We woke up semi-early and went for breakfast at the hotel's revolving restaurant on the top floor. The restaurant wasn't revolving, but we had a good view of the city. There appeared to be several observation towers around the city, though it's hard to say for sure what they were. When we entered, we asked the waiter to find us a seat, and we walked backwards and forwards a few times through and around the restaurant. A few minutes later he turned around and asked us if we were looking for a table. Sometimes this country can be very confusing. The breakfast was actually ok, a reasonable attempt at a European breakfast though Lloyd lamented the absence of baked beans.
We turned up way too early at the airport as there was zero traffic. We passed a big chunk of the time on the massage chairs which I normally walk past thinking they are for idiots. Surprisingly, they kind of work. You have to make sure you position yourself properly if you want your lower back done, though however your position yourself it does manage to find the exact position of your back side in order to jab it pointlessly and uncomfortably. The chairs also make an attempt at massaging your legs, but the best they manage is to grip them so fiercely that you think you'll get DVT before you even make it to the plane.
The flight itself took 40 minutes, which made me feel like I was killing the planet just for fun. In comparison, the taxi from the airport to our hotel took 70 minutes and cost £10. This was aided by our having a taxi driver who was clearly thoroughly sick of living. The streets of Shanghai are slightly scary - nobody has any patience whatsoever. Drivers in the Dali region are frightened to death of every other driver. Whenever they drive near a car or person, they will hoot their horn several times so that everyone knows everyone else is there. This guy took it to the next level however. He can't have agreed, because he gave us his business card when arrived at the hotel. I think drinking Shanghai tap water would be a quicker suicide method.
The hotel was huge but completely lacking in style. The room was very comfortable with a view of the pool outside. It was empty and we immediately went to the pool and relaxed on the loungers for a bit. We moved into the pool and Lloyd has his underwater camera so we got a few shots before some Chinese boys came out and took all their clothes off. This generally makes it feel a bit wrong to have your camera out, so this put pay to the photography.
We took a walk towards the town proper, walking past a lot of shops that mostly sold solar heaters or mopeds. Dali is split into two parts - an 'old town' surrounded by city walls, where we were to spend most of our time, and a 'new town' where most of the normal people seemed to live. We took in some sights of the old town - mainly the nearby mountains and the very touristy shops and restaurants. Again, the tourists were almost exclusively Chinese. We went to Bird Bar which was apparently the first Western bar in Dali, and considered doing a crawl of the pubs based on this chronological ordering. The place was exactly how I'd expect a backpackers bar to be - incredibly laid back and self-satisfied. We walked around the outside of the city walls and took lots of photos. It was very rural - Dali was by far the smallest place we had been to.
For dinner we found a place that did 'across the bridge noodles' which is a famous local-ish dish. They give you a big bowl of broth, and you put the ingredients in and wait for the broth to cook them. It was good but too filling. We then went for a drink at Bad Monkey. We had some Dunkelweizen and were beaten at pool by a local girl by the name of Lula.
We walked back to the hotel and enjoyed the cool of the evening. It was like an English summer evening, in fact Dali seems to be very cool after Shanghai. Several of the places we walked past had prostitutes sitting inside on sofas watching the TV waiting for the punters to come to them, I guess - a bit of a weird surprise.
26 July 2010
Monday 12th July - Kunming
We woke up at 5am and headed straight for the airport. Within ten minutes we were checked in and through security, watching the world cup final highlights by the departure gate and checking our mail on the free wifi. It couldn't sound less like Heathrow, though they were happy to rip us off for drinks and suchlike, so not quite perfection.
The flight was good. I was intrigued, if not a tiny bit worried, about internal flights in China. It turns out that they are fine and a little amusing. There was an extremely dubious breakfast involving cabbage, dumplings, and other things, done in the traditional disgusting airline way. It was far too early for cabbage. Security and safety seemed fine, though people were allowed to leave their open bags on their laps during landing. They announced that they were going to land about 30 seconds before touching down, which was unusual.
We landed in Kunming and checked into our hotel, before unsuccessfully trying to get some sleep. We found a place for lunch in the guide book and took a cab there. The restaurant was an extremely cool looking temple-like building, and we sat in what I guess you would call the courtyard. We tried to take some pictures but the manager was a camera Nazi. The food was really good including little cucumbers. Eating lots of little cucumbers, however, is a lot like eating one normal sized cucumber. There was a nice cabbage dish and a meat dish which looked good but was essentially fat. Still, the atmosphere of the place made it very memorable, and I made sure to take pictures of the outside to annoy the manager.
