Alpha's Summer Adventure

[Alpha eX]

Free WIFI in the Airport, awesome!

Jim, inside the pancakes was Durian fruit and cream. It was layered so the bottom half was the devil fruit and the top half was cream which I tried to eat without the Durian but it was tainted and tasted like a nasty poison.

TruGamez, it's less sugar and more ice poles for me on these tours. I'm hoping there are ice poles!!

Zenigame, don't worry, there will be LOADS of pictures, especially for these mini adventure tour type trips! We didn't take any of Pudding this morning as we left but there is a video waiting to be uploaded just for you, Pudding's biggest fan. Oh, lots and lots of food pictures too!

I really should have slept, as soon as we get off the plane, the tour starts and doesn't end until 8pm but, we're meeting Antonia's friend and going out most of the night...

[John Galt]

I'm really excited, can't wait to get to Shanghai, one of the first things we'll do there is travel on the fastest train in the world!

I'm probably not even going to go to the airport there but still plan on going on the train.

It's been an update overload today and all have been good. I look forward to your impressions of Shanghai.

[Hulohot]

Valiant effort with the last few updates Alpha. Thanks. Enjoy Shanghai.

[LewisD]

I want as many photos of you climbing on sacred monuments as possible.

[Alpha eX]

Good news, everyone!

The second hotel we're in has an internet connection, expect the first exciting update this evening. If you're lucky, you'll get today's one tomorrow morning before we check out.

We're hotel hopping so 4 hotels, thankfully, they're all 5 star. Just had an awesome room service hamburger

[Vishvanath]

Excellent thread, Alpha.

Thanks for sharing your adventure with us.

[Alpha eX]

Shanghai
11-07-09

We’re off to Shanghai today, our plane leaves at 8am but we have to meet the tour group at the airport for 5.30am. We had to leave the house at 5am but had an alarm set for 3am, foolishly, we didn’t get any sleep but still felt quite awake as we left for the airport.

We had to meet the tour group at the airport was because we had booked another package holiday tour with Hong Thai, a travel company that specialises in package holidays. We got a great deal for Shanghai, 5 days, 5 star hotels and also visit some of the surrounding cities. We met our local tour guide, Sally, at the check in counter along with the rest of the group. Sally was very unorganised compared to Victor, our last tour guide, she also seemed like a bit of a bitch. The tour group was mostly made up of families this time, last time it was couples but we seem like the only young couple on the tour.

Checking in and tickets are all sorted by the tour guide, we just had to collect our tickets. Thankfully, we were given seats next t each other this time and I got a window seat. With time to spare before boarding the plane, we went for something to eat. We went to Popeye’s, an American Fried Chicken fast food restaurant.



Not the best of foods to eat at 6am but I was hungry and it was just what I needed. We took longer than expected eating so headed straight through security to the boarding gate. No problems this time apart from me forgetting my Departure Card again. We flew with Dragon Air again for a short 2 hour flight, complete with awful plane food and rubbish entertainment.



We were health checked on the plane again as we landed, thankfully both of us were cleared despite my headache. Antonia’s new Hong Kong ID let her into the country and I used the second of my double visa to get into the country, no more trips to the main land after this. We got our luggage and was supposed to meet up with Sally, the tour guide. She was nowhere to be seen in the baggage collection hall so we went through the exit hoping she would be there, she wasn’t. After standing around looking for a second, we was approached by a lady who recognised our badges (which we have to wear on the tour), she was the local tour guide. She called Sally and she soon appeared with the rest of the group.



More Pictures of the Airport

We took our bags to the tour bus waiting outside the airport but was told not to board the bus, we were getting into central Shanghai by a new form of transport, The Maglev. The Maglev is like a train but runs over magnets which keep it levitated from the ground slightly.



We hurried on to the Maglev to get window seats but there was no need as it was quite empty. We sat down and spoke for a while when a small head appeared from between the seats in front. “Hello!! Hello Hello Hello blur bluah blurh!!” It was a small kid on our tour group trying to greet us with hello’s and an array of silly faces, he then proceeded to put his arm through and violently shake my hand, almost pulling it from the socket. The Maglev was fast, very fast, reaching 300km/h and our destination in only 8 minutes. When we arrived at the station, Antonia got a call from Yishi, one of our friends from London who had moved back to Shanghai. We arranged to meet Yishi later in the day but had to continue with the tour until then so back on the bus.



