The Not So Silk Road

How did I end up here? Barrelling down the wrong side of a freeway into oncoming traffic, with no idea where I was going or who the man was that was driving the car.

After waiting nearly an hour and a half for my ride to pick me up at the airport, I gave myself another ten minutes before I would allow panic to set in.

Five minutes later, at five to two in the morning, a little man wearing a neat suit and a huge smile ran up to me waving a piece of paper with my name written on it in big bold letters. He grabbed my bags and beckoned me to follow. I trotted down the road behind him, walking ten minutes before he indicated that I should stop and wait for him at the side of a busy road.

After what seemed an eternity, a nice mid-sized car stopped and my little suited man jumped out to put my bags in the boot. I took the front passenger seat and we sped off into the night.

Rocketing along the freeway, we drove straight past what I thought was the exit we should have taken. I glanced at him when a barricade came into view blocking all lanes going our way. I was wondering why there were no ‘detour’ signs when he suddenly swerved to the left through a gap in the wall dividing the two directions of traffic; this is when I found myself barrelling down the freeway into oncoming traffic. I sat up a little straighter as an oncoming car in our lane sped closer. I was surprisingly calm as I faced imminent death. I watched with relief as the oncoming car simply moved into the next lane, drove around us, then back into our lane once it had passed. I had lived; but I still had no idea where we were going.

We followed the signs into Chengdu, making our way through dark dingy back streets. My driver asked with his fingers in a pinch moving towards his mouth and then pointing at me, if I was hungry. I shook my head, “No” in response.

We pulled up in front of a closed garage roller door. I had images of a group of men running out and dragging me out of the car to sell me off as a sex slave. To my utter relief this didn’t happen, the door rolled opened to the smiling face of Sophia who told me they had been waiting for me and welcomed me to Sam’s Guest House, my temporary home until the end of the school holidays.

I’d had no sleep since I had set out 24 hours earlier on the adventure of my life to live and work as an English teacher on the outskirts of Chengdu, China, home of the giant panda, and I was absolutely exhausted.

So began my yearlong adventure in China.