Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Shanghai - day 3

It was a whole lot easier to get up this morning than it was yesterday. It doesn’t take me long to get used to jet lag even though it is 4:00 AM at home as I write this. We checked out of the hotel this morning and headed for the airport. I had another first today at the airport security. The security woman asked me if I had any hand cream in my laptop case. I assured her that I didn’t but she dug through everything anyway and when she couldn’t find anything she ran it through the x-ray again. She then dug through the laptop again and when she still couldn’t find anything she ran it through the x-ray a third time. Finally when she had pretty much everything out of my case she gave up and let me go. I really wish I knew what they were looking at. The flight to Shanghai was a really good flight but I was quite upset when I couldn’t finish my movie. It kept stopping on me and when I restarted it I had to fast forward. I should have finished it but with all the delays I missed the end. If they don’t have it on my flight back I’m going to have to rent it to see how it ends. It was 10,000 years BC, one of those movies that Lisa would never go watch with me. My experience at the Shanghai airport was one that has happened so many times that I really don’t like it when people meet me at the airport. I would much prefer to just find my own way to the hotel. We land and people from BYD were supposed to meet us at the airport. My phone didn’t work and I forgot to bring my GSM phone that does work in China so there we are with no one to pick us up and no way to call them. We waited for an hour and finally decided to ride the mag lev train into town and take a taxi. I’ve wanted to ride this train since they built it about five years ago so I was rather excited. We had bought our tickets and were about to get on the plane when the guy from BYD called. He assured us that our ride had been waiting for an hour and he really insisted that we take his ride and not the train. I was disappointed because I wanted to ride the mag lev but finally conceded. According to the literature the mag lev travels 430 kph. The tickets were clearly marked as “non-refundable” but they refunded them anyway. That was nice of them. As we’re walking back to the terminable our ride called us to make sure where we were but when we got to the terminal there was no one there. Again we waited for another hour and I was really getting sick of waiting and was about to go buy another train ticket when my phone rang again. Yes, it is curious how people can call me but I can’t call them. Anyway, I could hear the guy on the phone just a few feet away from me. Apparently, according to our driver, there are two terminal 2’s. Yeah, right. We dropped our stuff off at the hotel room and then we went for dinner. I had a few new first’s today. They brought out our bowl of food and there were a couple dozen duck heads arranged nice and pretty in the bowl. I took a picture of one of them just for you. I’ve had chickens feet and fish heads but I’ve never had duck heads before. They were actually very good. Boney, but good. I had six or seven of them. I also had cow intestines. I ate too much food but it was really good. After waiting for two hours at the airport we didn’t have much time left after we were finished dinner so we came back to my room. Do you like my room? Now I’m going to go to bed. It is going to be a long day tomorrow.

3 comments:

Lynn said...

Oh gross!!!! I still can't get over some "delicacies". Yup! I know. Raised on the farm. Seen it all. Heard it all. But I just can't fathom eating anything that WAS a head of something. Or even made from a head of something. My mom made "head cheese" all the time. It grossed me out to see it in the fridge. A friend of hers tricked us into trying fried baby cow brains one time. I was SO sick. Yeah, I know....it's all in my head. LOL! (pun intended).

Actually I do love your room. Looks most comfy. Too bad you had to wait SO long for someone to pick you up. What a drag.

Keep the details coming! Love it.

Lisa said...

What a nice room!!! Fancy, fancy, fancy!!

Kira said...

Oh the things you try in other countries. I think it is soo fun!