Our Unexpected Stop over in Guangzhou

We left Brisbane airport just before lunch, destined for Guangzhou where we were to change to a domestic flight into Shanghai. Our flight was a little late coming down but we had an hour or so before needing to board the next leg. Through Customs and immigration and finally we saw the signs to domestic where we were stopped and told that our flight had been cancelled and we needed to go to certain booth and get rescheduled. The airport was well signs in Chinese and English so not too much of a drams except that they couldn't put us on a plane until the next morning. What!

The girl then told us that we would be put up at a hotel for the night but we needed to go downstairs to organise. Our luggage would not be available until we got to Shanghai. It took a bit to find the place and we asked at a couple of places, airports are so big these days.

We had our booking and boarding places and we were offered a choice of 8 hotels, the girl said they were all the same, we took the first one and then were directed to an area to wait for 30 minutes. Thank goodness we didnt go anywhere as i doubt if it was more than five minutes when they collected us. It was about a twenty minute ride in a nice car to the hotel and we were dropped off. The hotel boasted English speaking staff. Out with our passports again to check in and we were given dinner vouchers as well and told where the dining room was and what time they were open until. It was dinner time then so we dumped our back packs in the room and went down.

Not had dinner vouchers before but we were familiar with breakfast vouchers and assumed it would be the same.

We entered the dining room and handed our vouchers to the girl at the door she then took us to a table and left. A waitress with a water jug came to the table to fill our glasses, I asked her what we needed to do as we could see the Bai marie set up but didnt know if that included us. She giggled (a dead give away that she was embarrassed) and said "Ting bu dong" she didnt understand us.

No-one was looking our way, I looked out for a waiter/waitress in black waist coats, they are usually the more senior/experienced and more likely to speak English. Nope, none of the staff in the dining room spoke English and our Chinese wasn't good enough to ask about the meal. Another guest came to help, she had limited English and was telling me that if we ordered from the menu we would have to pay but there was fast food? I am thinking Maccas, KFC? We are getting somewhere but slowly then two waiters appear with trays, penny drops, THIS is our fast food. As we had vouchers, we got a set meal.

Our meal was stewed beef, very tender, rice and boy choy and a bowl of very green liquid. The meal was good except I find that the boy choy is never cooked quite enough for me and it in one piece which is difficult to pick up with chop sticks. We had been asked if we wanted fork and spoon, lucky we know those words. i thought that was good of them but we didn't need them.

Warren tasted the soup, its common in China to have soup with a meal, often that is the only liquid and usually a thin soup. This was thick and bright green, surprise surprise it was mushroom soup. I didn't taste anything else in it but mushroom so no idea why it was so green.

Back to the room and a shower and climbed into bed, room was good and we had to be down ready to go at 7 a m. After losing my luggage a few years and only having the clothes I travelled in from a cold place to the tropics, I have since always packed a spare set of suitable in my back pack. Shower gel, soap shampoo even toothpaste and brushes and a comb have been in all Chinese hotels that we have stayed in so no issues there.

Checked out at 6.45 am and we were given a box each, haa, it was breakfast.

A steamed bun, the white in the middle, a boiled egg, a cup cake and a small carton of milk.

Of course wouldn't you know it a couple were late so we didn't get going until 7.15 a m the driver was not happy as the later it got the more traffic built up. Our flight wasn't til 10 but its annoying when people are told a time and they are not there.
  

Winter garden

We have a garden bed that has not been doing very much. have great plans for it but of course it takes time and work to get the physical to look like or seem close to what we have imagined for it.

I want a garden bed full or herbs that i can go out and pick when i need them for cooking with a fountain in the middle of it.

We bought the fountain, its a solar one, almost twelve months ago at the Farm Fest. A few weeks later we bought a large pot at Bunnings, it was for a pot plant so Warren had stopped off the bottom so that it will hold water.

I have had some herbs in there but nowhere near what I ideally want.

Our first weekend home and Warren had to go to Bunnings for a piece of pipe, I decided to go as well to the garden section. We needed about five bags of soil to fill up the garden bed and what better time than to get some plants. Yay! we put the bags in then planted out the plants. (this is big for us, usually we come home and do other things and it just doesn't happen) Havent done the fountain yet as we need to build up the area with rocks or something. At least we have made a start.

There is the old basil plant, I trimmed it and then put in a new one as well. Parsley, one lone tomato, two different types of mint and corriander. The pot is in the middle up side down as it does hold water.

Cats in Shanghai Parks

On Sunday morning before the football game, Warren and I walked to the Peoples Park in Shanghai. It was nice to go for a walk after breakfast but there was another reason, there was a geo cache waiting to be found!

It was a nice easy stroll and as it was early morning 7.45 am, not too many people about by Shanghai standards. We crossed the road in one big blob of people, only about twenty or so (we have been there where a mob of hundred plus were trying to get across the road.)

