After comparing notes with many people on the ship, we discovered that the day before, Sunday, was Ladies Day, Mother's Day, something like that. Thus the HUGE crowds! We were hoping it would be less crowded today.
We again used the shuttle bus to the Embroidery and Arts Store. This time I tried on and bought some beautiful silk clothes, a jacket, blouse and pants. We hurried back on our path from the day before, thru the park and to the Sofotel Hotel where we were to meet our friend. It was a lot less crowded, but there were still many people out and about. Our friend was a no show so we headed to the store where Mel's pants were being hemmed. They hadn't been done yet. Our friend had called to say he was at his home on holiday, or some such excuse. Just as well, we now knew where to go. They sent Mel with another "friend" to get his pants hemmed. The seamstress was less than a block away. There were 2 of them in a corner store that was no bigger than 3' x 6'. She came out and measured Mel in the middle of the sidewalk. To press the pants, she stuck a board out the window and did it on the sidewalk. That was an experience in itself! I waited in the store where many of our fellow passengers were coming and going. In a city that large, we ran into Suzanne, our friend from the library, 3 times! More on that later.
We grabbed a taxi and returned to the knock offs building. We hadn't visited the 2nd floor the day before. Guess our friend's friends were only on the third one! Spent several hours there then got a taxi to the Yu Yuan Gardens. We had visited these gardens on our visit in Oct. The actual gardens were built years ago and had beautiful pools with fish, bridges and carved walls. This time we didn't go in, we just shopped at the shops around the gardens. This place was packed. They were having a food festival that week so had set up temporary booths in the open spaces. The food looked delicious. Brigitte had asked for a shot glass from Hong Kong (she and Randy collect them), but we'd forgotten so figured we would find one in Shanghai. They do not exist! We spent an hour just wandering the small shops looking for one with no luck. I told Mel I wanted something to eat. He said we'd just passed all the food booths. To heck with that, I wanted Hagen Das! LOL It was delicious.
After 2 days of running around we were quite tired and the ship was to sail at 8 pm, so we again grabbed a taxi and headed to the port. When we gave the card with the ports name in Chinese to the driver, he made a sound exactly like the ship's horn, very funny. Between the Bund, an area built by the English years ago and preserved, and the port was a lot of construction. Traffic was pretty much bumper to bumper. The driver had to go the wrong way to do a U turn and get going the right way. I was wondering where we were going! Closer to the port we saw Mia and Debra walking along. I told Mel to ask them if they wanted a ride. He stuck his head out the window and did just that. They both said "NO, go get Suzanne, she's late for work!" and Mia proceeded to run to tell Suzanne that we'd give her a ride. They had all been together but Suzanne had started running to get to the ship in time for work at 6. Mia and Debra, like all crew, had to be at the ship by 6 but they didn't have to work. Our driver must have understood English because he proceeded to follow the running Mia, in the bike lane. When we finally reached Suzanne, we told her to jump in, which she did while the taxi was still moving. The door swung open a bit after she thought it was closed and a scooter rammed into it. Must have been slight because the door finally closed securely and the scooter went on their way after letting loose with some loud bad language I'm sure. Suzanne made it to work on time, we successfully completed a rescue on land. :)
Sail away at 8 was interesting. I watched from our verandah along with two neighbors. The ship went backwards for over 30 minutes until we reached a bit wider part of the river where he did a 180 and on our way we went. The Capt said we wouldn't clear the river and surrounding fishing area until about 2 a.m. There were many fishing boats still around the ship when Mel was up at 6 the next day. While cruising the China Sea, we passed more ships than we'd seen before, fishing vessels, cargo ships, etc. Some passed quite close. The next day I was doing my usual 7 laps around the promenade deck and was almost done so had slowed down. A man at the side of the ship said something to me so I stopped. He said "My first authentic junk", pointing to an object in the water. I replied that it was a ROCK! Poor guy, he thought he was having this great experience and I crushed it. He said his eyes weren't that good. I told him to just tell everyone that he'd seen a junk, no one would know the difference.
We've now almost completed our third day at sea. Tomorrow Viet Nam. Should be very interesting.
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