The fun we had…
Last Thursday morning, as I lay on my 2-inch thick mattress, dreaming of something lovely, I was rudely awakened by Dennis text-messaging me. Ohhhh…. Had to get up at 530 to catch an 830 flight up to Shanghai. Rodrigo met us at the airport and took us back to our hotel, or rather MOtel in Pudong via magnetic bullet train.
Our hotel was great… my room was small but perfect and only cost about $35 Canadian per night! (And yes, mom, it had a private bathroom! Woohoo!)
From there, we headed downtown to start sightseeing. It’s at this point that I should send a shout out to our host Rodrigo for taking time away from his studies to show us around town! He was a fantastic guide and made up for our other classmate who disappeared to somewhere near Pakistan…or something like that… for the weekend! The subway system is much like Hong Kong’s and is easy as pie to use.When we popped up above ground, we were on Nanjing Road, which is Shanghai’s main street. It’s a big, wide boulevard with lots of stores and restaurants in modern and colonial buildings.
I loved it, Rodrigo, not so much. We walked down to Old Shanghai, being careful of the cars…. Scary drivers! The old town is like the Disneyland version of China. Uber-China.Tons of souvenir shops and renovated buildings, and of course it had McDonalds, Dairy Queen AND Starbucks. I ate the most delicious street meat! No idea what variety of meat it was… yikes. Walked through the tea bazaar, the Yu Gardens, then over to Poor Street.
Poor Street, as I named it, it exactly that – a bastion of poverty in the middle of a boomtown. Rodrigo guesses that by the end of the year, it won’t exist. The street is lined by ramshackle buildings with shops, markets and restaurants on the first floor and family housing above. Whole families live in just one room, and there are no bathrooms to speak of. The only running water comes from sinks on the street. In spite of that, everyone was clean and going about his or her business. We also checked out the insect market, but the air inside was a little thick from all the birds and such. No sense in spending too much time there, don’t need no avian flu. We then walked up to People’s Square and down Nanjing to the Bund.
The Bund is like the seawall in Vancouver and just as crowded. We went to Bar Rouge on the roof of one of the old British buildings. 
I felt like I was on Sex and the City! There were beds as seats, lots of red lighting, a rooftop patio and sand on the ground. It’s quite the ex-pat hangout, so we had a couple of beers and got out of there right quick. Went over to the French Concession to an Irish Pub and then….. the highlight of the night…. Back to Pudong for chicken extravaganza! Seems that Rodrigo walks a lot. A lot. And discovers interesting places. Interesting.
He took us to a “locals” late-night restaurant where we ate sketchy hotpot with complete with chicken feet and drank big bottles of beer for basically no money at all. I like locals’ prices. I was a little worried that my stomach would hate me for the rest of the trip… TO BE CONTINUED.
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