Another EXPO visit

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City Shanghai, China
Language Mandarin
Currency Chinese Yuan
Climate high 34c - low 25c - sunny, thunderstorm then fine

This morning our plan was to venture out to the “Cybercity” store to buy some cheap computer peripherals on our way to the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel to the other side of the river. On our shopping list in particular was to purchase a new memory stick - as all our life is stored on about half a dozen USB memory sticks that clutter up the bag and take up precious space. We also thought a small travel mouse could be useful and a nice sleeve to keep the netbook protected (it lives in its original packaging at present).
So off we went in the direction we thought we had been given but we soon realised that we probably had that wrong. So as we were near the main pedestrian-only shopping street of Nanjing Road we took a wander down there in search for a late breakfast. We found a very busy supermarket type place that advertised its food halls on the upper levels. We took off up the escalator of this large food supermarket called First Foodmall to find an amazing selection of freshly cooked Shanghai fare such as fried rice, dumplings and other assorted goodies. We had no idea how to order so we found something we liked and indicated to the cashier by pointing at the food that this is what we wanted to purchase. She told us how much by pointing to the figures on the register and we got our coupon. It cost 10Y for a large bowl of fried rice and 6Y for a bowl of 5 juicy pork dumplings - all up 32Y roughly NZ$6.50 for both of us! On presenting this to the food vendor we were served our breakfast - yummy; and way too much - so we called it “brunch” to make us feel better. On leaving the store we saw that it had started raining. Before long it was bucketing down and we needed to take shelter within a large shopping mall. We were a little bored by this but couldn’t really leave - so decided a coffee break was a good idea. Thanks to Dunkin’ Donuts we were able to have a nice gourmet coffee sitting down watching the rain through the window.
As the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel was still a bit of a walk and once across to the other side we were hoping to explore a bit - we decided that in the heavy rain this wouldn’t be much fun. Therefore we headed home for a quick snack and made our way to Expo for an “evening session”. The metro once again provided excellent transport - fast and cheap. The line for EXPO tickets on arrival wasn’t too bad and we only had to wait half an hour before the booth opened at 4.00pm. Queues were minimal at the security entrance gate too. Sadly this didn’t apply to the popular pavilions we wanted to see - Japan and UK. We were determined to get to NZ for the Kapa Haka group performance at 5.30pm and it was fantastic. It really brought a sense of pride and a smile to our faces to see such a great show reminding us of home! Then off to Italy’s pavilion. The queue thankfully wasn’t so bad and after a one hour wait we were able to get through the best pavilion yet. It had amazing displays of all that they are famous for - fashion, motoring, music, food, wine and finally their promotion of Italy hosting the 2015 Expo in Milan. Must put that on the travel calendar for 5 years time! We then felt a little peckish after having spent well over an hour in Italy - so decided to find a cafe nearby. We came across the African “fast food” restaurant called Hakuna Matata- very yummy. We had an ostrich wrap, and a duck rice bowl dish - with sides of fried scallops, coleslaw and French fries. Washed down with some sprite. Then, with only enough time to visit one or two more pavilions (with no queues) we ventured to Argentina. This was quite a small pavilion, but with lots of references to football (Maradonna and the Boca’s), silver work, outfits and photos of Eva Peron and an awesome looking Argentinean restaurant serving steaks and vino. Unfortunately it was closed AND we had just eaten Ostrich and duck!
Couldn’t be bothered walking back the length of the EXPO to the United Arab Emirates pavilion, so caught an electric bubble van for 10 Yuan. These bubble vans are fabulous, travel at about 50km/h, have open sides to let the breeze in and they don’t make a sound! We arrived at the UAE pavilion to find that it had just closed so instead went into the Oman pavilion. This was a nice surprise, with the interior made to look like a desert landscape with an underground stream running through it that you walked over. Interesting fact- this is where the Frankincense tree is from!
Off to the metro from there and we got back to the apartment around 11.00pm

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