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Mons Hubris posted:Trying to figure out what to do about a roaming data plan between now and Tuesday... Can you get by in China with ExpressVPN and Google Voice for texting and calling via WiFi? I assume public WiFi is pretty common in Shanghai and Chengdu? Public wifi is kind of common but they often require you to verify with a code they text to your phone, which means if you don't have a (Chinese) cell number you can't really use a lot of it.
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Aug 14, 2016 01:35
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Ahhhh OK good to know, thanks. We switched to AT&T recently (a mistake) so we don't have unlocked phones at the moment 
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Aug 14, 2016 03:28
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Mons Hubris posted:Ahhhh OK good to know, thanks. We switched to AT&T recently (a mistake) so we don't have unlocked phones at the moment It isn't everywhere, to be clear. A lot of smaller places and big malls will have just normal (if slow and unreliable) public wifi. Places like Starbucks usually do the SMS a code thing, and some malls and public places do require this as well. That's for Chengdu anyway, no idea what the situation is in Shanghai.
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Aug 15, 2016 03:43
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Most places in Shanghai required an SMS code. Maybe you can pick up a cheap GSM phone for less than $50 and stick a Unicom sim in there to receive calls.
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Aug 15, 2016 05:01
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Mons Hubris posted:Ahhhh OK good to know, thanks. We switched to AT&T recently (a mistake) so we don't have unlocked phones at the moment Hey, att has an international "passport" plan that was kinda tempting. https://www.att.com/shop/wireless/international/roaming.html Considering that we spent so much time trying to figure out the new non-prepaid china plans, (and probably wouldnt have had to sort out a vpn for the att roaming plans?), it was probably worth the $40 or $60 to just stick with the existing att phones we have for our month trip. I hate having to try to watch the data to be sure I don't go over and get raped, but apparently gotta do that on the china mobile plan we got anyways. Baddog fucked around with this message at 06:53 on Aug 15, 2016 |
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Aug 15, 2016 06:50
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Baddog posted:Hey, att has an international "passport" plan that was kinda tempting. That's where you messed up. Unicom is way, way better for this kind of stuff unless you're going to the boonies where Unicom has bad service (every city will have fine coverage). Not to mention phone compatibility with Mobile can be sketchy since they use weird 4G bands not all international phones support.
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Aug 15, 2016 08:07
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Magna Kaser posted:That's where you messed up. Unicom is way, way better for this kind of stuff unless you're going to the boonies where Unicom has bad service (every city will have fine coverage). Not to mention phone compatibility with Mobile can be sketchy since they use weird 4G bands not all international phones support. I've been avoiding unicom because I figured Changsha was "boonies" (comparatively) - but you're right, I don't think it is anymore!
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Aug 15, 2016 09:26
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Magna Kaser posted:That's where you messed up. Unicom is way, way better for this kind of stuff unless you're going to the boonies where Unicom has bad service (every city will have fine coverage). Not to mention phone compatibility with Mobile can be sketchy since they use weird 4G bands not all international phones support. Another excuse to post a link to How the Chinese screwed up their 3G mobile phone networks which is from 2012, but goes through the whole backstory as to why China Unicom is the preferable carrier for dirty laowai (and everybody else).
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Aug 15, 2016 12:53
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Baddog posted:I've been avoiding unicom because I figured Changsha was "boonies" (comparatively) - but you're right, I don't think it is anymore! They have direct flights from the US now so I think they arrived
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Aug 15, 2016 22:01
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Bloodnose posted:They have direct flights from the US now so I think they arrived They even have their own weird Dutchmen sleeping there, last I heard.
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Aug 16, 2016 00:55
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Jeoh posted:They even have their own weird Dutchmen sleeping there, last I heard. Right. You heard.
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Aug 16, 2016 07:46
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"why isn't laomei eating?? is he sick??" Well besides the old man slurping and chomping and grunting and spitting and clacking his false teeth in my ear literally louder than the operation of most power tools? He's deep dicking every drat bowl on the table with his chopsticks. I mean, the dude is literally going up to the knuckles with the sticks he just had deep in his mouth, loudly sucking every last drop of juice from. And then half the bowls have been sitting out all day in this sweltering heat, with whatever bacteria he's been fermenting in his rotten tooth-pits for the last decade just blooming like crazy in there. I gotta jump to eat the "fresh" poo poo before he gets all up in it. "Fresh" in quotes because its been cooked in whatever the gently caress that is coming out of the tap.
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Aug 18, 2016 02:15
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Baddog posted:"why isn't laomei eating?? is he sick??" so how's it going
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Aug 18, 2016 02:45
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Where's our kid? Oh grandma and grandpa are watching him. Oh look, he's literally playing in the huge trash pile behind the building. And it looks like this is where the neighbors have been lighting off fireworks right in the middle of all this busted up wood and paper and clothes. Oh well, at least its been raining and its all wet, carry the gently caress on everyone.
