Stops on the way to Beijing

We still have to go on strike and not buy anything our first 3 days in a new country because they can sense when you are new blood and once they are on to you they never fail to rip you off. We have also given up on private transport (namely tuk tuks and taxis') and take public transport solely because they win every time.No matter what country we are in the drivers of the three wheeled mini taxis (tuk tuks, rickshaws, etc) cheat us one way or another every time we step into their vehicle. You would think after 9 months of traveling we would have caught on to their tricks. Of course they always come up with new ones and so many accumulate that it is hard to keep track of them all. Then there are countries like Laos that lull us into a peaceful stupor where we truly believe that not a sole in the world would ever lie to us... truly throwing us off our game. So we walk everywhere. We prefer the humiliation of carting our bags, sweating through the center of town (or with our toes frozen here in China) than to step into another tuk tuk.

The other day we had to take a taxi from the train station to the bus station (about a mile) because there was no direct transport and we only had a half hour to get there, so we were cutting it pretty tight (the Great Wall keep us longer than anticipated!). Our only option was a taxi, but we knew where we were going and the route was straight there, plus the use of taxi meters is widespread in Beijing so we figured it would be okay. Turns out the man zig-zaged the whole way there doubling our fare (there was a language barrier) but the worst part was that he dropped us off only 6 minutes before our bus was scheduled to leave. We had to run through the station and jump on the bus as it was about ready to pull away and plead with the driver to let us use the bathrooms one last time before our 7 hr overnight bus. Dam taxis'.

The only other adventure to report on is that the other day we wanted to go from Xi'an to Pingyao by train but because they were all full I got the great idea to go by bus instead. It was a little more expensive but only took 8 hours instead of 12 and we could stick to our schedule so we set off. At 5:00 in the morning we were dropped off on the side of a highway at the exit ramp for Pingyao... it doesn't get light here until 7:30 or so and no one spoke any English. When I asked them how far the walk was he turned into the bus and asked if anyone spoke English and when no one replied took off without looking back ;). So we started walking towards the city... luckily we had a flashlight (it was so dark we couldn't read signs without it!) to read the signs that were translated in English (also extremely lucky). Anyways after a hour and half of a cold walk we arrived into Pingyao unscathed... a bit scary though. Just that day we were talking about how our travels had gone so smoothly and that we really didn't have any good ''adventure"'stories... so that is the best I got ;).


Xi'an:





Pingyao:





Datong: