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Three Buses and a Motorcycle
Sunday, July 17, 2005-10:57 PM
On the advice of the lady at my hotel, I ditched the relative comfort and familiarity of traveling by train for the speed and convenience of buses. On my way from Wudang Mountain to Zhengzhou, two people would try to rip me off. In the end, they both probably did. But, now I've arrived safely in Zhengzhou.
The first guy that tried to rip me off was the minibus operator at the top of Wudang Mountain. His initial offer for a ride down the mountain was 50 renminbi.
I couldn't believe he made that offer with a straight face. I came back right away with my offer, 5 renminbi.
I was a bit annoyed when he tried to act surprised at my offer, like it was out of the question. In the end, we settled on 10 renminbi. Ten's a lot closer to five than it is to fifty.
I paid him in loose change.
My plan to hop on a direct bus to Zhengzhou had to be scrapped. The next direct bus wasn't until the evening, and I had no intention on killing twelve hours waiting for a bus.
Instead, on the suggestion of a guy working at the bus station, I caught a bus to Nanyang where he let me know there'd be plenty of connections to Zhengzhou.
This bus was economy class. But I didn't mind. I had a seat. It was cheap. And with the windows open, it wasn't too uncomfortable.
We were in the outskirts of Nanyang when the bus started to slow down and people who knew where I was headed told me it was time to get off.
We were still in the middle of nowhere. I didn't like the looks of this. Were they gonna ditch me next to some farm field and make me ride an ox into the city?
After I explained to them that I wanted to go to the bus station, they decided it wasn't time for me to get off yet. We'd be driving into the city in a few minutes.
I got off the bus in the city and hopped on the back of a motorcycle. The driver said he'd take me to the bus station for five renminbi. I knew he was ripping me off, and I thought I convinced him to take me there for one renminbi. But, when we arrived, he told me it was five.
I wasn't in any mood to argue over 4 renminbi. I gave him the five, but left him with the distinct impression that I was not a satisfied customer. I don't think he really cared.
The bus to Zhengzhou was a regular coach, air-conditioned with assigned seats. It drove on the highway without picking up people along the way and played movies and karaoke songs for the passengers.
But, that kind of comfort comes at a price. It was twice as expensive as the bus I arrived in Nanyang on was.
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