Logistics smojistics
All told, I have spent over 2 hours waiting for taxis today. Not taking taxis, not considering taking taxis, not sitting around with taxi drivers, not waiting for stuff to get done so I can go take a taxi… no. Actually standing around and waiting for a taxi to come and pick me up. I am currently sitting around on some freezing metal poles at Beijing Capital airport and waiting for a taxi. I am not in line anymore. That was not going well for me. Instead, I am sitting outside the arrivals gate and waiting for Yam Ki to taxi out from Beijing so I can hop into his car and we can turn around and go back to Beijing. That is how bad the taxi line is, my friends. The taxi line is hopeless. The taxi line is filled with probably around 500-1000 very angry, generally wealthy travelers. Here, near the departures gate, there are about 20 people, all of us overdressed in suits, all the rest of them men, probably 80% Caucasians. We have decided to defy the system. We are getting out of this airport tonight come hell or high water. We have called our friends, lovers, 5 star hotel staff, and basically anyone we have a phone number for in Beijing and asked them to please come out here and get us.
I’ve been waiting for about an hour at this point (including the first line, which I only recently defected from). But I said that I had waited for taxis for two hours today - what gives?
Well, my flight was scheduled out of Kunming at 8 PM. At 6 PM, running mysteriously and thankfully early, I began to look for a taxi. It happened to be both Friday night and raining, which means that taxis were scarce. Worse, Kunming’s taxi exchange time is 7 PM, which means that all the drivers are picking up their last passenger of the day by 6:30. That’s right, folks, I waited around, in the rain, without an umbrella, in downtown Kunming for a taxi for an hour. Finally I walked down this alley to a popular high end massage parlor that I know of. Much of the clientele arrives in taxis - but no one else is waiting for them there. So after hanging out and walking around for a solid hour in the rain, I got a taxi, told him that if he got me to the airport in 15 minutes I had an extra 10 RMB for him (he did, I did, and that increased the total fare by 50% — tipping a $1.25 goes a long way over here).
Magically, I made my flight, which was only marginally delayed (miracle of miracles) and got to Beijing. Where I have now been, for an hour, waiting for a taxi. Luckily there is one upside to this situation: there are lots and lots of attractive guys in suits (my favorite) waiting around out here with me.
