As we had bought hard-sleeper tickets for our 10 hour train ride to Guilin,I suppose our pampered minds were set on something similar to what we experienced on the train from Shanghai to Wuhan (Clean, half-empty, nicely quiet, helpful staff. Just extremely comfortable.)...
However, when we finally hauled our backpacks and our tired selves onboard the (alreday delayed) train we were greeted by a peculiar and vomit-inducing combination of smells, which slapped our faces like a wet glove; tobacco, sweat, pee and strange foods made for a harsh reality check.
The original departure station being Beijing, the Chinese on the train had already made themselves extremely comfortable: Phlegm was flying from every direction, food scraps were thrown carelessly on the floor, little babies (aided by their tired mothers) peeing in corners and garbage cans, snoring men scratching their butts in their sleep and people getting sick in the toilet.
The sheets in our upper berths were soiled with strange dark flecks and greasy stains. The loudspeakers as well as our fellow travellers were blaring out their incomprehensible language at noise-levels far exceeding the acceptable. The floor was sticky and damp.
Having a flu and already harboring a slight feeling of malaise, I literally thought I would not survive the day (aka the 10 hours that turned out to be a good 12 hours...). To make matters worse I burnt my finger on the leaking hot water tap. At that point I would not have been very suscpetible to all the claims of travelling broadening one's views and blah blah.
Somehow we still got through the ordeal of getting from point A to point B without developing a trauma, too terrible to cope with.
We blocked the loudspeakers with pillows and quilts, held ourselves to the very last minute in order to minimize familiarization with the train's lavatories, listened to our own music, comfort ate cookies and tried to read our books.
Curling up in fetus position and putting on a blindfold, were things that helped me get through the long grueling hours of that memorable train ride. As much as I would like to forget all about it, I can't deny that it was yet another instructive experience, albeit not a nice one.
I guess we'll all be able to laugh about it one day. Someday.
//R
Showing posts with label Wuhan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wuhan. Show all posts
Oct 30, 2010
Wuhan - Day 25
Okay so visiting Wuhan is a must; if only to sleep in the amazing beds in Pathfinder Youth Hostel, 6 room dorm. We slept like babies for 13 hours straight.
After finally getting up, (the showers here ACTUALLY have warm water. It's not just something stated on their hostelworld website) we jumped on a bus (no subway system here yet, but most of the time we don't mind walking however far it is... When not thinking twice about booking a 14 hour train ride every other day, your perception of distance get's a bit twisted. Bus 2 yuan, and taxi, which is simpler as long as you have your destination written down in Chinese, since you just stand by the side of the road and wave your hand until a taxi stops, costs about... 6 yuan per 3 km?) Oops, got a bit off track, but as said, we jumped on the bus which took us to "Snack Alley". Sort of like Megabite (see earlier post) but genuine. And just as delicious.
In China there is food and public toilets everywhere (except for in Shanghai, where we actually had to look for food, but when finding it there was plenty, didn't see many public toilets though) which suits us fine, since now we never have to walk around hungry, and we honestly lust after the food here. If only we'd get hungrier more often, so we could try out even more of the food.
After eating we wandered down to the Yangtze river in the sunshine (Yes! Sunshine! It was actually rather warm today. Bliss.) and planned how to spend the rest of the day: sightseeing.
But those plans were soon forgotten, when we were approached by a group of University graduates: 1 guy from Singapore (who knew quite a lof of English) and 1 guy and 3 girls from Wuhan. They all work with testing different computer software. After talking to them for a while (and posing on a bunch of pictures, which is why they approached us in the first place) we decided to join them on the ferry to the other side of the river, wander back and forth on a shopping street for a while (some big Chinese celebrity made an appareance there as well... it was "rather" crowded) and then spending the rest of the day at KTV with them.
KTV. Every Chinese youngster seems to live there, at least that's how it feels when talking to them. Bars and nightclubs are apparently not as popular as getting a bunch of friends together, booking a KTV room, and spending the night drinking, eating snacks and, most importantly, singing Karaoke(or "sing song" as they keep saying). Ever since hearing about KTV's for the first time in Beijing, we've wanted to try it, and now we got to.
