it’s been a while
Had a fairly good night’s kip on the plane, fair play. Did wake up somewhat dehydrated but water and tea sorted it out and I was fine by the time we landed ahead of schedule at 4pm. Took over 2 hours to get out of the airport though despite the sign saying their target through passport control was 20 minutes.
Bought a ChinaUnicom sim with 3GB of data for 250RNB and took 1000RNB cash out from the cashpoint at roughly 8.5 to the pound. There was a bit of an incident at the cashpoint machine. I followed the on screen instructions and out came 1000RNB but I hadn’t had to put my card in – wow. Turns out the previous user, someone called Matthew Bates if I recall correctly, had left his card in and it was still active. Turns out you have to manually eject the card.
We found a policeman and handed him both the card and the cash. Should really have taken the cop’s details but we had just got off a long flight. I guess the owner won’t find out about it until he is away from the airport and will just have to cancel the card and probably lose the cash.
Took over an hour to get to the Hilton and in the meantime used the sim. Sites like Facebook and Google are blocked here but I have just installed a vpn client. Unfortunately couldn’t get it to work on the phone although it seems to work fine on the laptop. Rich has his working ok on his phone but not on the chromebook. Will work on it.
Skype worked fine over 4G and called home. Anne was out at church but Hansk and John were in. John had taken 2 wickets in cricket yesterday but rain eventually stopped play and the match was abandoned. WhatsApp also works.
Good internet access at the hotel including Facebook and Google!
Great meal at the Szechuan Court restaurant on 39th floor and then had a few drinks at the bar on the same floor. Fantastic views and some great light show on the tower blocks that slowly all shut down as we approached midnight.
Found out in the bar that the Hilton is the only hotel in China where you can access Facebook and Google. The guy didn’t know why.
Smoking is allowed in bars here which we found strange.
Popped a melatonin before bed which seems to have worked.
Just had a video hangout with Joe who had worked a 9 ½ hour shift at the Taphouse and Kitchen, hit the jam night at the Magna Carta and then headed down with the lads to the Straight and Narrow before grabbing a pizza on the way home. He was in the takeaway when I spoke to him.
Decided that today’s main objective is to find a tailor and get some jackets made. Stay tuned.
Tags: diary