Saturday, 8 January 2011
Test of email blogging
This is just a quick test of email blogging, a way to avoid the great firewall of china! so yeah...testing?
Second day In Shanghai
Woke up early to Chris's alarm feeling a lot less sick and a lot more awake. After a shower and realising that small microfibre towels are great in summer but not so great in winter we headed out. A bit sunnier today and nowhere near as freezing, a lovely day really!
First we headed to shanghai railway station to buy a ticket to hangzhou, after coming out of the wrong exit of the subway and me thinking it was all wrong we decided to try a different station, a flash of idea from chris has us use another metro exit and end up in the square I was familiar with and quickly find the ticket office.
I have no idea why there is always a big queue of chinese at the English language counter but today was no exception, we were served quickly still by a guy with great english and bought tickets to hangzhou for monday at 10.00 for 164y for two, £8 each!
This done we headed to UBC coffee nearby for a swanky coffee and late breakfast, a really nice iced coffee later (despite chris being caffine intolerant) we headed towards old town.
Old town is a remade and totally fake version of old shanghai with narrow streets and people selling all sorts of junk but pretty i suppose. Chris was keen to see the temple to the city god so we headed deeper into the labyrinth and saw a lovely small replica temple which we keenly photographed.
Chris unfortunately saw some probably fake coins, a few chinese and a few Mexican and decided to buy them all at the crazy initial asking price of £5 each! But at least got a small one free...
I nearly escaped without spending anything until after spending the morning bemoaning the lack of a small notebook I saw a small silk covered notebook in bright green i quite fancied, she asked 7 but quickly dropped to 4, expensive but nice, and a place to keep useful phrases and chinese characters that I can't write!
After this we walked around the corner and found a lovely replica tea house on a small lake, but covered in tourists, after a few pictures we headed away from it for a cheaper pot of tea.
In the next park we saw a small film crew videoing a young celebrity and after watching for a few minutes we headed into the cafe for some tea.
We sat inside and started our pots of tea and were discussing the map when a young guy asked in broken english if we would move tables, we did and then the young star sat down and the carried on filming their show in this small teahouse. After a while we finished our tea and were thanked by the director as we left. It was crazy with all the entourage packed into the small tea house and it wasn't until we had walked quite a way we remembered we hadn't paid! despite being told goodbye by the owner as we left. We didn't head back and decided that the film crew must have paid since we had to move, and only had the cheapest tea! Ooops!
We walked back onto the bund and walked up to the top watching the massive ships motoring through central shanghai before heading out for some dinner.
For dinner I was keen to head to Simon's test kitchen, a restaurant I liked a lot last time and was very fairly priced.
We looked up directions and headed out changshu station. After wandering around for half an hour or so (and finding an expensive paulaner beer serving restaurant that we are saving for when we are rich) but no test kitchen we eventually gave in and checked the map for somewhere else to eat. It was then we noticed a changshu station and 3 stops up a changshou station, that O became all important and so we headed off towards this second station.
On arrival we found the kitchen in now time and found it to be empty on the saturday night and so ate there.
We ordered spicy noodles with peanut sauce, pork xiaolongbao (dumplings?), spinach and pork xiaolongbao, and some sweet sticky rice that chris fancied.
We both didn't like the rice so ordered carrot and spice xiaolongbao and some more pork ones, as they were so good!
Turns out they are their speciality....
After all that we headed back to the bund and walked back up to the hostel to rest our legs and relax with a well deserved beer.
I must learn how to make those tasty tasty xiaolongbao!
Last day in shanghai tomorrow! Not sure what we will do though, hopefully something cheap...!
First we headed to shanghai railway station to buy a ticket to hangzhou, after coming out of the wrong exit of the subway and me thinking it was all wrong we decided to try a different station, a flash of idea from chris has us use another metro exit and end up in the square I was familiar with and quickly find the ticket office.
I have no idea why there is always a big queue of chinese at the English language counter but today was no exception, we were served quickly still by a guy with great english and bought tickets to hangzhou for monday at 10.00 for 164y for two, £8 each!
This done we headed to UBC coffee nearby for a swanky coffee and late breakfast, a really nice iced coffee later (despite chris being caffine intolerant) we headed towards old town.
