tom911

Just back to my hotel after 11:30pm. Had a nice Italian dinner with Coughlins and tour company reps in a quiet residential neighborhood about a mile walk from People's Square. Pizza, salad and a half liter of Tiger beer. Excellent way to end an evening here.

Natalie and fellow Cal swimmer Dana Vollmer tied for 6th place in semifinals tonight, so they'll both be advancing to finals on Friday night in 100 freestyle.

Big news at the pool tonight was Florida-based swimmer Ryan Lochte, who has had a very hot last year, breaking the world record in 200IM (an event where you swim four different strokes). This was the first world record broken in five days. Now that the high-tech suits are gone you don't see multiple records broken each day like you did at Worlds in Rome two years ago. I have photos of his award ceremony and will try to get them up first thing in the morning. This is a big deal in swimming.

tom911

New photos from Day 5 start here (forgot to mention the heat and humidity are still here.. 37C/100.4F on Thursday):
http://tom911.smugmug.com/Travel-Asi...580355_rS8RrZB

Featured photos:

Natalie at 100 freestyle prelims



100 freestyle prelims Natalie in black



Ryan Lochte 200IM World Record (three photos)

knoebelsPT

Thanks for your wonderful report, looking forward to the rest. Makes me want to go back to Shanghai.

tom911

Hopefully when it's cooler than this week The continued heat is really restricting outdoor activities. Just came across to Pudong via ferry after a visit to Yuyuan Market and walked about 10 mins to my hotel. I'm soaked. Air conditioning never felt so good. Back out in 90 mins for finals in 100 freestyle tonight.

g-day

Enjoying your report and photo's Tom.
keep it coming mate.

Ray

tom911

Recap of Day 6 Swimming (some of this may duplicate material I posted on Day 5 as it's a new e-mail I just sent out including some of Day 5--short of time to edit out the duplicate parts right now)

Last night (Thursday) both Natalie and fellow Cal swimmer Dana Vollmer made it out of semifnals into Friday night finals to represent the USA in 100 freestyle. Tough field tonight as Dana placed 7th and Natalie placed 8th, so no trip to the award stand today. Good workout for the London Olympics next year and a chance to look at the field. Twelve months until we're all in London and expecting a stellar performance from Natalie.

Natalie will be back in the pool Saturday night for finals in 4X100 medley relay. I'll be at the pool Saturday morning to watch the U.S. team qualify for the event (they'll use alternate swimmers), then back Saturday night for finals Sunday is the last day of this 8-day event. Reminder of NBC TV coverage during the day Saturday and Sunday in the U.S.

Team USA led the medal as of Friday afternoon with 14 medals. China is in second place with 11, and Australia in third place with 9. This count is updated before the finals each evening.

Thursday afternoon we had lunch in the World Financial Building across from my hotel on the second floor at Fresh Elements. I had a tuna sandwich and Diet Coke ($7 and $4) while Jim and Zennie had a panini and spagehtti. This was recommended in my guidebook and the food was good.

Thursday night we had dinner at an Italian restaurant about a mile walk from their hotel near Peoples Square. We were joined by two reps from the tour company handing U.S. families at this event (but not me—I travel independently and have used miles and points for this trip). One of them is from Italy so we've talked a bit about travel there, and she even went to my website and found me and Cindy Crawford at the Beijing Olympics. Figure that. Some pretty serious surfing if she found that one.

Friday afternoon we toured around Yuyuan Tourist Market which has shops set around around buildings designed like pagodas. Lots of jade, souveniers and clothing. Surprise! I did not buy a thing once again. Zennie was a fierce bargainer and had one merchant chase after her when she left the store without a jade bracelet. Came back 30 minutes later and the same employee chased her again trying to get a deal. They were a long way apart (the clerk wanted four times more than Zennie's last, best offer----it started off about 15 times more). Seems to be a lot of room for bargaining.

We had lunch in the market's food court which features a cafeteria style line through stacks of dim sum, fish, and soups. Not a single word anywhere in English. Ended up with shrimp dim sum and pork and rice dim sum for $5. Didn't notice any chicken feet but did see cooked bugs on a skewer. Big bottle of beer was 15 yuan ($2.50). After some additional shopping, walked through the Yuyuan Park and caught the ferry across the river to my hotel. Got a bottle of Diet Pepsi just outside the ferry terminal for 3. 5yuan (52 cents). Ferry was even a better value a 2 yuan (30 cents). Coughlins grabbed a cab back to their hotel on the same side of the river.

