Goodbye Shanghai, Hello Beijing
So yesterday was my last day in Shanghai.
It was a fairly late start and at about 4 o'clock Andy suggested that we goo out, do some shopping, get me a phone and get a foot pedicure thing and a massage and then home in time for bangers and mash and to get me to the station. I was a little concerned about time but Andy said it would only take a couple of hours (my train was at 9) so off we went.
All in all things took a little longer than expected. I shouldn't skip the details of the foot treatment though. They start by soaking your feet in warm water. Andy tells me that the water contains salt and herbs and other such therapeutic things. I thought this made it sound like they were making foot soup.
Then after a while a guy turns up with towels and his knife set (and disinfectant swabs), He spent a little while drying my feet and generally looking at them and then set off on them. Mainly he concentrated on my toenails and their surrounds. The way he trimmed my nails I think was the most noteworthy part of it all. This is where the earlier mentioned knife came in.
The tool he had was a cross between a chisel and a scalpel. It seemed to be incredibly sharp, much as you expect from a scalpel but the cutting blade was on the end, perpendicular to the length of the tool. He seemed to basically put it under the nail at one end (presumably where he wanted to start the cut) and then he'd just push it round cutting the nail. He seemed quite expert at the task. If necessary he's also have done all manner of other stuff to my foot such as removal of hard skin and all that kind of thing.
After that a girl came in to do the massage. I'm not sure really what I thought of it. On one hand bits of it were quite nice but on the other some were quite uncomfortable, verging on painful. I don't know about other people but I'm not that keen on a large amount of pressure being applied to the middle of the sole of my foot (nor to the soul of my foot which I nearly wrote).
It was part way through the massage that I checked the time and noticed it was gone 7PM. I am a bit of a worrier and after looking at the time I as worrying. Andy assured me it wasn't far home (which was good) and luckily the massage wasn't much longer.
I'd strewn my stuff out a bit at Andy's place, the luxury of a friend's spare room rather than a shared room or something, and so it took me a while to sort out my stuff. I got packed and headed off, far later than I'd have liked. Andy had managed to eat some dodgy food while we were out so bade me farewell from his apartment while Daphne took me to the station.
We got a taxi and I don't know if I was imagining it or not but it seemed to be doing even more of the getting there quick tricks than usual. Andy did try to explain some of the driving rules to me but amongst others they have a turn right on red type rule. Or maybe its turn both ways on red, it seemed very hard to tell at times. What this means though is that you see such tricks as cars pulling onto the other side of the road (when there is no or at least little traffic fortunately) to get past all the straight-on cars and then cut across them all to go right. Its all a little hairy.
So I got to the station and Daphne rushed me up the stairs, me carrying my big rucksack and fortunately being quite adept at not hitting people with it. Past the first security checkpoint, bag through the x-ray machine (they do like security here), up the stairs (escalators too slow) and into my waiting lounge - they have an almost airport like system with waiting rooms for specific trains and then they call you from their to the platform when your train is ready.
I didn't partake of the waiting room. By this time I had seen a clock so had a vague idea of the time and I still had 10 minutes but I was pretty sure that meant my train would be boarding. And indeed the nice conductor type lady confirmed this and waved me to the platform where a very shiny train was waiting.
I ran down the platform to my carriage, really not fun in the 30+ heat that was still lurking) and jumped on the train. There was a Chinese guy in the little room (that had two pairs of bunks) when I got there. I said "Ni hao" which means hello and it seems my ability to say that is good enough that it makes people thing I might speak Mandarin. At least two people have now said "You speak Chinese?" to me after I've said hello. He had pretty good English and we chatted for a bit and he helped me out too, passing me my bedding from the top bunk and so on.
The room was quite small. It was about 7 feet long - enough for me to lie down straight and have a bit of space at each end) and wide enough that I may have been able to touch both walls if I'd tried and really stretched. The space between beds was, I'm pretty sure, thinner than the beds.
