Pogo In Togo

• They told us not to go because it would be too busy. "Think IKEA crowded + China crowded and that's what you should expect at IKEA on a weekend." But Emily, Carmel, and I decided we were up for the adventure and found the store wasn't bad but the travel there and back was. Our Didi driver on the way there really wanted to take us to a local furniture shop but eventually we convinced him we did, in fact, want to go to IKEA. He took the non express/freeway so we hit some traffic and it took us a little over an hour. One difference we noticed as compared to an IKEA in the US is that people were actually trying out the show room furniture, like just hanging out in there. One grandpa was rocking in a chair, sitting next to a crib where his grandchild was actually sleeping! Other families seemed to be there just to let their kids play on the toys and furniture.

• After we checked out, I was waiting for Emily and Carmel to grab us some food and struck up a conversation with a lady from Togo, who works at their embassy in Beijing. She mentioned she had previously worked in Geneva before moving to China a few years ago. She told us to come visit her and gave us directions: it's two Embassies away from the Canadian embassy. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
• When we finally got out of the store, into the 100+ degree heat, we called a Didi. There was a lot of traffic on the map so we waited and waited...for over 30 minutes! And the map still said he was only "6 minutes" away. Emily was able to ask a Chinese woman to call the driver to check in. He told us to wait but we eventually decided to cancel the call and try again with someone else. As we were melting in the heat, waiting for another driver, the lady from Togo waved to us out her window as she was driven away by her presumably-hired driver. After a just a few minutes, our other driver showed up! Woo! We loaded everything in and enjoyed the air conditioning. We were making good time and, with the school in sight, we though our travel adventures were behind us...but just as we turned up the road to the school the rear tire on our DiDi went flat. We were again stuck on the side of the road with all our IKEA shopping.

You can see our school behind us on the left!

Luckily we were rescued by Korey and Erica in tuk tuks to get everything home. Korey is a country music singer back in Australia so he's always listening to country music when driving around in his tuk tuks. It's an interesting juxtaposition hearing that music coming from a tuk tuk, especially when it's coming up to rescue you from the roadside!