First time yoga class and a birthday celebration

On Tuesday evening I went to Yoga 109 and did a beginners class in Yoga. I wasn't sure what to expect as previously in this school I did classes in pilates and in Yin yoga.

I heard of people doing Bikram yoga which is done in a very hot room but I think the same can be achieved in Shanghai in the summer! The humidity made it intense and I found it hard to keep up. I enjoyed the meditation part but many poses were too difficult for me and I haven't done any exercise in months so I'm definately feeling the pain!

Afterwards I tried to get a taxi but it proved difficult in this area so I walked for a bit to the main road and managed to flag one down. In the dark I didn't realise it was a dark blue one and a friend of mine a few days ago warned me about them. I figured nothing can go wrong but he suddenly turned off the main road and went around the block that I got a bit concerned. Then he was asking where to drop me but I told him this wasn't my road. He got quite angry and aggressive and pulled over and tried to get me to leave his taxi! I stood my ground though and told him which road and he started moaning in Mandarin at me and realised I was a foreigner.

Wednesday

After my class I met a new friend for coffee near Xujiahui church. It definately looks a bit unusual and doesn't feel like being in China.

Afterwards I headed to Yili Lu to my friend's apartment. It isn't very far from Xujiahui but taking the Metro is a major pain and I had to change 3 times! It took me over 1 hour to get to his place and even when I arrived it turns out there are two buildings with the same number (how confusing!).

So we waited for everyone to turn up and we ate pizza and pasta and another friend made a cake. Later we went to KTV where my friends sang some L'arc en Ciel for me. We paid 70RMB each (7 of us) for a 2 hour session. It was really good to see my old school friends here even though we aren't all going back in September its nice to know they are still in Shanghai.

Meilan Lake and Qibao

This morning I met Jorge at Zhenping Lu Station and together we took line 7 to Meilan Lake. It took about 40 minutes and is the very last stop where many people seemed to be headed.

On arrival we were bombarded by the companies trying to sell tours and taxi drivers trying to get us to use their cars. At one point saying "bu yao" (don't want) resulted in quite a bit of aggression from them that it seemed wise to not look back and keep walking.

The weather was really good with blue skies but it was still a little humid. The lake was easy enough to find but cars and motorbikes quite annoying to keep hitting their horns trying to attract people to take their transportation.

The buildings here were very European, much like Thames Town and quite a few couples doing wedding photographs. There are backdrops and props around for these purposes too. Reading the history of this area it seemed to be based around a Nordic town.

After walking around and taking some photos we stopped into Macao Dolar which is a chain of hot pot restaurants. The service wasn't so good and they were very pushy and they spoke no English nor did their menu have any English so with my limited Chinese skills I managed to work out some food for us. I really enjoy hot pot and in total came to about 150RMB for 2 of us.

We then headed to Berlinda's place to chill for a bit before we took the metro to Qibao to look for the night markets. On arrival I was surprised it wasn't the water town I'd been told about but it was full of lights and restaurants and shopping malls. Berlinda asked several people for directions to the market but nobody seemed to know until a man on a motorcab pointed us the right way.

This was the water town and we headed over the bridge through narrow alleys filled with stalls selling souvenirs and some selling food. It was very busy and noisy but definately an experience. There were even fireworks! There were so many types of food I'd never seen before, and at times the strong smelly tofu.

After we headed back towards the metro and went to the food part of a mall and found Cloud 9 which is a Taiwanese restaurant chain that I quite like because I find the food very comforting and reminds me of home (especially happy smiley potato waffles!). Also Cloud 9 offers free wifi which is a bonus when you are out and about.

 

Snoozing in a hammock

 

Yes, show your mercy!

 

Backdrops for wedding photos

 

I think the "u" has been put in upside down!

 

At Qibao

 

Sooooo many people!

 

Some kind of small bird??

 

Pancakes and KTV with the Meet Up crowd

It started off another rainy day with a thunderstorm which woke me up around 9am and left me in bed for an hour contemplating if I should still go to the Meet Up or not. By 10.30am it had stopped thundering but it was still raining and I thought to myself I'm sure people of Shanghai can't stop their lives because of heavy rain and that I should try my very best so I headed out.

I underestimated the rain from the 13th floor it didn't look that heavy but when I got to the front door it was pouring and pouring. I put up my umbrella and took a brave step outside. It isn't cold and still a bit humid and as I got to the main road I saw a taxi. I thought someone had just got inside as I saw it leave the kerb but I waved anyway and to my surprise it came for me!

I went to Julu Lu to Mr Pancake House and there I met some people from the Meet Up website. At first there were only 4 of us but soon we had about 12. I had breakfast pancakes which cost 42RMB and is very filling.

