It's Hard to Say Goodbye . . .

Hubby and and I are leaving beautiful Hong Kong.  He's headed back home to the States to get back to work, while I'm headed solo, to Shanghai for 11 days, and Beijing for 12 days to do more research for my film. 

Super easy. At the crack of dawn, we slipped our room keys into their drop box. 

There is no one else I could have made this leg of my trip with. Hubby loves puzzles, so I appointed him VP of Logistics. But c'mon now, of course I made myself the President of everything else!  :-)   What I lack, he’s a pro at.  And what I enjoying doing for us, he hates; so we work out well.  I like the rhythm of doing just about everything with him, and we make a pretty good team.  But now after a fun trip of coupledom and holding hands, it's time to put my big girl panties on.

I think we were the only people up at 6:30am.

We've had our fair share of being apart, having dated long distance for 2 years. But ever since we said "I do", we've only been apart 3 days. 

At HKG. We look sleepy.

Have I mentioned how awesome the Hong Kong airport is? Seriously. It's easy to navigate.  Free wifi.  Free ports to charge up. 

Together we breezed through security and immigration. Then he walked me to my gate. We probably had an hour left together, but unexpectedly, my gate was moved to another terminal so I needed to board a bus that was waiting, like right now. So there we were, at our goodbye :-(

Me taking a picture as the bus was pulling away.

I can hardly believe it myself, but I cried all the way from that bus, to Starbucks (which didn't make me feel better), to boarding my plane, to taxing on the runway, to taking off. 

Hey, I think that's hubby's United plane that my bus passed by!

Seriously, I was overthinking everything and making myself scared. Especially when I reminded myself that there are 24 million people in Shanghai (yep, that many), and I don't know anyone. Not a soul.

On the plane I was a mess and needed tissue.  The stewardess gave me a wet wipe. That finally made me laugh out loud and stop crying like a baby.  Tears done, I could relax a little and enjoy the ride. 

Have you ever tried to blow your nose with a wet wipe?  Pure comedy.

Bye, Hong Kong.  It's been real!

Airplane lunch, at 10:50am.  Some sort of flaky (yummy) fish, white rice, green beans, a carrot, pickled cucumbers with shrimp, fruit, O.J., and bread. And Hageen das ice-cream that I gave to my seat neighbor.

Flying into Shanghai. Raining, and poor air quality. Friends warned me about the thick haze of smog.

All checked into my new "home" for a couple of days. The Dorsett Hotel in The Pudong District of Shanghai. I love it!

Especially the view!

From outside on the patio.

From the other direction.

Ooh, fancy!

Now that I'm here and settled in, it's time to explore.  Here is a map of the Shanghai metro which is mostly how I will get around:

If you can read it, I flew into the Pudong Airport (located at the bottom of the green line #2), and my hotel is at the Century Park exit. I will stay at the Dorsett Hotel for 3 days and then will change hotels to catch the vibe of another part of this vast city. 

I am aiming to get a place somewhere by the Jing'an Temple or Changshu Road exit, because those stations connect easily to other lines. 

Hubby and I been booking our hotels as we go, and I will continue to do that. Hotels.com and Booking.com have pretty intensive reviews, which is very helpful. Especially now, since I am traveling alone. My priorities are hotels where people speak English, very close access to metro, and a safe in the room. 

When I was with hubby, we had pretty aggressive agendas in Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Guangzhou. But here in Shanghai, I will slow poke around, and take my time getting to know the people and their quiet culture.  

I hope too, to take a hip hop dance class, go to the movies, take a Chinese cooking class, and participate in meditations at a temple.  

And I hope to write this blog in a timely fashion. The internet here SUCKS. Feels like the dark dial up ages. Seriously, it takes almost 30 minutes to establish an internet connection. 

More later.  I'm off to adventure in the Shanghai in the rain!!

~SS

p.s. Hubby is back home safe and sound and snugged up with the pup. Thank goodness for Skype!