Mr & Mrs! China adventure - Trip report

[Ric]

Mr!

Don't know what you really meant by the "North Face" jacket (in post 1)....but if I think what you meant is a "replica", I just past through Shenzhen LoWu shopping arcade and actually saw a "North Face" jacket which proudly states that its filled with 85% down and 15% feather. Looks quite well made and well packed with down/feather. Also have all the proper trimming e.g. North face logos etc

How warm it will keep you, I wouldn't have a clue but can be had for RMB350!

Ric

 

[munitalP]

Re the down jacket the Macpac fairydown one was a winner

hubbie bought one for himself

came in black so it looks quite smart

and it squishes small

not sure if that helps but I thought we would report back that we were impressed by it

where did you buy macpac? Thas a kiwi brand isn't it? I had a macpac -15 deg sleeping bag for when I used to run around in the hills stalking deer (in my 20's)

mr!

 

[munitalP]

Mr!



How warm it will keep you, I wouldn't have a clue but can be had for RMB350!

Ric

Wow, that's just over 50 aud

did you notice sizes by any chance?

Mr!

 

[Natt]

where did you buy macpac? Thas a kiwi brand isn't it? I had a macpac -15 deg sleeping bag for when I used to run around in the hills stalking deer (in my 20's)

mr!

I am pretty sure Fairydown bought out Macpac some time ago

so the jacket was just through the normal macpac stores in Australia

It was on sale for about AUD$150 and we are pretty happy with it

I don't think Fairydown make sleeping bags any more but I could be wrong.

I too have one of their sleeping bags - best of its time -15 degrees and all of 1.1 kilos

way too warm for most walking

 

[drron]

Actually Mouton Noir bought Fairydown in 2007 then Macpac 2/08.One of the owners of Mouton noir is Bernie Wicht former partner(business and marital)of Jan cameron-together they founded Kathmandu.Quite incestuous this outdoor clothing business.

 

[Natt]

Actually Mouton Noir bought Fairydown in 2007 then Macpac 2/08.One of the owners of Mouton noir is Bernie Wicht former partner(business and marital)of Jan cameron-together they founded Kathmandu.Quite incestuous this outdoor clothing business.

:shock:


Sounds like it:!:

I am very keen to hear the trip report as its a place we are umming and ahing about going to

Was it a lengthy process to get a Visa for China?

 

[munitalP]

:shock:


Sounds like it:!:

I am very keen to hear the trip report as its a place we are umming and ahing about going to

Was it a lengthy process to get a Visa for China?

No, just downloaded the application from the web - google China Visa - got photos at the post office, bank cheque and that was it - Mrs! forgot to include the passports round 1, but when we resent them, they arrived back within a week.

Mr!

 

[munitalP]

The decission has been made, I will buy jackets in shanghai, we have some Kathmandu fleece jackets that will do until then.

I cannot believe the price of jackets... It is obscene to say the least considering most of them have a made in china lable inside

 

[Ric]

Wow, that's just over 50 aud

did you notice sizes by any chance?

Mr!

I didn't fit any but the one I was "examining" was an XL.
I am going back to Shenzhen next week and will go there to check out the sizing for you on this.

Ric

 

[munitalP]

I didn't fit any but the one I was "examining" was an XL.
I am going back to Shenzhen next week and will go there to check out the sizing for you on this.

Ric

thanks!

Mr!

 

[munitalP]

Well, 13 days out, I am looking forward to it!

Over the last week or so, I have made some V important purchases...

1. Kenny the Koala, he was purchased at T2 SYD and a lounge lady got naming rights - Kenny - see attached pic. Kenny will be photographed at many well known (and some unknown) landmarks - after China, if anyone wants to take Kenny on an adventure, let me know!

2. Kathmandu - up to 60% sale off lots of stuff! Mr & Mrs! spent most of yesterday shopping - the Kathmandu stores at the new DFO next to the Hilton and the store in Blackburn, also, Anaconda were having a good sale as well, so we visited again the DFO outlet, and the megga store in Bayswater.

We managed to buy another set of boots for Mrs! - V cute white snow boots with fluffy sheepskin inners which hang out the top, gloves, beanies, thermals (long johns), scarves and a awesome cold weather hoody type top for Mrs! - down from $250ish to $50 something at Kathmandu - it even looks great!

