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Well we survived the overnight train journey (yes we made it this time although there was a little running involved and the suicide of Jennas ipod...no worries, we got it back to life). We now fully understand the concept of 'hard sleeper'. Sharing with four random people, all looking at you like you're a freak did test our patience slightly, especially when one guy decided to snore the whole night. Special times....never again.
Was 'wowed by Shanghai' due to the abundance of KFCs, Mc Donalds and the general feel of the place...its so Western, we cant help it, "you can take the girls out of the western world"... and all that. Although impressed we decided to give the cities a rest and headed out to Hangzhou which was wonderful. The prettiest lake alongside a road dedicated to Ferrari, BMW, Louis Vuitton, Gucci etc. Oh how we smiled. The lake itself was how we thought China to be, all traditional boats, men sitting along the bank playing chess and woman singing traditional Chinese songs (its an aquired taste). Deciding that we had had it quite hard of late, we sat to watch the sun set over the lake, only to have a man start clicking away with his zoom lens. We're not exaggerating, he took pics from every angle, even laying on the floor at one point (dont worry parents, we were in jeans!) Think he was a pro, just call us models.
After a few days chilling we took ourselves back to Shanghai, visiting the Bund (very impressive skyline, where again people took our pictures...now were not getting big headed but just call us the lesbian Posh and David). We found western cafes and shops and dedicated a good few days to shopping and eating. We visited Old Shanghai where there was the best Dim Sum restaurant (George and Corin how we wish you were with us!) However, the waitress got a little confused, served up someone elses food which Jen wasted no time in tucking into...for some reason the girl who ordered it didn't quite fancy her soup after that. Also took ourselves out one night, finding TGIs followed by a club playing chese where we wasted no time getting on the bar to show them how to do the moves to Saturday Night properly. Denise cant say she didn't pull when a lesbian would not take no for an answer. Jenna found this very amusing until she switched her attentions onto Jenna and then all of a sudden wasn't so funny!
The highlight/down point was a visit to a local market. Beautiful as it was with our own very annoying private shoppers "hay lady, dvd, guccilouisvuittonprada?" following us everywhere, we were keen to leave. We were crossing the road when Jenna felt something tugging at her bag, looking down she saw it open with the purse missing. Two Chinese girls grabbed her arm saying 'man in blue top' and pointed to some dude running away. Not believing the cheek of him, Jen ran after him with Denise hot on her heels. After about a block Denise lost her flip flop so had to give up the chase but continued the moral support, screaming like a banshee 'Stop you f***er!!' (nice to see that in times of crisis she can be relied upon to maintain her graceful dignity and poise). Jen started to lose him (due to having to dodge buses/bikes across busy roads, as well as the chinese people who stood rooted to the spot at the sight of the 2 white girls running towards them screaming like mad women) only to find that Denise had managed to hail down our knight in Shining armour....an 80 year old chinese dude, complete with army jacket and tiny moped. You guessed it...we jumped on the back screaming 'Follow that man' (just like in the films, have always wanted to do that!) and bless him, he actually did! Unfortunately we lost him but it wasnt for lack of trying from our little army man who was quite nifty zooming in between buses and trucks. It must have caused quite a spectacle as when we stopped we were suddenly crowded by a group of chinese people all offering their condolences and their mobile phones to call the police, how sweet is that!? So the last day in Shanghai was eventful to say the least.
We cant leave this blog without mentioning the sad departure of the faithful Thelma and Lousie. With the bag situation now growing out of control (Roughly 30kg each and 17 pairs of shoes between us, not forgetting small rucksacks and food bag), we decided enough was enough and invested in two rather lovely wheely backpacks (we're not lowering ourselves to the full on ones just yet!). So, honouring the wonder of Arnott's TimTams (the best biscuits in the world ever) they were named Tim and Tam. God bless them. Also have to mention the journey to the airport on a really fast train, reaching 500km/hr. Cool but kinda like a rollercoaster without the thrill.
Overall China was a love/hate relationship. An 'experience' to say the least. We sampled the best and the worst food, met some wonderful people as well as theiving b******s and marvelled at some of the most amazing buildings/sights, whilst choking on pollution. Glad to say we've done it, its been emotional, but bring on Singapore! Wok On!!!
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