Shanghai Airlines Travel Hotel (Shanghai, China)

This hotels main redeeming feature is that it is extremely close to the South Railway station (about 5 mins by taxi). Prices includes breakfast and the room price is quite reasonable. There are good options for dinner nearby and the room has free broadband internet (the cable is in the drawer).

However, the beds were really hard. Really really hard. The breakfast wasn’t so good – toast wasn’t hot, there was no juice or cold water (there was hot orange tang), some of the dishes were ok, but most were just mediocre. Breakfast was served on the 8th floor, to get there, you had to take the elevator to the 7th floor, then walk a flight of steps to the 8th floor, not suitable for someone who has trouble walking. The wiring in the rooms was bad – when you sat on the bed, the lamp flickered on and off, scary! In the middle of the night, someone tried to enter our room, they had a card that worked, all that stopped them was the bar that we put across the door from our side.

Overall? It’s really close to the train station, so if you’re coming in really late/leaving really early, it’s an ok option, but the beds were hard, the wiring scary, and the overall feel of the place not too clean. Plus the incident with someone trying to break in to the room left an unpleasant feeling.

Grand Skylight Garden Hotel (Shanghai, China)

We stayed here on a recent trip and enjoyed the quiet this hotel offered. It was relatively close to the airport (about 1 hour by taxi) and close to the Shanghai South Railway Station (about 10 minutes by taxi).

This hotel is next door to the Botanical Gardens, there are trees and birds everywhere, loads of greenery, and an entrance to the gardens from the hotel (although we couldn’t figure out how to get through the gate). The breakfast was great (although we booked a villa for 3 people, we only had 2 included breakfasts, so we had to pay for the third). We stayed in a villa, which had 2 bedroom, kitchen, dining room, tv room, 2 bathroom and a laundry. Check in staff were fantastic, had us checked in and in our rooms in about 10 minutes and the Chinese restaurant was fantastic.

One of the beds in the villa was really hard (but that’s often the case with Chinese beds). The fridge in the villa didn’t work. Only 2 breakfasts were included in a 3 person room (as per above) and there weren’t alot of restaurants in the nearby area. Whilst the reception area was gorgeous, the villa itself was a little run down. The business centre staff didn’t speak a lot of English, they booked tickets for our train trip the next day, but it was hard work.

Overall, a recommended hotel, particularly if you’re flying into Shanghai and planning on taking a train out (from the Southern Station) the next day. Also great if you’re looking for somewhere to base yourself whilst exploring Shanghai, particularly as a family group, as the villas are great value.

Old Russian Jeeps and 13 hour buses

Asia ~ China ~ Beijing & Mongolia ~ Ulan Baator

Where to begin? Once again, I’ve been lazy about updating my blog – my excuse? I’m in holiday mode!!! Last week, we headed off to Mongolia via train – we had ‘soft sleeper’ (first class), but it was an old train – NO AIR CONDITIONING!!! It was horrible! Couldn’t even have the window open (our fan broke on both trips) as the sand from all the deserts comes in, something we didn’t learn until after the first trip… When we arrived in Ulan Baator (Mongolia), after the train trip, the very first thing I wanted was to have a shower. For the past 13 hours, there had been sand and dust slowly pouring into my hair all night. Alas, there was to be no shower for a very very long time…

We wandered into town (had no map, and didn’t understand enough to know what to pay for a taxi, so we just guessed which way to go – my way was the right way in the end!)… After walking about for a couple of hours, we got some directions to where our hostel was supposed to be, and headed that direction (a good 1.5km away). Once there, we still couldn’t find it. Queried at a supermarket, where all the girls went out of their way to help us (they spoke no English, I spoke no Mongolian, we communicated through gestures). Eventually, one of the girls took us to a telephone shop to call the hostel (I had the number written down in my diary). Turns out the number had been disconnected. Hmm. So we found an internet cafe – and after about half an hour of searching, we found that the hostel had moved and not updated it’s address. Off we tumbled again… We never did find the hostel, at about 11.30pm (we had arrived in town at about 8am) we found a hotel for $25 a night and decided it would do – the manager didn’t speak any English, but was very nice, and we collapsed into bed, but not before jumping in the shower and discovering… THERE WAS NO HOT WATER!!! Not only that, but the water was incredibly cold, middle of winter Mongolian type cold (ok, maybe not that cold, the water probably freezes in the middle of winter, but close enough). I had a 3 second sponge shower, then attempted to wash my hair – my head still hurts thinking about that cold water. We ended up staying at the hotel for all of our trip – it was cheap, the people were friendly, and we figured we’d have cold showers no matter what hostel/hotel we choose.

