UFO in China closes airport! Sweet. We’ll be passing near there on the way to Shanghai tonight. Maybe we’ll see ET in a rice paddy 🙂 Will keep an eye out for alien body parts but could be hard to distinguish from local delicasies.
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Another very long and excellent day starting at crackers with announcements for the morning excursion :gps:(GPS)::30.87987::110.83702:gps: which we decided to skip. Elise was adventerous enough to at least go up the stairs to see what was around – we didn’t get off the dock barges. The rain overnight left the air cooler but humid with an eerie mist hanging over the gorges – doubt the photos will do it justice. Spent the rest of the morning back on the boat chatting while heading for Maoping :gps:(GPS)::30.84930::111.00030:gps: – the last port of call for us before a short bus ride to another highlight of our trip ‘The Three Gorges Dam’.
That is one piece of impressive engineering! As we entered the security check area our tour guide asked for all ‘knives and wine’ – guess they don’t want you to get drunk and try chip a hole in the wall with your penknife. From the viewpoint :gps:(GPS)::30.83482::111.01896:gps: there is a panoramic view of the dam wall and the locks. The distance makes it look less impressive than it is: 39km^3 of water, flooding the valley to some 600km (same as from Durban to Joburg) and housing the worlds largest HEP scheme! Hazy again and very hot, so we hope the pics are going to be ok. V could barely contain her excitement – very funny for me – it’s hard to hide that she’s a water engineer at heart – and now she has big bragging rights too 🙂 Our tour went around a few POI around the dam but unfortunately not across the wall or inside the HEP scheme – pity, but still excellent.
Another transfer by bus and onto a local (read ‘horrid’) bus for 4 odd hours of mind numbing noisy TV and discomfort to Wuhan. I think I have found what is holding the Chinese back from becomming world leaders – it’s the stuff they blindly watch and find entertaining on TV – like American 50’s slapstick with modern pop thrown into the mix. Even the live studio audiences have no idea what to do with themselves. They (en mass) are socially and mentally immature in comparison to the West. It was an education. Not one I would like to repeat – Worst transfer of the trip (so far).
Arriving in Wuhan we grabbed a taxi to our dodgy hostel (Pathfinder Hostel). Taxi drivers beware – don’t ever tell an Auzzie farmgirl that her suitcase won’t fit in the boot of your cab – you are just asking for trouble.
In the morning out translator is heading in a different direction. Thanks for all the help Elise – all the best – cheers.
[Pictures: Dam, Lock]
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Blarring anouncements followed by Chinese music woke us at 5:30 in preparation for the morning tour of the temple at White King Town. :gps:(GPS)::31.04427::109.54082:gps: We opted out of that one and went in search of breakfast. The Chinese eat dinner for breakfast lunch and dinner so we ended up with some sealed (read ‘safe’) cakes and snacks from a supermarket. The town was unremarkable and hot. All the stops require a long slog up from the river – it is obvious from the flood line that the river frequently rises at least 20m.
Back on the boat our new Auzzie friend (Elise) was proving very helpful. Having someone around who can translate makes a huge difference. She’s a university exchange student studying Chinese for 2 years. After a brief lesson on Chinese characters, which was very interesting, we can see some logic in it but it’s still all Greek to me (haha).
Our next stop at the Lesser Three Gorges :gps:(GPS)::31.10143::109.89240:gps: was brilliant and has made the trip worth while. Trading our tanker for a river tour boat we made our way up some utterly gorgeous gorges. It was incredibly hot and the haze meant that good photography was limited but WOW! The water was a beautiful jade colour – a welcome change from the brown muddy waters of yesterday. The Chinese have unfortunately started theme-parking the area with construction underway to build a concrete walkway high up along the cliffs in one section of the gorge.
Two hours into the six hour excursion we arrived at an apparently 1000 year old city (looks more like 10 years old). We were ushered around the restored old town centre as part of the tour group while the heat drove us into every shop looking for ice-creams. The town (endless blocks of flats) looks empty and very new – V suspects it could be one of the towns built as part of the relocation plan for the 3 Gorges Dam (will google it sometime). At the moment it seems to exist as a ghost town and a 60min excursion for tourist boats.
