Horrible day in Hangzhou.
Today turned out to be one terrible day. I was so disappointed with it. We woke up and got to the bus station with about 30-20 minutes to spare. That was a relief. The bus station was packed! Wow. Crazy busy. We got on our bus at 8am and the bus ride was no problem. There was construction on the rode, but no traffic jams. We got to Hangzhou around 10-1015AM. Once we got off, we were like, ok, need to buy tix back so we searchd all over for the ticket booth. We waited in line for about 15 minutes before we could get them. The ticket area was swamped with many lines of many people. It was quite amazing to see all these people in order. The latest ticket we could get back was 620pm. Damn, that means we only have a little bit of time. But we can get alot done in 7-8 hours. HA HA HA HA! Thats when the day took a turn for the worse.
We couldn't find any public transportation and the streets were jammed packed with people. We tried to get a taxi, but realized that there were no free ones, so we had to go back a block or so to stand in line at the taxi port. It didn't help since I had no clue where anything was and Yumi kept asking me questions and going off on her own to find things without telling me. I was starting to get very irritated with the lack of communication. And Yumi started getting more emotionally closed off. Great..just what we needed.
We stood in line for the taxis and it was crowded. There was a lady and a big fat blind guy begging for money on the side of the stand and then i noticed a little lady going thru the line begging for money. And of course, seeing the white guy, they all descend upon me and begged. And stuff. Its funny how they seem so desperate and seem so interested in you and then when they figure out that you are not gonna do anything, they completely change and go to the next person. Its really a site to see.
We continue to stand in line and Yumi and I were getting closer to the end and we were both silent...and it sucked. Ugh. Then about 4 chinese people had busted their way thru the line and were cutting big time up to the front. I saw this and did something. The wife got thru, but I was able to stop the husband and the mother. It was completely astonishing to them. They couldn't believe it. They said some stuff to me and I was just like, "I don't understand." So, for them to avoid losing face, they did raise too much of a stink until the wife kept getting closer and I wasn't letting them thru. She told them to come up, but I wouldn't let them. I had my hand across their path holding on to the railing not letting them thru. I could sort of see the rage building up in Yumi. The husband then asked me very politely, softly, in slightly broken english "could you please move your arm?" ...I was like, "No, not until you learn your lesson. You dont' cut inline, you wait." It was at this point the grandma said something to Yumi, and I was completely surprised by her response. I have so much more respect for her now after I saw her spar with an old chinese lady and win. IT RULED! She laid into them telling them to wait in line like everyone else. I was so cool to see. It went back and forth for a short time and Yumi obviously won. The husband and mother shut up. Then a couple other chinese people in line piped up and said that they should wait like everyone else and they told them what I felt. I felt justified after that. When it came time for the wife to get a taxi she called them and they asked me to let them thru. By this time I had lowered my arm and I was like, "Go. For all I care. I just hope you feel terrible and learned a lesson." They didn't understand this and thought I was still holding them back. It ruled. Yumi was really upset over this, not so much by this, but by the chinese. She yelled in English, "Its the chinese people, the chinese culture, they are crazy!" Whoa. She was mad. We got in our taxi and that was the end of that.
But is was the start of something else entirely. We told the driver and showed her on a map that we wanted to go to the walking street area for shopping and what not because it was right next West Lake, the big attraction. First of all, it took us nearly 10 minutes to get onto the road. And then she took us all over town trying to rip us off. I realized after a bit that she was taking us in the wrong direction. I looked at the map and found where we were and she was going way out of the way and pissing me off. So during a stop light, I showed her the map and asked why were here when we wanted to go here. I told her to go to a closer stop now that we were too far from the walking street. We headed to the Shangri La hotel which is right by the north tip of west lake. And of course, she got stuck in a traffic jam, and then it started pouring rain, hard. Terrible. We were in that taxi for 1 hour before we got to our destination and it cost us a bunch. I told Yumi I wasn't paying more than 20 since she was ripping us off, but when we finally got there, Yumi paid the full amount thinking I made a mistake. Nope, I didnt'. I was very angry with the drivers thougths of ripping me off. I wanted to make her head explode.
We got out and tried to get our bearings. It was still raining so we walked around a bit trying to figure out where to go, then I noticed a shop selling swords that they were selling in Shanghai. This were much cheaper. One sword in Shanghai was 2300RMB, here, it cost 600RMB. Sweet. So I was looking at them and thinking about which one i should get. I wanted the most expensive one cause it was big and heavy. But 600 is alot. Then, a chinese guy bought a sword about 575RMB for 200RMB. Yumi told me this, so I grabbed the 600 one and laid it down and said, 250. They lady gave me this, "Are you serious look?" And I laughed at her, pointed at the guy who had left, and said, he got this thing for over 375 off. Fuck you, you cheat." She tried to explain that this one was more expensive. I was like, they are practically the same price!!! Hows is this more expensive. She tried for 300, but we started to walk and she said, OK. I was just like great. Afterwards, I was like, i could have gotten it for 200. Oh well. Since it was such a good deal, I was like...hmmm.....Give me two. So I picked up two really nice swords in Hangzhou for 500RMB. These swords in America would have costed well over 200 US, if you could ever find them. You would have to have them shipped from china. I got them for about 30US. Awesome.
