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Published: September 13th 2014
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This morning we had a lazy morning so we could catch up on our sleep and admin. The boys ended up going out the night before clubbing and lost Frank! By the time we met the Dragon Trip company representatives at 1pm he hadn't surfaced!
The feedback session lasted for about an hour and a half and it allowed us to give our views and comments on the Dragon Trip we had experienced to date. We all had our views on the activities those that are included in price and the optional ones, the guides, accommodation and transport etc. The guys from the dragon trip company took on board our comments, asked questions and wrote stuff down. Apparently they do it with each group when they come to Shanghai and I felt it was good to allow us to voice our opinions face to face rather than via email as I have done on previous organised tours.
After the session people grabbed some food and then we headed to the Propaganda Poster museum via the local bus. StuRt didn't come with us but went to the hospital to have his nose checked out as it
was still giving him problems. T he museum is in the basement of an apartment block and is run by a guy who has collected various propaganda posters from the 1920s up to the late 1970s. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos, although we could have taken a few sneaky shots but I erred on the side of caution and opted to buy 4 postcards instead lol.
After the museum we continued our walk around Shanghai and ended up in a shopping centre to get some food. After eating I was tired so I just headed back to the hostel on my own on the tube and managed to get an hours kip. The rest of the group headed to the Tianzifang shopping area.
When I woke up I headed out to pick up my laundry and bumped in to Frank. He had only just got back from the previous night out! It was good to know he was safe and sound though. Apparently he had run off as he had gotten into a fight with some Chinese guys for some reason. He'd gone and got another drink and then fell asleep
in a car park and then spent the day wandering round Shanghai until he got back to the hostel. I was happy to see him and told him we had all been worried about him. Laundry collected I headed for the shower. When I got out the girls were back and they told me the pub crawl we had been scheduled to go out on had been cancelled due to lack of numbers. So we needed a plan B.
After talking to Dexter and looking on the internet we sort of had a plan B, Dexter said he would try to contact a friend who had a club to see if we could get passes to get in free. So we bought in some beers, vodka and mixers, got ready and played ring of fire (a card game) in our room as the boys AC wasn't working. Dexter came through with the goods and managed to score us free passes and a couple of complimentary drinks :-) but we had to be in before 11pm.
We eventually headed out and got some taxis to the club, some of the group were pretty messy already
and so we headed into the club a few at a time, providing the pass word and getting in for free and two free complimentary drinks. We didn't get there for 11am but we still got in free :-) and got the coffee drinks vouchers :-)
The club was pretty dark inside, loud dance/hip hop music was playing, lights flashing, people dancing in various places and chatting (or shouting to each other over the music) there were plenty of tables but they were already taken by people who had booked them and sipping Moët Champagne.
We headed to the toilets where I discovered one of our group (no names mentioned but it wasn't Stuart) had pinched a bottle of champagne from a table. They had opened it and it was being passed it around the group when the security guards came along and took it away and wanted to know where we had got it from. At the time it was taken away Frank had been drinking and I didn't want him to get into trouble so I intervened and told them it had been passed to him but I don't know who by,
which was true. There was a woman representative who was doing all the talking to me and the security guards. She accused me of drinking from the bottle, which was not true, so I had to play the I'm 48 and do not lie card for her to believe me as she wanted me to pay for the bottle which I had no intention of doing. She said the security guards had seen me with the person who had taken the champagne so I had to go find them and bring them to her. So that is what I did. By this time I was very angry that I had got myself involved in a situation which should never of happened. I was angry with the person who took the champagne and the fact that they had basically stolen the champagne from someone who was a paying customer at a private table. They were of course drunk and seemed to have difficulty in understanding the seriousness of the situation.
They were taken away by security and 10/15 minutes later had not come back so I went to look for them. It seems that the person who had
taken the champagne had been invited to the table for a drink, but when they left they had taken a full unopened bottle with them and thought it was a great thing to do. Security advised that the table had been booked via the party planners at the club for a group of people. The party planner and the group decided that they did not want to take the matter further but made the miscreant pay a token gesture to cover the cost of the champagne which was ¥1,000 which is £100 in our money! However they did not have that kind of money on them so they ended up paying just £10 but did not get the champagne back. They were if course drunk and probably didn't think about the consequence of their actions. I just had visions of them getting hauled off to the local police station or worse. Once the situation was sorted and apologies made and thanks given for not pursuing the matter further I decided I wanted to leave as I was too angry and had sobered up and just did not feel like parting. Nitzan came with me as he didn't like the club
and wasn't a big drinker so we took a cab back to the hostel and left the others to it.
I believe the others rolled in about 4.30am with a good night had by all. No other incidents but someone had not come back and gone for a sleep over! (no it wasn't Stuart).
Xxx
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