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WARNING - We had a pain in the arse day yesterday, we've both got the cold, and its raining. Our bleak spirit is reflected in lots of moaning & cynicism throughout this blog entry. However, there are some cheery bits too - so don't let us put you off too much. Go on, read on, you know you want to. Go on go on go on go on go on go on................GO ON!
Yesterday in Shanghai - our last day- we got soaked three times in what can only be described as Constant Smur - you know, that rain that just doesn't go away - the 'worst kind' that keeps on coming - not in big downpours, just fine droplets that carry really well on any slight breeze, so that even if you are using a brolly (which we were) then it'll still get you. We had to check out our hotel at noon, and after that we had only two tasks to complete for the rest of the day 1) Post the tea set home, and 2) Catch the train to Beijing at 20:10. Well we achieved both these targets, but the time in between was fairly tortuous
Gen wipes #1
It's a sad day, innit, when the only photos we have to share with you are of packets of bum wipes.in that we were forced into killing time - which we absolutely hate doing.
Initially it looked like the 'posting home of the tea set' was going to be an ordeal as the poor guy who worked in the post office had no idea what we were talking about while we pointed maniacally at our big sellotaped box saying over and over 'UK, UK. Post UK'. Fortunately, help arrived at our side (not unlike a Mr Benn shopkeeper appearance) in the form of an angelic bespectacled Shanghai dude who had been studying English for ten years and who very politely asked if we would like him to translate for us. 'Yes pleeeeeese' we cried, and 5 minutes later we had our lovely tea set re-packaged by the nice man behind the counter - and it was the BEST packing we have seen to date. He filled in all the gaps in this big turquoise corrugated plastic box with polystyrene pieces and taped it all up with staple guns and plastic strip tags, our bill was paid (14 quid - which we thought was dead good as it weighs a ton) and we were on our way. Albeit out into
Gen wipes #2
Instructions for use. Why on earth would you need to wipe for 2-3 minutes. You'd need to be pretty mingin' wouldn't you? Yuk. the horrible drizzle. The wee guy who helped us knew all about Braveheart and Glasgow Rangers, however Alan was quick to point out that he is a Celtic Fan - then they both had a chat about the Chinese player who was signed for either Celtic or Rangers recently - but I don't know as I couldn't really give a fig and I tuned out at this point in favour of watching some serious staple gun action going on behind the counter. After this, we bid farewell / good luck / Scotland Forever messages with our little helper. He was SO nice.
To fill some time, we went for a nice brunch of toasted sandwiches and coffee in the city then headed over to Pudong and hung around the shopping mall, undertaking some serious 'oohing & aahing' at nice shoes (none of which were purchased) considered some book purchases that never materialised, had more coffee and some dumplings then headed back to our hotel to collect our bags from left luggage and get a taxi to the train station. Yeah, well, easier said than done on that one. Unbeknown to us, it's apparently the most difficult and unheard of thing in the entire universe to secure a sucessful taxi booking in Shanghai between the hours of 3pm and 9pm when it's raining. Oh how stupid of us not to realise! Naturally feeling incredibly foolish at our obvious failure to have grasped this 'well known fact' before now, we managed to somehow coerce the door staff into assisting us in flagging down a cab. Three quarters of an hour later we got one. But at least we GOT one! Eventually we got to the train station in time for our train, promptly heaved our back packs on (the back packs are going in the bin by the way - in the future, if travel bags don't have wheels then they can f#ck off!) and strode purposefully to the BIG FAT JUMBLE OF AGGRESSIVE CHINESE PEOPLE WITH RICE SACKS AND HUGE BOXES OF 'STUFF' FIGHTING TO GET INTO THE TERMINAL AREA. What a n.i.g.h.t.m.a.r.e. We have learned here that Chinese people don't queue for most things, and you need to shove your way in. So that's what we did. Very successfully it has to be said. We got to the front of the masses in about 5 second flat. We might have no eyebrows left, but we got there. And we were even pleased with ourselves, until the official at the barrier asked us for our travel documents. Aaarrrgghh! Alan had to undertake a kamakaze mission of diving headfirst into his front jeans pocket to retrieve the tickets, while struggling to maintain control of two rucksacs in the overbearing, thronging crowd. He did succeed with great triumph, oh yes, the boy did well.
So then, we were through the barricades at last, and on the train in half an hour. We collapsed into our nice compartment (which had its own toilet and washroom this time - posh or WHAT?!) and relaxed into the evening watching our personal wall mounted flat screened TVs (Cold Mountain in Chinese is still OK), listening to ambient tunes on the lovely i-pod, and got Gordon Freeman from Half Life killed a hundred times or so before proceeding directly to the land of nod. Sleep didn't come as easily as the last journey we took from Hong Kong to Shanghai, however we did manage a few hours, and at least we were dry and not having to fight with anyone........... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...............
