We got a lift to the bus station from Dad, although he couldn’t go directly to it due to random, never before seen bollards blocking the road (!). Anyway, we said farewell on a nearby street just a walk away from the station to get the National Express coach to the airport.
The journey was straight forward, pretty uneventful, and there was hardly any traffic. We dropped off our bags and went through security straight away – I was parched and starving! For once, I wasn’t the one who was searched – Mathew tried his best not to wear any metal, but his pockets had metal poppers, so he got ‘wanded’. Into the departure lounge, we immediately went to get some food. We weren’t waiting too long until our gate was open, boarding began, and we got a bus to our plane which we got onto outside on the tarmac. Take off was about 5 minutes late, but other than that, everything seemed to be going along nicely.
The flight was long at just over 10 hours! It’s certainly the longest flight I have ever done so far. The flight itself was fairly uneventful but the seats were quite soft and comfortable with built-in head rests to pull down to the shoulders to stop the head lolling to the side when dozing. We had a good amount of leg room too. Mathew and I both had a ‘roast beef dinner’ followed by what I think was a chocolate brownie with chocolate or fudge sauce!
Soon we began to fly into the night and after watching one movie, Mathew and I tried to sleep a little. I don’t think either of us was that successful – I decided to watch another movie after a while, as did Mathew. After that, I tried to sleep again and this time I think I may have managed about an hour. I thought we’d probably be sleeping off the jetlag in the hotel when we arrived anyway. We weren’t seated next to a window – Mathew was in the aisle seat and I was in the middle – so we didn’t see much in the way of any landscapes, OR Shanghai from the air.
5pm Shanghai Time
Oh My Goodness!!! It was SO good to have some fresh air after such a long long flight. Well, it wasn’t really that fresh due to the smog...but it was just nice to be out of the plane!
We landed in Shanghai around 8am, having only got about 90 minutes sleep on the flight. We were both very tired and parched, despite having had regular drinks but obviously aeroplane air conditioning never helps. We were served breakfast, although by this time and being sleep deprived, I knew my stomach wanted food but I wasn’t sure what bacon, tomato, sausage, mushroom and scrambled egg would do, as after a normal nights’ sleep I really can’t do a fry up in the morning as it just makes me feel very ill.
I decided to try it, as it didn’t really feel much like breakfast time and I thought it best to eat something. Surprisingly, it seemed my body really wanted the salt, but oddly, I couldn’t manage the mini muffin. I did, however, manage the orange juice and yoghurt – both from Wales so the labels said!
Going through Chinese Immigration was quick, easy and painless. It was all very civilized and polite, no large grins but no stern looks or accusing questions either. The first thing we noticed was the amazingly clean and shiny floor – shiny enough to see your own face in it! Yes, really! We collected our bags and found a ‘Wendy Wu’ rep who took us outside and onto the coach. We travelled about an hour to the Ramada Zhabei Hotel in downtown Shanghai and the traffic was calm and free flowing. Our rep told us that April 3rd is the Quing Ming Festival (Sweeping of the Tombs) therefore not many people were on the road today.
When we arrived in Shanghai, it was raining a little. On the coach, it was finally time to see what China was like. Closer to the airport, there seemed to be many areas in which housing developments were taking place, and these houses looked quite nice. The style was sort of colonial or incorporated colonial styles, surrounded by small gardens. The roofs were all tiled and they were never straight or flat – most of them had some sort of flying eave, typical of traditional Chinese architecture.
The further away we travelled from the airport, the more of a mish-mash of everything the landscape became. Nice new houses, run down houses, small slums, mini landfill areas, wasteland, and really pretty landscape gardening both for private and public use. It was as if the area was being developed in no methodical fashion whatsoever, but you could tell things were being done.
Upon our arrival at the hotel, we met our National guide who would be with us for the entire holiday, Jane. She was in the lobby and took our passports so she could do a mass check-in and give us our key-cards. She returned our passports to us and asked us all to meet up on the 2nd floor for lunch at midday. We got to our room and collapsed!! SO tired! We decided, as it was now 10:05am, to sleep until lunchtime.
After some sleep, we woke up and headed to the 2nd floor for lunch. It was a simple buffet and I didn’t eat much as my stomach was very confused as to what time of day it was and what meal to expect next. We discovered that our guide Jane would have a very long day today, greeting up to 30 people on this tour right up until midnight! We also discovered that we were mixed in with some Australians – it turns out they thought ‘Wendy Wu’ was just an Australian company, and weren’t expecting to meet any Brits! After lunch, we returned to our room and slept until meeting in the lobby at 6pm for dinner. We were told we could take a walk outside around town if we wanted to, but we decided that sleep is what we really needed.
We awoke at 4:15pm having slept since 1pm. I sent an email home after trying to call. No matter how many combinations of the number I tried (international codes, area codes etc) everything resulted in a message repeating “This call is barred!”. Perhaps the mobile network my phone had connected with didn’t do international calls?
We went to the lobby at 6pm, and boarded the coach. 15 minutes into town, we went into “Amanda Plaza” – a shopping centre, in which our first dinner was eaten in a restaurant called “Thai Riffic” (Yes, really!), and despite the name, the food was actually Chinese. It had a very cozy atmosphere with wooden and wicker decor. I particularly liked the teardrop shaped paper lanterns which glowed red, yellow and orange.
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| Typical food layout in Chinese restaurants |
We sat at a round table, in the centre of which was a large round rotating “lazy susan”, and we had our own small bowls, plates, and of course....chopsticks! A waiter appeared with a large bowl of soup which we all tucked into immediately, ladling it into our bowls. It had meat, diced potato and spring onions – it was very watery, but really tasty. As soon as we started with the soup, more and more dishes were set onto our table – rice, noodles, bean shoots, fish, chicken, omelette – none of which were spicy, all of which were full of flavour. I think I ate a decent amount, as I had caught up on some sleep, felling more awake and my stomach more settled. I was glad to have some food, and I really enjoyed it!
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| Shanghai from our hotel window |
This evening, Mathew and I watched a DVD before going to bed at 10:30pm. We had a wake up call at 7:10am, and the sleep would do us some good. My only worry was what the breakfast would be like in the morning...
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