Damn You Facebook!

Facebook - I love it, use it all the time, but I realise that it is the reason I haven't written on my blog for nearly 3 years. This travel blog was started as a way to record all my trips and let people at home know what I was doing. But then, along came Facebook, and made it so much easier to post photos and quick updates on where I was and what was happening. It was a lot less effort than blogging, and so I didn't mind the decline of my blog. I thought - this is what happens, new technology comes along, and you change and adapt.

But. I have been going through this old blog now, and realising how the extra effort of blogging was actually worth it. So much more detail. Such funny stories. Things I totally forgot! You can really capture my mood - and I am sure I will appreciate it as I get older, and already regret that I didn't record anything since July 2009!!!

It isn't like I haven't been doing anything. I have been on some trips, had big events (did I mention my wedding in 2009? Don't think so - whoops. Lots has happened. Shall I recap?

2009

Moved back to Australia, and lived in Aidan's parents house while they were in Perth.

Went to NYC for two weeks on a $900 flight with my friend Christina - which I actually did chronicle.

First fostered, then adopted, a crazy little dog called Snorty, which was rechristened Coco, then quickly rechristened again to Croco, after she stopped her good behaviour and went back to the ways which has resulted in her being returned to the pound TWICE!

Also, got married - at the Australian museum, which I didn't write anything about and maybe I should have. It was small, fun, but...well, let's just say I am not the 'bridal' type, and am glad to never have a wedding again. The benefit, obviously, was that I got to marry the most perfect man for me in the world.

This was also the first year of my business - talk about an emotional roller coaster - but three years on I can say that it is going fine.

In December that year I went to China and Hong Kong - for business and pleasure. Still haven't been back to Hong Kong, which makes me mad! My favourite place on earth.... For business we went to Beijing and Shanghai, then 10 nights in Hong Kong on the way home. We didn't do much work, ate a lot, and had a christmas food extravaganza at the Marriott buffet!

We also spent a day in Macau - my generous cousins, Kenny & Co, picked us up from the ferry, and drove us around all day long to see the sights. We ate yum cha, Portugese custard tarts, saw fishing villages, the big cathedral (or remains of), and of course - casinos. Finished off that night with a lovely meal at a Portugese/Chinese restaurant, and back to Hong Kong on the boat.

Also in Hong Kong we went to Disneyland - of the three I have been to (Paris & LA were the others) Hong Kong was by far the best.

2010

In 2010 we continued on with the business, kicked out our renters and moved into our flat. It was at this point which I achieved my most proud achievement - of my whole life!

Getting Croc into our flat. The neighbours in our block of flats were particularly nasty about Croc, having never met her, seen her or anything. They said a blanket "There are no dogs allowed, and never will be! (maybe a cat)". Well, we tried to reason, we tried to negotiate - to no avail. They would not listen, or bend in the slightest. Now, while we understand you dont' want a barking annoying dog in a flat, we knew croc would be fine (she only barks at pedestrian traffic, and she wouldn't be able to see it.)

So, we took them to a tribunal and despite the fact that they tried to scare us by saying "Our application is being written by so and so, who is a solicitor" - we WON! WE WON! I remember clearly I was in the sushi train at Crows Nest when Aidan gave me the news, with Christina, and we ran home, and went and got Croc, and took her to the flat!

Gratifyingly, the biggest biatch in the building saw us come in with croc and instantly rang the Strata manager, who then rang us to tell us we couldn't have Croc until agreement from the Tribunal. AHAHAHAH I had SUCH pleasure telling htem I had it, and I have such pleasure, to this day, swanning around with Croc, letting Croc wee out the front on the verge, etc. etc. Even when the biatch walks past me with Croc and says "YUCK" really loud.

p.s. we saw the application the 'solicitor' made - I feel sad, she must be dyslexic.

So, that was one of the best achievements of 2010.

2010 was also the year of our first anniversary, which coincided with travelling to Vanuatu for Sharon Keller's wedding. A big holiday with lots of friends, it was very fun, and Aidan got to pat a Dugong.

Also in 2010, I turned 30. To celebrate, we visited Nerissa & Andrea on the way to China for work meetings.

We stayed in their apartment in Dubai for a couple of weeks, then went for a few nights at Bab Al Shams, for my actual birthday. Bab's is a desert resort out of Dubai, and is the most beautiful hotel I have ever stayed in.

