The weather forecast did not look good - rain, rain, a bit of thunder perhaps, and then more goddamn rain. But we had a hostel booked, and Huangshan is supposed to be one of the most beautiful sights in China, so I was determined Lucy and I should at least TRY to see it.
* We moved out to Anhui Province, to a town called Tunxi about 100km from Huangshan (Yellow Mountain), which is what we wanted to see. The bus to Tunxi was about 3 hours, during which time we took in the changing views, as more mountains appeared, and the changing weather, clouds greying up the skyline until we were among them and the beginnings of rain. Architecture changed as well, bringing with it some of the local Hui style buildings, tall and white with black edging and flat roofing which made me comment that you can tell what the climate is like in most places by observing buildings - sloping roofs often mean rainfall, flat roofs often mean drier climes. How wrong was I.
* Arriving in Tunxi we made the discovery that the taxi drivers immediately within the bus station were a) stupid and b) thieving bastards. Having been informed by the hostel that the ride should be no more than 7 rmb, these guys were determined not to use their meters and instead wanted 35 rmb. We haggled for a while, me telling them they had meters and if they were taking us they would damn well use them, them saying it was up to us to haggle. Enough. "Jog on", said we, and followed their directions to the entrance of the complex where taxi drivers were taking people using the meter. The first bloke we met took us and it cost just 5 rmb. Shame he plonked us down at the wrong end of the street, and we had a nice little 10 minute walk with all our luggage along cobbles (the aptly named "Old Street") before reaching our hostel for the next three days.
* The first thing to mention about this hostel - it was FREEZING. They couldnt give us the room I'd booked either, a double-bedded-thing, so instead we had two twin beds in this gigantic room with an A/C unit that failed miserably to raise the temperature even a little. I am by nature quite warm-blooded, and even I found this chilly. Lucy is a cold little creature, if the temperature dips below 10C she gets goosebumps (or so it seems to me) and the room must have been getting close to zero. Brr! But the bed was quite comfortable, the shower worked nicely, the toilet was western and it was clean enough. They had a bar (a little expensive but hey) and some wonderful swallow-you-whole sofas; you could drown in them they were that comfortable.
* Local cuisine was, simply put, oily. We found just one dish that wasn't too thick with oil, and that was because it was a hotpot of soup - better than most I might add. Still, c'est la vie. We made bookings for the next day to go to Huangshan despite the threat of crap weather, and then shivered ourselves into bed. At some point (I forget exactly when) I put a wash on, and then had to deal with the ultimately crap A/C unit that didn't heat nor dry my clothes, and the lack of a tumble drier. By our third day in this hostel, just before leaving, some of my clothes were dry enough to be packed and possibly worn.
* Our trip to Huangshan was a washout. Literally. The skies opened and torrents of rain poured down upon us. The bus ride to Huangshan was about 1 hour, and having bought some provisions (thinking we'd be there a few hours in some reasonable weather) we took a minicab to a destination that was not Huangshan itself but some scenic rivery type place. Ah well, they said we'd not see anything in Huangshan that day anyway what with all the rain and mist. We lasted an hour. After this time we were soaking wet and wanted little else than to be back in the hostel despite the rubbish air temperature back there, and so we just took another bus back and holed up for the rest of the day while I waited for my shoes to dry out and Lucy napped. To anyone who is unaware - Lucy is an awesome napper.
Aside: waiting for the bus back, a bloke pulls up in his car and asks, in Chinese, "to where?" ... I tell him Tunxi and he says, "OK, 150, get in" ... I counter, "Yeah the bus is 15 each, we'll wait" ... "85", he says, "There are no buses now" ... "Oh yeah? Well they [I gesture to the Chinese behind me] say there are, and I know there are, and we'll wait thanks" ... At that moment a bus shows itself and indeed the going rate is just 15. In one way I can't blame them for trying, but I wish to hell they'd just piss off and leave me alone, simply because I have white skin I really don't need their hawking like I'm just some other foreigner who wandered into China without Chinese or local knowledge.
On the plus side we DID get to see part of where Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon was filmed, something that definitely got Lucy's interest, so I suppose it was a win!
