the dumplings before taking photos, alas.

Had a nice walk along The Bund which was pretty spectacular at night… don’t want to think too much about how much power it takes to light it all up like that and cause insane amounts of light pollution to boot. Just appreciate the prettiness whilst you’re there, Finney!

Having successfully buggered my sleep pattern entirely, we only just made out of the hotel a little before midday. Determined to make up for lost time we had more brothy noods then proceeded to wander. We also had a Starbucks – vast amount of caffeine and sugar (for me) were required. It cost more than dinner the previous night which was amusing. We went to the People’s Park which was lovely although oddly deplete of pigeons. Didn’t see a single one in all of Shanghai in fact. People’s Park did have lots of people with what looked like job ads written on cards… upon a little research we discovered it was actually a well-known Marriage Market. People go along with photos and information about their children or other relatives and try to organise a marriage for them. Move over Hinge.

We wandered to see a bit of wall that was meant to be part of the old city limits and it was pretty underwhelming. We noted that, on the whole, driving in Shanghai is way less chaotic than in the whole of South America, but that occasionally obeying traffic lights were very much treated as optional. we went to another park via a cool fountain, admired some old people doing some cha cha cha type dancing (5 women and 1 v camp older man), and looked at a statue of Marx and Engels. I also got to experience the infamous squat loos… this was a v nice facility, impeccably clean and one of many dotted throughout the city. Still. Weird.

After so much wandering we felt it was time for a refreshing beer, so found a nice bar in which to have one. Or three. As night fell and the mosquitos descended (upon me, not Alex) we felt it was time to explore. We found an area in the old French quarter that was very much like the Lanes in Brighton or York or similar, very small and winding with lots of shops and bars and stuff. All rather atmospheric, especially as it was also raining by this point, but in a nice, tropical sort of way. We went to a bar based entirely on the friendly cat that lived there and had a few more drinks whilst also pledging allegiance to the cat.

By this point we couldn’t make any decisions about a restaurant for dinner, so headed back to the hotel to pack for our early start, via a convenience store for some weird crisps, instant ramen and beverages.

All in all, a fantastic start to this leg, even the early start for the airport didn’t dampen our spirits, and thankfully checking in for our flight to leave China was far less stressful than entering it. Next stop: Tokyo!