We Made It!
After clocking over 7,000 miles and more than 13 hours in a tube at 35,000 feet we finally made it to Shanghai! To say I was relieved would be an understatement. I don't typically get anxious on flights, but I started this one out a bit pensive! After a small bottle of DreamWater, lavender essential oil and a yin yoga playlist I had downloaded I was able to settle in. Thankfully, I did sleep some, and by some I mean a few hours worth here and there. A few movies passed by, more snoozing, an airplane meal of beef and rice, more snoozing, more movies, another meal (this time breakfast) and then simply sitting and watching the airplane hone in on Shanghai. Before I knew it, we had landed.
Hello Shanghai! Easy transition through customs and immigration and time to take the Maglev into the city. Wait, lets walk 10 minutes to the departures area of the airport, find a bank machine, buy a metro pass and then head back to the Maglev platform! All before the first train left at 7:05am! There is some conversation about if it is worth it to take the Maglev over the metro. My answer is yes! First, it's fun to get a picture going 301km/hr and second, you are going 301km/hour! Its clearly fast and at the end of the line we hopped the Green line to Peoples Square where our hotel is located.
Walking through Peoples Square at 7:30am is a treat, it is cute. Older couples walking hand in hand, puppies with fresh haircuts, flower gardens and lots of trees! What sneaks up on you are the electric motorbikes because you can't hear them coming! Peoples Square, we found out is like the Time Square of NYC, the evidence of that is not around at 0700 hours but would be there waiting for us at 1900 hours!
So, we've made it to our hotel, now food! We ended up with a modge podge of things at the hotel restaurant. Some bread we were not all to sure about, rice pudding, some other kind of sticks that reminded me of churros but not sweet and a jar of yogurt. With full bellies by 8:30am it was time to land in bed and get caught up on a few winks of sleep. We set an alarm for 11:45am, which was kinda bizarre!
At 11:30am we are up and its time to get on with the day! We hopped on the metro to find that my metro pass wouldn't work, so that was fun, tracking down who or whatever BMO is... literally "Contact BMO" is what the kiosk said! A google translated moment between two cultures later we made it to Customer Support and sorted the issue. I still don't know what was actually wrong! Ok, now we can go! Green Line away from Pudong Airport and hello Yu Yuan Gardens, you are MUCH busier than I was expecting! This place is a beaut, dating back hundreds of years to the Ming Dynesty. We had a few snacks, like a fried crab (not vegan) and some kind of fried crepe like things with some chive/onion type of thing inside.
Within the maze that is Yu Yuan we found an old tea house. I had to laugh, the lady did not want us to flip through the tea menu and get a cheaper pot of tea. Instead she almost insisted that we stay on the page she had opened and get the freshest black or green tea. So, we bite. One of each please! It truly was a lovely experience, sitting in the second story of this tea house that, too, has been around for hundreds of years. Watching the humans below on their cell phones crowding the streets and not taking it all in, not even for a moment, was eye opening to the culture that I found myself surrounded by. The tea was delicious, however, I did not try the quail eggs that came with it.
As we left the gardens we stopped by a place called the Old Wall, I laughed as I leaned up against the bus stop bench to take a picture of the original piece that made up old world Shanghai. The irony made me laugh. Oh the things that wall has seen!
Back to the metro, we are crossing the river and headed to the Financial District with eyes to see the Pearl Tower. What a neat spot. There is a traffic circle for cars, and above it, a sidewalk that creates a circle for humans. Seeing the 2 hour wait and the 200 Yuen price tag to go to the top, we opted out. At this point, we are going on 7 miles of walking for the day so it is that time... DUMPLING TIME!
Trip adviser let us know about this one dumpling place, as we looked it up we found there are three locations within range of our location. Din Tai Fung Dumplings were on point and they had vegetarian options! I got 5 veggie dumplings, a side of rice and steamed morning glory with garlic.
Side Note: We learned the proper way of eating a dumpling:
Step 1: Make your mixture. Vinegar, ginger and soy sauce
Step 2: Pick up dumpling and dip in said mixture.
Step 3: Let your soup spoon carry the dumpling to your tastebuds.
Step 4: Savor and enjoy!
With full bellies, it's back on that green line and back to the Peoples Square which is now filled with nightlife, a stark change from just this morning!
Some of my favorite things from today: Hearing a little girl laugh with her grandfather. Tea Rooms with great history. Seeing a lotus almost in full bloom, getting and giving back scratches while on the escalator in and out of the metro, the kind hotel employee next door who printed my visa for Vietnam!
Check back in later for more adventures of the KBCamino!