To China

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TONGLU

First things first - Facebook is currently banned in China so I think i will be suffering major withdrawal symptoms! might be good for me though, maybe I'll stop thinking about myself in terms of status updates 😉

Sofia bought me a brilliant Edward Monkton Travel Journal for my birthday which has already proved really handy; without it I think I would have forgotten half of the things I experience in the last two days. I think this entry might prove quite long though, so you have been warned!

I left Glasgow at 1305 on 2nd November and really was very excited. I appraoched the Emirates desk to check in grinning like a loony and was relieved to find that my luggage was just under the 30Kg limit - I'd had visions of having to unpack at the airport and leaving half my stuff behind. I'd been looking forward to flying Emirates and wasn't disappointed. Thanks to some sneaky manouevering during the online check in I had an empty seat beside me which allowed me to really stretch out. The plane had the entertainment screens in the seat in front of you with games, films, TV and music. I ended up listening to every UK number one from the past ten years (well, I skipped more than a few) while doing some puzzles and then reading a book. The food was lovely, not just good for plane food but good full stop - you get a menu, with actual choices!! I had greek salad, lamb medallions and then cheesecake. A few hours later a guy came round offering icecream! And the staff were brilliant, so friendly and professional. The whole experience was a complete contrast to the rubbishy Thomas Cook flight to Tunisia a couple of weeks ago.

I stopped in Dubai for three hours (massive airport, very impersonal) before the second 7 hour flight into Shanghai. I was not so lucky with the seating this time. Had a fat guy beside me who spread over into my seat and took over the arm rest. The guy in front had leaned his chair so far back that my screen was distorted so I was pretty glad when we touched down on schedule. I watched (500) days of Summer on the plane and really, really liked it- definitely my kind of film.

Shanghai airport was something else - it took me an hour to get ou of the place. Had to queue for quarantine, then for customs and then to get out. Because I'd struggled to fit my stuff in my case I'd kept my winter jacket and fleece and with me on the plane, as well as my poncho for snuggling into on the flight. So I was wearing all this, backpack on and really starting to sweat. Becuase I was so tired my nose had also started running but I was trying desperately not to look poorly in case they thought I had swine flu and didn't let me in. When I finally got out of baggage reclaim I had a lovely welcome - one of Tarik's team, Amanda, met me with a big bunch of flowers he'd sent. After a bit of delay when we couldn't find the car, we finally started the 3+ hour drive to Tonglu. Despite my best efforts I fell asleep and stayed that way for most of the journey. I opened my eyes a couple of times to see the sky turn a beautiful deep pink and the silhouettes of the mountains. We had to stop once for the loo and in my dozy state I forgot about toilets in China until I walked in the cubicle and nearly fell in! A very nicely tiled whole in the floor and it didn't smell as bad as some, although I think I'll need to practice becuase I got nearly as much on the floor as I did in the bowl...

Tarik's housemate Benny showed me the apartment and i'm pleased to say it has a european toilet! The apartment is big and after we made the bed all I wanted to do was crawl in and sleep but instead we met Tarik for dinner. As it was the first night I decided to have pizza, trying to acclimatise my stomach. unfortuntely, it arrived covered in chillies so I couldn't eat more than four bites before just asking for some egg fried rice. The pizza, by the way, was regular pizza base but instead of putting a layer of topping, there was just a massive mound of chillies and beef inthe middle of it. I like hot food but think I am going o have to be careful with what i order here. Tarik's stomach is all messed up becuase he got gastritis from the spicy food and Sofia burned her throat when she was here last time!

Bedtime, when it did arrive was very welcome.

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