老盧廈門遊記 – 3

I sat around the hotel lounge area and watched people go by. There were quite a few foreign travelers, come to think of it, I was one of them. A little girl roamed about the lobby with an entourage right behind her - her parents, and grandparents from both sides. It was an upscale hotel that we stayed in. I could imagine it must cost the little girl's family quite a fortune to all stay there.

2:30 pm arrived as I kept myself entertained, no sign of my tour guide yet. Knowing the culture very well, I certainly wasn't expecting Colin to show up promptly. I supposed I would actually be surprised to see him walk up at 2:30 pm. Anyhow, I waited in the lobby, out in the courtyard, then back in the lobby. At around 2:45 pm Colin showed up, Tom came with him. I had a hunch that Tom was sent by Peter, to "cover" my shopping needs. Peter is the CEO (Chief Entertainment Officer as he calls himself) of one of our biggest suppliers. Tom is the VP in charge of the Xiamen factory, Colin is a project manager. Peter usually goes out of his way to "take good care" of his business affiliates.

I greeted them and we chatted briefly. The electronics district is a good 15 minutes away by car, not exactly walking distance. We walked to the street corner hoping to flag down a taxi. One after another zoomed by us, all with passenger(s). We decided to walk down to the main intersection to try our luck. Wave after wave of taxis passed us by. We must have walked some 1/4 mile from the hotel before we finally saw an empty cab coming our way.

The driver was in the middle lane but he swiftly changed lane as soon as he saw us. Along the way he cut in front of several drivers. No sooner than the taxi had pulled to the curb I heard a raspy voice yelling out loud. One of the drivers was displeased with us (and the taxi driver), he cursed at us. "x你娘xxx!!", he yelled in 閩南語. "Hahaha, that was just too funny!", I thought. We all hopped in the taxi quickly and in no time we were gone in the traffic.