Divine Appointment

Have you ever experience missing a plane, a train, a bus, and you almost did not know that? Haha... I just experienced it on 28Dec08.

It was in HangZhou where we were supposed to catch the 5:25pm train to go back to Shanghai. We were told by the taxi driver that it's ok to leave hotel at 5.00pm. But since it may be tough to get taxi at that time, we should get a taxi probably at 4:45pm. After late lunch and stroll by the lake side, we decided to catch a taxi at 4:25pm. Much earlier than we supposed to right?

We waited at the hotel lobby and found no taxi, probably not a common time for people to check in to hotel? We decided to walk out to the main road as it looks more promising. There were many taxi out there but almost none of them are empty. Some was hitched by other passengers waiting at other "better" spots than us. By 4:50pm, we were still standing by the roadside trying our luck.

At 4:55pm, finally I "caught" one, empty taxi!! The taxi driver refused to take us as he's rushing to get to his office for a daily procedure at 5pm. I told him we are going to miss our train at 5:25pm, and we've been waiting for half an hour. He wanted to refuse us again but after he looked at his watch and the heavy traffic, he agreed to help us catch our train, since it's running real late. We were so touched when he was willing to put our needs above his.

When I open the door and wanted to hop into the backseat, I saw a pink Nokia phone, a phone I used to like. Without hesitating, I passed to the driver, saying I found a handphone at the backseat. I guess he was surprised at my honesty and said that it must have been left by the previous passengers who were in Lou Wai Lou for a dinner reception. We asked if we were supposed to call the owner's friend (any number from the recent dialled numbers) and inform them that the phone was left in the car. The taxi owner says no need. Argh, at that moment of time, I almost regretted handing the phone to him - probably the phone will be lost forever. He then clarified that if he submit to his company, he will get extra merit points for honesty. Phew... ok. He's not that bad after all. We also wrote our phone number and thanks you note for him to show his superior to explain that he was late because he wanted to help passengers catch train. Else he'll be fined RMB1 every minute (worse than lintah darat!!).

After a while, while the driver was answering his cell phone, the pink Nokia phone rang. I offered to answer the phone since he was occupied. The lady in the phone sounded anxious, but she was so grateful when she found out that I was the next passenger and I actually did not keep the phone for myself. It was a very sincere "Thank You" you can tell. Great that she is local Hang Zhou residence and she has made appointment with the taxi driver to collect the phone in the taxi office. The taxi driver also asked her to report lost to the taxi office so that the merit point is secured when the taxi driver report "lost and found" at the office later on.

We reached the train station at 5:15pm. After sqeezing through the long and compact queues, we managed to get into the departure hall at 5:22pm. When I was 10meters away from the gate, I saw a lady closing the gate. OMG. The few passengers before and after me yelled, and all of us ran even faster. Luckily the lady let us in and we did not miss the train. Phew... Guess what, there was actually a "notice board" requesting passengers to be at departure hall 2hours before departure... argh, should have read that and not simply believing the taxi drivers and hotel concierge team :( But am glad God seen us through. Great amazing race!! :)