Shanghai Construction Site

First of all for those of you that are interested in my blogs please accept my apologies for the delay in writing this, been having way too much fun!! :-)

My first impression of Shanghai was that there were a lot of Westerners about! However unlike other Chinese cities they never acknowledge each other! Bizarre! On arrival into the city the metro was surprisingly closed (only 23.10) so had to queue for 30 minutes to get a taxi. My hostel turned out to be a little paradise with lots of cats (and kittens), huge fish pond, bar, pool table etc. Very close to the centre and yet very peaceful. The first people I ran into were Hannah and George who I had travelled on the train from Irkutsk to Ulaanbaatar with. It was nice to catch up on their travels and we worked out we would be in Hong Kong at the same time and decided to meet for my birthday.
Shanghai is currently being developed for the Expo 2010 and so the whole city resembles a building site! After booking my train to Hong Kong (it only runs every other day) I tried to walk along The Bund but couldnt even see the river due to all the fences erected for the new buildings. Unfortunately that set the precedent for my 4 nights in the city. Everywhere I wanted to go or had heard of was closed for refurbishment or inaccesible. I soon regretted giving myself so much time and wished I had gone for the earlier train!
I did manage to fill my time in the city by being very lazy though :-) I had a 90 minute massage that was sheer torture, I somehow kept quiet when it was hurting thinking it was probably doing me some good, however she left bruises all over me! I spent a lot of time just wandering around and chilling in the hostel. The "lucky lucky" boys were extremely persistent with their cries of "Lady you want bag, watch" They would completely get in our face so for a laugh I started talking to them in a made up language, it was hilarious watching them get frustrated with not understanding me. Internet and facebook were also out due to the riots the Chinese blocked the majority of sites that anyone could talk about anything on.
On one of the evenings I met Marek (the Polish chap I had met on the river cruise) and we went to a Mongolian Restaurant for dinner. It was nice to catch up with him, he is a funny chap and we had a laugh with the guys there. They let us play their traditional guitar. I also went clubbing with some guys from the hostel - Dan and Laura from Canada and Mathias from Germany - the club had an awesome sign - "NO DRUG, NO FIGHT, NO PROSTITUTION" suffice to say we didnt see any drugs or fighting in the club!!
Unfortunately I would love to write more about the city but that really is about it! So now to Hong Kong!

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