Thursday, December 25
Merry Christmas! My hotel staff is so sweet..."Santa" visited me last night and gave me cookies and an ornament. It was interesting seeing an Asian Santa but I loved the jesture.
So, I am feeling better about venturing out on my own so I grab a cab and head to the Yu Gardens. I toured around and even bought a new bag as the one I brought is not big enough for the video and digital camera. The gardens were very pretty and serene and the and shopping area was strange in that there was a street shop in a real dumpy area next to nice department stores. I took lots of photos and some video so hoping to get those downloaded tonight.
I then took a cab to the People's Park and Square and just as I was about to walk into the Shanghai Museum, I am approach by two Chinese young adults who ask to take my picture with them. This becomes a recurring theme as I am approached on a regular basis with "kids" wanting to take a photo with me. I am starting to feel like a celebrity....anywho....these two nice kids ask if I would like to join them at a tea tasting party so I figure what the heck?? I think it may have been a set up as we went tea tasting for about an hour and I got stuck with half the bill which equated to about $100 US. Not sure how that happened as I don't even like tea! But I learned a lot especially to ask how much things cost before i say yes!
I then walked down the Nanjing Lu shopping street which is six miles of a shoppers paradise. I did not buy anything but kept getting approached to buy purses....smart to go after the American tourist!
I headed to the Bund and signed up for a sunset cruise and met 4 semi-english speaking friends (2 from Russia and 2 from Germany). We went to dinner at of all places, an Italian place where I met 2 ladies from Kansas City. They invited me to join them but I declined as I was working the international relations piece! I then headed back to the hotel to pack and sleep!
Friday, December 26
Woke up early for me (at 5:30am which tends to be my normal time as I still adjusting to the time change) and headed to the airport. I departed Shanghai for Xian and grabbed a cab to the Shangri-la hotel. Of course, I have a story since I am in cab and they tend to make me mad. So we are on the freeway and my cab driver is going 20 mph and wants to negotiate the rate to the hotel. I am starting to get worried that we are going to get run over by a truck so I say fine and tell him my hotel. He tells me there are two Shangri-la hotels in Xian (uh-oh) and I tell him and show him which one is mine.....yep, we end up at the wrong one and we are 20 minutes from the one I want to go to. Luckily, the cabs are so inexpensive that I now have to pay $22 dollars vs $20 but I am not having good luck with this cab thing. I make it to my hotel and the staff just takes over and grabs my bags and starts putting stamps on my postcards and I have tears in my eyes as I feel they have saved my life! I stayed in my room that night and watched TV and slept for 12 hours. Apparently, I needed to sleep!
Things I find fascinating...
1. Cars do not stay in their lanes at all - they drive in the middle of the road
2. I have about 10 people a day ask me to take a photo with them.
3. The polution is ruining my great photos as the air to so smoggy
4. How loud people eat and spit a lot when they are done eating or just walking down the street....
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