Acro-batty!

After a decent nights sleep, undisturbed by any nightmares about being trapped in a fire escape, I was once again ready to be unleashed on the streets of Shanghai. Unfortunately the weather was a bit crappy with a bit of drizzle in the air. That scuppered my plan to go on the river cruise, so instead I thought I'd go to an Acrobatic show in the evening (not an obvious trade off). To get tickets for the show I had to go to Shanghai Centre, and on the way I dropped into the Shanghai Library to online check-in for my flight back to Singapore. To use the internet I had to register and give my passport details. Also when I was online certain sites were blocked, the most frustrating being the BBC Sport web page.

I walked from the Library to the Shanghai Centre and bought tickets for that evening's show. I then again made use of the excellent toilet facilities at the Portman Ritz Carlton (which is in the same complex). I was at a bit of loose end now so I decided to catch the Metro over to Pudong and have a proper look around the Super Brand Mall and grab some lunch in one of the restaurants there. It was a toss up between a restaurant serving Hunan cuisine or a vegetarian place. In a surprise decision I actually went for the vegetarian option, mainly because they had some good looking set meals and also I'd read about the ingenuity of Chinese chefs in making things look and taste like meat when they are not.

After lunch I visited the Chinese Sex History museum which was small but very interesting and then took The Bund 'Sightseeing Tunnel' under the Huangpu. The tunnel was just plain odd. You sit in a small carriage and travel through the tunnel accompanied by various flashing lights and an odd voice over. There is no 'sightseeing' as such but it's naffness makes it a tourist destination.

After the excitement of the 'Sightseeing Tunnel' I made my way leisurely back to the hotel to get changed for the evening. The acrobatic show started at 7.30pm and I planned to have a couple of beers beforehand in the Long Bar which was also part of the Shanghai Centre.

I drank my 2-for-1 happy hour beers in record time and took my seat for the show. It was entertainment enough watching the various tour guides speaking a multitude of languages trying to organise their tour groups. At one point the American girl sat next to me, who was similarly amused by the tour group chaos, asked if "I understood English", to which I was able to reply "but I am English!".

The show itself was excellent and can be described in one word. Insane. I just wish the girl next to me hadn't kept saying "don't do it, don't do it, don't do it". It would've been a pretty dull show if the performers had taken her advice.

After the show I had dinner at Bi Feng Tang (Noodles and Scallops) and then walked to a Line 1 Metro station and caught the train back to my hotel.