More Pictures of the Bus Ride

We pulled into a car park full of tour busses, a short walk from the car park and we had arrived in a large shopping square, Yuyuan Old Street. The area is built up with traditional style buildings full of souvenir and snack stands, it was originally one large shopping town but split into Old and Fashion Street. We were given free time to go and explore so we went off to find a snack.



More Pictures

We eventually found a place to eat, Crown Café. I was almost instantly drawn in by the sweet smell of cakes, almost put off by the Mickey and Minnie Mouse mascots clowning around outside. The place was full of cakes and pastries, I was spoilt for choice and felt like a kid, well, me in a sweet shop with the tray and tongs in hang to take what I wanted.



I choose just two cakes and got a chicken burger type roll for Antonia, it looked really good but I wanted and needed something sweet. As I was paying one of the staff members suggested I try one of their new specialty drinks, the Agar Ball Smoothie. Having no idea what it was, I chose strawberry. We took the food and ate upstairs as it was too hot outside to walk and eat.



More Pictures of Cakes

The first cake, the Strawberry Lavender Jam cake was instantly one of the best cakes I’ve ever had. A very soft white bun coated in a sweet strawberry like coating, sprinkled with coconut. Inside was a very light strawberry/lavender jam. It was perfect! The other bun was a bit crap, far too much cream for such a light bun, I only ate the sweet jam and a bit of the bun before leaving it aside. The drink was lovely, it’s a very tasty ice smoothie with small strawberry flavoured jelly balls. The balls are very soft and just pop in your mouth, it’s almost like eating bubble wrap, not that I’ve tried it...



We continued to walk around for the rest of our free time and shop for souvenirs. Most of the shops here all sell the same stuff, just different designs and slight variations on the price. In one of the shops I was looking at a fan for my mum, the saleswoman approached asking if I was interest and told us the price, it was high, we said no and she asked what we wanted to pay, kicking off a haggling session which lowered the price to a fair amount. With a few gifts for the family, we headed back to meet the rest of the group.



The bus ride from Yuyuan wasn’t too long, we passed through a built up area of Shanghai with many tall buildings including the odd looking TV Tower. I took a load of photos from the bus but the quality isn’t so great because of the dirty window I was behind.



More Photos

We pulled up close to the TV Tower and walked to the river side. The combination of the blazing sun and burning heat made me want to stay in the bus but we had to get off and walk around for a bit.



More Photos

We didn’t stay here for too long, just enough to take photos, it was a great view but too hot to properly appreciate it. When we got back on the bus the local tour guide spoke briefly which was followed by clapping as the bus pulled away. Apparently the driver had parked in an illegal spot to let us quickly look around the river side at the best spot.



Our next stop was the Pearl TV Station, a tall alien looking building that looks like a skewed onion of xmas tree decoration. There is a security checkpoint before you can get into the building, I got stopped and my laptop was taken away before I was allowed access. Apparently you’re not allowed to bring in laptops so I had to leave it and collect on the way out. We took the elevator up to the viewing floor quite near the top, didn’t take too long, apparently the elevator does 8 Meters per second.



More Photos

We got a great view from the top, just like a normal window view until we went down one level to the glass bottom floor. The whole floor is glass bottomed so it’s like you’re walking in the air, it was great. I’d never seen so much glass floor, usually it’s just a window in the ground but this was much better. I took a video to upload but Youtube is blocked in China so I can’t upload it until I get back, I can’t message my friends on Facebook or update my Twitter feed either, great...



More Photos

Here is the video from the top, I had to wait till I got back to Hong Kong to upload it.



We had to hurry back down the building to meet Yishi who was waiting outside. As we rushed for the exit I made a quick a stop at the ice cream shop. I got Lemon Sorbet and a White Chocolate Strawberry for Yishi as we had left her waiting for quite a while.



We hurried out of the building to meet Yishi but she wasn’t at the exit. We went around to the entrance, but she wasn’t there either. We couldn’t call her because Antonia’s mobile can’t make international calls. We finally found her waiting outside the courtyard of the TV tower. It was very easy to spot Yishi amongst all the tourists due to her tight, overly summery, low v-neck dress. We gave her the melted ice cream which she devoured at a pig-like pace, and headed to the nearby shopping mall.

