The Ban on Black Taxi's... For Awhile!

Alright, so I've made it a week in Suzhou on my own and I've managed to get the apartment to a level of cleanliness that I see fit to move in so that means move in day is tomorrow. Which also means we need some food! Which means we actually have to go to a store now to try to collect the staples for a kitchen. I knew it'd be a challenge but didn't think it'd be nearly as hard as it was. After a few expat events throughout the week I was informed of this great store called Metro. "It's just like a Sam's Club or Costco, you can get anything and everything you need there!" I was going! I convinced Bill that we were going to go together, get all the food supplies we need and then no problem we could move into the apartment on Sunday morning and we'd be all set. So we set out from the hotel and the concierge gets us a taxi, the driver nods his head when I show in the taxi card. So off we go, about 2 blocks away from the hotel he stops, looks at my card again then nods and onward. After about 20 to 25 minutes of driving he slows down and starts asking a pedestrian for directions, I got a little bit nervous, Bill told me to calm down, we'd get there. Another stop, another pedestrian, a U-turn, I'm getting more nervous that we are not going to get there. A THIRD stop - at a police hut, ok we are probably going in the right direction now, whew. 5 minutes later a 4th stop...Okay we're done! I've had it and that is when I pulled out my card for the hotel and pointed, the driver was not having it, I kept pointing to the hotel card... "take me back", he doesn't understand a word I'm saying, finally he nods his head but then keeps looking like this store is going to pop out of nowhere! I'm irritated now and show him the hotel card again, FINALLY we get back to the hotel after about an hour in this taxi. The store was 12 KILOMETERS away, it should not have taken an hour! Now that we've reached the hotel I take a deep breath but this is when the fun part starts since the driver wanted us to pay for the entire journey, even though we never reached our destination. I was livid and walked away while Bill and the hotel concierge got into it with the driver. Finally a small amount was paid and we left. We decided we weren't going to be taking a taxi for the rest of the day after that debacle. Eventually we made it to Wal-Mart, yes Wal-Mart and got a few items, even some oatmeal for a relatively reasonable price and picked up some coffee mugs! We even encountered Tron on our walk back to the hotel! Later that evening we found out the black taxi's are new to Suzhou (within the last 3 months) and therefore the drivers do not know the city. LESSON LEARNED: I WILL NOT BE TAKING A BLACK TAXI UNLESS I ABSOLUTELY HAVE NO OTHER OPTION!!! Time for a cold beer!