Friday, March 29 7:00pm
I arrived at Pudong Airport and was quickly thrust into the heard of
hundreds of people heading to the one line to get into immigration.
After getting through with no problems, I headed to the Maglev Train to
begin the trip to my hostel. The Maglev reached speeds of 300kph
(200mph)!! It was fantastic to experience.
Following the Maglev, I hailed a taxi and showed him the address to my
hostel. We started traveling, and the books were right regarding the
drivers here...crazy and dangerous! We finally got to my destination, or
so I thought. He let me out of the cab and I paid him the $9 for the
fare.
Now it was real. I was in Shangnai, in the middle of the quaint sidewalk
in a quiet part of town. However, my hostel was nowhere in site.
Nowhere!! I knew from reading reviews that people had had a hard time
finding this hostel, but I initially wasn't too concerned, because I
credit myself for being good with directions. It is at this point that I
should note, I am good with directions in English. This quaint little
street was all Chinese. What was I todo but get my iPhone out and turn
on maps. I was glad to see that even though my data was off, I could
still access the maps. But what good were the maps if the maps were in
Chinese words and street signs were in Chinese characters? I'll tell
you; they were no good. I was lost. Very,very, very lost.
After following "the blue dot" and not seeming to get to where I
was going, I started asking people if they could help. Well, they all
spoke Chinese. And the ones that looked at my map, told me a different
direction every time. I spent an hour literally walking up and down
different little streets and was feeling hopeless. I stopped another
taxi and showed him again where I wanted to go and he circled his hand
as to indicate that I was in the right area. The sun was getting lower
and I was truly starting to get into picnic mode. I was going to call
my friend that's here, but I wouldn't have even been able to tell her
where I was. Tears were beginning to rise to the surface and for the
first time I believed I had made a huge mistake with this trip.
I noticed a guard house protecting some elegant building so I went up to
the guard to ask for help. Again, he couldn't help me but saw a guy he
knew coming out of the building and called him over. The guy looked at
my map and didn't have a good idea so he called a girl coming out of
the building. This girl spoke English. I wanted to cry immediately
realizing there was hope. She looked at my map and started to give me
directions and then asked, "Can I show you?" I of course was in dept to
her. We started walking back the way that I had come. We got to where
she thought it should be and it wasn't there!! She got on her phone and
called my hostel and they talked for a while and finally we had
directions to get to my place. We walked another 10 minutes, all the
while she was showing me places I could eat and where a drugstore
was and then, Eureka!! She found it! I could have hugged her, but I
settled for a hand-over-hand handshake. I offered to compensate her,
but of course she denied it. I checked in successfully and got to my
room and just laid on the bed. Tears were released from my eyes, out of
stress , weariness, and relief. I made it.
I'm sitting in the common room now. People are playing pool, Bob Marley
is on the speakers, another guy is gently playing his guitar and I'm
sitting here thankful that everything worked out today. Cheers!
 |
| Jason Beghe @ Chicago O'Hare |
Flying over Siberia
On the Maglev Train traveling 200 mph!
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