While the weather continued its assault against China we took a 5 hour bus back to the big smoke, Shanghai, where we'd decided our last night in China together was going to be spent somewhere really nice.
* To look at from the outside, the Shanghai Hilton really isn't that elegant. Fortunately, appearances are deceptive and one should never judge a book by its cover.
* When you are a numpty and book a room for the wrong bloody night, it helps to be apologetic and offer to pay any changing fee they may have, but it also helps to have booked the Executive Room and thus appear somewhat above your actual status ;)
* To anyone wondering, yes it was a little expensive. No, it was nowhere near as expensive as you'd pay to stay in the New York, London, Paris or any-other-Western Hilton. Score.
* I don't really know what to say about this bit of the holiday - it was an indulgence in luxury for us both. Staying in the Hilton with a good view of the city, working A/C, windows that opened, 33 floors up, eating out first at Jin Mao tower (the world's highest bar is still Cloud 9 on the 87th floor, a dizzying height which that night put us ABOVE the clouds that hovered low over Shanghai), and then again in Windows Too (a much more down-to-earth establishment both physically and where price is concerned) before coming back to the hotel and crashing out on the bed that (and I quote, almost verbatim I am sure), "can sleep 3 adults" with its multiple pillows and thick soft mattress before having to get up early and make the most of the Executive Lounge breakfast (om nom nom, this was a most satisfying venture).
* Our last day together was just yesterday, but it feels like months ago already. I won't go into grand detail but there were tears and despite the fact we're over halfway through this academic year, my year abroad, the next four and a half months still stretches on into forever. I'm back in Urumqi now and really I'm wishing I wasn't. But I am, and that's how it has to be for the next 140ish days, so I had better crack on with some work and in the words of Lucy, "Learn the Chinese. Learn it good."
Showing posts with label Shanghai. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shanghai. Show all posts
Thursday, 26 February 2009
My Holiday Part One - Jiangsu, Shanghai, and Lucy's Arrival
I've been off for a couple of weeks - trying to get some relaxation away from Urumqi (to be honest, once you've been here 6 months, anywhere feels more relaxing / just plain better) ... My first week away wasn't the MOST enjoyable - I think I stayed a couple of days too long at an old friend's place and ended up feeling quite bad about it - not because he wasn't hospitable but because our views on some things differed greatly and after a couple of arguments there really wasn't much else to say. I should just have left. Well I suppose you live and learn.
At least I got to see ONE of my former Chinese students, and maybe I'll see more in July before I come home; and as you've maybe read, I had a drab day in Suzhou, culminating with a couple of hours in a smoky internet cafe half-heartedly updating this blog among other things, before I spent an inordinate amount of cash on some alright coffee and read a book for a bit.
The night before Lucy arrived I really couldn't sleep. It didn't even matter that I'd been out with some friends for a meal and then to a bar, where we'd stayed until I was nicely tipsy. My sleep was fitful and inadequate; sure I got my head down but when I woke up it still wasn't enough. Oh well no time to complain - Lucy's coming to China! :) I forgot the location of our hotel for the first night and spent a frantic half hour working out where we were supposed to be - fortunately I got the information just in time to leave for the airport, taking the bus because it was cheapest and to save the thrill of the Maglev for when I was actually with Lucy (the thrill mainly being hers - I've ridden it at least 4 times before). I think from here in I'll keep things short else you'll be here forever:
* She arrived. Sounds obvious doesnt it? But it's true and it made us both very happy. Within minutes we were bantering like we'd been apart 6 minutes not 6 months. Also my handdrawn "Welcome to China" sign with her name (in English and Chinese) went down well :) Maybe I will post a photo of it later.
* The hotel was adequate. I hadn't gone overboard for the first night, and if the thermostat had worked better we would probably have given the entire place 9 / 10 (clean the carpet and I'd give it a 10) but with the stuffy air inside the room and no way to fix it, my rating sinks to about 5 / 10. I don't know what Lucy thinks, but I'm guessing she mostly agrees. We spent the first day slumming in the hotel room, strolling around the Bund (the Pudong Development Bank interior is still wonderful), sampling some "normal" (ie: cheap, standard-for-Chinese-people) food and then flopping out because the A/C was still crap and the windows didn't open.