Old town is a remade and totally fake version of old shanghai with narrow streets and people selling all sorts of junk but pretty i suppose. Chris was keen to see the temple to the city god so we headed deeper into the labyrinth and saw a lovely small replica temple which we keenly photographed.
Chris unfortunately saw some probably fake coins, a few chinese and a few Mexican and decided to buy them all at the crazy initial asking price of £5 each! But at least got a small one free...
I nearly escaped without spending anything until after spending the morning bemoaning the lack of a small notebook I saw a small silk covered notebook in bright green i quite fancied, she asked 7 but quickly dropped to 4, expensive but nice, and a place to keep useful phrases and chinese characters that I can't write!
After this we walked around the corner and found a lovely replica tea house on a small lake, but covered in tourists, after a few pictures we headed away from it for a cheaper pot of tea.
In the next park we saw a small film crew videoing a young celebrity and after watching for a few minutes we headed into the cafe for some tea.
We sat inside and started our pots of tea and were discussing the map when a young guy asked in broken english if we would move tables, we did and then the young star sat down and the carried on filming their show in this small teahouse. After a while we finished our tea and were thanked by the director as we left. It was crazy with all the entourage packed into the small tea house and it wasn't until we had walked quite a way we remembered we hadn't paid! despite being told goodbye by the owner as we left. We didn't head back and decided that the film crew must have paid since we had to move, and only had the cheapest tea! Ooops!
We walked back onto the bund and walked up to the top watching the massive ships motoring through central shanghai before heading out for some dinner.
For dinner I was keen to head to Simon's test kitchen, a restaurant I liked a lot last time and was very fairly priced.
We looked up directions and headed out changshu station. After wandering around for half an hour or so (and finding an expensive paulaner beer serving restaurant that we are saving for when we are rich) but no test kitchen we eventually gave in and checked the map for somewhere else to eat. It was then we noticed a changshu station and 3 stops up a changshou station, that O became all important and so we headed off towards this second station.
On arrival we found the kitchen in now time and found it to be empty on the saturday night and so ate there.
We ordered spicy noodles with peanut sauce, pork xiaolongbao (dumplings?), spinach and pork xiaolongbao, and some sweet sticky rice that chris fancied.
We both didn't like the rice so ordered carrot and spice xiaolongbao and some more pork ones, as they were so good!
Turns out they are their speciality....
After all that we headed back to the bund and walked back up to the hostel to rest our legs and relax with a well deserved beer.
I must learn how to make those tasty tasty xiaolongbao!
Last day in shanghai tomorrow! Not sure what we will do though, hopefully something cheap...!
Friday, 7 January 2011
Remote Working to a whole new level!
Just remembered I need to do some documentation for a Sharepoint system at Computer Assistance, I am the remotest remote worker they have at the moment!
London to Shanghai...Again
Woke up in oxford after a late night of last minute packing and realised I had forgotten so many things, I then proceeded to forget to pack half of these things, like my walking boots, a tie, and various other things I'm sure will turn out to be essential, such is travelling!
Met Ben and Chris at the airport and said goodbye to Ben for half an hour with a Beer and a last Burger rounding off the Beer, Steak, Curry and Pasta of the last few days, foods I may well not see in a while!
Headed through the gate and straight onto the plane with no problems, and they even let me take my little guitar! although i did forget a plek!
The flight was not bad, watched the scot something vs the world, which was very good, some of Salt which I should finished and a little of the one about the start of facebook but kept trying to sleep. Only managed an hour or so in the end though which was a shame!
Landed in shanghai feeling pretty tired and sick but ok. As we went to passport control we passed through the quarantine section designed to find people with flu symptoms but luckily it was unmanned as we are both sporting epic colds! Went through passport control trying not to sniff or sneeze and managed that too so we made it in!
While waiting for my bag I saw a sniffer dog jump on it and the guy it pull it to one side for further inspection. With no idea what I could have had to annoy the dog except some strong soaps I headed over and after some pointing and questioning looks he asked if I had any food in my bag, I said I didn't and offered to open it up but I think he saw how tighly packed it was and just told me to go, narrow escape as repacking that in a crowded airport would have been a right pain!
Shanghai weather is crazy, its a bearable 4degrees in the streets, slightly cold with a wind, but all buildings are heated to around 28, so inside I boil! Crazy country!
