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Published: February 27th 2008
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Saturday 23rd February We were rudely awoken by the train attendant at 6am, talking chinese at a rate of ninety to a dozen! we guessed that meant we were nearly there so gathered ourselves and got ready to get off, good job she woke up coz we didn't arrive until an hour later and it took us that long to wake up and get organised. We hauled the backpacks onto our backs again and went off the train and out into the madness that was shanghai railway station so many people it was crazy. We had planned on getting a subway but didn't fancy battling the rush hour traffic of people so instead opted for the safer taxi, after being surrounded by taxi men talking at us (i presume prices!) we chose a woman who looked safe enough and was a good price and she brought us to the hostel. We hadn't booked so we were hoping for the best! When we arrived there were no beds but the girl at the desk was confident that once everyone checked out by noon there'd be room so we left our luggage there and headed off exploring. We were wreaked and
smelly from the train but had no choice!. We went for a walk on the bund which is the walkway along the river between the old area of shanghai (the bund and beyond) and the new area (pudong), it would have been really nice only it was so cold! but it was cool as there were several groups of chinese doing tai chi and some doing salsa dancing on the bund, and men flying kites
1 very bizarre at 8am on a saturday we thought!! We then went to the peoples park for a walk around and got breakfast on the way, we weren't too impressed (but found out later that we actually hadn't been in the park! oopsies!!) By now noon had arrived so we trundled back to the hostel for a much deserved sleep and shower! When we woke we went in search of the irish bar we'd heard about, we were in dire need of some non-rice food! We said we'd brave the subway and "brave" is the word! ive never seen such insanity, everyone is in some frantic mad dash for the trains and they pack themselves in like you would a sardines tin! completely ridiculous!
they actually have plastic barriers all along the tracks to prevent people being pushed out in front of the trains, insane im telling ya!! So anyway the train arrived and we held onto each other and joined the masses cramming onto the already packed carridge, once we got in then we were pushed until we could hardly breathe and i found myself hanging out of the handle at an angle across the carraige, i had no choice being pushed that way, the old lady sitting behind me wasn't too impressed and slapped my leg out of the way of her shopping bags! "sorry mrs!!" i hardly wanted to be swinging there like a fool! we braced ourselves and once we got to our stop pushed our way out to freedom, very glad!! A quick hop skip and a jump and some map reading from trusty dora and we arrived at the door of O'malleys, happiness isn't quite the word when we saw the menu! western food! we stuffed ourselves silly while the owner chatted away to us. We ended up staying there for a while, joined a group of dutch ex-pats who play soccer & d pub sponsers them. We
then headed to 2other bars nearby and got back to o'malleys for the rugby, we were the only irish in the pub (well the only ones cheering anyway) which was weird!! We got a taxi home after the win, very happy girls. We weren't so happy the next morning when we realised that bottles of beer at 45Y takes quite a bite out of your budget when they're 8Y in the hostel for a bottle twice the size!! (80c compared to 4.50) A lesson well learnt!!
Sunday 24th Februaru This morning we got up around lunchtime (the sleep in was direly needed after the long day the day before and the previous night) we headed off to the bund for tea, and to plan the day. We sat in a cafe with glass window so we were on show and all the chinese had a great view of us and boy did they "view" i.e. stare! Like being in the zoo!! We decided to go see the Pearl Oriental Tower and against advice got the bund sightseeing tunnel across the river. I dont think ive ever experienced anything so tacky!!! a tunnel filled with horrendous lights where
you get in a small carraige and are supposed to be impressed for the whole 5mins, all for the pricely sum of 40Y (4euro) expensive by china prices! we were not impressed at all!! Things changed when we got to the oriental tower though, we had found out from a lady in the previous hostel that you could go and eat in the revolving restaurant for not much different to the entrance fee. So for a little more we paid for the dinner and headed in. We got to see all the floors which are mainly viewing decks. Oh i forgot to mention that the tower is the tallest in Asia (taller than the eiffel tower and all) so we got to go up to the top floor at 360m high and the views were amazing!! What was interesting was the amount of constuction we could see from up there, everywhere we looked there were foundations and cranes and all over the place were little flashed of light as welders worked away. Fascinating to see the old on one side versus the new on the other. Evening started to fall then and we headed to the restaurant, you can't imagine
our glee to see tables and table of buffett food laid out and we stuffed ourselves, getting to try out loads of chinese dishes such as dim sum and dumplings and other random stuff! We watched night fall then and spent ages looking out on what i can only describe as the most amazing view ever! The whole city lit up by lights! Well worth it and i would recommend highly to anyone visiting the city. We headed back and had a few drinks in hostel chatting to some irish guys and headed to bed happy.
Monday 25th Febryary We didn't do much today, got up, showered and had lunch and did some internet. A guy at the hostel recommended a place in xi'an so we rang and booked and they said they'd pick us up from the train. our train to xi'an was at 4.30pm so we headed there at 2.00 since we knew how hectic it was, we got the subway there which was so brave of us considering the backpacks but it was fine and we found our train platform ok. There was a huge queue of chinese people for the train and as
soon as we started to board the insanity began again, as if people are terrified of being left behind, people started running and pushing like maniacs in a rush to get on! I nearly flattened myself against the wall in fear! But we got brave and pushed our way with the rest of them and were greeted with what we christened the "calcutta express", the carridges we looked into as we searched for ours were pretty bad with tiny booths holding 6beds (3 versus 3) and the train was v dirty, each carraige continued like that until ours when we breated a sigh of relief to see that at least there were only 4 in ours. We stayed there for most of the 17hours, reading and eating our noodle pots (....pots of noodles and you get hot water in your cabin) and avoiding the horrific toilets as much as possible.
Photos coming soon (as soon as i can upload them!)
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