We were not sure what to do in Kunming - we were only there because we couldn't fly directly to Dali. The internet seemed to suggest that the best thing to do near to the city was to go the Yunnan Ethnic Village. Yunnan is the area which Kunming is in, and there are apparently lots of ethnic minority groups there. We were both doubtful but took a taxi there.
We paid the entrance fee and I took out the additional insurance that covered me against any undisclosed but horrific events that might cause me harm. I was hoping for an amusing insurance certificate, but unbelievably it was written in Chinese and unattractive; what a waste of 15 pence.
The Chinese tourists were out in full force and desperate for pictures of me. The place was divided up with a different area for each minority group. Apparently each group sends people there to work. This had the effect of everyone being fantastically attractive, I guess when the group decided who to send, they choose send Stumpy the one-eyed leper to represent them. They wore their native clothes and some made stuff to sell to the tourists.
There were various performances going on, including one where an elephant would pick you on its trunk, but I thought I'd spare the elephant this ordeal. They were being pretty badly treated, controlled by hooks around an ear. The whole thing was pretty disillusioning and we decided to leave, but not before going to see a show in their big central arena. There were more beautiful people of various ethnicities dancing in colourful costumes, and.... that was it.
We tried to leave and found a taxi driver to take us. who gave us a fixed price We waited for the taxi driver infront of ours to get out of the way, and waited... and waited. In the end Lloyd asked the guy what was going on and we went and talked to the other driver. Very slowly. Then he said it was all OK and got back. Then we waited.... and then we decided to get another driver. He seemed like he might have been a bit high.
We got back to the hotel ok, but by that point I was feeling fairly wrong and Lloyd was tired so we decided that we would have a fairly quite one. We looked around the local area a bit (good pirate DVD shops) and hailed another taxi and asked to go to the central area where there are bars and restaurants. This was at the traffic lights so the driver pulled forwards so we could get in. I opened a rear door and stepped in. At this point, the bus next to us decided to pull forward albeit slowly. The bus clipped the car door and started pushing it forward off it its hinges. I jumped out of the car and bashed hard on the bus driver's window and he stopped. I tried to close the car door and it worked, so we drove on.
A few minutes later we pulled over and guy got out and opened and closed the door a few times. It looked like it might not be closing 100% correctly after all, and he rang someone on his mobile phone and then continued driving. A few minutes later still, he pulled over and started Chineseing at Lloyd in an angry tone. He was clearly trying to get some money out of us, and Lloyd Chinesed back at him to the effect that it wasn't our fault. Very impressive. The fare by this point was 80p, so I gave him the smallest note I had, which was £2. And then we walked away. Very, very quickly. We didn't know where we were, so we got another taxi to 'where the foreigners go to drink'.
We had a single drink, and I didn't risk any food on my dodgy-feeling stomach. The bar we found had bizarrely wonky floors and Jenga, and we called it a night after about an hour. Lloyd had a Bailey's cocktail- I thought it was important to record this fact.
Kunming does not appear to be the most exciting place, probably because we had come from Shanghai, which quite possibly is.
The flight was good. I was intrigued, if not a tiny bit worried, about internal flights in China. It turns out that they are fine and a little amusing. There was an extremely dubious breakfast involving cabbage, dumplings, and other things, done in the traditional disgusting airline way. It was far too early for cabbage. Security and safety seemed fine, though people were allowed to leave their open bags on their laps during landing. They announced that they were going to land about 30 seconds before touching down, which was unusual.
We landed in Kunming and checked into our hotel, before unsuccessfully trying to get some sleep. We found a place for lunch in the guide book and took a cab there. The restaurant was an extremely cool looking temple-like building, and we sat in what I guess you would call the courtyard. We tried to take some pictures but the manager was a camera Nazi. The food was really good including little cucumbers. Eating lots of little cucumbers, however, is a lot like eating one normal sized cucumber. There was a nice cabbage dish and a meat dish which looked good but was essentially fat. Still, the atmosphere of the place made it very memorable, and I made sure to take pictures of the outside to annoy the manager.