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Aug 18, 2016 02:48
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Baddog posted:Where's our kid? Oh grandma and grandpa are watching him. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8JDNE-N388 
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Aug 18, 2016 03:33
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for true Chinese style please ask them "how about your weekend?"
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Aug 18, 2016 03:47
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Baddog posted:Where's our kid? Oh grandma and grandpa are watching him. keep going man, put more fuel on that fire and keep. loving. posting. this. good. poo poo.
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Aug 18, 2016 03:47
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How long is your trip?
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Aug 18, 2016 05:00
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Baddog posted:I told my wife that next time she wants to bring our baby to changsha for a month, we should just save some money and roll him around in cigarette butts, shards of glass, raw sewage and toxic waste. And then I could at least take him immediately to a doctor who wont just give him an IV, rub some herbs on him, and call it a day. i'll be honest i didn't know if i had ever seen a baddog post before i saw those last two, so i went looking through the thread and found this and lol
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Aug 18, 2016 05:16
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let's call a kingsmoot and elect baddog king of this thread
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Aug 18, 2016 05:32
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As someone who's had a couple days recently in the valley of "Man, to hell with this place," I deeply appreciate these posts.
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Aug 18, 2016 06:24
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The Great Autismo! posted:i'll be honest i didn't know if i had ever seen a baddog post before i saw those last two, so i went looking through the thread and found this and lol Haha wow yah. I forget how bad things are, and then I get sucked into another trip. I swore after that last one that was it, but here we are again. Everyone has been fighting, cooped up in this tiny apartment, can't get more than 10 feet away from an open shithole (ok after I bitched they did put a new flap on the squat, its only a semi-open shithole now). So we decide to go out to the "botanical gardens" today, even though its loving 100 degrees out. Suffer through the whole trip, the logistics are always so hard because everyone is so cheap (grandparents gotta take the bus because they ride free). I swear when we can go somewhere on our own its usually fine, but a group trip is a tire fire every time. Everyone sweating and cranky. Finally get settled into a shady spot by the lake, its kinda nice, take a breath. Whew. OK. BAM, my kid somehow gets ahold of what we think must have been one of those spiny caterpillars (couldn't find it). He's got 3 pretty good patches of black spines in his hand and forearm and crying like crazy. At least he didn't have an allergic reaction and it doesn't seem (very) poisonous. But my wife spent the rest of the day so far picking dozens of tiny spines out of his arm while I try to distract him, and searching around for baking soda (finally found it in the pharmacy). Just a few more days here, maybe we can make it.
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Aug 18, 2016 09:14
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Baddog posted:my kid somehow gets ahold of what we think must have been one of those spiny caterpillars leave the woman leave the child save yourself you must go now
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Aug 18, 2016 09:23
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Baddog posted:Haha wow yah. I forget how bad things are, and then I get sucked into another trip. I swore after that last one that was it, but here we are again. my advice is to stay strong and keep posting
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Aug 18, 2016 10:56
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Baddog posted:Suffer through the whole trip, the logistics Hey sign up for this http://zhuanche.zuche.com/ It's hassle free transportation. You can rent a car and driver for like 600 RMB 8 hours or some stupid price. They also do airport pickups and dropoff. Best part about pickup is that they track your flight number and wait for you. Billing won't start until after 3hours delayed I'm glad my girlfriend's parents know how to use the internet and her dad knows how to use the internet to book everything and order everything.
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Aug 18, 2016 12:12
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caberham posted:It's hassle free transportation. You can rent a car and driver for like 600 RMB 8 hours or some stupid price. They also do airport pickups and dropoff. Best part about pickup is that they track your flight number and wait for you. Billing won't start until after 3hours delayed if they go so far out of the way to take the bus because it is free i'm not sure how the family is going to feel about dropping 600 RMB on a private car, lol
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Aug 18, 2016 12:38
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the best solution is to kill your entire family-in-law except for your wife cause i guess you like her
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Aug 18, 2016 13:06
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You could also kill yourself.
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Aug 18, 2016 13:11
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What I don't understand about stories like this, is that baddog obviously comes from a first world country. I understand that is an assumption, but I think it's a pretty safe one. I'm also going to guess that he and his wife and their child all live in that first world country. I guess my question is, why does the wife want to go back to visit her family when the environment is like this? No matter how much I may love part of my family, I would never want to actually expose any of them to an environment like this. My grandparents lived in South Carolina, a very very very racist part of South Carolina, super deep South. My grandparents were good people, but I'm not sure I would ever want to take my wife or child there now. The point is moot, because they both passed away, but I just don't think I would ever want to take them there. And this is in the First world, not the Third world. Like if I had family in east Phoenix and they were like "come visit" I'd probably be like "eh we are a bit busy, sorry" and then hope they would visit us, assuming they weren't methheads. If they were methheads I would just cut all losses and never talk to them again.