So after quite a few $ spent even with the sales, we are now just about ready to leave - we have decided to buy jackets in Shanghai, so thats going to take up our first day I would imagine.

I also decided on taking 2 hard cases, my standard "nugget" - a 4 wheel silver ABS with zip model (Titan brand) and TSA built on lock, and an Eminent carbon fibre with zip model, slightly larger than the nugget, but only 2 wheels - Mrs! needs the extra room for some reason...

So, the count down clock is happily ticking away!

Mr!

Kenny:

 

[Ric]

Mr!,

Fitted an XL jacket in Shenzhen. For comparison, for a classic cut suit, I wear a size 48S and for a tailored/fitted cut, I wear a 50S.

The XL jacket fits well with room inside to accommodate a sweater if needed. If anything, the armhole could be a bit tight if you do wear a thick sweater inside.

They said a XXL is available but don't have the stocks at the shop and would take them 30 mins to get it if I want. Seeing that I have to go down to HKG to catch a plane, I didn't wait.

Hope the above helps.

Ric

 

[munitalP]

Mr!,

Fitted an XL jacket in Shenzhen. For comparison, for a classic cut suit, I wear a size 48S and for a tailored/fitted cut, I wear a 50S.

The XL jacket fits well with room inside to accommodate a sweater if needed. If anything, the armhole could be a bit tight if you do wear a thick sweater inside.

They said a XXL is available but don't have the stocks at the shop and would take them 30 mins to get it if I want. Seeing that I have to go down to HKG to catch a plane, I didn't wait.

Hope the above helps.

Ric

Yeah, excellent thanks!

Mr!

 

[munitalP]

V important question - what travel insurance can my learned friends recommend?

Forget the credit cards - from what I have read, I have.....


Mr!

 

[munitalP]

Here we go, nearly a week in China and here's the first TR. If you want to see more pics, or see the progress of my stuffed Koala, check the link in my sig...

BTW - I have had massive problems with my ANZ Mastercard being accepted - I will post a separate post on that...

Mr!

 

[2muchplastic]

BTW - I have had massive problems with my ANZ Mastercard being accepted - I will post a separate post on that...

Mr!

Mr!

There is a big problem in China with the acceptance of non-chinese issued CCs. For chain hotels and restaurants you should be fine, but smaller places can often be a problem.

 

[munitalP]

Dec 27th

The morning started out with a final check of passports, credit cards and the usual stuff you do before an extended stay away from home including watering plants etc, then by 0430, we were out the door and pulling into secure undercover parking about 35 minutes later.

Checking in at MEL DOM for a MEL/SYD/PVG J flight was quite painless, although the lady at check in made me trot down to sales and get a printout of our full itinerary on her advice to suit Chinese immigration requirements.
Up to the J lounge where we had a wedgie – that’s a snack between waking up and the Flounge (lol) – of toast and vegemite (I have packed a tub of vegemite) with a coffee and a juice. QF408 was on time where we had 1A and 1B. I slept till near decent, my only complaint was I asked for a non-plunger coffee, the CSM didn’t remember and gave me a plunger coffee – I didn’t drink it.

Through SYD DOM to the transfer lounge – 2 busses arrived while we were there but none left – change of shift I think, but the lady who soon became our driver must have been auditioning for STIG’s roll in the SYD top gear show – my God, she near had the bus on 2 wheels a couple of times – I thought it was great, there were some sharp intakes of breath from fellow PAX though!
I believe that from entering the Express alleyway to being on “the other-side” was under 3 minutes – express service at SYD is working well IMHO and MEL could take a lesson or two...

A quick stock up of bum plugging pills, hand sanitiser and some deodorant, and we were heading upstairs to the Flounge.

I immediately had a shower while Kim relaxed in a recliner – I still don’t like the showers here, they are an over powering deluge... I think the Flounge SIN showers should be transplanted into SYD...
Eggs Benedict ordered (Kim had bacon, eggs, mushrooms, tomato), juice, coffee and of course – Verve...

