Fix a Flat

Cynthia's Tai Tai Taxi (aka - The Hardly Davidson - the three wheeled electric scooter for those of you new to the blog) was out of commission for a while with a flat tire.  Sunday we decided to try and get it to the scooter repair shop and headed out with tire pump in hand, Scott driving and Cynthia as passenger.  We had to stop four times in the 2 kilometers to re-pump up the tire.  We were quite the sight to all the Chinese out for their Sunday activities and we evoked more than a few smiles and gape jawed stares.  We finally arrived at the sidewalk repair shop which was more or less a grease spot strewn with tools, scooters, batteries and parts situated between a storefront Chinese restaurant and a travel agency.  After communicating the obvious problem we waited for about 15 minutes before a young boy who looked not a day over 12 approached us with a small stool and a couple of tools in hand and began the process of taking out the inner tube. Over the next 30 minutes or so he and I worked on the tire and finally found the leak.  He patched it up and we got the tube back into the tire and we were all set to go.  I asked how much the repair was and the owner said "San kwai"  which I interpreted as 30 rmb or about 4$ US.  I pulled out 30 kwai and handed it to him to which he repeated "San kwai" this time with a bit more emphasis on the SAN portion - which I once again misinterpreted as 30 rmb and stuck out my hand with a 20 and 2 fives.  At this time the owner realized that my command of the Chinese language was weak and he grabbed a 5 rmb bill and repeated "San kwai" and then proceeded to give me 2 kwai in change.  Basically, the entire repair cost me 45 cents US.  Unbelievable.