Pounding Through Puddles - The Trip To Shenzhen

It's travel day today after a few days relaxing and roaming the streets of Xi'an. We packed our bags up and headed over to the muslim quarter to get a meal and some peanut buttery nutty rolled up travel snacks we've become addicted to. It was a smooth wander and we made it to the bus with plenty of time to spare. Being warned by many different locals of the holiday travel pandemonium expected at the airport, we made the trip waaaaaaay earlier than we'd ever thought was necessary but wanted to be safe. It turned out we couldn't check in earlier than 2 hours before our flight and our security buffer of 4 hours became a glaring inconvenience quite quickly. We squatted on some concrete steps for two hours because seating capacity of the waiting area was full, killing time reading and killing our laptop batteries.

Once close enough to departure we breezed through check in and were herded onto the tarmac and boarded by stairs. The 2 hour flight was uneventful and we arrived at 1130pm well after shuttle time. The worst part of the situation was that taxi drivers now owned the market and were quoting 320Y for a ride we were told should be 50Y. We held out for a while and kept asking around until finally an unmarked car came by and offered us a ride for 60Y. We were skeptical and most likely stupid for taking it but he did as he promised and took us straight to our hotel thankfully.

The hotel staff of 1 was not as fluent in English as we would have hoped but we somehow stumbled through check in and went up to our room for the night. The hotel was fine but it was quite a ways out of town and not really an accessible spot for travellers so we spent the night planning our escape to a new more happening area, we presumed.

We were on the road early the next day in the torrential rain making a move to our new accommodation which appeared close to the subway line and we figured easy to locate. Google had steered us wrong on this one and we quickly found ourselves lost the minute we stepped on the subway. There was nothing overly confusing about the subway line but the one we were looking for didn't exit. As has become our saving grace throughout the trip, some kind locals perceived our confused expressions to be that of lost, I guess that look transcends languages. They quickly pointed us in the right direction giving us the low down on what train to take and where to get off.

From the station it was a continued onslaught of rain and when everyone's umbrella is bouncing around eye level, keeping focused on the map is easier said than done. We continued circling what felt like hours before finally stopping into a packed cell phone booth and asking if they could help. One of the clerks was instantly on the trail, grabbed us a motor bike cab and we set off swerving through the puddle filled streets as he shouted out directions to the young driver in front. We were kindly hand delivered to the hotel, not sure what his manager was thinking but super appreciative none the less, he even came inside to check us in and gave us his number. The driver was incredibly kind as well and didn't charge us for the ride saying we were her first foreigners as she smiled and drove off…… It’s time2giver

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