Travel with Mr B...

It was a funny holiday...

I didn't really expect my national holiday to be such a drama! I had no plan initially which however ended up with a family trip to Yandang Mountain, located in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province. One week before National Holiday,my father's inferior invited us to go to his hometown during the national holiday where is close to Yandang mountain and Huangyan, I checked out my schedule, funnily I didn't have any plan in-between.I accepted this offer with no hesitation. For one reason was I haven't had a trip with my parents since Jan last year. I'm so used to traveling by myself or with some mates that I sometimes omit my folk's feeling. I reckon this time would be a great opportunity to make up for the long-lost gathering with them.But besides the family, there was one more person who led the whole trip, Temporarily we called him Mr B.

We set out in the early morning of Sep 30th, as usual, I was packed one day earlier so that I didn't need to worry anything on the day of departure. On the way to the Shanghai Long Distance Bus station, we were planning what we could do once we arrived which injected a blast of joy and excitment into this coming tour. After all, we haven't been traveling together for a year, which in a sudden retrieved the long lost harmony and pleasure that only penetrated within our family, until we arrived the station, we were being pushed back and forth by a swarm of crowds, looking for Mr B, 10 minutes ticked away, he still hasn't appeared, my father gave him a call, he replied and said he was held up in the basement, about to head back to us... what was he doing in the basement?? As we were not familiar with this newly built station, we didn't say anything but silently waiting for his presence.

20 minutes later, here he was, a 58 year old bloke with a hooked nose embossed in the middle of his decadent face,rat like eyes as if he was always half asleep; I was not a big fan of any smoker,his two arrays of mottled teeth made me frown hard whenever he laughed with his big mouth wide open as though he never used toothpaste when brushing his teeth... In short, he was definitely not a spunky guy. As his my father's employee, I rendered 120% respect on him. However, a sense of discomfort crept upon my mind. Well, maybe I was over-sensitve, I told myself not to judge a person according to the appearance. the journey just kicked off.

"Shanghai to Luqiao", a big signboard has been flipped back onto the bus. Where is Luqiao? I thought we were supposed to go to Yandang Mountain... Mr B explained," oh, Luqiao is not far from Yandang mountain, only half an hour, Shanghai to Luqiao only takes 4-5 hours..." Well, it could be a new exploration for me. We got on the bus at 9:00am, whereas didn't arrive till 16:00pm... I didn't have a clue where Mr B's 4-5 hours came from, plus he said he went back to his hometown almost every 3 months, didn't he have any sense of time? Whatsoever, we arrived, got off the bus, ready to chill out for a while then, another drama hit us woozy, originally Mr B asked us to accommodate in his friend's home, he walked away with a call and left us alone in the station for almost half an hour, then he came back with a perplexed face himself, and kept muttering,'let's go, let's go...!" Went where? we were being dragged from here to there, running around like a bunch of loons, "aren't we supposed to stay in your friend's home?" My mother couldn't wait to question. "I dont know, my friend never tells me his thought, he keeps changing, I can't follow his thought... " he replied with an innocent voice. Mr B kept talking on the phone the entire time we were in the taxi, felt like sb instructing him from another end, but poor communication forced the taxi driver to drive like a manic... the moment I felt I came back to Shanghai again, 'enjoying' being swung back and forth.

In the end, the taxi driver dropped us off in front of a shabby look motel. Mr B finally put his phone back to the pocket, I felt a bit sorry for him being attacked by the phone radiation over the past 20 minutes, he put me and my mum in a standard room, decided to take my father to his friend's home, what a lousy plan! I thought we were supposed to be together according to the original plan. There were so many "suppose" s which got rise to nil realization... I was a bit grumpy at the moment for I didn't want his silly organization to ruin the whole family trip. But the fact was our bed was not big enough for 3 people... With a big compromise, my father had to go. My loath on Mr B has been accumulating since then, and that was not the end of the story. tentatively I had to say goodbye to my papa, hopefully I could dream of him even when we were apart... ( a bit too serious, just one night:-p)

