Well, it was bound to happen I suppose. I got scammed. The thing is I was even aware that this particular scam existed and was on guard and I STILL got scammed. They were that good. The scam is rundown pretty well here. Also here. And here: This describes it in more detail than I will. Anyway, I was aware that this sort of thing could happen but I was on the lookout for one, or maybe two girls. Not two girls and one guy. This is is exactly the combination that stopped me in front of the Shanghai Museum. They asked me all sortrs of questions about where I was from etc... and we talked for about ten minutes. Then they brought up the teahouse and I orginally wasn't going to go, not because warning bells were going off, but because I wasn't feeling social. But, I had been to a teahouse with a friend of a friend in Beijing and it had been really cool. So, I thought, "Fuck it" and went with them. They chatted with me the whole way asking how many girlfriends I had had in my life, and so on. We finally arrived at the teahouse and went and sat down. Ok, now they showed me a menu and I didn't read it very carefully I must admit. These kids were good. They really put me at ease. All I saw was Y 38 for tea. So, I thought, it's 38 Yuan for each kind of tea tried. There was also a small service charge for the tea making and all the tea service the host does (which is indeed considerable) and for tea snacks. So, we try some teas. We try six teas. I am never asked how many teas we are going to have until we have six. It's not really bothering me because six teas at Y38 split four ways isn't too bad. Anyway, they ask if I want to try two more and I say no. We do get some snacks. We are there about an hour and a half and then they say it is time for them to go and the tea mistress brings the bill. It's something to the tune of 1300 Yuan. This is totally out of control expensive. Around 160 dollars I think. So, I think to myself, "Well, this is certainly more than I would have paid for tea, but I had a fun time and them's the breaks." when the guy, Tommy, said "The girls pay for their tea (they had bought tea and there had been a hard sell by the teahouse to buy some earlier) and here in China we pay for girls half of the bill.". Well, I was kind of taken aback by this and just sort of stunned so I took out my 738 Yuan and paid. We then went to the bathroom and left. They walked me back to the Shanghai Musueum and left. I went in the museum and looked around but could totally not concentrate because all I could think of was "Holy Fuck. I just got scammed.". So, one of the women gave me her email address which I assume is fake but it's just kind of weird that she did that. I can only imagine that it is done in order to cement the "We are friends!" vibe.She also took a photo of all of us together which I'm assuming goes into a funny flickr account of "Clueless Whitey"'s.

So, I'm in Shanghai. It's so hot it's almost disturbing.