Hey Everyone.

Arrived in Shanghai. First impressions are that it is busier than Japan, more polluted than Japan, and not as friendly as Japan.

Anyway so the boat trip here...Jesus. 3 big mistakes by me. 1) I brought only Yuan (Chinese), they accepted only Yen (Japanese). 2) I booked a room thinking it was an 8 bed dorm...it was actually 20 mats on the floor and it was full...for an extra tenner I could have had a 4 bed dorm.

3) This is the biggie...checked my bags in and the guy told me I would get them on the boat but he misunderstood because for 2 1/2 days all I had was my small bag. Only one change of clothes, no contacts, one book, no iPod charger, no towel, no soap...

Was OK in the end...borrow a t-shirt, bought a towel, got given soap and a t-shirt. The final day was boring though as I finished the book, and the iPod battery was dead. Other 2 days were spent socialising, playing table tennis and reading. Nothing that interesting.

Shanghai really does have a grey smog over it. When we were in Japan, and in the Ocean, the water was blue. We woke up today and it was brown and we knew we were in Chinese sea.

Anyway hope everyones OK. Keep in touch.