I finally made it to Shanghai and let me tell you it was about time. I have been in Taixing for too long. Taixing is a boring city with very little to do aside from grocery shopping and sweating.
So I took the 3 hour bus ride into the city on a very crowded bus and before I got on a lady told me in Chinese that should have to buy two seats thinking that I wouldn't understand. I told her that I agreed and that they should make her wear a bag over her head. She didn't get the joke so explained it to her. She didn't like my joke, but I did. The bus was pretty crowded but a fairly smooth trip overall.
Before I left I had written down some ideas of where I wanted to go once I was in Shanghai and had tried to find a hotel on the web that would be good to stay at. I couldn't really commit to choosing a hotel on the net and decided that a better idea would be to randomly choose a subway station to get off at and walk around until I found the perfect hotel at the perfect price. Any of my serious traveling partners (Munny, Mira, or Thies) can attest to my lack of ability to commit to a particular plan of action in the hope of having a mini adventure and finding the best situation once we arrive. Just to let you know, in case you were wondering, Shanghai is not the city to do this in. Shanghai is huge! Like massively large and there are people everywhere. I kind of got swept up in the crowd and ran for the subway in the rain once we got off the bus. In hindsight, the smartest thing to do would have been to wait 10 minutes for it to settle down and then continue but no I ran like an idiot and got soaked. When I got to the subway, again it was crowded so I lined up without really thinking of a stop until I go to the ticket window and I said the only stop that I knew. People's Square. This is the centre of the universe. A massive corner with about five major streets meeting there and even more people walking around. I let the force guide me towards the perfect hotel and the force was not with me. I wandered through the haircutting utensil district where every shop specializes in selling ………………….too obvious. I wandered through the financial district and I hit the main tourist walkway where every one is trying to sell you a watch, shoes, and DeeBweeDees (DVDs). I walked for about two and half hours with my big back pack still on and found only a handful of hotels. Each costing much more than I knew was necessary or they didn't have internet which is a must for me these days. Not even because I use it, but just to know it is there you know in case I need to check out the meaning of a word or something. By this point I was still wet but what had started as rain water had been exchanged for sweat because it was hot and sticky in Shanghai and I had been walking for two and a half hours. I decided that I needed to regroup so I found a Starbucks and ordered a coffee. While I sat there I weighed my options and decided to call the HR guy from the company that I am working for here in Shanghai. He answered promptly and asked me where I was, I told him that I needed a hotel in the city centre that was near to a subway. He said no problem, that he could help me and told me that he would call me back when it was done. 10 minutes later he called and said that the hotel was a 10 minute taxi ride away. He sent me the address as an SMS so I could show the cab driver. I finished my coffee and went to track down a ride. I got in the taxi and the driver couldn't understand the text message so I called Mr. Lee to explain. When the driver hung up he told me that he knew the place but that it was far away. After an hour of being in the cab I asked the driver where the hell we were going. He told me that this is where my friend had told him to go. I called Mr. Lee and asked him where he was sending me. It turned out that he had booked me into a hotel that was a fifteen minute drive from the last subway stop on the line. SO when I said that I wanted something downtown near a subway stop he thought that I meant that I wanted something that was a 15 minute drive away from the last subway stop. Man my Chinese sucks! He freaked out and told me to wait where I was he was coming to help me. He asked to speak to the driver and told the driver to drop e off where I was. So now I am way out in the middle of somewhere waiting for this poor dude to show up to help me, meanwhile while searching through my wallet I found the card of a hotel that I stayed in when I first got to Shanghai. It was downtown and a reasonable price so I gave the card to Mr. Lee when he showed up. He then called the hotel and booked me a room which took 1 minute and then I hopped back in a cab for another hour into the city. I am an idiot and ended up using up about an hour of Mr. Lee's time when I had the card in my wallet the whole time. In all fairness to me though, I did tell him where I was in both Chinese and English about 4 times and he said he understood.
In the end I checked into the hotel at about 5:30 pm and it was a great room with a king size bed with four big pillows. This may not seem very special but after the wooden planks that I had been sleeping on it felt like a box of fluffy baby ducks. The cab rides only cost me a total of $11 CDN total so I basically paid $11 for a tour of Shanghai . I also got my adventure but may I suggest to anyone traveling to Shanghai to find a hotel before you show up…………………
Coming soon: Near Death in Shanghai…………………………..intrigued?