On the way back we stopped at a narrow section of the gorge and transferred to small river boats before heading up the actual ‘Lesser Three Gorges’. Even more stunning as the towering (800-1000m) gorge narrowed to as little as 30m. Unfortunately what would have been a peaceful experience was drowed out by the flamboyant and overpowering performance of the boatman. He was obviously telling some story of the gorge that the Chinese tourists appreciated and being the only NAs on board we were the butt of his jokes for sure. In any event we held firm and didn’t succumb to his pushy loud requests for donations – which had him targeting us for ridicule even more. Better luck next time chap! It was still an awesome ride (maybe 100 000 hotdogs awesome).
One of the people we chatted to on the boat was a retired Chinese-Malaysian guy named Goh. Very intersting and talkative. He lives in Malaysia but over the years has toured just about every part of China and South East Asia and has seen first hand the political and economic changes in the region.
The return trip felt infinitely longer with the tour guide’s rendition of Chinese folk tales bleeting incessantly from the boats PA system. It was a long day out in the sun – even the dodgy shower looked inviting, but the canteen menu less so. The Chinglish on the menu is classic – items like “Pull out a silk soil bean”, “The garlic burns the sheatfish”, “A round mass of food soup” & “Fairy whole duckses” sent us happily to our instant noodles 🙂
[Pictures: Stunning Gorges]
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Up early again ! Quick breakfast and onto the bus to the train station leaving behind another good, although massive, hostel. We took the high speed train – 200km/h – for around £12 each. The waiting area felt more classy (BTW, every train station in China so far has looked like Heathrow – just more chaotic and dirty). Although the train is modern you are reminded that you are still in China the moment people get onboard. Very loud and messy – was expecting to see a box of chickens being slung onto the roof.
Two hours and some spectacular moutain scenary later and we were met in Chonqing by John from ‘John’s Cozy Nest’ (www.lunyplanet.com). John took us to a fancy looking apartment/office tower in the city centre via the most insane elevated roads, bridges and intersections. No bicycles around (due to the hills) and the traffic is brilliantly routed around buildings and waterways. The place is also a forest of construction cranes – things are changing rapidly here.
From his neat and modern apartment on the 23rd floor in an earthquake prone country he persuaded us to rather take a two night trip on the Yangze and leave immediately – apparently the hydrofoil is like sitting in a plane for 12 hours and there is nothing to see in Chongqing. The price seemed reasonable so we agreed and he also made all the arrangements for us to get to Shanghai.
With a rough map we headed out into the back streets in search of an ATM. What a place! Alleys, walkways, endless staircases all form part of the maze. Everything is built on mountainsides – dingy and dirty – a world away from John’s apartment. We needed lunch and with no KFC or alike we picked an arbitrary street resturant. 
Confronted with a Chinese menu and no pictures V just ended up pointing at an option and asking for rice with it. Possibly we chose fried grasshoppers and they just felt sorry for us because we got an excellent pork and onion dish with our rice. PHEW !
John escorted us along with an Auzzie lady to the buses and the first leg of our journey to Wanshou. A four hour bus ride over more insane bridges and past unrelenting construction in beautiful mountainous countryside and we arrived at our boat (more of a rusting, smelly, barely river-worthy dormitory). Our 4 bunk cabin is only marginally larger and of lesser standard than the worst Russian trains but does have aircon and a TV. What is it with having TV when the plumbing is beyond shocking! Also our own shower albiet above a sqaut loo (yip, grim.. Imagine showering in cold water standing on top of the toilet you share with 3 others). It didn’t take long for the rank sewage smells from the loo to start wafting into the rest of the cabin – I could use nose plugs to complement my ear plugs.
Our cabin mates are a young Australian lady who thankfully speaks a fair bit of Chinese (there are a total of 5 ‘westeners’ aboard) and an older Chinese guy whose family is in the next room. Should be an intersting few days !
[Pictures: 200km/h in China, The view from the 23rd floor looking down at a rooftop garden 10 floors below, the menu V chose from (what a win, my brilliant V)]
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Ok. So probably only V and I (and Andrew) will get the title of this post. For those who don’t have a West Wing fetish – here is a hint.