Jumped on the maglev again for Chris and headed towards Shanghai at 430kph! fantastic! Changed onto the metro and disgregarding our booked hostel I headed us to my favorite little hostel in Peoples Square, the Etour hostel.
Checked in for 2 nights to get our bearings and after dumping our stuff walked the mile or so down to the famous Bund with all the foreign concessions in. We took a few photos there and then headed back up to the urban planning exhibition, after looking around at the future of shanghai and the amazing model of central shanghai we headed back to the hostel for a little lie down around 3pm.
Waking up at 6pm we decided to grab some food and take a walk so headed out down random streets until we found a nice restaurant to eat at, we ordered some noodles, chicken breast and some beef in sauce, with a couple of beers for the expensive price of £12, but it is central shanghai!
Tomorrow I will investigate train tickets to hangzhou for monday and maybe check out the science museum or the expo site, try and get into the china pavillion I couldn't manage last time!
I am investigating moving the blog to one I can post on more easily but I will put a forwarding post here if that happens!
Hi to all back home! Post more soon, nath
Met Ben and Chris at the airport and said goodbye to Ben for half an hour with a Beer and a last Burger rounding off the Beer, Steak, Curry and Pasta of the last few days, foods I may well not see in a while!
Headed through the gate and straight onto the plane with no problems, and they even let me take my little guitar! although i did forget a plek!
The flight was not bad, watched the scot something vs the world, which was very good, some of Salt which I should finished and a little of the one about the start of facebook but kept trying to sleep. Only managed an hour or so in the end though which was a shame!
Landed in shanghai feeling pretty tired and sick but ok. As we went to passport control we passed through the quarantine section designed to find people with flu symptoms but luckily it was unmanned as we are both sporting epic colds! Went through passport control trying not to sniff or sneeze and managed that too so we made it in!
While waiting for my bag I saw a sniffer dog jump on it and the guy it pull it to one side for further inspection. With no idea what I could have had to annoy the dog except some strong soaps I headed over and after some pointing and questioning looks he asked if I had any food in my bag, I said I didn't and offered to open it up but I think he saw how tighly packed it was and just told me to go, narrow escape as repacking that in a crowded airport would have been a right pain!
Shanghai weather is crazy, its a bearable 4degrees in the streets, slightly cold with a wind, but all buildings are heated to around 28, so inside I boil! Crazy country!
Jumped on the maglev again for Chris and headed towards Shanghai at 430kph! fantastic! Changed onto the metro and disgregarding our booked hostel I headed us to my favorite little hostel in Peoples Square, the Etour hostel.
Checked in for 2 nights to get our bearings and after dumping our stuff walked the mile or so down to the famous Bund with all the foreign concessions in. We took a few photos there and then headed back up to the urban planning exhibition, after looking around at the future of shanghai and the amazing model of central shanghai we headed back to the hostel for a little lie down around 3pm.
Waking up at 6pm we decided to grab some food and take a walk so headed out down random streets until we found a nice restaurant to eat at, we ordered some noodles, chicken breast and some beef in sauce, with a couple of beers for the expensive price of £12, but it is central shanghai!
Tomorrow I will investigate train tickets to hangzhou for monday and maybe check out the science museum or the expo site, try and get into the china pavillion I couldn't manage last time!
I am investigating moving the blog to one I can post on more easily but I will put a forwarding post here if that happens!
Hi to all back home! Post more soon, nath
Thursday, 6 January 2011
Packing...
Packing now to leave tomorrow, scary times, seems this blog still works so will use this, at least at first..
Hi all!
Hi all!
Wednesday, 23 June 2010
boarding now
Had a crazy jourey here but will add more in doha. I def have time for it! I asked but no sooner flights.
Am on qr889 then qr17
Am on qr889 then qr17
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
Last day!
woke up late today at 11 and checked out straight away but left my bags, had a quick coffee and headed to the shanghai urban planning center, a very boring sounding place but amazing inside!
It shows why shanghai is going to be huge in 10years time, they have plans to completely redevelop most of the city adding parks and new houses in place of the old ones and becomming miles ahead of anywhere else!
Went to the old town and looked around which was cool, not many tourists there!