We had drinks on the roof and watched the sunset, swam in the pool overlooking the desert, had a 'high tea' of sorts, and went to an Emirati spectacular for my dinner. The couple of days, which was to celebrate my 30th, involved me twice being mistaken for a child.

1. On checkin, the valet was walking us from the car to the front desk, and he was saying something to me, kind of mumbling, and it sounded like "do you want a lollipop", so I just kind of smiled and nodded. When he brought me said lollipop, Andrea was outraged and asked for one for the rest of us!

"

2. At the Emirati extravaganza restaurant, Nerissa and Andrea could barely hide their laughter, as the receipt had charged us for 3 adults and one child.

Us females keeping our surnames was another thing to confuse the Emirati's who called me Miss Moore, Nerissa was Mrs Moore, and Andrea was Mr Moore.

After 2 nights there, we went driving through the desert for hours and hours to Oman, to our hotel on the coast at Muscat. RIGHT on the coast - it was beautiful and we spent hours in the warm ocean. We took drives out into the pebbly and rocky Omani desert, to a fort in the middle of nowhere, and ate on the floor in a private room at a 'traditional' Omani restaurant. The room had a tv, which we didn't use. The food was kind of disgusting, and the innocuous sounding "Omani bread" turned out to be a disgusting bread in milk affair.

This month also saw us going to Beijing for work, and later Shanghai for Amy Zhao's wedding to Neo. Located in 'Thames Town' in Shanghai, which is a faux English town, the wedding was outside, next to a boat, on which we then took a 10 minute ride around the lake, then proceeded inside for a big banquet, where we were on the bridal table. (Similar to when Amy took us to her friend's wedding, we were on the bridal table even though we had never met the bride).

2011

Must remember to finish writing this post later - it involved - a month in Paris, trip to Dubai for christmas, moving in to our first office and hiring some staff....

Also, involved two hospitalisations only 2 weeks apart. The first when I smashed a wine glass making scones for the Royal wedding, and cut an artery and had to go to the hospital, where they gave me morphine for twice my weight and didn't realise the deepness of the cut until 5 hours later when I had actually sprayed blood high in the air like a geyser. The grossest thing to happen to me ever! The pain of needles into the cut was revolting.

Two weeks later I was hospitalised the day after Aidan's birthday, for my kidneys. Of course there is still 'nothing wrong with them'.

An Incomplete Post on NYC

Due to the recession, I was able to go on a fantastic holiday this year. For $908 I got a return flight to NYC with my friend Christina.

While this seemed blessed, it was actually fraught with bad omen happenings. First, my free accommodation fell through, meaning it would cost more than I originally thought. Then, when I went to pick up the US dollars I ordered online from the North Sydney Westpac branch - I discovered it had been blown up the night before by the ATM bandits. Then, the swine flu hit just days before we left, and some cases were seen to be in NYC (from spring break uni students returning from mexico - and I was staying with a uni student).

Add to this the fact that I was going away over Aidan's birthday (me being absent minded and mean), and that I had massive guilt over our new business/no money/responsibility to work, and I wasn't feeling completely fab about this holiday.

However, some good omens were around too. I got alternative accommodation with my friends Nicole and Will who I met in Shanghai. Christina and I got UPGRADED to premium economy from Sydney to NYC, which was awesome, and I don't want to go back to economy.
So, as per usual, despite being in a nicer class, I still hated the flight. I think it is the air on board - it makes me feel ill, makes my skin dry, my nose run, my throat hurt, my hair be disgusting.

Qantas to the US was much more retarded than I remember it being for my trips to Shanghai. They were disorganised and slow, and there were constant big long waits. At Los Angeles we had to do an annoying, slow changeover. But there was one piece of comedy gold. At LAX, we were lining up (for the 2384th time that day), when I spied next to the elevators and behind a poll, far away from the security people, a lone denim handbag. Being my alert but not alarmed self, I thought I would tell security because #1 it was an abandoned bag, and #2, it was a horrible ugly denim bag, which no one would care being blown up. But to my surprise, in what I thought would be the most security conscious country in the world - the abandoned bag was actually owned by security personnel, so there was no cause for alarm. Maybe it was just a test.

Frugality (is that a word?) went out the window as soon as we arrived into the city - we got a cab from the airport. If I was with Sue-Ellen there would have been no consideration of a shuttle bus I am sure. Arrive at Will and Nicoles- beautiful apartment in a fantastic location. so lovely. went out for mexcian and walked around the neighbourhood.

