And then it rained....

So what did I do on my last in Shanghai? Well to be honest not a lot. I packed and checked out of my hotel and had my bags stored. Outside it was pouring it down with rain, and this is the main reason I didn't get up to much.

The first thing I decided I needed to do was check what time the last MagLev train left for the airport. The Lonely Planet guide said one time and the Time Out guide said another and the leaflet I'd got at the airport just said a load of stuff in Chinese. I got the Metro to Longyang Road and was able to verify, in person, at the MagLev terminal that the last MagLev train left at 9.00pm (the Time Out guide had the right answer). Because of the rain I felt that a combination of Metro and MagLev would be the best bet in getting to the airport rather than having to find a cab and then potentially getting snarled up in traffic.

I had hoped the rain would've eased of during my trip out to Longyang Road, however it didn't really show any sign of letting up. I had practically an entire day to fill and the normal option of just wandering the streets would've meant getting very wet. The only thing for it was to 'hang out in a shopping mall', so it was back to the Super Brand Mall! My first stop at SBM was Starbucks and this is where I when I got the text message saying the my nephew Oliver had been born! I celebrated with a Grande Triple Non-Fat Mocha!

After spending about an hour in Starbucks I ventured forth in to the SBM proper and discovered a whole new bit! I had a browse in a few shops and bought a couple of bargain-ous T-shirts from Uniqlo. By now it was just about time for lunch, which I had in the Blue Frog bar. The food was pretty good and the ice cold Tiger beer was a more appropriate way to toast the birth of Oliver.

From my window seat in the Blue Frog I could see that it was still bastard raining so after lunch I walked round the Lotus supermarket in the basement of SBM. Here I bought random Chinese sweets for people back at work and narrowly avoided injury when a load of shelves with cans of drink on them toppled over. The collapsing shelves made a hell of a noise and afterwards there were piles of food and drink everywhere. Fortunately I think everybody managed to get out of the way otherwise it could've been quite nasty.

By now it was about 4pm and the rain had finally eased a bit, although it hadn't stopped completely. I took the Metro to People's Square and had a drink in the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. I noticed that of all the people who were 'eating/drinking in' the non-Chinese all had plastic or paper cups whilst the Chinese drank out of china or glass -- odd.

I faffed around People's Square for a bit and then walked to Xintiandi where I had an early dinner at the branch of Din Tai Fung there. This would be last experience of xiao long bao on this trip!

All that was really left for me to do was to get back to my hotel pick up my bags and make my way to the airport. I was very lucky and seemed to time my journey perfectly. The Metro wasn't too busy and when I got to the MagLev station I only had to wait a few minutes before the train left for the airport. The MagLev is very impressive but on the two times I used it it never got anywhere close to the 430kph that is quoted in the guidebooks. The top speed I experienced was a touch over 300kph which is still plenty fast enough and gets you to the airport in less than 10 minutes.

At the airport I had to wait a bit for check-in to open, in the mean time I was able to 'sort my self out' i.e. freshen up and change clothes in readiness for the flight back to Singapore. Once I checked-in I went straight to the Silver Kris Lounge where I ate some dodgy dim sum, drank a few cans of Tsing Tao and was frustrated by the temperamental internet connection.

Once on-board the plane we seemed to taxi for ages before taking off. The captain had warned us that we would experience quite a lot of turbulence en route and he wasn't wrong. It was a very bumpy flight. I tried to sleep but wasn't particularly successful. The flight time was 5 1/2 hours but when you take into account the time after take-off and before landing, and the fact they serve breakfast an hour and half before arrival, there really isn't much time to get any 'proper rest'. So I arrived in Singapore fairly bleary eyed.