Today was Panda day ! V and I (just don’t tell her) have been looking forward to seeing these guys for some time. We left for the breeding centre :gps:(GPS)::30.73939::104.13995:gps: very early so we could catch them eating and before it gets too hot. There were 3 minibus loads of travellers from our hostel. The short trip to the centre was more than enough time for the temperature to get above uncomfortable – another summers day in China.
The centre is massive and it was useful to have a guide lead us through the bamboo lined paths around the various enclosures. These bears are unbelievably CUTE – you just want to cuddle them. Apparently it costs around £100 to take a photo with them but we did not see the option on offer. V’s favorite where the Red Pandas, mine was watching the young pandas playing and the babies being fed. They seem so light, bendy and floppy with back legs that appear completely useless. All in all it was a wonderful treat to see them – well worth it.
Intelligent Design – I don’t think so !
If they weren’t so cute they would have been extinct ages ago. From what we learned these bears eat 60kg of one kind of bamboo per day and don’t move around much because the energy required is barely extracted from their food. They also aren’t too intersted in mating – again, it takes too much energy. Most births in captivity are through artificial insemination. Cubs are born utterly helpless. Blind, deaf and unable to walk for some time and first time panda moms are so freaked out by the experience they can accidentally hurt the cubs. It just seems that they evolved to become extinct. With only around 1000 left in the world – like I said – it’s lucky they are so darn cute. Also helps that they are big business, being adopted by huge companies (like KFC) or being sold off to zoos around the world.
After a dismal lunch at the hostel and a siesta we decided to check out a bit of the city. Chengdu is another monster city but did not feel as chaotic or crowded as the other cities. We wondered around the Mao memorial statue and park before heading off in search of ‘Mr Wang’s Tiny Museum’ of all things Mao. It must have moved or been really small because we could not find it. Popped in to the peoples park on our way to cache a GPS point my Dad had given us. Not much there but a stretch of riverfront parks complete with various Chinese board games being played and a chap having his ears professionaly cleaned. Crossing more hectic intersections on foot (life threatening) we made our way back by bus to the hostel area. The bus was so hot and cramped that V was feeling faint.
In search of the famous HotPot dish we walked around a number of side streets but we have gotten soft after having had hostel food for the past 4 days. Nothing looked appetizing and knowing that an understandable meal was waiting for us at the hostel if we failed we did not put in much effort.
The guide we had in Xi’an has been in touch with us via email and has made arrangements for a contact of hers in Chongqing to meet us on arrival – we’ll have to see if that works !
[Pictures: Pandas ! ]
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We can hardly believe ! It does feel like we were cruising though Norway and Russia six months ago – guess that’s what happens when you do so much every day. Long way still to go and we are loving it.
Last nights train to Chengdu was a little delayed and by the time we got on board I was beyond exhausted. Have decided it was a bit too much sun the previous day. The ‘Hard Sleeper’ class (open carriage) was good. Would have been perfect if 3 kids hadn’t taken the bottom bunks around midnight. Full of energy and the associated noise. The bunks are comfy and people respectful (important since there are 66 bunks in each carriage). The trains look and feel newer than the Russian overnight ones we took and have hot water on tap and squat toilet (yay). We needn’t have taken food with us – plenty of carts made their rounds. I was asleep by 11 – didn’t even get through one ‘Skeptics Guide to the Universe’ podcast.
Just before arriving in Chengdu a young chap came to chat. Again very friendly. So far everyone we have spoken to is very interested in business/economics and would like to travel. This guy was unusual – he is interested in New Zealand and Holland. He has to complete 4 years military once done with his university and is hopeful that the country will change enough by then so that he can travel. The funniest/sweetest thing he asked was if we were ‘a pair of lovers’, his girlfriend was waiting for him at the station. Ag shame.
