Although I knew there was an option of taking the overnight ferry to Shanghai, I decided to pass. First of all it was sold out. But most importantly, the waves were chopping and it would not be a pleasant ride without getting totally nauseated or worse. I also learned from the Wu’s that there are buses directly to Shanghai from ShenJiaMen at ZhouShan. I quickly picked up my packs and checked out of the monastery. I waited at the bus stop properly but the buses just passed me by for an hour. Then I saw a person stepping out to the street to flag down a bus so I did the same. I guess I shouldn’t follow rules in this case since none of the buses were complying.
I took the 20 minute ferry to ZhouShan where ShenJiaMen was. There was a bus station at the wharf for those going to Shanghai but there would not be one till a few hours from now. I passed and just followed instructions Wu had told me which was to go to the main long distance bus terminal in town. He said there was a bus per hour to Shanghai. It was ten minutes away. I arrived at the terminal and the buses for the next few hours were all sold out. I had forgotten this was a weekend and that tickets were sold out in the morning. The bus at the wharf dock had seats for bus to Shanghai that was earlier than the one at the terminal. I decided that I would just stay at the terminal instead of going back to the wharf. I ended up getting the first available ticket departing at 4:20pm which allowed me to arrive in Shanghai 12am in the morning. It was not the best thing to arrive in the dark in a new town or any town but it was what I ended up with.
I started to call around to locate a place to stay. The two hostels in Shanghai I called were all booked. I found myself no where near a computer to research and my phone was running out of minutes. I could not upload minutes on my phone in the news stand outside of the terminal. It only took local phones, mine was set up in Shannxi. I realized I could text message but I didn’t have enough credit to make an actual voice call. I decided to change my mind about not connecting with friends in Shanghai. I text’d my friend Corey and Victor. Although I still needed to solve housing problem on my own, somehow being able to connect with people I knew made me feel better about arriving in Shanghai 12am in the morning. I guess this was also the only way I could push myself to connect with friends in Shanghai.
On the bus I met Lai Lu from Guang Dong. She now resides in Shanghai and her boyfriend resides in ZhouShan. She said relationships are hard to predict. Although she has been with her boyfriend for 6 years, she said she’s seen to many surprising breakups around her. Lai Lu is a buyer for clothes. In her twenties, she owns a store in Guan Dong. Now her sister manages it while she buys clothes at wholesale from distributors in Shanghai.
On the bus I sat next to a beautiful noble man from Zhou Shan. He just had the classic look of scholars from classic paintings. I borrowed his cell phone to call Victor after reading his text message that his grandfather passed away. I just wanted to give my condolences right away.
After landing in Shanghai, Lai Lu and I shared a taxi because the metro shuts down at 11pm. After Lai Lu was dropped off, the taxi driver started the meter instead of continuing the count. I showed up at a hotel somewhere in North West Shanghai. I checked into my room on the first floor. My roommate was an older British woman who bolted the door so my room key didn’t do much good. I had to wake her up and she was not pleased about that. She complained of not getting much sleep etc…. while I unpacked for the showers. After the showers she was still going at it. On top of that I realized the hotel rooms are either facing the dance bar or the very loud and big generator. I could feel the vibration on the bed. The room being across from the restaurant, café, the room smelled liked it too. I decided that I needed to get into another room and the receptionist was nice enough to put me on the second floor. I ended up having the entire room all to myself.