Dinner tonight was a block from the Coughlins hotel at a cafe that featured Thai food, sandwiches and spaghetti. Two of us had Thai and two spaghetti. Back to my hotel by Metro.

As for photos, it's after midnight here and I don't have time to sort the market photos from this afternoon. For now I'll add a couple from swimming and other activities we did.

New photos start here:

http://tom911.smugmug.com/Travel-Asi...583116_h7zN4nM

Featured photos:

Medal count as of Friday afternoon



Natalie and Dana entering pool 100 freestyle finals (Dana in middle, Natalie on right in lane #1)

tom911

Back at the Coughlins hotel off People's Park after swimming prelims. Can tell I'm exhausted as when I changed Metro train this morning, boarded the wrong train, and went 4 stops in the wrong direction until I didn't recognize the station at the end of a station announcement in Chinese. Arrived at the pool just in time to see USA compete in the last heat of relays.

Onto finals tonight in which Natalie will swim her last event of this meet.

Also, Yuyuan Tourist Market and Park photos are up now.

tom911

Natalie was the first swimmer in the pool tonight in the 4X100 medley relay, an event consisting of four individual swimmers each swimming a different stroke. She led off with backstroke and gave Team USA the lead by 1/100th of a second (really—blink an eye and you'll miss out), and the remaining U.S. swimmers never lost the lead, bringing home the GOLD.

She comes home from this meet with gold, silver and bronze medals. We'll return to the pool Sunday night for the remaining events including a men's relay.

I'll post details of the rest of my day in a later report as it's almost 1am here and I need to get to bed. Not planning much for Sunday afternoon except relaxing around the hotel.

Featured photos below with rest linked here:
http://tom911.smugmug.com/Travel-Asi...693027_hDnkD67

Team USA being introduced (Natalie on left)



Natalie at the starting blocks for her backstroke leg



Team USA with their medals (Natalie on left)



On the award podium for this event



Flag raising (I was seated on the side and didn't have a good shot of the actual flags--this is from the big screen above the pool)

tom911

Saturday morning, after attending prelims for the 4X100 medley relay which sent Team USA onto the finals later that night, we went back to the Coughlins hotel off People's Square. I set off separately for some touring while they grabbed cabs for another shopping expedition.

I got on the train at People's Square Metro for the two-stop journey to Jing'An Metro station. I exited to see the back side of Jing'An Temple on one side of the street and Jing'An Park on the other. Walked through the park and sat for a while in the shade (you really learn to appreciate shade when you go out in 37C/100F temperatures with high humidity).



Crossed the street and walked around the exterior of the Jing'An Temple.



From there I walked a few blocks, crossed under a highway, and found myself in the tree-lined French Concession district. Mandatory cold water stop (1.5 yuan, another 24 cents gone) at a convenience store, then continued my walk about past cafes and shops. Lunch stop was at Fresh Element on the 6th floor of an office building. I had macaroni and cheese (parmesan and mozarella blend) for 62 yuan ($10) and iced tea.



Back out to the street and now I was in a heavily trafficked boulevard with shopping malls, though there was a nice park on one side. Another opportunity for someone to sell me a watch and chase after me to see how many times I can say “No” or “no money”.

Found a Metro stop and was back at my hotel enjoying an ice-cold Diet Coke in the lounge at 3pm, then back out the door at 4:40 for Natalie's last night of swimming.

I did find one more photo to share. This is me holding Natalie's rabbit awarded with her gold medal in 4X100 medley relay. She had tossed it up in the stands and it was caught by a boy from London who was sitting with our group (he had to go to the other side of the pool to compete for it). He lent it to me outside the pool for a few minutes for this photo.



After finals we headed back to the Coughlin's hotel off People's Square and got cabs to a Greek restaurant called Fat Olive, about 10 minutes and a 14 yuan (around $2.25). It was on the 6th floor of a building with rooftop seating with a view towards Pudong (you could see my hotel and the World Financial Center- photos didn't look good enough to retain, though). We shared a bottle of Chilean sauvignon blanc to celebrate Natalie's gold medal, and had salads and wraps (chicken or lamb).

