Taxi Ride in Xian, China

In 2006, my husband Rich and I went to Xian, China as Global Volunteers to teach conversational English in grade schools.  Our friend who traveled to China frequently assured us that we did not have to change currency until we got to the airport in Xian. The exchange rate is better in China and banks are all over the airport.  Also, Global Volunteers assured us that we could easily get to our hotel from the airport with no problem in a taxi.

We got off the plane with great excitement as this was going to be an adventure. The first item of business was to find the money exchange booth as we would need money to pay for the taxi ride.  All booths of any kind were closed.  The shops were closed and the banks were closed.  We did see something like an ATM machine but since we did not read or speak Chinese, we did not know whether it was an ATM, or a bus and rail pass machine.  We finally found a desk with the English word “Tourist.”  We hurried there.

“Can you change money for us?

There were puzzled looks, head shaking and hand waving indicating “No”.

“Where can we change our money?”

More head shaking and negative hand waving.

“How can we get a taxi?”

After furtive looks from one agent to the other, one agent finally said, “Outside.”

“Where outside?” 

More head shaking and hand waving.

We then heard a voice off to the side about 50 feet away, “You need taxi?” he said with the Chinese lilt in his voice.

“Yes!”

“Where you going?”  I produced the address of the Hyatt hotel in downtown Xian which I had written out just for this kind of situation.

He said with a big smile, “Come, come. I take you.  Follow me.” 

We quickly looked at the agents at the desk for some sign of caution or approval.  They remained stone-faced so we decided to go.

The jaunty man offered to take our bags but we decided to keep our hands on our bags to make sure they stayed with us.  We entered a stark elevator that took us down several floors.  When the door opened, we found ourselves in a parking garage much like one in a James Bond movie.

The man kept saying with the Chinese lilt, “Come, come. Follow me.” 

We walked a long way through sections of the garage getting warier at each turn.  We finally came to a car ramp where we were told, “Wait here.”  We had no idea where we were and now we were in the hands of this stranger who spoke only a few English words.

          About 5 minutes later, which seemed an eternity, a car drove up toward the ramp.  It had no taxi markings.  It certainly was not a limousine, just an ordinary car that looked like it has seen many miles.  The driver jumped out.  He opened the trunk and the two men loaded our bags motioning us to get in the back seat.  The back seat was clean, a bit worn, but had seat belts.  The two men talked briefly.  Before we knew it, our English speaking escort disappeared and we were at the mercy of a taxi driver who did not speak any English.  We had no idea whether he knew where we wanted to go or where he was really taking us.  Thoughts of being kidnapped did cross our minds.

          Traffic in Xian was an adventure in itself as this driver plowed through the busy streets, barely missing the myriad of pedestrians who seem to just step off at any time.  We tried to find some English signs that would give us some idea where we were.  Everything was in Chinese.

Finally, we arrive at the Hyatt Hotel in Xian but we had no money to pay for the driver. 

“Welcome!” said the Bellman.  Oh, a sign he spoke English.

“Please wait.  We will get money to pay you,” we implored the Bellman to tell the taxi driver.

Rich went inside while I stayed on the curb not wanting the driver to think we were going to skip paying him. 

“You go inside.  You go inside.”  The Bellman insisted.  “It’s too hot here.  I wait here for you.”

Inside the hotel was cool but I fretted as Rich got money exchanged at the hotel desk.  He first had to check in as the service was for guests only.  It took a while to make the money exchange and figure out how much we owed the cab driver. 

When Rich went back out, the cab was gone.  

“I already paid the driver myself so he did not have to wait,” said the Bellman.  “You pay me.”  He asked for the exact amount of the ride.

          We found out that the whole country was on “vacation” for two weeks and all banks, government offices, and many businesses were closed.  To our relief, we learned the manager of the hotel, was an American from Minnesota who spoke perfect English and Chinese.  He graciously greeted and welcomed us.  We felt like we had a little piece of home after a twenty-three-hour plane ride from California and a wild ride in a cab.

          Later that night, I was reading the tour book that one should read before embarking on a trip.  I found a caution, against rides offered in the airport by anyone other than the official taxi union with a marked car. 

Angels watching over us.

Elevator Adventure 2018

  We were on our way to the second-floor exhibits of the museum.  We got into the elevator.  The doors closed.  We pushed the buttons and nothing happened.  We tried all the buttons, even the “door open” one, and nothing happened. Here we were stuck in an elevator at the Water Works museum in Las Vegas, Nevada.

         

Using the emergency phone, Rich then called to alert security we were trapped in the elevator. 

“We will send someone to get you out.”

10 minutes later--knock, knock. “You folks alright?”

“Yes, we are fine.  Can you open the door?”

“How many of you in there?”

“Just two 74-year-old people.”

“I’m going to get a mechanic.”

10 minutes later we heard clanging and knocking on the door.

“You folks alright?”

“We are fine.”

“We are working on it.”

Meanwhile, we are laughing, making jokes, and very confident we will be rescued.  We remembered Rich’s mother saying you should always have clean underwear in case you have to be rescued and you won’t be embarrassed.

10 minutes later, we heard knocking on the other door, as this was a double opening elevator.

“You folks ok?”

“We’re fine.”

“Do you need anything?”

“How about a cup of coffee and maybe some donuts?” I giggled.

“We’ll get you out soon.”

We were sitting comfortably on the floor. After 45 minutes, a fireman pulled the doors apart with 6 other firemen peering in.

“You can come out now,” he said, in a somewhat stern voice.

As we quickly exited a security officer said:  “Will you folks wait until we get some personal information so we can make our report.” 