Afterwards a few of us went to Party World as Lucy, the organiser of the event, had booked a karaoke room for a few hours.

KTV here seems quite relaxed and they didn't seem to mind us bringing in outside food and drinks. I'm not too sure the price of the room per hour though as I didn't pay but Lucy assured me it wasn't much. So we had English, Mandarin, Cantonese and Japanese songs which was interesting and all very good fun. People came and left throughout but I stayed until the end.

Around 5pm I got a taxi with a friend and went to Berlinda's place and watched a movie there with Jorge. Another friend, Sho, came and joined us and we headed to Koala Bar nearby for dinner and drinks. I see this bar on HuaiHai Xi Lu as it is near the university and the sign says its a coffee bar but it is more of a drinks bar and has a pool table in the back. The atmosphere was nice, we sat outside to eat and the waiter could speak and understand English which is a bonus.

Burgers cost around 50RMB and breezers around 40RMB which is a little steep I think.

I'm hoping tomorrow's weather is ok and that the predicted typhoon has moved away so that I can do some exploring with my friends.

When it rains in Shanghai...

The weather out here can be rather unpredicable and when it decides to rain it decides to pour! It started with a trip to People's Square, I thought I would go to Book City on Fuzhou Lu. When I arrived at the station I decided to get something to eat and all the fast food places were insanely packed so I went to Pizza Hut where I can sit down and be served instead.

At 230 degrees this plate is hot!! Also very fatty so it wasn't so tasty to be honest. Service was also incredibly slow in this place and when I finally got my food I finished in less than 10 minutes and had to wait another 20 minutes just for the bill.

I headed to the exit of the station only to find it pouring with rain and people coming into the station for shelter - great. So I started walking around the station which luckily has quite a number of stores and even a small market area. I managed to buy some cross stitch kits for 5RMB each and tried to waste some time walking around. I thought there would be a way to go to other shopping centres but I had no luck and in the end as it was still raining, I decided to head to Xintiandi where I know I could be indoors without needing to go outside at all.

It is very useful to remember which stations have tunnels that lead to shopping centres and so I spent my day hopping on the metro trying to stay dry and busy.

Wifi can be found in most places although I have to say Coffee Bean wifi is really awful and sometimes decides not to work at all! Starbucks in Metro City in Xujiahui is really big and probably because there are so many people this wifi is also very bad so I would avoid it. When I am in Metro City I would opt to go to Saint Marc's cafe because it is less busy, good service and I've never had a problem with their wifi which is powerful enough for me to log onto VPN.

I have found a new school to study in for the summer and my teacher gives me these free magazines. She tells me you can pick them up from Starbucks or most Western restaurants. The website for City Weekend is also very good and I like to regularly check it for upcoming events.

(sorry my Blogger isn't rotating this image)

My first trip to Laowai Jie

I love unplanned days they seem to work out much better when there is no expectation.

So I decided I need to go out every day or I just stay in my room being anti-social. I walked to Hongqiao Lu station and decided to go to West Nanjing Road where there is Krispy Kreme. It's one of the few places I like the tea and reminds me of England. The doughnuts though are pretty soggy. A tea and doughnut came to 27RMB so around 70p for a doughnut isn't bad.

I read my Kindle for a little while and then decided to go for a walk, did some window shopping and then went to Ajisen for some noodles. I'm feeling better that my appetite is coming back. I was a little sad that the Enjoy Easy store had closed down though. I went to the station and headed to People's Square to meet Jorge only we had a communication problem and after walking up and down the platform 4 times to discover we were at different stations which was why we couldn't find each other! And People's Square station is one of the few that doesn't have any AC!

Finally we met up and walked along East Nanjing Road in the hot hot sun before finding a place where we could buy some ice tea. I bought a pear tea which came in a cute bottle for only 10RMB so I'm planning to buy some flowers and use it as a vase.

We went to a shopping mall to cool off before deciding to make a move to Shanghai Indoor Stadium to meet Berlinda at Ikea so she could buy some things for her new flat. We got to the station and found we needed to ask directions to Ikea. The first guy was a new student to Shanghai so didn't know anywhere yet, the other guy didn't know what we were saying and then we spotted Ikea and walked over. Even that short distance in the humidity was getting too much to me. I was so relieved to be indoors!

Ikea is much like in England, prices are similar too. After a good shop we went back to the flat to drop off things and took a taxi to Carrefour in Gubei.

Nearby Gubei is a place called Laowai Jie which is a pedestrian street that has many different restaurants and bars so it was full of foreigners, expats etc. Prices are quite expensive - much like in Xintiandi. We had dinner in a Belgium restaurant and for a plate of fish and mash and a glass of coke came to almost 200RMB so very expensive! But the atmosphere in this area is nice and a good escape if you feel China is becoming too much.