The Laundry story: Day 11-13

On Monday in the morning, I called the front desk asking for laundry service.  They referred me to the floor maid.  She’s a 40-50 year old typical Shanghai worker.  Most likely she’s hired long time ago by the university as permanent (literally) employee.  To my surprise, she said that there will be no receipts and need payment in cash up front.  Given the price is only a fraction of the Shangri-La, I didn’t argue.  By the time I came back in the afternoon on Monday, it’s all nicely done folded on the desk.  This was pretty nice.

So in the evening, when BL spilled soup on his shirt, I told him about the laundry service.  On Tuesday morning as we were heading out, BL asked me to bring the shirt to the maid who doesn't speak any English. So I did and paid.  Since she didn’t have change, she said that it will come back with the laundry.

A few hours later when we were heading out for the afternoon tour of Yu Garden, the maid caught me and gave me the change.  I was in the hallway and saw her put the finished shirt back to a room. 

Unfortunately it turned out that she thought BL’s room is next to mine, while it’s not.

So BL didn’t find his shirt in the evening but he didn’t say anything until I asked him how’s the laundry service on Wednesday morning. When I learned that he didn’t have the shirt in his room, I asked the maid.  She frantically told me that she left it in the room next to mine and the guest checked out at 7am that day, unlikely a plot trying to steal the shirt but to catch an early flight. Since he’s also a foreigner who doesn’t have a cell phone, it’s a lost case. 

Okay, when I found out it’s not likely BL’s going to get his shirt back, I told the maid that don’t worry and BL probably won’t need it back.  Even when DA heard this story, he said that BL probably would use it as a story, much better than having the shirt back.

This assumption turned out to be a mistake.  BL worried about running out of shirt for the trip.  And the shirt is obviously not very cheap: $30-$40, about a week of the maid’s wage (BL probably makes 100 times of that). Although BL doesn’t really need that shirt, he still thought it’s the maid’s mistake, which should be compensated if he’s in a 5-star hotel. Unfortunately this is not an any-star hotel and the maid is a permanent employee of a state-owned company’s guest house.

The situation escalated when BL and DA were waiting for me downstairs.  Our host lady SJ, who heard the story as a joke from DA, believed that we should take care of BL by asking a new shirt.  This started a new round of discussion between her, the maid, and the manager.  They argue that since it’s not a new shirt, they should not pay for the full value, which is BS. I was so tired of this and regretted telling BL to have laundry in the first place. So I told the host to take BL out buy a new shirt and she will pay for it. Then I will reimburse her. It’s much simpler.  They went out and got a 120 RMB yuan golf shirt, which is not very expensive since they thought the maid is going to pay for it.   

Anyway, I gave the 120 RMB ($20) to SJ on our train ride back to Shanghai. I’m glad it’s over.

Day 11: starting day in Shanghai

The team to Shanghai consists three person.  DW and BL are coming over this afternoon.  So I visited YF in the morning. His new job is about 30 miles away from downtown.  After two exchanges on subway and two taxi rides, I got there in 90 minutes. He’s doing okay there. Of course there’s a new problems after the initial honey moon period. Would that be the case for every job? 

The import thing is to stick around not giving up so easily.  Again, he still thinks these are minor issues so there’s still a long way ahead before anything change.

After lunch, I got back to the hotel and found out my laundry picked up in the morning was already back in the room nicely folded. Although the maid has an altitude, it’s only 10%of what the Shangri-la charges.

Got a call around 5pm that DW and BL arrived on time. We went to dinner together with the host lady YJ. DW took a long time to place the order. Obviously he has some idea of what Chinese food should look like.

Day 10: back to Shanghai

One of my favorite ShaanXi food is “Ruo Jia Mo” (Meat-in-a bun or Chinese pork burger). Although it’s quite simple to make, many places can’t get the bun right since it needs a clay oven and freshly made before serving. In my last NYC trip, I found one small restaurant in Flushing and it’s the mostly authentic in America. Now that I’m in ShaanXi, this is something I definitely need to have before leaving town. I went on the Internet found a place near the hotel so I can get in and get out within an hour.  It’s the “Fan’s Ruojiamo” about.  So instead of $30 breakfast at the Shangri-La, I took a 10 minutes’ walk over and ordered two. Unfortunately, it’s not as good.  The bun was cooked too hard, obviously not freshly made and just reheated. If I want that, I can have it in a dozen of places in the States.

At least it’s close by and I went back to the hotel in time.

The ride to the airport was pretty quick and we arrived about 1.5hr earlier than my scheduled departure time and a good 2.5 hr before MJ. I sent him off to the international terminal and found out mine was an hour late.  The VIP lounge was very hot so I waited in the general boarding area.  When boarded the plane, the flight attendant knew we are Gold card holders and put in a different sets of newspapers for us.  They also repeatedly coming over to apologize for the delay and gave us useless updates.

Once taking off, the flight was okay and arrived Shanghai more or less an hour late. A hotel has been reserved by the host. I plan to go meet an old neighbor’s family in Pudong, so chose to take the Maglev (magnetic levitation train) then taxi. The Maglev is amazing. It only took less than 8 minutes to cover the 30km with a top speed of 431km/h.  Part of the trip is parallel to a high way and it’s like driving at 400km/h.  It’s a shame that they can’t finish the original plan to connect the two airports in Shanghai by the Maglev. The LongYangLu station is kind of in the middle of nowhere in Shanghai. To build a Maglev line to Hangzhou is also a joke since the G-line will only take 45 minutes, which is not much longer over the 30 minutes Maglev. Will take the G-line to Hangzhou on Friday.

Although I waited for half an hour, finally saw XK’s family.  All of us are very happy to see each other.  I’ve seen XK in 2009 but not his parents for 24 years. Now he also has a son as tall as him and a business. We went to a nearby restaurant for dinner and walked around the mall afterward.  The weather was around 24 degrees, quite good for Shanghai around this time.

XK dropped me off at the hotel. My room is on a newly renovated floor which is much better than before.