For the first 5 or so days, I woke crack of dawn due to the time difference, and would do some work, email some people, skype with Aidan, before going downtown on the tube to meet christina.

Our first few days of shopping were quite adhoc, as we wandered aimlessly (like my last time in NYC). But we did eat at a yummy patisserie where I got the BEST chocolate eclair (better than Paul and Chatswood, but not as good as the chocolate mille feuille.)

First purchase in NYC - we each got a pair of plastic haviana looking thongs for $2.k50 so we could get a manicure and pecdicure. also, very comfortable.

We went to bridal garden to try on wedding dresses, but the dresses made me feel wierd - I would feel uncomfortable in that kind of a get up. Went to a thrift store - tried on pouffy wedding dress, but actually didn't mind it.

In the evenings I generally came back to Nicole and Will's flat while christina went out to bars with her friends, because I am quite the homebody. It was an excellent balance of holiday and normality, meaning that every day I was quite relaxed and refreshed.


One morning I went for a neighbourhood walk (upper west side - lovely area) with will and nicole and saw Zabar's, H&H bagels, the Dakota, and then had smoked salmon cream cheese bagels at a recommended place - huge. no more food all day. Went down town to meet christina, and tried on wedding dress again in thrift store. still not sure. then went to greenwich village whree we wandered all day and I bought things for everyone else except myself - annoying. Bought myself a second hand book, called 2 histories of England - one written by Jane Austen and one by Charles Dickens, in their own styles, which I think might be good. THen I came home to get reeady for a night out wiht will and nicole. we first went down to greenwich village to a variety show being held in a bar/pub. We had to rack up a minimumbill with horrible bar food, but the entertainment (magicians, comedians, poets and singers) was not too bad, not amateur at all. Then we went uptown, to little Korea, for some karaoke, which Nicole and I dominated as per usual, but really, if you aren't going to pick songs, then how are you going to get to sing? After that we went to an American diner where I had a milkshake (beautiful) and macaroni cheese (horrific, but everyone else helped me so that was fine).

And this is where the blog post deteriorates into partial comments and reminders...to be fixed up in the future....or not...probably not...

Up the road from nicole's flat is the Alice in Wonderland cafe, where I went with nicole and Christina. Sooooo cute. Teapots, morning tea cake stand. ..v. cute. then walked with DMF across park. saw his baby and fancy apartment. Met Freya and her friend for lunch. Accidentally ordered the seafood platter. Went shopping in midtown in the afternoon. Got $5 t-shirt and $10 dress from Urban outfitters. Home for dinner, Will gave me spaghettin

Woodbury common - bus out through the country side. High end goods on special. Shouldn't buy high end goods anyway really. v. bad. and they are not me. Did buy Jimmy Choo's for wedding though. And I think they are the same ones I tried on in London with Sue at Selfridges like 2 years ago and said 'I want to wear these to my wedding!!!!', and now I am. how funny.

Brooklyn - Prospect Park, One Girl Cookie (amazing), NZ pie shop - rip off, and sausage roll no good anyway.

Lincoln Centre string ensemble

photography exhibition - Fashion Photography - International centre of photography - Avedon fashion collection 1944-2000 - very very good, despite my non-knowledge of fashion

bought my wedding dress at a small independent boutique in Greenwich Village. Very plain, and not cheap. Will be the first bride to have pockets I imagine.

Shake Shack

UN Markets

Central station food

central park - jennifer aniston

Cowgirl in Greenwich village

Staaten Island Ferry

Battery Park

free $15 voucher from a stranger!!! In Bloomingdales.

NYC is fun and interesting, but not really my kind of city. While London can be pretentious (and so can Sydney, and Shanghai), in NYC it is too in your face. Everything seems to be about appearances, which I dislike (my good friends Nicole and Will obviously bucked this trend). Also, they have this work-hard play-hard culture which is just so not me.

So while it is the favourite city of loads of people I know, it isn't for me, and I think it will be a while till I go back.

Managing Freak Outs

Starting a new business is not meant to be easy - if it was, everyone would do it, because the perks are unbelievable. All your work is done to benefit yourself and your time is yours to do with what you want. I can stay at home in my dressing gown during winter if I want or go to the beach all day in summer. When the sky is blue I don't have to stare out the window and wish I was enjoying it, and when it is raining I don't have to worry about commuting through it.