Well you win some you lose some, right? And hey, we still had each other :)
At least I got to see ONE of my former Chinese students, and maybe I'll see more in July before I come home; and as you've maybe read, I had a drab day in Suzhou, culminating with a couple of hours in a smoky internet cafe half-heartedly updating this blog among other things, before I spent an inordinate amount of cash on some alright coffee and read a book for a bit.
The night before Lucy arrived I really couldn't sleep. It didn't even matter that I'd been out with some friends for a meal and then to a bar, where we'd stayed until I was nicely tipsy. My sleep was fitful and inadequate; sure I got my head down but when I woke up it still wasn't enough. Oh well no time to complain - Lucy's coming to China! :) I forgot the location of our hotel for the first night and spent a frantic half hour working out where we were supposed to be - fortunately I got the information just in time to leave for the airport, taking the bus because it was cheapest and to save the thrill of the Maglev for when I was actually with Lucy (the thrill mainly being hers - I've ridden it at least 4 times before). I think from here in I'll keep things short else you'll be here forever:
* She arrived. Sounds obvious doesnt it? But it's true and it made us both very happy. Within minutes we were bantering like we'd been apart 6 minutes not 6 months. Also my handdrawn "Welcome to China" sign with her name (in English and Chinese) went down well :) Maybe I will post a photo of it later.
* The hotel was adequate. I hadn't gone overboard for the first night, and if the thermostat had worked better we would probably have given the entire place 9 / 10 (clean the carpet and I'd give it a 10) but with the stuffy air inside the room and no way to fix it, my rating sinks to about 5 / 10. I don't know what Lucy thinks, but I'm guessing she mostly agrees. We spent the first day slumming in the hotel room, strolling around the Bund (the Pudong Development Bank interior is still wonderful), sampling some "normal" (ie: cheap, standard-for-Chinese-people) food and then flopping out because the A/C was still crap and the windows didn't open.
Well you win some you lose some, right? And hey, we still had each other :)
Sunday, 24 August 2008
Faithless
"I can't get no sleep."
I seem to be suffering from insomnia at the moment. My body clock is entirely screwed up, and even when I have done loads and should be about ready to drop off the face of the earth with tiredness, I can't. Or not for long anyway.
Yesterday, following my nap in the afternoon, I did very little - I think I managed a trip to one of the local corner stores (part of a chain called Buddies, which is displayed in bright pink signing), a bit like a Co-op in the UK, and picked up a couple of bready-looking items and a can of "milky coffee" ... yes, a can. I took a picture to prove it but I've yet to upload the photo to my laptop, and in turn work out where I am going to store all the images for this year abroad. And how to put them into my blog if needs be. I came back to the hostel, and set myself up on the floor with my two bread things and my can of coffee, while I chatted with one of my roommates. I'm in a room with three other people, all of them girls about a year or two older than me, at various stages in their post-graduate education or travels. There's Anna (Polish), Ieva (pronounced Yay-vah, she's from Lithuania), and Marcia (Brazilian) - I don't think I need to change any of their names because I'm not about to say anything nasty about them ;)
Anyway, I chatted with Anna while I tucked into my sugary "lunch" at about 1600, not quite refreshed from my afternoon kip, but then not deathly tired either. After about half an hour she left to go explore the city while there was still light (good luck, it seems to get dark here very early despite it being summer - by 1900 the sun has gone completely), and I cotched on my bed, doing nothing very much in particular until the others came in and we formed some kind of cliquey laptop-using room, sitting on our beds tapping away. Anna came back from the pagoda she had been trying to see (unsuccessful, the light was too bad to take photos anyway she said), and we tentatively said that as a room we should go out to supper together, but a bit later of course, when we were all hungry ...