(So no worries parents, didn't get robbed this time. It was our suggestion to tag along, and they didn't let us pay zilch)
It was... interesting. Like having a karaoke night at home with your friends, except that you had people in suites serve you popcorn and chips, and the rooms were oozing 70's glam. Pictures and videos will come up.
Eventually we got tired of singing along to Britney Spears, Taylor Swift and Avril Lavigne (which are the English songs they chose for us...), and listening to them sing sombre Chinese lovesongs, so we excused ourselves and took a ferry back to the other side of the river.
Ate at a Taoist temple (sadly the temple was already closed, we hadn't realized we'd been that long at the KTV, luckily the restaurant was not) and now back in the familiar internet lair.
We decided the warmer weather and the amazing scenery in the south tempt us more than a 4-day boat ride with a bunch of Chinese and loud speakers (and a fee to be allowed on upper deck!) even though it would have been very interesting to see the fought over damm, the "ghost towns" and the gorges. However, we now have train tickets to Guilin, the train departing from here tomorrow morning and arriving at Guilin already tomorrow night. Sophia and Ruut are trying to book us a hostel for tomorrow, so I still have a little time to blog before we head back to the hostel and our heavenly beds...
In Shanghai there where quite a lot of Western looking people, so we didn't feel all to special. But in Wuhan, it's back to 'normal'.
Laowei, laowei is something we hear quite a lot, and most don't want to pass us without shouting a 'hello', 'nihao' or 'how are you?'. Parents bring their kids to be photographed with us, so they can show the pictures back home, and brave teenagers all want to take pictures with us. Ruut has even been made to pose in different positions (think ballerina and victory signs, nothing dirty here, you pervs).
They're mostly interested in Ruut and Sophia, though, both of them being fairer and more lighthaired than me. And perhaps the Chinese agree with my former classmates: they didn't call me 'Chinese' through high school for no reason. Sophia's length, well, the length of all of us, is also endlessly fascinating.
One of our newfound friends, "Cindy" said: You're like stars. Everyone's staring at you, taking pictures of you. (Not so discreetly if I might add).
We don't feel like 'stars' however, more like the main attraction in a freakshow. How can we be so interesting?
Sometimes we don't mind this at all though, like today, when we didn't find anywhere to sit and eat our lunch bought from the 'snack alley', and suddenly this cute Chinese family, running a little tobacco shop, had pulled out three chairs and a table. While eating our lunches they also offered us nuts and pomelo as dessert, and gave us tips on how to eat with our chopsticks. They were apparently not impressed.
While sitting there we couldn't help but still be amazed by the Chinese. They might find us interesting, but we find them a hundred times more interesting. There they all sat, outside their little shops, and chatted away, shouting to each other from across the street, and walking around in their pyjamas. Then a man walks by, pushing a carriage full of living fish, and suddenly everyone's standing around it, watching him kill and rinse the fish that one of the pyjama heroes ordered.
I don't think there are people anywhere, quite as nosy as the Chinese.
//H
After finally getting up, (the showers here ACTUALLY have warm water. It's not just something stated on their hostelworld website) we jumped on a bus (no subway system here yet, but most of the time we don't mind walking however far it is... When not thinking twice about booking a 14 hour train ride every other day, your perception of distance get's a bit twisted. Bus 2 yuan, and taxi, which is simpler as long as you have your destination written down in Chinese, since you just stand by the side of the road and wave your hand until a taxi stops, costs about... 6 yuan per 3 km?) Oops, got a bit off track, but as said, we jumped on the bus which took us to "Snack Alley". Sort of like Megabite (see earlier post) but genuine. And just as delicious.
In China there is food and public toilets everywhere (except for in Shanghai, where we actually had to look for food, but when finding it there was plenty, didn't see many public toilets though) which suits us fine, since now we never have to walk around hungry, and we honestly lust after the food here. If only we'd get hungrier more often, so we could try out even more of the food.
After eating we wandered down to the Yangtze river in the sunshine (Yes! Sunshine! It was actually rather warm today. Bliss.) and planned how to spend the rest of the day: sightseeing.
