Today we are on a Viking Ship Excursion called the Longhua Neighborhood Exploration, which is scheduled for 5.5 hours, and was scheduled to depart at 9:30 AM.
I woke up at about 5:45 AM, and decided to take the laptop down to the Library Bar to get some fresh coffee and to work on the blog. We are still about two days behind, and it has been really tough to get caught up, and basically, we are not, we are maintaining the two-day difference.
I was able to work on the blog for about an hour while I sipped in a freshly made Latte, along with eating a chocolate muffin. I let Stephanie sleep in, and it was easier to work on the blog without a lot of distractions. I was the only person sitting at the small tables in the Library Bar area and it was nice and quiet. A few other people came up and ordered coffee to go, but it was never crowded or noisy
I headed back to the room at about 7:30 AM to wake Stephanie up, but when I arrived, she was up talking to our cat/house sitter Michelle on the phone. We were getting an update on our house after tropical storm Helene had gone through on Friday morning and left us without power there. Everything was fine except for the power being out, and no one had an estimate of when it would be back on.
Stephanie got ready and we headed to the buffet for breakfast. Our tour did not start until 9:30 AM, so we had some time to enjoy breakfast and then go back tp the room to get ready. I was having some issues with my stomach, and unfortunately, I had to go to the bathroom several times this morning after having breakfast and the Latte earlier at The Library Bar. My stomach was a little off yesterday, but it was tolerable. Today was a different story.
Now, we only had about 45 minutes before our tour left, so I resorted to taking some Imodium to see if it would help. I think that the runny “yogurt” I had yesterday with the airplane lunch was really coconut milk, which is popular here. However, it was not helping me today, coconut milk can cause some gastric issues, and I was hoping that drinking it was the cause of my troubles today and not travelers’ diarrhea.
I had told Stephanie there was a chance I would not be able to go on the tour, I was worried about the long bus rides without access to a bathroom, and then if I did find a bathroom, the possibility of having to use a squat toilet out on the tour was not appealing. I am not even sure I have the flexibility to do the low squat position needed for the toilet.
I took two
as prescribed for the first “episode”, and after a bit, things seemed to calm down. I told Stephanie I would make a last-second decision once we got to the tour meeting spot on Deck 1. She had already said she would go alone if I couldn’t go, so that made me feel better if I decided I needed to stay on the ship.
By the time we were ready to go ashore, I felt better and decided to go with cautious optimism. Out of caution, I packed a hand towel from the bathroom and a change of clothes, a pair of shorts and underwear, into my backpack just in case there was an issue. Plus, we already had a package of wipes in my backpack that we have been taking with every day we had an excursion. Being prepared made me more optimistic.
We did not know if people had canceled going on this tour. It seemed like we were waiting for more people to show up in the lobby on Deck 1 because only a few people were there, and they all had signed in. No one arrived after us. There were only eight people on the tour, and we were not sure why, maybe it had not sounded like a good tour from the Viking excursion description.
We headed through security and out to our waiting bus, which was a full-sized bus for the eight of us. We also had a local guide in addition to a Viking Guide. Our local guide was named James, and like every other guide here, that was his English name so we could remember and pronounce it.
We had about a 45-minute drive to the first destination, the Longhua Temple. The Longhua Temple is a Buddhist temple dedicated to the Maitreya Buddha. This is an active temple for Buddhist people to visit and worship at, and tourists are sort of secondary visitors. We got off the bus and walked a few blocks to the temple grounds entrance. There was a tall pagoda on the temple grounds and it was very old. James informed us that there were some relics of a Buddha inside the pagoda, which was about eight stories or more tall. People were walking clockwise circles around the pagoda as part of a prayer ritual
Similar to the temple we visited in Beijing, people were lighting incense to use as they prayed to Buddha. There was no entry fee for the temple itself, but the incense here was for purchase, not free like the temple we visited in Beijing. However, the incense sticks were much thicker and they were decorated with Chinese writing on them. There were separate areas to light the incense, and then other areas to place the discarded partially burned incense sticks after they were finished with their praying to Buddha, so the whole area was very smoky from the burning incense.