We were not sure what to do in Kunming - we were only there because we couldn't fly directly to Dali. The internet seemed to suggest that the best thing to do near to the city was to go the Yunnan Ethnic Village. Yunnan is the area which Kunming is in, and there are apparently lots of ethnic minority groups there. We were both doubtful but took a taxi there.
We paid the entrance fee and I took out the additional insurance that covered me against any undisclosed but horrific events that might cause me harm. I was hoping for an amusing insurance certificate, but unbelievably it was written in Chinese and unattractive; what a waste of 15 pence.
The Chinese tourists were out in full force and desperate for pictures of me. The place was divided up with a different area for each minority group. Apparently each group sends people there to work. This had the effect of everyone being fantastically attractive, I guess when the group decided who to send, they choose send Stumpy the one-eyed leper to represent them. They wore their native clothes and some made stuff to sell to the tourists.
There were various performances going on, including one where an elephant would pick you on its trunk, but I thought I'd spare the elephant this ordeal. They were being pretty badly treated, controlled by hooks around an ear. The whole thing was pretty disillusioning and we decided to leave, but not before going to see a show in their big central arena. There were more beautiful people of various ethnicities dancing in colourful costumes, and.... that was it.
We tried to leave and found a taxi driver to take us. who gave us a fixed price We waited for the taxi driver infront of ours to get out of the way, and waited... and waited. In the end Lloyd asked the guy what was going on and we went and talked to the other driver. Very slowly. Then he said it was all OK and got back. Then we waited.... and then we decided to get another driver. He seemed like he might have been a bit high.
We got back to the hotel ok, but by that point I was feeling fairly wrong and Lloyd was tired so we decided that we would have a fairly quite one. We looked around the local area a bit (good pirate DVD shops) and hailed another taxi and asked to go to the central area where there are bars and restaurants. This was at the traffic lights so the driver pulled forwards so we could get in. I opened a rear door and stepped in. At this point, the bus next to us decided to pull forward albeit slowly. The bus clipped the car door and started pushing it forward off it its hinges. I jumped out of the car and bashed hard on the bus driver's window and he stopped. I tried to close the car door and it worked, so we drove on.
A few minutes later we pulled over and guy got out and opened and closed the door a few times. It looked like it might not be closing 100% correctly after all, and he rang someone on his mobile phone and then continued driving. A few minutes later still, he pulled over and started Chineseing at Lloyd in an angry tone. He was clearly trying to get some money out of us, and Lloyd Chinesed back at him to the effect that it wasn't our fault. Very impressive. The fare by this point was 80p, so I gave him the smallest note I had, which was £2. And then we walked away. Very, very quickly. We didn't know where we were, so we got another taxi to 'where the foreigners go to drink'.
We had a single drink, and I didn't risk any food on my dodgy-feeling stomach. The bar we found had bizarrely wonky floors and Jenga, and we called it a night after about an hour. Lloyd had a Bailey's cocktail- I thought it was important to record this fact.
Kunming does not appear to be the most exciting place, probably because we had come from Shanghai, which quite possibly is.
18 July 2010
Sunday 18th July
I woke up in Lloyd's bed. I hope that's the last time I ever write that.
Lloyd had kindly given up his bed for the 2 weeks I was there. Just to clear that up for historical purposes. Thanks Lloyd.
I finished packing quickly and said goodbye to Marisa. It was sad because we all had a lot of fun together (I think). We then headed over to the Dim Sum place that we had been too on my first day in Shanghai (I think). We ordered a very similar assortment of food, which was obviously a mistake because there were now two of us instead of three. The food came, and soon we were very stuffed indeed. The sort of stuffed where if you were faced with HAVING to eat anything else, the prospect would make you feel several kinds of wrong.
The food we ordered was very similar to what we had ordered the time before, as I said. There was unfortunately one significant difference- the first time round, Lloyd didn't order any frog's ovary soup. As the video on Youtube demonstrates amply well, it took a few moments for me to work up the courage to tackle this soup, but I honestly think that it was because I was so full. The whole idea was very unappealing, but the ovary itself was actually surprisingly ok. It was quite sweet, and if it wasn't for the unidentifiable tough bits that were in the same mouthful, it would not have been that bad.
We paid up and took the subway to the station where you can take the Maglev.
3 hr wait
Lloyd had kindly given up his bed for the 2 weeks I was there. Just to clear that up for historical purposes. Thanks Lloyd.
