Postcard From Shanghai - 4

I had boarded the minivan and started out from the airport in my last postcard. The van was a left hand drive. Hmmm...just like the US.. The roads and the infrastructure was amazing..I remember being awestruck when I first went to Delhi in 1997...For a kid from a then small town like Ranchi...Delhi was just amazing....the same amazement filled me once again... We made our way through a few flyovers and tunnels and onto what seemed like the main road... Must've been six or eight lane...not quite sure which...the van was speeding at 100 kmph already....wow.."How long to the hotel?" I asked. I was told that airport is quite far from City. "About an hour if we dont hit traffic, but now I think we come across some heavy traffic..so more time", he replied in his broken english. "Is it going to cold like this in Shanghai in the coming days? Does it snow here?" I enquired, because along the side of the roads were columns of coniferous trees, probably pine. And I hadnt brought any warm clothes. "No, it remains pleasant, gets hot in May, June. Cold in winter" "Does it snow?" He couldnt understand what I said and just smiled and said "dont know". We were still quite far from the city as the area seemed to be full of industries and factories. Still cruising and listening to Chinese music on the FM that the driver had put on I was just looking around. Suddenly i felt something whiz by. I guessed it must be a fast train or monorail.

We were now nearing the city and I could see houses on the side of the roads. Residential areas. Also the traffic was beginning to grow.And soon we were no longer cruising by dragging at snail's pace in a jam. However, after having experienced the jams daily at Marthahalli-Whitefield, this jam was a new experience. It was more civilized! and the reason for that was there were no bikes or autos! only cars and trucks all driving behind each other and sticking to their lanes. I could see a lot of spaces between the cars where my honda unicorn could navigate and move ahead. but no bikes. "Evening jam. People go back to home after office." "Yeah I know. Jams like these at evening also common in Bangalore." We were pretty close to the city when he decided to take a detour off from the main road and try to avoid the jam. I saw people riding bicycles on a road only meant for bicycles. Neat planning! We were surely in the city. The area was residential with lots of Apartment buildings. Then there were shops with their names in chinese. Whats that? It was the first Indian restaurant I had seen outside India!

After a few minutes we were on a bridge and in front of me I could see what I had been waiting for in the flight! The Shanghai skyline! I was astounded! The image of Kevin McCallister looking at the NY skyline from the airport in the movie Home Alone 2 came to my mind!Its was just what you see in the movies, only this time it was for real!

Soon I realized that we were driving on an elevated road. I was very impressed by this design of roadways. An elevated road with exit and entry point every kilometer. I was driving right past the skyline and was simply speechless. I just kept looking around. Time flew by and the van had now gotten off the elevated road. We must be pretty near I thought. Just then we took a right and entered the campus of Howard Johnson All Suites Hotel.





"Welcome to Shanghai sir! May i have your passport?" I handed over the passport to the desk clerk who spoke fluent english. He blah-blahed something about the charges that the company was paying and asked for a credit card. Now i had applied for a HDFC credit card quite a long time back but had not received it. Cursing the HDFC people for their delay in service which had presented me with an awkward situation, i took out the card handed over by the company. "No sir, this is not a credit card. A credit card looks like.." "Yeah I know what a credit card looks like but I dont have it." The desk clerk looked at the driver and said something in Chinese. I am sure he said "What kind of idiots do you bring to this hotel?" They had a small conversation in Chinese after which I was asked to wait as the clerk went inside. He came put and said that I could pay in cash. I asked him how much? Oops he was in a fix now? what if he said an amount which I didnt have at the moment? "800 dollars" "Sorry I dont have that much right now. I would have to withdraw from an ATM. Is there one nearby?" And then I realized that the World Money card wasnt working at the airport! Damn it! what a way to begin the stay in China! "There is one ATM but you will get only RMB's there!" Now I was truly in a fix! "So dont you accept the local currency?" "Yes we do" Phew!! He then talked to the driver once again and said, "Sir I understand that there has been some confusion regarding who is supposed to pay what. Why dont you pay an amount that will keep you going for a day or two and then get things cleared once you go to your office tomorrow?" "Yeah that sounds like good idea" I handed him some RMB's and thanked the driver. I was wondering if i was supposed to tip him but he left promptly to my relief. I was running out of cash!

My luggage was transferred to room 714 (or was it..? cant remember). I decided the first thing to do was to call up ppl back home and let them know that I have reached. I called up my manager first. Then my home. Then I called up Srini in China and told him that I had reached safely. Finally I called up Mano to let him know that I had arrived. Mano asked the address and said he would be here in half an hour. I looked around and the room was pretty comfortable. I switched on the TV to find all east asian language channels.. Korean, Chinese and Japanese... to my relief there was HBO, CNN ,ESPN and channel news asia which were in english. but still i watched what seemed to be a chinese sitcom with a cute girl!! waiting for Mano to arrive!

Some pics of the hotel room below..!! More coming on the next post!