We visited several different buildings, all dedicated to different forms of Buddha, one was a “laughing Buddha” which was supposed to the the heir apparent to the original Buddha. There was one building dedicated to the only female god in the Buddhists religion, we will add the name later. Inside each of the separate buildings were many types of flower arrangements, and other items that were for sale to leave as a gift to Buddha. The flowers were amazing.
There were many different colorful wood carvings in some of the buildings, and they were quite large in size.
We visited all of the buildings and then had some free time to explore on our own. We went into a store that was selling different food items, specifically items that did not include any meat or meat byproducts. These were special items used by the monks. The monks here also made their own vegetarian noodles.
Stephanie saw some cats near one of the buildings, so of course, that was a photo opportunity.
When we met back up with the tour guide and the rest of our group, we headed to a canteen. We were eating lunch here as part of the tour, sampling some of the non-meat items they served here. It was our understanding that the monks here were vegetarians, and many of the Buddhist people are also. The canteen was packed with people who were getting a large bowl of the special noodles, along with broth, some mushrooms, and a few other vegetarian items. We were having the same lunch, but in a separate room just for our group.
We went inside our special private room and were seated around a table. We were then shown where the restrooms were in the canteen and we were able to visit the restroom before we ate lunch Of course, there were no Western toilets inside the restroom, but there was one handicapped bathroom with a western toilet that was separate. I was checking out the situation just in case I had a problem after we ate. Everything was fine up to this point, but eating lunch may cause a problem for me and I needed to know what to expect for restroom availability.
We were served our bowls full of broth and noodles, and also there were some side items, one being a boiled tea egg, which is a boiled egg that is peeled and then soaked in tea for a period if time. There was a slaw of some sort that was supposed to be spicy and a couple of other items.
The broth and noodles were good. I was trying to be careful not to eat too much, but I also did not want everyone to think I did not like the food. I did not eat my egg, Stephanie tried hers but stopped eating it once she saw the yoke was not quite cooked all the way through, and she likes her eggs well done no matter the form.
There were some dessert items that we all tried, they were served in small packages. The lunch was good and I hoped I had not eaten too much, only time would tell.
After lunch, we walked back to the waiting bus and boarded for our next stop, which was an art exhibit in some old fuel tanks at what used to be an airport long ago. I had initially thought these were military tanks and did not understand how this was possible, but soon learned they were abandoned fuel tanks at the airport. The tour descriptions had just said “tanks”, and military tanks were what I first thought of.
We headed inside when we arrived and our guide took us to one of the tanks, which was now divided into three levels. We walked through levels one and two, but level three was for staff. The art here was older pieces that had been dedicated to the period of time when communism first took over in China. The art was mostly contemporary pieces, and some looked nice and others were just a little bizarre. Our guide had told us we were going to visit one tank, so when we were done with the two levels on this tank, we all thought we were finished. There was another tank off to the other side, but none of our group thought it was included since the guide had said “one tank”. Later he found us all sitting on some benches and asked us if we had visited all of the other exhibits. Who knew, but we were fine, we are not art people and one tank was enough.
We were only there for thirty minutes and then headed back out to the bus to go to our final stop, the West Bund area. The Bund is an area of waterfront, most of which are older buildings. It was just a short drive to the stop from the Tank exhibit and we all got off the bus and walked to the waterfront. We could see some large bridges and also several ships and barges that were transiting the river. This particular waterfront area had once been part of a commercial port, and there was still one container crane on exhibit, and some coal unloading hoppers were still on the property. However, this entire area had been converted to a family gathering spot along the river.
We were only there for about 15 minutes and then we walked back to the waiting bus and boarded. The tour was finished, but we still had about a 35-minute drive back to the port. It was our general feeling that the tour was just OK. The temple visit was nice, but it seemed like the Tank exhibit, and especially the visit to the waterfront area were “fillers” to make the excursion duration longer, justifying the cost. Maybe that was why not many people had signed up for this tour.
On the ride back, Stephanie and I decided we wanted to try and go by hired car across the river to visit either the Shanghai Tower Observation Platform or the Pearl Tower Observation Deck after we arrived back at the ship. We asked James about this, and he suggested that we not go to the Pearl Tower because the lines can be very long to go up to the observation deck.
