I would have a coffee almost everyday before I would head into the office. I’m not really a big coffee drinker, but I think it just became a habit for me: get a coffee, go to my desk. Or go to my desk, then grab someone to go out for coffee! I would mix it up depending on my mood of the day and visit different coffee shops to get what I was after.
I actually forgot about this habit for a good month or so when we began this journey, but while in Kuala Lumpur, we would sometimes stop for a coffee at Starbucks because it was nearby. We never really visited Starbucks when traveling, like we would McDonald’s. It wasn’t really anything interesting, but we kept returning every couple days or so and I could not understand why (besides to get coffee), then it hit me. When you are on the road for such a long time, you start to look for something familiar. English is widely spoken in Malaysia, so it wasn’t the comfort of language, but just the need for something familiar. Its a good place to find a moment amongst the chaos you sometimes experience while moving about so much.
While in China, Starbucks has given us something else besides familiarity. It has been very helpful with something more valuable than a caffeine fix. In a country where neither of us can understand the language (Mandarin), we have been able to find someone (the person taking your order), will have a decent to good command of English. This has been very helpful to us on a few occasions, particularly when lost!
We had arrived in Xian via the overnight train from Chengdu. We had carefully prepared the name of our hotel and address with the Chinese writing of it as well, and a picture to show the taxi driver. We approached a number of cabs and they all refused to take us claiming they did not know where it was. At this point we were frustrated, and saw a Starbucks. Time to take a rest and figure out our plan of attack. I order two grande cappucinos and then showed the hotel name and address to the person taking my order. I explained our dilemma to her, and she told me to wait. After paying, off she went. I picked up my coffee’s, and a short while later, she can to me with a paper and something written in Chinese on it. She said to give this to the the taxi driver. I thanked her very much. We then tried to get a taxi but was turned down again. We didn’t understand what the problem was until we saw some other people get turned down as well. Ahhh, there is cab shortage in the area near the train station and they are picking the customers they want! A little extra money and our new handwritten note, and the problem was solved. Sometimes creative thinking is required. Even with a little extra money, the taxi’s in Asia are CHEAP! Ok, but this isn’t about taxi’s, it’s about Starbucks. Let’s get back on task...
You could visit any Starbucks in the world and you would not know where you were. The menu is in English with some local writing as well, and the prices are the same (but in the local currency). This throws us off a lot! I mean, In KL, order 2 grande cappuccinos, pull out a 20 note currency, and they ask for 30RM! What? Oh wait, 30RM translates to $10CAD. Or in China, order the same thing and they ask you for 60Yuan, that my friends is roughly $10CAD as well, but when you pull out a 100Yuan bill to pay, you think, that’s a lot of money!
And one more important thing. After being on the road a while, and experiencing the toilets of Asia, sometimes you just need a nice clean western style one :)
~ Christine
Written 05 November 2013
PS Starbucks is dressed up for Christmas and it looks the same here!
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