The downside to the business is that it has brought a new uncertainty to my life - though I should be used to it by now. I have quit jobs in the past with no job to go to, so maybe this is easier for me than for other people who have been tied to a wage for longer.

Still, I find myself worrying about my uncertain income stream and need to give myself mantra's like:

"At these uncertain times, no one really has job security (except public servants, and you already tried and rejected that), so it isn't like you are the exception to the rule"

"Living with uncertain income makes you appreciate the money you do have a LOT more"

"Considering it is year 1 of the company, and a global economic crisis - we only need to keep our head above water for it to be considered a success"

Most importantly though, when I worry that I have done the wrong thing in chucking in my job, I just have to ask myself "Would I want to go to the office today for $xx?". The answer has so far always been no.

Tracy's New Adventure

I haven't updated this blog for quite a while I know. I have not had any more travel stories to write, because I am now back in Australia.

In December 2008 I moved from Shanghai to Sydney, where I am now living and having my very own at home adventure - quite literally actually. Aidan and I have started our own business, from home (for now).

We opened an office for Aidan's UK company in Shanghai, and they were a digital marketing company. After that experience, we decided to work for ourselves and open a similar business here in Sydney Australia.

Luckily we have already got ourselves some clients to keep us busy, although always on the lookout for more, and we are becoming Jack of All Trades with not only having to work on the actual consulting work we do, but also having to worry about the finances, sales, PR, admin, etc. etc. All practiced for in China though.

I am actually finding it massively rewarding. Anyone that knows me knows that I have a short attention span. In class I was always the person who the teacher gets mad at for finishing her work first then distracting others. At normal jobs I would get restless sitting around from 9-5. Now I work my own hours, and there is heaps to do to keep me interested.

Also, because my livelihood is linked directly to what I achieve in a day, I find that I don't get that malaise that you seem to get with other jobs, where it is so easy to bludge off for a while because you can. Now I am working for myself I can actually see the point of all the work I am doing (whereas working in the govt, while interesting, I could not see the results of any of my labour).

What we actually do, if anyone is interested, is a form of marketing. This is for businesses with websites only, and what we do is we help your website get exposure. Because what is the point of your business having a website if no one knows it is there, right?

So we can give you all techy advice on how to increase your ranking in search engines, which means that if you sell toothbrushes, and someone types in toothbrush into Google, we help you rank there, so they can maybe choose your business!It is kind of competitive, because remember, there are only 10 spots on page 1, and how often do people click through to page 2? Meanwhile, while toothbrush might not be a super competitive term, other terms, like car insurance, are massively competitive. This part of it is called Search Engine Optimisation.

Alternatively, you can buy ad space on search engines. That is, do nothing to your site, and just pay to have your ad there when someone types in 'toothbrush'. This is called Pay Per Click Marketing. And what we can do is, we can buy the adspace for you. The reason you would get someone to buy the adspace for you rather than do it yourself is because 1. there are a bazillion keywords you need to consider and 2. it is an auction system, so you need to be careful how you bid. Too high and you waste money, too low and your ad won't appear. If you have a lot of key words, it can get to be a lot of work. I think I am pretty well suited to this aspect of the company, because of my experience in web analytics, and the fact that I have always been a numbers kind of person.

Anyway, so after all that, that is what the go is with what I am doing now. I probably won't be blogging much about it on here, because it isn't travel related, but I do blog regularly on our work blog now.

Something brand new and exciting, keeping me very busy, keeping me on my toes! It will probably curb the ability for travel for a little while, but not forever. And I hope to fit a trip in this year anyway....

SIchuan Province

My latest, and perhaps last trip for now in China, was to Sichuan Province, with my friend Emma from Canberra.

Sichuan is in south western China (which is really south central china), right next to Tibet. It is where the big earthquake was earlier this year, home to panda's, and also has embraced a lot of Tibetan type culture due to its close proximity.

Sichuan province has a tonne of really interesting things, and really should be higher on the list of things to do in China I think.

The reasons I went were for panda's, the giant budda in Leshan, and the Jiu Zhai Gou national park.

We flew into Chengdu on a Saturday. Chengdu, while listed as the third most liveable city in China, was a bit of a hole I thought. It had the worst smog of anywhere I have been in China! Worse than Beijing. Like all Chinese cities it just seems a bit sprawling, smoggy and run down, with the odd bursts of new (which quickly look old as the smog settles onto it and makes it all dirty looking).

