China Taxi Debacle

As of yesterday at 4.30pm I arrived in Zhengzhou, China after leaving Perth at 11.30pm Monday night. My 1st task was to make it to the course as quickly as possible to make a players meeting. Unfortunately I did not know what lied ahead with my Taxi mates for the next 4 hours and 15mins.

4.15pm – I consult with a taxi driver that yells Taxi, Taxi at me. I get her to call a number on my phone so I can translate what she is saying. She says she knows where the Golf Course is and it was confirmed by one of the PGA Tour China Staff.

4.30pm – The Taxis arrives. I load my gear into the car and lay my clubs across the back seat. Little did I know two others would be sitting in the back seat with my clubs.

5pm – Stop and my Taxi negotiator gets out. Looks like I am about to swap cars. She stands around 10 other Chinese Taxis. No Swap but the Nope prices go up. She says it is a long way as I call my interpreter again who okays it. 🙄

5.15pm – Headed for the course. At this point I am extremely happy and showing the taxi driver Australian dollars and coins. Just stuff he would not have seen before.

5.30pm – He stops to continuously draw Chinese symbols into the maps to find out where the course is. On maps the direction comes up and the only symbols I knew was the distance to the course and time. Which was fair stating time – 1 hour, distance – 45kms.

6pm – I am not at the players meeting I am supposed to be at. I call the PGA organizer and say I think I am lost and getting a little
concerned. My Taxi driver is asking every man and his dog where the course is. Most are just interested looking at me. I look at the maps and at this point find the time and kms have not changed. Started to get frustrated. 😩

6.30pm – Keeping calm and still doing circles, running into dead ends due to road constructions. Highways above highways being built. I know the last bus from the course leaves at 7.30pm back to the hotel and the players meeting is pretty much over. Little did I know the Hotel is back in the direction of the airport and even further that way. 😡 I make the decision to again pay more and call my interpreter to tell my taxi driver to take me to my hotel.

7.15pm – Driving past all the landmarks I saw driving to the course. Good! And he has the hotel in the GPS/Maps. I am tied after all this traveling so I put my seat back, head back and nodded off due to the continuos straight road we were on.

7.45pm – Been checking to see if maps, distance and time is going down. Yep! 👍🏼👏🏼 But he is most certainly the slowest driver in the world. Cars, trucks and buses and flying by us on this highway. Beeping letting us know where they are. I can’t even tell him to hurry up. He doesn’t understand anything.

8pm – He stops randomly on the side of the highway and starts drawing into his computer again. I am thinking here we go again. 😩 We are 10kms away as trucks and buses fly by shaking the cab.

8.15pm – After turning down a road that leads to a dead end the driver starts to become frustrated. Turning around he and turning left back onto the main road. As we turned he yells out his window to another taxi driver to help find the hotel. So now we are following him. 😰 Finally I feel good sense that we are headed in the right direction. 🙏🏼😋

8.45pm – We arrive and my Taxi driver argues the point with the taxi driver we followed trying to pay little as possible. Boy o boy was this taxi driver annoyed with mine. In the mist of the Chinese battle I am just glad I am safe and at my hotel. 🎉🎊🎉🎊👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