I then headed out shopping and bought a few more presents! Still a few to buy so not sure how that is going to work!
may have bought a few more gadgets too! shh
I am heading to the airport in a couple of hours, madness! Don't want to go!
If anyone reading this wants to pick me up that would be great... :D
also found out the flight checker is blocked here! haha! typical!
See everyone soon, this may be my last post...depending on doha wifi!
byeee
It shows why shanghai is going to be huge in 10years time, they have plans to completely redevelop most of the city adding parks and new houses in place of the old ones and becomming miles ahead of anywhere else!
Went to the old town and looked around which was cool, not many tourists there!
I then headed out shopping and bought a few more presents! Still a few to buy so not sure how that is going to work!
may have bought a few more gadgets too! shh
I am heading to the airport in a couple of hours, madness! Don't want to go!
If anyone reading this wants to pick me up that would be great... :D
also found out the flight checker is blocked here! haha! typical!
See everyone soon, this may be my last post...depending on doha wifi!
byeee
Monday, 21 June 2010
Relaaaaxing
The aircon leaked last night all over the floor, lucky I had a high bed! ahahaha! they got a guy in to fix it straight away so that was cool.
Its amazing how quickly things happen here and I found out why, to change a sign on the Nike building instead of 2 or 3 employees I counted more than 40 contractors working on it! they just throw such manpower at anything it HAS to happen fast!
I decided to stay here another night now the aircon was fixed, too much hassle to move everything and its nice to be in the centre.
Had a relaxing day today, after all the pressure to have a massage I needed to relax so I asked at reception where a local reputable massage place was and it was just around the corner. I went there and although a little expensive it was very nice, and much much cheaper than the UK!
After that I wandered around and ended up in the electronics market, I knew that was a bad idea! I ended up buying a couple of things for more than I should spend, but then saw a knock off ipad for a good price, doh! I will think about it and possibly (probably) go back tomorrow!
Got to get up and pack in the morning, will leave my stuff in reception and then head out again, do a last bit of wandering, some last street food, and some last shopping! still not bought that many people presents, sorry guys! if you send me back I will I promise! :)
Not much to do this evening, possibly going for a beer with a roommate and will go for a wander now, my last 24 hours!! how sad! not looking forward to the stupidly long flight back though!
Its amazing how quickly things happen here and I found out why, to change a sign on the Nike building instead of 2 or 3 employees I counted more than 40 contractors working on it! they just throw such manpower at anything it HAS to happen fast!
I decided to stay here another night now the aircon was fixed, too much hassle to move everything and its nice to be in the centre.
Had a relaxing day today, after all the pressure to have a massage I needed to relax so I asked at reception where a local reputable massage place was and it was just around the corner. I went there and although a little expensive it was very nice, and much much cheaper than the UK!
After that I wandered around and ended up in the electronics market, I knew that was a bad idea! I ended up buying a couple of things for more than I should spend, but then saw a knock off ipad for a good price, doh! I will think about it and possibly (probably) go back tomorrow!
Got to get up and pack in the morning, will leave my stuff in reception and then head out again, do a last bit of wandering, some last street food, and some last shopping! still not bought that many people presents, sorry guys! if you send me back I will I promise! :)
Not much to do this evening, possibly going for a beer with a roommate and will go for a wander now, my last 24 hours!! how sad! not looking forward to the stupidly long flight back though!
Last train journey!
Woke up early for the train and decided 5 more minutes, woke up again and realised I was cutting it fine so had to run and pack quickly (as i didn't bother last night) fought my way with my bags through the metro to the station and then got lost in the station. It was built to show off for the olympics and it is massive! but not used anywhere near its capactity, very nice and posh though with glass everywhere!
Found my train eventually and realised that since it was a day train all the soft seats were actually 4bed soft sleepers with 6 people booked in, two girls took the top two bunks and I had plenty of space to share with an asian guy on the bottom, could lie out and everything, very comfy!
The train left at 10 and arrived at 8 so was too late for sight seeing by the time i checked in.
I'm staying in a little hostel right near the main shopping district of shanghai, a fish pond in the front and a bar with the world cup on, and friendly staff, its a nice place.
I dropped off my stuff and then did the 2 mile walk down the main street to the bund to see the lights, and then walked back on the side streets to see a bit more of a fun side of it!
