Never Have I Ever ...

[This post is chronologically out of order. Oh well. Afterthought.]

I will no longer be able to say "Never have I ever ... run from the police. literally."


So. On our way back from Huang Shan, the "bus stop" we were taken to by a random van driver/guide actually = the side of the highway. Bearing all our luggage (which wasn't too much since we hiked Huang Shan carrying what we had), we scaled a rocky hill, around some people's gardens, past barbed wire fence, through some bushes, to get next to the shiny green highway road sign stating "Nanjing, 291 km."

So it's 10 people - 7 kids, 2 moms, and me. Everyone has at least a bookbag. The moms have canes because their knees/legs were giving out while hiking. We wait for about 15 minutes, while our driver/guide phones the bus driver he apparently knew and assure us it'd be coming soon. I see a police car drive by, and a few minutes later, our guide is rustling in the bushes ... it's our driver looking around. Suddenly our guide is like "he's here! go go go! go!" and all I'm thinking is "dude, chill out, the bus driver can't be in that much of a hurry." and then the driver starts heading away from the bushes where I thought the bus was, yelling "go go, go back down the hill, go back to the van!" and everybody makes a mad dash. Of course, I had absolutely no idea what was going on due to standing farthest away from the guide/bushes, besides that maybe we had 0.001 seconds to get onto the bus before it left, or something. So I just stand and stare while everybody starts scrambling down the hill, because why run when you might not need to? and I was also hoping maybe to get a photo of the madness. Maybe 15 seconds later, when they're halfway down the hill and I'm still 23 steps behind, I realized we were running from the police. OH. why didn't you say so?

Ok so my next instinct is, why are we running from the police, just for standing by the highway? Oh, whatever, forget it. And I follow. By this time I'm enjoying the actual act of running (fast and from something, not moderate endurance/exercise running), but also hearing the policeman yelling "stop! stop!" behind us at the top of the hill and imagining getting shot by the 16 guns he keeps in his beltloop. That would be semi-tragic. I would never be able to review my photos from Huang Shan. Anyway so we run and run, with our bookbags full of clothes, down the hill, across the trashy abandoned pavement under the highway, around the corner, down an alleyway of houses, and into a little shop.

We're there maybe 1 minute before the van driver pulls up, jumps out, opens the trunk, says "everybody get in! fast! come on come on" and we proceed to pile 11 people into a 7-seater van. Yes, that is 4 extra people. Yes, everyone had luggage. Yes, that is illegal. Yes, it was hilarious.


... We ended up driving to a gas station about 20 minutes away and getting on the bus there. It was an overfilled bus, so some people sat on little tiny stools in the aisle (what?) ... they played a DISNEY movie. and not even a famous one, it was like a Disney-channel-only movie. Whatever, it was about time warp, and it was in English.

Anyway, conclusion: I have officially run from the police in a mad mob of children, women, and sketchy van drivers.
And I almost forgot about that story until just now.


our lovely "bus stop"


waiting for the bus.


heading home before police get us.