After successfully buying some tickets for 4 other friends and myself on the fast train to Nanjing, we arrive at Shanghai Train Station and head through the boarding gate. The big red beeping X on the ticket gate signals that I successfully managed to buy tickets for the wrong day.
Somewhere along the line my request for tickets written down in Chinese by my hostel staff ended up with tickets for Saturday instead of Friday - I'm not sure if it was the hostel staff or the ticket booth lady that made the mistake - but shit happens - you try and adapt and not get too much of it on your chinos.
We go to the ticket counter to exchange our tickets for another train and find that all the fast trains that night are sold out, and the only train left is the 11pm 'normal' train which turns a 1.5 hour trip into 4 hours.
Two chinese men approach one of our own chinese and say: "If you come quick, we have tickets for the next fast train - it takes only 1.5 hours and it will only cost you an extra 50 Yuan!".
I should interject at this point to let you know that no - you haven't all of a sudden learned how to speak Chinese. In case you were wondering (and possibly terrified) as to how you could understand these Chinese gentlemen, I have taken the liberty of translating this story into English for you. For the Chinese readers of this story - I apologize for the fact that I will continue using English for the next 4 years while it is still the international language.
In the rush and confusion she wants to go along with them, but I say "Hold on [bitches]!"
I checked the timetable and the train that they are talking about takes over 2.5 hours, so they are clearly bullshitting and I'm not in the mood to be on the receiving end of a scam tonight. So we buy the tickets for 11pm and go sit in the square with some beers.
Which is where things start to get interesting.
A Kiwi, a British Indian, a Dutch, and two Chinese walk into a square...
After 30 minutes of chilling we are approached my a dapper gentleman who speaks through one of our chinese [friends] to Dutch and myself. He wants to know if we are interested in working for him.
OK.
Apparently we look swedish and can make a lot of money working in "bars". He already has two swedish guys working for him and he says they make a lot of money.
"You can also work at Bar Rouge" - which is one of the high profile clubs in Shanghai.
Go on.
"Do we have to work for boys or girls?" we ask through the translator.
"Both".
"Even though we are suavely dressed, we're not really into men."
"Drink lots of Baijiu - it makes it easier."
Well I'm totally flattered - but I can't quite figure out how there came to be two swedish chaps that made it all the way to Shanghai, only to need money so badly that they have to pimp themselves out to men and women while drinking hard liquor to take away the pain. Oh you crazy swedes and your shenanigans!
11pm comes around and we take the slow train to Nanjing. We don't arrive till 3am, and further get to bed until 4am, but I sure had fun seeing how many things I could stack on British Indian while she was sleeping.
