I enjoyed my wee drive around in the Suzuki Swift, even the backtrack to my brother’s after I visited Patrick’s Goldstar Bakery for a duck, caramelised onion, mushroom and cheese pie (lots of roast duck!) and discovered I had left my wallet behind. But my time as a Swiftie had to come to an end.
There was a wee sting to this particular journey - concealed under the wiper, there’s a nasty crack where a stone hit the windscreen, and now I’m up for paying for the replacement. That’s two windscreens I’ve gone through this year, but the first two in 47 years of driving (legally), so I guess its not so bad.
My flight to Shanghai was on China Southern Air, so that meant a stop in Guangzhou - their home base. For a very cheap flight, it wasn’t too bad, but I’m regretting the aisle seat choice - yes, I did need to get up in the middle of the night, but it was harder to sleep in than a window seat. I finally dozed off about an hour before the breakfast trolley. I had good company for the first couple of hours - the young chap from Bangladesh broke the ice, and we got quite deep in the conversation. I only watched one movie - Aftersun - but loved it. It’s all about the relationship between a dad and his 11 year old daughter, on a budget holiday in Turkey - they were so great, so natural together - told through the perspective of the daughter looking back 20 years later. Food was pretty standard, and they only had warmish beer - still had a couple.
I only just made the onward flight to Shanghai, despite having 2 1/2 hours for the transit and not having to pick my bags up. Instead, they clear customs behind the scenes, but I couldn’t go through security to my gate until this process had been completed. They claimed it would take 30 minutes, but there were 3 big flights in at the same time, so it took much longer. Then of course, there were the three flights’ worth of transferring passengers (plus others) trying to clear security, so that took ages as well, and my flight was boarding when I got to the gate. At least immigration didn’t hold me up - maybe three people ahead of me for the officer who cleared me to enter the country.
Apart from a minor user error, getting from Shanghai airport into the city was easy. They have a big map of the system, with a number on each station. Without looking too closely, I thought it was a line number, so I looked for the station I wanted (South Yizang Road) on line 5. Neither I or the local woman who tried to help me could find it. I decided to just go to People’s Park and work it out from there. It was a simple matter of buying a ticket with Alipay (it’s also possible to basically use Alipay as the ticket). It was then I discovered that the 5 was the price of the ticket. The subway was busy - they have priority seats, but no-one respects it or expects it to be respected. I’ve now been on several subway rides, the priority seats are always occupied by young people, no-one suggests they move, and they don’t.
I’m staying just south of the old French Concession, in a decidedly non-touristic area. My hotel doesn’t look like a hotel - and it really isn’t, a standard commercial building, very shabby, with the fourth floor turned into a hotel. The stairwell is just bare concrete, apart from the faded paint coming off the walls, and the brightly painted prices for the rooms painted into the steps. But it’s cheap, quiet and the rooms are decent. Each evening a group of men plays cards at a table set up at the bottom of the stairs, sometimes with such a large audience (20 or so) I have to fight my way in. The ground floor is actually a wet market.
There’s a separate area with several butchers in it. The neighbourhood itself is very residential - lots of tower blocks nearby - and my street as almost all the shopping you’d ever need if you lived here. Lots of fruit shops, veg shops, fishmongers, butcheries, groceries, cafes and restaurants (but no coffee shop unless you count the Lawson’s convenience store), booze shops, smoke shops, bakeries… I like it. All local people by the looks of it.
My first food here was just some delicious soup dumplings, fresh off the griddle.
This was just a snack, but my dinner wasn’t really a success. I thought I was in a beef noodle soup place, and maybe I was, but the dish I received had the beef and the noodles, but no soup.
My first day proper in Shanghai involved a walk up to People’s Park, and an unscheduled trip back out to the airport. I’d unpacked my carry on bags, and looked though my backpack, but couldn’t find my phone - not the main one I’ll be using for traveling, thankfully as I’d be lost without it, but the one with my NZ Sim card in it. I’ve sent emails back to various places in New Zealand I’ve been, but was pretty sure it left New Zealand with me, so went to the Lost and Found, who directed me up to the Public Safety Office, actually a Police Station. They took all my details, I had to do a bit of acting to tell the whole story, and was very definite in saying that I’d looked through all my bags, and the phone was 100% definitely not there. They couldn’t do much, as the place I said I’d lost it was not surveilled, but they were very nice. Of course, when I cam back and actually emptied my backpack, I had my phone.
Cheers.
Glad you’re enjoying your new Shanghai neighbourhood. It brought back very fond memories of my visits there, exploring neighbourhoods and discovering places to eat. I love how intrepid you are. Glad you were reunited with your NZ phone! You took a “boys look”! Reminds me when I lived with two. They were always losing things as they’d forget where they’d dropped them. I coould pretty much locate them with my eyes closed. Mothers have a lot to answer for.
UNGH you must've been so stressed about the phone! Thank goodness it turned up! Geez! :D