Post date: Jun 8, 2011 11:30:07 AM
Day 0 - The Flight
Well that was interesting to say the least. Getting onto the plane wasn't too much hassle, only a little bit of aimless wandering round the airport. I thought the duty free would have more variety, not just alcohol and chocolate…
As for the flight, I didn't get much sleep, though as I only watched three movies for an 11 ½ hour flight there must have been a bit. The films where quite interesting - An Asian Sherlock Holmes, an Asian mix of a western and a Carry On film (Let the Bullets fly?) and TRON: Legacy. Ok so there were a couple of weird documentaries as well, but it still feels as though I'm missing time from it.
Landing, again no real issue. I call my fiance and wake him up to say I'm now in Hong Kong safely. He doesn't like the wake up call at 1am UK time, but he did insist I made this call before I left, so can't really complain. Remembering my bosses' advice I went straight to the ferry check-in rather than collect my luggage. Once there I was given the surprise of two different ferry destinations in Shenzhen.
I checked through my printed paperwork, and even on the stored emails on my smartphone (and to think I had considered leaving it behind…) but to no avail. None of the check-in girls there spoke much English. They knew enough to ask me where I was heading, and that was about it. I showed them the Address, and after checking online they told me where I should go to. Of course, it was the two hour wait rather than the 45 minute one, but never mind. I did find out later that the second one (the one I went to) is only meant to get between HK airport and Shenzhen airport, but no-one there told me that.
During the wait I bought out my Kindle, and started to read a book suggested by my fiance - Confessions of a GP (damn-it, I am so not trying to fill this with product names). After getting a good 1/10th of the way through I was getting bored again; not of the book, but of waiting in the same room in general. I tried the 3G on the kindle (far too expensive to think about using mobile data on the phone), and to my shock it worked. Full 3G speed no less. I tried to log on to my works email, but I guess the built in browser can't deal with the MS Exchange front-end. Giving up I went back to wondering round the terminal until the I was called to the ferry.
Arriving in Shenzhen, I went through immigration (remembering my sister's advice on the immigration slip we were given to fill in on the ferry over - keeping the departure part of ticket as people on her trip to China had forgotten, and immigration just took the whole ticket).
That is where the fun began. That little difference in the two ports meant I was in the wrong place for the pre-booked taxi. Using the Kindle (now fully opinionated that the 3G Kindle is one the best things to buy for travelling) I emailed my contact for the lab, and was told to expect the taxi driver very shortly.
Twenty to thirty minutes later a man rushes in, asking if I'm meant to be going to a hotel. Assuming this to be my ride, I say yes, and see him walking to a white and green taxi (part of a fleet judging by the colour scheme, and an identical looking one just pulling up as well). A short-ish ride later, driving past the hotel once, I'm told the price. Now this was a shock, I had been told that this was pre-paid, but the driver was having none of it. 250RMB out, the taxi doors are unlocked and I can finally book in to the hotel. This was my first (and thankfully only) time I got ripped off for the whole trip. The actual driver was still waiting for me and I got a call once I was at the hotel asking where I was. Never mind.
If I may digress, I'd like to go over my first impression of driving and traffic in Shenzhen, having just experienced it. I had been told it would be nothing like the UK: three lanes on the road meaning five lanes of cars, changing lane done on a whim with zero braking distance… It was all true and more.
On the outskirts, where this ferry port apparently was, the rules of the road could be ignored completely. Misuse/disregard for lanes (including filter lanes), going through red lights, all fine.
Getting towards the centre it calmed down just a little. We stopped at red lights.
That was the only real improvement.
Indicating was done solely (but not always, as in this case) if you had a westerner in the car, and the general rule was if the car fits the gap you aimed for, then its fine.
The sad thing is, that was just for cars.
If you had two wheels, either motorised or pedal powered, you had a new set of rules. There are no rules. Pavement, fine. Wrong side of the road, fine. Wrong side of a busy 80kph road, fine. Red lights, go straight through them - even in the city centre. As a side note some of the moped type things even had built-on parasols - complete with extra fabric at the back that waved behind as a short tail which was kinda funky. I was actually quite surprised I had witnessed any accidents, or remnants of one, for the whole drive.
Back the hotel:
I walked up to the desk, handed over my printed booking confirmation, and got asked for my credit card to guarantee the room. Handing it over, expecting them to just take the details, they replied it had been declined. This was a surprise as I had used that same card to pay for the ferry ride, and I given plenty of notice to the CC company that I would be in China for these two weeks. The clerk tried again, ignoring any my questions to start with. Finally getting my card back I said I would call the CC company and check what is wrong (this is important later). They confirmed the card was active, my booking online had activated for use in China while I'm here but the hotel where trying to take 1400GBP out, which they (rightly) thought was too much. Back to the clerk. Instead of trying to kill my poor card I handed over the my currency that given to me by the company to pay for the room. A little short of being able to pay for the whole stay here. They said it was enough for an initial deposit, but to see them the next day regarding the rest as they still wanted more. After a short 'argument' involving a sudden lack of English skills from the clerk, I got a receipt for the deposit. Apparently the language issue happens a lot over here if they can't think of a reply and don't want to help. I found out from one of the other staff members that is normal for hotels in China, they work slightly differently from those back in the UK. I need to do more homework.
Getting to my room, and trying the key-card upside down a few times I finally got in. Turning the temp down, and fan up, the room very quickly became more habitable - it is way too hot and very very humid outside.
Unpacking the basics (a Mars Bar™ and my laptop) I was quickly disappointed to find out the internet was down. Not completely surprised as an American I had shared the lift with said he'd just been downstairs to find out why his connection wasn't working either.
A quick call to customer service later and I have the answer. The connection is down for the whole hotel, and should be up by 15:00 (and I also got a UK four-way extension block from them in that call, I was expecting to have to go out and pay for an adatpory thing like that so am quite happy anyway at this point). Thats only half-hour away at this point so I got everything set up to start work as soon as the connection is restored.
To pass the time I put an episode of Bleach on, and kicked back for a bit. Just after it finished my mobile goes off. It's the bank, or at least an automated message from it - complete with Press X to do Y menu system. My card had been stopped, and from the first attempt of the hotel to use my card as a guarantee no less. I go through and re-activate my card, silently cursing the bank's inability to talk to itself as I had informed them of this trip as soon as it had been booked.
16:00 comes along and still no net; I get a call through to the room and am asked to check it, as it should now be working. Nothing. I unplug the network cable, 'repair' the network connection, restart the notebook and anything else I can think of. Still nothing. Another episode of Bleach then.
Forty minutes later a ping on the laptop states I now have the privilege of internet access. At last.
I log onto Skype, get a precious work template, and finish my work. Chatting at the same time with both bosses to update them on the more humorous (at least in hindsight) trip details, and that the report will be en-route shortly. But I'm happy now - I'm finally able to IM and talk with people back home without incurring horrendous roaming fees for mobile phone calls.
As expected, Facebook and Twitter websites are both blocked. Tweetdeck seems capable of downloading Facebook updates, so I can keep informed of everything going on, even if I can't post or comment back. It'll do until I can get round the great-firewall. If I can be bothered later (or even just if I can).
18:00. The report is finished, and I'm feeling shattered. I really don't want to go out any more for the day, but if I head to bed this early I'm going to up at 3am or something daft like that. More TV while I doze…
Around 22:00 I head down for food, a chicken sandwich sounds good, very pricey for the size of it though (twice what it'd cost back home). Won't be eating in that food lounge again.
I put on a movie and get ready for bed. It's been a long couple of days, with very little sleep, and I'm back to feeling tired enough to sleep.