I finished packing quickly and said goodbye to Marisa. It was sad because we all had a lot of fun together (I think). We then headed over to the Dim Sum place that we had been too on my first day in Shanghai (I think). We ordered a very similar assortment of food, which was obviously a mistake because there were now two of us instead of three. The food came, and soon we were very stuffed indeed. The sort of stuffed where if you were faced with HAVING to eat anything else, the prospect would make you feel several kinds of wrong.
The food we ordered was very similar to what we had ordered the time before, as I said. There was unfortunately one significant difference- the first time round, Lloyd didn't order any frog's ovary soup. As the video on Youtube demonstrates amply well, it took a few moments for me to work up the courage to tackle this soup, but I honestly think that it was because I was so full. The whole idea was very unappealing, but the ovary itself was actually surprisingly ok. It was quite sweet, and if it wasn't for the unidentifiable tough bits that were in the same mouthful, it would not have been that bad.
We paid up and took the subway to the station where you can take the Maglev.
3 hr wait
16 July 2010
Sunday 11 July 2010
I awoke at 9:35 for a 9:45 departure, and re-set the alarm for 9:40. We went to Marisa's hotel again for a Dim Sum brunch. Even finding the room for this was difficult, complicated by the Chinese inclination to say 'yes' to questions to which the correct answer is 'no'. The food was quite OK, we all stuffed ourselves in preparation for the day ahead, particularly Amelia who demolished a large put of Congee.
We took a taxi towards the tea fields and walked the last stretch. The landscape was again picturesque and with plenty of Chinese tourists and their expensive European cars. It was cool to see tea being grown, the tea fields full of unusual flowers and many dragonflies. It was sweltering which made everything hard work though. The area had some nice temples and pagodas but we were interested in the cool beers more. Amelia bought some lotus fruit which we enjoyed shelling but turned out to be largely flavourless but for the very centre which was supposedly "too sour for foreigners". They wanted £20-30 for a small box of their tea - they charged depending on the day that they claimed it was picked.
We saw workers in the fields, one of whom had a long pole with a large net on the end. This made for a cool photo, less so perhaps when we later saw that it was used for removing tourists' litter from the streams!
We wanted to hire a boat that we could row around the lake, but apparently a storm was coming in, so we had to hire one with a driver. Or rower. Or something. It was short but sweet.
We took a taxi to the 'old street', a huge tourist trap selling unusually good things. Sellers made glass ornaments in the street, health and safety entirely forgotten again. Tiny words were inscribed on £1 gifts. Clay models of people's faces made perfectly in a few minutes. Very cheap tea.
Next came my first trip on a tuc-tuc. A bike with a shell and a bench attached. Larger people were distributed evenly between the vehicles - me with Amelia then. I felt like I raised the centre of gravity too high while putting the vehicle entirely off balance but we got where we were going without a hitch. I managed not to squash Amelia dead. It was fun ride. Neither one-way (four lane) roads nor the pavement formed any kind of obstacle.
At the electronics shop I bought a battery charger for my camera - I never expected to get through two batteries in the whole trip, let alone this soon. We examined the magic arse-cleaning toilets in awe.
We had little time left so after picking our bags up from Marisa's hotel, which by now we were almost certainly abusing the privilege of, we took the easy option of Pizza Hut. Sorry, Chinese culture. Disappointingly the menu was only slightly freaky. I guess their pizza crusts were shaped in quite an oriental way. Shame!
The train home. Read some more of 'One hundred years of solitude' and wrote this. I don't think we're up for staying awake for the World Cup Final tonight at 2:30 am. Busy one tomorrow.
We took a taxi towards the tea fields and walked the last stretch. The landscape was again picturesque and with plenty of Chinese tourists and their expensive European cars. It was cool to see tea being grown, the tea fields full of unusual flowers and many dragonflies. It was sweltering which made everything hard work though. The area had some nice temples and pagodas but we were interested in the cool beers more. Amelia bought some lotus fruit which we enjoyed shelling but turned out to be largely flavourless but for the very centre which was supposedly "too sour for foreigners". They wanted £20-30 for a small box of their tea - they charged depending on the day that they claimed it was picked.
We saw workers in the fields, one of whom had a long pole with a large net on the end. This made for a cool photo, less so perhaps when we later saw that it was used for removing tourists' litter from the streams!
We wanted to hire a boat that we could row around the lake, but apparently a storm was coming in, so we had to hire one with a driver. Or rower. Or something. It was short but sweet.
