Sitting on a bench, looking out across a maze of buildings, with only a thin layer of glass between myself, and the drop of 94 stories to ground level. Im enjoying the amazing views across the city from the top of the SWFC building; hovering above the once great 88 story Jin Mao tower. Soon even this building will be surpassed in size, with construction of a 128 story tower nearby. This is Shanghai, and this is the effects of a rapidly modernizing country.
Back across the ocean, another long haul flight from Vancouver, just a few days in Shanghai to explore. The city is buzzing with construction as it spruces itself up for Expo 2010. I am here on the beginning of a 10 week trip, our goal is to reach southern India, travelling only by land, but for now we absorb our current surroundings. East Nanjing Road wanderings, Taxi Cab adventures, construction hopping through the Bund, tasty food in Old Town, and catching an acrobat show, its a massive city with much to do.
I pause to admire the view again, resting my legs from a hard day of walking through the city..
So if your browsing the headlines today you’ll come across a couple articles with a common theme; flight. First off, today is a big day for Chicago based airplane manufacturer Boeing. Today is the day that the companies newest plane the 787 Dreamliner took its maiden test flight over the skies of Everett, Washington. Boeing hasn’t released a new plane in over ten years, and while their biggest competitor went for big, with the Airbus A380, Boeing which revolutionized the large aircraft market with the 747 long ago, is shifting its focus to smaller, but more efficient flying. The Dreamliner is designed with mostly composite materials which make it lighter, and capable of flying longer distances. With capacities of 210-330 passengers, its aiming for the point to point long distance flight market. Not surprisingly, carriers such as Air Canada will be one of Boeing’s biggest customers, the airline struggles to fill its large aircraft on long flights between major Canadian cities, and has already ordered 37 of the aircraft priced at $150 million US each. .
So we fly Edmonton to Vancouver, then Vancouver to Shanghai on January 6, 2009, spend some time in Shanghai, and train to Xian, check out Xian and its terracotta warrior awesomeness, then train to Chengdu, and attempt to get Tibet permits there. If all goes well we’ll be on the highest railroad in the world climbing our way into the himalayas towards Lhasa. Spend some time in Tibet before pushing onwards towards Nepal, leaving an open amount of time to explore Nepal. Then get ourselves into India from there, after we’ve had our fill of India, our only commitment so far is a flight from Bangalore to Singapore on March 6, 2010. I have some friends I would like to visit in Singapore for a few days, then we have another flight booked to Hong Kong. We plan to visit another friend from home in HK for a few days, then we’ll work our way overland back into mainland China via Shenzen. Then get back up to Shanghau intime for a flight home on March 15, 2010. In total the trip will be just under 2.5 months and we’ll visit 5 countries if all goes well, only 2 of which I havent been to already though. But that’s ok, I need to explore China more, and we might have a friend from HK join us on that leg as well which would be good.
We push on down the secondary highway system, headed towards the Genesee Bridge, about an hour and a half drive away. When we get there it’s still dark, as we pull down the canoe from the roof and carry it down to the water’s edge, and begin loading the gear into it. Just as the sky begins to brighten, we’ve pushed off from the shore, floating through the fog, as a bright red dawn reflects off the water. It’s almost surreal as we paddle quietly past the riverbanks. “I sure hope we don’t tip” Lucas says. Thinking about how I’m wearing the only clothes I brought, and how cold the water is, I couldn’t agree more, falling in… would suck.
The river is fairly easy to navigate in this section, but with a very dry year with little rain, the water level is very low. Occasionally Lucas yells “Rock!” as I steer hard to keep us from hitting the boulders patiently waiting to rip a hole in an unsuspecting canoe. At other times, you look down into the clear waters and find yourself in only a few inches of water as you glide over a rocky sandbar hoping you don’t bottom out. By the end of the day our shoulders and backs tell us it’s time to stop, as we begin to hunt for a good place to land and make camp for the night. We find a rocky beach and push ashore, dragging the canoe up out of the water. After setting up the tent and cooking a quick meal, it doesn’t take long before we’re both fast asleep. Three hours of sleep followed with nine hours of paddling down a river is the perfect recipe for a quick pass out.
My sleep is only interrupted at around 2am, by the sound of rain pouring down on the tent. Lucas is up too, as I peek out of my mummy bag, “Can you imagine packing up camp and paddling the rest of the way in a down pour tomorrow?” I say, before falling back asleep. When I open my eyes in the morning, I am glad to not here the sound of raindrops on the nylon tent. I get dressed and crawl outside, Lucas sticks his head out, “Aw man, I spent so much time thinking about how I’m going to wrap myself up in garbage bags to stay dry today, and now it’s not even raining!” I chuckle as I start to pack things up. It doesn’t take long before we’re back on the water pushing towards the city.
Standing at the urinal in the men’s bathroom at a train station in Nara, I notice again the little hook sticking out from the wall in which to hang your umbrella on while you use the facilities. This triggers my memory of how creative the Japanese really are.