We went to The Super Brand which is apparently the biggest shopping mall in China. The shopping mall was just across the road from the TV tower, so it wasn’t long until we were back in the nice air conditioning. The shopping mall was incredibly busy, with a constant flow of people entering the building. We later found out why...



We walked around the shopping mall for a while before coming across a huge crowd of people screaming, clapping and cheering for some Chinese boyband (pretty much Westlife with more makeup than Girls Aloud). We hurried past the crowd and headed to Toys’r’us. As we got in, I saw a Nintendo display. In China, it seems that Nintendo is branded as iQue. They had handheld N64 consoles and DSLites, both with the new branding. Apparently it is illegal to sell the imported consoles and games in China. There wasn’t much to see in Toys’r’us, so we headed to a Japanese restaurant for a mid-afternoon snack, Watami Shanghai.

Photos of the iQue

As we sat in the restaurant, Yishi made reservations for dinner at another restaurant for later this evening. I was surprised when Yishi and Antonia ordered so much food despite having booked dinner just a few hours later.



The food here was reeeaally good, the girls ordered lots of little appetiser dishes that seemed to just make me even hungrier than I was before I came in. I really enjoyed the deep fried chicken wings and small cubes of beefsteak.



More Photos

We left the restaurant with a few hours to spare, so looked around a few more shops before heading to an arcade on the top floor. The arcade was full of token games, typical arcade and a few music games. There were quite a few arcade games that were Chinese clones of existing games. There was a Supermonkey Ball game that looked really cool that had me standing on a balance board to play- sadly it didn’t work. The best clone game there was Percussion Master which is a superior clone of Taiko no Tatsujin. We mostly played the token games, and a few arcade games from the late 90s, including the brilliant armadillo racing game.



Armadillo racing is exactly how it sounds- you use a giant tracker ball to control an armadillo on the race course. It is easily one of the best arcade games that I’ve played in a long time. We stayed in the arcade for a few hours, spending only £10 in total. By the time we left, we were late for dinner, so hurried into a taxi to get to the restaurant.



This is a video of Armadillo Racing, it's awesome and a lot of fun to play. Very fast and hectic, a rush to get to the finish and a struggle to control the Armadillo at speed, I think in the video I roll him off a bridge, at speed.



The restaurant was recommended by Yishi because of the cool entrance mechanism where you have to press a secret code using stones in the wall to gain access to the restaurant. Sadly, at this branch, there were no stones, just a slot in the wall to put your hand in to activate the sliding gates that reveal the pathway to the restaurant.



The restaurant had a nice atmosphere, it was nice and relaxing, had low lighting and cool interior design. Since we were late, we had to wait at the bar area for 20 minutes before another table was free. While we waited for the food to arrive, I went to use the bathroom. I entered the hallway leading to the bathroom which turned into a mirror maze as I turned the corner. It took me a good few minutes to find a door which was a small toilet cubicle, as cool as it was, I wasn’t impressed as I really needed to go!



The food served at this restaurant is fusion food, a mix of all types of asian food with a slight western style and presentation. For example, the chicken spring rolls were served like long bread sticks which made them perfect for dipping.



More Pictures of Dinner

Dinner wasn’t that great, the food was pretty bad and for what it was, I feel it was overpriced. Midway through our meal we were joined by Sophia, another friend of ours from London who was back in Shanghai. We all had a great time catching up over dinner but called it a night after as we were all tired and had places to be in the morning.

We took a taxi back to the hotel and had already been checked in by the tour guide. The hotel was nice but we didn’t take long too look around before heading to our room and calling it a night.



More Pictures

Today was great, I think we had a much better time by leaving the tour group at the tower and heading out to meet Yishi. It was nice to catch up with her again after not seeing her for so long, meeting with a local is always the best way to explore a city. It was also nice and unexpected to see Sophia before she had to rush off. The arcade was a lot of fun and I don’t regret the amount of time we spent in here, Armadillo Racing is awesome, I really want to do that one again.

