Up at 5am to meet driver (happy Budda) who took us to the airport an hour away.
Once in Shanghai airport we caight the MagLev. A bullet train that goes at 430km/hr - it levetates above the rails so it can go faster (less friction I guess)
Was mint but only got up to 300km/hr (theres a speedometer in the cariage Im not guess the speed on how fats the trees went passed)
Then Metro and Taxi to next hostel - PIAOYING HOTEL -
The first room we got the external walls were vibrating from what I can only guess is the air con unit on the roof - proper noisy and shaky.
Got the fella to move us so some poor sod from our group whose just travelled either 13 0r 16 hours with very little sleep is going to get a vibrating room.
New one is still canny loud but doesnt rattle.
There are 4 brothels on our street with these bonny chinese lasses dressed in next to nowt sitting in the "shop" windows
Heather, me, Russ and Clare walked into Shanghai. What an underwhelming city. From what we've seen so far - along the river bank opposite all the big and famous skyscrapers is really run down, dirty and smelly.
Bought a map and navigated the city a bit. Found some cool parts but I guess we'll see the real city in the next few days.
Russel tried to buy a sim card from this backstreet shopp which was disguissed as a comb shop, seriously thats all it sold, combs!!, hundreds of them apart from a sign hanging off the main street saying "SIM" This little chinese fella pops out with a cardboard box full of sim cards. He wanted 150 Y Russ tried it, it didnt work so the fella them wanted 2J. Obviously Russ said no as it didnt work then the fella starts kicking off. So we legged it.
Youre stared at alot more in Shanghai which is weird since its more westernised than anywhere else we've been. You keep getting asked by people on the street to come and see their shop with all the big brand names. Then they follow you for ages when you say no.
Looking forward to meeting up with the rest of the group at some point tomorrow.
Cant find internet cafes anywhere here.
We'd thought we'd found one but after going down this seedy alley way then into this stair well covered in dirty needles and crack pipes we bottled it and quickly turned our heals.
SO up to date now. doubt I'll have this much time again to catch up as we've had today pretty much free.
Derby day on Sunday
Good luck to the lads. Stick it up them daft barcodes!!!!!!!!
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kevlah here. The fireworks sound likes the blitz - who tidies up at the end? I've seen that bullet train on the tv and it looks mint. The Great Wall and the Terracotta Army also sound like fantastic experiences - we are still following your journey in our atlas.
ReplyDeleteThe build up to the derby match has become farcical at NUFC. They managed to lose 2.1 at Man City without Shay Given who got a mysterious injury just before kick off. Today the papers are full of the fact that he has signed for Man City. Owen and Barton both are injured and are out of the big match. Then to cap it all that loker Kinnear mispronounced Charles N'Zogbia's name and called him "Insomniac" instead. Sleepy Charlie has now said he will never play for the Mags again. Roll on Sunday.
Love you both. Will get the result to you and sort out garden drainage when the weather warms up. Haway the lads.
Hi Dad, Heather here. It was hilarious watching the fireworks because in Beijing they actually did have a lot of people sweeping the streets through the day, and they were all out during the fireworks, sweeping up after every set of firecrackers went off, bless them, making absolutely no impact at all on the mounds of rubbish created! x x
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