We sat grazing and drinking for a good hour or so at the restaurant area, I must have had a whole bottle of Verve and Kim would have had the same in Tatt, add to that a bowl of fresh raspberries and we were primed for our fight! We wandered down to the reading area and mucked about on the Apples there till our flight was called.

We wandered down to our gate – 42 from memory and trotted our way to the front of a long line of Asian families who were practicing peak hour train boarding – come on Qantas, get an Chinese speaking person on a megaphone telling them what to do for crying out loud – they don’t listen to a timid young man barking orders in English about forming 2 lines anymore than we would in a crowded peak hour train station anywhere in Asia!

We had row 1 centre bulkhead seating – and in the front J cabin, we were the only “2 seats” taken, every other window was taken with a vacant Isle, in the J cabin behind, there were 2 empty window/Isle vacant and the other PAX were scattered lightly throughout the J cabin – the J cabin staff were in for an easy night – very light loading, unlike the Y cabin...
After formalities and takeoff, we quickly moved to row 2 and settled in for a long flight to Shanghai.


Highlights...
• Dinner – the beef was great
• Our FA – great service, friendly, joking, loved her job
• The pit boss FA (or whatever her correct title is – not the CSM, the one who looks after the kitchen in the J cabin) – great lady! Funny, was making me screaming coughs and finding different ways of naming them without calling them a screaming cough!
• An episode of Top Gear on the AVOD, it was so funny I was crying from laughter that the FA came through the cabin a couple minutes after I had had my laughter meltdown and asked if I was watching a sad movie because of the tears!
Lowlights...
• Skybed seat padding...
• A330 (I like 747’s for flights of this distance)
• No solid rocket boosters on our aircraft to get us out of Australian airspace quicker!

We pulled up at Shanghai on time and painlessly entered the country. FWIW, immigration did not ask for our itineraries...
On entering the luggage hall, we wandered over and grabbed some RMB, got our cases then walked out through an empty airport to the taxi rank where after a short wait in the freezing cold, we were heading toward Pudong and our hotel. After a quick stop at the Marriott for directions, our driver had us in front of our hotel for about 125RMB.

We checked in, went to our room, went down and organised our train tickets to Beijing with the concierge, had a drink then up to our 36th floor room for sleep.

 

[munitalP]

Dec 28th

Up at 0430 local time – darn time zone change.
Mucking about on my laptop reality hit that I was in a communist country where the media was still strictly controlled – no facebook! At least the AFF site was accessible...

At about 0700, we wandered down for breakfast in the restaurant – 5 star in every respect, three separate cooking areas – the European selection from a cold cuts to eggs Benedict, at least 6 different types of loaf bread, fruit and cheeses, the Asian area with three chefs making dumpling as you wait to the final area, an egg station and a hot bread oven (also a wood wired oven burning) – very nice and as a total surprise to me, included in our room cost.

I needed to buy a jacket, so lightly dressed (me), Kim and I headed out in the cold by taxi to a market affectionately known as the “copy” market. We were dropped off near the market entrance and wandered around a nice garden for a few minutes taking a couple of snaps then went looking for an entrance to this underground market. Unbeknown to us, this market is at a subway station stop (Century on the green line) and is very accessible.

A hawker spotted us – normally I push these people away, but I let him take us to “his shop” where we spent the next couple of hours being escorted around the market by another “owner” who strategically directed us to his “preferred stalls” for what we wanted.

I could not find a down lined jacket to fit me, they were all slim cuts and were too tight across my gut. I was finally at my wits end with seller after seller trying to fit me into jackets too small for me (funny though, the jackets that were not down filled fitted OK) that we went into a stall where there were a couple of younger sellers who spoke passable English and I explained I wanted to buy a “real not copy” North Face jacket – where should I go and can you write it in Chinese for me to show a taxi driver? She done this for me as Kim selected a pair of gloves to go with her new jacket purchased at another stall – its crazy, this is a $600 jacket in Australia, we paid about $100 (prob way too much), I cannot find fault anywhere on this jacket, double stitching where double stitching should be, material seems to be the real McCoy, are these fakes or are these items “liberated” from the factory that manufactures the real item?

