Tour Day 9 (Shànghăi, Yuyuan Gardens, last dinner)

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This morning we were up around 9am. We skipped breakfast, and just wanted to say our goodbyes to Marcia. She’d been excellent over the last week and a bit, and had made ten great friends over the time. She had to get the train back to Xī’ān that day, which was something crazy like a 24-hour journey. We gave her a little treat the previous night at dinner, and we all promised to give her great feedback.

The girls weren’t booked in the hotel for that day, so they had to check out, but we moved their stuff into our room, for safekeeping.

After a while, we decided it was time for an early lunch, so we found a Pizza Hut, and had some nice grub there. Dan and the girls planned to get a foot massage, then head to the Internet café, and then head back to the hotel, but the foot massage didn’t really appeal to me. I still had heaps of souvenir-stuff to try and get, so I left them to go for a walk down to the Yuyuan Gardens and Bazaar again. I wanted to brave it on my own, and see if maybe it wasn’t always as bad as when we went there back on Sunday, but I was wrong. It was a really hot day, and by the time I got there I was hot and bothered again. But I went with it, and tried some bartering in the markets to get some presents. I was there for two hours and all I managed to get were two presents. Pathetic, huh?

I gave up after that. I hate the hard-sell tactic employed by the traders, and just ignored them after a while. I walked back to the hotel, and cooled off with a shower. Dan and the girls came back mid afternoon, and then it was time for the girls to go to their hostel, over near Jing’an Temple, so they headed off.

Dan and I were going to go for dinner with the Aussie couples up Jinmao Tower, but after the hassles of the market I just didn’t really feel up for it, so we decided not to go (sorry guys, I so wanted to go but was shattered).

In the end, we decided to find a nice place for dinner with the girls, on our last night together. Dan was going to Hong Kong with them later that week, but I was heading back home the next day. After some relax time, we took the metro to Jing’an Temple station, and met the girls there. It was only a couple of stops so not too far to go. A storm had brewed up this evening and so we were out waiting in the rain. What a great end to my time in China it was. We had no rain all through our journey, and on my last night it all came down at once. Still it wasn’t going to dampen our spirits.

Dan bought himself a cheap brolly, which promptly broke within five minutes of the girls arriving. When they were in the taxi to the hostel they saw a few places that looked OK, so we went in that general direction, but didn’t really find anything that nice. Steph spotted somewhere in the end, and we tried there. It was a nice restaurant (I forget the name!) with a panorama window, which would’ve given great views I’m sure had it not been dark and rainy.

So we had a lovely meal there, and then went back to the same place we drank at the previous night, down East Nanjing Road. The rain had stopped by now, but we just chilled out and relaxed. By closing time, it was time to say my goodbyes to the girls. They were excellent company, and I really hope to stay in touch, and hopefully see them when they get back from their round-the-world trip around September time. They got a cab back whilst Dan and I headed back to the hotel.

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