Blogs from Pudong, Shanghai, China, Asia - page 4

It’s a sunny day and.. but wait, did I say sunny? Yes! The smoggy fogginess has lifted and wonder of wonders we can see the City, gleaming like a proud father to its 23 million children. We check in with ‘The Navigator’ on the ground floor. Very clever concept: a person assigned to giving directions. It turns out the famous acrobatics show is sold out. We catch a taxi (¥14) to the Shanghai Museum at around 9:30am and again opt out of the even longer queue that has already formed. Instead a walk through the People’s square, wide avenues with trimmed hedges and formal grass plots, surrounded by various interesting architectural structures. At the entrance to the ‘Fake clothing’ shopping mall (as described by the Navigator), we are pestered by a bunch of different salesmen wanting ... read more

The view of Shanghai's modern district (Pudong), from across the river on The Bund, is like looking at the future, like Gotham City or something out of a Hollywood film. The whole area has been built pretty much within the last 20 years and consists mostly of skyscrapers. We saw it first in daylight (fighting through crowds to get to the river's edge) and then on a river cruise in the evening. It it an incredible sight but as its appeal depends on its futuristic architecture I wondered how it is going to look in 30 years time - horribly dated, like looking at 1960s architecture now? The river at night time was packed with similar cruisers, usually garishly lit up with multicoloured fairy lights, and many of the skyscrapers facing the river had advertisements lit ... read more

CHAPTER ONE - It finally happened, I was overdue. I have traveled extensively the past 15 months with no health problems, but this morning I awoke not feeling well. I know it wasn’t mal de mere because the sea was smooth; I was extremely tired and had no appetite. I ventured to the buffet so that the stewards could get in, but I didn’t feel like trying anything. I went back to my room and went to bed. Later I decided I didn’t have the desire to get dressed for the formal evening and I cancelled my reservation for the Pinnacle Grill. I felt slightly better and tried the “late night snack” buffet and had a small piece of quiche and a fruit salad. Back to bed, tomorrow’s another day. I’m blessed that this was a ... read more

Hello! I decided I had better fit a blog in before I jet off to Thailand on Friday so I can dedicate an entire one to that when I get back, without all this Seoul / Shanghai stuff tagged onto the beginning! It's not very long, or very exciting, but there's still some bits worth a blog! :-) So basically after arriving back in Seoul and going straight back to work, my life during the week has pretty much been work, eat, sleep, work, eat, sleep, with the occasional meal out or trip to chiropracter! 13 hour days became the norm for the last 4 weeks unfortunately, but I did have some fun weekends, which are much more interesting to blog about! After the second week back at work we went out on the Friday night ... read more

A City of Superlatives Everything's bigger in Texas. I think most Americans have heard this claim before. I was in Texas briefly once, but I don't particularly remember anything that left a large impression. I mean, the Grand Canyon is in Arizona and the Sears Tower is in Illinois so... I don't know. None-the-less, apparently Texans like their "everything" bigger. If there's one place I know that's mastered this Texas mantra, it's Shanghai. After backpacking for three months and getting sick more times than I had planned, I was feeling the dire need to bunker down in a "safe place" for a bit. I wasn't ready to end my travels, but I wanted to be somewhere familiar. So I found myself once again flying to Shanghai, a place where I had friends I trust and a ... read more