Lost in translation?

We left the hotel in three cabs this afternoon. Only two out of ten people speak Chinese. I was in the first cab with three people. None of us spoke Chinese, the cab driver spoke no English.

We had a sheet of paper in Chinese with the address of the restaurant we were going to. The restaurant has an identical name to a recreational park in the same neighborhood. The driver delivered us to the recreational park, about three blocks away from the restaurant. We had no way of finding this restaurant, until somebody came to find us.

It was raining cats and dogs.

We sought cover under the awning of a little kiosk. It was hot and humid. The shopkeeper was a topless pudgy man, with a nice friendly mien. He spoke no English. We ordered two colas (that is what coke is called here!) He typed the price onto a calculator, we paid, and stood waiting for the other cabs to show up.

As we got wetter and wetter ... we thought we saw our regular tour driver arrive (hallucinations). It is at this point that the expressions "faire d'une gaffe!" really comes in handy. I am too embarassed to tell what happened next.

So I will skip that part and say that about 90 minutes later, the whole group was reunited and having dinner at the restaurant. The food, as usual, was delicious.

More tomorrow.