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!