We arranged a free pick-up at the station and the hostel rep was waiting with info, maps and boiled sweets – excellent. Chengdu is massive (11 million people) and from the taxi looks like the other big Chinese cities – modernizing rapidly. The hostel, bearing my name (Sim’s Cozy Garden Hostel), looks to be great save for minor confusion over the room type we booked. More ‘Flash-packers’ (backpackers with cool tech) around – ipads, laptops, DSLRs etc – not that we should talk ! After a very late lunch and a beer (good value at 85p each) we had plans to walk and catch a museum but made the fatal mistake of sitting on the bed – we slept solidly for 3 hours until woken by the complementary fruit being delivered. Tomorrow Pandas! …Then we are looking at taking the Yangtze by Hydrofoil – too cool !
[Update: we have just come up for sups. This is a cool hostel. Friendly bunny rabbits hopping around – even near the kitchen 🙂 friendly but maybe not so bright ? ]
[Pictures: The view from the top bunk in our carriage. We had a top and a middle (prices are different for different bunks), hostel mission control – this places buzzes]
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V and I woke up feeling exhausted this morning – no idea why. After updating more of our galleries (the Saint Petersburg section is sorted and tagged now) we took a stroll to find some pastries we had seen the other day and have a look at the Muslim quater. That idea didn’t last long. Although quaint, the streets are lined with vendors selling more of the same, it was nothing special and the ever-present wiff of sewage was more than we felt like dealing with.
We’ll spend the rest of the afternoon on the couch at the hostel waiting for our train this evening (not looking forward to it). It’s very muggy and hot today, but the good news is that Chengdu is 5 degrees cooler (31 ish) albeit with rain forecast.
Yesterday was a ball but we did get a fair bit of sun. We walked down to the South Gate of the city wall and rented a bike to cycle around it. First time either of us had tried a tandem. Great fun but V was not feeling too confident 🙂 The rental was for 100mins and the wall is ~14km so you need a reasonably constant pace if you want to stop and take in the views occasionally. At the halfway mark V let me take the front seat – big mistake. For someone who eats black run for breakfast she doesn’t half panic when I take my hands off the bars 🙂 I got into quite a bit of trouble, but no accidents (thankfully) and it was fun to monkey about on top of Xi’an’s historic city wall.
It wasn’t long before we started discussing the energy efficiency of a tandem vs two single bikes and the physics involved. Wish we knew more but we reckon it’s definately more efficient on a tandem (as long as you don’t crash) if you look at reduced mass, wind resitance, friction etc). That being said I suspect next time it will be two single bikes.
After that roasting in the sun we headed along some of the old streets full of art and art supplies and into the Forest of Steles Museum. A collection of more than 3000 inscribed stone tablets and sculptures of varying sizes. After an hour we lost interest and took the long walk back to the hostel.
Found the hostels table tennis table at the rooftop courtyard. I have to admit, V is much better with a ping pong paddle than a boat paddle 🙂 and I don’t play too well after one beer!
[Pictures: V on our tandem – back seat driver, me at the stone forest – had enough, cute kitties at the rooftop courtyard (for Jacks)]
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We had a long night. First, my feeble attempt to grow a beard has been vetoed. It seems i’m genitically incapable so I spent some time removing the scraggly growth from my face. Have to admit it feels much better. It’s been great to have good facilities for a few days – I’ve been abusing the shower twice a day. What a luxury. Have to say thanks again to Martin. That washing line is proving invaluable – you would be amazed at what we have attached it to 🙂
I decided to have a closer look at our budget and panic set in. The trip will be over in 2 months if we just go where we really want so we have had to make some changes. A few hours of painful plotting and discussion and we are back at our original plan. Hong Kong, back into China, southern route to Tibet and then backtrack (which we really don’t want to do) into Northern Vietnam. So Nepal and the Philipines are out (at the moment). We also HAVE to do something about a camera – V’s old Nikon is getting worse by the day – possibly in Hong Kong. Oooo I see the new iPhone is already available there NO NO bad boy.
Met a chap at breakfast who has been travelling from the places we are wanting to go to. We are feeling a bit more confident that southern China will be cheaper and SE Asia even more so. We will just have to see how things go.
Off to cycle the wall aroud the city.
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A very late start today but at least we were awake enough to use our coffee vouchers instead of paying £1.50. The plan was to take a complementary bike from the hostel and cycle around to some sights, but being so late the bikes were all out. We settled for the bus to the ‘Big Goose Pagoda’. The pagoda itself is not much to look at but the surrounding musical fountains and parks are wonderful. We strolled around again baking in the sun watching kids (and an alarming number of adults) running through and playing in the fountains. Xi’an is really a beautiful city.
