Sweating it out in Shanghai

Shanghai is bustling with millions of people celebrating a full moon festival. The streets are jammed, the temperature is 27 degrees and the humidity is high. Consequently, I leave a puddle everywhere I go as sweat runs freely from every pore, and even some I think may have just developed for the occasion.

This city has embraced capitalism in every which way. Global brand names, fashion plate men and women in the streets, new cars everywhere. The Apple shop in the high-end Nanjing Street shopping strip is presently wall-to-wall youth trying to purchase the latest iPhone models. Gone are the three lanes devoted to bicycles. The bike lane has been reduced to no more than a two-metre wide strip and is shared with motor scooters and pedestrians. Traffic appears to my eye fairly undisciplined, the red light being only an option at smaller intersections. Horns are de rigeur, tooted constantly by most drivers most of the time.

Love the gardens, especially the topiary and massed plantings. The Chinese flag picked out in poinsettias and gold stars outside the Shanghai Museum was eye-catching indeed. Little children and puppies seem to be the only creatures allowed on the grass, however. And I'm not seeing any dogs. Ummm...

The food options are predominantly Asian with a few pizzas and spaghetti bols here and there. Street food is sizzling and smoking up the alleys each night. The poultry vendor just down from the hotel is offering crooks, pigeons and ducks for the discerning consumer. He has the ducks fetchingly arranged in a circle, bills to a bowl of watery rice and feet tied together so they lay splayed on the footpath. Puts me off duck somewhat.

But perhaps the culinary highlight so far were two menu offerings last night: Millet Pepper Fell in Love With a Small Cock and Three Bubble Bullfrog.

The latter menu choice led to Daniel reminiscing about gigging bullfrogs back home in Missouri when he was a boy. He also noodled catfish and Kendy mentioned some singling of eels. I only caught yabbies, a pastime for some young lads yesterday who were throwing a piece of string baited with a fly into a pond and whipping out small crustaceans which they preceded to stuff into a plastic water bottle.

Met a number of my fellow riders. Including familiar faces from previous rides. Everyone's looking fit and lean and ready for a great ride. We set off in a convoy on Sunday morning at 6am.

For more pictures, visit:

https://picasaweb.google.com/105053170693330588495/Shanghai