We get our phones out only to discover that only mine will give the co ordinates, we set off and as we needed to be the other side of the park, made a quick decision to walk through the park rather than around, which would be on the roadside. Much nicer going through the park with the shade and greenery and the occasional groups doing Tai Chi.

One lady seemed to talking to the ground behind her and I stopped to watch, next thing a ginger and white cat came out of the bushes, it came quite close to me and went over to her. I commented on her cat to the lady in Chinese. She smiled and said something which had me at a loss, we waved and continued on, following the gps which seemed to have a mind of it own but we thought we were heading in the right direction.

About ten minutes later we saw the same lady but no cat. I asked her "Ni Mao, na li?' which is "where is your cat" she smiled and motioned for us to follow her back down the path, a few metres and there was still no cat, then she stopped and brushed away the bushes, under the bushes were five or six cats feeding. The woman then shows me what she had in plastic bags, it looked like mashed up food, the same as the cats were eating. Not her cat but she feeds them! the cats seemed quite friendly and doing some research there are many cats that live in the parks and forage for what food they can get or hopefully people will give them. They looked clean and reasonably healthy.

The photo above is not mine but the bushes and the cats look like what we saw. It is a myth that Chinese people eat cats, they view them as almost spiritual beings.

After watching the cats eat for awhile we continued on our task, the GPS never really settled and we ended up going with our gut feelings, the task we had to perform was to find and count the number of torches, take a selfie and send an email. We walked back to the front of the Shanghai museum, found, snapped, retired to Starbucks for a coffee and to send email. By the time we had our coffee in front of us, we also had our virtual souvenir for China. Happy days!

Hotels in China

These can differ quite a lot although i have never stayed in what i would say is/was a bad one, maybe we have been lucky. Most places we have stayed at has been by someone else's recommendation.

The hotel booked by the tour company for the football was called Charms, this was the standard or budget hotel and a three star. Not sure if it is still in place but foreigners were not allowed to stay in anything less than a three star hotel.

Charms was good the location was excellent especially for people who had never been to Shanghai before. It was one block back from the walking street, Nanjing Road and a ten minute walk to places like the Shanghai Museum, people s Park and the Bund the other way. There was a small market across the road if you ventured out the back of the hotel. I arranged to buy a sim card from the hotel lobby and they took me across to register the card. Passport must be registered. We had a window seat and a large comfy chair in the room, the only thing that was a little strange was the bathroom wall between bathroom and the room was clear glass, it did have a large oval mirror on the glass but from the room the other person could be seen having a shower, the toilet was set back so that wasnt a problem. Cost 628 rmb no breakfast if not in a package about $130, not bad considering it it is the heart of Shanghai.

Then we moved to Fuyang and the Puli hotel, Warren had booked this through C-trip, a travel company that we had used in China before. We knew where the hotel was, it was situated on a road that I used to walk to the first school that I taught at and it was also close to the college. Downsides of this one was no-one spoke any English. Thankfully we do have some Chinese although one situation almost beat us. The girl at reception checked us in and gave us breakfast vouchers. Our room was on the fifth floor and we left to go, I couldnt remember the word for lift or elevator so I just gestured with my arm going up, she came around the desk and took us to the lift, took back the door card from Warren and tapped it on the lift inside, then pushed in 5. Hah, good security, need the door card for the lift to work. There was nothing on the vouchers to say where breakfast was, she had told us when and I understood that but not where, so after we had been for a walk, I asked at the desk in my best Chinese, something wasn't working as they (there were two by then) giggled and said five and one counted haltingly in English, one thru to five. i think they thought I had asked what floor we were on.
Later a girl came to turn down our room and I showed her the vouchers and asked "Nali" where she replied R low (second floor) phew one less thing to worry about. The room was good, quite big a separate shower and toilet room with a square bathtub in the bedroom.
We stayed for two nights and the cost was 598 rmb with breakfast, only thing was Warren was asked for a thousand, he had forgotten that they do want a sizeable deposit in case of damage. They also didnt take a credit card so we had to hand over ten big ones. we got it back when we checked out. $60 a night.

On to the Kaiyuan (New Century Grand Hotel to give it, its correct name in English) we had stayed there once before about six years ago after a Christmas function and yep the rooms were the same except, they were a little confused that we had booked for two people and for two breakfasts but only one bed. A few clacks on the computer and then she was all smiles, when we got to the room it had two twin beds.The room was massive with a big easy chair and footstool, a separate desk and the bathroom was so big that it needed two doors into it, there was a circular bath in there.

This was from one doorway

This is the scene from the other doorway. When we stayed before, everyone met in our room and there were eight or nine of us and all manged to have a seat either on the chairs or the beds.