Showing posts with label hostel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hostel. Show all posts
Thursday, 26 February 2009
My Holiday Part Two - Zhejiang [Hangzhou]
Following on from Lucy's arrival and our first night in Shanghai, here is a brief summary of what happened when we went to Hangzhou (in neighbouring Zhejiang Province).
* Day two was spent getting to Hangzhou. Maybe we should have gone to Shanghai South Railway station (I thought there were more trains from Shanghai Railway station though) or got the bus, who knows, we ended up at Shanghai railway with 4 hours before the next train to Hangzhou (this around 1130 as well!) and all our bags so half our afternoon was spent in the waiting lounge just chatting, fidgeting, reading, taking photos and playing games ... great, come to China, sit in a waiting room. But she didn't seem to mind :) Arriving in Hangzhou we finally found the taxi queue and it was long. Not as long as it took to get to our hostel though - the driver missed the destination and we found ourselves walking up a road with no real idea where the place was; luckily we were only a few minutes off target.
* The hostel in Hangzhou was lovely - we had a great room with a four-poster-bed, a showerhead which looked like the sun was raining on us, and A/C that really worked! Cheaper, and better than the hotel. What more could we want? The hostel had a deal with a local restaurant and we got 10% off our meal, so of course we went there the next night as well (though for some reason on that occasion one of the staff felt the need to come over to our table and attempt to talk with us. Actually not with us. Just with Lucy, his first words in English being, "Are you very beautiful?") ... one thing that surprised me was all the restaurants shut at about 2200, which was a bit awkward if you wanted a late meal ... and there were no local shops either. Hmm.
* Our second day in Hangzhou took us to West Lake where we dallied for a long while on the causeway, stopping frequently to admire the views and just hang out together on benches. With your back turned few people notice you are foreign, and so we enjoyed some quiet time. Lunch was reasonable, and then we took a walk to Long Yin Temple (I think that's the name anyway) - should really have taken a taxi but I thought it was closer than it was. Ah well we got exercise at least! And the day was beautiful for walking. We had just enough time for a quick (45 minute) look around one section of the complex, a place I'd been to in 2006, and then they were closing the gates. A young couple gave us a lift back to the hostel for free (they said they were going to Shanghai anyway and the man's logic was that if he was in England I would do the same for him, which is true), which saved all that stupid haggling with rip-you-off-given-half-a-chance "taxi" drivers.
With bad weather approaching, we set out the next day for Anhui Province.
* Day two was spent getting to Hangzhou. Maybe we should have gone to Shanghai South Railway station (I thought there were more trains from Shanghai Railway station though) or got the bus, who knows, we ended up at Shanghai railway with 4 hours before the next train to Hangzhou (this around 1130 as well!) and all our bags so half our afternoon was spent in the waiting lounge just chatting, fidgeting, reading, taking photos and playing games ... great, come to China, sit in a waiting room. But she didn't seem to mind :) Arriving in Hangzhou we finally found the taxi queue and it was long. Not as long as it took to get to our hostel though - the driver missed the destination and we found ourselves walking up a road with no real idea where the place was; luckily we were only a few minutes off target.
* The hostel in Hangzhou was lovely - we had a great room with a four-poster-bed, a showerhead which looked like the sun was raining on us, and A/C that really worked! Cheaper, and better than the hotel. What more could we want? The hostel had a deal with a local restaurant and we got 10% off our meal, so of course we went there the next night as well (though for some reason on that occasion one of the staff felt the need to come over to our table and attempt to talk with us. Actually not with us. Just with Lucy, his first words in English being, "Are you very beautiful?") ... one thing that surprised me was all the restaurants shut at about 2200, which was a bit awkward if you wanted a late meal ... and there were no local shops either. Hmm.
* Our second day in Hangzhou took us to West Lake where we dallied for a long while on the causeway, stopping frequently to admire the views and just hang out together on benches. With your back turned few people notice you are foreign, and so we enjoyed some quiet time. Lunch was reasonable, and then we took a walk to Long Yin Temple (I think that's the name anyway) - should really have taken a taxi but I thought it was closer than it was. Ah well we got exercise at least! And the day was beautiful for walking. We had just enough time for a quick (45 minute) look around one section of the complex, a place I'd been to in 2006, and then they were closing the gates. A young couple gave us a lift back to the hostel for free (they said they were going to Shanghai anyway and the man's logic was that if he was in England I would do the same for him, which is true), which saved all that stupid haggling with rip-you-off-given-half-a-chance "taxi" drivers.