At this stage I am till superheated from my run and dripping sweat so I decide to go find the buffet car to get a drink. A walk up the train past many identical carriages gets me there where I attempt to first order a cola (its easy to order because its the same in Chinese and English, shame they didn't have any) and then a water. Unconfident about my memory for the mandarin I order in English and am not understood. So I try the mandarin and they understand me. :) Yay! Go me! Unfortunately I tried to buy two and they didn't have change for 100 (it cost 6) but luckily I had three in change so I just got one.
The communication with me in English has confused me a few times. When I ordered I said "two" meaning two bottles. She responded with "Six" and I spend a while trying to get across that I only want two before realising that she is quoting me a price. They seem to when speaking English stick to as little as possible (which if they don't speak it well is fine) but adding on Yuan or kuai wouldn't likely have confused matters and I would have thought mostly every foreigner would know the local words for the currency.
I get back to my little room and manage to spill the first bits of water on myself by virtue of the fact that the bottle was full right up to the very brim. Good value if not for the fact that I wasted it by pouring it all down my front.
Amusingly about 5 minutes later a complimentary bottle of water comes my way from the attendants bringing them. Clearly everybody gets one. So I then spend a while reading and listening to my mp3 player after eating the dinner that Daphne made me. Then most of the rest of the trip is spent sleeping. The other two beds in our carriage were filled at some point. It didn't seem to be at a stop so I'm not sure if they moved from another room for some reason or perhaps just got on at the other end of the train (its possible not all stations can hold the 20 odd carriages) and so by the time they got to us we were well away from a station.
Beijing started with me having a great deal of trouble getting a taxi. The combination of being near the train station, being rush hour and not speaking the language did it for me. I managed to get a taxi at one point but after looking at my bit of paper he indicated he couldn't take me.
At this point I move back to where I'd seen huge queues for taxis figuring that I might end up waiting 30minutes but at least if the driver didn't recognise the location I'd still be at the front of the queue. However, on route I got approached by people going "Taxi?". I knew they weren't legit taxi drivers but at this point I was pissed off and just wanted to get going so I thought I'll pay a bit extra since I know they'll be ripping me off. Little did I realise though... I was sensible enough to ask in advance how much and the first offers of 100RMB were just a bit too special. That would probably have taken me across shanghai and back and I knew that was way way over the odds. However since i wanted to get moving I offered 50 and the guy agreed. So I follow him around a corner, round the side of somewhere, down an alleyway to his little deathtrap. I'm trying to think if tuktuk is the right description. It was basically a trike-like thing with a passenger compartment on the back while he rides up front. I can tell you that pulling into busy traffic n this was terrifying. It wasn't great that every bump my head hit the ceiling.
So I'm a bit worried at this point that the guy has taken the bit of paper off me and kept hold of it which means that if he wants to be an arse he can just keep holding on to that. so part way through the journey he slows down and starts talking about money. I'm a bit confused about what he was trying to say because he seemed to be first asking for dollars and I'm not sure if he was trying to ask for 100 dollars... He doesn't seem at all happy when I indicate I only have RMB and that we agreed on 50. He basically pretty much demands 100 and I consider just jumping out and leaving him to it but figure at this point that 100 is only about 9 quid so its way more than I *should* be paying but its not a bank breaker and I'm paying at the end so at this stage if I don't actually see the place I'm going he gets nothing so he can only stiff me more by asking for more and he doesn't seem to be wanting to do that.
So he does get me there. Its occasionally terrifying as he seems happy enough to pretend to be a bike when it suits him in terms of bike lanes and such like and a car when it suits him as he battles with other much much bigger vehicles to get around the place.
The hostel that I found (googling last night) seems great so far. Cheaper per night than the taxi to get here but that's unsurprising. I'm in a three person room tonight and then an 8 person dorm for Monday and Tuesday night. And then the theory is that Wednesday I'll be off to Xian in the evening.
I've not seen much of Beijing so far due to once again being beset by an upset stomach. It kept me in my room til about lunch time at which point I went out for a walk for some food and to see the local area. I'd intended to do a bit more but started feeling ropey again so headed back here which is why I am now writing this blog post. I'm starting to feel better again now and hungry again too so will have to go out exploring more later.
