Advertisement
Published: August 4th 2006
Edit Blog Post
The view from our table at Cloud 9
Don't worry my night time pictures of Hong Kong came out much better than this OK, so I'm a bit late with the update but we did make it to Shanghai and thought it was a bloomin nice city. Seeing as this happened ages ago and I'm actually now in Vietnam I'll try to keep this quick by clearly copying from my diary (I never thought I'd end up keeping a diary!). There's not as many sights in the city proper but it does seem like a cool place to wander about and definately has a more European feel (and sound, quite a few people speak English here) to it which is probably quite easily explained by the fact that most of the buildings are colonial.
Arrived in the afternoon on the 20th of July so didn't do a great deal that day. Had a nice cold chicken for dinner with all bones and skin left in, didn't make it back to that restaurant as that was supposedly the speciality. We headed off to an internet cafe where we played a couple of games with a nice chap called Tony. Had a couple of beers in the evening, Shanghai seems like a relatively expensive place.
The 21st was a bit more interesting, we went
The view at our table at Cloud 9
These don't look like swanky hotel guests. (James, Thom, Mike) to a museum where they had some lovely pictures and calligraphy work as well as some bronze and pottery exhibitions. Had a pizza in the evening which was the first bit of western style food for some time. Came up with a cunning plan to meet up with James later to use text messages but failed when I realised I couldn't find my phone (I've not been too good with mobiles recently). We went to check out the view of the city lights from the bar (really cool, some kind of neon overdose though) then tried to find an Irish pub to meet up in (rather unsuccessfully). Found each other back at the hostel and celebrated with another beer.
22nd... we were planning to head to Suzhou for the day but got up too late (darn you beer! - not really just missed the train by 15 mins or so). We managed to get our tickets to Luoyang there anyway so not an entirely wasted trip. Another day in Shanghai so we went to some gardens called LuYuan (quite a mazy little place nice to walk around and check out the buildings and rock and water features. Was planning
Gardens at Suzhou
It's not all booze, some culture too to take a boat trip on the Huangpu river but it was really misty so didn't think we'd see too much (Shanghai is really humid). Went to the French concession area instead in search of a clothes market (I have failed to pack any smart clothes and my white shirt is turning yellower). Couldn't find it but there were plenty of guys offering rip off Louis Vuitton bags. Went for a beer and had some nice food (no bones in the chicken, somewhat of a novelty)
23rd of July... Today we'd planned to go to Suzhou but it seems to be rainy pretty damn hard outside to the point that it woke everyone up. Decided to go anyway as it was worse weather than yesterday for a boat trip. We went to the Humble Administrators' Garden (surely what all administrators want - a nice big garden with lots of water lillies and halls with weird and wonderful names) then to the Lion Grove garden which was quite similar to the last but had a funky rockery where you could weave in and out of paths and crack your head open on low ceilings.. After the gardens we headed on off to the North Temple Pagoda which to be honest was rather unimprressive, it had promised views over all the gardens in Suzhou (did I mention that Suzhou was a garden type town) but really only gave a view of the city, 7 floors for that... saw some monks anyway so that kinda made up for it. Headed back to Shanghai after buying a train ticket from a tout, interesting but had to be done to get back in time for, a quick bite to eat then a drink at the Cloud 9 bar, which is possibly the highlight of the whole Shanghai trip, breathtaking views over the city nightscape of Pudong and the Bund from the 87th floor of the Grand Hyatt Hotel. Only cost 400 yuan for a bottle of wine (ooh get me) but well worth it for the view from our windowside table. I think I took about 100 blurry photos that evening.
24th July... Leaving Shanghai for Luoyang at 4pm today so checked out of hostel early (ish). Finally got to do the boat trip but kinda disappointing given the aerial viewpoints we had previously seen, also most of the cool buildings are very close together so you don't get to see a great deal more from the boat than just standing at the riverside. At least I can say that I've done it now.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.122s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 12; qc: 67; dbt: 0.068s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Cathy n Rogier
non-member comment
Shanghai??
You've got to update your blog, mate! :-) I thought our crossing to Vietnam was so memorable that you just have to put it on your blog directly ;-)) I've left a message on Thom's blog on where to stay in HCMC. Will let you guys know how our border crossing to Cambodia (without visa) goes.