We took a taxi to the 'old street', a huge tourist trap selling unusually good things. Sellers made glass ornaments in the street, health and safety entirely forgotten again. Tiny words were inscribed on £1 gifts. Clay models of people's faces made perfectly in a few minutes. Very cheap tea.
Next came my first trip on a tuc-tuc. A bike with a shell and a bench attached. Larger people were distributed evenly between the vehicles - me with Amelia then. I felt like I raised the centre of gravity too high while putting the vehicle entirely off balance but we got where we were going without a hitch. I managed not to squash Amelia dead. It was fun ride. Neither one-way (four lane) roads nor the pavement formed any kind of obstacle.
At the electronics shop I bought a battery charger for my camera - I never expected to get through two batteries in the whole trip, let alone this soon. We examined the magic arse-cleaning toilets in awe.
We had little time left so after picking our bags up from Marisa's hotel, which by now we were almost certainly abusing the privilege of, we took the easy option of Pizza Hut. Sorry, Chinese culture. Disappointingly the menu was only slightly freaky. I guess their pizza crusts were shaped in quite an oriental way. Shame!
The train home. Read some more of 'One hundred years of solitude' and wrote this. I don't think we're up for staying awake for the World Cup Final tonight at 2:30 am. Busy one tomorrow.
Saturday 10 July 2010
I'm writing this from Zhongshan International hotel. On paper, mind.
We had a civilized start to the day, getting up at eleven and walking round the corner to get some greasy bread stuff from the street sellers and a donut kebab from the bakery. Then a train from Shanghai South Station at one to Hangzhou (pronounced hang-joe).
There is a lake called West Lake which you can bike around - we decided to do it today in order to try to be respectable for the return train trip tomorrow. There is a city cycle hire scheme but we hired from the hotel for £2 per hour, which is pretty dear out here. The bikes were ok, though mine had massively low handlebars.
The lake is beautiful. Mountains on every side, fountain displays for the thousands of tourists. It was very busy. It was great fun cycling around it, and the Chinese roads didn't feel that dangerous, I think because everyone always expects trouble. The roads in Shanghai are about twenty times worse; I don't think I'd ever be brave enough.
We took a quick break for a drink. A Starbucks in fact. I had a Coffee an Jelly Frappucino, which I can not recommend. The Chinese are very fond of putting jelly in drinks, and it's normally ok because they don't use this much!
After cycling round a chunk of the lake, we locked our bikes up (to some extent!) and made our way up a hill/rock. Lloyd had been here before and it turned out that he had a plan. At the top was the obligatory pagoda and huge rocks that people were climbing. Properly climbing. We made our way up the for awesome views of the city and the lake. And the fearless climbers jumping from rock to rock with zero equipment. This was one of the best moments of the trip so far, I didn't intend to take so many photos. We cycled back in slightly more traffic, but mostly in cycle lanes. It was getting pretty dark and the bikes had no lights, but cyclists and motorcyclists don't seem to worry about using lights even if they have them in China, so no big deal, kind of.
We went back to our very nice £40 per night hotel and showered before dinner. My room had a basket containing, amongst other things, a vibrating condom, and his 'n' hers Viagra. 'Viagra'. We had dinner in an establishment labelled as a 'Chinese Restaurant'. Amelia ordered expertly. There was a dish which was sheets tofu, dried and put in a simple sauce. It was just like struddle. If you don't know what that is, you're not meant to.
A nightcap at Marisa's hotel. An Erdinger myself, repulsive cocktails for the others. The beard is growing well.
We had a civilized start to the day, getting up at eleven and walking round the corner to get some greasy bread stuff from the street sellers and a donut kebab from the bakery. Then a train from Shanghai South Station at one to Hangzhou (pronounced hang-joe).
There is a lake called West Lake which you can bike around - we decided to do it today in order to try to be respectable for the return train trip tomorrow. There is a city cycle hire scheme but we hired from the hotel for £2 per hour, which is pretty dear out here. The bikes were ok, though mine had massively low handlebars.
The lake is beautiful. Mountains on every side, fountain displays for the thousands of tourists. It was very busy. It was great fun cycling around it, and the Chinese roads didn't feel that dangerous, I think because everyone always expects trouble. The roads in Shanghai are about twenty times worse; I don't think I'd ever be brave enough.
