Day 2 OR The Clueless Taxi Driver and Motel 168

*Note to any readers....this is actually Casey. Until Maggie can figure out how to bypass the security, she will be sending me her posts and I will be updating her blog! Happy travels!*

            Well, I am proud to say I survived the travel experience yesterday and made it safely all the way from Salt Lake City to Shanghai, China.  The flight from SLC to Portland was pretty unmemorable, besides the fact that about fifteen people commented on the Forks, Washington shirt I happened to be wearing.  Then we found out my flight to Tokyo was delayed—great—so I had a little panic session about what would happen if I missed my connection to Shanghai.  It turned out that the flight was shorter than I thought it was going to be and the Delta people assured me I would have enough time to get on my flight to Shanghai, which I actually did.  The flight itself was a little disappointing because of the absence of personal tv screens on the backs the seats in front of you.  Apparently I’m a spoiled international traveler.  So instead I read Hunger Games, which was fantastic, and watched Dear John, which they played on the overhead tvs for the brief period that those were actually working.  (If you haven’t seen it, I probably wouldn’t recommend it, just saying). 

            So then we got into Narita (the Tokyo airport) and I realized just how scary it is to have everything around you in strange characters that mean absolutely nothing…thankfully most things were also in English which was obviously a major life saver.  Then I watched several hundred people try to “line” up to get on the plane.  Mass. Chaos.  There is not really the concept of a single file line in Asia, apparently.  It was pretty comical.  That flight was fine, and it was really exciting to finally get to Shanghai.  The airport in Shanghai is really new and really nice and customs was pretty easy to get through. I’m pretty sure they just had us walk through some roped off areas and we were good to go.  So I headed to Burger King to grab some bottled water (remember, no drinking tap water in China) and then to find a taxi. 

            The taxi ride and what followed were easily the most terrifying parts of the day.  I had the address written in Chinese characters and in pinyin (thank you Evan) so I showed that to the driver and watched him get a very perplexed look on his face.  This should definitely have been a sign.  Also, he looked like he was about 20.  Another sign.  So I get in this taxi and we drove about 40 km into the heart of the Shanghai financial district where we proceeded to ignore all traffic laws and nearly killed four pedestrians.  Although, besides some lane change blinker infractions, the driving wasn’t nearly as crazy as everybody says it is and there actually wasn’t much traffic at all.  This could be a complete fluke and my next ride will send me reeling into motion sickness, but thankfully this one did not.  So once we got to the financial district it became all too obvious that Mr. Taxi Driver did not know where he was going.  It was definitely a miracle that I ended up eventually at the motel and the fare was actually really good.

            Checking into the hotel was sort of a nightmare, and I mostly just nodded and signed which probably wasn’t the smartest thing ever, but I figured I’d go back down later when some other receptionist was there and clarify some things.  The room itself is fine, nothing better than fine though and that’s even pushing it.  Upsides: it’s big, the bed is pretty big, it has internet connection, it has a TV on which I will undoubtedly watch Chinese soap operas, and has a real toilet in the bathroom.  Downsides: apparently sheets on beds are unnecessary these days, even non-smoking rooms smell like smoke, and there are no drawers. 

            So, as you can see, things are quite different here and I have a feeling I’ve just scratched the tip of the iceberg….