Bungee Jumping

I didn't actually go bungee jumping. The title is a metaphor for this story I am about to tell. It's pretty NUTS:

So me and Ben go to People's Square to go to the museum. On the way, we bump into some Chinese locals that speak very good English. We start talking for a little while and they tell us they're on their way to a tea tasting festival and ask us if we want to come along. Ben doesn't drink tea, but we say sure because anything that we do with the locals is going to be more fun than touristy stuff, and he doesn't mind sitting and chatting. Away we go.

We walk a few blocks away to this tea house and sit in one of those rooms with the sliding doors like Japanese style. As we're sitting down, the waitress brings us a menu in English and starts to tell us about all the different kinds of teas. As I look at the menu and listen to her talk, something seem a little strange, but I can't put my finger on it. It was almost as if all the talking around the table stopped as the waitress explained the tea to me. Like they all already knew what she had to say and were waiting for my response. Then when it was silent and everybody was looking at me, I had a scary realization come over me. I turned to Ben and asked him if I could have a word with him in the next room (which in America might seem a bit rude).

They usher us into the next room and close the door. I say to him that I had heard an "urban Legend" about a tourist trap. Locals hang around touristy spots waiting for English-speaking tourists. They then start a convo in an attempt to "practice their English." When they get all chummy, they invite the tourist to go get some coffee or tea or something. When the unsuspecting tourist says "yes," (why not) they are taken to some place where there is an expensive exotic menu (in English). I hadn't noticed until now, but this was my exact situation. The way the story ends is that the party of locals says something like "oh I just remembered, I have to pick my brother up at the hospital. I gotta run. Would you mind getting this?" and the tourist says sure cuz it's just tea. However, the bill comes and it turns out to be like over $100. The locals of course work for the tea house in secret and are exploiting their ridiculously overpriced lipton-grade tea menu that is only designed for tourists to buy accidentally. By the time the tourist sees the bill, the locals are long gone.

As soon as I finished the story, the door flung open and the waitress said "Oh you guys were on your way to the museum? That's a great museum! It's very cheap! It seems like you would rather go to the museum than drink tea here. That's totally fine. Allow me to escort you to the door! What? Oh don't worry, I'll let your new friends know that you won't be joining them. Have a nice day!" I asked my Chinese friends later and no one had heard about any tea festival.

I call this story bungee jumping because from what I would guess about falling off a cliff, it's not the fall that hurts, it's when you hit the ground. If you can somehow bring in a device that allows you to experience 99% of the fall but pull back right before you hit the ground, then it proves to be an AMAZING RUSH. I don't know if any of you have aver been 99% of the way into a scam, but realized it and pulled out right before the punch line, but it feels kind of like that.