In the following day, we woke up early as Mr B said he would allocate a car to pick us up from the hotel for breakfast, then directly headed to Yandang Mountain. My mum got sort of rushy temper, I couldn't sleep while she was having the TV on... we were both sitting on the bed and waiting for the phone buzz, we counted the hours slipped through our fingers, couldn't help sneaking a peak on the phone still quietly lying on the dresser. My mum broke the silence and urged me to call my father for updating the situation. My father answered phone with half awake tune, which suddenly piqued his excitement while hearing my voice on the other end, " How are you? my daughter, they are arranging the car now, I don't know what happened, Mr B is organizing everything here, have you had your breakfast?" I was almost suffocating, what?! I thought we were supposed to have breakfast together, that was irritating... Were they going to leave me and my mum isolated till we were hungry to death!... Jeez, I couldn't help venting to my father, 'the whole plan sucks!! I can't believe Mr B's any nonsense, it's completely clueless! We are going to have breakfast now, afterwards comes to pick you up, Let's go to Yandang mountain together without him... !" My father was a bit perturb on the other side, he soothed me a bit and advised us to wait for a little longer, seemingly the car was out for us just now, I hung up the phone with a big sigh, we couldn't do anything except endless waiting in a 15 sqm large room. The car finally arrived, but a taxi rather than his friend's car...well, I didn't care no more. As I was going to Anji in the following day, Mr B invited us to stay with his sister living in Haimen(the current name is Jiaojiang), thus I carried my backpack with me. It was a sweltering day as we set out from the hotel around 8:30am, and didn't get there till midday, my stomach was rumbling as I was so used to a big breakfast... Apparently I resonated with my folks that the first thing to do was grab a bite once we got off the car. Due to the National Holiday, the whole scenic spot was surrounded by loads of private cars and giant shuttle buses, our taxi driver dropped us off near the entrance said it would be quicker for us to walk in. Since I had the same experience in Hangzhou the time we were heading to Lingyin Temple, there was a long drive way into the spot on which so many cars and buses were lined up, this was a good warning,"NEVER travel during Golden holiday in China..." Well, but no one really took that seriously. After all, being one of the crowds is better than being isolated at home...

We had something to eat near the closest eatery, Mr B continued his brag, "I have been to many places before, I have been to Yandang mountain for many times as well, I bet you won't be able to climb on the top, coz it's quite tiring... You should eat more, otherwise you don't really have energy..." His words not only killed joy but also provoked my anger, I decided to ignore him in the following couple of hours before I left for another trip. After lunch, he said he would lead the road since he said he has been here for many times. We were tagging behind. The sun was burningly baking behind my back, with the overweight of my backpack, I felt every two steps equaled one, I didn't remember how long we have walked until we asked a street vendor how far the entrance of Yandang mountain would be, my mum almost fainted, it was very obvious that we have already missed the entrance, there would be another small scenic spot, 3km away from here, Holy Molly... I felt like a Tibetan conducting a spiritual tour by surrounding the moutain with a prayer wheel. Sigh, I could see embarrassment creeping onto Mr.B's face, his facial muscle was no longer controllable, which he should. As we were already halfway to the small scenic spot, the only option was to finish the rest of the tour ASAP...

After we were done today's sightseeing, waiting for Mr's B's friend to pick us up from deep inside the valley was apparently a mission impossible, we hired a van to his sister's home. I was too tired to matter any other thing, melting into the backseat and straight dozing off myself after hopping into the van. When I had my eyes open after a couple of hour sleep, we were still on the car, had no idea where we were, the car kept hovering around the alien town like crazy... which turned out to be Mr B forgot where his sister's address, and left her phone number at home... I was completely paralysed, How great it was! The van was going to be our accommodation tonight. It was a long tedious drive for the cab driver and his wife, we eventually arrived due to Mr's B's sister's life-saving call. We had the simplest self-cooked dinner, and didn't stay in her home in the end, but headed back to the hotel in Luqiao... What a day!

My parents decided to fast forward their trip as well by going back to Shanghai one day earlier, I fortunately escaped from this dramatic trip with Mr B even earlier than my folks. Hehe... Even though it was such a horrible trip, it got me something memorable to talk about and Mr B demonstrated a very typical example of how bad organisation could end up with so that we won't make the same mistake while choosing our guide in the future... After all, I still enjoy being with my parents, which is the whole essence of this trip. It doesnt matter where you go, but whom you go with...