Actually a lot of unlucky things happened to me during this trip. Up to a point that I felt that i was jinxed. The moment i touched down in Shanghai Pudong International Airport, I collected my luggage and proceeded outside to get a cab. The moment i stepped out of the airport, i was greeted by a gush of cold wind. The temperature at Shanghai was only 13 degrees and i was shivering under my supposedly Malaysian standard thick cardigan. Remembering, Celia's advice, i got into the official taxi line. I know a lot of ppl in China do not understand English, but i do expect the taxi counter at the airport to understand English after all they deal with a lot of foreigners everyday. Btw there was no counter just a line and a man holding a clip board - that does not understand English. Anyway i showed them the hotel address that i wrote in Mandarin and hop onto a cab. I tried talking to the cab driver in my broken madarin, but he did not seem to understand me so i gave up. The meter on the taxi kept running...and the cab driver kept driving for more than an hour. I kept looking for signs/sign boards showing roads that i recognized. But all that was so alien to me, and i have to admit i was afraid that the cab driver was driving me off to somewhere and sell me. I even took down his taxi license number ....hahaha. Like that's gonna help me. Anyhow, the taxi driver took me to the wrong hotel and did not understand me telling him its the worng hotel. At last i had to get the valet from the wrong hotel to translate to the driver to take me to the right hotel. Anyway at last the driver took me to the right hotel luckily.
View from my hotel room...