Dad/Gpa is having a wonderful time. He just keeps making statements about what a great experience we are having. I need to write down his quotes and how he says them. Today he missed Jake who as an architect would just be amazing and enthralled with the buildings and skylines. Ed and Dad were also fascinated by the amount of construction going on everywhere and how many of them had floors and floors of Bamboo scaffolding.
Well another exciting day in Shanghai. It really is amazing how much energy it takes even just riding around in a cab. The adrenaline starts, and then the pounding of your heart in your chest, along with jumping every time a there is a honk or close passing of a pedestrian, bus, car, scooter, or bicycle, which is about 3 a second. I finally put on psychological blinders and just couldn’t watch anymore.
As we left the ship this morning we were confident we knew more what we were doing as we had so much experience yesterday. Besides, we were just doing things here in the city. Kriss was able to hail a cab pretty quick…forgetting that Frommers said that Turquoise, Yellow, and Blue cabs were better than Red and Green. She hailed a green. We loaded in and within about 3 minutes I could tell this guy was a bit aggressive, as he was honking at other drivers. With in another minute he stopped in the middle of a one-way road, just stopped! Then all of a sudden he started backing up. Then a big bus pulled right up behind him, not letting him back up. Within a few seconds the driver jumped out of the taxi, and the bus driver got out of the bus and approached our driver. They were both yelling at each other. right there not 12 inches from Grandpa’s window. Was this really happening??? Kriss looked back at us from the front seat. The two men started shoving each other. We looked at each other in shock. Now remember neither drivers spoke a word of English but the yelling was so fast and furious. Within less than a minute others around came to try to break it up or calm then down. One nice lady looked at us in the taxi, especially at Grandpa by the window, and I think was so embarrassed that these men were behaving such and making such a scene in front of the Americans, that she tried to motherly scold the two men. Three other men came and got involved too, trying to get them to stop it and get out of the street as they were causing everyone else a traffic jam. I was afraid Gpa would say something and get them more mad, but he didn’t. He just laughed and said he was quite enjoying it. Kriss and I wanted to get out and walk away, but we couldn’t leave the wheelchair in the trunk. The whole episode lasted about 10 minutes. Then the bus driver got back in his bus, and drove around the taxi. The Taxi did back up, went down one road, then another, and then we couldn’t quite figure as we saw the corner we had just been at. As I sit and write it now I am laughing, as you just can’t imagine this is really happening.
Then it was off on the freeways of Shanghai for the next 50 minutes getting us to a 100 year old, 7-story Buddhist Temple. We were the only tourists around and know we know why as it was so out of the way. But it was worth getting to and glad we went.
Next stop, beautiful huge modern Shanghai Museum. We visited just 6 of the galleries. Bronze, Statues, Jade, Furniture, Coins, and Ceramic. All were done in historical order, many dating back 2000 BC but we saw some pottery from Neolithic period 10,000 years BC. We saw real Ming Vases so were able to go buy our magnets in the gift shop.
Last stop was the “Bund”. Famous scenic walkway along the river we came in on, with modern skyscrapers, one of which one was in a James Bond movie and Ed just keeps trying to remember which movie. It is a tall one with a square in the top where he is walking and then on a cable is hanging. He will find out and let us know so next time we watch it we will be able to say….I was there. We decided against the trip up in the elevator to see the view as we were all looking forward to getting back to the ship in one piece. We could even see the ship docked about a mile or two away as the Bund in on a curve, so decided to Walk it.
Ed was faster with the wheelchair than Kriss and I as we were hunting for shops with postcards and magnets. Well, there are not touristy souvenir shops around like in U.S.
So lagging behind we were taking a back street trying to find a place to shop. There weren’t sidewalks so we were following two people with wagons, carrying their goods. Then all of a sudden, not two feet from the side where Kriss and I were walking, a taxi was passing us and stopped short, then a large BANG as a motorcycle crashed right into the back of it. Again, all just two feet from us. The man was fine, but the taxi driver got out and the memories of the morning made us both just try to get away as fast as we could walk. Others that spoke the language could be the witnesses to the police. (We did wonder after if it was us that caused the accident if the guy on Motorcycle was looking at us instead of straight ahead. They seem to do that. We seem to be a rarity around here….wondering if it is flip-flops and painted toenails or what. (Kriss wore my flip-flops yesterday and we definitely noticed people looking at her feet. ) But remember this is the country that used to bind women’s feet so they looked petite. May they just were looking at how big our feet are. Everyone wears shoes here, and luckily we were not wearing shorts as they don’t wear those either.
Just around the corner, we passed a huge gorgeous Hyatt and decided maybe they had a gift shop. Yes, we paid Hyatt prices for our Shanghai magnet. About double what they are other places around the world. Strange how some things are so cheap….like taxi’s and entrance fees, and help like Jack gave us yesterday, and then paying so much for these little magnets. But we both knew we would be made at ourselves if we didn’t get them. (I’m still hoping one day someone goes to Prague and Salzburg and brings me back a magnet.)
While Ed waited for us to catch up as I had Dad’s ship pass, they had to spend the 15 minutes dealing with the women and men trying to sell them “Lolex” watches!!! They kept bargaining with Ed and had them down to 4 for 100 Shanghai dollars, which is like $34. He said he had no money but to watch for two women coming. We managed to get past them but Ed ended up going back, haggling another 15 minutes with them until he ended up with one leather band watch, a nicer one they pulled out, in exchange for the 4 promised ones he had just purchased to give as gifts just so he could say he picked them up a “Lolex”, but as the police showed up, Ed had the leather one in hand and the lady took off running. Ed ended up happy with his exchange.
Thus ends our two days in Shanghai. We now sit peacefully out on our Veranda deck, overlooking the beautiful gardens, relaxing, reading books and napping, in preparation for our two days on sea on way to Beijing and the Great Wall.
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