The fountains and the adjacent park all look fairly new. Probably built in the last 5 years or so would be my guess. There were no hawkers begging you to buy something and it was all very neat and tidy. We could have been in a park somewhere in Europe (apart from the obligatory loudspeaker presumably telling people in Chinese not to litter). It’s weird though cos if you go a block or so away there will be dozens of filthy chaotic alleyways which present the exact opposite picture of China. Such an interesting country and so like SA in many ways.
After an ice lolly to cool down the next stop for the day was the Shaanxi history museum. We were standing in a long que with lots of students to get tickets while a major argument was going on at the counter. Suddenly the que began to flow and we were presented with 2 tickets within seconds at no charge. No idea what was going on but I assume we got in as part of a school tour – excellent freebie. The museum was good although smaller than we expected with English everwhere (unlike Russia). My highlight was one of three Tiger Tallies in the world (a small tiger with a message enscribed in two parts. The Tiger would be separated and used to authenticate military messages. Very cool for 400 odd BC.
We set about walking back to the South gate of the city wall with the intention of renting a bike and cycling around it (on top of the wall), but it started raining so we headed for home. A couple hours later we decided to give it another go and headed by bus for the south gate once more. As we arrived the rains returned !! Calling it a day we decided to take a long walk back to the hostel stopping to savour the local cuisine on the way home (um… that is another one of the 4000 odd KFC branches in China) – highly recommended as value for money and for lack of consequences.
We are trying to get a tour arranged to a nearby tomb but there is a minimum number required. The staff at the hostel (who are amazing) have put up an ad in reception – no luck yet. We also got our train tickets today. Confirmed for Chengdu. Travelling 15hrs by overnight train ‘hard sleeper’ class (ie: open carriage. 3 bunks high) just to see some black and white bears ! They better be cute 🙂
[Pictures: V cooling down at the Pagoda]
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A good sleep in our larney hostel/hotel room (you know it’s good when they supply toilet paper and the walls are made of brick) followed by a light breakfast and then off on a tour to the Terra-cotta soldiers :gps:(GPS)::34.38428::109.27459:gps: – Another ‘must see’ on our list. Took about an hour to get out there with our guide and 12 other travellers.
It was good to have a guide for a change – saved us spending an hour on Wikipedia. Pits 2 and 3 are interesting with excavation and reassembly of warriors apparently ongoing but a chap on the tour who had visited 9 years ago didn’t feel much had changed. We saw the ‘kneeling archer’ – the first to be discovered accidentally by a local farmer who was digging a well in the 70’s. BTW the farmer was in attendance to shake hands and sign books. I guess at his age it’s easier work than tilling fields 🙂
Pit 1 is the one we had in our minds. Some 2000 painstakingly restored infantrymen (total discovered so far around 8000) with horses lining the corridors in this massive area. They were all originally painted but exposure to oxygen destroyed the paint. A few have traces of colour but photos from the excavation were on display to give an idea.
Pits 4 and 5 are ‘new’ and some distance away from the main area. Apparently they are not open to tourists yet – sorry Dad. Also, the chariots are on display at the Worlds Fair in Shanghai. Maybe we’ll catch them there. It was well worth the fee (£19 each) although the claim that these are the 8th wonder of the world is a little optimistic.
From the pit complex we were taken off to an optional lunch (which we cunningly got out of) passing the tomb of the looney emporer (Qin) that had the army built.
The sleepy ride back to Xi’an also saw our guide snoozing. One last stop was a visit to a small temple in town. We have to admit that they are starting to all look the same but at least with a guide we got a little insight into how they are laid out. Back in the hostel it was just too comfortable and we ended up in the lounge all evening. I even resorted to a burger for sups (yip it was good) !
We are plotting and planning again. From here we want to go to Chengdu, then Chongqing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Then fly to the Philipines for 2 weeks, come back into China and take a southern route up to Tibet and into Nepal. From Nepal we’ll fly to the cheapest South East Asian destination – probably Thailand. Budget cuts will definately take Australia off the table and possibly some of SE Asia.
