Death By Tuk-Tuk

This is a tuk-tuk.  It's kind of a tiny box with two narrow bench seats pulled by a little electric scooter.  Kinda cute, right?  Looks like it could be fun to ride in, right?  Oh, how looks can be deceiving.

We decided to go out on our own in Xi'an last night.  We walked some distance from our hotel looking for someplace to shop.  So far, it's been extremely difficult to spend money in China.  Our guides keep us on the run most of the time and don't really give us a chance to stop and shop for souvenirs.  They tell us we will have plenty of opportunity to shop in Beijing, and since we're constantly on the move and flying from place to place and luggage weight is extremely limited, it's best to wait until then to load up on goodies.  Man, it's hard.  We've got stacks of yuan burning holes in our pockets and no way to extinguish the flames!  So last night we went in search of market, a souvenir stand, anything that would allow us to shop.  We didn't really find it, but it was fun walking around town.  Since we had been up since 4:30 a.m. and were already pretty tired, we decided a tuk-tuk ride to a restaurant near our hotel was just the ticket.  

Let's just say that it seemed like a good idea at the time.

First, that box is really, really small.  I don't think that they really envisioned cramming four American bodies into that thing when they built it.  Jill and I sat on one bench and Mom and Brenda sat on the opposite bench, facing us.  We weren't even knee to knee.  That would have been way more spacious than the way it actually was.  We actually had to braid our legs together in order to fit.  No problem.  We've got this.  Then we took off.  It's really nice that in Xi'an, there's a special lane that's coned off on the side of the road for scooters and tuk-tuks and such so that they're not mixing in with the regular traffic - that is, until you get to an intersection and then the barriers are gone and all bets are off.  This brings us to the near-death experience portion of our program.  Let's just say that in China, there is no such thing as right of way.  Or maybe I should say that EVERYONE thinks THEY have the right of way and nobody wants to yield unless not doing so will means instant death.  So as we entered one intersection, we had an electric scooter to our right and a large SUV to our left.  The SUV to our left decided that they wanted to turn right.  The scooter to our right decided they wanted to turn left.  Our driver decided he was going straight no matter what and he wasn't slowing down for anyone or anything.  Unfortunately, the drivers of the SUV and the scooter decided they weren't slowing down for anyone or anything either.  Let's just say that we nearly ended up inside the SUV with the electric scooter in our laps.  It was close, people, really close, but all part of life here in China.  And we loved it!  We're crazy that way.

So it turns out that our whole tour group drove past us in the tour bus as we were getting into this tuk-tuk and our tour guide David had a total freak-out moment and was was scared to death that we wouldn't make it back alive. He told everyone that he wanted to call us last night to make sure that we got back okay. This morning at breakfast, everyone we saw said, "Oh, we're so glad you're okay! We didn't know if you'd make it back!"  Seems like we're now infamous in our group for taking what we've now found out is a totally illegal form of transportation and living to tell the tale. We've been laughing hysterically about it all morning. Evidently, riding in a tuk-tuk in Xi'an is NOT ding ding hao.