With bad weather approaching, we set out the next day for Anhui Province.
Sunday, 7 September 2008
Pre-Registration
So much has happened since my last entry, life seems to have been moving at rocket pace. On Thursday, before Marta arrived, I went to the China Mobile store to see how I could top up my SIM card – turns out it would just be easier to buy another one, change my number and start from scratch. Okay, let’s do it … easier said than done. As well as having to explain everything to me (because I am pernickety and want to be sure I am not making a huge mistake), there was the business of setting up the SIM card, which over here means filling out a lot of documents and having copies of your passport taken; basically, the SIM becomes registered to you, none of this chopping and changing, even for PAYG cards. This is hassle, but there you go. Eventually all the documents were complete (I had to sign about seven different sheets of paper), and I was ready to go – but please do come back to a China Mobile store every time you want to top up (what? not online, or over a counter at a newsagents?) and definitely come back in about two days’ time to add on “Display Caller ID” which is an extra option over here rather than the standard we expect elsewhere. This service costs Y5 per month on top of the contracted amount (see below), and the assistant didn’t want me to spend Y5 now for about four days worth of service. The fact that Y5 is 40p didn’t occur to me until afterwards … So, how much am I paying for this SIM? UK readers might want to sit down, because the tariffs here are so ridiculously cheap.
Y15 per month (just gets taken off the card balance) which allows me 100 free texts to other Chinese mobiles. There were other tariffs of 20 and 30 RMB per month which gave 200 and 300 texts respectively, but I think here I will be calling more than texting. Add the Y5 caller ID display charge and I pay Y20 (£1.60) a month for the use of my phone. Calls are charged at different rates, depending on the time they are made – between 0900 and midnight they are charged at Y0.2/min (1.5p) and between midnight and 0900 this is reduced to Y0.1 … calls made to numbers outside of Xinjiang province are charged at a higher rate but this can be reduced a bit by dialing a special extension before the number, making the cost 0.39 at peak times and 0.19 offpeak, still dirt-cheap. The SIM cost Y100, but it came with Y100 credit on it, so effectively it was free.
Anyway, I had my phone up and running – ace. I went to the Post Office and got some touristy stuff sent off – might as well do the tourist stuff at the beginning, like postcards with pretty pictures, so Mum, Dad, Nana, Lucy, Lari and Jenna, you may get cards in the next few days … I don’t remember doing much else that day apart from waiting for Marta to eventually arrive, and when she did, watching my stress levels rise. She’s lovely but she’s an incredibly nervous, fretty character and it means more work for me trying to calm her down. She got into the hostel in the early evening, and took a couple of hours to sort herself out, having flown from Dusseldorf to Beijing and then on to Urumqi, where a taxi driver had ripped her off. What a great start for her.
We took dinner in the Kazakh place below the hostel – I say we, it was really me, she wasn’t so hungry – and then went out to see some Kazakh shops but for some reason they were all shut … instead, we bumped into one of the Chinese people working in the hostel, and he directed us to the Wu Yi Night Market, a big T-shaped affair, the horizontal bar of the T being food stalls (all remarkably similar, and quite unappealing I thought), the vertical section being miscellaneous stalls selling jewellery, clothes, knives, batons, exercise equipment, candy-floss, and so on. It was interesting, but a little samey after a while and of course neither of us could be sure our stomachs weren’t going to turn nasty at any moment. On our way out of the market though, Marta stopped to buy some melon (which turned out to be a good call, since it was very tasty) and my eye was taken by a cart with a load of rocks on it. Except these rocks smelt really good, almost like … no, it can’t be … that’s honey! Yup, it was solid honey – the stall owner broke a bit off for us to try, and it is the best honey I have ever tasted. I think I’ll have to go back to get some, it was that good.
We got back to the hostel and got our heads down quite fast because the next day we had made plans to register with the university and meet a teacher (a friend of the students who were here last year) who would help us look for a house which would be a real help to sort out before we start lessons.
