Confessions of traveller

25th September 2008
Forgive me father for I have sinned, it's been 7 days since my last confession. If Beijing was our baptism of fire, then Xian was the depths of hell. Well maybe thats a slight over exageration.
We arrived in Xian slightly stiff...a little tired...but we got to our hostel "Bob's Guesthouse" (the name should have given it away) without too much hassle. The girl who checked us in was what I would call...an airhead. After some issues with our booking we finally got to our room, unpacked etc etc Lindzy tried to have a shower, which turned out to be cold because apparently we had to go use another room for hot water. After half and our or so the girl was knocking on our door telling us we had the wrong room and had to move next door. Done and done.

We went for a little walk through the city and rode bikes around the city wall...(interesting and different but nothing spectacular)...before we headed back to our hostel to catch up on internet time and get some things sorted. Also tried to book train tickets for two days later but had to wait till the morning with reassurances the tickets would be booked when we came down. NO SUCH LUCK! "Cathy" from the previous night was gone and the airhead in her place with no tickets and no idea how to get tickets. After a heated discussion (heated mostly on our part) in which we explained several times that "NO! We can't just call because we DON'T SPEAK CHINESE!" they kindly walked us to the ticket office where we discovered we had to pay top price and didn't have enough cash! To the bank we go to get money changed and then another long line to get tickets, by which time it's about 2pm and we decide "FUCK IT!" lets get on the first train out of here. Thus we wasted a whole day buying train tickets, missed the Terracotta warriors and the other historical wonders of Xian and regretted our decision to go there instead of Qingdao to the beer festival. So...we got on our train and headed to Shanghai.

Arrival in Shanghai. Not so Stressful except for the difficulty in finding a public telephone or internet cafe. Situation not helped by lugging 25kg + pack and my deep seeded grumpiness developed while in Xian. We did however get in contact with Katie (of the Toyama Katie and Sarah) and made our way to their amazing apartment!

Fact: You can get your hair washed and blowdryed, with a head, shoulder and arm massage for 10 Yuon (approx. $1.80). As Katie candidly confessed to us, she hadn't washed her own hair in 6 months.
(Note: this is all possible of course, unless you get an arsehole hairdresser who tries to sell you a perm and then a hair treatment 3 times and then refuses to do anything else to your hair (leaving it puffy and messy) unles you buy the treatment! So I left paying 88 Yuon with hair slicked down with hair treatment, while Lindzy leaves paying 10 Yuon with straight nice looking hair! Note to self - Stick to your guns!)

Fact: You can get pretty much anything Tailor made (mostly silk) for under $50.

Fact: Lots of great shopping can be found in Shanghai, especially in the bag, accesories and glasses department. Lindzy bought a pair of Loui Vitton prescription glasses for 180 Yuon ($30). I also satisfied my secret desire to wear glasses and bought a pair for 70 Yuon ($12).

Fact: Shanghai is really HOT, HUMID and SMOGGY!

Fact: Shanghai acrobatic show is a MUST SEE! It was called ERA and for $30 you see a heart stopping acrobatic show (produced by some of the same people from Cirque Du Soleil) that had us laughing, gasping and crying.

Fact: I have now had 3 fantasies of killing people.
#1 Man snoring in Beijing hostel room.
#2 Arsehole hair dresser
#3 RIDICULOUS workmen in the apartment above Katie and Sarah's who start drilling at 8am in the morning!!!

Katie and Sara were really hospitable and our time in Shanghai was GREAT! We booked tickets to Hong Kong and after another "Amazing Race" moment...(Envision Lindzy and I with big packs on backs, smalls packs on front and shopping bags of food, frantically running through the subway and train station (and in my case getting lost) to make it by the skin of our teeth through immigration and onto our train covered in sweat, slightly out of breath and shaking)...we have arrived in Hong Kong!