Metro had closed by the time I found the closest station around 11:20, so cab across the river for 23 yuan (less than $4).

Today (Sunday) I'm having a cool, leisurely day around the hotel. May pop out for an hour or two to walk around. Off to swimming again at 4:30pm (Natalie not swimming tonight). Poor visibility across the river and I can hear high winds hitting my windows up on the 80th floor. Might be a storm on the way in as it's getting dark outside.

Next report will likely be from Hong Kong on the way home tomorrow (Monday).

New photos start here: http://tom911.smugmug.com/Travel-Asi...466191_rMfQ2Tf

Paella747

Hey Tom! Great report! Yes, that was Sizzlin' in Shanghai! It was great meeting you there! What a meet, eh? Alex and Gene say hello and we are back in Seoul now. Gene got his photo with Nathalie, so he's been on Cloud 9 ever since! If Nat's still swimming in 2013, then let's meet up at Worlds in Barcelona! Get home safe!

PIJD

Thanks for such a great report! Have a safe trip back.

tom911

Hi Mike-

Great catching up with you and meeting Alex and Gene.

Natalie comes home with three medals. This may make her the U.S. female swimmer with the most medals ever out of multiple World Championships. Not sure Natalie is going to hang in there after the London Olympics, though. Just don't know at this point and she has not committed past London. She'll turn 30 right after the 2012 Olympics which sort of makes her a senior citizen in this sport so we'll have to wait and see what the future holds. Now, if only Hyatt had a property in Barcelona. They treated me like a king in Shanghai and even offered to pack some breakfast items to go when I left this morning at 6:45. Very good use of 150,000 points.

I'm at HKG right now waiting for my SFO flight. Have another trip report segment I worked on during the flight down and hope to have it up in a few minutes.

tom911

Hello from Hong Kong Airport this Monday morning. Waiting for my Cathay 747 flight to SFO. This time I am on the upper deck in business class (at least that's what I've been told at check-in, and the seating number is in a different area than my flight over which was on the lower deck).

Sunday morning was the first day I slept in, not getting up until 9:15a.m. Headed up to the 83rd floor lounge for late breakfast at 1030 and found lots of people there for the first time. I had missed this group the Sunday before because I had headed to the pool at 7:30a.m. Found a corner table, read the International Herald Tribune, and enjoyed my last visit to serving tables with pastrami, salmon, cheese, bread/pastries, cereals, fresh fruit and juices. A lot more choice than what I have in my refrigerator at home.

Dark clouds outside since the time I got up, and high winds were hitting my 80th floor windows. Seemed like a good day to just stay inside, and that's exactly what I did, watching CNN and BBC and working on my photos. Back to the lounge at 4pm for a Diet Coke, and then over to the train station a little early as it just looked like it was going to pour rain. I did have an umbrella along.

Perfect timing. I stood at the train station entrance watching fast-moving dark clouds, and five minutes after I got there the skies opened up. Glad to not be out walking from my hotel in the rain.

Made my way by METRO to the pool, about 35 minutes travel time on two different trains, and arrived to find flooding outside the pool security checkpoint (reminded me of the big puddles we had to walk through at the Beijing Olympics when it rained here). Drainage does seem to be a problem. I had to walk on an elevated garden area to reach the security checkpoint and get in.

Arrival at pool



USA won the most medals at this meet and was awarded the team trophy. Best swimmers of the meet were Team USA's Rebecca Soni and Ryan Lochte. A second world record was set this last night by a Chinese swimmer in 1500 freestyle (takes almost 15 minutes to swim this one). He broke Australian Grant Hackett's record which had been in place for 10 years. The prior world record, earlier in the week, was set by Ryan Lochte.

USA wins meet - Team Captains--Natalie getting a handshake on the right



After the meet we took a bus over to Team USA's hotel (Intercontinental Pudong) where we met with the swimmers and team staff and enjoyed juices and soft drinks (the team is still under USA Swimming rules which prohibit alcohol), as well as a selection of self-serve food (salads, potato chips, sliders, pork, potatoes, corn on the cob, assorted desserts). We all left full.