We took a quick break for a drink. A Starbucks in fact. I had a Coffee an Jelly Frappucino, which I can not recommend. The Chinese are very fond of putting jelly in drinks, and it's normally ok because they don't use this much!
After cycling round a chunk of the lake, we locked our bikes up (to some extent!) and made our way up a hill/rock. Lloyd had been here before and it turned out that he had a plan. At the top was the obligatory pagoda and huge rocks that people were climbing. Properly climbing. We made our way up the for awesome views of the city and the lake. And the fearless climbers jumping from rock to rock with zero equipment. This was one of the best moments of the trip so far, I didn't intend to take so many photos. We cycled back in slightly more traffic, but mostly in cycle lanes. It was getting pretty dark and the bikes had no lights, but cyclists and motorcyclists don't seem to worry about using lights even if they have them in China, so no big deal, kind of.
We went back to our very nice £40 per night hotel and showered before dinner. My room had a basket containing, amongst other things, a vibrating condom, and his 'n' hers Viagra. 'Viagra'. We had dinner in an establishment labelled as a 'Chinese Restaurant'. Amelia ordered expertly. There was a dish which was sheets tofu, dried and put in a simple sauce. It was just like struddle. If you don't know what that is, you're not meant to.
A nightcap at Marisa's hotel. An Erdinger myself, repulsive cocktails for the others. The beard is growing well.
Friday 9th July - The Big Night Out
Friday started with a brunch at the Japanese restaurant round the corner.
I then moved on to the Shanghai Museum while Lloyd went to get train tickets for the following day, neatly allowing me to avoid the inferno that is the station ticket office. And what a cool museum.
It attempted to cover the period from when Chinese civilization started, with sections on sculpture, painting, calligraphy, seals (the type related to sending lettters), money, furniture and doubtlessly other things that escape me. It probably shouldn't have been a surprise that the china and pottery was the most distinctive and impressive section, along with the sculpture. The money section was also interesting. Way back in time some Chinese used pieces of metal that were designed to easily attach to a belt, rather than the (more) modern round coins. They looked more like keys. A few Victorian coins from Hong Kong were memorable too, probably down to my inexplicable and no-doubt immoral interest in the British Empire.
We chilled out for much of the afternoon, before we went to do some shooting. We'd scouted out the place a few nights before and were impressed enough by its obviously slack attitude that we decided to go for it. When we got there, there were people laying on the sofas and others watching a very adult-sounding film in the corner.
We were soon in the booths of the firing range itself, built to international safety standards which were then immediately ignored. They had switched the metal detectors off before we went in, and let me describe the instruction given before we started shooting: none. I had shot before so it wasn't a big deal for me, but it was fairly amazing.
The smaller guns we were using were eight pounds for ten shots, at which point the guy in the booth would reload for you. By the entrance there was a warning to keep count of how much you were spending, but Marisa's friend Celine didn't heed this advice and accidentally blew forty quid in about four minutes.
The guns were not that powerful, which was disappointing. For a second round, some of us went for guns with sniper-rifle like sights you could look down. This made everything a lot easier, and therefore almost no fun. Overall it was a good thing to do though.
We went back to the apartment, ordered McDonalds for delivery (available 24 hours) and watched Kick Ass in preparation for going out to some clubs. Everyone promptly wimped out of this, so Lloyd and I went to a Belgian bar alone. When we got there, the next table was occupied by a few locals who were in a bit of a state. We ordered beers from their excellent menu and were soon chatting to them.
It turned out they were English teachers and their ("star") student. The teachers spoke reasonable English, and we were soon discussing politics. They didn't have much of interest to say, which was disappointing as I was hoping for some insight into the Chinese people's view of their country's regime. I'll keep looking.
I then moved on to the Shanghai Museum while Lloyd went to get train tickets for the following day, neatly allowing me to avoid the inferno that is the station ticket office. And what a cool museum.
It attempted to cover the period from when Chinese civilization started, with sections on sculpture, painting, calligraphy, seals (the type related to sending lettters), money, furniture and doubtlessly other things that escape me. It probably shouldn't have been a surprise that the china and pottery was the most distinctive and impressive section, along with the sculpture. The money section was also interesting. Way back in time some Chinese used pieces of metal that were designed to easily attach to a belt, rather than the (more) modern round coins. They looked more like keys. A few Victorian coins from Hong Kong were memorable too, probably down to my inexplicable and no-doubt immoral interest in the British Empire.
