further adventures in a taxi

this morning, i saw the fiancee off to the aiport. at 5 am. i guess the good thing about having such an early flight is that the roads were pretty empty and it only took 25min to get to the airport. after dropping him off, i went to go find myself a taxi back to the hotel.

i had been forewarned already that none of the taxis leaving the airport will run on a meter and that you have to negotiate the fare price beforehand. i also heard that 100 RMB is about as low as they will go. so i exited out of the airport out of doorway 9 to find the taxi cab stand. . . there were a couple of guys waiting outside and they asked me where i needed a ride to. i gave him the name of my hotel and asked him what price he was charging. we settled on 100 RMB.

i expected him to take me to one of the typical red, or green/yellow taxi cars. instead we started walking to the parking lot. he called someone on the phone and told him that there was a passenger and that we would be heading to my hotel. i was starting to get a little suspicious so i asked him where his car was and who he worked for. the cab driver told me that he worked for a hotel and named the hotel. . .my sense of wariness skyrocketed as the walk to the car dragged out and we reached a white unmarked car. . then i basically told the guy that i was not going to get in the car. i didn't think it was good. he told me not to worry, that he worked for a hotel, and that they would take me to my hotel for the agreed 100 RMB. . .but i already had images of being dragged off and who knows what!

so i began to quickly walk away from the vehicle and repeatedly refused to take the cab. . at one point i was nearly yelling. then another woman in an unmarked car started asking me if i wanted a ride. . .i just ignored her and finally found the taxi stand.

i got into the taxi. unmetered. negotiated 100 RMB and was on my way back to the hotel. . in retrospect, i don't know if i really had anything to worry about. . it could have just been people looking for another way to make a buck. but then again, they could have been scam artists or something worse. . .