Testing the new workaround

My nephew sent me a workaround that I'm testing to see if it will post. Susan

Red Bus Tour in Shanghai

We operated on 4 hours sleep last night, after our marathon at the Internet cafe and going to bed at 1:30 a.m.  Joyce decided to take an R & R day and relaxed, did tai chi in the park, went to lunch at the huge J.W.Marriott hotel next door with a gorgeous view from the 35th floor.

The other 3 of us did the Big Red Bus on-off trip around Shanghai. We started with a lovely drive through the French Concession area. Shanghai in 1842 (after the Opium War and as a result of the Treaty of Nanjing) was opened to foreigners and Shanghai was the center. France settled a concession area, the British down around the waterfront (the Bund) and the Americans. The French area became the best address in Shanghai, with boulevards lined with plane trees and beautiful mansions (like the Ruijin) that have become hotels. It's still an up and coming hip area.

Our first stop was the gorgeous Jing'an Temple west of town. It is unbelievably restored - tons of money poured into this. A huge white jade Buddha from Myanmar (Burma), a gigantic silver Buddha, and money is being raised for a golden one! There were monks chanting near the white Buddha and a side altar we think was for a funeral of a young girl. The monks gathered around, it looked like 3 family members offered prayers and incense and they chanted. We bought incense outside, lit it and followed the bowing to the 4 directions like other people were doing, and then left our incense burning on this stove. We also threw coins up into a stupa-like thing in the central courtyard.

One of the chapels had a crew restoring a beautiful 3-D ceramic mural with wooden trim frame. Apparently during the Cultural Revolution, this was taken over and made into a factory. But they did a gorgeous job restoring it. Unfortunately had a LONG wait for the bus to come again - guy said it was traffic holding things up.  We opted NOT to go into the Jade Buddha Temple as it was not as magnificent and we'd wasted time waiting. We rode around town listening to a great narration on earplugs and got off at the Yu Yuan Gardens stop. This is in the Old City area. Hungry now, we headed for the most popular eating spot in Shanghai - where they make these great pork dumplings. Just follow the queue, the guidebook said. It was about a 20 minute wait line. But was worth it - about 15 dumplings with soy sauce. We also added some bean cakes (kind of sweet) and satay (chicken) for a wonderful walking lunch!

Did some shopping for chopstick gifts and wandered around the very Chinese area. Wandered through the picturesque and tranquil Yu Yuan Gardens to various rooms and landscaped displays. Very scenic!

An early dinner tonight as we leave at 7 a.m. for the train station. Going now to enjoy our lovely room with our own shower and bath! Can't wait to see my friends tomorrow in Yangzhou! It's been 5 years!

Zai jian!

Our Russian roommate....

So I'll bet you want to hear the end of the story about our roommates!! When I went up to the room, my friend (whose towel was taken and left wet!) told me during the night the Russian guy came in (around 1 a.m.) and knelt down by her bed to present her with a new towel saying he'd taken hers. She simply responded and said that wasn't a nice thing to do to a grandmother, and that she'd already gotten a new towel.  No drama! He proceeded to go to bed (with his girlfriend in the single bottom bunk, adding more draped cloth besides our room curtain!) In the morning we 3 came into the room to pack up our bags to move to another room (already schedule move to twin rooms - not because of this incident). The Russian guy had a towel spread the length of the middle of the room, was standing on his head with his legs in upside-down yoga position, and he was in his black BVDs!  Hairy legs and all!  It was hilarious! I'm only sorry I didn't grab my camera!  He stayed there, ignored us and continued yoga positions while we worked around him! Finally he got dressed and left the room. The other roommate on the top bunk, who happens to be from Yangzhou! (apparently this Russian guy is a student at Yangzhou University! and has been to US, friend said) took our picture in the room, we took a picture with him, we all laughed! We laughed during the day every time we thought about this whole incident! Took the metro to the big train station and were able to purchase our train tickets for tomorrow to Yangzhou. BUT turns out there was no train to Zhouzhuang a nearby "canal" city where we planned to spend the day. Told us we had to go by bus - 2 hours!!  After circling the station, going through tunnels, some students were finally able to help us. (we were ignored by two bus terminal attendants who were studiously clipping their nails and totally ignored us!!!)  Anyway, we found the long distance bus terminal, got our tickets and had 1/2 hour to wait. I had to use the WC so walked in and saw my first row of toilet stalls, no doors, each one filled with a woman squatted side-ways over a trough that ran the length of each side of the room, busy doing their business.  Pat said when she went in later, she even saw a young girl, squatting bare-bottomed, busy texting!!!  I went to the end of the row and there was one western toilet!! The bus ride to Z. was lovely through the countryside, lots of water and a huge lake, which had barges going along which I think is part of the Grand Canal system. Met a nice young man on the bus who was going to same town on business and he pointed us in the right direction when we arrived. We found a little hole in the wall for lunch and we each ordered something to share and had a lovely meal of noodle and veggie soup, pork and mushrooms, pork and green peppers and potato and green peppers. Specialty of the town was pig's hocks, I think it is, and each place we stopped tried to get us to order that but we resisted! Getting to the tourist town part of Z., we found 2 pedicabs who wanted to take us around. It kind of seemed like a town built for tourists to look at and shop rather than an old canal town that had originally been there. Not sure! We didn't have a lot of time, she (our driver) tried to get us to get out and pay Y100 to go in some area, but we said take us back to bridge and we walked to the bus. Of course, the bus station said no more tickets back to Shanghai (we had only one way) and no more buses that day!!! Finally after much negotiating, we were given 3 seats on the very back bench seat of the bus, but poor Joyce had to start off by sitting on a plastic stool in the aisle!! Eventually the entire aisle was filled with people sitting on these little stools! A lovely Chinese girl gave Joyce her regular seat so she didn't have to sit there the whole trip. We made it back to Shanghai by dark, ate a snack and found an Internet cafe where we were all FRUSTRATED trying to our airline reservations for 3 flights within China. Joyce has ended up with 2 sets of tickets for the same 2 flights, I have 2 reservations for one flight (because of Pay Pal screw-up!! trying to straighten that out with the help of my daughter and niece!!) So we gave up, all with headaches I think by 12:30 a.m. and went to bed in our lovely new accommodations! Another day, another adventure!!!  Bet no one wants to sign up to travel with ME!!!

