2010 - Day 9-10 - No one is ripping ME off for $0.75!

Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2010 10:00 AM

Subject: China - Day 9 and 10

Sam and I both agreed we had no interest in visiting the Shanghai Expo 2010.  We have the entire weekend off and standing in line does not sound like much fun.  Instead, we figured, correctly it turns out, that if everyone is at the Expo – the rest of Shanghai will not be crowded, and relatively speaking, it was not crowded.  We instead spent the weekend trying to find the “western” side of Shanghai, and I think we did well.  We found an Irish pub (big surprise – I think I can sniff one of those out anywhere), an English pub, and American bar (watched the Gran Prix of Monte Carlo live), a good steakhouse, and a few other places too.  Shanghai has a bit of everything it seems.  Anyhow, we did not eat anything unusual the whole weekend – kind of a relief after a week and a half here (although I am still on the hunt for fish lips).

Malone's American Bar in Shanghai

Cab rides here are incredibly cheap – I think the most expensive ride so far lasted 30 minutes and cost around $5.  The meters are supposed to start at 12 RMB, around $1.50 US.  However, we hopped into one cab where the meter started at 18 RMB.  We protested but the driver spoke no English so at the next light we jumped out of the cab and piled into the next one a few feet away.  The driver of the first cab yelled and made some interesting gestures, but our new cab started moving and we were away.  About that time, I did the math and figured the first cab was going to overcharge us by a whole $0.75 – wow!  We jumped out of a moving cab over less than $1.  Oh, well. It’s the principle I guess.  Sunday evening it happened again, only this time the meter started at 16 RMB.  We did the same thing, jumped out and piled into another cab.  The new driver started off, started the meter, and this one read 16 RMB also.  We figured we had better not push our luck any farther and continued the ride back to our hotel.  Later that evening, we had the craziest driver yet.  The entire ride of probably 5 miles he continuously flashed his brights at everyone.  At one point he came up behind an ambulance with its lights going – he flashed his brights and passed the speeding ambulance on the right.  He also passed a cop with his lights going.  I clearly must be missing something here.

Day 11 preview – Another foot massage  - or  - I can explain those bruises, I promise!