I got one black, for myself, and I got a brown one for Guo Sifu as a gift. I plan to have a little metal plate attached to the scabbard thanking him for his time and teaching as well as try and get someone to engrave the blade of it. I think that would be really nice. I hope he likes it. The problem with getting them now was that I had to carry them with me the whole time we were in Hangzhou. And these things were heavy.
We were hungry and wanted to get out of the rain, so we ducted into a resturant for lunch. It was some good food. There was this little girl at a table next to us that couldn't stand to look at either of Yumi or I, so whenever we looked in her direction, she was look away very dramatically. There was also this time this little boy was running around and ran up to me and stopped and stood next to me at the table. I was like, "Hey, what's up?" Then he jumped in surprised. I guess he was trying to look for something else and didn't intend for that. After that, he backed away from me. Almost as if in fear. I ran up to the bathroom and left my stuff at the table with Yumi. When i got back, the table next to us that had a bunch of older chinese men and women eating had all left. I sat back down and Yumi looked upset a bit. I was like, "What's the matter?"
She said, "When you were in the bathroom, that group got up to leave, and one of the old ladies tried to steal your umbrella sitting on your chair."
Are you serious?
"Yes! I was so mad, I just stared at her when she went for it, and then she realized I was staring, she looked back and her friend shook her head like it was no good. Like she was her look out."
That blew my mind. Even and old woman, who is most likely a mother, and has enuff money to help pay for a feast of food, which they ate, is trying to steal my stuff and not buy her own 15RMB umbrella. Disgusting! Here is a woman that should be teaching right and wrong to people and she is doing wrong things. Ugh! It messes with your mind. We got up to leave.
The rain let up but the sun couldn't come out of the clouds, and there was a mist over the lake. It was sorta pretty. I think if the sun was poking thru more, it would have been great. Almost immediately I noticed Yumi closing in on herself and she was quiet most of the trip around the West Lake. What am I supposed to do, I try to get communication going, but none happens. I don't know what to do. We walked around the lake and we took pictures. All the while carrying those swords.
After walking around we tried to figure out what to do next. Where to go. We only had a couple hours left and no where near the time we needed to see all the things we wanted and traffic was horrible so taxis would just get stuck. After a lot of indecision on both parts, we decided on General Yue Fei's Tomb. The place was big with lots of stuff, pretty much the same temple layout as every other chinese temple in existence. While we were there it had started to rain, then it stopped, then it started again. And Yumi was more and more closed in making me feel terrible not knowing what's the matter.
After the tomb, it was like 330pm. We spent about 30 minutes trying to find a taxi or a bus, but we couldn't read the signs of where the buses were going. It was such a waste and it was raining so much and we were both upset.
Taxis that were empty were just going by and most taxis were filled. So we walked up to the Shangri La to ask about bus lines and taxi things, and the chinese guy was like, "You have to wait in line like everyone else." I am like, "I am not asking you if I could get a ride now, I am asking where, Jerkface! Give me information and understand me before you scold me." I was pissed. We ended up just waiting on the steps to the Shangri La and grabbed a taxi. We told him the bus station. And he was like, sure. This guy was insane. For more than half the trip he was driving on the wrong side of the rode doing well over 2x the speed limit while passing police cars and them not doing anything. Wow. Almost had a couple head on collisions. We made it to the bus stop in about 20 minutes and the fare was 20RMB, less than half of what the cheater tried to get off us. The bus station was not far at all, it just proved to us more that that woman was trying to rip us off and I was even more angry.
We spent about 1.5 hours waiting at the bus station for our ride. We were so pissed off with this trip. I don't know why it went haywire. I swear I don't. It just sucked. I hate Hangzhou. Well, I hated the experience, the city itself has potential, it was just too rainy and foggy to see anything.
The bus station was a whole other experience. The place was uber crowded and there were people sitting on the floors on newspapers and stuff. I also had a woman and her son kneel at my feet and beg me for money while the son tugged at my pants. UGH! Get away! You have the time and ability to have a child! How could you do that to your son! They obviously have chosen not to look for work or better themselves in some way. Even if they have been born into this. Its really shitty to see. And it messes with you, especially when you want to help people, but if you give these beggers money, it won't help them, they will just continue to do it tomorrow and the next day. I have in my mind that WWJD thing that was going around during College. I think about it sometimes. Nowhere in the bible do we see Jesus pestered with beggers constantly. Its hard to deal with. All the rhetoric in America about helping each other doesn't really apply to people that have no desire to be helped. I don't know. I am not thinking hard enuff to focus this and make any grand statement. I just felt like junk not being able to help these people because I know they just want money and they can actually make a living off of this. Aubri and I had a discussion about this in Beijing.
Somewhere in the bus station after I found us some seats, things started to get better between Yumi and me. Its friggin' wierd. I don';t know whats going on. The ride back to Shanghai was ok with no real problems. Well, we be tired. Off to bed.