Hosteling in China....

I don't want ANYONE to make a judgement about staying in hostels because of the experience below but I thought it was unusual and funny and I want to remember it. Especially when I find out what will happen when everyone wakes up. I probably find it amusing because it DIDN'T happen to me really!

A word about hostels (it’s all part of the adventure! :)   At least at THIS hostel! Because they messed up our reservation, 3 of us are staying in a dorm room, along with 3 guys! First night, no problem, except one of us had to sleep on the TOP bunk (me!), difficult when getting out of bed during the night. But we managed-  (we’ll be moving to our reserved room tonight for the last 2 nights here). There is a locker for each of us to store things so am able to lock up passport and the iPad I’m carrying to deliver to Wei Yuan in Yangzhou.

In the morning, however, one of us got ready to use the shower, had soap and towel (which we leave a deposit for) on her pillow. When she goes to have her turn, only the soap is there. She searches EVERYWHERE, turns the room upside down. The only thing we can think of is one of the guys had gone out and he must have taken the towel with him. So that night he hasn’t shown up again. But when we return to the room, there is a smaller wet towel on her bed so the sheet (a lot) and the duvet (slightly) is damp. Also the curtain has been taken off the window and draped around the bottom bunk of this guy. The other two guys in the room are chatting and speak English. They say he probably had his girlfriend in the room during the day and wanted privacy!! She is furious at how inconsiderate this guy is of anyone else in the room! She goes to the desk and the non-English speaking clerk comes up with a fresh sheet and hands it to her to make up the bed herself! Says the curtain is “broken” and refuses to rehang it (too high for us). The guy doesn’t come back until midnight or so when I was awakened by the locker opening, light on and him fumbling around in the locker. When I just got up this a.m. I look over and there is a woman sleeping on the edge of this bottom bunk (and I assume the guy is on the inside) with the curtain still draped around!! Don’t want to miss being back in the room when our group member and the guy and girl wakes up!! Don’t think she will just let it all pass without saying something!! In all my years of hostel stay, I’ve NEVER had anyone so rude and inconsiderate like this!! I don’t really care if he sneaked in his girlfriend, even if he isn’t paying, as long as he was considerate of the rest of us. But he’s just plain rude!!!

This hostel has a lovely cafe, however, with an inside bar, computer and tables and an outside and upstairs lounge area for people to spread out and hang out. We all got some dinner here after our boat trip last night and it was delicious! Breakfast yesterday was so-so. We all chose the French breakfast, described as egg with toast and fruit,  which turned out to be French toast, a bit dry with no syrup! No one ate the watermelon as were worried about fruit.

Today we might opt for the Big Red Bus tour around Shanghai today with an on/off feature. We can get a good overview of the city and get off at YuYuan Gardens, JinMao tower on PuDong side to go up to the 88^th floor hotel for the view, maybe at sundown (although you NEVER see the sun here, it just gets dark and the lights come on), Jade Buddha temple, Shanghai Museum (although that’s right near here at the hostel), and any other sites people want to get off to see. Our other day will be spent on a 1/2 hour train trip toward Suzhoui to the canal town of Zheziang, I think it’s called, to walk around a smaller city near the Grand Canal.

We are going first thing to the train station to purchase our tickets for Tuesday for Yangzhou so I can e-mail Liu Renjie what our arrival time will be. Hopefully there will be an English-speaking line at the station! 

Sunday early morning musings

It's 6 a.m. and I'm wide awake so writing again. This time I wrote in Word first, as there is an annoying box in Chinese that keeps popping up and I have to keep xxxing it out!! Finally it disappears. So this may work until I find an internet cafe which may be different. Also have had no luck with photos yet but will also work on that. 

