Our first day in China, what a mess!!

The sun is bright, the air is warm and it's our first day in China!! Our plan is to get some currency (because we have zero) and then take the train into Shanghai to tool around for a while.

We head down to the lobby to ask the people at the front desk the best way to get to Shanghai and an ATM. A common problem we encountered throughout China is that not many people speak English and very few speak it well. Not only that but when a non-English speaking person (in any customer service job) sees you coming towards them, they get a kind of deer in the headlights look at the thought of the what is about to transpire.

The girl we talked to was friendly but had “the look”. To aid in translating she got her three coworkers involved to answer our questions. The conversation consisted of a long series of repeated words, energetic hand gestures, vigorous nodding and lots of confused looks. After ten minutes of talking we think we know how to get to the train station by bus. Then something she says to us right before we go makes us think we now have it all wrong! We leave the hotel confused but did decipher that there is an ATM at the train station.

We are standing on the curb contemplating what to do next. We are just coming to the sound decision to walk around and look for an ATM when the porter from the hotel comes over to us pointing to a bus coming up to the curb. He can't speak English either so he just gestures frantically at the bus while trying to herd us in its direction. At this point it is about to leave and I’m thinking that if we want to get to Shanghai today, we should catch this bus, get some money at the ATM at the station and we’re on our way. So we get on the bus (MISTAKE!! MISTAKE!!! DONG, DONG, DONG!!!!!!!!).

No sooner than it pulls away, do we realize that we have no damn money to pay the fare! Now this wouldn’t usually be a problem because I’d just apologize and ask the driver to let us off, however…..NO ONE speaks English. Not only that but the bus is packed getting to the driver was impossible. So, we spend about ten minutes going back in forth with the fare collector trying to convey our situation. At this point the whole bus is getting a kick out of two foreigners providing a comic interruption to their daily routine. Eventually, this kind girl understood our situation and paid our fare for us, which was the equivalent of US $0.20 total. We were so embarrassed and grateful at the same time. We just kept saying “Xiexie!” (thank you, pronounced shea-shea) over and over. We eventually settled in to the bus ride and tried to look inconspicuous until we get to the train station.

We eventually get off the bus but had no idea what was in store next.

The train/bus station is crowded and is a funky mix of station, outdoor mall and impromptu food market. There’s a guy selling cute puppies out of a cardboard box right next to a vendor selling steamed dumplings stuffed with vegetables and meat. We meander on over to the train station entrance while soaking it all in. With the bus incident fresh on our mind we head straight to the ATM in the entrance area. I put in my card, punch in my password and up comes the screen saying, “card invalid”. I try it again….same thing. Christine steps up with her card…..same thing. One more time each for good measure……shit, not working. We take a look around the entrance area and there are no other ATMs. Fuck.

We now realize that we have a situation. Were about a 20-minute bus ride from the hotel. We have no idea which way it is and the train station appears to be in the middle of an industrial park with not much around. Not only that but it’s Sunday and everything outside the train station is closed. We were screwed on many levels but hadn’t fully come to understand this yet.

We start by fully investigating the rest of the train station/mall area for another ATM but to no avail. We decide that we’re going to have to leg it around the general area in search for an ATM. Long-story-short, we walk around for about three hours in the high-noon sun. In that time we found one bank (closed) with the ATM inside and two other banks with ATMS that don’t want to give us money either. After the third bank we have pretty much exhausted the area of ATMs. Any inquiries with the locals point us back at one of those.

We head back to the train station and stand there in the midst of the bustling crowd. No money and no one to talk to. We decide next to try to go to a restaurant and see if we can use our credit card to eat (because it’s well past lunch and we haven’t eaten or drank anything since early morning) and possibly forward us a few Yuan in cash from our card. However, none of the restaurants in the mall take credit cards. This is still a problem in China. Credit cards are only now just now taking off there.

At this point we are at our wits end. We’ve exhausted all rational possibilities so we decide to walk around the area one more time. On this walk we can see Shanghai in the distance and we get the bright idea to try to walk there. There are ATMs in the city, right? Let’s go!! Our plan is to follow the elevated train line. This lasts about one mile until we are crossing over a highway and the path leads into a very seedy looking neighborhood and also, in the distance, the train line disappears underground. We turn around and head back to the station in a bad state of mind. This is the point in a crisis situation where people start turning on each other. We keep it together though and drag our dehydrated asses back into the station.

