Dear all,
One week has passed since I returned from a short holiday in Shanghai and thanks again for Lu, Michael and Nuno who take care of me during my stay.
I thought about writing my traveling experience in such a way as Nuno writes or like academics. But I realized that I have no such a talent. I want to write it as it is more fun to read. By this reason, the narratives tend to be rather exaggerated in a certain way.
May 2, 2005
Arrival:
“Ladies and gentlemen, we are landing at the Shanghai international airport in 15 minutes and you are requested to remain seated and fasten your seat belt tightly. Thank you for your attention ”
I heard the announcement and I feel a certain excitement about this trip. It’s been half a year to see Nuno. It’s been more than two years to see Lu and Michael.
“They must have been changed. Sure. I feel I have become bit old every time I watch myself in mirror. They’ve got to change too. ” I assured.
In his email, Nuno said that Lu and he would pick me up at the airport at my arrival.
In order to go through the airport building, I did not check in my luggage. All the necessary documents were ready. Once again, I checked if a landing card is filled out correctly.
“Excellent. Everything is done. I do not have to let them wait long. ” I thought. I am satisfied with my planning.
I went through the gate and the custom clearance smoothly. As I promised to Nuno, I slipped on a red shirt of Portuguese National team and headed for the exit. I passed the exit and proceeded further seeing many Chinese with welcome boards. While I was proceeding to the end of passage, I quickly scanned the crowd.
“There are so many people. But there is no man with dark curly hair like Afro dog. Where is he” I wondered, “Even if I can not spot him, they could spot me, of course. In this proud shirt!”.
My continuous search turned out to be unsuccessful and then I started to think doubtedly:
“Did I give him wrong time of arrival? Did anything happen to them. Car accident?”
Thirty minutes had passed.
Then I got back to reality.
“No, I should not worry. Worrying is ridiculous! Nothing wrong happened to them. They are just late”
Approximately one hour after my arrival, a familiar voice was calling out my name. “There they are. Lu and Nuno. The Northterrace lovebirds.
“It’s been a long time” I exchanged words with Lu. It is a longer than 2 years. I remembered they invited me at their flat in Newcastle. We had sweet and sour pork ribs and Portuguese sausage. I remember she attacked me with a water-pistol! She has not changed, as young as I saw her two years ago.
“Hello, Nuno”
“Hello, hello” Nuno replied
“Nuno also has not changed” I thought, “Maybe his belly is slightly bigger than before. Yeah, just a little. A little?? Yeah, just a little. Don’t be rude, Yasu” I remained these words in my thought.
After exchanging words each other, we headed for airport shuttle station. Now, a linear motorcars transport air passengers from the Shanghai airport to the city center. It does not touch the ground but scud over the surface. It reaches 400 km/h. Amazing!
We arrived Lu’s family apartment and I was greeted with her family members: her mother, father, sister, brother-in-law and nephew. I was bit ashamed that I can only say Ni-hao and she-she (hello and thank you).
I left my luggage in the bedroom which Lu and Nuno were using during their stay. Then, I looked down the window. I was a bit shocked. Their apartment was situated at a very high floor! It is on 17th or 18th floor. In Shanghai many people lives in an apartment building that has 20 floors high!
“If anyone fall down from this window. The body will crash on the ground and spread like a tomato!!!” I thought in terror.
After a little while, we sat on the dinner table and started dinner. Lu’s mother prepared several dishes for us. In China, several dishes are served at table and each one use chop sticks to pick up ones they want. In Shanghai region, they eat more fish and shellfish from river and food are often cooked with mild soy sauce. They do not eat spicy food.
After dinner, we went out for drinking at bar, where we met Michael. Michael came back to China half a year after completion of the course and he has recently acquired a new job as a financial officer at B & Q, a famous British retailer. I asked him about his wild experience in Portugal and Galicia.
“Michael, you went to see Nuno in Portugal after the course? Did you enjoy it?”
“Yes, I enjoyed very much.” He replied.
“Iberians eat a lot, no?”
“Yeah, very much.”
I remember what David, my friend in La Corunha told me. He was saying “Michael and Lu drank a lot of wine. My father always offers too much alcohool to our guests. At least Lu was drunk.”
We visited the highest building in Shanghai. In order to get to a bar at the top floor, we had to change lifts three or four times.
“Is it really necessary to design the building in such a complicated way” I wondered. Actually, I am not interested in modern architectures.
However, when we get to the top, overlook the view from there, I was impressed.
“Waooo, it’s beautiful!”
The panorama from the building is like several pictures of Manhattan.
“Shanghai has much more attractive view than any modern cities in Japan. ” I thought
After overlooking the panorama view, we went home to prepare for early start tomorrow.
