well... after a long wait for visa.. i am finally off to shanghai... had my tickets done from mumbai and a flight change at Kuala Lumpur. Air travel is no longer new but a business class travel was definitely new. There were way too many ways in which you could move your seat and had it not been for the explaining leaflet, i would have been sitting upright all along. There was also a personalised LCD screen with movies in almost all languages. and the best thing was there was free liquor. Well, i am not that fond of liquor, but when it's free, it's tough to resist. i was offered champagne, which i denied planning not to drink alcohol. I was sneezing with cold the other day and despite two tablets last day, the nose still ran. I finally decided to have a rum to control that. I don't know how much that helped, but it was fun to lie down with blankets on, watching an Emraan Hashmi flick on Malaysian Airlines and sipping Bacardi Rum. You literally felt off the grounds....
The LCD was so attractive that i kept watching movies the whole night and 5 hours passed like nothing... we reached KL at 7:30 am local time (5:00 am IST), and to my utter surprise, it was too cold. As I had boarded from mumbai, i had dressed myself according to a mumbai winter (which never occurs) and the airy adidas t-shirt ensured that all the air passed through it. soon the cold wind became chilling and i finally thought i would collapse if not covered. all my warm clothes were in the checked-in luggage and i was only carrying the laptop with me. my next flight was at 9:30 local time and i thought i will manage two hours somehow... Went to the executive lounge (another benefit of Business Class) but the AC was not conditioning the air to my requirements. I finally decided to buy a jacket at the airport itself. First found out the rates of the Malaysian currency (don't know what they are called, but were abbreviated as RM), compared them with indian rupee so that i am able to assess the expensiveness of the jacket. after 15 minutes of search, i finally managed to get a Nike jacket worth 2000/- indian rupees. convinced myself that this was life saver expenditure and should not be thought of as extravagance...
Nonetheless, the jacket did its work. I felt much more alive after having it. tried calling to india, but the phones didn't cooperate. finally boarded for another 5-hour flight to shanghai. the sleep that i denied in the first flight took over me in the second one. I slept like anything, so much so that when i first woke up, we were landing at shanghai. the sweet air hostess had tried to wake me up for lunch (and another free rum, maybe) but i did not budge. she came later and smilingly asked if i was hungry. i politeliy denied, keeping the dignity of a business class...
at shanghai airport, saw a guy with HUL t-shirt. said him a hi and found out that he (named Madhur) and his colleague Anubhav had also come for some work to unilever shanghai office but were going to stay in Hyatt. So, we parted post baggage collection. After a few minutes of search, i found the driver holding my name and unable to speak any word of english. the first view after the airport was impressive. long roads, elaborate highways, flyovers above flyovers.... i wanted to click them but couldn't get a good click. as the road proceeded, i was trying to recognize roadsigns, trying to map them with the ones i had read about in the travel guide. a few names did match and made me assured that i can read maps.
after an hour's drive, i reached Somerset Xu Hui, a service apartment provided to me by Unilever. the house was impressive, with two TV's (one in each room), a dvd player, refrigerator, washing machine, microwave, gas stove, and god knows what all. i settled myself down. it was a little struggle to get over the cold. It was 5 in the evening when i finally had set in. i decided to go for a stroll.
Shanghai, i tell you, is impressive. HUGE buildings, huge like really huge, broad roads, like really really broad and amazing infrastructure. You feel you are in america or something. i said to myself - this can't be china, the country ruled by the communists and the palce which is famous for fake electronics. but you have to accept. Shanghai is different. it is out of the world. if there ever would be a text book example of how a city should look like, it shall be and will be shanghai.
i figured out superstore nearby and checked out prices of rice etc. it is pretty converting everything in indian rupee to assess whether it's cheap or costly. Din't buy anything. the maggie brought from india shall do me for a week or more. may be till then, i might get used to the chinese taste. have to go to the office tomorrow. one of the office mates lives in the same building. she shall help me get there tomorrow.
hoping to blog in daily now onwards....
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