Mike and Leigh's UnBlog

Mary Day 4 Part III

I totally forgot to tell everyone about the 'incident.'
It was awesome - a definite highlight.
First, a little background...
The van in the picture is our van for the week in Chengsha, complete with driver. Most of the time, there are nine of us fearing for our lives in its astroturfed interior. Our first driver, Mr. Foo, smoked the same Benson & Hedges Gold that an old woman used to buy from me at the gas station back in the day - a woman who spoke with one of those voicebox-trachia speech-deals and bragged that the surgery had helped her, "beat the cancer, so she could smoke all she wanted." I digress.
At some point, Mr. Foo gave up driving duties to his brother-in-law, Mr. Pung. I asked if that made his wife Pung Foo, but he didn't get it. My humor seems to go right over their heads.
Mr. Pung drove us to the embroidery factory. That's Leigh with Mary wrapped like a burrito, and our guide, Ashley, climbing aboard. Anyway, on the way back to the hotel from the factory, Ashley needed to make a quick stop at another sign-covered, arbitrarily-marked building. Pung parked outside in the street - which is better than on the sidewalk where most people seem to park. In fact, we also learned that, "driving illegally on the pedestrian will cost you 200 Yuan." If it only costs 200 Yuan to run down pedestrians, it's no wonder the driver-pedestrian relationship seems like a bloodsport. Again, I digress.
So, we're sitting outside in traffic with Mr. Pung and Ashley's nowhere in sight. Between Pung's chewing tobacco stench and the searing heat inside, we were all a little uncomfortable in the van when the police knocked on the window. Mr. Pung was asked to exit the van and was questioned when a cadre of other cops arrived on the scene and pitched in, interogating Mr. Pung while we sat baking in the van. When Ashley finally came out, he tried to intervene on Mr. Pung's behalf to no avail. He then started apologizing to us, but we were howling. All I asked was that he get a picture of Mr. Pung being questioned...
Mr. Pung got a ticket and a scare and we were on our way with a great memory and a photo to prove it.

posted by Michael Fresina @ 3:48 AM