Last night I left my apartment and grabbed a taxi on the street heading for the club district in Kunming. I laid down across the back seat of the cab as I often do during long taxi rides. All of the sudden, the taxi driver pulls to the side of the road and a girl gets in my cab. Remember, only two minutes prior to this I’d hired the driver, right outside my apartment complex and now he’s making the decision -without prior consent, to share my taxi with a complete stranger!

Normally, this kind of thing wouldn’t bother me, and it didn’t… but I spent the whole taxi ride for the next 20 minutes contemplating what had just happened! Is this normal? Did this really just happen? How much did she pay the driver when she got out of the cab more than half-way to Kundu? What do I say to the driver?!

The scene got a little messy when the driver realized I wasn’t going to pay the full taxi fare… Nothing can be expected here and soon nothing surprises you. It just is what it is.