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Published: August 24th 2006
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The Last Ride
Xi'an - Shanghai Last stop - Shanghai. We made it!
After arriving at 22:30, we took a taxi from the central station, this time avoiding getting ripped off (there's a first) and arrived at the Astor House Hotel, mentioned in the guidebook. We walked in the doors of the hotel and were shocked. How on earth could this be a budget hotel? WIth marble floors and bell-boys I have never seen a hostel like this before. I went to the reception desk to make sure we had the right place and despite the fact that the Astor House is a 4-star hotel, I was informed that they do have a "dormitory" whith beds going for 5 pounds a night. We paid up front and, as ever in China, had to go through numerous bureaucratic processes, filling in forms and collectinf piles of recipts. We took the lift up to the third floor and took in the magnificent victorian inner courtyard before opening the door to the "dormitory" and finding a very bare room adorned with 12 camp beds and not much else and only one bathroom for all the occupants. Still, its only a fiver a night!
After a nice long sleep
Shanghai Skyline
Shanghai Skyline on our camp beds, we spent the day catching up on various errands and sorting ourselves out. Adam needed to arrange a visa extension for China and I had to make arrangements for my forthcoming trip to Australia. We met back up again in the evening and wandered through the streets to find some food, eventually settling on the Vatican Pizza Restaurant - we were obviously swayed by the name. After stuffing ourselves with pizza, we retired to the hotel bar and spent a few hours reminiscing about the trials and tribulations, adventures and mishaps we have encountered over the past few months over a few TsingTao beers.
Black wednesday began early. The day of the Vatican's revenge. Adam woke everyone in the dorm up at around 04:00 with repeated vomitting and by 08:00 I joined in with the chorus. Something we had eaten at the Vatican Pizza Restaurant the previous night had had a very negative effect on our digestive systems and as such, we were now paying the consequences of eating with the Pope. We spent the whole day somewhere between the our beds and the toilet in severe agony, chastising our rotten luck. Having travelled through
Yu Gardens
Yu Gardens some god forsaken places and eaten god-knows what over the past few months, we hit the food poisoning on our last stop with Pizza. Typical! By the evening the bodily emissions had almost died out and I treated myself to a pot of plain, dry noodles before trying my hardest to sleep off the poison.
On thursday, I woke up early at 05:00 due to oversleeping the previous day and decided to test out my stomach by starting the day with a bacon and egg breakfast. I miraculously managed to hold it down. With nothing better to do, I decided to join Adam on his errands and headed down to the Public Security Bureau in the new Pudong area of the city to re-apply for his visa extension for which the documentation he had taken down 2 days previously had been insufficient. In the afternoon we visited the Yu Gardens - a real oasis of serenity right in the heart of manic Shanghai. The ancient Chinese gardens are a real treat with large fish ponds, pagodas and plants galore and really make you forget where you are. In the eveing we took a one hour boat cruise on the
Yu Gardens
Yu Gardens HuangPu River although the views afforded were really no different to those you could get from a stroll along the quayside adn we were a bit disappointed having paid what we considered a premium sum of 5 pounds for the experience. You live and you learn!
Friday. My last full day in China. We decided to make a real day of it and began by heading down to the Bund Tourist Tunnel which runs underneath the HuangPu river to the new Pudong area of the city. The tunnel itself is tacky in teh extreme. You get in a little glass car and it transports you along the tunnel filled with flashing lights and serreal sound effects. I'm just glad we didn't come accross something like this in Amsterdam! Once on the eastern bank of the river, we headed to the 446 metre high Pearl Tower, an immense and dominating sight on the Shanghai skyline. We took the lift all the way up to the 'Space Module' at 350 metres and although the view from the top was pretty amazing, it was hampered by the dense pollution smog which engulfs the city. We descended the tower and headed back to
Yu Gardens
Yu Gardens the Astor House Hotel to check out. We decided that tonight, being our last night we were going to treat ourselves and had already booked into teh Yangtze Hotel on the other side of town near the People's Square. At 20 pounds each it was a real splurge! When we checked in we had to go through the whole bureaucratic process once more. Adam, whose passport was at the PSB for his visa extension was told that he could not check in unless he had his passport. Eventually the stubborn receptionist agreed to call the PSB and it was sorted. We checked in to our small but very plush room and spent a few hours watching the repetitive nonsense that CNN spits out.
Our last evening, we walked up Nanjing Road (the main drag), constantly refusing offers for fake designer bags, fake designer watches and prostitutes (I'm not sure if they were fake designer prostitutes or the real thing). We walked up to the Peace Hotel, one of the first foreign-owned hotels in Shanghai and dined in their restaurant on a Chinese feast with numerous dishes. It was pricey but well worth it for the stunning views over the
Shanghai by Night
Shanghai by Night river and the delicious food. After stuffing ourselves to breaking point, we ascended to the 11th floor roof terrace bar and sat out sipping on some expensive alcoholic drinks and basking in the glow of our own self-achievement.
Saturday 19th August. Exactly 20 weeks since leaving Newcastle and The Journey must come to an end. After packing up for one last time and checking out of the hotel (more bloody bureaucracy), we headed to one of the local restaurants for lunch before we said our goodbyes. A gentlemanly handshake, a big hug and then I was whisked away in a taxi to Shanghai airport for my 19:35 flight to Sydney, Australia.
The Journey is over.
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gooner get there soon
adam dale
The Journey lives on! it always will and you are aware of this. Cape Town to Cardiff 2008!! Come on!!!!