We've been traveling since Friday night and we've finally made it to the Philippines. Woo! definitely something to be proud of considering our experiences Friday night. Let's backtrack to where we left off: we had boarded the plane headed for china (making it by the skin of our teeth) and were sitting in two separate rows. Somehow, Mark got a seat in the emergency exit row and managed to get the guy sitting next to him to swap seats with me (I still believe bad karma is coming mark's way for this one) but on the plus side mark and I got to sit together and enjoy ample amounts of legroom for the next 16 hours of our lives. sa-weeet. We landed in Shanghai around 5am. Because we had a 12 plus hour layover we decided we were going to leave the airport and explore the city (apparently so did everyone else on our flight because it took us THREE, that's right THREE HOURS, to get through customs and into the outside world). Our first task: breakfast. We felt like we hadn't spent quite enough time in the airport so we opted for a cafe on the inside with fresh fruit and fresh squeezed fruit juice. It was delicious! (not sure if it was worth the three hour wait though...) We took a taxi to the Shanghai city center and wandered through a beautiful park. We walked through a really crowded outdoor market in addition to entering buddhist and taoist temples.
One of the most notable things I saw while walking was the oven mitt type grips that were on all of the motorbikes parked along the sidewalk. I'd never seen anything like this before.
We also took a walk through a preserved garden area that was meant to show what Shanghai looked like long ago. It was really, really beautiful.
On our way out of the gardens we happened upon a desolate "living on the streets" type alley, which gave us a glimpse into the lives of the how the poorer chinese families in the area lived. It was incredibly humbling and a stark contrast to those wandering in the gardens with us. we headed to Shanghai Grandmother for lunch (it was recommended in lonely planet and boy was it good) I headed to the bathroom (praying to god that there was an actual toilet as opposed to the squatty I had encountered in the park earlier) completely forgetting that I was leaving poor Mark to do the ordering. I returned to two massive beers-- I had completely forgotten that in Asia beers are brought in huge bottles with glasses and are shared family style one at a time, not ordered on a per person basis. woops. guess this was going to be a boozy lunch. We ate three pot chicken and enjoyed watching the other patrons while we dined. after lunch we walked to People's Park. We decided to take a rest in the grass but were quickly reprimanded by a security officer. Apparently the grass is just for looking at, not for sitting in. We taxied back to the airport and somehow managed to get seats (next to one another this time) in the exit row. 2 for 2 ain't bad. We landed in the Philippines by 11pm and had made it through customs by twenty to twelve. China could learn a thing or two from the Philippines, just sayin. We headed outside and had a HELL of a time finding our prearranged transport to the hotel. It was hot and it was crowded and there were cars everywhere, just not the one we wanted. We debated just getting in a different car, but are so glad we stuck it out because once we finally did find our ride he couldn't have been nicer. His name was Bong and he chatted with us about all of the things we should see and do during our visit. We arrived at the hotel and after checking in, hit up the 7/11 downstairs. I introduced Mark to one of my favorite asian pastimes, sidewalk beers. We spent the next hour sitting on the stoop watching the world around us. I couldn't have imagined a better first night in Asia.
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