Shanghai Pictures

Doin' a little reading waiting for another flight

Our little comrades - 1st National Congress of the CPC

Looks tasty doesn't it?

Zhujiajiao Water Town Local

Hangin' out in Zhujiajiao

Cruisin' the waterways

Catching up with the folks from CAC at Zhujiajiao

The frogs looked tasty - but I just couldn't do it

Picturesque Zhujiajiao

The little Red Book

Dong Tai Lu Market

Dong Tai Lu Local

Enjoying some watermelon

Yu'an Garden Bazaar - one of the most crowded places we've ever been

Nanjing dong Lu - Pedestrian street

Small World - I'd hate to paint it though

Today we decided to explore one of the nearby watertowns - often described at the Venice of the west. Not just this one, but any of the numerous watertowns that you are able to visit are described the same way. We chose to go to Zhujiajiao because it's the closest one to where we are staying, and it also supposed to be one of the more authentic ones. It was a beautiful little town with lots of traditional things going on. When we entered the garden section we were totally shocked and amazed to see a group of students and teachers from Coomera Anglican College - including my former Head of Primary Graham Kirkpatrick and Alison Robinson who I shared a staff room with. There were also some of my former students there, one that I taught when she was in grades 4, 7, and 8, and is now in grade 11! We were reading last week in their weekely newlsletter that they were heading to China for their annual student trip, but never in my life did I think we would actually 'run' into them. It was really great to see them all and to catch up on things back in Australia. Jenene and I were both quite stunned for the rest of the day and couldn't believe what had actually happened. It was a really great twist to the day's adventures.

White Knuckle Rides

Part of the fun of travelling as real grown ups is that now we travel with more money than we did when we started this 10 years ago. This means that now we don't have to find the cheapest way to get around the city we are visiting, we can take taxis - and in China the taxis are quite cheap so it is a good way to get around. Of course old habits are hard to break, so we always try to use the local public transport at least once during each trip - tomorrow will be our subway and bus day.

An added bonus of taking a taxi in Shanghai is that you get to experience the thrill ride of your life. Our first trip into the city saw us flying down the motorway at breakneck speed using the other cars as markers as we swerved in and out of them. If we closed our eyes we could have believed that we were passengers in an F1 race car. However, with eyes open and seeing the delapidated state of the taxi, it felt more like we were in a getaway car after just having robbed a bank! Each bump that we hit saw the glove box jar open and come crashing into my knee - this was a blessing in disguise as I could use the hits in the knee to mask my muffled screams, hiding the fact that I was actually letting out 'rollercoaster' screams due to the erratic driving and the many near misses that I was confronted with.

Most times we compete with each other to see who will sit in the front, ride shotgun. Here however, even though Jenene gets motion sickness if she rides in the back, she is the first one in the back seat. I guess a little nausea is better than the night terrors I have been experiencing after riding up front with these wanna be Michael Schumachers. Serenity now!

Time Jump

I know it has now been some time since my last post and this one is getting a bit ahead of myself, but I though I would go ahead anyway. I know I still need to finish writing about our Cambodian adventure, and since then I have also spent 3 weeks traveling the US and Canada. Right now though we are in Shanghai so that's where I'll start.

Yesterday was out first full day in Shanghai after arriving Saturday afternoon. The weather forecast has predicted rain all day Sunday so we were prepared to chill out indoors all day and start our sight seeing Monday. The weather cleared up though so we got straight into it.

We took a taxi to Nanjing Dong Lu (Lu is Mandarin for Road) which is a pedestrian shopping street that links the People's Square to the river and the Bund. We started at the river and made our way through the building crowd. Nanjing Lu itself is a very westernised shopping area with major brand name shops and a range of cafe and snack style eateries. People's Sqaure is a mancured parkland with winding paths - it is very relaxing to stroll through, despite the crowds, and is a great place to take a short break from the madness of this crazy city.

After taking in the Square we made a spare of the moment decision to go check out Yu Yuan Garden Bazaar - we had read in the guide books that Sunday afternoon was not the best time to visit here due to the extreme crowds, but being seasoned traveller we thought we could handle it. We were wrong! Our trip through the bazaar was directed by the flow of the river of people that we somehow joined. One minute we were carefully making our way through the crowd, and the next we were shoulder to shoulder being moved through narrow alleys with no option to go in any other direction. We passed many nice looking shops that we simply couldn't get to without causing a major pedestrian pile up that would have resulted in a tangled mess of arms and legs, a mess that would have taken many hours to sort out. So we floated through the bazaar on our wave fellow human beings and were quite relieved to make it out the other side with everything still in tact. Lesson learned - if there is a consistent message in two or more guide books.....take heed!