Shanghai

Ok, so talking with my friend Barbie, I was reminded of my trip to Shanghai. So I thought it would be appropriate here..duh !

This is a picture of me at the waterfront in the Pudong District. Behind me is their equivelent of the Space needle. Everyone is preparing for the next night which will be the beginning of the Chinese New Year.

 Pretty much all of Asia celebrates Chinese New Year. For some it is just a few days off, for Chinese it is much different. I honestly can't tell you too much about it...The spirit of Chairman Mao might come to haunt me ! "Aahhhh....ancient Chinese tradition...You foreign man..you no spread our ways to the West !!" Yeah, whatever, got a fortune cookie ? Anyways, back on point, one of the main reasons for everyone setting off firecrackers and fireworks is to scare those pesky evil spirits away. C'mon now, really ? Loud noises scare away the boogeyman ?  My neighbor must have ghost in his apartment cuz the assclown is ALWAYS slamming his door ! 

So...this is a picture of one of the many,many , MANY street venders selling off handgrenades in a can. Did I mention that there are many of these stalls ? These will all be set off in front of their houses and their businesses. And this will go on ALL night long !

 

 



It's more like a controlled burn !

When you wake up , assuming you got to sleep in the first place...the fireworks will still be going on ! It leaves quite a mess. I was walking in the street in at least ankle deep, red paper, everywhere I went.








Well moving along. This was a nice trip, but not the most pleasant one. I went with my boss and some Korean co-workers and some of their friends.  A big no no I have learned. Koreans are very anal about their time. Everything is planned right down to what time to have a bowel movement...Sound funny ? I'm serious  on that one ! And of course they have a tourguide who only speaks Korean and Chinese. After half a day of not knowing what the hell is going on..I tell them I am jumping ship and striking out on my own. Nothing has really changed..I still don't know what the hell is going on, or where the hell I'm at....but at least I don't have to listen to someone yammering away in Korean !



I was very lost, but I managed to stumble into a few places like this



And this place too. It was part of a big market place. A couple of years later I saw this place again....In the Movie the Fantastic 4 haha

 



And then a few stilt walkers. There are ALL kinds of festivities going on like this everywhere !

 And then one of the most blessed site I had ever seen !!!

A classic example of East meets West

So the food was ok. The main problem was the ordering of it. No one in the place spoke any English. I was pointing at the board behind them, trying to make them understand what I wanted. I have no idea why, but they could just not figure it out ! So me, being the nice abrasive white guy from America, walked behind their counter, and put my hand on the Quarterpounder with Cheese picture...slapped it 2 times...then showed them 2 fingers...then pointed to myself.....rinse and repeat. They finally got that I wanted two of them...and I think they were apologizing for not understanding, and then they only charged me for one, not two. Score for me ! Saved like $1 US !

Well aside from getting plenty of cheap massages that was pretty much the highlights of my trip.

Taxi drivers are crazy...Thay will laugh at you if you put on your seatbelt in their car. Also most drivers are encased in a Plexiglass type window. If you're in the back seat or the front passenger seat, you can't touch them because of the barrier. You slip your money thru a little slip.

Shanghai is a massively sprawled out city. I found out the hard way. Not much English anywhere, so it is difficult using public transportation. I grabbed up brochures and business cards at the hotel and would show the drivers where I wanted to go.

The massages are good and cheap...but nowhere close to the quality of a Thai massage..I guess I may be too spoiled. And speaking of which, next month I will be back in Thailand enjoying the afore mentioned massages and living the easy live out of this cold snowy crap !

Hasta Luego !

T