My flight between Tokyo and Lijiang required a brief late night stopover in Chengdu, and I book a hotel as close as possible to the airport in hopes of catching 4-5 hours of sleep between midnight and 5am.
But alas, I jump in a cab at the airport and it quickly becomes apparent that the cab driver, who had seemingly recognized the hotel address, has no idea where we are going (and cannot reach the hotel phone number I give him). It begins to pour down rain. I have forgotten all Chinese and the cab driver does not speak a word of English. We drive down scary dark roads for an hour, my precious minutes of sleep slipping away. I am terribly tired and begin to get slightly irritated and express impatience in a torrent of exasperated English.
At this point, the driver who is a bulky, rather menacing looking fellow steers onto a particularly dark and empty road. I grow slightly concerned - might the driver stop and try to shake me down for all my cash? or abandon me here in the middle of nowhere at 1am in absolutely torrential rain?
I plaintively point in the direction of some distance lights and fortunately he turns and heads in that direction. The lights turn out to be a different hotel but they are at least able to explain how to get to my hotel - a hotel that does turn out to be only minutes away from the airport.
I pay the driver a generous fare, but firmly decline to pay him for the full cost of his ineptitude. So he follows me into the hotel lobby, shouting loudly as I register and then tries to chase me onto the hotel elevator -- at which point the hotel security intervenes and blocks his path.
I am just happy to get to sleep. But it is not an auspicious return to China.
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