Shanghai/Sea Day

April 18th/19th
Shanghai/Sea Day

The 18th was my second trip to Shanghai, and another well spent day. I left the ship early that morning to take the shuttle into the city with my friend Terry. After having a Chinese girl on the shuttle write down in Chinese the name of the street we were heading for, we hopped in a cab and made our way to a busy shopping area of the city (Cabs in Shanghai are super cheap, our eight minute ride cost 11 RNB, or about $1.50). It was a lovely area, very modern, and this main street was for pedestrians only. We were looking for a Thai food place someone had recommended, but after an hour of searching and exploring this area, we ended up going to an underground food court sort of place and had a decent lunch. I never mind finding places like that in these areas because there’s a reason they are packed with locals – cheap and good. I had some kind of duck which made a decent lunch. From there, I wanted to branch out a little more, so Terry and I started making our way down side streets, slowly removing ourselves from the shopping area. The first place we came to that caught his attention was a small tea shop, and Terry had a few things he wanted to pick up, so we spent some time in the shop. There was a younger Chinese girl who was running it, and as she tried to explain the different products, we asked to try some of the tea. For the next 45 minutes or so, this girl made us tea the right way (not Lipton bags in a glass thrown in a microwave), and we were able to sample a green, oolong, and jasmine tea. It was neat just hanging out there and watching the girl clean the glasses in the boiling water, strain the leaves, and prepare the tea, exactly the kind of cultural activity I love to do. Terry ended up buying about $40 worth of tea - I bought one tin of jasmine - and we left for the next place that seemed interesting.
That next place happened to be a massage parlor where we both got foot massages. The rooms were really nice and clean, there was no problem with the language barrier, and massage cost us both a total of $6! Yep, a great 50 minute foot massage for $6, while we laid our respective beds watching some weird Chinese TV show. I’ve never had a foot massage before, and considering I’m terribly ticklish, I wasn’t quite sure how this was going to work out, but my feet felt great afterwards. And considering how much walking I do, it was probably the best thing I did all day, not to mention the health benefits (reflexology).
From there, we just started walking the city. By this point, we only had a general idea of where we were, but that wasn’t a concern because of the cab situation. Our next stop was a bakery and a café where we could just hang out for a bit and relax. Some areas of Shanghai are incredibly busy, and it’s amazing how the environment changes from tourist central to dirty local streets back to heavy tourism in the matter of blocks. The local streets were great though, you see set-ups at these places that you’d never see in the US, mostly because it’s just plain illegal to do what they do there in the US. We walked down a street where most shops sold animals, probably not as pets. But there’d be huge open fish tanks and buckets of fish, along with hundreds of live turtles stuffed into large bags (similar to those used for oranges), and odd wicker cages, each filled with a gigantic cricket. It was really unbelievable, but I’m sure an intricate part of the society.
And we simply continued walking, till about 5:30 when we thought it might be a good idea to try to get back to the terminal to catch the shuttle back at 6. The shuttles ran each hour, with the last one departing at 7:00, so we figured if we aim for the earlier shuttle, we’d be building in a buffer period…something we ended up needing. It took forever to find an empty cab. Maybe it’s just where we were, but between the heavy traffic and occupied cab’s, it took forever to get a ride back. I did eventually see a cab stopped at a light three lanes over in the middle of traffic that was open, so I made a run for it and he was able to take us to the terminal, after what must have been 30 minutes of traffic (but still only a $3 ride). But everything worked out and we ended up taking the late bus back to the ship, which was no problem.
That night was boat drill and that was about it for the day. I forgot to mention at the last Shanghai, during my boat drill, I had some little kid vomit all over my station, I don’t think the guests were too happy about it (just had to mention it).
Next day was a sea day, so it was the usual with a big band set at night. Thanks for reading and I hope everything’s well after the earthquake I read about in the Midwest!