The Trans-Mongolian Train

We spent our days wandering Ulan Baator and marveling at how nice and friendly the people were. Most people were willing to help us find things and were happy to help – despite the desperate lack of a common language. The weather was deliciously cool (coming from hot Beijing), although the sun was nice and strong. We were pleasantly surprised to find that Mongolian ‘supermarkets’ (often just convenience store size) stock many luxury items that Chinese supermarkets don’t, at great prices. Chocolate yogo’s and nutella were the top of Matt’s list, whilst I was in love with the ‘bounty’ chocolate bars and REAL (non-sweet) bread. Yum. Seriously lacking was something we thought would be in abundance – cheese. Turns out we were just looking in the wrong places, and it wasn’t the type of cheese we were expecting, so we didn’t notice it. We also trooped out to the black market – a huge market on the edge of town, selling absolutly everything, from clothing to goats milk, to horse rugs and high heels. Plenty of things to see and people to watch – getting back was harder than anticipated when we realised that we had no idea where any of the mini-busses were going and would have to rely on a taxi driver who spoke no english. Matt saved the day with a sketch of a horse, indicating the statue of a horse in the middle of town. Our taxi driver figured it out straight away and off we went.

The Black Market (Naram Tuul)

The journey back wasn’t as easy our trip there, but it was an experience none-the-less. Instead of booking a train direct from Ulan Baator to Beijing (which would have been expensive, and probably sold out anyway), we caught an overnight train to Zamyn Uud (the Mongolian side of the border). The train itself was nothing special, no fan, no airconditioning, but we did get free cups of tea! We also made friends with a Mongolian guy on his way to visit his son and wife in Singapore – a friendship that turned out to be very handy. Once in Zamyn Uud, we (with the help of our new friend) caught an old russian jeep to cross the border. Once again, I found that being a foreign female helped me – Matt was squished in the back with about four or five other guys, while I had the front to myself! The jeep drove us to the border, where we waited in line for about an hour and a half. Although everyone jumped out of the jeep and wandering around, I was happy to stay in (the sun was incredibly strong, I’m trying so hard not to get burnt) and chat to the driver instead. As the driver spoke no English or Mandarin, and I spoke no Mongolian, all of our conversation was done through gestures. After exhausting my possible topics of conversation (i.e. “I’m tired” and “It’s hot”), the drive got sick of me, and made his younger companion drive while he had a cigarette. Lucky driver #2 also got to chat with me about the weather and my lack of sleep…

Eventually we made it over the border and into Erlian (the Chinese side of the border). Saying bye to our new friend at the bus station (he was going to catch a bus to Beijing – we thought he was crazy, a bus for 10 hours? No thanks!), we headed to the train station. Only to discover that it was a Chinese Holiday (‘Lovers Day’) and no trains were running. Back to the bus station we headed, where we met up with our friend again, and bought tickets for the 10 hour (which was, in reality, 13 hours) sleeper bus to Beijing. After lunch with our Mongolian friend, we boarded the bus to discover that it had no seats – instead, it was full of bunk beds! Reasonablly comfortable (for the average not-tall person), they allowed us (well, me anyway – Matt belongs to the tall category) to get a bit of rest on the trip to Beijing. Arrival in Beijing was pleasant, we now know this city, so getting a taxi was relatively easy, and we were able to grab some McD’s for brekky (it was 6am!) before stumbling into bed…

Me in the old russian jeep

Since our return, we’ve been lazying about and attempting to organise a visa extension for Matt. Many dramas (laws changed on August 1st regarding extensions, making it more difficult), but it appears the extension is now under way. Trains are books, flights are booked, we are leaving Beijing for Shanghai next Friday – yey! Now to get all the last minute shopping done and see all the places I forgot to visit… In between all this, we are still finding ways to truly experience the Chinese culture – Last night we spent the night at a hairdressers, where we all got our hair cut and washed for only 15 yuan (a bit over $2). And no, it wasn’t me and the girls – it was me and the boys who thought up this fabulous way to spend an evening! After the hairdressers, we toddled off to an internet cafe that was packed, where we spent a good two hours playing computer games (Battlefield and other such gun-toting games) with the rest of the under-25 male Chinese population. An interesting night to say the least.

China is getting into gear for the olympics, some-thing we are reminded over and over again each day. On August 8th, we went to the ‘pre-versary’ of the 2008 Olympic Games at Tianamen Square – the 365 day countdown has began! The official theme song ‘We are ready’ was released (you can preview this amazing song here), and advertising can be seen all over the television, on buses, buildings, at McD’s, on billboards – everywhere! Perhaps my favourite television add is one which features a number of smiling people doing ‘good deeds’, such as stopping for pedestrians at a pedestrian crossing and holding a lift door open for some-one – it seems these adds are trying to ‘train’ the population as to how to behave for the olympics? An amusing ad none-the-less.

And so, we are left with the task of packing up the apartment (ooh, that’s right, need another suitcase!) and getting ourselves down to Shanghai, where we’ll be for a few days, before Hong Kong, and then home! Hope all is well, xoxo

Two Waiguoren. Two Umbrellas. And a helluva lot of lightning!

