Posted on

5th day of the 5th month = Dragon Boat Festival

your rating:

Today is a holiday!

Well, I wouldn’t notice it actually (as the days are very much alike here in my room), but Bobi has a work free day today. I am also not (yet) watching the Chinese TV here in the room – maybe it would be good to check it a bit today! The festivities organised on the day & weekend are splendid!!

There was one more sign the dragon festival is in town: ZongZi was served!

As Wikipedia explains: “Modern media has printed a version of the legend which says that the locals had rushed out in dragonboats to try retrieve his (poet Qu Yuan) body and threw packets of rice into the river to distract the fish from eating the poet’s body.”

This is a dish I’ve met when we were living in Singapore already. It is made of sticky rise and some kind of a filling (which is optional) – in my case above: red beans. Then it is wrapped in the leaves (many options are possible there) and steamed/ cooked.

For me (already in SG) not something I would crave for, but it is a tradition dish in many asian countries and there are definitely many who really like it!

p.s. The inspiration for the Catching up (Dragon Boat ) painting came from my encounter with the dragon boat festivities in Singapore.

Posted on

Arriving in Shanghai

your rating:

… do you remember: I was spending a day in Frankfurt drinking Aperolspritz? So here is what happened next…

  • Taking the S-Bahn back to the airport hotel
  • Fetching a trolley (on regional train station below the hotel)
  • Loading ALL (!) my luggage
  • … which I needed to repack again in the hotel lobby after I checked out from my room at 2pm as 1 suitcase had 38!! kg – I think this was already a 3rd time I was repacking the suitcases (!) – I tell you, I was sweating a lot on this day – I am very grateful for the lady at the hotel who had the patience with me (I was not allowed to go to the room with the scale)
  • heading to the drop-off, where I was hoping to get through with now “only a bit” overweight luggage – and I did – what a relief (otherwise I would need to repack AGAIN!)
  • no business lounge. closed. “closes at 2pm already” – where are all the privileges of having a business ticket when you need them?
  • as my phone with all the codes was dead I desperately needed to charge it…. and finally the 3rd socket WAS WORKING! (sweating again – I must say as – no code no boarding!)
  • finally on my seat!
  • I am grateful to be able to travel business, where you can stretch your body nearly flat…
    • these last (for about 2 weeks) nights before departure were not too resting for me
    • and this is a night flight starting at 10pm!
  • the plane is quite full
  • some passengers with head to toe protecting gear (overall, mask, glasses…)
  • oh. did I mention I had a little problem? My screen was too far away for my reading glasses. So flying economy would be better – there you have it on your lap (nearly) 🙂

  • no service before take off (!?!) – which is a nice treat in normal cases
    • I saw that in the 1st class they did offer drinks before take off – if only I took the “special offer to upgrade from Business to 1st class for only 850 EUR”! 🙂
  • dinner, 2 movies, some sleep, measuring the temperature by the crew, filling in the China Customs Entry Form (in paper)…
  • enjoying the last “western” breakfast – with a glass of Champagne.
  • Cheers to the new adventures!!

When I saw the land through the window, I became emotional. The new chapter of my life starts with the touch down. I hope it will be a good one!

Corona adjusted routine starts, and you are walking from first to last “station”:

  1. your customs code is checked (mine was valid few more minutes, so the kind lady helped me renew it: she looked a bit puzzled and nervous as I did not had it all in WeChat app like the China travellers do – but somehow she managed to renew it on her laptop – thanks god!)
  2. you receive a paper, where you sign, they are allowed to do a PCR test
  3. with that paper, you get a tube with your name
  4. down the stairs and off you walk to the testing center, where they take a sample from your nose and throat and put all 4 sticks to your tube. (each nostril gets 1 stick and 2 for the throat)
  5. temperature is measured

Then you head to the border control. And as very often: who heard of Slovenia? (we have a joke that from a Chinese point of view – we all live in 1 of the bigger skyscrapers – as we – Slovenian population – are so few compared to BIG cities of China!)

  • and then I finally (4pm) get my suitcases – yes the heavy ones!
  • now you go for the bus shuttle to the quarantine hotel:
    • first you need to fill in a form online
    • then your passport is taken (which will be returned in the hotel)
    • you wait for others to be enough for a (half) full bus
    • and then – off you go 🙂

Timeline: touch-down in Shanghai at 14:45 and at 5 pm I was sitting in the bus, the ride to the hotel took about 1 hour.

Posted on

word press – storage space analysis required!

your rating:

so folks, I am (probably) using way too much space with the photos (which I did with the iPhone and did not reduce the quality nor size at all for the posts) … so let me check, what all I need to do to get more photos up here for all of us!

…. but not tonight – I did not see a movie (or another outlander episode 🙂 ) for days now!

Posted on

Before boarding the plane

your rating:

Spending 2 nights on the airport in Frankfurt

After packing it all the night before – Uros helped me to get the suitcases into the car, I arrived to the hotel at the airport later afternoon.

Next morning I need to do the tests (antibody blood test and the PCR test), then waiting for the results, then getting the 2 codes one needs to be able to board the plane. As the results may take a bit longer, it is recommended to do the tests a day before. When the doctor mentioned the results will be available in few hours, I questioned the “1 day before” necessity, but obviously it might get complicated and you might miss the plane – which you do not want to do…


Frankfurt – last walk outside (at least for a while)

ok… I am having problems with photos – my idea was to make a photo-comment kind of a chapter, but most probably, I do not know about (size/ space?) restrictions and probably something else WP related. If any of you are more WP experienced – please let me know, what I need to read/ take note of/ avoid doing…

Anyway: after having all my required codes done (health and customs) and I was checked in to my flight in the evening… and repacked the suitcases once again !!! (to put in all my additional laundry I “found” the morning of my departure from Stuttgart) I took the S-Bahn to stroll the streets and river bank of Frankfurt. And to have an Aperolspritz and Frankfurter Wurst (if in Frankfurt…)!

(and here imagine the photos of the river bank, streets, aperolspritz, dome, 2 green man, a boat in the air – see, without pictures it is not the same!)

Posted on

Arriving to the quarantine hotel

hotel corridor
your rating:

All corona required checks and processes are done and I am already in a bus driving to the hotel for the next 14 days. The weather is so-so. it started to drizzle… The drive into unknown is taking some time. Yes. No-one but the bus driver knows to which hotel we are going.

The check in at the hotel was done quite smoothly:

  1. pay your stay & food so you can get your room number
  2. your data is verified (to match your passport) and the destination for after the quarantine hotel is added (as I need to stay 3 weeks in Shanghai before being allowed to fly to Beijing)
  3. your passport is returned and you are added to the hotel WeChat group, where all the important communication and announcements will take place
  4. you receive also some tablets for the toilet – to be used after you are done with your big business – probably to disinfect it all

My stomach was demanding some food, as the last thing we had was the breakfast in the plane. So you can imagine how pleased I was, that there was some food waiting at the door entry already! (In the queue before, I heard that we are too late to receive dinner, so I was already prepared to “starve” a little but the comment was obviously meant for the room delivery service.)

drive to the hotel
registration process ongoing
dinner is served!
bedroom with 2 beds and enough pillows!
“day” area of the room

I was really pleased to finally be in my room as there was quite some sweating involved during my journey from Frankfurt.

The room is nice!

I have 2 beds, enough room for my yoga mat, a table – maybe a bit too small for what I plan to do – but good enough. Nice bathroom with a shower and a bathtub for my “spoil-yoursel-girl” plans.

Unpacking the luggage – to find the necessary and taking the shower to remove all the stickiness….

…and then the dinner is unpacked!