We chilled out for much of the afternoon, before we went to do some shooting. We'd scouted out the place a few nights before and were impressed enough by its obviously slack attitude that we decided to go for it. When we got there, there were people laying on the sofas and others watching a very adult-sounding film in the corner.
We were soon in the booths of the firing range itself, built to international safety standards which were then immediately ignored. They had switched the metal detectors off before we went in, and let me describe the instruction given before we started shooting: none. I had shot before so it wasn't a big deal for me, but it was fairly amazing.
The smaller guns we were using were eight pounds for ten shots, at which point the guy in the booth would reload for you. By the entrance there was a warning to keep count of how much you were spending, but Marisa's friend Celine didn't heed this advice and accidentally blew forty quid in about four minutes.
The guns were not that powerful, which was disappointing. For a second round, some of us went for guns with sniper-rifle like sights you could look down. This made everything a lot easier, and therefore almost no fun. Overall it was a good thing to do though.
We went back to the apartment, ordered McDonalds for delivery (available 24 hours) and watched Kick Ass in preparation for going out to some clubs. Everyone promptly wimped out of this, so Lloyd and I went to a Belgian bar alone. When we got there, the next table was occupied by a few locals who were in a bit of a state. We ordered beers from their excellent menu and were soon chatting to them.
It turned out they were English teachers and their ("star") student. The teachers spoke reasonable English, and we were soon discussing politics. They didn't have much of interest to say, which was disappointing as I was hoping for some insight into the Chinese people's view of their country's regime. I'll keep looking.
14 July 2010
Thursday 8th July - Pudong, Shanghai
We all got up at 8am to go to the Expo. Except Marisa didn't because she was up until 5, and inspired by this, Lloyd and I agreed to put it off and go back to sleep. At 11am we went to a Korean place for brunch. I like this leisurely life. We has Korean Stonepot - mine was kim chi and some meet or other - good stuff.
We then headed into Pudong, which is basically the other side of the river. This is the financial area which is home to Shanghai's skyscrpapers. Lots of them. There is a park called Central Park which is surrounded by them and there are no normal sized buildings in sight. Why bother, hey?
We went up Shanghai Financial Centre, for 150 RMB or about £15. This has the highest viewing gallery of any building in the world. It's a nice looking building, much like a massive bottle opener. Interestingly the first few floors appear to made from brick in a Chinese style, before obviously reverting to steel. Much of the building seems to be there for the purpose of getting to the floors above. There are a huge number of escalators and staircases, seemingly leaving room for little else.
We went to around floor 90 in the first lift. There were some cool flashing light effects in the lift; they were really trying to put on a show. You can pay less and only be allowed this far up, but we thought "in for a penny...". The view from here is superb, and you can look up to see the higher platform, above the hole which make the building look like a bottle opener. There was a display on the history of expositions, starting with the first one at Crystal Palace. This was unusually informative for the Chinese who are surprisingly uninclined to provide any information that you might be intersested in at this sort of thing. We went to the 100th floor using the stairs because we were told this would be the quickest way. Kind of unimpressive, but it was cool that the stairs were individually numbered.
The view from the very top was a little better and it was great to get an overall view of the city. Different areas have buildings with different coloured roofs which made a cool effect and the river looked stunning, much like the view from The Peak at Hong Kong.
Later we went to Tian Zi Fang which is a very trendy area with alleys full of boutiquey shops and art galleries. And expensive bars, one of which we went to for a quick beer before dinner. We got fairly shocking service to Amelia had to get slightly arsey and click her fingers at them. Which amused me.
Round the corner was the place that was the reason for us being there. The 100 RMB burger challenge. Eat a kilogram of burger in ten minutes and get it free, and get a photo on their wall too. They had a model of the burger outside to get people in; it was fairly intimidating.
When the burgers came, a man came with a stopwatch and Lloyd and I started eating. We had done some thinking about strategies, and mine was to get stuck in early to make up some headway before the inevitable lethargy. Unfortunately I decided the spend the first minute arsing about by slowly dipping the chips in the ketchup before exaggeratedly savouring them. Note that nobody mentioned chips before we got the burger. But then I got down to business.
