Arrived in Shanghai yesterday after a more or less eventless flight, took the amazing MagLev train out to Longyang road and then a cramped metro from there to nearer our hotel….and this is where things went slightly tits up.
We, Myself and Tav (Barry and Ciaran are in ‘Nam), in our infinite wisdom decided that it would be a good idea to get the metro as close to our hotel as possible. However, what we hadn’t taken into account, was that no taxi wanted to take two westerners on what is effectively a 5 minute journey by car…and alas, none of them did.
The next two and half hours were spent wandering around the streets looking for our hotel, which is handily located on a street that recently changed it’s name.
After asking directions in broken mandarin phrases and not understanding the responses, we were starting to run out of options, so headed across a small river to see if we could narrow down where the hotel was…
After confirming with the local post office that the address actually existed (Yes, we were getting desperate), we headed back across the river, new directions in hand, and with great excitement…ended up exactly where we had started : (
By this stage we were close to quitting and heading for a different hotel that we had seen along the way
(I should point out that we had already paid for our hotel), but a passing biker took pity on us and stopped to give us a hand. After showing him the address, he smiled and pointed to the box on the back of the bike…
His bike wasn’t so much a Tuc-Tuc ( A Tuc Tuc would be considered luxury) but a Honda 50 scooter with a box on the back!
The next five death defying minutes included; the smell of tortured clutch, several wheelies (due the weight of us and our bags levering over the back), a wrong way trip up a busy one way street, almost getting T-boned by a tour bus and eventually, two people very happy to still be alive. We had finally made it to our hotel.
Today was spent wandering around a little bit combined with finishing up some project work for back home. Later on we’ll be going to the famous pearl building and then the IFC.
Tomorrow, after going to the world expo, we’ll be boarding a flight for Tokyo Narita….cant wait XD
I’ll try keep this updated if and when I have internet access.
