Shanghai

`So, having got rid of the chicken's feet and duck's neck portions onto a chef/catering manager (who I'm told works with Anthony Worral Thompson) today I went out to take a look round the 'old town' and yet again attempt to buy a second hand book. Arriving back at the hostel soaking and with a new book (Peter Carey's Theft which I'm quite happy with) clearly my plan did not entirely work out, and I did spend a reasonable amount of time, yet again, walking in circles. But never mind. The old town was very nice - although a bit fake, reminding me somewhat of the 'shopping villages' built for outlet stores in the uk...only with more hawkers selling watches more antiques and more 'antiques'.

Thus far the food here has been very nice (and much cheaper than HK), although I was forced to eat my first ever Big Whopper yesterday as I couldn't find any food where I was, I was starving and needed to take my doxycycline with food. I'm not proud, but I did enjoy it. This meal was of course trumped by my evening meal the night before of noodles with garlic, ginger, and chilli with lamb. Delicious and only for 12 Yuan (just less than a pound) for a big plate.

The meal was made more amusing by the fact that it was eaten with a pimp. I'll just repeat that, it was eaten with a pimp. Walking along one of the main streets here foreigners often experience people saying 'hello' 'where you from' 'you go for coffee with me?' and so on. Finding this somewhat confusing (particularly at first) I wasn't sure whether these people were:
1) setting me up to rob me
2) flirting
3) genuinly trying to practice their english
4) trying to sell me things [watches, belts, shoes - they offer them all in one sentece]
5) Trying to sell me sex

Generally I walk faster than them and don't respond to them, so I have no problem. Unfortunately this bloke was tall and could walk as fast as my flip flopped feet could carry me, and I made the mistake of engaging him. So he guided me (subtly) to a 'cafe' to eat. I wasn't keen on eating in a cafe, particularly having seen two large Western blokes also being guided in by another Asian guy. It was at this point that I decided he wasn't flirting, he wasn't going to rob me, and he didn't care much about his english (which was good), but he did want me in his brothel. So, not wanting to let me go, he suggested a place further down which looked (and was) very nice. So in we went, him sitting with me while I ate, chatting, and occasionally suggesting I could get a massage - 'nice student girls, they want to practice their english'. Yuhuh. Anywho, he wasn't too happy when I left saying I needed to go meet my friends. Playing innocent I pointed out that he'd told me he just wanted to practice his english...he did not understand my laughter. Teach him to walk so fast. I was told later that this is a standard trick to do all 5 of the above (less the 3rd, and the 4th is obvious of course), and that plenty of people find themselves engaged only to then be robbed either obviously, or through various 'tea house scams' where they're pushed into paying exorbitant amounts for tea in a tea house under the guise of going out to tea with their new Chinese friend...classic scam and yet, as with the Tailors and Stone sellers of Bangkok with the tuk-tuk drivers, people still fall for it all the time.

Having seen a reasonable amount of Shanghai, I've decided tomorrow will be my last day. and I'll go to Hangzhou the day after for 2 days there, before heading back North to Suzhou, then Nanjing before a big jump up to Ji'nan. More on those soon I should think. I'm hoping I can see some more 'natural beauty' - lakes and hills and such while there. The temples here are nice, but not a patch on Thai/Cambodian ones partly because those included so much nature, even if it was just nice gardens, whereas the ones here do not. We'll see what happens further North.