Joe

Day 1 :

Dinner time : "This ticket is wrong, same province but another city". She is a cute little waitress, struggling with her broken english. I am kinda puzzled. I had given the address card at the bus ticket counter and yet they gave me a ticket for another city! but then this is China, and people can struggle for hours just to convey one sentence worth of meaning :]

" Are you new in Shaoxing?" she asks me. Again I am puzzled, may be i am just getting too old and rest of life is gonna be puzzling like this....

"Yes, I stay in Guangzhou"

"ok, my english is not so good. Will you like to teach me english, and in return I teach you Chinese?" She is looking at me with those sparkling innocent slanting eyes.

"I have my day off on weekends, so if you will like to go around city I can accompany you, and show you around, and you teach me english and i teach you chinese" She explains.

"Ok, but I will be returning tomorrow, may be next visit... in a month or two" I give her my mobile and she dials her number and store...

As she walks away her companion accosts her, no doubt admonishing her for giving away her number to a stranger like this. She tries to explain to her...

Today been kinda off day, since i didn't fix an appointment and my supplier went out of town. So i took the opportunity to explore the city and walked all the way down from north to the south edge of the city to this Indian restaurant. That was an hours walk, pleasant, through the main shopping street.

I dig into my food as she reappears again...

"ok, Sanjay, it is my time off now... bye" she waves brightly and runs away...

i wonder...

Day 2 :

"is this ticket ok?" I ask at the bus station boarding gate. She compares the ticket with the address card and looks worried. Shaking her head she tells me to wait and runs off with my ticket.

hummm... i have no choice but to wait.... after a while she reappears and give me a new ticket & some money... hummm... this looks like a good omen... early morning income.. even before the day began...

i loiter around the bus stand, then decide to check the ticket again... there.. they can't help it, the date of journey is next day's!!! i walk back to the counter but of course the girl is off duty now. I go back to the ticket counter pay 10% extra & get the ticket changed. The city name appears to match with the address card.

more or less satisfied now, i then walk back and board the bus... rest of the day goes without a problem. I must thank Joe for forewarning me...