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January 23, 2006
Only in China - 36 Hours of Chaos
So there I am Sunday morning at 8.30am asleep in my bed in Shanghai ...
9am >>> Wake Up
9.30am >>> Take Taxi to airport, Taxi driver decides he is Schumacher's chinese cousin and drives like a lunatic (considering every taxi driver drives like a lunatic which I now accept as normal, this was really was a lunatic)
10.05am >>> arrive at Airport
12 noon >>> Plane finally takes off, so we are already running late by an hour.
2.30pm >>> arrive in Shenzhen airport in Southern China
2.40pm >>> I go to buy a ferry ticket for my journey to Hong Kong, they don't accept credit cards and I am short of cash, so I go to 3 ATMs in Airport and 2 branches, NO CASH left.
3pm >>> AAARRRGGGHHHHHH,,,
3.10pm >>> After using all my Boyish Charm and some, plus a nice gift for the lovely female police officer who has decided that she will gladly listen to my broken Chinese finally resolves ina direct order to ticket clerk to issue me a ticket whilst accepting 4 different currencies from me.
5pm >>> I arrive in Hong Kong, and proceed to my Hotel, only to find out that they have booked me in the wrong Novotel and I need to be on the other side of the Island.
6pm >>> meeting starts and carries on till 11.45pm
Midnite >>> I call 2 of my friends in Hong Kong just to say HI, and both of them seem to be in places with lost of people and loud music and they persuade me to go down hang out with them.
12.30am >>> I am in a club called DROP with some crazy people including 2 mexican tax (evasion) lawyers, some Californian guy who is double ended toothpaste (different flavours for morning and nite) and various other crazy people.
4am >>> decide to leave and find a great kebab place where the staff speak Punjabi, same as I do.
5am >>> finally get to sleep.
7am >>> wake up
9am >>> leave Hotel for a meeting, but NO taxis, aaaargghhhh
9.30am >>> finally make meetings after walking for 20 minutes.
12.45 pm >>> Depart Hong Kong via speedboat from China.
1.50pm >>> arrive in Shenzhen port and am convinced I am carrying a fake passport as 3 Chinese immigration guys decide that the picture on the passport is NOT me ?
2.10pm >>> They finally decide to let me enter the Country, strange as I only left China 24 hours ago and my passport in covered in Chinese entry/exit stamps.
6pm >>> finally board flight which is 2 hours late
8pm >>> arrive in Shanghai
9pm >>> arrive home and dying for a cup of tea, to realise there is NO milk in the apartment.
I dont know whether I should laugh or cry, as the above was very mentally draining but very exciting at the same time, and ultimately one has to experience this stuff to survive in this country.
I must say the usa of my broken mandaring and light hearted humour got me back or I have NO idea where I would have been right now.
Oh well, back to the UK in 2 days :)
Posted by shak at January 23, 2006 9:51 PM