My flight was due to leave at 1250 so I had plenty of time; however I was getting buses to the airport so I had to allow extra time just in case the journey went badly. I ended up leaving at 830 (which in retrospect may have been too early). I said goodbye to Siz and left the complex; as luck would have it I caugfht a bus almost immediately! On the bus I quickly realised that I had forgotten the directions to the airport the Swallow gave me!
I sent a pleading text to the Swallow and she sent the directions to my phone, she is a lifesaver! I got off my first bus and got on my second. I had no idea where to get off though, so again it was Swallow to the rescue! After a long bus journey through parts of Xining I had never seen before, I managed to get off at the right stop!
Next step was to find the 'airport building', I found it, walked inside and found... nothing. The place was deserted! Oh dear! A man came in, took pity on me and ushered me through some doors to where the people were hiding. After some bad Chinese and blank looks, I resorted to impersonating an airplane. That worked and before I knew it I had my ticket and was ushered onto a coach! Yay!
The coach ride was very comfortable and the landscape was breath-taking. China makes no sense, nothing works like it should and everything is still being built but wow is it beautiful! The mountains are gargantuan and the building tower over their surroundings. The Chinese people are also worthy of a mention, never have I seen people as hard working and determined as here. There were people busy building the sky scrapers, there were people in the fields and there were even people digging a tunnel through the mountains that surround Xining. Say what you want about China, but it is certainly impressive!
Anyway I made it to the airport at about 1030, 2 whole hours of travelling under my belt. It was too early to check in so naturally I went to go get myself a coffee... BIG MISTAKE. Most expensive coffee EVER! 66RMB! That's £6.60!!!! It wasn't very nice either...
So after my disappointment I headed into the check in queue, that went swiftly as did security and soon I was waiting for boarding!
Once I was on the plane things seemed ok! The flight was a bit scary though, lots of turbulence. However they showed the Hobbit in English (well the first half at least...), the food was ok too! The scenery from the plane was impressive, the mountains look like someone has scrunched up a piece of paper.
3 hours later we landed at Shanghai Pudong Airport. First impressions of the Shanghai terminal was clean, quiet, westernized and modern, are far shout from Xining.
I got my bag and headed for the Maglev train. Now in case you didn't know, the Maglev train is magic (Ok so maybe that isn't a technical term...) Anyway here is a video explaining how it works, all I know is that it went up to 301km/h!!! Pretty impressive, when it accelerated it felt like we were taking off!
http://youtu.be/iaElPV0FWJ0- A video of how it works
After a short ride on the Maglev (one of the downsides of it going too fast...), I began my trip on the Shanghai metro system! After a couple of mistakes I found myself at the stop nearest my hostel, after a short walk I arrived! Mark was waiting for me so it was lovely to see him again! I eventually checked in and headed to my room, turns out I have the top bunk... yippee! I hate top bunk, I quite simply am not made for it. Anyway I went down to the bar with Mark and met some new people and had a few beers. Then a couple of other TTC people turned up which was nice! It was really chilled out.
The hostel is lovely though, the bar is cheap and the food is good.
My night was ok, I went to bed about 11 and got up about 630. Wasn't the best sleep of my life, the humidity is bad and my room mates are noisy but it will do. The top bunk is very tricky to get up to and down from though. I am supposed to be going out drinking tonight so I don't know how I am going to do it drunk...
Currently sat in the bar, having had a free breakfast of Bowza (steamed buns), yummy!
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