Had a few people coming up to me to offer "antiques, watches, rolex, silk, tshirts, clothes, bags, wallets, ipod ipods, fake warehouses, bars, massage, girl massage, ladies, hookers" in that order, in a continual stream of english, i politely declided their generous offer and carried on wandering, spent a couple of hours down the backstreets around the centre and found that only 100m off the main district the tourist numbers drops off completely, and walking through the peoples square park at night was very relaxing!
back at the hostel now and pretty tired, early night then hit some shopping and wandering in the morning I think.
Not sure if I should change hostels as planned or just stay here, I will loose my deposit but that is ok, and then I don't have to bother to move all my stuff around town! I will see if they have space!
Nice to have a bit of a wind down time! but shanghai is so so busy it doesn't feel like it!
Found my train eventually and realised that since it was a day train all the soft seats were actually 4bed soft sleepers with 6 people booked in, two girls took the top two bunks and I had plenty of space to share with an asian guy on the bottom, could lie out and everything, very comfy!
The train left at 10 and arrived at 8 so was too late for sight seeing by the time i checked in.
I'm staying in a little hostel right near the main shopping district of shanghai, a fish pond in the front and a bar with the world cup on, and friendly staff, its a nice place.
I dropped off my stuff and then did the 2 mile walk down the main street to the bund to see the lights, and then walked back on the side streets to see a bit more of a fun side of it!
Had a few people coming up to me to offer "antiques, watches, rolex, silk, tshirts, clothes, bags, wallets, ipod ipods, fake warehouses, bars, massage, girl massage, ladies, hookers" in that order, in a continual stream of english, i politely declided their generous offer and carried on wandering, spent a couple of hours down the backstreets around the centre and found that only 100m off the main district the tourist numbers drops off completely, and walking through the peoples square park at night was very relaxing!
back at the hostel now and pretty tired, early night then hit some shopping and wandering in the morning I think.
Not sure if I should change hostels as planned or just stay here, I will loose my deposit but that is ok, and then I don't have to bother to move all my stuff around town! I will see if they have space!
Nice to have a bit of a wind down time! but shanghai is so so busy it doesn't feel like it!
Sunday, 20 June 2010
Last day in beijing!
After waking up later I dragged myself out of bed and headed over to the last sight I wanted to see in beijing, the summer palace!
The summer palace is where the emporers would spend their time in the summer and has been home to some very powerful people, although whilst a few small bits are truly old most was (as the signs constantly remind you) burnt down by the anglo-french 100 years ago, and is mostly now 50-30 years old, but still very pretty.
It is a giant complex with a huge lake, a second lake, many buildings and many many boats. The day I chose to go was obviously insanely hot, (38!) and I decided to climb straight up the huge hill and nearly boiled myself alive!
I wandered around the palace for a bit and took some photos, took a boat tour and decided that i was palace and templed out now, and to make my way back.
I had a quick nap and met up with Vivian (the girl from the train) who decided to try to show me the real hu-tong a bit and prove they are not all just slums, turns out they are all slums!
Anyway we walked around them and it was very pretty, near a bit lake, and went for a meal in a restaurant that did western food with chinese flavours, an odd mix but very tasty! then I headed back to pack and get some sleep as I have an early start for the train in the morning!
The summer palace is where the emporers would spend their time in the summer and has been home to some very powerful people, although whilst a few small bits are truly old most was (as the signs constantly remind you) burnt down by the anglo-french 100 years ago, and is mostly now 50-30 years old, but still very pretty.
It is a giant complex with a huge lake, a second lake, many buildings and many many boats. The day I chose to go was obviously insanely hot, (38!) and I decided to climb straight up the huge hill and nearly boiled myself alive!
I wandered around the palace for a bit and took some photos, took a boat tour and decided that i was palace and templed out now, and to make my way back.
I had a quick nap and met up with Vivian (the girl from the train) who decided to try to show me the real hu-tong a bit and prove they are not all just slums, turns out they are all slums!
Anyway we walked around them and it was very pretty, near a bit lake, and went for a meal in a restaurant that did western food with chinese flavours, an odd mix but very tasty! then I headed back to pack and get some sleep as I have an early start for the train in the morning!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)