Time for another new place… another new Datascore installation, with some adventure.<\/p>\n
Brett and I caught a plane to Singapore, leaving about 12.30am this morning.\u00a0 I think it is the worst service I have received on Singapore Airlines.\u00a0 It took them over an hour to get food to us (and we were the front row of the section), and they wouldn’t serve a drink before the meal.\u00a0 I managed to get a little bit of sleep before landing in Singapore about 6.00 local time.<\/p>\n
We had a cooked breakfast at Singapore Airport, and killed the 2 hours, before hoping our plane to Shanghai.\u00a0 I was asleep very soon after sitting down, and skipped breakfast.\u00a0 So an hour in to the flight, I was feeling quite rested, and ready to watch a couple of movies.\u00a0 Eventually we finished the flight and landed in Shanghai.<\/p>\n
Immigration was nothing like we expected.\u00a0 I was prepared for it to be a long, slow process.\u00a0 To our surprise, it was quite efficient!\u00a0 Because we got money out before going through, we were probably the last from our flight, and somebody was already standing there with our bags and signage sitting on a trolley!\u00a0 We went through the “Nothing To Declare” line, and nobody even looked at us, let alone stopped us!\u00a0 So there we were, now just looking for a sign with our names on it.<\/p>\n
Jon, our host was running late.\u00a0 We called him after we didn’t see him there, and he was just parking the car.\u00a0 So 10 minutes later, we met him and said G’day.\u00a0 He’s South African, but has lived in China for over 11 years, so speaks very fluently.\u00a0 The person who drove him, one of the investors, didn’t speak any English other than Hello, so it was a 3 way conversation from the airport to the hotel.<\/p>\n
Our room wasn’t ready so we left our bags at reception, and were taken to the stadium to see what we were in for.\u00a0 Well, it wasn’t a surprise – there were no nets up, but the carpet was down.\u00a0 And at least the TV was up.\u00a0 We could see that it was going to be a successful stadium, and had a lot of potential.\u00a0 Jon was very motivated and great to deal with.<\/p>\n
After a look around, we caught a taxi to the shopping centre, so I could buy a laptop for them.\u00a0 I had opted to buy one here, rather than in Australia, because, let’s face it, it *must* be cheaper in China.\u00a0 Well, boy was I in for a surprise!\u00a0 A low end laptop was ~AU$600!\u00a0 I managed to get the price down a bit, so we bought it there, rather than waste the night looking for a cheaper place.\u00a0 We then went to a sports bar for dinner and drinks.\u00a0 Because of the area of town we were in, there were no authentic Chinese places, so we ended up at a “TGI Fridays” -type of place.\u00a0 It wasn’t too bad, but not what I originally had in mind.<\/p>\n
After dinner we went back to the hotel, and spent the next hour or so setting up the laptop.\u00a0 It had been a long day though, so I went to bed around midnight local time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Time for another new place… another new Datascore installation, with some adventure. Brett and I caught a plane to Singapore, leaving about 12.30am this morning.\u00a0 I think it is the worst service I have received on Singapore Airlines.\u00a0 It took them over an hour to get food to us (and we were the front row … Continue reading