In Captain’s Hostel near the Bund: Andrea, Rachel, Bron and me.

Bron and Rachel on the Bund

In April last year, two fresh-faced, optimistic Brits boarded a plane to Shanghai in anticipation of a three-year move to China.  A little over a year later, we’re heading back in the opposite direction.

A few days after arriving last year, Bron and I headed for a pub quiz in a now-closed pub called the British Bulldog.  It was there that we met Rachel, a fresh-faced, optimistic American, herself having relatively recently arrived in the country.  Very fitting then, that we should spend our last night in China with Rachel; another of our close friends we’ve met over the last year that we will definitely remain in contact with.

Fitting also (because this is about me and Bron) that our last meal in China should be an Indian, cooked for us by Chong and Isaac’s Indian-cooking ayi.  An excellent, home-cooked curry; a shame we were never able to make more use of her culinary skills.

We followed the Indian meal with a last trip to the Bund, meeting up with Andrea and Rachel’s extra-special man friend, Ben.  A few last cocktails on the Bund (one with both baijiu – Chinese Rice Wine – and rum, tasting as bad as it sounds) to end our time in China.

Airport lounges are never the best place for me to write blogs, so I’ll end this one here.  I’ll add a few more once we’re back in the UK, and then, who knows…

China: goodbye [for now]…