The best thing about the city of Chengdu, apart from pandas which I will get to soon, was the hostel we stayed at. Sims Cozy Guesthouse. While I am not a big fan of hostels in general, this one was amazing. We had our own room which had its own bathroom - all very clean and nicely presented. We also had our own dvd player in the room, and got fruit baskets twice in three days! We used the dvd player to watch 30 Rock season 2 and Mamma Mia (twice)!

They had a great travel desk downstairs which helped us organise our tours, and a bar with cheap food and fresh juice. They also have a cute little puppy, which always helps the ambience.

The day after we arrived, we took a bus to see the panda's at the panda research centre. Despite the horrible smog, the center was actually really well done. All quiet and green, bamboo forests, etc. There are around 50 panda's there, and 8 babies, which were each around 3 months old. So cute! Although, from pictures I can see that they are horribly ugly when they are just born. They are like a bald pink mouse, with a long skinny tail and everything, and it is no surprise that when they give birth for the first time, panda's often get such a fright that they try and kill the ugly little parasite. But then after only two months they are much bigger and covered in fur and super cute.

I got lots of photo's and some videos - videos are actually better I think,as it really shows how cute they are!But you can see how they are endangered, as they seem quite stupid, they don't naturally know how to procreate, and they have evolved so that they eat bamboo, which it is difficult for them to digest, it requires them to eat around 40kg of the stuff a day, and doesn't give them much energy. I think they are really thick.

The park also has red panda's - which aren't really panda's at all are they? they are like raccoons or something. Poor red panda's, no one cares about them.

While at the panda centre, we met a lovely woman called Janice. Janice is a Canadian-Chinese, who has left her canadian job as a project manager and came to volunteer in the reconstruction process post-earthquake in Sichuan. She also speaks and reads mandarin, so Emma and I (and a few others) tagged along after her as she took us to a local jiaozi or dumpling restaurant for lunch. For less than $2 each we ate our fill of dumplings filled with a variety of celery, chives or meat. It reawakened my fat cat expat guilt on how much I spend on western food in Shanghai....

In the afternoon we explored a nearby monastery, drinking tea in their tea garden, seeing the millions of turtles in their turtle pond (will have nightmares), and enjoying the tranquil gardens in the middle of the horrible smoggy city (Cannot stress enough how smoggy Chengdu was).

After this Emma, Janice and I went to a nearby snack street where I was not brave enough to partake in the sweet-purple-soup-tofu something or other Emma and Janice ate, however I did eat some of the wierd sticky ricey ball thing (only because Ihad had it before). Then spat it out and was laughed at by locals. It could have been worse though - we saw roasted rabbit heads, and millions of tiny little roast birds that I think were song birds (mean! I thought they were pets!!!).

There was also the stinky tofu of course (fermented tofu, like normal tofu wasn't bad enough) and lots of spicy meat on a stick - Sichuan is known for being the home of super spicy food, so spicy in fact that it numbs your mouth and is sometimes used in rural areas as an anaesthetic. (seriously)

The next day, we went in a mini bus for a three hour drive out to Leshan to see the thousand buddha caves, and then the giant budda. The thousand budda caves are a lot of carvings in a cliff lining a river. I am not sure if there really were 1,000 buddha's, but there were lots and lots. All carved into different configurations, different sizes, etc. Afterwards we ate in a local restaurant full of bai jiu drinking locals who were totally off their face. As the only one of our small group that had any chinese at all, I was responsible for organising the lunch - looking into the kitchen and using a mixture of pointing and not-real words, I ordered us a lavish 6-course vegetarian meal for around $4 each.

After this we headed to see the giant buddha (Dafo). Since the destruction of the big giant sculptures in Afghanistan by the Taliban, this buddha is now the biggest in the world. It is over 70m high, and carved into a cliff over a river, facing another horrible smoggy city. (poor china, it has such beautiful historic and natural wonders, and such horrible cities/suburbs/etc).

I mean, I am quite getting over China having lived in Shanghai for a year now, but travelling to Sichuan reminded me of the lovely things that China has to offer. Many say that Shanghai is not the real China anyway - I think that is such bull. China has over 100 cities with more than 1 million people. Big new cities are China now - they are just not the China you might have expected.

