With all of yesterday's fun of getting some adverts slipped in the taxi window as I was heading home from the airport I forgot to mention some of the less interesting parts of my trip...
This was just a quick trip out of Xiamen for one night, really just to give Tina some time to relax without me - or to make her miss me - something like that. But, because it was a short trip it meant an early morning flight and I had to be at the airport at 06:00. So at 05:30, still half asleep, I wander downstairs to catch a taxi. Getting a taxi is never a problem because there is a 24 hour massage place located in our complex and apparently it does a good business in the late hours.
A twenty minute taxi ride later and I'm at the airport - there were a few times the driver tried to talk to me and in addition to not understanding I was tired and just went with the simple "听不懂" (I liken this to - I don't understand you at all, please stop talking). When we got there the diver couldn't produce a receipt for me, trying to explain in some way how his new car and meter didn't work - I was too tired to argue and more shocked and slightly worried about the hundreds of people at the airport.
Big crowds at airports are never fun, especially at 06:00, but it turned out that they were all big travel groups that felt the need to stand outside and just block all the entrances until each of their 50-60 members were there - once you fought your way through them inside the airport was still empty. There were also several groups inside blocking the security area, but at least the ticket counters were all empty.
The flights up and back were fairly uneventful, for some reason we took a flight with a layover which makes a 2 hour flight take 3-1/2, and then rains at our middle stop delayed us for an hour on the way out and 30 minutes on the way back.
Getting back into Xiamen and apparently we arrived at the same time as several other flights, again masses of people acting like they've never been in an airport and pushing to get somewhere quickly only to realize that they need to go back to wherever they just came from. It get's slightly less annoying every time you go through it. The line for the taxis was as bad as I have ever seen it, taking me almost 30 minutes just to get through that line.
It's the end of the taxi ride that I get most bothered, as the taxi gives me my 50 back explaining that it's a fake. Damn. Now I have to break on of my 100's and find someone else that will accept my fake 50.
Now, I didn't know that the 50 was fake when I tried giving it to the cabbie, and I'm not sure whom I should now try to pawn it off on. I received it from the taxi driver that took me to the airport - he was probably figuring that I was just some foreigner that would never be back again, but the lack of a receipt makes it so that I don't have his taxi number and can't call to lodge a complaint. I should give him credit for that, and as an upside I'll be more observant in the future, even if it is six in the morning and I'm still asleep. It's not even a good fake - it may be hard to spend.
But it is Friday, and 老Joe is in town which means that we will be out at bars, so right now I'm presuming that the 50 will find its way out of my wallet and become someone else's problem before the weekend is through....
Friday, February 27, 2009
Just generally annoying stuffs.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Wo bu zhi dao!
Tina and I spent most of Thursday lolling around since it was raining outside. The day was a nice break from the tight agenda Tina usually has planned ;) We ran some errands and went to Temptations to have coffee with Siew - we arrived just as she was pulling Christmas cookies out of the oven! Nothing like a fresh latte and warm cookies...
In the afternoon Siew, Tina and I went for essential oil massages and I tried "cupping." I was pretty sure I never wanted to try cupping after seeing Tina and Mark's post that showed pictures of the bruises on their backs. Tina made me try it, and it actually wasn't bad. It's a massage/detoxifying technique in which heated glass cups are placed on your back and somehow suction is created. The masseuse or "cupper" moves the cups around for a while and then leaves the cups suctioned on your back for about ten minutes. The result: it feels like a deep tissue massage and leaves you with the biggest hickeys on your back that you can imagine.
My back
Drinking Margaritas at The House
Temptations
Bashi Night Market
Night Market cont.Thursday, November 27, 2008
I made it!!
Tina's got me on blog duty again... so hello everyone! This is guest blogger Emily here. Each time I visit the Wichmann's on vacation, they go on "blog vacation."
I'm so happy to be in Xiamen today! I left Chicago Tuesday, 11/25 at 7am CT and arrived in Xiamen last night (Wednesday) at 9pm local time. I'm not sure how long the entire trip was because of the time change; it felt long, but everything went smoothly.
Tina picked me up at the airport. It was so great to see her after such a long day of traveling. She looks fabulous -- she doesn't have the pastey-office-cube glow that many of us are suffering from back home in Chicago. Her hair is also much longer; I'll admit I have a little hair envy. Hopefully she will divulge all the Chinese hair treatments she's been using. She took me home and in Wichmann fashion, we had a couple glasses of red wine before turning in for the night.
It's a gorgeous, sunny morning today! We woke up slowly, ate local fruit: tangerines and bananas. We are now going to lunch with one of Tina's friends, Siew. Then we head to Taipei this afternoon via a ferry to Jinnmen and then a short flight from there to Taipei.
To those reading from the office: 听不懂, "Ting bu dong!" -- I used this phrase a lot yesterday while traveling... Tina's translation for this: "I can hear you, but I don't know what the hell you are saying!"
