April 13, arrival in Shanghai

It wasn’t too easy to sleep on the train. Although the bunk beds were reasonably comfortable, the train ride itself wasn’t very smooth. It seemed to clatter and bump along, and it wasn’t until the last half-an-hour or so into Shanghai that we seemed to hit smoother rails, by which time we were wide awake (well, awake anyway) and packed ready to disembark. Even so, we got some sleep and were met at the railway station by our latest guide – a young man called Tony.

Tony - this two-fingered thing seems very popular with the Chinese!

He took us off to see a couple of sights this morning, probably because it was far too early to check into the hotel (we arrived in Shanghai just before 8am). First, we visited the Jade Buddha Temple. Yes, another bloomin’ temple, but pretty enough and containing two very impressive buddhas carved from huge chunks of jade about 1000 years ago. Then we went to see the Yu Gardens in the old town, which were also very pretty. We managed to get Tony to pause for long enough to pop into Starbucks for a couple of coffees to go, as we were beginning to feel hungry and thirsty by now, and before long it was time to go to the hotel.

The famous tea house in the old town (near Starbucks!)

Part of the lovely Yu Gardens

Now, you remember I said that the Nam Hai Resort Hotel in central Vietnam was easily the best hotel we have ever stayed in? Mmmm....might have to rethink that. We are staying at the Fairmont Peace Hotel on the Bund in Shanghai, and despite the fact we arrived looking a little dishevelled and unshaven (well, I was, anyway) they upgraded us to a river view suite, and what a suite it is! There are three doors leading off from the entrance hall. One leads to the guest loo (it says “Powder Room” on the light switch) so that when we entertain, our guests don’t have to use our bathroom! The second door leads to a suite of two further rooms – a sitting room and a dining room. Both are simply beautiful. The third door leads to a suite of three further rooms (yes – that’s six in all!). The bedroom is huge, and leads to a dressing room/wardrobe suite on one side and a huge bathroom on the other. There is a very large standalone bath, a walk-in shower, a loo screened off by frosted glass and two sinks in front of a big mirror. We could get used to this!

Our sitting room in the Fairmont

Our bedroom

and part of the bathroom

After settling in and bathing away the grimy feeling left over from the train journey, we had a light lunch in the hotel deli and then walked about for a bit before finishing our afternoon with an hour long cruise on the river. It was still misty and overcast, so the views weren’t great, but we started to get a feel for the place. The evening was a bit of a disappointment. There seem to be two bars in the hotel. One is a cigar club as well as a bar, so we avoided that because of the smell of cigar smoke and went to the so-called jazz bar. It's supposed to be one of the most famus bars in Shanghai. What a joke! First of all you have to pay £10 to get in, which includes a free drink from an extremely limited list, and when you get in you find a bar which has no atmosphere at all and the worst jazz band I have ever heard. We finished our drinks and went upstairs to the Chinese restaurant on the eighth floor. Another disaster. Everything on the menu is listed as small or large portions. All I ordered was a small portion of dim sum as a starter, followed by a small portion of shredded crispy beef and a small portion of fried noodles with pork and vegetables. The shredded beef turned up first, and was what you could only describe as a full portion. The waiter explained that the noodles and the dim sum would be “three minutes”. Twenty minutes later the noodles turned up. This was an even bigger portion, which any normal person would struggle to finish on its own. The noodles were greasy and claggy and half-cooked prawns had been added, which were certainly not on the menu. While I was still tinkering with this mountain of food, the dim sum finally arrived. There were six of them, each one the size of a large chicken’s egg and seemed to be steamed on one side and fried on the other. They were supposed to contain minced pork, but appeared to contain mini pork sausages which tasted foul. Jenny’s selections were just as bad. The “signature” chicken dish was inedible on the basis that it was nearly all bone and skin, the prawns she ordered were also not cooked properly, and her vegetable dish of celery and lily (!) was slimy. We signed the bill (no tip) and went for a walk before bed-time!