At a close

Today I walked to the Yu-Yuan Gardens after being recommended that I go there by someone at the hostel. It's not the kind of place I would usually choose to go on holidays, but as I had no guide book I had no other ideas on what there was to do. It's pretty much a huge garden where someone important used to chill out in. Can't remember who though. If you're ever in Shanghai, I would say its definitely worth going to. A lot of different rooms, a few ponds, a lot of plants, and thousands of Koi fish.

With a few hours spent at the Yu-Yuan Gardens, I made my way to the Shanghai Museum, which seemed perfect since its raining today. Although several galleries were closed, I still managed to spend 3.5 hours here. So there is plenty to see and do in there.

For lunch as I didn't fancy going to the ATM to get more RMB out when my travels were so close to being over, I chose to get some street food. I ended up staying there for a bit. I had pretty much everything on their menu. By the end of it the girls serving the meals where in hysterics, as I was pretty much their only customer, I would go up every 5-10 minutes for another dish and they would point out something I hadn't had yet. I mean it was so cheap, and the portions were not particularly big that I just didn't feel like I was full. I also got approached by some old lady trying to sell me some fake watches. I eventually settled for a brand new BREITLTNG (sic) after some hard bargaining. I guess it will go with my t-shirt which says "I went to China and all I got was this fake watch!". I've actually never worn that watch and still sitting in my room gathering dust. It's quite a good souvenir though.

As for the rest of the night, nothing particularly interesting happened. I got approached by some weird guy trying to strike up a conversation. I think he wanted to steal my camera, maybe I should have asked him if he wanted it as he kept on glancing at it.

Had a moment of ephiphany today. With nothing to do on a Wednesday night, I realised that I've never had a good time in YHA Hostels. They generally attract the weirdest people. I mean maybe its a China or Shanghai thing. But half the people in my room were here on business. Who stays in a YHA for a business trip. I mean if your staying in the YHA and your company or if your self emplyed (which I assume they might have been which would make it slightly more plausible) you definitely haven't made it business wise. Argh! Rant over.