Mum, Dad and Erana very kindly took Mike and I to the airport at 4am Saturday morning to catch our flight to Melbourne at 6am. It was really sad to say goodbye to them. :o(
The Qantas flight to Melbourne was uneventful. We went through immigration by mistake as we thought we had to. Turns out we could just check in for our connecting flight at the gate. The International Transfers sign was too difficult for us to understand.
We were just about the only Pakeha on the Melbourne - Shanghai flight. Air China was good - ok Chinese food and we had mini tvs in the back of the seats. I got a little sleep, but Mr didn't get any.
We landed in Shanghai and got the super fast (300kms/h) train into the city, then a metro to our hotel. Our hotel room is the smallest hotel room we'd ever seen and without windows. So when we woke up this morning it was pitch black - a little disconcerting.
The metro here is good - air conditioned (thank god, as it's pretty warm here), fast and cheap (3 or 4 Y, about NZ50c). There are lots of skyscrapers here, as well as older British-style buildings, and there's a big park in the center of the city.
People are friendly, we've had some talk to us in the street, wanting to practice their English I guess.
We're off now to see The Bund, which is like the promenade along the riverbank.