Today though has been another bad day though like the other day. I think I now see my problem with so traveling. I'm fine when I'm feeling good but when I start feeling a bit rough or tired or whatever else then I really need somebody else to perk me up a bit or that sort of thing. I have to admit that I am looking forward to August when I meet up with Hannah for the rest of my trip. Of course, my stomach will hopefully have stopped playing up by then so I will be having a lot less down patches...
Tomorrow I have booked to take a tour that goes to the great wall and a few other things (ming tombs and I believe some other locations) booked through the hostel and starting at the hostel - exact time to be determined later. My roommates (a Spanish couple with pretty good English) are off to do the walk along the great wall. Drop off at one place and apparently 4.5 hours walking to the final destination. It sounded like a bit much lie hard work to me. Also it says bring food and drink because you're not getting lunch there due to lack of shops - I've not really worked out how I'd do a packed lunch at this point. Drinks are easy enough of course but packets of sandwiches and stuff are not particularly common...
Oh, and one other aside that I've not mentioned yet is that I'd not realised how much I'd be spending on drinks. I'm buying a couple of bottles of drink at least each day and then other drinks that I might get with food and stuff of course. they are cheap though. A 500ml bottle of coke is 3RMB which is about 27p. Water is 2RMB (you might have to shop around for cold since not everybody has fridges for their drink). The hostel actually has a little fridge stocked with drinks (and I think a few chocolate bars) that you can buy before you head out (or when you get back or whatever).
All in all doing OK right now. Had some major downs today to the extent that I was considering the practicalities of heading back to Shanghai or Hong Kong or something until I got to meet up with Hannah again. This is probably not unexpected though since this is really my first day on my own having been looked after by Andy and Daphne so far. Luckily though whenever I think about that I think about all the cool stuff I want to do and would miss... I am wondering about some of my plans to go to remote areas where there is going to be less chance to resort to western foods if I am having problems with eating the local food. I'll likely be largely sticking to the plan though, I think.
I have to say I am not looking forward to the idea of the heat down in Vietnam and Cambodia though. It's better in Beijing than shanghai though which is good. :)
It was a fairly late start and at about 4 o'clock Andy suggested that we goo out, do some shopping, get me a phone and get a foot pedicure thing and a massage and then home in time for bangers and mash and to get me to the station. I was a little concerned about time but Andy said it would only take a couple of hours (my train was at 9) so off we went.
All in all things took a little longer than expected. I shouldn't skip the details of the foot treatment though. They start by soaking your feet in warm water. Andy tells me that the water contains salt and herbs and other such therapeutic things. I thought this made it sound like they were making foot soup.
Then after a while a guy turns up with towels and his knife set (and disinfectant swabs), He spent a little while drying my feet and generally looking at them and then set off on them. Mainly he concentrated on my toenails and their surrounds. The way he trimmed my nails I think was the most noteworthy part of it all. This is where the earlier mentioned knife came in.
The tool he had was a cross between a chisel and a scalpel. It seemed to be incredibly sharp, much as you expect from a scalpel but the cutting blade was on the end, perpendicular to the length of the tool. He seemed to basically put it under the nail at one end (presumably where he wanted to start the cut) and then he'd just push it round cutting the nail. He seemed quite expert at the task. If necessary he's also have done all manner of other stuff to my foot such as removal of hard skin and all that kind of thing.
After that a girl came in to do the massage. I'm not sure really what I thought of it. On one hand bits of it were quite nice but on the other some were quite uncomfortable, verging on painful. I don't know about other people but I'm not that keen on a large amount of pressure being applied to the middle of the sole of my foot (nor to the soul of my foot which I nearly wrote).
It was part way through the massage that I checked the time and noticed it was gone 7PM. I am a bit of a worrier and after looking at the time I as worrying. Andy assured me it wasn't far home (which was good) and luckily the massage wasn't much longer.
I'd strewn my stuff out a bit at Andy's place, the luxury of a friend's spare room rather than a shared room or something, and so it took me a while to sort out my stuff. I got packed and headed off, far later than I'd have liked. Andy had managed to eat some dodgy food while we were out so bade me farewell from his apartment while Daphne took me to the station.
