Cost Cutting!

I've been feeling really cold in the office the last few days... I didn't really pay too much attention to it and attributed it to the fact that I feel colder than most normal people around.

But a couple of days back, it got so cold that I had to put on my really thick coat to keep warm. When I remarked to a colleague about the heating not being effective, she said, "Oh! You don't know? In China, they turn off all air conditioning systems in September as soon as the weather becomes cool."

Yep, you guessed right... it is to save costs. And there you were thinking only us Indians take drastic measures all in the name of cost cutting!

The Cab Rides!

And while I am on strange things... cannot not talk about my experience with the cabbies. Firstly, they drive like complete man-i-aa-cs! And this coming from someone who braves Delhi drivers is saying a lot! But getting back to these cab drivers, all of them would have probably qualified for formula one racing... and probably have held the record for the most number of crashes!

The background to the points ahead: how I've been 'communicating' with the cabbies so far is through this paper which has the address of the hotel and the office printed in Chinese. So I just sit in the cab and point to the address.

• This was on my second day here. I did the whole routine of get in and point and we had a smooth ride to the office. Just as we were pulling in, the guy started to say something in Mandarin to me. He was waving his arms and talking extremely passionately about whatever he was saying. I kept shaking my head and saying "No Chinese, only English", but he would just not stop! Five minutes of doing this, he gives me this angelic smile and then drives off!

• The second one took craziness to new levels! This was on a Friday evening when it was pouring like crazy, and there was a huge demand for cabs. Normally, all cabs in China are metered but this guy that I got after a lot of waiting demanded a pre-fixed price which was almost double of what I normally pay. Just wanting to get back to the hotel, I agreed and got in. Little did i know, I forgot to add 'in one piece' to my wish of getting back to the hotel! The guy took off in a direction opposite to where I had to go. I tried to tell him but he happily ignored me and then moved on. He spent the next half an hour in the same area, stopping everytime he saw a pedestrian asking them where they wanted to go...completely ignoring the passenger on the back seat. Then, when they would tell him, he would break into a rant, yell at them for something... and drive off to the next one. Two people did get in to the cab at some point, but barely had we moved 10 feet when one of them got into a huge fight with the driver, and they got off. He in turn, started spewing some, what I imagine, very very bad words. It's a pity I couldn't catch anything he said - there went my chance of learning some local swear words!! Annyway, after a lot of yelling and shouting at the universe, we went ahead. We did pick up a couple of other passengers along the way, but even after that the guy kept stopping to ask people where they wanted to go. God alone knows where he would have made them sit! Anyway, after a looooong ride, i finally reached the hotel!

• I got into the cab from outside my office and showed the driver the piece of paper with my hotel's address on it. After going a short distance, he asked me something which I obviously couldn't understand, and some minutes of trying later, he let out this really menacing laugh and took off again in some other direction. Before I knew it, he had gone into this area that looked like the back of beyond - it had no roads, was dark, and had lots of warehouse looking places. The only saving grace was that there were cars coming from the other direction. Some many turns and even more prayers later, we hit some road and I made it to the hotel... with the guy laughing menacingly all through!

Sigh! And it's going to be time for another taxi ride soon...

Some Strange Things...

I have been having a 'back-end relationship' with my blog ever since I came to China. I cannot view my blog! I think blogspot is blocked by the telecom rules or something, so try as I might, I can't access my blog! However, I can log in through blogger and post, publish etc. on my blog!

That's not all...guess which other site I am not able to access - Wikipedia. WIKIPEDIA!!!! - The most harmless site that exists in the online world!! Why would anyone block wikipedia?!

Straight Curves: You had nominated me to be the most likely to refer to Wikipedia for all of life's answers... you can imagine how I am feeling right now! :)

It's a Monday-Wednesday phenomenon!

Have been observing the clothing patterns of the team here. And yep, it is a pattern alright.... Monday is a brand new day, new week, and therefore, fresh clothes. Tuesday, everyone and I mean EVERYONE on my team wore the same clothes.
Wednesday, they change... at least most of them. Thursdays and for some people, Fridays as well, is a repeat of Wednesdays.

It is actually quite intriguing... I wish I could ask someone over here.I probably would have asked my key contact but he also is a 'repeater'!

Lunching!

This will stay with me for a long time - literally! Or at least, as long as I stay in China!

The work day in the office here usually starts at 8.30am. I had just met with the team members, had had a discussion with my contact here and was just settling in to start my work, when this girl from my team came to me and said "Shall we go for lunch?" I thought time had really flown past for it to be lunch time already. And the strange thing was that my stomach had not grumbled even once. I happened to check the time to find out it was 11.30! Yep, 11.30! I thought I had misheard... maybe she meant do you want to go for coffee or something! But no, barely had I digested my breakfast and we were already walking to the cafeteria to eat lunch!