It’s serious now. We have no idea where we are, how to get to our hotel and no means to get there. We sit down for a serious think. We come up with the idea to call the hotel and see if the exchange desk in the lobby can give us money off of our credit card. We’ll take a cab back and make him wait until we get the money. Now we just need to find a phone.

We look around and eventually come to the House of Flour (bakery and coffee shop). We stagger inside and begin to explain our situation to the people working there. Luckily one guy speaks English really well. After they understand what’s going on they look very sympathetic and get us a big glass of cold water. This was heaven sent!!

I call the hotel on the House of Flour phone and after another long conversation (don’t forget the communication barrier!!) we find out that they can’t help us. The English-speaking guy is watching me during this conversation and witnessed the last iota of hope drain out of me and trickle across the floor. I could feel myself deflate. This guy feels bad for us and goes into his own pocket and gives us 20 Yuan. We couldn’t believe it. One day in China and we’ve twice been on the receiving end of excessive acts of generosity and kindness.

We thank them profusely and then proceed straight to the bus, get on, PAY(!!!!), get off near the hotel, go directly to the first ATM we see (which happens to fucking work!!) and take out a large sum of money.

We ended up leaving Shanghai for Beijing the next day but we vowed that when we return to Shanghai at the end of our trip, we would go back to the House of Flour and return the money. And so we did. That is the picture at the top. The guy remembered us and looked surprised to see us. Xiexie.

We made sure that didn’t happen again.

The wait is over. Say cheese.

I'm FINALLY posting pictures!! Please find the links below (and in the links section to the right) to the TWO DIFFERENT photo pages I have on Shutterfly. One is the photos of Christine and my trip to China & Vietnam and the other is any and all photos we take here over the next year in Australia.


China&Vietnam
Australia

School is great and all but now the fun starts!

I'm oh so excited because this past Thursday I attended the university's African Drumming Club (ADC) for the first time and it was sooooo much fun!! There was a great mix of people and everyone was there to have a good time. I was pleasantly surprised at how many people had no drumming experience. They came because they were interested in drumming and/or African Culture and were looking to have a good time.

We all sat around to start learning a new song, which was in 6:8 time and apparently on the more difficult end of what we do. There were homemade congas, djembes, bells and shakers. We all took turns playing each instrument and their various accompaniments in the multi-textured rhythm. After we got our groove going we started to add the vocals. All I can say was that I had a perm a-grin while sitting there playing a conga and singing. Playing music is my outlet and I found my emotions were intensified after being without it for quite a while and then having a sudden release. I can't wait for the next rehearsal this Thursday to keep learning and playing and having fun. Perm a-grin. ;-)

Come to find out that the club is an organized unit that actually plays shows around Melbourne. Nothing too big or fancy but we play out none-the-less. That only made me love it more. I loved it so much that I sprained my ankle on the way home while bounding up the apartment stairs wearing my rain-soaked shoes with no traction. Dooh!! It was only a minor sprain but enough to keep me home bound for the weekend. I'm now "ooot & abooot" again and feeling old. Between the ankle, my lower back injury, my upper back injury and the newly occurring (just before the trip) heel injury (occurs whenever I walk too much so I call it "city heel"), I feel like I'm falling apart. Damned if I'll let it stop me though.

So in addition to the ADC and spraining my ankle I also attended the first of eight classes for massage. This coarse covers the basics of traditional massage and Thai massage. Today we started with the feet. We all paired up and massaged each other’s feet while under the instruction of the teacher Linda Birch who is a professional masseur, aromatherapist and naturopath. That last one sounds a bit scary but she comes across just fine. She taught us a plethora of moves among which are the "thumb press", "arch squeeze", "ankle boogie" and "cross thumb slide". However my favorite was "greeting the feet". That is where you make initial contact with the feet by holding pressing them. It's all very cordial. Next week we move on to the face, head, neck and shoulders.

Last but not least....I got elected to the University of Melbourne Postgraduate Association Council. I'm very excited and nervous about this one. I haven't actually been to a meeting yet so I'll give you the poop when I do. Check it out @ http://www.umpa.unimelb.edu.au/ if you want. This is the last and final extra-curricular activity I will be involved with. School is hard enough without the extras!