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Aug 18, 2016 13:12
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Grand Fromage posted:You could also kill yourself. the final solution The Great Autismo! posted:Like if I had family in east Phoenix and they were like "come visit" I'd probably be like "eh we are a bit busy, sorry" and then hope they would visit us, assuming they weren't methheads. If they were methheads I would just cut all losses and never talk to them again. you are not chinese, you cannot understand
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Aug 18, 2016 13:33
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Jeoh posted:you are not chinese, you cannot understand thankfully
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Aug 18, 2016 13:35
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The Great Autismo! posted:if they go so far out of the way to take the bus because it is free i'm not sure how the family is going to feel about dropping 600 RMB on a private car, lol It's not grandpa grandma arranging transportation but him and his wife doing it.
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Aug 18, 2016 14:24
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The Great Autismo! posted:What I don't understand about stories like this, is that baddog obviously comes from a first world country. I understand that is an assumption, but I think it's a pretty safe one. I'm also going to guess that he and his wife and their child all live in that first world country. I guess my question is, why does the wife want to go back to visit her family when the environment is like this? No matter how much I may love part of my family, I would never want to actually expose any of them to an environment like this. You are a bad grand child. I hope your grand parents didn't know that you were too good to visit them before they died caberham fucked around with this message at 14:31 on Aug 18, 2016 |
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Aug 18, 2016 14:25
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The Great Autismo! posted:if they go so far out of the way to take the bus because it is free i'm not sure how the family is going to feel about dropping 600 RMB on a private car, lol Yah this would be awesome and a good way to run around the city one day and see everything, but they are like "40 for a taxi, what the gently caress are you all doing the bus is so cheap?" So half the time we all take the bus and half the time I'm like gently caress this its like the loving surface of the sun out here we're taking a taxi, y'all grab the next one or ride the bus if you want (and they ride the bus). We got an suv from didi chuxing one time and apparently that was realllly pushing it. quote:you are not chinese, you cannot understand Its not just filial piety or whatever, there are some other factors. Semi-understandable even for a WASP like me who can't deal with his own family for more than 3-4 days at christmas. She does go years without seeing her parents. But yah, we gotta get a hotel next time, and I'd rather not do weeks here anymore. The direct flight from LA makes it more reasonable to do a week and be out.
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Aug 18, 2016 14:27
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caberham posted:You are a bad grand child. i'm actually not a grandchild anymore, sadly, and i must say i was a very good one when i was one. i visited them all the time, i made specific trips to visit them driving like 10 hour days sometimes. it's not about visiting them, it's...nevermind, if you can't read what i originally wrote i doubt you can read what i am going to write next, lol
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Aug 18, 2016 14:32
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Baddog posted:Yah this would be awesome and a good way to run around the city one day and see everything, but they are like "40 for a taxi, what the gently caress are you all doing the bus is so cheap?" So half the time we all take the bus and half the time I'm like gently caress this its like the loving surface of the sun out here we're taking a taxi, y'all grab the next one or ride the bus if you want (and they ride the bus). We got an suv from didi chuxing one time and apparently that was realllly pushing it. Why is your wife and your inlaws a bunch of push overs? I'm glad the grand parents can walk all day but once you ordered a car for the whole day they can't get a refund. Just arrange everything and take charge. Sorry to hear about your horrible trip though I do understand how irritating things can get with the family when you spend a long time with them
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Aug 18, 2016 14:36
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The Great Autismo! posted:i'm actually not a grandchild anymore, sadly, and i must say i was a very good one when i was one. i visited them all the time, i made specific trips to visit them driving like 10 hour days sometimes. Traveling with kids/infants is a major logistical hassle. But for me, I feel that traveling when you are older is even harder. You are a lot less mobile once you hit 70, especially when you haven't traveled much in your life. If grandma and grandpa have trouble visiting you then you should go visit them. There's a small window of opportunity but at least let them meet the grand kids once in their lives. Even if that means going to hell-hole wherever
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Aug 18, 2016 14:58
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600 RMB is pretty high for a car for the day when you can rent a 面包车 and driver for probably half that (granted that car is likely much better). Baddog, you totally have to go back and visit the family but I get that a few weeks is too much. Maybe next time drop in for a week, then on to HK or Thailand for another week before home. Or *shudder* get them to come visit you in freedom land.
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Aug 18, 2016 15:08
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caberham posted:You are a bad grand child. lol what the gently caress dude
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Aug 18, 2016 16:24
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I'm really glad the inlaws are doing well for themselves and have a nice condo by the beach in Qingdao. Lomaw makes some mean food that's healthy too. I ate all the time there and lost upwards of 10 pounds in 2 weeks.
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Aug 18, 2016 21:16
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