Day 185: Episode 5

DAY 17 - QUFU => YANZHOU => JINING => ZHENGZHOU

What a terribly mafan day. In the morning, we got up and got the bus to Yanzhou (for the nearest train station), but tickets to Zhengzhou were sold out. So we got the 15 minute base back to Qufu to get the bus, but there were no buses. So we went to the train ticket place across the road to get tickets for Wuhan. But they had none. But Ms Simpleton said they had tickets for Zhengzhou, which was exciting. But she was wrong. So we went to the bus station again to try for tickets to Zhengzhou, but from another woman. Which she sold us. We weren't convinced the first woman had properly checked, and it turns out she hadn't. Shortly after, we were told the bus had broken down, we had to return or change the tickets. There were no buses to Wuhan either, on account of the huge snow storms that affected the south of China. But there was a bus to Jining, and from there you could get a bus to Zhengzhou. So we did that. BUT at Jining, she told us there were no tickets to Zhengzhou. But her colleague informed her there were. The incompetence of the staff in Chinese transport will never cease to astound me. Anyway. Finally, we were on our way. On the emptiest bus in the history of time. Full sized coach, there were us and two others. After a while, we pulled over in a little village and picked up 6 migrant workers. The journey was unevenftul, although at one point I was listening to my music with my eyes closed and the driver suddenly blasted music REALLY loudly, scaring the youknowwhat out of me.

At one point, we left the highway and went through some small villages which were really poor. The people were everywhere and the driver had to sit on the horn to get anywhere. It made me feel quite guilty to see their way of life, but then I thought they wouldn't want pity or anything, they were just trying to earn enough to get by. On the doors, they had hung an upside down 福 (the pronunciation of 'upside down fu') sounds the same as 'bringing fortune'), which I thought was sad - where a lot of people do it for tradition, and businessmen do it in hope of a good next year, these people were hoping for their old hut to stand another year, and for no water-borne illnesses to take their family. And I know some people say it's interesting to see these places because it's 'authentic' and not like all the other 'boring cities,' which I think is a horrible attitude, as these people were (largely) desperate to not be there any more.

Eventually, we arrived at Zhengzhou, and after getting quite lost, we got a taxi about ten yards down the road to the Home Inn (如家), which was amazing for 179 for a twin room. We had dinner in the restaurant, where Nikki was told off for taking photos of the amazing duck dish (with little crispy pancakeyish things that had a character for double-happiness (a traditional wedding thing) on them). Then shower and bed, ready for seeing the monks the next day.

DAY 18 - ZHENGZHOU => LUOYANG

Another rather uneventful day. Rather too many of these. The original plan was to go and buy tickets to Luoyang then go to the Shaolin temple and get back to take the train, but we decided to take the next train to Luoyang. But we decided to take the next train to Luoyang, see the Longmen caves then take the bus from Luoyang to Shaolin temple the next day. However, the next train was at 1:38pm. So we got that, had lunch then got the train, which was PACKED. And I mean that quite literally, even busier than the Christmas when the fog grounded all the planes in the UK. People also kept talking about the laowai (foreigners), which really boils my blood because they're just so rude, and talk about us, justifying it with "they don't understand." Well actually, we do. SO we tell them. After two hours and the loss of feeling in one arm, we finally arrived, which was a huge relief. I've never been so close with strangers.

We took a taxi to the hostel after buying tickets for Wuhan, but by this point it was too late to do anything, so we discussed the rest of our route (the joys of speed-tourism: CONSTANT map, book and internet checking to see where you have time to go), adjusted it (for timing, naturally), and went to find food. It seems nearly EVERYWHERE in Luoyang is a hotpot restaurant, but eventually we found one that wasn't. While hotpot is nice, I'm not a huge fan, as I always leave feeling still hungry, and it's really expensive for what you get (not if there's of people, but when there's only two of you...).

We've also recently learnt that young children in China like firecrackers even more than teenagers in the UK like fireworks and vodka. Lovely.

We half-heartedly looked for an internet placey, but not finding one we just went home, where we saw two computers. But they were broken apparently. So we decided to do our internet things the next day.