The food we had with Yishi for mid-afternoon snacks was amazing, the dinner, not so much but the restaurant decor and mirror maze half made up for it. Tomorrow we’re off to Suzhou so going to try get an early night as we have to be up by 6.15 to get the suitcase ready as we’re checking out in the morning.

[The People's ElboReformat]

Now I'm hungry.

[aayl1]

Great update. I still fervently read this thread.

The thought of all that awesome food you're eating makes me so jealous. I can't wait to get back out to Japan, really.

[Lionsheart]

The strawberry drink you had sounds a bit like 'bubble tea' or 'bubba tea.' Not sure though. I had it in London once. You either get bubble tea which is cold green tea and something else or you can get a fruit smoothie one. They both contain tapioca balls. Wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_tea

[John Galt]

£150 for a DS Lite. No thanks. I was expecting electronic goods in China to be cheap.

[Alpha eX]

I'm in Wuzhen now, it's really nice here, like a mini Venice, the whole town is build over water. I wish I had a decent camera to get some good pics, especially at night. Going to post the second update soon then maybe do the third. I'm so damn tired, it was boiling hot today and there are clouds of mosquitos in the air.

Unless there is a lot of discussion, this page is going to take ages to load when I finish the second update.

--

Alpha do you have a pic of what was inside those two weird pancake things or were you to busy yacking?

I sort of do, I took one after stabbing it a few times with a fork so it's very messy.

The strawberry drink you had sounds a bit like 'bubble tea' or 'bubba tea.' Not sure though. I had it in London once. You either get bubble tea which is cold green tea and something else or you can get a fruit smoothie one. They both contain tapioca balls. Wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_tea

Cheers for that info, will try find it in London but I doubt it'll be as good as it was here.

£150 for a DS Lite. No thanks. I was expecting electronic goods in China to be cheap.

That's in Toys R Us, Shanghai so it's very expensive there. In Hong Kong they're around £90 in Toys R Us, Antonia got hers for £70 with an R4. If you go to local markets, you get the electronic goods MUCH cheaper.

[The People's ElboReformat]

Are you the only foreigner on this tour as well then?

Befriended any more kids? (no pedo)

[bigcheez2k3]

I too would like too see what was inside the green pancakes.

Also one more post after this and we'll make a new page.

[Alpha eX]

Are you the only foreigner on this tour as well then?

Befriended any more kids? (no pedo)

It honestly feels like i'm the only foreigner in the country. Today we visited a temple and two Japanese girls started following me, they finally plucked up the courage to ask for a photo with me

I have actually befriended one of the kids here, I call him Bonkers. He's actually started calling me Big Brother now. His mother even asked me to look after him while we was at a large shop. He is very hyperactive.

[Alpha eX]

Suzhou
12-07-09

We had a wake up call for 6.15am and had to leave our suitcases outside the room for collection 7.15am before leaving after breakfast at 8am. We got out of bed at 6.50am, got the suitcases out by 7.30am and then managed to get some breakfast at 7.45am before making it to the bus on time. The morning was brutal as we’d only had a few hours sleep last night and no sleep the day before.



More Photos of Breakfast

The breakfast here wasn’t too bad, I had my usual of sausages, rice, ketchup, yoghurt and cake. The breakfast hall was much smaller than the hotel in Beijing but there was still of lot of choice to choose from. We finished quite early so waited around in the lobby. We was only in this hotel for one night because today we are off to Suzhou, a city about an hour and a half out of Shanghai. We were so tired on the bus and both fell asleep within moments of it leaving. I was woken up from a deep sleep and seemed to just drift off the bus into a building without realising where I was or what we was doing there. It didn’t take me long to realise where we were, a factory tour.



One thing that I really liked about the lobby here was a collection of badges and stickers from tour groups collected over the years. It really stood out and made a great picture which I later used as a desktop background.


Download High Res Version: Here

I was really annoyed, I woke up early for a factory tour, I wanted to go back to the bus to sleep but couldn’t escape, I had to go through yet another and probably the first of many more factory tours. This factory seemed to make animal statues, to be honest, I couldn’t care less. After a 15 minute talk about pictures on the wall, we entered the next room which was full of stools, lecture time.



