'Jake Chai the Driver Guy' and Other Tales

Once the teachers were all gathered on the seats we were sold by sign-holder McGavin that a driver would take us to our hotel and that he would be here imminently. Cue Jake Chai, a man to whom red lights, car horns, road rules and occasionally other cars were mere rumours.

Needless to say our first experience on the roads of Shanghai was an interesting one. I got the definite impression that the rule was that you can do pretty much whatever you like as long as you're sounding your horn, thus cancelling out any element of risk. Much like the 'but I had my blinkers on!' system in the UK.

Having arrived at the hotel about 5 minutes before our shadows, what with the breaking of the speed of light and all, we headed to the check in desk and got our keys. My room was pretty nice, standard economy hotel kind of stuff with extra marble, oh and a mirror at the head of the bed...for doing one's hair in the middle of the night...right!? On that note, I have come across a hotel in the CBD which rent rooms in 4 hour blocks - because sometimes all you need is a nap?

The Sky Rainbow Hotel in ChiFeng, Shanghai

I headed back out into the hall to see how the guys were getting on with their rooms only to find them deep in conversation, not with the cleaners so much as next to them. Duray and Derek were speaking English, the cleaners were speaking Chinese and very little communication was going on.

It turned out that the guys' rooms hadn't been cleaned...like really hadn't been cleaned...and the cleaners were also saying things. So I puffed out my chest like a brave little sparrow and gathered together the scraps of Chinese I had under my belt and threw them at the cleaners like a language snowball...

...One blizzard of incomprehension later, involving much being laughed at by middle-aged ladies in rubber gloves and much laughing myself, and the cleaners had got someone from reception to come upstairs and give the guys keys to different rooms. Peace reigned in the Sky Rainbow Hotel once more...

The Sky Rainbow in daylight, courtesy of Google images