Once we arrived back at the ship and refreshed in the cabin, we headed out to try and catch a Didi ride-share over to the Shanghai Tower. It was not far, only about 3 km away, which was odd because there were no bridges that we could see crossing the river from this side. However, we discovered there was a tunnel going under the river and it was really close to the port.
We headed out to the large street that borders some of the parks along the waterfront and called a car on Didi through the Alipay App. We were having cell signal issues and we were not sure if the car was actually called, we were not getting any tracking info or license plate info for the car. I got a call from our driver, and the phone automatically translated voice to a text call message that said he was there at the pick-up point and he had his flashers on. We saw the car just a short distance away behind some other cars that were dropping off people.
We got in the car and confirmed the ride with the last four digits of our phone number, and also confirmed the destination through the translate app and off we went. We still could not follow the drive or see anything about it on the phone, so we were not sure what to do. There was a page on the phone that showed the car and the fare, but all of the writing was in Chinese. We were trying to use Google Translate on Stephanie’s phone to scan the Chinese writing on my phone, but the ride was too bumpy, and we could not tell what it was saying. We arrived at the Tower and got out of the car. I guess the fare would come through later because we had never prepaid or entered a PIN to make the prepayment, but the driver was happy so we got out of the car.
We headed to the ticket office and bought two tickets to the top floor for the next open time slot, 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM. The tickets are sold in blocks of time and are limited to a certain number, and the number of remaining tickets for that time slot was listed on a large screen. There were plenty of tickets left, so we got in line and purchased two tickets, one at a senior rate and one at an adult rate. We had to show our passports to purchase the tickets, and Stephanie paid with her AliPay.
The main observation deck is on Floor 118 but our tickets got us to the top floor for visitors, Floor 125. We had to go down an escalator to get to the entry point, and then we had to go through security and bag scanning. Then we walked past some exhibits that seemed interesting, but we did not want to take the time to look at them, we were a little tired and just wanted to go to the top to the observation deck.
We finally arrived at the elevators and got into the next available one. They were not large but they were fast, 8 m/s, which is roughly 40 mph. The elevators had a screen and it showed the floor and elevator speed. The elevators accelerated at a low rate, and we did not feel anything while riding. It took 44 floors before the elevator was at full speed, and then it started slowing down with quite a lot of floors remaining so we would not feel the effects of the deceleration.
We exited the elevator and walked around the observation deck, taking pictures. It was hazy outside so the visibility was not the best, but we were really high up. There was also some reflections on the windows, so we were trying to get photos without them showing up, but that was difficult. This building is currently listed as the third tallest in the world, and I am sure it was the tallest we have ever been in. We could also see the ship parked across the river.
We headed up some stairs to Deck 119, which was a snack bar and seating area. We also found the other entry point to go up to Floor 125. We found out we had to scan our ticket in a machine to get another printed ticket for the next part of the tour on Floor 125. Then we waited in a slow-moving line to get into another elevator area. It was really sunny on this side of the building, and with all of the glass windows, it was hot waiting in line.
Once we got past the lady checking the tickets, we went into a darker area to wait for the elevators to go up, but were still in another line. At least it was much cooler here. It took about 10 more minutes and then we were riding up an elevator to Floor 125. It was not quite what I had expected, I thought this was another observation area but it was totally closed off from the outside and fairly dark inside. What was here to see was a giant hanging stone weight used to counteract the swaying movement of the building. The weight was a large piece of carved stone and it was lit up with special lighting.
After about five minutes, a show started and the entire area was a laser light show to music, with the large carved rock being the center point of the laser light show. It was interesting and very colorful. The show lasted about 10 minutes. We wanted to try and leave a little early to avoid the crowds but all of the entry points were now blocked off with belting, so we had to wait until the end of the show to leave. We debated which way we needed to go to get out the quickest, trying to get ourselves ahead of the crowd. There was a Viking tour group at one end, and so we figured their guide knew which end to be on to leave quickly. A few minutes later the show ended, and we were correct, that end with the tour group went out first. We were not at the very end of this side, so it took a couple of elevator loads before we got onto one and headed back down to Floor 118.