We got a taxi and I don't know if I was imagining it or not but it seemed to be doing even more of the getting there quick tricks than usual. Andy did try to explain some of the driving rules to me but amongst others they have a turn right on red type rule. Or maybe its turn both ways on red, it seemed very hard to tell at times. What this means though is that you see such tricks as cars pulling onto the other side of the road (when there is no or at least little traffic fortunately) to get past all the straight-on cars and then cut across them all to go right. Its all a little hairy.
So I got to the station and Daphne rushed me up the stairs, me carrying my big rucksack and fortunately being quite adept at not hitting people with it. Past the first security checkpoint, bag through the x-ray machine (they do like security here), up the stairs (escalators too slow) and into my waiting lounge - they have an almost airport like system with waiting rooms for specific trains and then they call you from their to the platform when your train is ready.
I didn't partake of the waiting room. By this time I had seen a clock so had a vague idea of the time and I still had 10 minutes but I was pretty sure that meant my train would be boarding. And indeed the nice conductor type lady confirmed this and waved me to the platform where a very shiny train was waiting.
I ran down the platform to my carriage, really not fun in the 30+ heat that was still lurking) and jumped on the train. There was a Chinese guy in the little room (that had two pairs of bunks) when I got there. I said "Ni hao" which means hello and it seems my ability to say that is good enough that it makes people thing I might speak Mandarin. At least two people have now said "You speak Chinese?" to me after I've said hello. He had pretty good English and we chatted for a bit and he helped me out too, passing me my bedding from the top bunk and so on.
The room was quite small. It was about 7 feet long - enough for me to lie down straight and have a bit of space at each end) and wide enough that I may have been able to touch both walls if I'd tried and really stretched. The space between beds was, I'm pretty sure, thinner than the beds.
At this stage I am till superheated from my run and dripping sweat so I decide to go find the buffet car to get a drink. A walk up the train past many identical carriages gets me there where I attempt to first order a cola (its easy to order because its the same in Chinese and English, shame they didn't have any) and then a water. Unconfident about my memory for the mandarin I order in English and am not understood. So I try the mandarin and they understand me. :) Yay! Go me! Unfortunately I tried to buy two and they didn't have change for 100 (it cost 6) but luckily I had three in change so I just got one.
The communication with me in English has confused me a few times. When I ordered I said "two" meaning two bottles. She responded with "Six" and I spend a while trying to get across that I only want two before realising that she is quoting me a price. They seem to when speaking English stick to as little as possible (which if they don't speak it well is fine) but adding on Yuan or kuai wouldn't likely have confused matters and I would have thought mostly every foreigner would know the local words for the currency.
I get back to my little room and manage to spill the first bits of water on myself by virtue of the fact that the bottle was full right up to the very brim. Good value if not for the fact that I wasted it by pouring it all down my front.
Amusingly about 5 minutes later a complimentary bottle of water comes my way from the attendants bringing them. Clearly everybody gets one. So I then spend a while reading and listening to my mp3 player after eating the dinner that Daphne made me. Then most of the rest of the trip is spent sleeping. The other two beds in our carriage were filled at some point. It didn't seem to be at a stop so I'm not sure if they moved from another room for some reason or perhaps just got on at the other end of the train (its possible not all stations can hold the 20 odd carriages) and so by the time they got to us we were well away from a station.
Beijing started with me having a great deal of trouble getting a taxi. The combination of being near the train station, being rush hour and not speaking the language did it for me. I managed to get a taxi at one point but after looking at my bit of paper he indicated he couldn't take me.
At this point I move back to where I'd seen huge queues for taxis figuring that I might end up waiting 30minutes but at least if the driver didn't recognise the location I'd still be at the front of the queue. However, on route I got approached by people going "Taxi?". I knew they weren't legit taxi drivers but at this point I was pissed off and just wanted to get going so I thought I'll pay a bit extra since I know they'll be ripping me off. Little did I realise though... I was sensible enough to ask in advance how much and the first offers of 100RMB were just a bit too special. That would probably have taken me across shanghai and back and I knew that was way way over the odds. However since i wanted to get moving I offered 50 and the guy agreed. So I follow him around a corner, round the side of somewhere, down an alleyway to his little deathtrap. I'm trying to think if tuktuk is the right description. It was basically a trike-like thing with a passenger compartment on the back while he rides up front. I can tell you that pulling into busy traffic n this was terrifying. It wasn't great that every bump my head hit the ceiling.
