My first trip to Ikea happened in China! Random.
We were on a mission to find a mattress pad since Chinese beds are a joke. For the last 4 nights I was sleeping on a lattice of metal rods supporting a cold-air chamber of doom. It was miserable and I would wake up each morning with bruised hips and ribs from the metal torture device. So we went to Ikea. Or should I say we had an “Ikea Experience”.
We made an afternoon of it. The Ikea in China is laid out exactly like any other Ikea in the world which means you are required to walk through every room before you leave. For my first trip this was fun but I would expect that going there for just one item would get annoying. You probably leave with much more than originally intended. Like the plush vegetable basket above. Smart Swedes.
On the way we picked up drinking glasses, a laundry basket, and slippers. Yeah, totally random. Finally we reached the mattress section! We found a deliciously comfortable mattress pad for only 150 US dollars. Score!
Before reaching the warehouse, we stopped at the Swedish cafeteria for some lunch. The place was crazy packed on a Wednesday! Looked like it was a popular destination for both Chinese and non-Chinese families. We munched on salmon, beef, salad, potato cakes, and of course… COFFEE. Full and buzzed, we arrived at the massive warehouse and discovered that our mattress pad would not be available until tomorrow’s shipment. Noooooo… another night of torture!
We ended up returning the next night to find the shipment STILL had not arrived. So we bought 1RMB soft-serve cones to soothe ourselves for yet another night of torture.
Two days later we finally had the bundle of comfort and joy in our arms (better than a baby haha) and walked directly into Friday rush hour traffic. Fail. Long story short, we walked to the metro, rode the metro for 30 minutes squished between sweaty people and comfy mattress pad, then walked with said comfy mattress pad for 20 minutes from metro to apartment. We shared the burden and I was sweating and breathing hard from the exertion. Whew.
But it was worth it. No more torture. No more bruised hips. Only delicious sleep on a cloud of comfort. Ahhhhhh…. My first Ikea experience? Hard work with fantastic results. Thanks Sweden!
Kirsten Captures 
I always dread going to Ikea. They have such great deals, but the crowds really get to me!
I’m still catching up on your posts, and am glad I read this one. I also had my first Chinese IKEA experience on my trip, and wow. There were soo many people I couldn’t believe it. We were also trying to find a mattress pad, but couldn’t locate one successfully. We couldn’t find them in the section where you pick up most things, are they in the warehouse section where the furniture is picked up? Our mattress in our apartment is miserably hard. I found the bathroom floor to be more comfortable the night I slept on it (ah the joys of food poisoning).
I don’t understand how these guys have been sleeping on these mattresses all this time?
Let me know which pad you picked up and if you like it much 🙂
Loving your Shanghai posts. I hope we can meet up when we’re both there.
Why do Chinese beds suck so much?? Peter says it’s because they don’t sleep anyways haha. We found a mattress pad in the mattress section of the showroom hanging up against the left wall. Out of 3 levels of quality we got the middle of the road quality which felt AMAZING. It will change your life, for real. We placed our order with the guy in the mattress section then had to pick it up in the customer service area 2-3 days later since it was not available yet. I would suggest NOT picking it up at rush hour and grabbing a taxi.
I want to hear about your China trip! Hopefully you can do some posts on it soon? Really hope to meet you when we are there again.