China: Coffee and Crashes

On the long drive back to Shanghai from Wuyuan, I am determined to find a Starbucks to get a shot of my own personal crack.

A man has needs

Sure, Starbucks is shit, but in Asia that's quite often the best you're gonna get for a Flat White.

Not only did my rental car come with my own personal driver [I can hear the sound of Facebook unfriending as I write this], but we also paid the small fee for one of these new fangled GPS systems that all the hip kids are raving on about these days.  The GPS has a fancy function in it where it can help you find the nearest Starbucks or KFC, so we head off to find some coffee.  Long story short, we took a three hour detour only to find nothing.

I could swear it's round here somewhere....

James needs crack.

Never one to give up, we set of for the city of Hangzhou to find the next Starbucks in the GPS system. When we get there, we're greeted by an empty river, and even less sign of a Starbucks.

Crack crack crack.

We give up on the GPS (Goddamn Piece of Sh*t) and after hunting through a wealthy looking suburb we eventually find one and I have that caffeine injection I've been yearning for.

From Hangzhou to Shanghai is not too long a drive, but as we get onto the final highway into town we run into a police roadblock which forces us off at the next exit.  Over the loudspeaker they are saying that they've closed the highway due to a traffic jam and so we have to take the long way back into Shanghai.

The next day we hear on the news that the highway was closed down because a tour bus overturned.

Stink.