But those plans were soon forgotten, when we were approached by a group of University graduates: 1 guy from Singapore (who knew quite a lof of English) and 1 guy and 3 girls from Wuhan. They all work with testing different computer software. After talking to them for a while (and posing on a bunch of pictures, which is why they approached us in the first place) we decided to join them on the ferry to the other side of the river, wander back and forth on a shopping street for a while (some big Chinese celebrity made an appareance there as well... it was "rather" crowded) and then spending the rest of the day at KTV with them.
KTV. Every Chinese youngster seems to live there, at least that's how it feels when talking to them. Bars and nightclubs are apparently not as popular as getting a bunch of friends together, booking a KTV room, and spending the night drinking, eating snacks and, most importantly, singing Karaoke(or "sing song" as they keep saying). Ever since hearing about KTV's for the first time in Beijing, we've wanted to try it, and now we got to.
(So no worries parents, didn't get robbed this time. It was our suggestion to tag along, and they didn't let us pay zilch)
It was... interesting. Like having a karaoke night at home with your friends, except that you had people in suites serve you popcorn and chips, and the rooms were oozing 70's glam. Pictures and videos will come up.
Eventually we got tired of singing along to Britney Spears, Taylor Swift and Avril Lavigne (which are the English songs they chose for us...), and listening to them sing sombre Chinese lovesongs, so we excused ourselves and took a ferry back to the other side of the river.
Ate at a Taoist temple (sadly the temple was already closed, we hadn't realized we'd been that long at the KTV, luckily the restaurant was not) and now back in the familiar internet lair.
We decided the warmer weather and the amazing scenery in the south tempt us more than a 4-day boat ride with a bunch of Chinese and loud speakers (and a fee to be allowed on upper deck!) even though it would have been very interesting to see the fought over damm, the "ghost towns" and the gorges. However, we now have train tickets to Guilin, the train departing from here tomorrow morning and arriving at Guilin already tomorrow night. Sophia and Ruut are trying to book us a hostel for tomorrow, so I still have a little time to blog before we head back to the hostel and our heavenly beds...
In Shanghai there where quite a lot of Western looking people, so we didn't feel all to special. But in Wuhan, it's back to 'normal'.
Laowei, laowei is something we hear quite a lot, and most don't want to pass us without shouting a 'hello', 'nihao' or 'how are you?'. Parents bring their kids to be photographed with us, so they can show the pictures back home, and brave teenagers all want to take pictures with us. Ruut has even been made to pose in different positions (think ballerina and victory signs, nothing dirty here, you pervs).
They're mostly interested in Ruut and Sophia, though, both of them being fairer and more lighthaired than me. And perhaps the Chinese agree with my former classmates: they didn't call me 'Chinese' through high school for no reason. Sophia's length, well, the length of all of us, is also endlessly fascinating.
One of our newfound friends, "Cindy" said: You're like stars. Everyone's staring at you, taking pictures of you. (Not so discreetly if I might add).
We don't feel like 'stars' however, more like the main attraction in a freakshow. How can we be so interesting?
Sometimes we don't mind this at all though, like today, when we didn't find anywhere to sit and eat our lunch bought from the 'snack alley', and suddenly this cute Chinese family, running a little tobacco shop, had pulled out three chairs and a table. While eating our lunches they also offered us nuts and pomelo as dessert, and gave us tips on how to eat with our chopsticks. They were apparently not impressed.
While sitting there we couldn't help but still be amazed by the Chinese. They might find us interesting, but we find them a hundred times more interesting. There they all sat, outside their little shops, and chatted away, shouting to each other from across the street, and walking around in their pyjamas. Then a man walks by, pushing a carriage full of living fish, and suddenly everyone's standing around it, watching him kill and rinse the fish that one of the pyjama heroes ordered.
I don't think there are people anywhere, quite as nosy as the Chinese.
//H
Oct 29, 2010
Wuhan - Day 24
Hard sleeper vs. hard seat is an easy choice, as we arrived happy and well-slept in Wuhan today, compared with arriving tired and sore in Nanjing...