Y15 per month (just gets taken off the card balance) which allows me 100 free texts to other Chinese mobiles. There were other tariffs of 20 and 30 RMB per month which gave 200 and 300 texts respectively, but I think here I will be calling more than texting. Add the Y5 caller ID display charge and I pay Y20 (£1.60) a month for the use of my phone. Calls are charged at different rates, depending on the time they are made – between 0900 and midnight they are charged at Y0.2/min (1.5p) and between midnight and 0900 this is reduced to Y0.1 … calls made to numbers outside of Xinjiang province are charged at a higher rate but this can be reduced a bit by dialing a special extension before the number, making the cost 0.39 at peak times and 0.19 offpeak, still dirt-cheap. The SIM cost Y100, but it came with Y100 credit on it, so effectively it was free.
Anyway, I had my phone up and running – ace. I went to the Post Office and got some touristy stuff sent off – might as well do the tourist stuff at the beginning, like postcards with pretty pictures, so Mum, Dad, Nana, Lucy, Lari and Jenna, you may get cards in the next few days … I don’t remember doing much else that day apart from waiting for Marta to eventually arrive, and when she did, watching my stress levels rise. She’s lovely but she’s an incredibly nervous, fretty character and it means more work for me trying to calm her down. She got into the hostel in the early evening, and took a couple of hours to sort herself out, having flown from Dusseldorf to Beijing and then on to Urumqi, where a taxi driver had ripped her off. What a great start for her.
We took dinner in the Kazakh place below the hostel – I say we, it was really me, she wasn’t so hungry – and then went out to see some Kazakh shops but for some reason they were all shut … instead, we bumped into one of the Chinese people working in the hostel, and he directed us to the Wu Yi Night Market, a big T-shaped affair, the horizontal bar of the T being food stalls (all remarkably similar, and quite unappealing I thought), the vertical section being miscellaneous stalls selling jewellery, clothes, knives, batons, exercise equipment, candy-floss, and so on. It was interesting, but a little samey after a while and of course neither of us could be sure our stomachs weren’t going to turn nasty at any moment. On our way out of the market though, Marta stopped to buy some melon (which turned out to be a good call, since it was very tasty) and my eye was taken by a cart with a load of rocks on it. Except these rocks smelt really good, almost like … no, it can’t be … that’s honey! Yup, it was solid honey – the stall owner broke a bit off for us to try, and it is the best honey I have ever tasted. I think I’ll have to go back to get some, it was that good.
We got back to the hostel and got our heads down quite fast because the next day we had made plans to register with the university and meet a teacher (a friend of the students who were here last year) who would help us look for a house which would be a real help to sort out before we start lessons.
Wednesday, 27 August 2008
I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends
So, you're about to arrive in a largish city, you've never been before, and you've only made tentative living arrangements in a hostel based on some information a contact gave you and that which you've been able to glean off the internet. A good start, eh? Well, I think I would have been absolutely lost had it not been for a couple of absolute stars - Korban and "Elvis" (I swear, that's what his business card says!). Korban is a Uyghur man, 41, who seems to split his time between Urumqi and other cities, on various business. He speaks English, but only because he's picked it up over the years from talking to people as he travels - he doesn't read or write Chinese and I suspect he's illiterate where English is concerned too, but that doesn't matter. Over the course of the 2-day train ride we exchanged small pleasantries and once or twice he helped me explain something to the Chinese passengers (though his vocabulary is varied - he didn't know the word "farmer" but instead knew "agriculture", which helped a great deal, but was surprising). On Day 2, as we chatted, he offered to help me find the hostel - and me, not being quite that big an idiot, said yes please (or yesplzkthx, to you Lucy).
We rolled closer to Urumqi and started talking about family; he has a wife who is 14 years younger than he is, and 4 children ... it can't be too easy being away from them all the time. And we also compared the prices of various things - it seems to be a popular topic in China - though it took me a while to work out he was on about money, because he pronounced "pounds" like "porn" and I couldn't understand how our conversation had taken such a nosedive. (I had visions of him trying to show me the red light district, which seemed out of character for such a man!) ... The passengers next to us were all Chinese (virtually no spoken English) and they had obviously heard Korban was helping me find my hostel - the only problem was he didnt know exactly where it was. However, Elvis had an idea, and fortunately it coincided with his route home, so he offered to take me to a taxi, explain to the driver where to go, and help me that way. I must have stumbled on the jackpot of good fortune here!