Natalie look exhausted and ready to go home. For that matter, we're all exhausted and ready to go home. Looking forward to being back in the Bay Area where we hopefully won't be dealing with 100F/37C temperatures on my arrival late Monday morning (cross international dateline so I arrive before I depart—something that I still find unusual).

Not many cabs around the Intercontinental so we had to wait for them as they arrived. We got all four of us that are still here in a single cab after 20 minutes of waiting, with the first stop at my hotel (Grand Hyatt) and second stop at Coughlins hotel (JW Marriott).

Monday morning I was up at 6 (set two alarm clocks just to be sure), checked out at the lounge on the 83rd floor at 6:45 (no charges as I was on an award stay), on the train platform at 6:55, and at the MAGLEV station platform at 7:15, just in time to see the airport train pull out. Got the next train at 7:30 and was at the airport 8 minutes later.

At check-in the agent mentioned that I could catch the earlier 8:40 Dragonair flight to Hong Kong, rather than waiting for my 9:45 Cathay flight, so was moved over to that one. Cleared passport control and security at 8:00, made one stop to spend my remaining yuan (had about $11 left—bought some chocolates for $10 and donated the leftover change to a charity on the flight out--not a currency I want to stockpile at home.), and boarded my flight just as I arrived at the gate at 8:15. One benefit of getting out earlier is I have a 3 hour connection instead of 2 hours (plus you need to be ast the gate here 45 mins before departure), allowing a leisurely visit to the Cathay first class lounge at the Hong Kong airport.

I was initially in an empty business class cabin and decided to take a photo. Flight attendant offered to take one of me and I took her up on that (this is the second time this year they've offered). We left with about 6 passengers in an 18 passenger cabin.

Tom in Dragonair business class A330 PVG-HKG



Passed on the dim sum breakfast this morning and had a cheese omelette. Haven't had one of those on this trip as the Hyatt lounge does not serve omelettes. Landed in Hong Kong about 2 hours after take off.

I'm posting from the Cathy first class lounge near Gate 1 while sipping on a Cathay sunshine cocktail. Haven't gone outside the airport but on landing it was 30C/86F which is more in the temperature range I can deal with.

New photos start here:
http://tom911.smugmug.com/Travel-Asi...470209_X8HxQRH

tom911

Enjoyed my visit in the Cathay Pacfic First Class Lounge at the Hong Kong Airport (The Pier). Started off with a signature Sunrise Cocktail, and after sending out my e-mail walked a few steps over to their restaurant where I enjoyed some chicken satay with peanut sauce, dim sum, cheese, cheesecake and chocolates. All the energy I needed to work my way up the staircase to my sleeper seat on the upper deck of our 747 to SFO. Before leaving the lounge I had a glass of sauvignon blanc, and then off to the plane for boarding at 1:40pm.



Cathay has an excellent in-flight entertainment system, on-demand, with hundreds of programs to choose from . For this trip I watched five episodes of Blue Bloods with Tom Selleck. Had the netbook along with video as a backup but just didn't need it.





MENU

Starters

Sesame smoked Balik salmon belly with marinated prawn
Mixed salad with artichoke and creamy creamy lemon dressing

Main Courses

Slow cooked duck with red date and mushroom sauce, steamed jasmine rice and jade melon with red medlar seeds and garlic

Grilled beef tenderloin with red wine sauce, kipfler potatoes, French beans and capsicum

Briased garoupa with bean curd sheets and mushroom, steamed jasmine rice and Chinese cabbage with carrot

Tomato and spinach tortellini and basil tomato sauce and pesto sauce



Cheese and Dessert

Fourme d'Ambert, Arenberger, French Brie

Fresh Seasoinal fruit

Raspberry swirl cheesecake with raspberry coulis



I slept about 6 hours in the middle of the 12 hour flight. I had a continental breakfast with fresh fruit, muesli and yogurt and passed on the hot entrees (poached egg, dim sum, dried scallop and pomfret congee). Just couldn't eat any more.

Landed at 11:45 and had about a 20 minute wait to present my passport. Caught BART from the international terminal to Walnut Creek, and then the hourly bus to Benicia. Was in the door just after 3pm.

New photos start here: http://tom911.smugmug.com/Travel-Asi...765020_PfS2kKJ

Moomba

Excellent report tom911. An enjoyable lunchtime read.