Bus Mates

I met this couple Alan and Linda, on my bus ride to Chengde. It was a 15 people minibus and they keep talking in English. Linda was actually knitting the whole way too!!! Eventually I was curious enough to talk to them. They are from San Francisco and will be here for a month. They already been to DaTong and PiuYiang (I was so excited when they told me that cause that was the place I was going to go originally but have to change my plan because lack of time) and will spend next few days in Beijing. They were commenting the reckless driving of our minibus driver. It is kind of reckless and I am glad I wasn't sitting in the front cause I would totally freak out. It is a single lane highway. And whenever he want to pass people, he basically drive on the incoming traffic lane. It is okay if it is straight flat road. But we are talking about driving between mountain, where it is curvy and wavy. And it is not a quiet road. He basically would shift back to his lane LAST MINUTE before hitting the incoming car. I am glad I arrive in one piece and not knowing better. I am slightly disappointed that my bus ride didn't stop at the Great Wall, which my book said they would, or use the new highway which would only take 2.5 hours. But I guess my bus has a load of people wanting to go home. Once we arrived at Chengde, it seems like Alan and Linda are going to the same hotel as me. So we took the bus together. Since I am the person actually speak more and better :P Mandarin than either of them, I asked the bus driver where about we should took off. She said 6 bus stations. After stopping at 3-4 bus stations, I forgot exactly how many were there left. So I ask the lady beside me and she thought for a bit, and when the bus stopped, she quickly told me to get off HERE. I was like...errr....but...and without giving me anytime to to say anything, she dragged me off the bus and then showed me on the board at the bus station to take another bus that would take me directly to where I wanted to go. The problem now was that Alan and Linda were still on the bus and it was so crowded that they didn't see me get off. I haven't seen them since then. I hope they are okay. :(