Asia ~ China ~ Beijing

So I’m in holiday mode. Not going-around-the-world holiday mode, not crazy-busy-study-chinese-in-shanghai holiday mode, not bead-show-in-perth holiday mode, just plain HOLIDAY MODE! As such, I have very little of interest to write about. Every day has been a lazy crazy china kind of day…

Much of last week for me was spent in bed – turns out my body went into shut down at the thought of either a) dodgy chinese water/food or b) dodgy chinese hot weather and packed busses. Either way, I had a nice case of food sickness/heat stroke and spent most of my waking hours attempting to keep down the various Western Foods (combination of McD’s and Subway) down. Not nice. Feeling much better now – the question is, did I learn my lesson? Probably not, the dodgy chinese street food is soooo yummy, and it’s hard to stay cool on a crowded bus in Beijing’s summer.

Street food

We have spent most of the last week attempting to get to the various visa offices in Beijing. First stop was the Chinese Embassy to get an extension on Matt’s visa – it expires about a week before we’re due to leave China. Day one consisted of us getting up at about 4pm and realising that, even with superpowers, we’d never make the visa office in time. Day two we got up at about 3pm and realised the same thing. Day three saw us up at about 12pm – we were on the streets and down to our local metro station by 3pm, to find out that it is closed. For the next two weeks. Nice. Bus to the right area got us there by 5pm. Day four – we gave up. We’ll get the visa later. Similar story to us getting our visa for Mongolia (we’ve decided to head there for a week sometime soon) – except the visa office is only open 9am to 11.30am, not really convenient given our current predicament at leaving the apartment before dark.

We’ve spent our afternoons wandering town once the sun goes down, and we’ve seen some interesting sights. The other night, on our perpetual search for the perfect supermarket, we stumbled across a large group of mainly older chinese women dancing in unison. Maybe dancing is the wrong word – they were moving there arms and shaking their hips to popular western and chinese songs, with the vigour of an aerobics lesson. We joined the men on the grass as these women continued their exercise class for over an hour… Who would have thought that watching chinese women do the nutbush would be so entertaining.

Dancing to the beat

Today/tonight we finally ventured out of our apartment at 8pm, in search of food. Our search led us to Wangfujin, where we wandered and finally settled on Japanese, mmmmm. Unfortunately, our walk home was not so nice, when is started pouring rain. Not so bad, considering we both had umbrellas. And then the lightning started. There’s nothing quite like walking through a lightning storm with an umbrella to get the heart racing.

Hope the weather is being kind to you all… Catch me on msn 🙂

bobs

There. Is. An. AIR-CONDITIONER!!!

Asia ~ China ~ Beijing

Ahh, back in Beijing. Finally on hols again! Where to begin… My trip started with a phone call at 12:30am on the night/morning that I was to leave – “do u want to go out clubbing in the city, then we’ll drop u at the airport”… NO! Flight was relatively uneventful – decent food, had a 1 hour stopover in Hong Kong, which stretched out to a 4 hour stopover when my flight was delayed. Matt was waiting at the airport though, so a friendly face was most definitely appreciated! We got me and my stuff up to our apartment (right in the middle of Beijing), where I quickly sussed out the place (photos to come later). Best surprise was the air conditioner in my room (thanks Matt :)).

Street food outside our apartment

For the first couple of days whilst staying here, Matt had friends from his Hong Kong uni staying here – Marcus from Sweden and Tim from the U.S. Our days have consisted of sleeping till about 11, then up and mucking around till it’s safe (i.e. not hot hot hot, just hot hot) to go out. Then shopping, lunch and dinner… We’ve also been getting ourselves organised – first day was spent buying mops, detergent and finding a post office. Mop and detergent were obviously to get this apartment into order (was a pigsty!) – post office was for a completely different reason… Turns out I accidentally bought mum’s car keys with me, and she only has one set… oops. Luckily, after calling her, they found the spare, so I have been saved, phew.

Our apartment has internet access, you’d think getting that organised would be relatively easy. Not so. Matt had already bought a router so we went about setting that up – turns out the broadband here comes with a password – which we have – but it only allows one puter to be hooked up at a time. Useless for us. After a lot of mucking about, we have my macbook hooked up to the net, and is sending the internet to wirelessly to Matt’s – who would have thought?!

Halfway through setting up our net, the power went out. “Hmmm”, I thought, “it’ll just be a quick power-outage”. “Whoops” says Matt… Turns out the people he rented the apartment from had told him something about the power… Now what was it… In the end, he figured out that the electricity is on a pre-paid system – you charge up your electricity card at the bank, then put it into the meter outside the apartment. Very useless information at 11pm on a hot night… Got the electricity sorted out and am now keeping a keen eye on the meter.

Other than our technology issues, we have been shopping, eating and exploring Beijing. Went with the boys and Eric, a local guy, to the electronics market the other day. Poor Eric had never been to such a place with foreigners – the vendors swarmed and Eric was the center of attention – he got pulled this way and that. Don’t think he’ll be making that mistake again. Had Peking Duck for dinner last night – YUM. Also visited the hill overlooking much of Beijing (including the Forbidden City), the plan for today is yet to be decided. Might be a jama day…

Eric, Matt & Tim overlooking Beijing

Hope all are well… We’re in Beijing for about 2 months – if you’re in the area, be sure to drop by!

xoxo
bobs