Anyway, after three nights in Chengdu, we then took a regional flight to Jiu Zhai Gou, around 50 minutes away (or a treacherous 10 hour bus ride - no thank you!), and 3,000m higher in altitude than Chengdu. It is the most amazing airport I have been too, in that it is way up in the mountains.

Jiu Zhai Gou is home to another UNESCO site - the Jiu Zhai Gou national park, which is what we went to see. Not many westerners go there for some reason. It is a bit out of the way for the wealthier time-poor tourists, and too expensive for the time-rich money-poor backpackers. Entry to the park is 310RMB per day, or around $50. However, we went for two days, which shows how worth it it was - considering how tight I am.

Jiu Zhai Gou is a 620 square km reserve of mountains, valleys, lakes, snow capped peaks and tibetan villages. It is famous for its amazing coloured waterways, which vary in colour from bright acqua's (sp?) to blues and greens. Seriously, the photos of the place look photo-shopped, but I have been, and can say it is all 100% natural!

We were lucky, we went at the best time of the year, when the leaves are changing colours, which adds to the surreal brightly coloured nature of the place. For two days we walked and bussed (they have a great bus service in the park, as it is too big to just walk all the way) around the park. Taking a million photo's and sometimes being the subject of photo's - lots of chinese tourists there, not many westerners, meant that we were often photographed paparrazzi-style. At one point we had a crowd of people in front of us taking photo's while we ate some biscuits. One had a tripod set up! (emma refused to remove her sunnies at his request, but I am a sucker...). I wonder what they do with these photos?

In testament to how beautiful this area is - on the 1.5 hour taxi drive from the airport to our hotel, our taxi driver pulled over 3 times to take photo's even though he is from there! The first time he pulled over in the middle of nowhere, I thought we were going to be murdered! but he just wanted to take photo's of his cab with the beautiful scenery in the background.

The Jiu Zhai Gou hotel was not very good at all. I wish Sims was up there. The rooms were nice enough, but freezing cold, and the tv had no english channels - which we missed since there is nothing else to do in a national park area at night. For respite we kept going to the Sheraton down the road, for meals, use the internet, get warm...

Ah, now the piece de resistance of the trip. The trip home. I couldn't get a direct flight to SHanghai from Jiu Zhai Gou, so I had to go back to Chengdu. This was all fine, fine, although inconvenient, and meaning a long wait in between flights. So, when I finally got on the connecting flight home, I was, to be honest, a bit cranky and ready to sleep on the plane. However, I was unfortunately seated next to a "Little Emperor". A tiny, loud, bossy little boy, who would scream at me in Chinese, calling me Ayi (aunty) and refusing to stop talking to me even though I couldn't understand a word of his slurred mandarin. I kept telling his mum I didn't understand, but she didn't care, glad to have his attention off herself, and she often disappeared leaving me with him, as he jumped over my lap, kicked everything in sight and pulled the armrests up and down for hours.

And then comes my number 1 China story - the mother reached for the airsickness bag, and I thought - Oh CHRIST! he is going to spew, which could make me spew. But he didn't seem ill, so then I thought, - She is just going to spit in it, which, while disgusting, is very common in China, and perhaps bearable.

No, on both counts. As she opened the bag, the boy stood up on the chair right next to me, and began pissing in the bag. Seriously. He pissed in the paper bag, she folded it up (and I freaked out about what she might be going to do with it), then she wiped him down with some tissues and handed the whole sorry mess to the poor air hostess!!!

They then repeated the process again later in the flight!!!! Seriously. Ah China...

Things to do in Shanghai

This is just a list, so I remember where to take visitors, and so any of my friends can know the good things to do/see in Shanghai (and not stupid recommended tourist things only)

the Bund - obviously. You can walk here from East Nanjing Metro station. Go at night, so you can see the lights, but not after 10 when they might have shut them off. Boat rides are quite nice, and not too expensive. Ignore the millions of people selling crap. You could have dinner at one of the restaurants here, but I think it is a big fat rip off, and really not worth the money. The restaurants I have been to (Whampoa Club, Sens and Bund, New Heights), indeed have good views, but are so expensive - such a rip off.

Lujiazui - the other side of the river to the Bund. You can have a nice walk along, and look back on the Bund, see the Pearl Tower (do not bother going up), and then visit the Super Brands Mall near the station.

