Shanghai

Hello! How are you all? You might all think I've been swinging the lead but I can tell you, since leaving Thailand our lives have been action packed. Be thankful I may never bore you with the details but I will leave my options open.

As you know, Mr John is a primary teacher at International School and with that comes a fast-track experience of making yourself at home in an alien environment. We've only been here seven weeks gosh, is it that long? Doesn't time fly when you're having fun? And I can tell you, Shanghai is an incredible city.

It was with trepidation that I arrived here. Did you know the population of Shanghai is 24 million people? That's more than the whole of Australia where I come from. Thankfully, for both our wallets and sanity, Mr John teaches out in the boon docks - though on a fast train you can be downtown in 45 minutes.  

We were lucky enough to have our first set of visitors last week, yes Anne & Graham were back with us. Their visit gave me the best excuse to head downtown every day and check out the city. For me to get downtown is RMB 9  that's roughly GBP£1 / AUD$1.79 / USD$1.35 / EUR e1.20. How cheap is that? The only down side is that the Metro finishes running at around 22:00 so you either need to get a taxi / driver for RMB 250 or stay the night. Other than that, it's a fantastic system and isn't always full of people.

I am completely besotted with Shanghai as a city and unbelievably this is down to the architecture. It's so varied and so incredibly beautiful. Thankfully some of the buildings of the 1920s/30s  have survived the modernisation of the city so you get some history along with glorious modern structures. Beijing may be the capital by Shanghai is the party town. 

 The city is carved up into districts such as Xuhui which encompasses the Former French Concession. As the name suggests, you will find wide, leafy streets and a few good bars which include the Shanghai Brewery. You'll also find Hengshan Road Bar Street - I think the clue is in the title, don't you?

In Huangpu you will find People's Square and the Bund but just down the road is the old city where you can still find brickwork buildings. In fact, wherever you go in Shanghai, have a look down the alleyways. Often, right next to a newly built shopping mall, you will see the history of the city in an old two storey workshop nestled between these concrete and glass monoliths.

I was lucky enough to be taken to the Jin Mao Tower for lunch at the Grand Cafe (Grand Hyatt) last week and the view from the 54th floor was spectacular. Also across the river you'll find some enormous buildings, the most recognisable being the Oriental Pearl Tower. Of course at only 468 metres 1535 feet it is tiny in comparison to Shanghai Tower (at 632m / 2073ft) but it makes for a great picture.

There is still so much on my To Do list but not to worry, I have at least two years to get it all done.

Don't forget to check out my Instagram page. You'll have missed a lot in the last few months

travelorlabout feature

If you would like a sneak preview of how we're doing, head over to travelorlabout.   

While you're there, read some of Orlas amazing adventures.

Limbo

So, the last few weeks have been a little stressfu to say the least. Having waved a tearful farewell to our lovely Thai friends in Chan, Mr John and I are heading to another exotic location.

But before we get there, we have a few weeks rest and relaxation (R&R) in the UK. Check out Instagram to see what we're up to. Don't worry if you don't have an account, just use the link you see in the top right.

And watch this space, we'll be back before you know it .......

Wet, Wet, Wet

Yes, no, not that 80s band who spent 15 weeks at No 1 in 1994 with Love is All Around but the weather here at the moment. Rainy season has definitely arrived and this past week there's been rainfall every day in varying amounts and times. In fact, last Tuesday it pretty much rained the whole day. It's reminding us of our first year here. But I digress.

The result is that I've mostly been hanging around the house which doesn't result in anything interesting to share with you but, as always This is Thailand (TiT) so there's always something!

just like this one!

Last Sunday we took our morning coffee over to Toms corner shop and enjoyed one of Tan's lovely omelettes for brunch. Whilst sitting there, a taxi went around the corner and a large bag of beans fell out of the back. Quite a number of people, us included, yelled out to the driver albeit he probably wouldn't have understood us. Fortunately, there were enough Thai people hollering and so he stopped outside our old house and proceeded to dice with death at the intersection to retrieve said beans. 



Nothing weird about that I hear you say, and you'd be right. But as he was dodging cars and bikes his taxi started moving forward, slowly, down the street. Mr John and I were in hysterics, it was like something from a comedy show. Of course, the yelling started again and thankfully the car had only gone about 30 metres before he jumped back into the drivers seat and carried on. Honestly, I keep telling all our visitors that you don't need TV when you live in our neck of the woods. Just sit yourself down at one of Toms tables and watch what goes on. 

Another great pass time here seems to be "rearrange the supermarket". I'm not sure if it comes our of boredom or what day of the week it is or if  Jupiter is aligning with Mars but this is a regular occurrence here in Chanthaburi. Tesco Lotus is currently going through a major upheaval. I arrived at the fresh food section to find a large white tarpaulin over everything and all the fridge shelving missing. Took a little while longer to get the weekly shop done, I can tell you. I had to call into my favourite "shop that sells everything" the other day and even they have been at it is nothing sacred? 

New Travelodge

I've also been trying to get to the pool a few times a week but with the weather, it's been a bit too wet for swimming. Yes, I know how that sounds but hang in there. Obviously when you're in the pool, you're already wet so rain is not an issue. However, if you need to ride a motorcycle to the pool and it's lashing down this can cause dangerous driving condition. Hence, it becomes too wet to go to the pool. 

It's not just here of course, the rain played havoc with the matches at the French Open with the Seine at a record high level and Sydney was really rocked by torrential rain at the weekend. Keep safe out there people.