[Pictures: Me with the Kneeling Archer and V with an army of clay pots]
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Terra-cotta warriors watch out. We are exhausted. 6 hour bus ride. 3 hrs walking around to find a hostel. Xi’an looks amazing. Here for 4 nights at least. More to follow.
Btw. Noticed some time zone issues with posts. The displayed date and time is local to the reader and not to the author. (so if you see posted at 15h30 it was actually posted at 21h30 our time) At the moment we are 6hrs ahead. Need to figure out how to fix that ! WordPress issue.
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More as promised
V’s cough is not getting better. Under the threat of being smothered under a pillow she has decided to take a course of anti-biotics. We left Pingyao around 9 with another electric tak-tak travelling to a toll-gate on the highway outside the city. The long distance bus just pops in and back out. There was a substantial crowd at the stop but as soon as the bus arrived they all disappeared ! No idea what that was all about. The bus was half empty and the 6 hour ride to Xi’an was comfortable. We passed over some amazing bridges and caught the landscape getting a little greener in between eps of the West Wing.
Again the bus decided to stop at a station that we had not expected. We were at least 10km from the hostel options and there was not a taxi or tout in sight. We enlisted a motorized tak-tak that was in pretty bad condition to get us to the first hostel. I’m not sure if the driver was brilliant or insane – cutting congested corners by speeding through back alleys and markets or just getting onto the wrong side of the road until he could bob and weave back into the flow. It was a wild ride.
As is usually the case when V gets directions wrong, she gets it way wrong. We were dropped about 200m from the hostel but we walked about 2km in the wrong direction. Another tak-tak got us to the hostel – it was full. We decided to walk another 2km to its sister hostel. We got there hot and sweaty to find it had moved. Another 2km got us to the correct spot and paradise. A room for £16 a night that for us is 5 star. Even has BBC world and some other English channels.
A short walk around the area to find V some more meds and we were quite DONE for the day. Xi’an is massive but feels much better than Beijing. Lots of trees and parks, blue sky and a little cooler. Lots to do over the next few days. Can’t wait!
[Pictures: We finally made it to the hostel/inn – must be how a suicide bomber thinks he will feel after pushing the button – paradise]
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We were both very nervous about the Russian part of the trip, but in retrospect it was not justified. The vast majority of people we met were friendly, polite and willing to help as long as we made some effort to communicate with the few words we could manage. We were frequently mistaken for dosmetic tourists, a problem I don’t expect in China, and I don’t think we got ripped off too much – probably just the right amount.
Booking the train tickets online was our most expensive error. The guide books and websites made us think that doing it ourselves would be far to difficult. We had time so it would have been far cheaper to get a local agent or even the hostels to assist. Besides that, the thrill of managing to get the right ticket from the ticket office at SPB station was worth more than the comm for an agent.
The biggest disappointment was the cancellation of the Star City tour (one of the reasons we rushed to Moscow). A lesson enforced: sometimes it’s better to just pay the high price and get on with it.
The sights were great as we expected and the museums vast, but not that English friendly (audio guides seem to be a good option). Travel was reasonably easy and we probably didn’t need to walk as much as we did.
We have since met people who have had only negative things to say about the Russians. We can’t agree. We had a great time there and the hospitality and kindness of the strangers on the trans-sib will not be forgotten.
A few odd notes to remind ouselves:
– The Armoury, Red Square, St Basils, Lenin, SPB fort.
– More ice cream
– Choc chip cookies
– Tea and more tea (but black)
– Sitlletoes on cobbles
– Dodgy houses, flash cars, leather jackets & cell phones
– The Soviet stuff seems to be mostly missing
– Cosmonauts Museum
– Milk and Drinking yogurt confusion
– Women dressed to kill and posing as if supermodels at every chance
– Learning and trying to speak a bit of Russian
– Heavy Soviet doors
– Conquering the Metro
– Gold leaf
Will have to keep adding to this post as more memories pop into our heads!
