05.19.09

Made it to Shanghai

Posted in Random Crap at 23:45 by panda

We’ve just made it to Shanghai. What a ride it was. Took about two hours. The first half was a pretty decent ride..until we got into Shanghai city. That’s when we found the real driving skills of the driver. Hard on the gas, hard on the brakes. Quick to release the brakes, quick to release the gas. Rocking back and forth hard. Felt like crap. But, thank you God, we’ve made it!

The room isn’t too bad. Not too pricey either. Looks clean. We’ll find out how the well the shower works tomorrow. Hopefully, it’s nothing like QingDao’s shower at the hotel we stay at. That was horrible. Water dripping from the ceiling, the shower mat has some sort of algea growing on it. The faucet to the sink took up half the sink so you could barely use it comfortably. The handles was just one piece so it was hard to adjust the water. Very cruddy.

China Trip update

Posted in Random Crap at 19:00 by panda

No pictures to post yet. Too many to go through. Will probably take me at least a day to go through the pictures, a day to go through all my e-mails…lots of catching up to do.

Anyways, we’re back in Suzhou. Made it back here yesterday and we are leaving in two hours for Shanghai. The end of our trip is coming. I sorta can’t wait to get back home. As much as I love China, I love my soft bed more. And my A/C. :) It’s not suppose to be this hot, but it was. I was sweating my butt off most of the time.

So, what new news do I bring? Well, some advises and discoveries. In Nanjing, we’ve found that their taxi drivers are dicks. I was more nervous getting into the taxi because I don’t know what I could’ve/would’ve done that would irritate the driver. Be it asking them to take me to a destintation that they think is too short, or getting in the damn taxi from the wrong side of the road. Then I got to sit there and listen to them suck their teeth at me and gripe and drive like idiots. Annoying. Sometimes, they will even refuse to take you and ask you to get out. Pieces of shiet. Makes you want to walk everywhere instead…

QingDao? Well, their taxi drivers are okay…I guess. Friendlier, won’t complain about stuff. However! Over half of them, I feel, are big fans of Initial D. They don’t drive, they fly! Even on rainy days. Another thing…I almost want to go ahead and say that all QingDao people are friggin’ liars/cheaters. I’ve never been lied to/cheated by so many people, so many times. If those fuckers tell you go somewhere to eat, go the friggin’ other way. Do your own research first on where to eat and don’t go wherever QingDao people recommend! On top of that, if you’re there and them solicitators are offering tickets to tourist attractions and a free ride to and fro…motherfucker you better offer to pay them half first and the other half when you get the ride back. Twice we’ve been told there will be a return ride back, and twice there wasn’t any. And then through lots of complaints and arguing, they’d agree to come pick us up, but we’d have to wait two hours.

On the good side, we did find a good seafood restaurant (that Nancy found online from other people’s review) and it was the best we had in everything we’ve tried. Nancy and Ryan (Maggie’s (Nancy’s little sister) husband) both got food poisoned from another seafood restaurant that the taxi drivers recommended saying that they’re cheap and good and where all the QingDao people go to. The said restaurant, when we went, just opened a little a less than two weeks ago. What the fuck ever, man.

QingDao’s ocean is quite purrrty. Blue. Not so much trash that I could see. It was too cold for a swim when we were there. The mountain, Lao Shan, was very pretty. We went up the day after it rained and it was foggy and beautiful. Was cold at first, but better a little chilly than friggin’ hot. Had a tour guide follow us up the mountian and tell us about the stuff, even though we didn’t ask her to. Then wanted moola for it. We gave her a little. She wanted 20RMB a person, we gave her 20RMB total.

Other than that, Suzhou is still the best. :)

05.01.09

We’ve made it!

Posted in Random Crap at 1:23 by panda

I’m writing from our hotel in Shanghai right now. We’ve made it. Over all delay of an hour. Had some delays flying to Chicago. Barely made it to the plane on time (our arrival from Austin was right at the same gate that had the shuttle to the International terminal of Chicago.) The flight for Shanghai started boarding at 9:50 and leaves at 10:34. We got to the gate at 10:15. :)

Since I no longer have the gold membership for United, I booked the tickets that I thought was the best. The very last row, on the side. Two seaters, right next to the bathroom. I believe those are the best seats in the plane. You can stand up and stretch in the area behind you and still watch the movie since the seats are right there. You can always tell if the bathrooms are available or not.

So, we found our seats and we’re just sitting there, waiting for the plane to take off…but…they can’t. There was a slight malfunction and they had to wait for that to get repaired. Finally, we make it to the runway and again…the plane just sat there. For awhile. Finally, they told everyone that the plane has a slight imbalance and they need to move some passengers. The stewardess comes up to us and tells us that we’re going to get moved up to Economy plus. The imbalance was in the rear of the plane. So they needed to move the last two rows.

So Nancy and I gathered our stuff and started moving toward the front and I’m thinking, “Great! More leg room w/o having to pay for upgrades.” As we’re moving up toward the front, there were a few seats open here and there. Nothing together. One of the stewardess told me to grab a seat between two guys and I asked if it’s temporary and they said, “Yep, just for the take off.” I’m thinking, well…that’s fine. I don’t have to sit next to Nancy if it’s just for the take off. So I started to move into the seat when the head stewardess came up and was like, “Uh-uh. We’re not going to do that. Put all these people in the last two rows of business.”

W00000T!!! Business class seats for an international flight. My friends, let me tell you, those seats aren’t cheap. And they are nice! :D Sure makes the flight a lot better. More room, softer, can stretch out. It’s good. :)

Lucky bastards, ne? :D