DAY 19 - SHAOLIN TEMPLE

Today, we got up at a reasonable time, for once. We got ready quickly, despite an awful night's sleep and went to the bus station to get the bus to the Shaolin Temple. We tried to get a taxi and the driver (a woman, as they ALL seem to be in Luoyang) told us to walk. Quite grateful really, it was really close. We ignored the people shouting "Hello! Hello! Shaolin!" and went to get a real bus. But the woman in the ticket office told us to get in one of the horrible buses. So we did.

They tried to charge us 100 each, but we got it for 50 return in the end. As there were few tourists they have to charge more you see. After a bit, they realised there would only be three people, so we were put on a bus headed for Xuchang. We suspected we'd be dropped off miles away, and the bus was a frightful bore, with the woman in front of Nikki vomiting out of the window rather more frequently than is normal for a healthy person.

Eventually, we got there, aware of having been ripped off (everyone else on the bus had paid around 6-15 kuai (but to other places, not Shaolin)), and also thinking we would have to pay more to get back. Ah well, we went to get tickets after Nikki went to the little girls' room, which meant I got talked at by random people trying to sell me tickets and telling me I don't understand. After a fashion, we got our tickets and went to see the monks. Along the road were some brilliant Chinglish signs, so we took lots of photos of those.

Then, the temple. Which was a lot like any other temple really, just with a lot more monks walking around. After the temple and having our photo taken with a random Chinese man, we saw the forest of pagodas. There's something like 600+ pagodas, each one with the ashes of a notable monk, except for the "common pagoda" which is for the non-notable monks. We saw lots of them, including the common one and the first one. We wanted to eat before the show, so scarpered towards the restaurant where one is served by monks. No idea where it was though. We tried at the entrance bit, but we couldn't go out and back in. But there's a restaurant right where the show was, so we went there. It was 1:30 by the time we got there, so we bought postcards and t-shirts (the shame!) before the show at 2. What these monks can do is stupid. One threw a needle through a pane of glass and popped a balloon. One put the tips of spears on his throat and pushed against them hard enough to bend the handles, and another put two metal rods together and smashed them in half with his head. Which led us to wonder what would happen if someone tried to mug them.

After the show, we ate at a not vegetarian restaurant where the staff were not monks. Disappointing. But before eating we had a photo taken with a monk, which made it better.

We got the bus back to Luoyang at 4 (and yes we did have to pay - 15), and went to search for an internet placey, which we actually did this time. After that, we went to Carrefour to buy decent food for the train the next day (i.e. not chicken feet or pickled eggs). And they had real French bread. It was AMAZING. How I miss real bread.

After getting home, we had the worst night's sleep EVER (for me at least). A weird squealing noise kept coming from either the next room or in the walls. All night, at random intervals. It sounded like furniture being moved. Added to that, I woke up with a splitting headache, which made for a less than fun...

DAY 20 - LUOYANG => WUHAN

God what a crappy day. We grudgingly got up and got ready, feeling like death. We had hoped to go out between 8 and 8:30, but didn't make it out 'til 9. We dumped our bags at the train station and got a stupidly expensive taxi to the Longmen caves. The taxi driver kept pointing things out, like huge residential complexes, saying they were pretty. Bit of an eyesore if you ask me.

We were worried about time, as our train wa at 1:40pm, but the caves don't take up that big an area, inspite of there being around 2300, not counting niches (9000ish). So having finished quite quickly, in spite of exhaustion, we got a stupidly expensive taxi to the White Horse Temple, the first Buddhist temple in China. Turns out, it's actually not in Luoyang, but a nearby town named after the temple. It was rather like every other temple actually, and the current one is all new (relatively - it was rebuilt in the Tang dynasty).

Having seen that, we got back in the taxi to get the very uneventful train to Wuhan. I had expected it to be like the train to Luoyang, but it was relatively quiet. We had no seats, but we found a bit by the train door behind one of the doors at the end of the carriages, so it was quite private. We got constant stares, just for a change, and considered hanging something over the glass and charging 2 kuai a look. We'd be filthy rich if we had.

Eventually, we got to Wuhan, jumped in a taxi to the hostel, and went to bed. The hostel was run by a British guy and a possibly Swedish girl. The British guy was telling us about how when he went to get his Chinese visa, he ook his old passport as it had a previous Chinese visa, which they might have wanted to see. When he got the two passports back, they had stapled them together. How typical.