The biggest adventure of all - getting home!

Hi all,

What a day! Last time I wrote I was reading all about the train delays and cancellations at home, and all week I had had this weird feeling something would go wrong with my flight. Both were signs - turns out I was right!!

Thankfully I'm so organised that last night I had already packed up my bag, even getting out the clothes and toiletries I would need at the airport to change after my walk along the Bund. Alas, the walk was not to be! After having a shower this morning I received a text message at 9am from Cathay simply stating that my flight had been cancelled and I needed to ring my travel agent. I called them and Cathay hadn't even advised them of the cancellation yet. Their website gleaned no information or alternative also. 

For the next two hours, a lovely girl called Rachel from STA Travel tried to help me as best she could with the little information they would provide her, and my amazing parents helped me come up with a plan B. Thankfully because I hadn't set out for the day yet I just grabbed my stuff, checked out and ran to the metro station. I was running off adrenaline so didn't even really notice the heat which I guess was a silver lining!

I got the metro for an hour or so and went straight to Cathay's desk. The lady working still didn't shed any light about the cancellation, but put me on the 1.30pm flight. At this point the adrenaline wore off and relief flooded me, unfortunately so did a few tears just from the shock. I know it's only a flight and worse things will happen, but the feeling of being stranded alone with no explanation and no help was really scary. I bought myself a toy panda with the little remaining money I had. All the food was very expensive. 

But the fun and games didn't end there! The lady had told me they couldn't give me any meal vouchers or a lounge voucher for Hong Kong, and when I asked the counter staff politely to use their phone to see what my travel insurance would cover and they said no, a red mist descended and I'm a little embarrassed to say I became "that" person at the airline desk loudly complaining about how crap their service was. I was stressed - it had to boil over at some point! And I can't believe they wouldn't let me use their phone!!!!

Eventually we boarded my 1.30pm flight, however we then sat at the gate for 2.5 hours. The pilot said this was just due to air traffic control saying we couldn't leave, and I began to have visions of being stranded here for days again. I have classes to teach on Monday!!! A really nice hostess came up to me and said she had heard my situation at the counter in the airport. I apologised that I had gotten angry but said I was feeling stressed and like I wasn't being supported at all when I had paid for a service. She brought me water and cookies (all I had eaten all day was a banana and a chocolate biscuit!) and assured me she would help me try and get some compensation in Hong Kong. The man next to me also said that air travel in China has been getting worse and worse and that air traffic control often times just go "nup - no one is flying!" and blame other things like the weather etc. for delays and cancellations. 

Thankfully at 4pm we finally took off. The flight was ok and I had a nice lunch (which I guess by then was sort of a dinner as it was 5pm!). We arrived in Hong Kong about 6.30pm, and I laughed thinking that at least I had been flown to the correct city. Brenton from my tour's flight from Guangzhou to Beijing was cancelled and he was put on a new flight by China Southern several hours later, only to discover he had landed in Taiyuan, Shaanxi province. Basically the equivalent of expecting to fly to Melbourne and ending up in Alice Springs and then no one speaking English to help you. And then to top it off he had to then organise a train out of his own pocket to get to Beijing!! 

However Cathay were still useless. I had to go hunt down some meal vouchers and they only equated to $20 Australian or thereabouts. Thankfully Mum called my travel insurance company and it looks like they'll cover a lounge due to the inconvenience, so I've paid $115 Australian for a five hour pass that includes a shower and unlimited food and drink. I'm currently sitting in a very comfortable chair and am starting to finally feel relaxed. I have my shower booked in for 9.30pm and my flight (hopefully) leaves at 12.10am.

I will never be flying with Cathay Pacific ever again, nor will I recommend them to anyone. Aside from the one nice hostess the treatment I have received today from a so called "world class" airline has been deplorable. If I weren't an experienced traveller with an Internet connection and two fantastic parents, who knows where I would be right now. I've been speaking to a New Zealand woman in the lounge who has had a similar experience to me and said that last year when Cathay cancelled her daughter's flights they made her pay for a new one!! Disgraceful.

But enough of the negative, time for the positive. I had such a wonderful time in China. I went thinking I would starve due to not liking the food, but I ate some of the most flavoursome food I've ever had. The people were so kind (apart from the spitting men - EW) and so keen to try and speak English with you and ask where you're from. My tour mates and guide were instant friends, as were Lian and Lingling. I've learned and experienced so much over the last two weeks and I'm really glad I came. 

Once I get home I'm really looking forward to drinking water from the tap, being able to put toilet paper in the toilet itself and not having to use a squat toilet for the foreseeable future - there were some shockers!!!

My next trip will be to Africa in December. Thanks for reading and I hope you all follow my adventures then!! Here's to a healthy and happy term three!

Love to all

Claire

Xoxox

French Concession Area and river cruise

Hello all,

Today I slept in for a bit which was lovely. My air conditioner did a fabulous job overnight while it was 27 degrees!!