I was half falling asleep when the kid from the first day got bored and started to cause mischief. He crept up to the front of the room, stood in front of the desk where the lecturer was talking and started mocking her with faces and hand gestures. The lecture was more interesting this way. After it was finished we were left in the room to look at the items on sale, leaving all the stools empty apart from the ones we were sitting on. We stayed seated until the kid ran up behind me and started tickling me, forcing me out of my seat and waking me up in the process. The kid then decided to collect and stack the stools, building a small tower of madness before proudly climbing it.



The kid is mental, full of energy and very mischievous, I named him Bonkers. I was surprised his mother let him run riot and build such a crazy tower in the middle of a sales room but she just looked very tired and worn out from having to handle such a wild child. I think he’s funny and makes boring places like these a lot more exciting.



We played with Bonkers while we waited to leave the sales room. He invited me to climb his tower, I did and stood on it so I could touch the ceiling. Bonkers stood in amazement for a few seconds before charging towards the tower, thankfully his grandma caught him in time! We were eventually released from the sales room and got back on the bus to the next location.



Our next stop was a small shopping village, I think called, Xintiandi. To get to the main square of the shopping village we walked through narrow alley ways lined with shops. We gathered at a fountain in the square before splitting up for free time to explore the area.



The sun was in full force and there wasn’t much shade to hide in so me and Antonia went off to find an ice cream shop. We saw a Haagen Dazs in the distance and made our way there but it was closed as it was not even 11am so it was still closed. We walked a bit further and found another Ice Cream place.



The ice cream here wasn’t that great, it was very thick and creamy, a bit too heavy and void of much flavour so we went for Mint Choc Chip this time as it had the most flavouring and was quite awakening. We headed back towards the fountain and found a nice, unique (from what we’ve seen) souivener shop that sold beautiful hand made clay pots.



I bought some candle holders as a gift and then we got back to the fountain where Bonkers had decided to run around the edge. It wasn’t long before the rest of the group arrived, along with a security guide to escort Bonkers off the fountain and give his mother a bad look. We got back on the bus and drove a short distance to another building, The Shanghai Friendship Store. Having no idea what it was I entered assuming we was getting lunch but then was led into a pearl store. Factory time.



While the rest of the tour were getting lectured and looking around at the pearls, me and Antonia found a nice sofa to rest on. We was here quite a while and finally started to fall asleep when the sound of a rolling coin caught my attention, shortly followed by running and a crash. It was Bonkers, he was rolling a coin around the shop and chasing it. I had to stop the kid throwing the coin wildly into the air because of all the glass display cases, it could have easily smashed them. I showed him the game where you hide the coin in one hand, he seemed happy to play this until it was his turn and I found the coin. Instead of handing me the coin, he threw it at me. We spent the rest of the time in the shop playing coin games with Bonkers until he found a fish tank, where he and his sister used the net in the tank to pick up a goldfish. We left with no damage and one petrified goldfish. Oh and we also got to try Pearl Tea, not so great.



We went for lunch at a restaurant in large tower building shopping centre. We sat in the same groups as the previous day, we was with a few small families on our table, the family with the eldest kids seem very snobby, as do the freakishly tall kids.



More Food

The food here wasn’t too bad, the meat was very soft but also dripping in oil. The sweet and sour chicken was lovely, not everyone was eating it so I nearly finished the whole dish myself, I love this stuff. The duck wasn’t too bad, a bit dry and lacking in much flavour. I didn’t really enjoy the rest of the food. As we was waiting at the table after eating, I heard the coin again, Bonkers had finished, was bored and wanted to play. We spent a while playing the coin game before a baby girl not on our group appeared in front of me, her mother beside her prompted her to say “hello, my name is Angela, can i play with you?”, it was incredibly sweet, so we played the coin game together, I had to watch Bonkers as he nearly threw the coin at the baby when she correctly guessed where he was hiding the coin, much to his disappointment. As the kid left her mother got her to say, “thank you for playing with me” before thanking me for being kind and wishing me well on my travels.



