Jinan with A & B

I wanted to go to watch a football game in Jinan and asked if anyone was interested in coming. Andrew and Blair tagged along. Andrew had been to Jinan before but had not really seen anything and Blair was a first timer.

Well we left the apartment at 9 am and headed to the bus station. I left my book in the taxi! Damn! I had nearly finished reading it. We got on the 9.30 am bus to Jinan.

We arrive in Jinan at 11 am. The hotel I had booked I had not stayed at before so I didn't have a card, but I had printed the address in Chinese to give to the taxi driver.

We get into a cab and I give the taxi driver the info. Off we head. I find it quite amazing that the Chinese taxi drivers can not read Chinese. He takes us somewhere which is nowhere where we want to be. We eventually speak to someone at a hotel to see if they can tell the cabbie where to go. After about 20 minutes we find ourselves back on the road again. The taxi fare ended up being Y18. The return fare was Y8, from memory.

So it appears that it is me and not Barbara as no trip has ever been without an adventure of some kind.

We check into hotel and head to Jenny's Cafe for lunch. As per normal the food was sensational. Whilst at the restaurant I ask what time the football match starts. I am advised the it has been rescheduled to Shanghai. Guess I'm not going to the football.

The boys are keen to shop for western goods. I take them on a shopping tour. Firstly we go to U-Mart, RT-Mart and finally to Walmart. The boys surprisingly can shop. I was amazed. I didn't buy anything but I helped carry their parcels!

Back to the hotel for a quick tub and out for dinner and some entertainment. The boys had done some research and come up with two different locations. We chose one and headed there. When we got there it had closed and there was now a glasses shop there.

Not overly concerned about this we headed to the other site as it was also in the same street. The number of people in the street were amazing. The street markets were pumping. But the street numbers just never seemed to go down and we walked for 2 hours!

Eventually we decided to give up and we went to the first bar we saw. It was called the Seventh Avenue Club. We walked in. Oops I have done it again. It was a go-go bar. The sign that said 'no cameras' was the first clue, the next was the sex posters and the last was the pole.

No one was in the club so we had a drink and left. We decided to go back towards the many restaurants we had passed. We decided on this one particular restaurant. The food was delicious. It was Italian. Then the good old faithful - Bandjo Bar was the next stop.

This place is unbelievable. There is always something happening here. This night it was like a circus. There were probably 100 people in the bar. Everyone thought they were a singer and took turns singing on the stage. Every one thought they were a musician and played instruments. It was heaps of fun and a great atmosphere.

Home by 1 am I think and tucked into bed for a 9 am rise to go to Jenny's cafe for breakfast, and then the bus ride home!