This morning I set off on the bus to the French Concession Area. Though I had visited it on Tuesday, I wanted to explore the area more in depth. I did so with the help of a blog post (blogception!) called 'Two Suitcases and a Tin Pot' that Dad had directed me towards. It was a carefully laid out route with lots of interesting stops along the way. 

First of all I walked to Xintiandi, the area Howard took us to on Tuesday. This is part of the 'New World' area that popped up after all the foreign concessions etc finished in Shanghai. Not too much was open at this time (9.30am-ish) so I just meandered around. Then I went back again to the Communist Party of China Museum. This time I had no time constraints so I took my time. With the help of Brenton's explanations the other day, I was able to piece together the information there. 

I'm not going to type out the entire history, but basically post opium war many parts of China (and subsequently Shanghai) were controlled by foreign powers and westernisation was massive here from the 1860s to 1890s. In 1911 a man named Sun Yat-Sen orchestrated the abdication of the Qing emperor (Puyi who was a child at the time) and was named interim president of the republic of China. 

In the 1920s the communist party was formed (he was a big part, as was Mao) and on the 23rd of July 1921 this museum was the site of the first meeting of the party. Sun Yat-Sen died in 1925 which put a bit of a spanner in the works, but over time other members and events led to the eventual communist revolution in 1949. Obviously there's a lot more to it than that but that's a very small nutshell. 

This is seriously embarrassing, but until Brenton spelled it out for me the other day it hadn't occurred to me that China is communist still to this day. Obviously I know about the internet controls and other happenings, but for some reason I hadn't connected it all together. I wish we had learned more Chinese history at school because I have felt quite embarrassed of my lack of knowledge of their history the whole time I've been here! The communist part became very apparent to me during my Museum visit today because whilst watching a video, an entire room full of people started bowing and chanting at certain parts. It was pretty intense!

I continued walking and went to a little hole in the wall restaurant the blog suggested. It said to try a radish cake. I was a bit apprehensive at first so I bought one, but once I discovered how delicious it was I bought another one! Yum! The little old lady serving me beamed at me the second time when I gestured to my lips to say it was delicious. 

Next was Fuxing Park. This was super cute because there were people ballroom dancing random, men playing cards and people doing tai chi. I stopped and watched all three for a while and managed to escape the dancers trying to get me to join in!!

Then I ventured down some beautiful tree lined streets and went to Sun Yat-Sen's house which is now a museum. My student card that expired two years ago just keeps on giving, I used it and paid half price! The museum didn't have too much English and was just a really general overview of SYS. It was filled with furniture he used and some rooms were furnished as he had left them. I read about his wife, Soong Ching Ling and read some letters Lenin had written to him. 

Then it was onto Tianzifang, a huge market complex of bustling alleyways with everything from an English teahouse to a sushi bar to a New York Steakhouse. I bought a delicious cherry ice cream on a stick that had whole cherries inside it. By this point it was just 11am and I had had 2L of water. The thought of anything hot wasn't very appetising to me. I browsed some of the shops with beautiful crafts and souvenirs and then continued on. 

I passed a noodle place that usually creates the noodles in front of your eyes, but they weren't today. I wasn't hungry anyway and had seen it in Xi'an! Then I got to the Shanghai Culture Square and saw the theatre that big shows play at. 

I continued up a street with lots of tailors as well as a cosmetic surgery place that promised "you can also be beautiful" (no thanks - happy the way I am!!) and then saw the Cathay Theatre which was built in the 1930s, and the Lyceum Theatre built around the same time. 

By this time I was extremely hot and the last stop was an art and craft museum that had similar exhibitions to what I saw yesterday. So instead I walked around, taking in the department stores with their ice cold air conditioning and the tree lined streets. In my way home I walked through some really I resting alleyways where people lived as opposed to the main road as I had the other times. 

The walk was fantastic and I'm really glad I took the time to explore the area more in depth! I caught the metro back and had a three hour rest at my hostel. I was exhausted and even had a nap! Those who know me well know that's a big deal for me!!

I got the bus to near the Bund and somehow stumbled across the river cruise terminal. I managed to buy a ticket for 7.45pm once it would be dark and the buildings lit up. I was 1.5 hours early so decided to find some food but had no luck. I couldn't find anything nearby!! I'm missing Howard's direction already haha. So after a little while I just went back to the boat terminal. This turned out to be beneficial anyway as I queued up really early and was the first of hundreds of people to board my boat. As a result I scored a spot in the corner on the back with an unobstructed view. 

The boat ride went for 50 minutes and was absolutely stunning. The lights here are so clever and many of them are animations that change constantly. I love watching them! I was next to a girl from Kunming who started talking to me and told me she thought I was beautiful. I'm going to miss these compliments!!! I told her she was too and she laughed. I explained to her that in Australia people want tanned skinned and she wouldn't believe me. She said Shanghai is very hot and Kunming isn't as bad. She was so lovely and even though her parents couldn't speak English, I could tell they were too. 

