I find it a bit surreal that my contract has lead me to first to Hong Kong to see Jen & Luke and then to top it off two days later I’m meeting my Aunt Jan and Uncle Kevin in the city they live in, Shanghai, China. At first I was quite unsure if crew would have shore leave as a Visa to enter into China is required but one good thing about being a ‘seaman’ is the ship gets a landing permit allowing all crew to go ashore.
So after my shift in the morning, I met Uncle Kevin and Aunt Jan at the pier along with their trusty driver for a day of the siteseeing and shopping around Shanghai. They are VERY smart to have a driver because really the driving is absolutely INSANE in China!
Our first stop was to a downtown market where I found that having family that lives in China and can speak Chinese is very helpful. Having Aunt Jan talk down prices to the shop keepers was a blessing. I found all kinds of neat like things for great prices.
After the morning of market shopping, we headed to lunch to a nice wine bar and enjoyed a bottle of wine and a nice lunch catching up with each other. After heading from lunch, we found a group of ladies all carrying Barbie shopping bags to which Aunt Jan remembered that there was a 6 story Barbie store close by so off we went with the driver to the Barbie Store which is a little girls fanasty world and mine since I have been a collector for many years.
The store was full of Barbies, everything was Barbie's signature colour (hot pink!), there was a Barbie Cafe and Spa. We had some fun posing with barbie cutouts and I walked the offical Barbie catwalk. I bought a Shanghai Barbie to add to my collection and off we went to visit Aunt Jan and Uncle Kevin's home.
After spending a bit of time looking around their house, we headed to the market nearby for more shopping! (I'm glad Uncle Kevin doesn't mind all the shopping!) I got all kinds of things to bring home for gifts and even managed to get myself a nice coach purse.. of course it was a bit scary when the sales women locked me in a closet with her and about 500 knock off pursers and wouldn't let me leave until we agreed on a price.
Time was getting close to my time to head back to the ship so we decided to head for dinner at a bar that Uncle Kevin and Aunt Jan visit often. We had westren cuisine and finally another rye and ginger (I miss my rye and ginger too much not being able to get it on the ship)
We raced back to the ship to get me back to work but not without getting some photos in front of the pearl tower.
I had such a lovely time seeing Uncle Kevin and Aunt Jan. It was a great time considering I was missing home and seeing the Parkers made me comforted again. We always have a great time together and I'm truely lucky that my contract brought me over to visit them.
Off to work again.... sleeping? What's that?
