Heading Home from the Hotsprings

Since Patrick's Chinese is better than mine, he is often the one who asks for directions. Here Pat asked this man to confirm that we were at the right bus stop. This kind gentleman was sooooo enthusiatic to be of assistance. 

Here Patrick is getting money out for the bus. We actually didn't have the exact change, however, a generous Chinese lady spotted us for the difference. 

Shortly after getting on the bus Amariah fell asleep. Patrick and I were feeling so relaxed ourselves, it took everything we had to stay awake. 

Riding on the bus in China is another cultural experience. The rules of the road appear to be more like suggestions. For example, I am not sure if the lines on the road mean anything. What would appear to be, to the average Canadian, a 2 lane road, marked by the painted lines, often turns into three or four lanes. Also, it is not uncommon for a vehicle to swurve into oncoming traffic, and the oncoming traffice to just swurve out of the way, sometimes driving up onto the sidewalks. Drive where ever there is room. If the car fits, I guess it is fair driving turff. With the laxed driving rules now being said the rest of the story may not seem so bizarre. 

As I am riding on the bus and enjoying the scenary, I notice that the bus slows down and the bus driver begins to honk vigorously. "No big deal" I thought to myself, we will just swurve to the left or right to pass whoever is holding up the show. The driver continues to honk. After more than a few moments the driver had the whole buses' attention focused on the motorcycle driving slowly in front of the bus on the highway. "Strange, motorcyles are usually the fastest vehicles on the road." The driver kept honking for this moto to get out of the way. It was strange that the moto wouldn't show any signs of noticing the bus behind him. After much frustration, the bus driver finally swurverd to the left to pass the slow moto. As we passed I took a look at the moto driver and was surprised at the reason he was holding up traffic, he was talking on his cell phone. Talking on the cell phone, while driving a motorcycle on the highway, I am still trying to wrap my mind around that one. 

Farther down the road we come to our first bus stop and a flood of Chinese memories return to me as a herd of taxi motos surround the door of the bus eagerly trying to gain customers from the passengers getting off. Out of this particular herd of motos only one was successful in gaining a customer from the passengers that left us. Before this visit to my memories I hadnt realized how thankful I was that motos had been band from the downtown Guangzhou area. When we were here 4 years ago everytime you got off the city bus you had weave your way through the maze of motos with their drivers grabbing at you in their attempt to get a customer. It was frustrating, and also a little scary as we had heard stories of people getting their bags stolen by the moto drivers who would just grab the bag and then drive off. Yes, so thankful they past the law in our absence, that band motos from the city. 

Here is a bus with a herd of motos flooding the door. There are so many, not all of them even make it near the bus. There are also the taxis that line up and wait for customers.