(Aside slightly, Lucy you will be pleased to know the leopard went down a treat with one of Elvis' daughters, who was pawing agitatedly at some man's face - he kept winding her up - until I said she looked like a cat, and made the leopard hand to "bite" her ... she saw the funny side, as did the rest of the berth ^_^)
We stepped out of the train and into an oven. It was disgusting, but less so than Shanghai - at least we had a breeze here. Readers of the previous post will remember my "ordeal" and the fact it left me a little dehydrated, well I tell you, I was straight onto the water - I stepped off the train and made a beeline for the kiosk before coming back to Elvis and his family, who I was to follow out of the station. If I thought the platform was bad, I hadn't felt anything yet. Outside, the luxury of shade was removed, and I found myself quickly baking, worrying seriously about the prospect of heatstroke. [I later discovered via the BBC that there was a freakishly high temperature of 34C in Urumqi on Tuesday - THIRTY FOUR DEGREES, that's ridiculous, my melting point is somewhere around 25C!]
I followed Elvis and his family until we were met by a man who wanted to take us to his car - I thought, maybe this is how taxis work here, until Elvis introduced the man as his 弟弟 (didi, pronounced dee-dee, or younger brother), and said that he would take us to my hostel on the way back to their house. At this point I could hardly believe my good fortune - not only have I just met someone who will help me to my hostel, but they will do it personally, and when we arrived wouldn't even accept payment ... I have his business card though, so if I think of something nice to do in return I have that option. Babysitting, maybe. :P
By the time I stepped out of the car at the hostel I was about ready to die. I'd tried drinking water, it wasn't working so well, I'd tried pouring it over my head, that wasn't helping much either. Short of diving into an ice-bath there really didn't seem much hope for me if I stayed out in the sun. I was literally wilting, so imagine my delight as I entered the hostel and was met not just by shade but airconditioned shade at that. 冷气 (aircon, or lengqi, pronounced lung-chee) the two sweetest words in the Chinese language! The inside of the hostel was spacious, clean, and the reception friendly - by the time I got up the stairs I was bursting with all the water I had taken on, and had to run to the toilet before checking in even.
Check-in took only a few minutes, while I decided what room I wanted (based on size, bed numbers, en suite, and of course price), and the validity of my visa was brought into question (why is the visa validity period zero days?). [Oh and I completely forgot to mention, everyone had their passports checked by a Chinese policeman while on the train - he went from carriage to carriage, and had a little electronic book to enter details of travellers, maybe even check them against some database, who knows, all I can say is I'm glad I had my passport on my person when he asked, as I was wandering around, not in my carriage!] - finally I had a room though. 4 beds, ensuite shower and toilet (WESTERN), TV, fan, nice bed (a tad hard but so what), wireless internet, etc etc - 55Y per night, that's about £4.35 ... China really is excellent value for money.
I stank. I absolutely, positively ponged. After more than 2 days in the same clothes though, what do you expect? Even sitting on an airconditioned train, I still smelt bad. So what was the first thing I did when I got into my room? Yeah that's right, establish that there is Wifi to be used, and get online to chat with friends in the UK. I'm that bad. Of course I did take the time to clean myself up later, and then set out for a bite to eat - there was a place doing Kazakh food right below the hostel, which one of the receptionists recommended, so I headed down there and tucked into a big bowl of meat (hot) and noodles (er, cold?), with some bread on the side, and a drink too - total price, Y15 (about £1.20) ... feeling nice and full I came back upstairs and my stomach began to gurgle. I doubt it can have been the food I just ate, that would be far too fast-acting, and besides I'd been feeling up and down with my stomach recently ... still, the call couldn't go unanswered.
And, to keep a long story short, that little episode last night marked the start of my 吃坏肚子 or "poor stomach brought on by eating something bad" - this morning my insides are still somewhat loose, though I suppose I should try eating something and seeing how it stays (or not), and I have some small cramps but at least I'm not vomiting, and despite a slight inability to regulate my temperature (I keep fluctuating between shivery and a bit warm), I'm not feverish. With any luck this will pass in the next 24 hours and my stomach will be made of iron before I know it.
In the meantime, between bouts of traveller's diarrhoea, I think I might try and get out to the local supermarket (conveniently next door) and see what they have by way of small dry goods to eat and maybe some medicine too (Western, not Chinese).
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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