The Return of the brother: Shanghai the final days

Bund at night

After a very short train journey from Hangzhou we had little to do in the way of recovering, regardless we managed a lazy afternoon of snoozing and book reading before going to see the bund at night.


As we started our trip in Shanghai we had a good idea of where we wanted to go and what we were going to do. Our first stop was the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum which had the added bonus of being on top of one of the largest markets, a sopping list for which Tom had already worked out. the museum was a little disappointing, it was mainly look at this picture of something and read about it. We did this for about an hour before giving up and going shopping. Tom's bartering skills had improved dramatically on last year so we manged to get some pretty god deals. Day one back in Shanghai was basically killing time until our showing of the new Avengers movie. I am a self confessed nerd and was stupidly excited, Tom seemed less so but got into the spirit of the movie. We were in a tiny cinema on the top floor of a shopping centre near the hostel. I personally loved the movie but anything with explosions and dramatic fight scenes and I am all good.

shark hats

JELLY FISH!!!

The next morning we went to the Aquarium. Again, I had already been but I love aquariums and could go many times without getting bored. Unfortunately Tom decided to have both of our free coffees this morning and was a little energetic to say the least, lots of very fast talking! We spent a few hours looking at hundreds of different types of fish, spending extra time in the jellyfish, shark and penguin areas. Shanghai Aquarium currently holds the record for the longest underwater tunnel at an amazing 150 meters. We spent about half an hour just in this part. Getting to the aquarium for opening was a good idea as we had some parts completely to ourselves, meaning we had lots of time to get pictures like these.

It rained all afternoon so plans changed slightly, we went from the aquarium to yuyuan gardens but as the rain got even heavier we gave up and went to the Russian Market. By this point in the day we were fairly shopped out but I managed to get Lou a very nice picture and we avoided the rain for a few more hours.

Lou's present

The next day was my birthday and the last day of our holiday, Tom and I both had morning flights the next day. We spent the day (after opening some very silly presents from home) completing Toms shopping extensive list and getting organised for going our separate ways. By now Tom was on bartering form and even managed to get one very stupid woman shouting "180, what you have no brain?!" not a good way to get people to buy anything. we just walked off in stitches and bought the exact some tshirts somewhere else. Tom had planned a surprise birthday meal and wouldn't tell me anything about it.

We set off to find the mystery restaurant, which we found but it was not quiet what had been expected. Tom had asked the hostel girls about finding a place to get duck, instead they had sent him to a pirate themed seafood hotpot place. OK so the pirates were cool but not what we were after, not to mention the hour wait for a table. We gave up and decided to look for something else. We tried a few times before finding a little Xi'An place that sold RouJiaMuo (Chinese hamburgers, pot roast pork in gravy in a bread roll) my favourites. We ate about 6 of them and a huge bowl of noodles each before going back to the hostel for a last pack and drink.


Shanghai May 2015

All in all a fantastic; 17 days, 2 flights, 5 trains, 7 buses, 2 boats, 5 cities, 2 mountains, 1000's of beers, 1800 kilo meters,a wedding, and 1 brother. We both finished the holiday absolutely shattered but having really enjoyed our trip. I discovered a new favourite place in China (sorry JiuZhaiGou you were only the favourite for 3 months). Not sure where is next just yet, Back to Kunming to finish the semester in Chinese class then back to work in September.