I caved for bargaining, but what the adventure

This past weekend a friend of a friend came to visit. Yes, it is as precarious as it sounds. My friend Annie, with whom I traveled for Spring Festival, invited her German friend to China for Western Chinese adventures. En route to her destination, Zhengzhou fell into the plan and I, consequently, became German speaker tour guide.
Zhengzhou doesn't boast much for culture, being selected in the 1950's to become a transportation hub. That said, it was pretty certain where we'd go, first and foremost Shaolin Temple--the birthplace of Shaolin kung fu and a staple in China's cultural history.

Mind you, the place is on the complete opposite side of the city, looks like every other Buddhist temple, and is only super cool if you know and love the history. Go through horrible traffic and busy bus stations, and after 3 hours you'll make it to this kung fu school. We, however didn't arrive until the gates began to close, which meant the guest house hawkers would be especially fierce, since they could predict our being stuck out in this mountain base. Right from the moment we walk out the door, a woman latched on to us (figuratively, of course. However, she was always close enough that you might catch her in photographs.) She offered us a room in a nearby guesthouse.
We ignore.
"Hello? 宾馆(the chinese begins...guest house！"
"We don't want it."
"Guesthouse!" "Guesthouse！"
"Please go away."
"Guesthouse! Guesthouse!"
"Stop bothering us! We don't want your guest house! This is my 3rd time here, so I know where I'm going. Stop it and go away!"
**she pauses to think, but the thought must have been, la,la,la,la, they don't usually say that. I'll try again and see what happens...**

This continues for 45 minutes as we work out plans at information--a place we trust. We plan to see the evening show (pictured in this blog) and are deciding on hotels. The man at information says the only places nearby are "farm houses."

You can anticipate our reaction.

Yet, those broads aren't rookies. For 45 minutes they talk up their accommodations, despite us continuing to igore them. They eventually make the deal to drive us to and from the concert, provide a dbl bed room with bathroom and are only 150 meters from the temple. Upon them offering to show us the place, we're convinced this farm house will be a real life horror story.
We check out the place, seen in the picture. It's clean, quiet, and convenient. Aside from paper thin walls that shared neighbors' 5 am wake up calls (not a phone wake up, rather the hawker yelling "GET UP!"), it worked. It makes for a story alright, but it worked.

While it continues to be exciting and ever something new, I think I'm ready for a little break from China.
Later days,
Rick