Advertisement
Published: March 25th 2006
Edit Blog Post
If the 12 hour train ride was not really fun, the 17 hour trip to Shanghai was even less fun. We finally rolled in there at 11:30 am on Friday and the next chore was finding a cab that would take us to the hostel that we didn't have reservations for but would hopefully have space. Luckily, we developed a newfound appreciation for traffic assistants when one saw our unsuccessful plight of pointing to the place on the map in the Lonely Planet and about six cab drivers just saying no for no apparent reason. (They didn't want to drive that far away? They didn't like the looks of two foreign girls? Who knows) This guy looked at our map, flagged a cab down, and from our best guess told the driver that he had to take us there. Beautiful! So we showed up and luckily there was space, which was a pleasant surprise, seeing as how it was the weekend and this is the only hostel listed in the Lonely Planet. Of course, we were in a makeshift conference room with cots but I was just glad we didn't have to get involved with trying to find another place to
The Bund
the side of the river we stayed on stay. Plus this place was in a good location; right on the Bund (riverside strip).
So after getting settled in and regrouping, we headed out to explore. We had heard about a tunnel that went to the other side of the river and went about buying tickets for that. Honestly, it was the most random and weird thing I have seen in awhile and after going across I could not help but think we had failed as backpackers for patronizing such a tourist trap. It was like something out of a weird science fiction movie that cost 10x as much as taking the regular ferry over. It was good for a laugh though. On the other side, we wandered around thinking there would be more stuff over there worth visiting, but we were mistaken. A few high-end restaurants but nothing in our price range. Dismayed and starving, we came back over to the Bund side and walked up and down there looking for a moderately nice place to eat. We had had the impression that there are loads of restaurants along the Bund, but again, we were mistaken. There are a few high-end places there too but mostly it's
just cheap souvenir shops and places selling ferry tickets. At that point though, my stomach was about to implode as was Lisa's so we didn't care and just ate at some random place along there.
Later we headed up to the hostel's rooftop bar, which turned out to be the nicest bar I have ever seen in a hostel and without a doubt the best view as well. Met up with some German guys and then dutifully accompanied them to McDonald's since they said they were only eating McDonald's and Starbucks on their trip to China (and I thought they were kidding, but...they weren't). Then we went up the Jinmao Building which is perhaps the 3rd tallest building in the world, or so the brochures say. The Hyatt has a bar, Cloud 9, on the 87th floor which also is, apparently, the highest bar in the world. Needless to say I took one look in this place and it was one of the swankiest bars I have ever seen so I was doubtful that they would even let a bunch of backpackers in normal clothing in. They did though, and we ordered to meet the 120 rmb minimum purchase
(which seemed like a lot compared to other things, but really is only about $15 and again, let's not even talk about prices in Tokyo). After that we thought it would be good to head to an Irish pub seeing as how it was St. Patrick's Day. Well, that idea never panned out as the cab drivers proved yet again that they either didn't like the looks of us and took us out for a drive at our expense, or that they legitimately don't know where anything is. We ended up in some part of town, who knows where, and I had pretty much thrown in the towel after several cab trips and lots of wandering around with no bars in sight (in a city of 100+ bars!), thinking once again we had failed as savvy travelers. Ha.
The next day was a marathon shopping day. I hate shopping but what with my job in Sydney and my lack of enough professional clothing, I had figured that it would be better to buy a lot of stuff in Shanghai rather than Tokyo. So for about five hours I went around and bought loads of stuff-miraculously was able to find
clothes and shoes that fit me-despite realizing that Shanghai is a lot, LOT more expensive in terms of clothing than I had planned. I could have done just as well in the states I think. Despite that, I still plunged ahead and upon returning back to the hostel, had to lie down and try to think of other things besides how much money I had just spent. I have never spent that much money in one day on clothing, that's for sure. I felt the same way that I had felt the week before in Beijing after I had feasted on Peking Duck; that I really might have a heart attack at any moment. That evening it was some more bar hopping with Scottish and Danish guys, including the most ambiguous bar/club I have ever been to. It had a Middle Eastern feel and was about 1/2 foreigners and honestly it could have been anywhere in the world.
Sunday I ended up doing more shopping and then buying a cheap suitcase to bring all this stuff back with. In the afternoon I wandered around a bit more to try and see a little bit more of the city than
partial view from the hostel's rooftop bar
We sat there for about two hours mesmerized by the ongoing commercials on the full-length of two buildings. What can I say; I'm easily entertained. just the Bund, the inside of shopping malls, and bars. It was so mobbed though and I could barely walk around since it was the weekend and also the weather was beautiful. Nothing very eventful worth reporting about that night; I went to bed by midnight since I had to get up at 6:30 to head to the airport.
On Monday I was able to take a cab (hooray!) to the train station to take the Maglev Train to the airport. I am embarrassed to admit that I had not heard much about this train, the fastest in the world. Getting up to 431 km/h as you can see in the picture, it took less than 8 minutes to go the 30 km to the airport. It was quite a rush. I can now also say it seems even more doubtful that I will take the bullet train here in Japan; I have now been on the fastest train in the world albeit for 8 minutes but that cost only $5 whereas to take the bullet train to say Kyoto would cost $250. An overnight bus for less than half the price might be in order....
So after
a long day of traveling, I arrived back in Tokyo. I wish I could've had a few more days in China; as much as I have poked fun of certain aspects of it on this blog overall the people I encountered were friendly. And I couldn't help but have the feeling walking around that, like everyone says, China is up and coming and the 21st century is going to belong to the Chinese. I really, really enjoyed my trip. In some ways it was good to get back here though. It was nice to be back in my own comfortable bed with no noise and it seems that spring arrived while I was gone and it's about time for the cherry blossoms. Of course I experienced the shock all over again of Japanese prices and really miss Chinese prices! I have only about 6.5 weeks left in Tokyo and it's going to be crazy with projects for class, sightseeing, etc. My Mom is hopefully coming to visit at the end of April for my birthday during my last week here before I head out to Thailand and then back to Oz.
Stay tuned.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.09s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 8; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0562s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Andy (Party Boy)
non-member comment
Around the world in 80 days
Great journal entry and photos - well impressed! Your seeing some volume of places - are you not exhausted yet??! Oh btw, got skype aswell - such a great way to keep in touch for free/cheap calls! Happy travelling!