I counted 10 firemen, 2 paramedics, and 4 security officers on the scene.  After taking our information, the security officer offered us a ride to our car in the parking lot which was not too far away.

On the ride to our car, I asked the security officer, “How many people were there to rescue us?”

“2 fire trucks, 1 ambulance.“

“Why so many?”

“People react differently to these kinds of situations.  We take no chances.  You folks seem to take this in stride.”

Remembering the plane crash in Zambia and the auto accident in Cambodia, I said quietly, “We’ve been in worse.”

Two weeks later, we got a written apology for the inconvenience and complimentary tickets for four for a future return trip to the museum.

Favor--Dec 2018

I booked flights online using frequent flyer miles for our one-way flight to Santiago Chile to pick up a cruise.  I received an email about a flight change.  I noticed that the flight from LAX to Guatemala was missing.  When I called I was told Avianca Air had a “market change” and canceled that flight.  They did not have a replacement flight for Business class as I booked, so they simply dropped my reservation.  In order to resolve this, I needed to contact Avianca Air.  The contact number was for Spanish speakers only.  I finally got United Airlines to call an English speaking Avianca office.  That department was closed for the day so on the following day I called at 6am when they opened in Central time.

“We only have economy seats.  If you want business class, there would be a 7-hour wait in Honduras, and you would arrive on March 14, 2 days later.”

“I can’t accept that itinerary.  Please find something else.”    

After an hour of trying to make changes, the annoyed agent finally said, “You need to fix this with United because you are using United miles!”

I asked the United agent to please rectify the situation of the strange flight changes Avianca had made. 

“I need to get Santiago Chile by March 13, 2019, in the daytime, on the shortest flights, business class,” I said as politely as I could.

“We could do that but it would require 190,000 more frequent flyer miles.  Your original booking was for ‘red eye’ flights requiring fewer miles.  Or we could book you with a 7-hour wait in Honduras.”

  Ugh!  “Use whatever miles necessary to get us there the fastest, please.”

“Please hold while I redeposit your miles and rebook.”

Wait, wait…  I didn’t dare hang up now!

“I spoke to my supervisor who authorized the daytime flight with no additional miles since it was a problem caused by Avianca.”

Wow, I thought.  “I’ll take it! “

The Lord’s favor got me the prime time flights for the cost of “red eyes”!

On the travel day, we were settled in on the flight on the first leg from LAX to IAH.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the Captain.  Because of the weather, we must take another route to Houston which means we need to return to the terminal to refuel for a longer flight.  We also have to change the flight crew.  This flight will be delayed.  Thank you for your patience.”

This meant we were going to miss our connecting flight.  As soon as we landed in Houston, we rushed to the United customer service desk to rebook on the next 10pm flight to Santiago, Chile.

For the overnight, United sent us to a Hilton Doubletree Hotel and gave us food vouchers for 3 meals each.  Unfortunately, Business class was full and so we had to be on the business upgrade list. This was going to be a 14-hour flight.

We were first on the upgrade list.  While standing in the economy passenger line, I intently watched the upgrade list for a last-minute upgrade.  I could hear in my head the song “you make the impossible available to me.” We boarded in economy class and began to settle in.  The doors were closed, and the safety instructions were being given. 

A steward then came up to my husband.

“Excuse me, sir, Are you Richard Vogl?”

Of course, Rich’s heart skipped a beat thinking something was wrong. 

“Follow me.  We have seats for you and your wife in business class.”

FAVOR!!!

I know this sounds like a commercial for United Airlines but they did a good job.  The Lord’s favor can even work through an airline.

Keeping Ahead of Closing Gates

We were on our way to join a 21 day cruise to the Amazon.  This was January 2020 while the midwestern USA was bracing for winter storms.  We flew from Los Angeles, with a layover in Chicago, then on to Fort Lauderdale.  When we landed in Ft. Lauderdale, we learned that 1200 flights from Chicago had been cancelled just as we left.  We could have been stuck in snowy Chicago.

Our cruise went on without a hitch.  While on board we saw news about cruise ships being quarantined because of COVID 19 spreading.  Ships were not allowed to dock and airports barred passengers from arriving.  On Feb 10 we arrived in Rio de Janerio and spent 2 days sight seeing and enjoying the city while the Asia  was in a COVID 19 panic.  We flew to Houston, Texas  on our way home stopping for 2 days because we could not get a flight to LAX sooner.  We learned the day after we left Houston the city was hit with a flood.  A few days after that, Rio de Janerio was shut down because of the first identified case of COVID 19.  Had we been delayed a more few days, we would have not been allowed to enter the USA coming from a COVIG19 country and would be held in quarantine somewhere.

Two weeks later, we had an appointment to renew my GOES card at McCarron airport in Las Vegas.  We made it a 4 day timeshare vacation at the Trump Hotel since we were going there.  Although the news was filled with COVID 19 warnings and stories of people stranded somewhere or quarantined, Las Vegas was doing business as usual. After we returned safely to our home in California, we learned Las Vegas was shut down totally because of COVID 19.  Hotels, casinos, restaurants, bars, and malls were closed.  We just missed being stranded again.

The Lord’s timing is impeccable.

We subsequently cancelled our Rhine River cruise as not to be quarantined somewhere in France.  We got a 100% voucher for future use.  We then cancelled our Hawaii trip as Hawaii was requiring 14 day quarantine for any arrivals in Hawaii.  We were refunded all our money, timeshare points, plus an extension for use for another year.

We are now sheltered in place at home.  Last year at this time, we were moving.  What a nightmare it would have been had we planned to move this year.  Our children are close enough to look after our needs (mostly groceries) and we are blessed.