After five minutes I was more than half done, but it started to get more difficult. My jaw was getting very tired from the chewing and the food seemed to be backing up in my body. This was clearly an interesting spectacle for Amelia and Marisa. Marisa declared that she was full after eating a third of her tiny burger, to our amusement. Amelia had an anaemic-looking salad. I finished the burger just as the 10 minutes were up. Lloyd finished maybe 85% of his. The bill came and both burgers were listed on there, as I hadn't managed the chips, but we couldn't be bothered to argue. I think the two of us were mainly concerned with trying to breathe.
We paid and left, but when we saw that there were no chips on the model we felt a bit aggrieved. Merisa used her best Mandarin to start complaining but the manager came and they switched to English. The argument was seemingly lost until Marisa used the magic word "cheated" and the manager gave us the 100 RMB note which I said we would put towards the next round. He took my photo with a polaroid camera and put it on the wall, but I'm convinced they've put it on the dartboard or fashioned a voodoo doll in my image, or something similar.
We had the promised round of drinks in a bar. Some really crappy cocktails for the others though I stuck to the safety of Erdinger. A fun night overall.
We then headed into Pudong, which is basically the other side of the river. This is the financial area which is home to Shanghai's skyscrpapers. Lots of them. There is a park called Central Park which is surrounded by them and there are no normal sized buildings in sight. Why bother, hey?
We went up Shanghai Financial Centre, for 150 RMB or about £15. This has the highest viewing gallery of any building in the world. It's a nice looking building, much like a massive bottle opener. Interestingly the first few floors appear to made from brick in a Chinese style, before obviously reverting to steel. Much of the building seems to be there for the purpose of getting to the floors above. There are a huge number of escalators and staircases, seemingly leaving room for little else.
We went to around floor 90 in the first lift. There were some cool flashing light effects in the lift; they were really trying to put on a show. You can pay less and only be allowed this far up, but we thought "in for a penny...". The view from here is superb, and you can look up to see the higher platform, above the hole which make the building look like a bottle opener. There was a display on the history of expositions, starting with the first one at Crystal Palace. This was unusually informative for the Chinese who are surprisingly uninclined to provide any information that you might be intersested in at this sort of thing. We went to the 100th floor using the stairs because we were told this would be the quickest way. Kind of unimpressive, but it was cool that the stairs were individually numbered.
The view from the very top was a little better and it was great to get an overall view of the city. Different areas have buildings with different coloured roofs which made a cool effect and the river looked stunning, much like the view from The Peak at Hong Kong.
Later we went to Tian Zi Fang which is a very trendy area with alleys full of boutiquey shops and art galleries. And expensive bars, one of which we went to for a quick beer before dinner. We got fairly shocking service to Amelia had to get slightly arsey and click her fingers at them. Which amused me.
Round the corner was the place that was the reason for us being there. The 100 RMB burger challenge. Eat a kilogram of burger in ten minutes and get it free, and get a photo on their wall too. They had a model of the burger outside to get people in; it was fairly intimidating.
When the burgers came, a man came with a stopwatch and Lloyd and I started eating. We had done some thinking about strategies, and mine was to get stuck in early to make up some headway before the inevitable lethargy. Unfortunately I decided the spend the first minute arsing about by slowly dipping the chips in the ketchup before exaggeratedly savouring them. Note that nobody mentioned chips before we got the burger. But then I got down to business.
After five minutes I was more than half done, but it started to get more difficult. My jaw was getting very tired from the chewing and the food seemed to be backing up in my body. This was clearly an interesting spectacle for Amelia and Marisa. Marisa declared that she was full after eating a third of her tiny burger, to our amusement. Amelia had an anaemic-looking salad. I finished the burger just as the 10 minutes were up. Lloyd finished maybe 85% of his. The bill came and both burgers were listed on there, as I hadn't managed the chips, but we couldn't be bothered to argue. I think the two of us were mainly concerned with trying to breathe.
We paid and left, but when we saw that there were no chips on the model we felt a bit aggrieved. Merisa used her best Mandarin to start complaining but the manager came and they switched to English. The argument was seemingly lost until Marisa used the magic word "cheated" and the manager gave us the 100 RMB note which I said we would put towards the next round. He took my photo with a polaroid camera and put it on the wall, but I'm convinced they've put it on the dartboard or fashioned a voodoo doll in my image, or something similar.
We had the promised round of drinks in a bar. Some really crappy cocktails for the others though I stuck to the safety of Erdinger. A fun night overall.
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