So look, at this point I'd like to skip back to the comment above about the backpacs going in the bin. They totally are, like. In fact we are even thinking about having a ceremonial burning of them when we return to the UK. Rucksacs are definately not for the Eggs. And while we are on the subject, neither is staying in hostels. Or eating every night from street stalls and wearing the same clothes for 8 months. Nope. No SIR-EE! This part of our trip has taught us a few things - mainly that we don't like slumming it. What we do like is nice clean business hotels with squishy beds, comfy robes in the wardrobe, TVs with English speaking channels, room service, concierges that will phone you a taxi when it rains (and it arrives, Shanghai or NO Shanghai), suitcases with big ball bearing-afied wheels, air con that you can control from your own room, power showers and the odd bath. We also like shopping. And we like to be able to shop without posting things home, or putting other things in the bin because we can't carry all our stuff in the flipping rucksacs. And I don't know about Alan, but I'm not going camping again. I don't like the idea of beasties biting yer bum as ye sleep, and I like to be able to go to the toilet in the middle of the night without going outside..
Yes, there are quite a few things we've realised about the old travel game (although in fairness we kind of knew all this before, so it's really just affirmation if we are to be completely honest). Here's some of our other recent appreciations, in no particular order:
A) Asides from the above, we're not overly keen on taking long distance bus journeys in developing countries.
B) We much prefer cities to beach destinations.
C) We prefer to hire cars rather than go on a coach party trip.
D) We need our home comforts; free wifi internet access, coffee on tap, a comfortable chair, a fridge close to hand...
E) We are not into hill / countryside walking. That's another purchase we made that's down the drain as our big boots have hardly been used.
F) We just like general convenience. And Father Ted videos. And Radio 1. And our own car.
Now I KNOW that there will be some readers here who are 'proper' full on paid up members of the Backpackers R Us club, reading this thinking we are a couple of unadventurous arses - and you know what, that's completely fine by us. We have had various discussions over the last few months about whether this is the case, and we've arrived at our own opinion which is that we don't actually need to live every day in circumstances that at times can be aproaching abject poverty (uh oh - drama alert) to be able to properly 'appreciate' the culture of a place. We're too long in the tooth for all that hippie sh#t. We say 'if it works for you - go for it'. We just probably won't be joining you in the future. It might cost us more of our hard earned pennies, and we might not see as many places, but we've realised that we're not actually that bothered about some destinations anyway and we'd rather have a bit of luxury while we make our way across the globe....
Now where was I? OH yes..... Arriving in Beijing. We jumped in a taxi (after pushing through some more mental crowds) and got the most completely mad taxi driver EVER. The journey to our hotel (which only lasted about ten mins) saw us screech though teeny weeny windy back streets, round some preverbial bends, horn a'honking constantly, through red lights, narrowly missing unassuming pedestrians, culminating in a little crash of sorts whereby our cab had its wing mirror crunched off by a parked VW (most cars here are VWs incididentally). How rude of that parked car to get in our way! Anyway - even though he was a total nutter,the crazy cabbie got us to our hotel in one piece and we checked in without hastle at 10 am, no problem at all, straight into our room. Our hotel is dead nice - its called the Oriental Garden Hotel, and although its advertised as lower to mid range price wise, its actually just as good as any top residency where we've laid our hats since we started out. It's also conveniently located close-ish to the nightlife area of Sanlitun, and about a 5 min walk to the nearest tube station, thus very handy for the sightseeing.
This place has all the nice stuff we are talking about above, but the icing on the cake has to be the mad sachets in the bathroom which proclaim to be 'genital wipes'. I can't describe them better than they can describe themselves so we have photographed the packaging and you can read for yourself. NEVER in my life have I stayed in a hotel offering guests' genital wipes. And its not just that - there are two kinds - men and womens!
Today we were dead lazy - taking a stroll in the rain (again) to Sanlitun for some food (Thai Chicken curry and Nasi Goreng which is spicy fried rice) and then came back to our room for some Panadol in the hope that we might be able to rid ourselves of these colds which are completely doing our heads in. No joy yet I'm afraid on that count. Tomorrow the weather is scheduled to be rain again, so we'll probably try and visit some museums and do other indoors stuff if we can. Not taken any photos yet, but will put some on of Beijing tomorrow. So then, till our next installment - we bid you farewell - and Um Big Apologies for ranting and all that.
S&A. xxxx
PS: So far Beijing is grey as grey can be. Believe the stories of pollution - they are true.
PPS: Ten points for anyone who can find the poorly concealed Spandau Ballet song title in the above witterings. Amanda - we are sure you can do it.
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Cathy
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Spanders song
Ha! Through The Barricades - indeed one of my faves! And I sincerely hope I've beaten Amanda to it cos that'll make the victory even sweeter!