After taking some photos I took mental photos of the view as well and soaked it all in. Once the boat returned I decided to walk home as the terminal was just 25 minutes from my hostel. By this time I was famished. I tried Yuyuan Markets but everything was closing as I arrived. I had just started to accept my fate of eating bananas and hydralite tablets in my room when the Golden Arches appeared - my saviour! I smashed a double cheeseburger and some fries. It was so good to have bread that wasn't sweet. I'm not much of a Maccas fan usually but it's a good emergency food when travelling. 

Tomorrow I'm planning on sleeping in then wandering the Bund for a while and then heading to the airport. I'll post once I'm at the airport!!

Love to all

Claire

Xoxox

PS: They just said on the news the current hot weather is breaking records and that air conditioners are making up 55% of electricity usage at the moment. There was a huge storm in Chengdu today though - I looked terrifying!

Shanghai Museum and the end of my tour

Hey everyone!

This morning Tim, Aisling, Jack, Brenton, Maria, Damon, Sam, Emma, Howard and I went to the nearby 'Zoo Cafe' (filled with toy animals!) for breakfast. I had a yummy ham and cheese sandwich and it was great to hang out with everyone. Some of the others were either unwell or at Disneyland, but technically my part of the tour has now finished. I said goodbye to Damon and Maria as well as Brenton (who lives right near my best friend at home so I'm fairly sure I'll see once home!!) and then headed back to the hotel. 

I checked out and then walked to catch the bus to my hostel. The tour hotel was expensive to stay on so I moved. The bus arrived just as I got to the stop and I easily travelled the 25 minutes south. My hostel room is pretty cosy and on the top floor with a big window. I have a private bathroom, an air conditioner that is doing an amazing job and heaps of space. All this for $30 a night which isn't bad!!

The trade off is it's not too close to a metro but there are heaps of buses around and with my phone it's quite easy. I caught a different bus to People's Square and met Tim. We spent the next three hours inside the free Shanghai Museum. It was fantastic! 

Firstly we had to queue up for a little while, but they had umbrellas so we waited in the shade. Just as well, too. It's 37 here today but my weather app tells me it feels like 42. It's honestly like being in a sauna. I much prefer the cold and while it's been great to have a break from Melbourne's cold weather, I'm a bit over the heat!

We decided to start on the less crowded top level and first looked at the costumes of different nationalities in China from the past and present. Many of them were labelled as being from the first half and even the second half of the 20th century which we found quite amazing as they were very decorated and looked more old fashioned than that!

We also saw some objects from different times in this exhibition. At this point, a girl who was about 18 or 19 came up to me and very shyly said "you are so beautiful! May I have a photo with you please?" Considering I had gotten so sweaty my top was literally soaked through, she made my day! I told her of course and that she had made me day. She said "you are beautiful. Thank you! Have a nice day!" I'm going to miss feeling like a member of S Club 7!!

Our next hall was lots of jade items which increasingly got more complex and beautiful as the room progressed in chronological order and I assume tools etc became more advanced. 

We checked out the currency exhibition. Before coins, objects looking like spades and some looking like knives were used as currency!! There were lots of coins as well and an interesting room which housed coins from the Silk Road. 

Finally, on the third floor we checked out a hall of paintings and the calligraphy section. I loved the paintings and was particularly impressed by the huge scroll paintings that were metres long. The calligraphy was also really lovely but not knowing how to read the characters, we didn't get to know the meaning. We were pretty lucky with heaps of English signs around the museum in general though. 

I was tiring at this point and had seen all of the parts I wanted to, so I got the bus back and stopped at the supermarket. On the way I just about spat my water out when I saw a girl who was probably 15 wearing a t-shirt that had something really rude written on the front! I'm assuming she didn't know what it said. We've seen some rippers on this trip but that was definitely the most vulgar!

I had a rest in my room including a shower, a lie down and watching some English news. Then I set off to meet some of the group for dinner (some had already left and some were at Disneyland). We met out front of the museum and Howard showed us around. I met the new girl, Grace, who's joining the group for the last part. She's from Switzerland and is really lovely! We walked as a group down the crazy Nanjing Road with its pretty lights and its department stores that opened in the late 1800s. 

We had one last dinner and I couldn't help but feel a little sad at having to say goodbye to everyone. This week has flown by! This tour group has been one of the most easygoing I've been a part of. Everyone was really easy to get along with and I never felt left out. I said goodbye to everyone out the front and then headed back to my hostel at about 9pm absolutely exhausted. This particular bus had a cute little conductor lady with her very own seat. She had decorated it with a cactus!

I've checked in for my flight on Friday. Tomorrow I'm doing the French quarter walking tour dad recommended and a boat trip at night. Friday I'm just going to relax. Slowing it down before I get home :)

Love to all

Claire

Xoxox