It was time to leave Shanghai and head for our next destination, Suzhou. Suzhou is a very quiet town full of nice houses with some of the contents even finer than what’s in the palace. Our first stop was the Suzhou Museum which to be honest, was a little boring. There is one nice feature of this place though, a small lake in the centre courtyard with a low bridge making a path across it. The building looks a little out of place as it is very modern with low detail and glass sheets.
Museum



Pictures of the Museum

After the museum we walked through a little town with local and souvenir shops. As I was walking past Antonia hit me in excitement, I had no idea why until I turned around and saw a guy walking a monkey! Well, it’s unfair to say walking as the monkey was hopping along with one leg. It was a broken monkey.



More Pictures of the Town

Our next destination was the Lion Grove Garden, named because of the hundreds of lion shape formations in the natural rock counted by Qianlong, one of the most famous and successful Emperors of the Tang Dynasty.



We spent a while walking around the small buildings while the tour guide gave a load of information and history I couldn’t understand and Antonia kindly translated. While this was going on, Bonkers had decided he would try to tickle me, sadly, he isn’t ticklish but thankfully, he can’t tickle, he just pokes and it hurts, especially under the arms which he is so keen on doing. I had to hide in the end.



Out of the buildings was the main feature of this destination, the lake with a rock garden. The rock here is different to usual rock, it takes strange shape and is very precious. I tried looking for the lions in the rocks but couldn’t see many, the Emperor apparently saw over 500, I think I saw two and one shaped like a monkey.



More Photos

I had a lot of fun in the rock garden because like a monkey, I was climbing all over the place. The paths carved through the rocks don’t allow you to get many places so I made it my mission to get to the highest and most inaccessible points. Crowds gathered to watch me climb and some people even took photos.



More Photos

We spent about an hour in the garden place, all the climbing worked up an appetite, I was starving. We got back on the bus and headed out for dinner. There was nothing special about this restaurant.



More Photos

The food here wasn’t good, me or Antonia hardly ate anything but the rice which hardly filled us up. There was one interesting dish here that I hadn’t seen before, Chicken Feet. It didn’t look good, I couldn’t eat that stuff. After dinner we waited in the lobby, taking photos as the decor was very traditional. I spent ages waiting for a chance to take Antonia’s photo at one particular place because it was popular, when I finally got the chance, lined up the shot... As I took the photo, Bonkers jumped up in front of the camera then continued to make faces into it before he got shouted at by his mother.



We went to the hotel straight after dinner. As we got into the Lobby I could tell it was going to be another good hotel and I wasn’t wrong, this place was really high class, I still can’t believe we get to stay in these places every night for so little. After such a long day, we was completely wiped out by the time we got back to the hotel room. Still hungry from the lack of dinner, we decided to order room service, while waiting, we decided to check out what was on TV and watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, rubbish film, bad direction and awful acting.



Today was very tiring because of the heat. It’s getting really hot out here now and almost unbearable, by midday I feel awful and just want to change clothes. If you visit a hot country like this, take a bag with a spare t-shirt and face towel at all times. The first half of the day was boring but Bonkers and his crazy antics really made the factory tours bearable. The second half of the day was tiring cause of the heat but the rock garden was a little cooler and a lot of fun to climb about.

[The People's ElboReformat]

Are you the only foreigner on this tour as well then?

Befriended any more kids? (no pedo)

It honestly feels like i'm the only foreigner in the country. Today we visited a temple and two Japanese girls started following me, they finally plucked up the courage to ask for a photo with me

Get in there.

I have actually befriended one of the kids here, I call him Bonkers. He's actually started calling me Big Brother now. His mother even asked me to look after him while we was at a large shop. He is very hyperactive.

You should charge the mother money for looking after her son.

[Lionsheart]

The place I went to in London was Cafe de Hong Kong (http://www.allinlondon.co.uk/restaurant ... t-3671.php). It's nothing special foodwise. They call the drink 'Ice Pearl Tea' or something similar.

[Lime]

It’s 3 days later and I still have the taste of Durian in my mouth.

I ate Durian about 4 years ago when I went to Indonesia- I agree, it's foul. I still get flashbacks. It repeats on you for weeks!





Fantastic thread! Keep it up!

[tnman]

Just had a massive catch up binge on Alpha's posts.

Awesome update Alpha.

"(NDS Boy) Gordon ^_^ ^_^"

I thought that said AIDS Boy at first!!!

It took this post to point out to me what it really said... Oh dear.

These guys are crazy.