I am not really sure what it is, but I have a bad habit of loosing it when I get close to the end of my trips. I am less than two weeks from heading home and today I finally blew up on a poor cab driver. In my defense, I had been playing it cool for what I consider far too long when it comes to cab drivers trying to rip me off...

When I first arrived to Shanghai, I actually had a guy try to charge me 500 RMB, about $65 US to take me to downtown Shanghai from the airport! Can you believe that? This is a ride that typically costs about 180 RMB or so depending on exactly where you want to go. Then you get guys all over every town you go to trying to give you rides without turning on the meter, or others that tell you that you have to pay for their ride back after taking you somewhere. Give me a break. When they act up, just open the door and threaten to walk and they usually straighten up. If they haven't turned on that meter, then there is no commitment.

Anyway, I'm in the cab from the airport and the guy is trying to sell me one of these flat-rates to my hotel. I just keep pointing to the meter and repeat meter... meter... meter. After about a minute of this, I open the door and threaten to walk out and he says "hao hao," (pronounced: how, how) which is "ok, ok," in Chinese. Anyway, the whole ride there he keeps trying telling me other things, of which I could not understand any of except for the part about him wanting more money. I casually just keep smiling and saying "dui bu qi, wo ting bu dong," (I'm sorry, I don't understand.)... By the way, this sort of thing happens in every country, not just China.

Anyway, we start getting close to the hotel and after seeing the train station (which my hotel was suppose to be very close to) I start looking at the street names and numbers. At this point I realize we are on the wrong street and the numbers are going up instead of down. So, what happens next? I freak out. In my broken chinese I try telling him... "bad, bad... wrong street! I say you Hotel, you say yes. I show you address, you say yes... This no hotel... bad, bad! Stop the taxi, stop the taxi!"

At this point, my thick head is not listening to much he is saying, I keep telling him to pull over and start getting even angrier when he turns in the opposite direction I had asked. He says to me... "look, look. there... your hotel." Apparently, he was going a back way because of traffic. Boy did I feel bad. I spent the next minute or so repeating... "dui bu qi, dui bu qi," (pronouced: dewey boo chee), "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."