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It was after dark and the train was almost an hour late when it finally pulled into our destination. The train was twelve cars long, but Karen and I were among only five passengers who got off. We walked through the dimly-lit station and out the front door. No taxis. In the distance, there was what looked like a policeman and a small group of people, so we headed toward them. I explained where we wanted to go, and one of the fellows said he'd take us to our hotel for the equivalent of ten dollars. Having little choice, we hopped into the back of his small van. I took some consolation in the fact that it was two against one, but, just before we left, another local fellow jumped into the passenger seat. I've never told Karen this, but, at the time, I'd hoped they'd leave our bodies where they could easily be found so our children wouldn't have to wonder what had happened to us...
This story starts back at the Tai Yuan train station when we had to settle for hard sleeper tickets to Xi'an because the soft sleeper berths were sold out on the only train that made the long trip during the daytime instead of at night.
The ticket agent had looked at me hard and had repeated several times in Chinese: Xi'an South station, Xi'an South station, Xi'an South station, but I didn't think anything of it because that was the correct train station according to the schedule that my co-worker Fish had printed for this leg of the journey. As I believe I've mentioned before, this trip by ourselves would not have been possible without Fish's advance support because my Chinese is pitiful. He had armed me with all the information and translation cheat sheets that I could possibly need, and he had made all our hotel reservations in advance as well. |
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