SHANGHAI, CHINA

Shanghai
Believe it or not we reached our final destination in Asia. We both found it hard to fathom that we left New Zealand 4 months ago and now only had 5 days til we flew to Europe. Although we were excited to be heading off to Germany and France, we were also a little sad to be leaving Asia behind. We checked into our hotel which was very central and our room was awesome. We were only minutes walk away from town and the famous waterfront area called The Bund... Nanjing Road (which is like a huge Cuba Mall as most of it is pedestrian access only and shops galore) was also only a few minutes walk away. Its such an amazing, incredibly vibrant place and its hard not to like it. Walking through Nangjing Road at night was awesome as there were neon lightgs everywhere - the most impressive one being a huge coke bottle that lit up. There was also a massive thermometer on the side of a building that told us it was 36 degrees at 10pm at night. There is a mix of the old (in the Bund) and the new with huge skyscrapers and a skyline not too unlike that in Hong Kong. Like Hong Kong the metro was also really easy to use and it was a great way to get around and about.

We went on a walk around the city to check out the market areas and the first stop was Dongtai Road Antique Market. There were lots of beautiful items and we managed to get a couple of pressies sorted here. Then we walked through the area called 'Old Town' to Xiangyang Road Market which is right next to the Yuanyuan gardens. The architecture of the buildings here was stunning and we bought ourselves one of the few souvenirs of our trip - a scroll written in Chinese that has the word love and our names on it. That night we went to an Indian restaurant for dinner that was recommended in our trusty Lonely Planet - it was brilliant as the review said it would be!

Olivia got her hair highlighted as her regrowth was getting a bit obvious and we thought it would be a good idea to get it done here where things are cheaper than Europe. We went somewhere upmarket in a nice shopping mall that used Schwartzkopf products and dyes. When they first did it she was soooooooooo BLONDE - like platinum! That's what you get when they are used to colouring black hair! Man it was scary! But they were really good about re-doing it (for no extra charge) as it was obvious that it was way lighter than the colours she had shown them! It ended up looking really nice so she was very happy! Liv spent one day walking around with platinum hair as they said it would be too damaging to her hair to do it all in one day. She got a lot of looks from Chinese men that night! I also got a haircut as they were offering two for one. There was a little bit of a communication breakdown and instead of getting a number one, it ended up being a zero! So Olivia ended up BLONDE and I ended up BALD! The next day we took the metro to People's square to do a bit of window shopping! There were so many shopping malls and they were all HUGE! We ended up in one in particular that was a maze of escalators and there was even an indoor ice skating rink. The 8th floor was full of games and we met a really nice guy that worked there that gave us some tokens so that we could try out some of the games. We had a great time and it saved a couple of YUAN too.

When we were in Yangshuo we met a couple of guys from Switzerland who told us that there was a really flash hotel where you could go up to the 65th floor to a bar there which afforded an incredible view of Shanghai. Most tourists go up the thermometer shaped Oriental Pearl Tower which is rather costly but the Royal Meridian was free so we had tanqueray gin and tonics instead and gazed out over Shanghai as the sun set and the neons came alive. The bonus too was that you could see the Oriental Pearl (one of Shanghai's landmarks) rather than being inside it.

Just like in other parts of Asia the hawker food in Shanghai was amazing. We found this one stall in particular that we both fell in love with. He made these things that were a cross between a steam pork bun and a dumpling - pretty much a stuffed piece of bread with either vege or meat fillings. Once they were cooked he would cut a split in them and add some chilli sauce and they tasted incredible. We liked them so much that we went there everyday and got at least a couple each.

On our final night we went to Ajisen Ramen (a nationwide chain of Japanese/ Chinese noodle restaurants) AGAIN for our last meal (which was delicious). Then we went for a stroll taking in the mass of neon signs and people for the last time and went down to the Bund to see it at night. Like in Xi'an there were hawkers galore trying to sell their wares and the inevitable kite flyers too. It was so surreal knowing that it was our last night in Asia and that tomorrow would bring new experiences and new adventures. The last four months travelling was amazing to say the least. South East Asia is such a diverse and exciting place to see and experience. We knew that this wouldn't be the last time we would visit, such was the impact that it had on us both. But onwards and upwards as they say and the next morning we caught our flight to Frankfurt, Germany.

Arohanui
Livi and Tama xx