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V’s cough is getting much worse. She has hardly slept for days so we decided to take a rest day. Up at 10ish. Pancakes and toast for breakfast with knives and forks ! By 12 my V was back in bed. I took the opportunity to make some calls, send some emails, surf the web and play with some programming on the blog – that got me sidetracked onto a remote desktop connection with the Stern office and I spent another hour sorting out pc problems on their LAN – I couldn’t resist :). Also downloaded new podcasts and Dr Who eps. Happiness.
In the late afternoon we took another longer stroll around the town and realized that possibly we should have spent another day here but we have booked the bus to Xi’an tomorrow. We are both feeling a bit off. Probably the lack of sleep and V’s cough.
The evening dissolved over a good dinner of stir-fry beef with rice, a couple of beers and relaxing conversation with a friendly Swiss lady travelling solo. We finally got the meal quantity correct. One dish and a small rice is more than enough for us. We are almost done with season 1 of the West Wing – what a win that was.
[Pictures: Anyone for braai bricketts the size of footballs ? See – we did nothing]
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Up early and to the bus (the lady from the hotel took us all the way there and made sure we got on it). After a stop at the bus terminal to buy official tickets and relieve my gut from last nights pork dumplings we were on our way – a 4 hour ride to Taiyuan. The road was extremely bumpy, made worse by the lack of functional shock absorbers, and wound its way down the steep roads out of the Wutai Shan mountains. Our driver did not seem to have any regard for speed cops or his brake pads. The beautiful mountain scenery eventually turned flat and farmed. Passing through towns of varying sizes and degrees of chaos V and I settled into some ‘For good reason’ podcasts.
The bus arrived at a station outside of the city centre and after failing to negociate what we thought would be a fair cab ride to the train station we decided to walk it. The 2km walk in the heat went quickly as we took in the town while occasionally stopping to ask directions and attempting (unsucessfully) to retrieve cash from various ATM’s.
You cannot begin to understand the confusion involved in getting a train ticket in China. In future we’ll happily pay the comm for a hostel to do it for us. We spent half an hour hopping from one que to the next trying to get information with no luck. In the end we decided to pick a que and stick with it until we got to a counter. BTW, my V rocks! While in the que for an hour she was able to decipher the scrolling Chinese characters and extract the relevant information. We ended up with tickets for the next train to Ping Yao – only standing room was available.
The train was again packed and we squeezed into our assigned carriage. The locals happily made a little space for V to sit but one of the conductors was not impressed with how we had stacked our packs – it took much hand waving and shouting to explain that. We were once again the centre of attention. A young chap with a bit of English said hello and politely asked if I was tired – I said ‘No’. That was his que to fetch his friends. What a great bunch of friendly guys. We yakked the whole way and felt like movie stars as we posed for photos with various fans. They told us all kinds of useful bits and if they had not been travelling in a bigger group would have joined and shown us around Pingyao. Apparently the beef in the area is excellent – will have to see.
Our new friends were making absolutely sure that we did not miss our stop. Another lady on the carriage was also getting off there and she wanted to know where we were heading. She phoned ahead and arranged a transfer for us making sure we did not get ripped off. Saying goodbye to the guys on the train she led us to a waiting tak-tak (well an electric one – have to say that over 90% of the bikes we have seen are electric).
Pingyao is a preserved ancient city. No cars are permitted in the central area and our ride took us along the city wall into he heart of it. She led us on foot the last section to the door of the hostel and civilization! A fantastic hostel/guest house (Harmony guest house) with everything a traveller could want including aircon rooms and hot water all day.
We spent some time wandering the quaint streets before grabbing a bite to eat – it really is a special place and deserves its UNESCO World Heritage status.
[Pictures: Crammed train station, the courtyard area at Harmony Hotel]
– Posted from my iPhone via Wifi
Warning – another long post.
We woke up this morning to hooting, shouting, revving cars, and the occasional megafone which was mostly blocked out by the earplugs thankfully. Our grim bathroom had decided to flood itself during the night so having to wade to the loo was not fun. When we discovered that there was no water and that the loo no longer flushed, we packed up our bits and left. I could have handled the grubby place another night but the flooded bathroom and loo problem was just too much.
As we walked down the road the owner tried to get us to eat breakfast at his restaurant. We don’t think he realized we were actually leaving.