Letter from Shanghai

I am currently visiting in China and thought some of you might find this funny – nothing related to RVing but a travel experience I had that I found quite humorous and wanted to share with you.

You would have laughed at me – I was out in a torrential rainstorm on my way to a business in Shanghai and was trying to flag down a taxi and then knew I would have the fun of trying to explain in my non-chinese where I wanted to go. Of course the address I was going was written in English. It seems that Chinese taxi drivers haven’t been trained in english. Who knew? That was okay to get there (I went to a hotel and got them to get me one). Then jumped in the cab and wouldn’t get out until he figured it out. Fixed him.Actually a passerby saw that we were struggling and came to our rescue.

But th fun part was trying to come home. ha ha the cabs were all full because of the rain, it was pouring so hard and I had an umbrella, and the water was splashing up so high my clothes were drenched.

So there I was running across a busy intersection in a major city with no traffic rules, cars coming from every direction, my umbrella blowing in the wind and my shoe comes undone. I am running across the street with one bare foot trying to keep my umbrella from blowing away and wishing I was anywhere else. After seeing another woman jump in a cab only to jump out just as quickly knew that a cab ride was out of the question. She couldn’t get the driver to understand where she was going and I knew I wouldn’t be having any more success. Down to the underground metro I go.

Trying to figure out the metro station when you don’t know the district you’re going to was fun as well. I kept asking people I thought might speak English and looked helpful. I had quite the conversation with a lady from Israel who tried desperately to help me and even phoned her husband to look up my address on a map. No luck.

The next victim was a young girl who I thought she said she was from BC when we she actually said D.C. and until I cleared that up couldn’t figure out where the town in BC was that she was from. We had a good laugh. I finally went to the police station and got directions!

Seriously this is typhoon season.  You would think I knew better.

 

Anyway I hope you have a good laugh at my expense – it’s all about traveling and appreciating the experience. 

 

Carol Ann

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