Jinmao Tower or World Financial Centre - the two tall buildings, WFC is the taller, and you get much better views than from the Pearl. Jinmao has good restaurants on the 54th floor, with cool views, and also a great hotel lobby bar on the 54th floor that has views up to the top (another 50 floors).

Taikang Lu (get in taxi, say "Taikang Lu, Sinan Lu"). this is an arty cafe type area, in the french concession, where you can chat away the day, search for gifts, look at art, and all in these converted old lane houses.

Dolar Shop - this is a chain hot pot restaurant, and one of my big faves. So delicious, so cheap, english menus if you ask for them, and individual pots. very Chinese.

Wu Jiang Lu - combines street food at one end, with new yuppy shops at the other (Cold Stone!yum!). Just get out at West Nanjing Road Tube station. (Also, the new M&S is here!).

Moganshan Lu - this is another arty street. I'm not that into art.

Red Town - Shanghai Sculpture Space - lots of galleries - also where I work! Eat at Beca, get the Napoleon crepe. you can walk from Hongqiao Lu tube.

Element fresh - western style restaurant chain, but HEALTHY, and nice restaurant atmosphere. I recommend the breakfasts, the juices and the quesadillas! Good for those westerners who can't handle chinese food 24x7 (me and Aidan).

Ruijin Guest house - only because it is pretty, not because it is particularly good food. Old style Shanghai house on Ruijin Lu, with a bar at the bottom and restaurants up top.

1001 nights - this is a fab restaurant on Hengshan lu, middle eastern food. my fave, they burst your eardrums every half hour when they bring out the dancing girls though.

Julu Lu and Changde lu - the best shopping streets (still not that fab).

Yu Gardens (sa Yu Yuan to the taxi driver. It is not near a metro station). for around 50RMB you can stroll through the beautiful gardens. Ignore all the shops/touristy stuff surrounding it, once you get in there, it is v. tranquil.

Obviously the museums...but I haven't ben to them yet!!! I am so bad.

DVD Stores - one of the highlights for all my guests is going to buy dvds for around 8RMB each, which makes box sets, v.v.v. cheap. The best ones I find are on Dagu Lu near Ruijin Er Lu.

The fabric markets - a big pull for tourism, but still, I think they are a nightmare. don't recommend at all.

Yangshuo

Aidan has a friend called Scotty who lives in Yangshuo (south China, near Guilin), and works for a company called China Climb. So, while their other friend Dogger was visiting us in Shanghai, we all went down for four days in Yangshuo.

It was simply the most beautiful place I have ever been in china, and due to my being ill for 70% of the time I was there, I need to return, ASAP, and enjoy it properly.

Even driving from the Airport in Guilin to Yangshuo was a beautiful 90 minute drive past thick green fields and wierd looking karst hills (these things that pop straight up out of the ground).

Yangshuo is a relatively small city of I reckon about 30,000 people, and in the centre of that is the main street, nearby a river. From any direction, getting out of town to the country side was very quick.

We went to meet Scotty first at his cool offices in China Climb. This was a three or so stagger-storied building with a bar and lounge at the bottom, and random climbing (frisbee-looking) people loitering about.

Surrounding the offices were many other bars, restaurants, little shops and juice stands. A five minute walk away, at the quieter end of teh street was our hotel (hardest beds in the universe)

After a quick drink (fresh apple juice with ice, only 6RMB for a super large one!), we hopped on some bikes (5RMB for the afternoon!!) and rode out to the river for a swim.

Yes, I know, river swimming in China doesn't sound realistic...dirty water, diseases, etc. But the water seeeeeemed ok, and I swam in it. In fact, we jumped off bridges into it, swam around, and then they sat under the bridge and drank beer like derros)

Yes, I was sick the next day, but no one else was, so I will not blame the water.

Surrounding the river are green fields and lots and lots of karst mountains - just beautiful. The most beautiful spot I have seen in China - see, you really need locals to help you.

I didn't even need a towel, as the river water was so warm, and the air dried me quickly, and we rode back into town in our swimmers.

That night we had dinner out in the town, and I was pleased that food in Yangshuo, unlike Shanghai, is VERY similar to the Chinese food westerners have seen before...hooray!

The next day I got very ill, with high fevers, etc, and so that was the end of fun for me in Yangshuo, on only my second day :(

However, it was so beautiful, I cannot harbour bad memories of it. #1 place in China I say! (even if it is very touristy...).