Around 2000 we set off, letting Anna lead - she's been staying here for a few weeks now, while she does an internship in the Polish embassy, so she knows roughly where good places to eat might be ... and about a ten minute walk later we wound up at a restaurant. It was clean, air conditioned (though annoyingly they turned off the AC unit halfway through our meal!) and the service very efficient - a little English here or there but for the most part a good chance to practice my Chinese (and for us all to have a giggle over some of the translations on the menu). Eventually we ordered - veggie dumplings for Marcia, and chicken dumplings with a beef stew for the rest of us to share. Suffice to say it was all very tasty and I'm still here with no ill effects the following morning!
We left around 2230, having paid Y74 between us, about Y18 (£1.50ish) each including drinks, with some change leftover to stop off at the Buddies on the way home and buy a couple of bottles of beer to pass round when we got in. We stayed up chatting until about 0100, at which point we were all quite drained and plonked ourselves into bed ... and this takes me back to the sleep issue. I had slept for about 3 hours in the afternoon, not long enough (I thought) to disrupt any nightly pattern, and certainly not if I went to bed late. I fully expected to sleep through til 0600 at the very least. But no, at 0230 I woke up. It couldnt have been noise, I had earplugs in, kindly donated by Marcia ... it was a combination of hunger (what? after the meal we had?) and needing the toilet (despite having been before going to bed??) ... the latter was easy to fix, the former less so, not having any food to hand. So I was well and truly awake. By 0330 I was in the same situation as last night, sitting up in bed reading a novel, hoping it would send me to the land of nod.
At 0700 I took a shower, despite my hunger being overriding - after all, I had neglected to have a wash the night before and I was beginning to pong somewhat. My ablutions complete (the shampoo I picked up didnt smell of coconut, much to my disappointment, it was a generic shampoo smell), I went out for breakfast, my hunger by now having peaked and fallen somewhat. I wanted to try steamed buns from the local place I ate at yesterday, and ordered 5 with meat fillings ... They turned out to be huge and the fillings less than desirable. Guess I won't be ordering them again ... oh well. Picked up a coffee-in-a-can from the Buddies next door, chatted in Chinese with one of the workers there, who recognised me from yesterday, and came back to the hostel. The air, even at this time of morning is heavy and the temperature hotter than I would like. Not to mention that as I walked back to the hostel the stench from the road really got to me, just as I had taken a bite from one of the buns ... I half wanted to vomit. Honestly, I will be happy to leave here - the company is great and the accommodation more than fine, but the city is just disgusting.
The plan for today is to try and stay awake until I am on the train this evening and then to curl up in a (hopefully air-conditioned) ball and sleep soundly until sometime in the morning. I think buying some snacks is prudent, especially given my tendency to wake up at 2 and want to eat, and I may think about getting postcards and a sewing kit to keep myself busy on the train - I have big plans for a pair of socks and an iPod cover in the making ... the train leaves at 2048 and arrives 42 hours later but there's some difference in the official time of arrival (centralised to Beijing's clocks, some 3 timezones East) and the (real) local time, so I have no idea what time I actually get in, nor how this will affect my already-screwed body rhythm.
Next post probably from Urumqi!
I seem to be suffering from insomnia at the moment. My body clock is entirely screwed up, and even when I have done loads and should be about ready to drop off the face of the earth with tiredness, I can't. Or not for long anyway.