As we were leaving, our first “guide” came to the party and offered me a down jacket, the right size and cut and the haggling started. Again I probably paid way too much, but $135 was a lot cheaper than what I had prepared to spend on a North Face jacket and walked away happy – plus it’s fashionable and manufactured in a way it will last – I’m happy. Beijing will be the test – if I am sweating in the minus 10, the minus 30 in Harbin should be OK I hope!
I also learned that 1 degree in Shanghai with just a tee shirt on underneath my new jacket was like wearing a woollen jumper in the middle of the Simpson in the middle of summer....

Our market guide turned out really handy, he showed us how to work the ticket machines at the subway – thanks to whoever you are!

After playing on the subway for a while, we delivered our goods back to the hotel then went in search of the Shanghai Museum. A taxi was used for this purpose – the most amazing elevated roads – anyway, across the river and to the Museum we went – what a great Museum, well worth the visit, allow 4-5 hours!

Out of the Museum, we found the subway entrance and jumped a train from the peoples square to the Shijdadao stop where the “Super Brand Mart” was which was the home to an outlet of my favourite restaurant, DIN TAI FUNG. We had late lunch(5pm-ish) here, looking over the river from Pudong to the bund with the sun setting – very pretty.

After a beer at Hooters and a walk down the river walk in the dark, we caught a taxi back to the hotel where still feeling peckish, we wandered across to a small shopping mall close to the hotel where we found a Sushi train and had another couple of beers and some excellent Sushi. With a quick stop at a wine shop on the way back to the hotel, the day was done and so was I

 

[munitalP]

 

[munitalP]

Dec 29th

After a huge day the day before, I expected I would have slept in – nup, awake at 4pm and surfing part of the Internet...

The day started with a great breakfast again. We decided to track down the Jig’an Temple which we did, quite easily again by using the subway. A look through the temple where the timestamp was effectively being removed by the short sightedness of the regime, the temple was being renovated, the walls in the pray rooms you can see the concrete form work join marks, workmen everywhere – it just wasn’t right and a huge disappointment. To confirm my disappointment, once we had left, I wanted a coffee, so wandering around the temple looking for a starbucks or similar, we wandered up an alleyway where part of the temple had been converted into shops (of esteem though like Hugo Boss – sarcasm). A waste of time and if you are even slightly critical that China is losing its awesome heritage, this will be the final proof you need that you are right.

The next visit was to the Yu gardens, we could hardly get through the gate through hawkers, beggars and people wanting to be your new best friend as long as you bought a Rolex off them. I also found this to be a huge disappointment. Obviously the tour brochure printers hired a very good photographer for the brochure photos, as I couldn’t find anything as “heavenly” as depicted in this print matter... oh well that’s it for our communist friends, I’m heading for the capitalist centre of Shanghai and going up the world’s tallest building for a look!

After a quick stop at the hotel to drop off odds and sods, we took the subway to the Shijdadao stop again and walked the K or so to the Shanghai World Finance building, where after finding entrance to the building, forking out the dosh to get up the building, we were then handed from one beautifully dressed in the building uniform young lady to another through a maze of walkways, presentations and frankly tacky displays similar to Microsoft screen savers until we reached the elevators – I kid you not, at least 10 young ladies!

Once in the elevator, the knee buckling journey took about 30-40 seconds to climb the 500 odd meters to the first viewing platform. Through this platform, we went up another elevator another few floors to the top viewing platform – the handle – with glass floors and a breath taking view – awesome. Ten out of ten for this experience, worth ever RMB and then some. We spent at least an hour up the top just “taking it in” and snapping photos. We also made use of the “official” photographers – word of advice, use them, the photos come out great and cost next to nothing!

The Hyatt is in this building as well, I think the next visit to Shanghai, that will be my hotel of choice – purely for the view in either direction.

Downstairs on leaving we stumbled across a bar called bluefrog – we were lured in by buy one get one free happy hour where we partook in some consumption of Heineken and talking with the bar staff – good bar – 10/10 for cost, service and quality of food (we had a spring roll selection to absorb the Heineken) and I recommend anyone to go there for drinkies if in Shanghai.
We taxied back to our hotel and had a late dinner at the hotel restaurant, went upstairs and set the alarms for an early start the next day (hoping we wouldn’t be awake before the alarms went – very optimistic!)