May 3, 2005
On the second day, we woke up early in the morning to get tickets to Suzhou. Unfortunately, when we got to a bus terminal, tickets had already been sold out. Instead, we chose to visit a small town that is embedded on a riverbank. Historically people there are accustomed to use river boards for transportation and fishing. Nowadays, many tourists enjoy a small river cruise with a gondola style boats.
We first started with a little gallery tour and we had lunch at a small local restaurant. In this town restaurants offer a great variety of fish and selfish from rivers. Nuno was curious about taking pictures of those creatures from the river.
After lunch we took a boat tour to relax a bit. Lu and Michael went to hire a boat for us. While they were negotiating, Nuno and I waited. After a while, they came back and said
“We can ride that boat. ” Michael said
We took a cruise for about thirty minutes and I enjoyed floating on the river, lying thoughtlessly.
When we came home, we were all satisfied. We all took a shower and then it was time to relax. Lu lied on the bed to relax. Nuno sat on the chair and started to sort out pictures he took today.
“Yasu, these are the pictures I took recent years”
After sorting out his pictures and he passed me his laptop computer to show me his pictures since September 2001. Then he started to work on his blog. As everyone knows, Nuno has been keeping his web diary called “Um Vicente em Londres” communicating his family and friends in Lisbon. He writes a great deal of his essay each time. I was impressed with his energy. I am also eager to do so but I am a type of man who is easily give up after a month or so and get bored.
However, Lu did not seem to feel the same way as I did. She already knew that her boyfriend would watch a football game from 2:30 am and when he started work on a computer. She started to complain at him teasingly:
“Nuno, you love the internet and football more than me. ”
“No, it is not true, Lu” he said
“But you were on computer everyday”
The conversation did not escalate into an argument and Lu’s light criticism continued. As I am not interested in today’s football game and I did not observe their private conversation, I retreated to my bed, saying goodnight to them.
Frankly speaking it did not bother me very much. Because I knew they used to call each other almost everyday while he stayed in Portugal.
“Well, this can be a kind of ritual for their love life”
After a few minutes, I drifted into a sleep.
May 4, 2005
Karaoke:
Wednesday is my third day in Shanghai. We stayed in bed longer as we got home after midnight. Today, Lu’s friend who had studied at Birmingham invited us to Karaoke at a big hotel complex. We arrived there around eleven o’clock and found there was no Michael. We wondered he must be still in bed. Anyway, Nuno and me went to a buffet bar to grab anything that can fill our empty stomach.
While two hungry monsters were feeding themselves, Lu began singing her first song. “She’s good at it”
Here in China, Karaoke seems to be very popular among all generations. However, I have never seen a Karaoke bar in such a luxurious hotel complex. Unlike Western countries, groups of friends go to individual rooms to order food and drinks and sing songs. So, nobody has to be embarrassed with his or her horrible voce to be heard among wide audience.
Lu finished the first song and continued the second one.
“She really loves singing. She maybe had waited for months to get an opportunity to show her talent”, I thought.
“Ok, she deserve it”
I continue to search for some songs in Japanese and wondered whether or not I should sing. She finished the second one and she started the third one.
“Come on! It is taboo for one person to sing continuously like this in Japan. People booze for it” I thought myself. But I gave up and started to talk with others.
Afterwards, Lu asked me to enter some songs. “You should sing some Japanese songs, Yasu!”
“OK, I look up some from the list”
Frankly speaking, I also like Karaoke but I have not been for ages and I am very poor singer. I don’t have many songs that I am capable of without laughed at. Eventually, I chose a few of them.
Lu turned to Nuno and said “You should also sing.”
“Is there any Portuguese song?”
“Nnnn, No Portuguese. But you can sing an English one” Lu suggested. Nuno did not seem to be much convinced. He didn’t show much willingness but neither he protested. Anyway, he also sang. (Was it Love me tender, Nuno?)
The best song I remembered was “Dancing Queen”.
“Daning Queen….dancing queen…La, la, la, I’m just seventeen, yeah…” Lu sang with her strength in her voice and Nuno followed with some lines and humming.
“It looks they are best couple together. But they like dancing together? Whenever I saw them, they seem to enjoy beating each other. Maybe, they are more good at kickboxing” I wondered.
Michael joined us one hour later. We gave farewell to Lu’s friend and we left there to walking tour.
Michael – The negotiator
After wandering around the French Concession, we went to the Yuyuan. We went to have some Dumpling for lunch and then to have tea at a famous teahouse.
Afterwards, we needed some time to buy some souvenirs. Nuno wanted to buy some accessory for her mother. Nuno and Lu were negotiating price and which one to buy.
