上海 (Shanghai)

Well, I made it. After 2 flights, a stopover in Dubai, and a ride on the Shanghai underground system, I arrived at my hostel.

The flights were mostly uneventful, and I have to say Emirates are an extremely pleasant way to travel. Little touches made a lot of difference, for example the occasional (and not overpowering) injections of perfume into the cabin air supply to stop everyone smelling like long-journey, and the small pinpricks of bright white light that shine through the ceiling panels after the internal lights have been dimmed for passengers to sleep, that make up a night sky for anyone left awake ... unnecessary but a very nice touch. The food was good, and there was plenty of it, and the novelty of having a TV to hand was not lost on me :) That, and the 2 cameras mounted on the plane, offering a forward and downward view in realtime, delivered to your seat - I found myself just wanting to call "CUUUUUUT!" <-- skydivery reference.

There were a heap of other British students travelling to China, but they were all headed on some 3 week trip to Hangzhou, funded by the government (bar flights), for which I do recall receiving an email but of course the trip was of limited use / interest to me. Still, at least there was some extra company on the planes. By and large though, the trips were dull and I couldn't wait to get off the aircraft, although it has to be said, stepping off planes into an environment that is 30ish Celsius and humid (even at night, when we entered Dubai, it was like swimming outside in the air) is less than pleasant. Still, we were rapidly inside and air conditioned again (mmm, recycled air).

Shanghai wasnt much better - indeed, when I got off the Maglev (there's a high speed magnetic levitation train that runs from the airport to one of the city's metro stops, and only costs about £4.50, about 1/3 the price of a taxi ride) the first thing I did was find a stall selling water and pick up 2 bottles. Even having downed one of them, I found myself feeling a little funny on the metro ride across the city. Chinese metro lines are well serviced but very popular and at certain junctions (where lines connect, etc) the idea of personal space is lost completely. Stepping out into the area in which my hostel is located was a bit of a downer - it can hardly be said to be the most affluent of places. The hostel itself however is very good - air con, showers, toilet (both Western and Chinese, more on that later), food, a bar, computers, internet (wireless and free to use on their machines), etc etc. I'm in a mixed dorm of 4 people, I have a locker for my valuables, and it's costing about £5 per night, not bad at all! The only thing I would say is that having a shower is almost pointless, unless you can get out of the cubicle quickly, because the atmosphere is so hot and wet (even with the fan on in there) that even following a cold shower you find yourself sweating within seconds.

This being the case, I left showering low on my list of things to do. I paid for the accommodation, settled in a bit, and got some food and a beer inside me (the beer to try and send me to sleep a bit quicker), before having a shower (I had to buy soap from reception, not having brought any with me, d'oh!) and trying to sleep. I got about 4 hours kip before waking at about 0300. At 0400 I started to read, careful not to wake the other people in my dorm, but I think they are all heavy sleepers anyway. At about 0540 I had had enough and ventured outside, the smell of the local area no longer even getting to me (yeah, it's a tad ripe, so what), and got stared at by local people cycling by ... I tried unsuccessfully to order food in a small cafe type place, and then in the distance saw a corner shop, so I went for a gander and ended up buying some shampoo (I havent opened it yet, but I think from the pic on the outside it might smell like coconut) and a small flannel for travel washing on the train over the next couple of days. Then I popped next door to a larger restaurant eatery cafe type place and got a big bowl of beef noodles. Not the best dish ever but I had been hungry for hours by this point so I didnt much care. Later on I think I will try the dumplings / steamed breads / fried breads / etc ... it all looked quite decent and I'm not too worried about having caught anything nasty!

Even this early on in the morning the air is heavy and the sky is invisible, the veil of pollution and cloud being ominously low. I've come back to the hostel to use the internet, update this blog a bit, and maybe get my head down for an hour. I'm meeting a friend of a friend at 10 to get my train ticket to Urumqi, and from what I've been reading about hard-sleeper carriages, I'm not concerned at all that I will have an alright (if not a bit boring) ride. Other things to do over today and tomorrow are to find a torch (for things like reading when you think your nightlight will just disturb other people) and stock up on some food for the train - yes, they will have a dining car, but if there are things you really like (and there are) it's wise to buy them prior to boarding.

For the minute, that is pretty much all. If anyone would care to text me, I am still using my UK SIM card, the number is 00 44 (0) 7864 967 424 and I think I receive messages for free :)