Sorry, but we can in NO WAY recommend the Captian Hostel. This morning I woke to bed-bug bites all over my legs and after a miserable and expensive breakfast at the hostel bar/resturant I have had enough of this place.

Today our mission was the Shanghai Expo (Worlds Fair) – and what a mission it was ! About 45mins in a queue to get into the Expo which was a relief as we had heard horror stories of it taking hours. The place is huge (5.3 sq km and other dimensions as well) it sees more than 400 000 visitors per day. More info on Shanghai Expo 2010

Luckily it was overcast without rain as we spent over 10 hours walking around enjoying the architecture and popping into the odd pavillion (some required 1-2 hour long queues). We visited: New Zealand, Canada, Cuba, Australia, Urbania theme pavillion, China (which consists of a multitude of smaller ones that we strolled past), Future theme and the Cisco Pavillion. My favorite building was definately the British pavillion. V loved the Indonesian one but liked a huge list. The insides were all pretty arb and what you can get spending 30mins on the net but they all must have cost a fortune! If I had to choose a best inside of the ones we saw it would be the monster AV show in Auzzie one (which also had yummy beef pies in its food court).

The SAFA one was a budget box – I guess they spent all their cash on the World Cup and with no boerie roll vendors outside it made no sense – What else does SA have to offer the world ? 😉 Oh, and Spain was pumping (although ugly) while the Netherlands was closed – day of mourning after losing the final I guess 🙂

The expo was a great experience just for the whacky buildings (the architects must have had a ball) and my feet are thankful that they have been there and done that ! The Chinese seem to enjoy queues – they pull up their mini folding chairs and have a pinic with friends for hours on end. Some pavillions looked very intersting (like Japan) but the queues would not have been worth it.

On the way home we stopped at an Italian cafe for an early dinner and anniversary celebration but the main attraction was the ‘free WiFi’ sign outside. The place was empty but we enjoyed the ‘normal food’ and the funny waiter who was so excited about learning to make cocktails he gave us a complementary pair to try. We are odd. Our aniversary dinner and we were both engrossed in the web on our iPhones.

Well wined and dined we went to check out the Bund at night and spent a truly bedazzled hour starring at the buildings and lights before our aching feet sent us back to the hostel. What perfect end to a great day.

[Pictures: Click for the English Pavilion – the photo I took does not do it justice, Shanghai from the Bund]

– Posted from my iPhone via Wifi