When the negotiation was almost over, Michael intervened the negotiation. As I do not understand a word of Chinese, I guessed that the negotiation was not yet over. Michael seemed to refuse a price or something The saleswomen looked furious as she was interrupted her sales. However, in the end they reached some agreement and Nuno seemed to be happy with the item.
We dropped by some other shops to buy a seal and tea set. At every shop, Michael was the one who brought all the prices down! The final price was almost a half of the starting price. Amazing! In China, it looks that price tags virtually mean nothing. I wondered how many foreigners paid twice as much as Chinese pay for.
After our successful shopping, we were about to go to dinner somewhere.
Nuno said “I’m hungry! We go to eat somewhere near.”
Lu suggested the gourmet street that I scribbled on my notebook. We agreed. Unfortunately, the restaurant on my note had been closed. We continued to search for another on the street. We went into Tibet lumb barbeque restaurant. I was instantly disgusted with body odor of Muslin people at table. They smelled as horrible as George the Greek, who inhabited right opposite to my flat in Newcastle. The Nightmare.
I was secretly hoping that we decided not to dine there.
Lu suggested another place we looked before. Then when we reached there, it said that cooks had gone home.
“How come cooks have gone home!” Nuno started grumbling, “It’s your fault, Lu” Accusation went to his lovely girlfriend.
“No you should know!”
“No, I didn’t see the sign saying cooks have gone!”
Finally, we went into a restaurant to have dinner. We ordered several dishes and we were satisfied with food.
After the dinner, I gave a farewell to Michael – a guide and great contributor for our shopping. We asked him to come with us to spa but he declined as he was bit tired and had to spend time with his family on the following day. He said to me that I am welcomed to Shanghai again anytime.
The Spa
After saying good-bye to Michael, we went to so-called “Spa”. I saw it on a guide book and I had an image of personal and exclusive service with jet bath and muscle therapy with a young pretty woman.
When Lu, Nuno and I went into the building, we were a cheerful young man in suit and tie and asked to go separately for men and women.
Lu said to us to enjoy and meet at the second floor.
“Ok, Lu” we said to her awkwardly.
The man in suit guided us to the men’s place and said to us in Chinese to take off our clothes and put them in locker. We took off all the clothes except underwear and put them in the locker. The man in suit and his staff were round us for service. Then the man said to us to take off underwear too.
I saw the big bath and shower rooms and my disappointment seized me.
“Oh, this is not a luxurious spa…. It is just a public bath…. ”
When Nuno was told to take off his underwear, he looked pretty much shocked. The man was smiling at him. He eventually obeyed.
In China and Japan, some people go to public bath. In western countries they do not have this kind of custom to bath in naked with total strangers in a big pool. Nuno did not try to show he was shocked. But he must be horrified. Indeed, I was horrified too.
We were led to the shower. While we were taking a shower, the man asked Nuno to shave but he did not want it.
“No, no, I do not want to shave.” Nuno protested.
The man with a big smile kept smiling at Nuno. A BIG SMILE! HORRIFING!
“I said no! Yasu, can you tell him I don’t want to shave! Is he a gay?????”
“No, he does not want to shave, thank you.” I said to the man with some gesture or showed every possible way to make him understand.
After shower, we were led to another changing room to be dried and change into a bathrobe.
While we were wiping our bodies, the man and his staff helped drying our back. After changing, we were forced to go upstairs to wait at table, watching munbo-jumbo show.
“They must be gays. They must be gays” Nuno said repeatedly, “We came here to take a bath but we couldn’t even go into a bath. ”
“Ok, we should go down to take a bath and I will explain to the man that we WANT a bath!”
When the man and his staff saw us coming back, they seemed to be surprised. I went to talk to the man. English did not work. So, I took his hand to write with my finger on his palm in Chinese characters “ I want to bath”
The man was confused and his staff brought a pen and paper to write down. So, I did. Finally, they understand us, at least what we want but not our idea of relaxed time.
We could take a bath alone. Once we rejected them when they came to offer some drink, they finally left us alone and in peace. We bathed for 30 minutes and went up to meet Lu.
Nuno said to her angrily “Lu, it is all your fault! You should tell me before!”
“Sorry, Nuno. I didn’t know. It is my first time in this place” she apologized.
“But you have been a similar place and you should have explained to me before. What to expect.”
“No, you should!” continued.
To compensate our dreadful experience, she offered us to take a foot massage. Our tension was eased at last.
In the next morning, Lu’s brother in law took me to the airport. After one-hour ride, we arrived at the airport. Our farewell was brief.
“OK Yasu, next time will be in Brussels. Maybe” Nuno said
I headed for the airport building and look back watching them disappearing from my sight.
“Yeah, our next meeting should be in Brussels. So, he should get through there soon” I assured.
“He should send a big limo to pick me up then!”
The end
