27th of Dec- D-day
- Manchester left 1.05pm flew
- Arrival in Amsterdam 30 min lay over ONLY blonde haired blue eyed white girl waiting to get on my flight
Apparently after having been in either amsterdam or england i was still an exciting exhibt as i sat down a chinese girl leant across her boyfriend with her i-phone 4 and slowly pulled it up to a sufficient level in which to capture, immortally, my travelling attire consisting of no make up trackie bottoms and the worlds biggest oversized hoody........ WHY???????
- Amsterdam- flight path Moscow, Kazikstan, cross china boarder and 4 hours left until Shanghai
So lucky seat 9B= fantastic leg room
Food not to shabby, although potatoes for breakfast not quite sure on this still
However, not so cool having both men your sat between, (1 french, 1 German) fall asleep on you
Arrived on 29th of Dec in Shanghai, where we took the magluf (high speed metro train) to the train station which cost 40 RMB (30 with a Chinese student card) which went a 300 km/h, hovers instead of running on the track and then turns like a bobsled run ahhhh but good fun.
we then got the bullet train to Nanjing however accidentally got the 2 hour instead of the 1 hr 15 we weren't originally sat together but a nice Chinese guy swapped with him.
Got off and went to get a taxi..... flocked by fake taxi drivers thinking we were dumb tourists (well 2 anyway) trying to scam 80 rmb out of us when it only costs 15 to get to andrews hotel. You need to prepare yourself for Chinese driving, there is only two rules
- you concentrate on the person in front and hope the person is doing the same behind you
- the use of your horn is essential so as to inform fellow drivers of your presence, when wanting to insult a fellow driver wind down your window and hurl extreme abuse
Andrew lives in a hotel, nice and clean squat toilet... wow says it all.... another tip for you
NEVER run and jump onto a Chinese bed.... you will have a bIg shock when you don't bounce back up (mattresses are thin layers of foam)
I was hungry so he took me to his local digs formally known as Bird Flu Alley. This was a real insight into the Chinese way of life and slightly sickening at first glance however if you put aside the grubbiness of the utensils and the conditions you realise they are cooking on such high heat anything you may have caught would be killed
Bird flu is also home to an indoor market.... the pictures speak for themselves
Whilst I'm here I'm up for trying anything and want to try and not eat western so i tried what have quickly become my favourite snack, they are like a sweet sesame pitta style bread best served freshly after cooking. We also went and got his scooter oiled before a drive round Nanjing. the bike shop was literally the guys house him and three generations live in one room which acts as his garage his kitchen, his living room and bedroom and they all share one bed. It was awe inspiring.
Whilst waiting for the bike to be fixed i saw these interesting sites around the streets
We went for a drive round to the shopping mall andrew worked in selling lancolme and visited the lake which was beautiful. There are surprisingly a lot of christmas decorations around combined with rabbit figurines which i correctly guessed was due to it being the year of the rabbit!
Came back and went to the bar Talking across the road from the hotel and met his friends, a beer being 50p for a litre beer HELLOOOOOOOO
