I checked out of the hotel I was in and with a map in my hand I walked towards the Jade Buddha Monastery. I learned it was nearby. I decided to hit a whole bunch of errands along the way. I went looking about on how to load up on minutes for my phone. I went all over in circles recommended by different people. I ended up in a news stand next to a travel agency after attempting to withdraw US dollar at a nearby bank. My attempt was unsuccessful. The ATMs here is just not like the ones in Beijing at WangFuJing with RMB or US Dollar option.
I saw the travel agency and decided to step in and book a ticket to Bangkok, Thailand. The first available seat was Saturday morning, the first flight and the cheapest one available. While waiting for paperwork to go through I stepped out and saw the news stand right outside and loaded my phone with minutes. I saw Victor’s message about inviting me to lunch and lunch was happening in 30 minutes. I called him and he said he was already on the road actually heading my direction and could swing by to pick me up with his driver. I told him I was waiting for my ticket to be issued and we worked it out so that my ticket would be delivered to me at where we would be dinning so I didn’t have to just wait around and waste time. I like such services.
So I stood at the corner waiting for him to pick me up. I had not seen him for awhile. Victor looked thin, pale, and frail. He looked a lot more like his mother since I last saw him. Victor’s grandpa just passed away and he was busy with getting the funeral all set up and keeping the round the clock recitation going for his grandpa. He didn’t take my offer in assisting him with anything. I recited on my own and did transference for his grandfather and the rest of his grieving family. During a difficult time like this, what I saw Victor do was handle everything with class, and integrity.
I met a lady in the car who was introduced by Victor as her friend. Her name was Kim, she like Victor both study Chinese Traditional Medicine at the Shanghai school. She was a very sweet person.
On the ride over to lunch, Victor did his tour host thing by pointing some things out on the map. He even offered to set me up at a studio and it would be 300 yuan to cover the details. The place would be by the hotel I was at and it would be in the west side of Shanghai a bit far from the downtown. All the arrangements were done within a phone call of just inquiry. However, I politely turned down his good offer and decided to head for the youth hostel by People’s Park instead. I also asked Victor about how to get US dollar from the banks and shared my troubled attempts in the morning. He pulled out his wallet and handed me US dollars for my convenience. I just handed it to me just like that and said he’s got no use for it right now and it would be okay for me to return that money to him after I return to US. Well, this really took the pressure off of me to locate the currency.
We were dropped off at his Indonesian Friend’s farewell party for lunch. Well, as it turned out, Indonesian time is like Indian time, everything happens three to five hours later than the said time. We arrived at 12:30pm and we left at 5:30pm and lunch happened at 5pm and not 12:30pm. This friend of his is also a classmate at the Traditional Chinese Medicine school of Shanghai. They both agreed that they learned more from reading old classics on medicine than from their teachers and clinical practice. Victor had limited time since he was in the midst of arranging funeral services etc… He told us we were welcomed to stay at the party but he would leave first. Both of us did not want to try to find our way back downtown without Victor. This party is located in the southern part of Shanghai. It didn’t even looked like Shanghai. It would be the equivalent to “East” side of anything town in the US. So we quickly ate within 10 minutes and the party still had not started. We ate under cooked rice and curry that was cold. With the over starvation of lunch that ended up being dinner, everything cold, undercooked rice, and chucking it all down, all and all just made my stomach turn and I felt sick.
It took a long time to flag a taxi down. In the taxi Victor really took care to make sure we were all set for the rest of the night and whatever else he thought of that needed to be taken care of. In the taxi he told the story of his grandfather’s passing. He said when his grandfather died his eyes were open. After reciting a few hours his eye lids closed and cheeks were rosy. He became a believer in “Ju Nian” reciting for the deceased. He was really enthusiastic about this practice and recommended it’s existence everywhere possible. I reminded him that they do and they are. In fact his grandma is involved in a few herself. This was news to him and to his delight.
I checked into the hostel into a room full of guys from Europe. They were all very nice and took care of me. I heard this room had better heaters and it sure turned out to be nice and toasty.
The internet here is free and very nice. My family is upset that I am in need of borrowing money again and that I have no plans of returning yet and is heading to Bangkok. So they are a bit unfriendly right now.
I walked on NanJingDong Lu to the Bond. I enjoyed the walk. This part of Shanghai is creative, civilized, beautiful and clean. The building of 100 plus year old motifs were beautiful even in the dark with night light to highlight them. The modern buildings were nice too and the lights that lit them were beautiful. I took the 2 yuan ferry across to the other side of the bond. It was cold and windy.
I like all the shops here. I was happy to have fresh squeezed orange juice at one of the shops. My body likes fresh fruits and juices.
I went on a dumplings and wontons hunt. I stopped by a dumpling shop on the bond. I told them I wanted vegetable dumplings without meat. The lady nodded his head and but her eyes betrayed her head. I knew she was not quite straight about something. When my dumplings showed up it was meat dumpling. I took it back to her and she tried to wiggle her way out of it but there is no way out of a meat dumpling because it was not a vegetable one. They are clearly distinctly different. Finally she said they didn’t make vegetable dumplings but there are vegetables mixed in with the meat. She gave me my money back. I walked away disappointed in my dumpling wonton hunt.
When I returned to the square, there was a live band playing polka music and people were doing the polka on the street. It was cute to watch. Christmas is alive here in Shanghai with full decorations too.
The day seemed long and it really felt like two days spent in one. It wasn’t dragged out boring long. I just covered a lot of ground in one day.