We took TONS yesterday on that backstreet tour - we all agreed that was a highlight!  I got very frustrated the first night we were here because I had sent a $50 deposit for the tour (which was highly praised on TripAdvisor) but when I had the desk clerk call the phone number I had TWICE the woman who answered didn't know what he was talking about. I was getting upset thinking this was my FIRST rip-off of the trip!! Turns out I had written a 6 instead of 8 in the number, when I looked it up on the internet, and he called the right number, Janny (our tour guide) was there and told us where to meet.

We had to go to People's Square nearby and figure out the subway system - 3 yuan each - we had to scramble for coins and use a machine - no person to sell tickets. But we watched others and figured it out. When we got to Train 8 we couldn't figure out which direction to go (they only post the FIRST next stop and we were going 3 stops), but a young man overheard us and stepped in to help and went with us on the right train and told us when to get off. This was what I most remember about traveling around China by myself 5 years ago - people watched me (probably because I stuck out like a sore thumb! and now there are 4 of us!) and approached me to help. I know they want to practice their English but still.... very nice! It happened again on the bus ride yesterday when we just hopped on going the right direction, we hoped, but didn't know where to get off to get to the Bund. This man sitting in front of me spoke up, said he'd tell us when to get off and pointed us in the right direction. Great!!

Saturday, Shanghai (10/29/11)

Our flights to Chicago and then to Shanghai went fine - we weren't too jetlagged! Arrived at our hostel by cab - too tired to deal with public transport. 3 of us ended up in bunkbeds because they screwed up our reservation but it's okay. Tomorrow we move to our twin rooms. Yesterday we walked down to the Bund along the Huangpo River which looks very British (this was the British concession area). Walked through the Art Deco Peace Hotel that has recently been refurbished. Elegant! Walked back along the pedestrian Mall of Nanjing Lu (Rd.).   Ate at a local place with a beef and rice dish. We couldn't figure out how to get a table in this restaurant and this lovely family tried to tell us and just got up and gave us their table! So nice! We've had several incidences already of the Chinese helpfulness and generosity. Slept pretty well and headed out to meet our tour guide for our Backstreet tour. Rode the subway - able to figure it out! Discovered 100 yuan notes aren't too accepted places so found a bank where we all got change. It was pretty funny to see these 2 bank tellers watched by two guards all busy changing to smaller bills for us. Janny was a terrific guide and took us places we'd never have seen on our own. Into 3 or 4 different houses in the backstreets of an area I'd never been. One 80 year old woman lived in one house where she raised her 4 kids who were now living in big homes in Shanghai. But she doesn't want to leave her friends and neighborhood so she stays and they visit her. There were only the 4 of us and Vincent who is from Chicago via S. AFrica on business here. He bought us all drinks as he needed something - he had been out doing shots the night before with chinese colleagues who had expense money to spend. He had a terrible hangover! Very nice guy! Can't speak highly enough of Janny and this backstreet tour. We'll be sure to recommend her on Trip Adviser so she gets more business. Then we cabbed to the French Concession area and wandered around the leafy (they imported plane trees from France) streets and found the RuiJin Hotel, which used to be some wealthy family's home. Two or three wedding receptions were being set up for. Then found a place for our foot massage!  Heavenly!  60 minutes for about $15! What a treat!  Hopped a bus - too much walking - down to the Bund to ride the night boat cruise to see all the lights. About 50 minutes and packed!! Oh, I forgot our lovely lunch at a Japanese restaurant in the SoHo type area - delicious! Pat guided us as she had been to Japan a couple of times! In for the night! Very tired! S.

We're almost off!

Okay, Pat, Joyce and I are here at the Adams Inn not far from Logan Airport with a 3 a.m. wakeup call for a 4 a.m. shuttle to the airport. Our flight leaves at 7 with a couple of hour layover in Chicago and then the 14.5 hr flight to Shanghai!! so exciting!! Kerry treated me to a relaxing deluxe pedicure at 4 and then we picked up Jackson and Sarah from daycare and went to dinner! Fun! We then got them in their jammies and she drove me to the Inn here in N. Quincy. She came in and met Pat and Joyce and took some pictures which I will try to post. This blogging is new for me and I'm hoping it will be fairly simple. We'll see!
We all have just carry-ons - big backpack and a rolling suitcase. Hopefully we won't have to check anything. I found my Chinese money (about $47) so we'll have enough for the taxi ride into downtown when we arrive, if we can't find an easy place to change money right away. We'll be too exhausted, I think, to try public transport right away.
I think we all 4 are really flexible and I think this will work out well! Joyce did some tai chi/qi gong instruction for us to use on the plane during the long flight so we practiced outside the elevator! People wanted to join us as they were coming in and out! Very funny! I'm sure we'll get looks on the plane as we try to do this in the back! It's better than Pat's idea of us tapdancing down the aisle for exercise! That would be a picture! We'd end up in a looney bin!!
Think good thoughts as we fly 1/2 way around the world tomorrow!
Zai jian! (good-bye or see you later!)
Susan

Getting Started

I am traveling with 3 friends on a 3 week trip to China. I will use this blog as my journal to keep friends posted on our travels and keep a record for me.