Journey to Melbourne: Phase II - Arrival in Shanghai, China

Shanghai, China. We weren't there yet but we're on our way. Christine and I weren't looking forward to the long flight there from LAX but were pleasantly surprised to find that we had emergency exit seats. Not only did we have a ton of legroom but we also had quick access to the bathrooms and an electrical outlet!! That was nice because it allowed me to break out the computer and do some writing without having to worry about the battery. Needless to say, that 14-hour plane ride to Shanghai went very quickly.

We arrived in Shanghai on April 18th and braced ourselves for the culture shock. There is no better way to experience culture shock than with an airport taxi ride in a country where you don't speak the language. We got into a reputable looking taxi (had a taxi sign on the top, license on the windshield and a meter in plain view, all of which are key to not getting ripped off) and proceeded to try to communicate which hotel we want to go to. We were planning on flying to Beijing ASAP so we wanted the closest place to the airport that is still cheap. We very quickly realized that we could not even convey hello to this guy. We then first found that the Lonely Planet China is great because everything important in the book is also written in Chinese. This proved to be indispensable throughout the trip because none (and I mean none) of the cab drivers anywhere spoke English. Not a word! It became second hand to have a finger in the book as a mark and then immediately upon entering a taxi, pressing it up to the plexi-glass divider while simultaneously saying the Chinese name for the street (different than English translation) over and over.
So we pointed to the hotel and got an obvious sign of recognition. Excellent! The driver took off down the highway and we were on our way! We sat back and began to take in the nighttime scenery. We were just getting settled into what is to be a 30-minute cab ride when the drivers cell phone rang. I wasn't surprised about it at all until he turned around and reached out to hand the phone to ME!! Huh?! Apparently the call was for me. I took the phone, put it to my ear and on the other end of the line was a woman talking in very broken English. I had no idea what she was saying and all I understood was, ok, ok? As if she asked me a question. After a few minutes of confusion and the driver slowing down to a crawl on the highway while looking back in earnest, I said ok. I handed the phone back to the driver and he looked at me with the same question in his eyes so I nodded and said ok again having no idea what I had agreed to. He then proceeded to make a u-turn and take us back to the airport!! Christine and I just looked at each other and tried to wish ourselves into a hotel bedroom because we were both exhausted. We had no idea what was about to happen or how long it will be until we see a bed. What a start to a trip! We get back to the airport and come to find out there was another person going to the same location. They figured they could get him since we hadn't gone too far. They were asking me if it was ok to turn around and get them since technically it was our cab at the moment. Mystery solved. That experience was great because (though we didn’t know it at the time) it echoed a theme that reoccurred throughout the trip. Every time (but one) we were in a situation where we were either at the mercy of someone or in a position to be ripped off or screwed with, it never happened. People were always completely honest, trustworthy and polite (not to be mistaken with friendly). We constantly expected to be ripped off or screwed with and were constantly pleasantly surprised. We never let our guard down though. Twice we had all but accused people of short changing us but come to find out it was a miscalculation on our part. That’s embarrassing because they take it very personally. We found out that the Chinese government punishes people harshly for any crimes against foreigners. This was good to know and helped us feel a bit safer throughout the trip.

So we then proceeded directly to our hotel in Pudong (near Shanghai). We were only there two days and didn't see much in that time but we did manage to get ourselves into a terrible predicament on our first day. That will be in my next post.

Platypus, Platypi? It's all good.

Ok, here are some pictures from the previously mentioned trip to the Healesville Sanctuary. What you see (in no particular order) is:

• a wombat (close up pic),
• two kangaroos,
• a tazmanian devil (from far away),
• Sarah with two dingos,
• a group of australian pelicans, and
• Christine only moments after a pelican attempted to bite her in the ass (!!)(revision from earlier story. Apparently there was no actual contact). She was talking with her back to them and backed up a little too much. Let me tell you, those australian pelicans look innocent but they can snip at you from quite a distance and with great speed!! After the "Incident" their eyes took on an ominous look so we quickly moved on to more sedated animals such as the wallabies and echidnas before things got ugly.

I hope you enjoy the pics. I am going to have all our pics posted on the web in the near future. I will post the link here when I do.

Take care and apologies for the brevity.

Eric