So yesterday I decide to save myself 3RMB and take the hostel’s free shuttle bus to the Yuyuan Gardens. Sounds lovely, right?

Silly me, I assumed “gardens” meant some sort of green area. Ha! Nope. Shopping center. Some rich dude bought out these ancient buildings, had them all gut re-habbed, then turned them into..yep..you guessed it….shop after shop selling the same crap as the shop next to it!

Regardless I got me some last minute souvenirs. Had some fun w/ a Canadian woman and her son who had moved to China so she could teach in a Canidian school over here. They also had a Chinese friend with them who finally tought me how to say “no thank you!” to all the people that run up to you and shove some crap in your face “Hey Lady! You want?!” So now I can just say “Shay…boo lao!”

They needed to head back to their village early so I went to the Shanghai Museum which is free and pretty nice. Funny thing is, soon as I get there I notice that one of the dudes on my Great Wall trip was there! Small world. At least when you’re travelling w/ a bunch of tourists…and going to a bunch of touristy spots. He was finishing the museum, I was just starting, so we did like the old timey days and set a meeting time and a place and met up later that evening.

We were pointed by a Chinese guy with perfect English, who responded to our “help us, we’re lost” signal of opening the biggest map Shanghai could offer, to a very cute but trendy bar area. It was one of those areas where a Coke costs $5. FIVE DOLLARS. Remember I’m in China here….so imagine what the beer cost.

Since drinking and wandering around the streets at night is completely legal and not frowned up on here, that’s what we decided to do. Stopping off for 50 cent giant beers along the way. We found a karaoke bar…and after much confusion of where to actually go in the building to get there, we realized it was private room karaoke. Not so much fun for 2 people.

Regardless, Philip is Swiss. He saved up, and quit his jobs (mainly a gym teacher, also worked at a fittness center and teaches skiing), to travel the world for a year. He was 5 weeks into the trip. Already did a trans-siberian trek on the train and went camping for a week in Mongolia. The idea of this made me very jealous. I wonder if I could have done this too, if I didn’t have to pay rent.

Right now, I’m just killing time till I leave for my flight. I think I’m really gonna miss travelling. I was worried about being able to entertain myself alone for 10 days, but I’ve really gotten to like moving around, not having any specific plans, not knowing who I’m going to meet or go out w/ that night…and basically doing whatever I want, whenever I want!

Butt at least I will soon be able to poo in comfort once again. :D

PS And for the record…I can officially say I’ve made it the entire trip w/o a drop of the squirts!! Nevermind the cold….