First we were a bit stressed that we wouldn't get any sleep on this train either, since the other passangers were just as interested in talking with us, as they were on the Beijing-Nanjing train, the only difference being that now no one could speak English. Not even read English. So our conversations weren't that exciting (well, we don't know if they were) and trying to learn Chinese in the middle of the night, without knowing what words you are learning, is not as much fun as you'd think. So when the lights finally were turned off, we were rather thankful. Ever since the Trans Sib, I just don't sleep as well anywhere else than on a train. (Just waking up a couple of times, stressing out we'd missed our station)
Luckily we didn't miss our station, and actually managed to take a bus(!) to our hostel, Pathfinder International Youth Hostel. Which I might add is the most colourful and "hippie-like" hostel we've been in so far.
By the way... how many of you have ever heard of Wuhan? None of us had, and still Wuhan is the equivalent of Finland when it comes to the amount of inhabitants.
...so, what is there to do here then? Or actually, what should we do after seeing what there is to do here?
Do we want to go on a 4-day cruise upstream the Yangtze river (which is what we came here for, since we didn't get to go on our boat trip to the island of Putuoshan, outside Shanghai, because of the strong wind) to the huge city(they're all so huge...) of Chongqing? And from there to Chengdu?
Or should we just skip the boat trip on the Yangtze, although our "new swedes" recommended it, and head south (YES!) towards Guilin? And a boat ride on the Li river perhaps, since we seem to have an obsession about that. And from there on to the Yunnan province....?
Oh well, we'll see, we still have one day more here, so plenty of time (cough, cough) to decide where we want to head next.
When hearing our response: 'We don't know', on the question: 'Where are you going next?', all Western travelers respond: 'That's the best way to travel!' while all Chinese shake their heads in bewildernment and consider us as lost, little girls, who have absolutely no clue of what we're doing, and desperately need their help.
I think the truth is a little bit of both, this really is a great way to travel, as you get to make up your mind as you go (although slightly stressed by the fact that China is, well, HUGE, and there is so much to see and do, while our visas will run out eventually...) but at the same time.. you are sort of lost. All the time.
But that's not necessary a bad thing.
//H
First we were a bit stressed that we wouldn't get any sleep on this train either, since the other passangers were just as interested in talking with us, as they were on the Beijing-Nanjing train, the only difference being that now no one could speak English. Not even read English. So our conversations weren't that exciting (well, we don't know if they were) and trying to learn Chinese in the middle of the night, without knowing what words you are learning, is not as much fun as you'd think. So when the lights finally were turned off, we were rather thankful. Ever since the Trans Sib, I just don't sleep as well anywhere else than on a train. (Just waking up a couple of times, stressing out we'd missed our station)
Luckily we didn't miss our station, and actually managed to take a bus(!) to our hostel, Pathfinder International Youth Hostel. Which I might add is the most colourful and "hippie-like" hostel we've been in so far.
By the way... how many of you have ever heard of Wuhan? None of us had, and still Wuhan is the equivalent of Finland when it comes to the amount of inhabitants.
...so, what is there to do here then? Or actually, what should we do after seeing what there is to do here?
Do we want to go on a 4-day cruise upstream the Yangtze river (which is what we came here for, since we didn't get to go on our boat trip to the island of Putuoshan, outside Shanghai, because of the strong wind) to the huge city(they're all so huge...) of Chongqing? And from there to Chengdu?
Or should we just skip the boat trip on the Yangtze, although our "new swedes" recommended it, and head south (YES!) towards Guilin? And a boat ride on the Li river perhaps, since we seem to have an obsession about that. And from there on to the Yunnan province....?
Oh well, we'll see, we still have one day more here, so plenty of time (cough, cough) to decide where we want to head next.
When hearing our response: 'We don't know', on the question: 'Where are you going next?', all Western travelers respond: 'That's the best way to travel!' while all Chinese shake their heads in bewildernment and consider us as lost, little girls, who have absolutely no clue of what we're doing, and desperately need their help.
I think the truth is a little bit of both, this really is a great way to travel, as you get to make up your mind as you go (although slightly stressed by the fact that China is, well, HUGE, and there is so much to see and do, while our visas will run out eventually...) but at the same time.. you are sort of lost. All the time.
But that's not necessary a bad thing.
//H
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