Yesterday, following my nap in the afternoon, I did very little - I think I managed a trip to one of the local corner stores (part of a chain called Buddies, which is displayed in bright pink signing), a bit like a Co-op in the UK, and picked up a couple of bready-looking items and a can of "milky coffee" ... yes, a can. I took a picture to prove it but I've yet to upload the photo to my laptop, and in turn work out where I am going to store all the images for this year abroad. And how to put them into my blog if needs be. I came back to the hostel, and set myself up on the floor with my two bread things and my can of coffee, while I chatted with one of my roommates. I'm in a room with three other people, all of them girls about a year or two older than me, at various stages in their post-graduate education or travels. There's Anna (Polish), Ieva (pronounced Yay-vah, she's from Lithuania), and Marcia (Brazilian) - I don't think I need to change any of their names because I'm not about to say anything nasty about them ;)
Anyway, I chatted with Anna while I tucked into my sugary "lunch" at about 1600, not quite refreshed from my afternoon kip, but then not deathly tired either. After about half an hour she left to go explore the city while there was still light (good luck, it seems to get dark here very early despite it being summer - by 1900 the sun has gone completely), and I cotched on my bed, doing nothing very much in particular until the others came in and we formed some kind of cliquey laptop-using room, sitting on our beds tapping away. Anna came back from the pagoda she had been trying to see (unsuccessful, the light was too bad to take photos anyway she said), and we tentatively said that as a room we should go out to supper together, but a bit later of course, when we were all hungry ...
Around 2000 we set off, letting Anna lead - she's been staying here for a few weeks now, while she does an internship in the Polish embassy, so she knows roughly where good places to eat might be ... and about a ten minute walk later we wound up at a restaurant. It was clean, air conditioned (though annoyingly they turned off the AC unit halfway through our meal!) and the service very efficient - a little English here or there but for the most part a good chance to practice my Chinese (and for us all to have a giggle over some of the translations on the menu). Eventually we ordered - veggie dumplings for Marcia, and chicken dumplings with a beef stew for the rest of us to share. Suffice to say it was all very tasty and I'm still here with no ill effects the following morning!
We left around 2230, having paid Y74 between us, about Y18 (£1.50ish) each including drinks, with some change leftover to stop off at the Buddies on the way home and buy a couple of bottles of beer to pass round when we got in. We stayed up chatting until about 0100, at which point we were all quite drained and plonked ourselves into bed ... and this takes me back to the sleep issue. I had slept for about 3 hours in the afternoon, not long enough (I thought) to disrupt any nightly pattern, and certainly not if I went to bed late. I fully expected to sleep through til 0600 at the very least. But no, at 0230 I woke up. It couldnt have been noise, I had earplugs in, kindly donated by Marcia ... it was a combination of hunger (what? after the meal we had?) and needing the toilet (despite having been before going to bed??) ... the latter was easy to fix, the former less so, not having any food to hand. So I was well and truly awake. By 0330 I was in the same situation as last night, sitting up in bed reading a novel, hoping it would send me to the land of nod.
At 0700 I took a shower, despite my hunger being overriding - after all, I had neglected to have a wash the night before and I was beginning to pong somewhat. My ablutions complete (the shampoo I picked up didnt smell of coconut, much to my disappointment, it was a generic shampoo smell), I went out for breakfast, my hunger by now having peaked and fallen somewhat. I wanted to try steamed buns from the local place I ate at yesterday, and ordered 5 with meat fillings ... They turned out to be huge and the fillings less than desirable. Guess I won't be ordering them again ... oh well. Picked up a coffee-in-a-can from the Buddies next door, chatted in Chinese with one of the workers there, who recognised me from yesterday, and came back to the hostel. The air, even at this time of morning is heavy and the temperature hotter than I would like. Not to mention that as I walked back to the hostel the stench from the road really got to me, just as I had taken a bite from one of the buns ... I half wanted to vomit. Honestly, I will be happy to leave here - the company is great and the accommodation more than fine, but the city is just disgusting.
The plan for today is to try and stay awake until I am on the train this evening and then to curl up in a (hopefully air-conditioned) ball and sleep soundly until sometime in the morning. I think buying some snacks is prudent, especially given my tendency to wake up at 2 and want to eat, and I may think about getting postcards and a sewing kit to keep myself busy on the train - I have big plans for a pair of socks and an iPod cover in the making ... the train leaves at 2048 and arrives 42 hours later but there's some difference in the official time of arrival (centralised to Beijing's clocks, some 3 timezones East) and the (real) local time, so I have no idea what time I actually get in, nor how this will affect my already-screwed body rhythm.
Next post probably from Urumqi!
Saturday, 23 August 2008
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 :)
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 :)
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