The kaiyuan had a buffet breakfast which was included in the price and one night we had the buffet dinner as well. When living in Shaoxing this was our go to place for a good meal but I was disappointed in the evening meal on this occasion although I did have a Peking Duck pancake made for me.

Cost was $587 for five nights and buffet meal well worth it, pretty sure the Kaiyuan is either four or four and a half. we even had a pillow menu in our room and could request different types of pillows if we wished.

Back from China

It was a whirlwind trip in some ways to China although we were away for twelve days. We went to see the first ever AFL football match to be played somewhere other than Australia. We love our footy and so though why not and of course we visited with friends in China as well.

As China doesnt allow blogs or Face Book, I wasnt able to post our antics but stay tuned as I was able to write a word document and of course take photos so I will be putting them together and then posting on my blog.

China is only two hours difference from here but not sure if it was that or just tired but i have been having trouble sleeping and then of course on the other end, waking up.

We travelled over night and usually cant get too much sleep on the plane but still. Arrived 11 a m and fell into bed for three hours then we collected Lucy. She saw the car come in and she got quite excited, as Warren was getting her stuff to go home, she took off and Riku behind her. No amount of calling by Warren got her back. They raced to the top of the street and up the stairs of the end house to the front door, that house has about thirty steps up. Then they raced down again and back into Sheri's yard.and up the stairs, I think she was just exited and wanted to run. Luckily they live in a dead end street with very little traffic.

My wake up times have been 11.30 am and the last two mornings 9.30 a m.

Have fully unpacked and everything has been washed, I still have some bits and pieces to find a place and put away but in the main it is done.

Dog beds

Warren has been talking about making Lucy a dog bed and he had the wood etc to do it but time got away from him before we went away. He was thinking that she needed a bed for winter.

Monday we were having coffee outside and he could see the pile of wood in the back corner of the yard and said that he must get rid of it. i reminded him that he was going to make the dog bed from it.

Next thing he is down there and bring wood up, we were going out to dinner that night and had arranged to do something first so would need to leave around 3.30 p m. I didn't think he would have time but he finished both in about an hour.

As Lucy is having a holiday at Sheri's and they have a little dog, he decided to make one for each dog, then hopefully they wouldn't fight over the one.

So it is a box affair with ropes across the bottom. Warren was threading the rope when I took the photo, he tightened it later.

This was the smaller one with a mat that we had been given which she never used. The mat with the big paw is on Lucy's.

Lucy checking out what he was doing, usually she doesn't stay on the swing if we are not there but i think she thought it was safer up there away from saws and drills.

Warren took the two beds and Lucy down yesterday to check out how the dogs would get on. They were fine so she is off for a holiday with them while we are away.

Catch Ups

All this week I feel as though all I have been doing is catching up. Either with things in the house or meeting up with family and friends.

Probably a silly thing to do was to plan two trips within twelve days of each other but that was just how things fell into place.

This last week we have had a dinner and a lunch at our place, one didn't cater for, a lunch and dinner out and travelling a fair distance to but sometimes its necessary to catch up.

It has rained the last three days, unusual for here. poor Lucy cant really understand why she is not being taken for a walk although as soon as we go on the patio, she turns and goes back inside.

There are things that we want to do but due to weather and time they will have to wait until we are back home again.

I had put one thing on hold (publishing a cache) due to the rain from cyclone Debbie. it meant two trips out to the place and this morning i have put in a request for it to be published. Fingers crossed that it will be okay.

I have another couple out caches but in my 'put things away for the house sitters" mode, the paper that i had written the details on is in a safe place (read,cant find it!) The caches are tucked away safely so they will have to wait until I get back home. I have started a book with written details hopefully that will be harder to "lose".

Home Again.

Oh boy its tiring being home. all that washing, tidying and putting things back to where they belong. Lucy was pleased to see us I think and at first didnt know who to go to us or the house sitters.

We had two short days of travel to get home after spending a night at Mooree and having a night swim in the spa baths with the temps of the water ranging from 34 to 39 degrees. The water comes from underground and it is very hot and it is cooled to those temps. There seem to be a lot of salts or minerals in the water as skin feels very soft after a soak.

I did a wash up of costs etc this morning and we travelled almost 11000kms for a fuel cost of $1684.38, cheapest was one fill to go at Moonie which was $1.15 the dearest was a couple of hours north of Alice Springs and that was $1.99.7.

We stayed in caravan parks all the time except for one was a showgrounds with power toilets and water but no showers, that was $15, the dearest in Melbourne was $35 a night. Our caravan memberships were for two years so we were able to get some discounts at some parks for being members.

The ute and the van didnt miss a beat all the way around, we did have to get a trye fixed but it had had a slow leak before we left and no one could find it but it got a little worse and they did locate it in Alice Springs and repaired it for us.

Warren has come home with a list of things that he wanted to do with the van to make it better and I loved the front kitchen and the microwave!