Aaaaand she's back in town!

I have always used Virgin Atlantic to fly to Shanghai but I am finding it slowly getting worse and worse. I ended up moving 3 times on the flight to find a tv that worked as there was no way I was going to sit on an 11 hour flight without anything to do and I can never sleep on a plane. Luckily I got to sit in the escape exit row which gave me lots more space and since nobody was sitting beside me I could sit my chair back without feeling guilty.

Service wasn't so good as I recall before there would be night time snacks being served, constant drinks being offered, but instead there was nothing. You had to go to the kitchen area where there were some poured drinks and cookies. The food was quite awful and this was the first time I saw air hostesses "saving" food that hadn't been touched I presume to serve again on another flight.

Customs at Pudong was quite slow and painful and trying to get my heavy suitcases off the conveyor belt resulted in crushing my hand and a kind man helped me out. However, when I tried to get past quarantine I was pulled over and made to take the suitcases off my trolley on my own and place in the x-ray machine. Yep, not a single person to help and a lot of people behind getting frustrated I'm not moving fast enough...

 

Travel tip

A tip given to me was to go to the drop off at arrivals to get a taxi. The drivers there are keen to help and get back to Puxi and I find less likely to scam you than at the taxi rank. Driving along and it all felt so familiar seeing the same roads, same signs etc. I was a little rusty to respond to the driver but we got to my friend's house without a problem.

Seeing as I didn't sleep on the flight I was pretty tired but the humidity is so high here that I just wanted to shower at this point! We headed to the police station as it is stated that anyone arriving in Shanghai and not living in a hotel or school dorm needs to register for a temporary residents permit. From the last time I did this there wasn't too much of a problem apart from I needed the written permission from my landlord that I was living in their flat. But it seems the rules changed in Shanghai as of July 1st and it has become a lot stricter for foreigners. So the policeman was making so many excuses about documents I didn't have but I hadn't even enrolled yet. So I have no choice but to go tomorrow to discuss the case with my university to get some kind of form to say I was seeking accommodation outside of the university.

Later in the day my other friend joined us and we went to have dinner in a local place with really good bbq meat and huge urns outside which contains a steamed kind of soup. Tonight on the menu - fish head!

 

Chinese menu's are always amusing

I love these but have never seen them this long before!