“Banpaku, banpaku... Are you going to see the Banpaku???” “ANKOR WAT??!?! ANKOR WAT?!” .. The most commonly asked questions from my Japanese co-workers four weeks ago. First off.... what the hell is Banpaku? I told them I was going to Shanghai and Cambodia then they start off with this Banpaku business. Come to find out this is the Japanese word for “World Fair” which is in Shanghai until the end of October. “Ankor wat” is a very famous world heritage site (temple) outside of Siem Reap in Cambodia. I like how AFTER I book the tickets to Cambodia, I learn about where I am going. It’s better that way sometimes though, yea?... like having no idea where you’re going in a country and then finding out that there are so many amazing things to see there. I became more and more excited as the time grew closer about going on my nine day vacation. Youtube even helped me learn a little Khmer (the Cambodian language). Some kid with way to much time on his hands made a cute little video speaking useful Khmer. I learned “thank you” ~ “Au-kun’ although the most useful phrase happened to be “Otay-Au-kun” which is frequently used when poor decrepit old women approach you trying to sell rotting fruit. ~means No, thank you.
Although the World Fair was happening in Shanghai, Allen, Ayumi and I decided that we couldn’t waste our one allowed day (under 40 hours, and large Chinese stamp taking up one page of our passports given to us by a Chinese man who could care less about life...) standing in line to get into each countries exhibits. So, after a 2 hour subway ride into the city, we scampered to drop our backpacks off at the hostel and head to The Bund for some drinks and sightseeing. The hostel, as stated, was “located close to The Bund” - a very popular shopping district with old French style buildings and bright lights. This however, proved to be false. It was a 30 minute subway ride. Nonetheless we made it to bright and crowded pedestrian street... crazy Chinese men on attach-a-wheel-to-your-shoe watch your every non-rolling step and tell you every 5 seconds... “You roll like me look! Only 100 Yuwon!” and throw light up wheels in your hands. It’s actually quite an endearing gesture. I usually just pointed them in Allen’s direction saying “I think he wants some.” We played that game a lot on this trip... to Allen’s disapproval.
After embarrassing ourselves in front of a slew of questioning tourists, we finished our touristy jumping photos, and touristed ourselves onward down the never ending street of lights. We were soon greeted by an attractive Chinese boy about my age offering a secluded 7th floor cafe with food and drinks which we happily accepted and ventured our way through the tourist trap of a first floor filled with EXPO (World Fair) souvenirs, made our way to an elevator at center of the room and ascended into luxury. The cafe was equipped with large comfy sofas and nice lighting, overlooking the central area of The Bund. We ordered some “traditional” Chinese food (which was questionable), couple drinks and relaxed. As we were paying we heard a cat meow.. remembered that Chinese people eat cats... saw a neon glow sign with the word “restaurant” spelled as “retsaurant” and quickly left, re-questioning the ‘comfort’ of said cafe with cute worker.
We decided to stop at a convenience store to grab some cheap beer and bring it back to the hostel. After cracking open our drinks, a wonderful man named Alfredo, from Spain, Japanified himself by sitting on the floor with us and chatting for a bit. He was quite intriguing, a professor of engineering at a University who was sent on holiday to help some students in Seoul, Korea for three months. Alfredo also agreed that Chinese people don’t care too much for those who are not firm believers of the communist way.... or those who don’t hock up every ounce of spit in their throats to spatter inch by inch of the Chinese sidewalk. Ok, China is cool.. I’m just really afraid of vomit.
Memo #1: It’s not such a great idea to tote your luggage around for a full day. You will endure pain. Waking up early is no problem, but trying to be quiet while the live-in-a-youth-hostel-Chinese girl dorm mate you were placed with is trying to sleep... not so easy. Although she was on the phone until the weeeee hours of the morning. Ayumi and I tip-toed around, showering and preparing ourselves for the day, then met Allen and began our trek to see the Yuyuan Garden. It began by asking the clueless youth hostel about “‘#&%”’$ Gardens”.. seeing as we couldn’t remember the word “Yuyuan,” which was followed with much lack of communication until an English speaking worker came to help telling us to take a bus 10 stops. We then trundled down to the bus stop, waited for ten minutes then flagged down a cab, showed them the kanji for Yuyuan Gardens and ended up in front of a non-garden looking building about fifteen minutes later.
The Yuyuan Garden isn’t accurately named but it is quite a booming cultural abyss! It was my favorite place we visited in Shanghai actually. We never really found any ‘garden’ per say.. just a lot of really beautiful ancient Chinese buildings turned into shops (even a McD’s and Starbucks) and plenty of bustling artisan shops. It was jam packed with tourists and maybe some locals finding a good bite to eat.. mmmm... duck blood. After walking our booties off and souvenir shopping, we exited the ‘garden’ to look for a subway to take us to The Bund again but after walking a good thirty minutes through packed backroads with motorcycles and carriages our path opened up into a beautiful Shanghai skyline in perfect view.. the Oriental Pearl TV Tower.
Of course we took some tobu (jumping) photos...
Looking down the river in Shanghai, we spotted The Bund again... set apart by it’s cute little buildings. Again, we picked up all belongings and began to walk but were quickly exhausted by the 40 degree weather. So, we found an expensive cafe with air conditioning, ordered some coffee and aired out our bodies for a good hour. After continuing onto The Bund we walked through only ONE shopping mall. By "walked through" I mean we went in one door and out another. The exit door, however, had some some saying "Come come shopping shopping" who where shocked when Ayumi and I looked at each other and sarcastically said " OMG is this a SHOPPING mall?! Can we SHOP here?".. One man was obviously offended in some way so he proceeded to caw (yes, like a crow) at us until we were out of sight. ??? mmmmm....k.MAYBE a communication barrier.. maybe.. At that point we found ourselves walked out and shopped out. NO MORE.. we walked to the end of the road and ended up in People’s Square which also has a gigantic park. Allen spotted a vendor selling deep fried crab and quickly jumped on such a rarity. No, this was not just the crab meat deep fried.. that’s not how the do it in China, it was definitely the whole crab breaded and dropped in a boiling vat of oil, shell and all then jabbed in the middle with a huge skewer. We found a nice little secluded place to sit and eat our crab kabob (which turned out to be pretty tasty) but were soon approached by an angry homeless man ready to rudely verbally abuse us in Chinese to give him money. I gave him like 1 Yuwon but he still wouldn’t leave us alone so we tried to give him some crab meat which he didn’t appreciate and ended up stammering off in a huff. Damn. Memo #2: Crab shell tastes like yummy chips if you deep fry it, but homeless old Chinese men will not appreciate it.
After our fried crab deluxe, we found an open park with less creepy homeless people and napped for a bit then headed to the airport by Maglev (the high speed 7min and not 2 hour train) from Pudong. We each settled for different food for dinner: Allen-pizza, Ayumi-dumplings, Me-much missed Burger King... hell yes. Then headed to Phnom Penh.
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