Country Apple

Today was, indeed, a day of smelly alleys and stank bodies of still water. My mom had to take care of some business in a town outside of Shanghai, so today was devoted to getting that task done and getting ripped off at every turn. Now, I think of myself as a pretty "street smart" person when it comes to traveling and getting the best deals, but when it comes to traveling with my mom, I tend to leave things up to her because she's really picky. I enjoy walking everywhere or taking public transportation (i.e. the metro), but my mom prefers taking taxis when possible. This is how we came to spend a lot more money than we really needed to. We needed to get to the "fast train" toward Nanjing, the doorman told us to go to Shanghai Railway Station. We took a taxi to get there, asked the cabbie to take us there, he said Shanghai South Station also has the "fast train" toward Nanjing and it was a closer cab ride, so he took us there. Guess what, turns out there is no train toward Nanjing that passes through Kunshan (our destination) at Shanghai South Station. Bitch took us to the wrong place. So we took another taxi to the right station, the one the doorman told us in the first place. The taxi ride cost an extra 60rmb to the right station, I'm pretty sure the cabbie was taking the long way. He drops us off rather far from the train station, leaving us to find the entrance ourselves. My mom is sooo angry at this point that she yells at me for not knowing where to go, I apologize for not being familiar with a train station I've been to, maybe, twice (the last time I just remember running through it, trying to catch a bus to Huangshan, that wasn't so fun.. or maybe it was Beijing, in which case, no running was involved). We finally find the right place, but the tickets are sold out. Lame, so we decide to take a bus there instead, but the bus depot is on the other side of the station (the place we ran to prior to said Huangshan trip). We got our bus ticket and were finally on our way to Kunshan. Other incidents occurred that led my mom to be even less happy, but the upside of the entire day was that I ate xin jiang ban mian. :D

Anyway, even though today was less than stellar, I have tomorrow to look forward to. We're leaving for Xi'an at 1pm! Yay, terracotta army!

Oh yeah, the reference for today's title comes from a 朋友 who tried to trick her mind into thinking good smelling thoughts (like Bath and Body Works' Country Apple) when actually smelling stinky alley or mystery odor of shit.

Hope I'll have internet at the other hotels, if not, see you later!