The Arrival - Blogabond

So, entry 3 is from the city of Shanghai. After going to sleep on the saturday night in a tossing and turning boat that I was sure was going to end up with the Titanic and other famous sunken galleons from days gone by, it was sweet relief to open my eyes cautiously to find out that we had passed through the storm and into much much calmer waters. it felt like a bad hangover had passed. one of those beautiful feelings where you think everything might be OK after all. If we'd had another one of those torrid days on the water, I might have considered abandoning the trip there and then by hurling myself overboard. granted that would have been foolishly melodramatic and also a big fat waste of money. Luckily, though, things didn't come to that so I'm carrying on with the journey.

Coming into Shanghai on the river was an uneventful but kind of peaceful end to the ferry ride. Lots of rusty boats, chinese flags and even some warships. Small warships with, interestingly, multicoloured umbrellas covering the gun turrets from the sunshine. got to do what you've got to do, i guess.

So we arrive into the port on time and I assume most of the passengers must have appointments for surgery within the hour because they jostling to get out of the door as sson as the captain said the word "arrive". In no great rush to get off the boat among those surly disembarkers, tony and i sat and slagged them off for 30 minutes then got on the bus to take us to customs with a man who had (in tony's words) "more bags than God". After passing safely through Auschwitz, sorry I mean Chinese customs, we were allowed to roam freely in the erm, less than glamourous slums of Shanghai. We got a taxi with a nice young chap who we managed to get to take us to a hotel, bank AND train station without actually using any of the words cos we ddin't know them and he was, I'm guessing here, not very good at English. (and why should he be? he lives in China where Mandarin is usually sufficient).

Anyway, before this blog gets too mammoth I will go on to explain that during our day in Shanghai, we had fun climbing a tower. something like the 8th tallest in the world. it has a hollow centre so you can lean over the glass and look straight down for about 340 metres. pretty cool. I also began to notice up at the top of this tower that Chinese women absolutely love to pose for the camera. each flash of the camera is accompanied by someone mimicking marilyn monroe or sticking their hands out like game show hostesses. usually the guys just point or if they are over 40 just look respectful and solemn. As soon as they step away from the cameras, they are happy and impressed again but while their wife insists on snapping them in front of a window that is, allegedly, 4250 km away from Siberia, they are merely calm and thoughtful. (either they are thinking "the engineers sure put a lot of work into this structure. good for them" or "wish my frigging wife would stop taking my photo, oh she's taken it and i forgot to smile")

written by

adamski752 on August 24, 2008 from Shanghai, China

from the travel blog: Adam's Leisurely Return Home

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