“Dan, can you tell by the tracking where we are?” Matt asks, “No, because I don’t have my phone” replies Dan! Bollox! I had travelled from Chengdu to Leshan by public mini-bus for two hours, transferred to a cart of a van up the hill and discovered my phone was no longer in my pocket, I was miles from civilisation (Karen would estimate that at 10,000 miles!), couldn’t speak a word of the language and had lost my phone – great.
We tried to search a van similar to our previous cart to be demonstrated by the locals that was not our van – but they understood what I was searching for. Within seconds three Chinese people whipped out mobiles and were calling someone – maybe their bookies, maybe our bus driver (so locals know the mobile numbers of bus drivers from Chengdu I thought?!) Anyway, not knowing if they were helping or trying to find a buyer for a recently acquired phone they intimated I should get in another cart of a van and go with them, obviously I obliged!
We literally raced back to town – now the driving in China has to be seen to be understood, but here’s an attempt at the driving I experienced: they drive on the right hand side, normally bikes/rickshaws in the gutter then two’ish lanes of traffic (no lane markers), so we were overtaking a car overtaking a couple of cars side by side plus the bikes and there were oncoming bikes & cars – great, now I would lose my phone & life today! Anyway, we arrived at Leshan bus station where I was reacquainted with my phone! Awesome – what are the chances, one in a million? That makes for 10 good china-man in china – I had found one!
Relieved I returned to Karen, Matt & Nicole to share the good news, offered to pay 50 yen (5 quid), was surprised they tried giving me change – obviously I had to pay for the taxi into/back from town, so refused the change and walked off relieved.
Well done St. Chris!
