China Experiences!

Woke up at 5:30am.  The hostel lady knew we were getting up early, so she had tea and toast ready for us as soon as were out of the room. I didn't even really want it, but had to eat it, as she made it for us!  We left for the LRT shortly before 6:00am and took it to the KLIA Ekpress line, a high-speed train to the airport.

We got all checked in.  My flight is at 9:00am, Jen's is at 9:40.  We said our goodbyes as my flight was boarding and I was off to tackle China.

Flight was uneventful, Malaysian Airlines.  Just under 5 hours.

At Shanghai, the immigration was pushing people through at a record pace.  I've never seen immigration go so fast.  I got up to the immigration counter, handed the guy my passport and my entrance/departure form.  He gave me back my departure form, but called someone over, said something to him and handed him my passport.  The new dude said "Please come this way" and I followed him to the immigration supervisor area.  He asked me to have a seat on one of the three seats there, and my passport disappeared into the hands of a supervisor. Uh-oh!  I waited a few minutes (I was the only one there), then another foreigner was brought in and asked to have a seat.  He remarked, "I hope we're not in trouble", as he sat down.  I chuckled and said it's probably nothing.

While this was going on, I wasn't concerned or scared or anything like that.

After sitting for 7 or 8 minutes, I was given my passport back and was sent on my way.  No explanation or anything.  I blame Ryan, probably causing trouble with the authorities when he was here, now they flag all Courtnages.

After exiting the airport, an information dude approached me and asked me where I was going.  I told him I was taking a train to Suzhou.  He told me the best way to get to the train station was by taxi, as the bus is very slow, as it stops all the time.  I had read in my Fodor's China guidebook that airport bus #5 goes to the railway station, and Lisa had mentioned something about taking the metro straight from the airport, but my guidebook made no mention of the metro.  I asked how much for the taxi, he said 450 RMB (also called the yuan), I told him that was too much, he said no, it's not expensive only about $65 US.  I told him I was a backpacker, I needed to travel cheap.  Haha, he sighed, and pointed me towards the buses.

On the way to the buses, I spotted the Metro sign, so ended up taking the metro to the train station for 7 RMB.  Big difference between 450 and 7!  I think there's also the option of the maglev train, that I think interconnects somewhere else on the metro.  Apparently the maglev train really goes fast.  According to Wikipedia, it reaches 350 km/hr in just 2 minutes, and gets up to 431 km/hour after that.

It took about 1.5 hours to get from the airport to the Shanghai Train Station.  In the craziness that is the Shanghai metro and railway hub, I got swept outside to the big square in front of the railway station, so I took a few pics, tried to get my camera GPS to work (it didn't, said it wasn't available in that region), then went to buy a ticket.  It was about 4:30pm.  Trains to Suzhou run about every 25 minutes, but the next handful of trains were all sold out, the earliest train I could get was 8:00pm.  I bought a ticket, walked around outside for a bit longer, then went inside the train station, sad down with my backpack and read my Fodors China book for a while to try and kill some time.  I don't recommend this book for backpackers, it's aimed at the higher end traveller.

I decided I needed to try and get an email to Lisa, as she was expecting me around 6:15, but there was no free wi-fi in the train station.  I found some secure lockers to put my backpack in, then left the train station to see if I could find a Starbucks, as they always have free wi-fi.  There's about 20 KFC's and McDonalds surrounding the train station, so figured there shouldn't be a Starbucks too far off. Sure enough, one appeared about a block away, I ordered a latte and confirmed they had free wi-fi.  Sat down, connected to the wi-fi, but to use it, you need a get a username and password, and the only way to get a username and password is to get a SMS message sent to your China Mobile phone, which, obviously, I didn't have. Foiled. I asked the Starbucks dude (he spoke pretty good english), so he grabbed his mobile and he let me use it to get the username/password SMS message.  He received it, but then the username and password didn't work anyway.  He had no idea why.  Foiled #2.  I guess I won't be getting a message to Lisa.

After finishing, I walked around some more outside, then back to the train station, got my backpack and waited for the train.

The Chinese are in so much of a hurry.  They always try to rush on to trains, planes, the metro, with no regard for anyone else or for anyone trying to get off the metro.  It's very chaotic! Complete opposite of Singapore, where people would wait in the train platform for everyone to depart the train before they got on.  It's like the Chinese are scared the train might all of a sudden close it's doors and leave them there.

The train was SUPER FAST.  We hit a top speed of 317 km/hour.  Made it to Suzhou in no time (about 25 minutes). What a change from the trains in India, for example.  Haha.

As I was leaving the train station in Suzhou, a guy asked me "taxi?"  I said "meter?", he nodded.  I think those were his only two english words, and I'm not even sure on the word meter.

I showed him Lisa's address, that I had printed off, he indicated that he knew where it was, so I followed him, past the taxi stand, past the police van outside the station (which he kept looking back at as we were walking, like he was concerned about them). After a couple of blocks, nearing his car, it was obvious it was not a metered taxi, he wanted to charge a bunch of money to take me there.  I told him, "No taxi, no meter".  He pointed to his car and said "meter", I laughed and said "no meter" and walked back to the normal taxi stand.  He didn't try and come and coerce me back or anything.

I queued in the taxi stand queue, after a few minutes, got a taxi, showed him Lisa's address, he gave me the international OK sign (making an "o" with is thumb and forefinger) and off we went.

About 15 minutes drive, I saw the big traffic circle sculpture that's near Lisa and knew we were close.  He dropped me off close to gate, I paid him and managed to find Lisa's building and ring her number.

Shortly after 9:00pm. Made it!  Way later than expected, though.



Lisa and I headed to a Japanese restaurant there they cook everything right in front of you.  I think they were pissed at us, it appeared they were just closing as showed up, but they let us in and order food anyway.  We got back to Lisa's apartment and to bed around 11:00pm.