We were tired, and still needed to get back to the ship using Didi, so we were about ready to leave. We made one more loop around the observation deck, mainly to find the exit. There was not much of a line to head down, and we got on the very next elevator. It was interesting that the speed going down was just a little over half of the speed going up, 10 m/s (22 mph). There were announcements about clearing your ears from the change in altitude, so we guessed that was why it was slower going down, to keep from damaging ear drums if there was an issue equalizing the pressure.
Now we had to figure out how to find the same entrance we had come through when we arrived at the tower. We had to go up an escalator to get to the lobby level where we had been dropped off on our car ride here. We headed outside and spent about 15 minutes trying to figure out a good destination to put into the Didi app for the ride home. We actually had to use Google Maps to find a spot to go to, and when we put it into the Didi app for our destination, somehow we picked the wrong address, but we did not know it at the time. This time, we had the car type and license plate number visible in the app, and in a few minutes, our car arrived. As we were watching our progress on the phone map, we noticed we were not going to the correct area. We quickly did a translation on our phones and asked the driver to take us to the Viking ship. He knew where to go and deviated his route to take us to where we needed to go instead of the address we had used. We were not sure how the payment worked since it might be a farther ride, so I pulled out a 10 yuan bill to give him for making the route change.
He dropped us off right at the same location where we had gotten the car earlier to go to the tower, so we knew it was the right spot. When we got out, Stephanie received a payment notification, and the fare was slightly higher than the original amount had been, so obviously, changes can be made on the fly and the fare is adjusted, but who knew. It was still worth the extra payment to know we did not have to call another car after we were dropped off at the wrong location. We had known this would be tough today, the Didi map does not allow you to just pick a location on a map, you have to know the location by name or by the address.
We walked back to the ship, glad to be back after a long day.
We headed to the room to drop off our gear and then we headed to a bar for a glass of wine, and to relax after a long day of sightseeing in Shanghai. We were in the Library Bar on Deck 1, and we thought it might be nice to go to the Chef’s Table tonight for dinner, but we had no reservation. Stephanie went over to the entrance for that restaurant and asked if we could just come at 6:30 PM, and they said yes. We initially thought about just going as we were, but I had on shorts, and that is not generally acceptable. Stephanie had asked when she went there initially, and they said it was OK, but I thought I would just quickly change into long pants and not rock the boat.
We went back to the room to change and then headed back to the restaurant to get a table. They assigned us to Table 1, which was at the far end next to the window. It had a view of the river and the lighted buildings across the river and it was nice. We now knew why they were so agreeable to us coming at the last minute, we were the only ones in the entire restaurant, hence the reason we got Table #1. Our servers were great, and we talked with them during the entire dinner, sometimes having to use the translate app to make sure they understood us and vice versa.
The food was a Singapore based menu, and it was really good, and we enjoyed the wine pairings. It was one of the best dinners we have had at the chef’s table on any of our previous cruises, mostly because of the food, but partly because we enjoyed talking with our servers. They genuinely enjoyed spending time with us, we could tell. By the time we finished, there were still only a few occupied tables in the entire restaurant. We think that there are a lot of people onboard who have done Viking River Cruises and they may not understand the Chef’s Table concept.
After dinner, we headed up to the outside decks to enjoy the lights on the building across the river. We were supposed to leave at 11:00 pm, and we discussed watching the sail away from outside with all of the lights on the buildings.
We went up to the bar on Deck 7 at the end of the Buffet Area and got a glass of wine. We asked them to pour it a little heavy since we were going to be outside for a while. We also asked when they closed, and the bartender said in a few minutes. Instead of pouring us a full glass, he just gave us the rest of the bottle he had just opened, telling us not to tell anyone. If someone asked, we had purchased the whole bottle.
We headed outside and sat at a table enjoying the view. There was one other couple outside with us. After a while, it was apparent that we were not leaving at 11:00 PM, we did not see anyone out on the pier to let the lines go. The other couple sitting outside left. Then, promptly at 11:00 PM, all of the building lights went out everywhere and that was the end of the light show for tonight. We did not know it ended at 11:00 PM, but now there was no reason to stay up and watch the sail away since of the pretty lights were off for the night.
We headed back to the cabin and called it a night, it was late, about 11:30 PM, but we had a fun day. Tomorrow is a sea day, so we had no plans.
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