day 161 – we woke up to a massive pancake breakfast that our hungry group couldn’t finish. the pancakes were piled high and we devoured them with bananas, honey and various jams. a little girl was playing on the fence across from our homestay, and when i spotted her, i ran across the road with my camera to take her picture. she let me take photographs and one of the other guests suggested that i give her some leftover pancakes. i grabbed a pancake and a banana, taking them out for the kid, who was still waiting outside. the second she had the food in her hand the girl bolted down the street back towards her own house. it was pretty funny.
after breakfast i packed up and our group hiked to some other villages. it had rained the previous night, so the track was quite muddy. a lot of the area we were hiking through was all rice paddies and small forests. the ground had a lot of clay, making the track really sludgy and slippery. we took a break at the top of a waterfall and also visited a local house. i took some great photos of kids playing with buffalos in the nearby river. eileen and i said goodbye to our british companions and we parted company. we hiked up to the highway where we had lunch at a restaurant and waited for the minibus to take us back to the hotel.
when i arrived back in sapa i took a shower, ate dinner and messed about with my now broken computer. i tried to get it running and tried installing linux on it, but the computer was playing hardball. i suspect the problem is the hard drive.
we got a minibus back to the train station and during the drive a guy on a motorcycle pulled our minibus over. he was the owner of a rental shop and accused two foreigners on our bus of ripping him off. a vietnamese guy, also a passenger on our bus, quickly showed he was a racist prick by siding with the rental shop owner (despite not even knowing what was going on). after some shouting, the rental shop guy tried to get on the bus and continue the fight. i was sitting by the door and when he came around i gave him an evil look and said “you are not getting on this bus”. my face and tone of voice actually made him stop. he took his hand off the door handle, paused to think, and then returned to the other side where he could berate the foreigners through the window.
they offered to pay him some more money, just to shut him up and end the saga. meanwhile i yelled at the vietnamese guy that he should mind his business and he was an arsehole for interfering (and assuming the foreigners were in the wrong). i told the minibus driver to hurry up and go (even though we were quite early and had no chance of missing our train). the rental shop guy was satisfied with his extra cash, so he left and our driver took off. the couple got stuck into the vietnamese passenger for getting involved. eventually, everything quietened down and we arrived at the train station.
i bought a kinetic (batteryless) torch from a street vendor and got the overnight train back to hanoi.
day 162 – i arrived in hanoi at 5am, said goodbye to eileen and caught a cab to the travel agency (who had my bus ticket to china). i had breakfast and jumped on the bus to nanning. the trip was mostly good. i crossed the border and immediately noticed the difference in attitude. on the vietnamese side, everyone pushes and shoves to get their passport stamped. on the chinese side, everyone lines up calmly and the chinese guards yell at people who don’t follow the rules. it was nice being in a country with a bit of organisation.
when i arrived in nanning i got a taxi across town and it was a moment when i felt a little worried about what the hell was going on. the driver spoke no english and he had another passenger, a female, in the front seat. i figured he was doing a double fare, so i just enjoyed the view for much of the ride. i’d been in the cab for a while when i realised he hadn’t asked me where i’m going. so i told him i wanted to go to the train station. he didn’t understand and called a friend, who spoke english to me over the phone. i told him where i wanted to go and that it seemed the driver was taking the long way. the driver laughed when that was translated and soon after he turned off the meter. we arrived at the train station a few minutes later. it turns out that the passenger wasn’t a customer, she was a friend (probably girlfriend) and just coming along to keep the driver company.
i found my hotel, checked in and wandered around town. i found an internet cafe, checked email, returned to the hotel and watched tv. ‘star wars’ (the original) was on, which was cool. i discovered that the movie channels show the same movie repeated all day long.
day 163 – i went back to the internet cafe to do some research about entering tibet and i also tried to download another version of linux to install on my still broken computer. after lunch i walked down to the train station and got myself a ticket to chengdu. everything was going well. i installed ubuntu linux on the computer and watched ‘the empire strikes back’ … i was pretty pleased that they seemed to be showing all three original star wars movies. downloading linux had taken a few hours, so the rest of my evening was ruined. i played about with the computer, watched tv and went for a walk through the fruit and veg market in the next street. burried deep amongst the stalls (as i was to quickly discover) are little store fronts for ladies of the night. a hooker accosted me as i tried to pass by. i made my escape, returned to my room and called it a night.
day 164 - in the morning i finished the star wars trilogy with ‘return of the jedi’. i checked out, walked across to the train station and boarded the train.
when i bought the ticket, the idiot employee hiding behind inch thick glass told me there were no sleeper seats. when i got to the train, i noticed plenty of sleeper seats! dickheads!! i got off the train and found an attendant. i complained and used sign language to illustrate that i’d asked for a sleeper. the guy was sympathetic and said it would be ok. he told me to board the train and he’d come find me after the train had departed.
he found me again 20 minutes later, crammed onto a seat with four other people in cattle section of the train. he lead me to the dining carriage, and after a short discussion about my ticket, told me that i can upgrade (for a fee). they issued me a new ticket and lead me down to the sleeper section … there were plenty of available beds and i wanted to slap the guy who sold me the ticket. i had lunch and two large bottles of beer to celebrate my new (much more comfortable) arrangement. the warm beer got me a bit pissy, so i had a short afternoon nap. i spent the evening eating, reading my bill bryson book, watching movies on my ipod and doing more sleeping.
day 165 – i bought some bananas from the food cart and continued reading my book. then i spent some time writing my blog on my computer. the train ride was 32 hours, so i had lots of time to kill. i ate lunch and spent the afternoon relying on my ipod for entertainment.
late in the evening, we arrived in chengdu and i couldn’t find anyone who knew where my hotel was. i was kicking myself for not printing the address when i was in nanning. i asked a girl at the vip counter for help. she was friendly, but didn’t know the hotel either and i eventually had to go to an internet cafe, print out the address, and get a taxi.
the taxi drivers in china will happily take your business. they nod and smile and most of the time have no fucking clue where they’re going. i handed the driver the paper with the address (in chinese) and off we went. he went up the wrong road and then came around to the right road. he stopped twice to ask directions from passers by and we found the hotel after a long frustrating taxi ride.
i’d emailed the hostel twice before arriving in chengdu, but they hadn’t received my emails and hadn’t booked a room for me. so i took a dorm room (single rooms in china are ridiculously expensive), i checked my email and went to bed.