So I'm a bit worried at this point that the guy has taken the bit of paper off me and kept hold of it which means that if he wants to be an arse he can just keep holding on to that. so part way through the journey he slows down and starts talking about money. I'm a bit confused about what he was trying to say because he seemed to be first asking for dollars and I'm not sure if he was trying to ask for 100 dollars... He doesn't seem at all happy when I indicate I only have RMB and that we agreed on 50. He basically pretty much demands 100 and I consider just jumping out and leaving him to it but figure at this point that 100 is only about 9 quid so its way more than I *should* be paying but its not a bank breaker and I'm paying at the end so at this stage if I don't actually see the place I'm going he gets nothing so he can only stiff me more by asking for more and he doesn't seem to be wanting to do that.
So he does get me there. Its occasionally terrifying as he seems happy enough to pretend to be a bike when it suits him in terms of bike lanes and such like and a car when it suits him as he battles with other much much bigger vehicles to get around the place.
The hostel that I found (googling last night) seems great so far. Cheaper per night than the taxi to get here but that's unsurprising. I'm in a three person room tonight and then an 8 person dorm for Monday and Tuesday night. And then the theory is that Wednesday I'll be off to Xian in the evening.
I've not seen much of Beijing so far due to once again being beset by an upset stomach. It kept me in my room til about lunch time at which point I went out for a walk for some food and to see the local area. I'd intended to do a bit more but started feeling ropey again so headed back here which is why I am now writing this blog post. I'm starting to feel better again now and hungry again too so will have to go out exploring more later.
Today though has been another bad day though like the other day. I think I now see my problem with so traveling. I'm fine when I'm feeling good but when I start feeling a bit rough or tired or whatever else then I really need somebody else to perk me up a bit or that sort of thing. I have to admit that I am looking forward to August when I meet up with Hannah for the rest of my trip. Of course, my stomach will hopefully have stopped playing up by then so I will be having a lot less down patches...
Tomorrow I have booked to take a tour that goes to the great wall and a few other things (ming tombs and I believe some other locations) booked through the hostel and starting at the hostel - exact time to be determined later. My roommates (a Spanish couple with pretty good English) are off to do the walk along the great wall. Drop off at one place and apparently 4.5 hours walking to the final destination. It sounded like a bit much lie hard work to me. Also it says bring food and drink because you're not getting lunch there due to lack of shops - I've not really worked out how I'd do a packed lunch at this point. Drinks are easy enough of course but packets of sandwiches and stuff are not particularly common...
Oh, and one other aside that I've not mentioned yet is that I'd not realised how much I'd be spending on drinks. I'm buying a couple of bottles of drink at least each day and then other drinks that I might get with food and stuff of course. they are cheap though. A 500ml bottle of coke is 3RMB which is about 27p. Water is 2RMB (you might have to shop around for cold since not everybody has fridges for their drink). The hostel actually has a little fridge stocked with drinks (and I think a few chocolate bars) that you can buy before you head out (or when you get back or whatever).
All in all doing OK right now. Had some major downs today to the extent that I was considering the practicalities of heading back to Shanghai or Hong Kong or something until I got to meet up with Hannah again. This is probably not unexpected though since this is really my first day on my own having been looked after by Andy and Daphne so far. Luckily though whenever I think about that I think about all the cool stuff I want to do and would miss... I am wondering about some of my plans to go to remote areas where there is going to be less chance to resort to western foods if I am having problems with eating the local food. I'll likely be largely sticking to the plan though, I think.
I have to say I am not looking forward to the idea of the heat down in Vietnam and Cambodia though. It's better in Beijing than shanghai though which is good. :)