Once there, I figured that I could never go to lunch all by myself. The staff didn't understand/speak a word of English so all my attempts of saying 'No meat, no chicken, no fish' were falling on deaf ears! With the help of my team member, I managed to get one dish which was vegetables only with rice.
I looked around to find a fork and a spoon... and kept looking! There were none available!
The only 2 options were chopsticks and a.. soup spoon. Considering I don't really know how to use chopsticks, no prizes for guessing what I chose.
Finally sat down to eat my food... soup spoon and all. Except that eating sticky rice and vegetables with a plastic soup spoon is way too much fun. The sticky rice is very selectively sticky... it sticks only to each other and refuses to do so with the spoon. And the vegetables... sigh! do I even need to go there?!

You can very well imagine where half my food was landing. All my south indian roots were anyways coming out what with eating rice at 11.30 in the morning! Was so close to going full-fledged tamu and using my hands!

Anyway, I somehow managed to get that ordeal (yes, lunch is an ordeal for me) but then I discovered something more interesting.... lunch hour in China is from 11.30 - 1. which means that you go for lunch at 11.30 and till 1, no one works. They either don't come back to their workstations or if they do, they take a nap! Ah, bliss....!

The Dress Code

I walked into office today, and because I am officially a visitor, I need someone to sign me in. I called one of the team members to let me in, and found myself staring at him... he was wearing the same clothes that he was wearing yesterday! And I know that he did not spend the night in office or any such thing, because he left at the same time as I did. Trying not to be too judgemental, I got over it and began my day's work. Then, the other 2 people in the team walked in, both women, and (hold your breath) they were ALSO WEARING THE SAME CLOTHES FROM THE PREVIOUS DAY!!!!

To hell with not being judgemental, these guys are strange man! And to think in the morning today I was fretting about whether my jacket was looking too casual!!!!

Lost in Translation? - Part II

The adventure continues... was contemplating what to do for dinner last night; didn't really feel like going out so decided to order something from room service.
I called up the number and this guy started talking to me in chinese. I very patiently said, "No chinese, only english". He mumbled something again and then this other guy who could apparently speak in english came on the phone. Here is the conversation that followed:

Him: "You order room service?"
Me: "Yes, please, I want to order room service"
Him: "Room service?"
Me: "Yes, room service"
Him: "ROOM SERVICE?"
Me: "YES. YES."

Maybe it was the way i said the "YES. YES."

Or maybe, room service just means a different thing in China, but suddenly

him: "Wait i come up"

Me: STUNNED... to say the least! Almost contemplated not opening the door when he came but apparently that's how they take room service orders here 'coz he really did come with a menu!!

And I got my food also 30 mins later... as ordered!

Lost in Translation? - Part I

I knew that my stay in China would be really adventurous, but never realized it would be so adventurous and that too so soon! okay, so I landed in China yesterday, with Dalian as my destination. For the uninitiated, Dalian is supposed to be *hold your breath*, the fashion capital of China! But more on that later...

My flight route was Delhi-Shanghai-Dalian. Customs and immigration had taken place in Shanghai itself so this was supposed to work like a domestic sector flight. When I left the aircraft, this lady asked me what I thought sounded like "Do you have to transit for another flight?". I said no and walked towards the baggage claim area. After a while, the lady and some 4 other people came to where I was standing and asked to see my passport and asked if I was an international passenger. Then they said "please come with us" and 'escorted' me away... me in the middle of 5 officials who were holding a walky-talky.

My life flashed right before my eyes -- I started getting these visions of me being locked up in a cell and being put through all forms for torture for doing something that I didn't even understand forget about do, 'coz i wouldn't be able to understand what they were saying!

I asked the woman some 2 - 3 times if there was a problem and if anything was wrong, but she ignored me completely, and instead starting asking me trivial questions like "Is Delhi the same as New Delhi". Yeah, I would be so concerned about the difference when my future in a Chinese jail loomed in front of me!!

Then, she asked me why I had told her that I wasn't a transit passenger, but wait a minute, I had only responded to her question. Apparently, what she meant to ask me was "have you come on a transit flight". Again I asked her if anything was wrong, only to be met with silence. And then questions about how long I was going to be in Dalian, and if this was my first trip, etc.

She led me to the customs area which was completely deserted, and then, just as I thought they were going to lead me to a room to start the interrogation, out cam this guy with a customs declaration form which I was supposed to fill and hand over to them.

As it turns out, there was some confusion between the Shanghai and Dalian airport authorities -- the Shanghai authorities had taken the declaration form from me but it was actually supposed to have been deposited only in Dalian. So while i was on the aircraft, they had relayed the message to Dalian and that's why/how the whole thing happened.

But that's not the only strange part... on top of everything else, my 'escort' lady decided to befriend me. She insisted on giving me her name and number and offered to take me around Dalian on her off day and, in her words, 'for no payment, only friendship'! If this were Bangkok, i would have been really really suspicious!
She then insisted on personally escorting me, luggage and all, to a cab... and then, I said bye to her... 'no payment, only (relieved) wave'!!