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Published: February 18th 2007
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The next morning, I bought a bus ticket to go to the sea. With it, Aris and my ways separated, but just for a short while …
At the air-conditioned, luxurious bus, I sat next to a Chinese girl, Duan Yanni (or just Janny): she worked in the local train station close to the beach and was very familiar with the town. So, we arranged to meet for dinner later, hoping, she could introduce me to the local night-life. As I live in China for half a year now, I’m kind of used to culture & life. Particularly during my current trip, I don’t feel like being in a completely new country, compared to summer 2005, when I first came here. That’s why something like going out is also part of my travelling, although it may be a waste of time if you don’t get up before tea-time.
As soon as I left the bus station after arriving, I passed a hotel and three “Laowais” (Chinese term for western foreigners) came out. I immediately asked them in English for the room prices: too expensive; while I turned away to go, they surprisingly talked in German to each others! No matter where
my own little island
the hut was inclusive you are, you will definitely find some Germans there! And it should not be the last time, that I met Silke, Hein and Wolf.
The city, where I arrived, was ways larger than hoped. Of course they had a beach. With a big entrance gate, a park area and an endless line of stores. Chinese understanding of recreation in nature. Fortunately, the Germans told me about a small island, what is still pretty un-touristy. Because there was only one boat a day at 8.30pm, I had to stay one day longer in the town.
The second night, I met again with Janny and two other friends of her. First dinner, later Karaoke … cause I’m not the biggest fan of singing Chinese pop-songs, I tried my best to convince the girls to go to a club - and succeeded
When I came back from the club’s toilet, there were two buckets, each filled with 8 bottles beer, standing on our table. Nice girls! This night, they paid for everything, although I tried my best to stop them: “You pay next time!” was their common answer. When I talked with Janny again about it another day, she just said: “Why
should always the man pay for everything? That’s not a general rule!” You are sooooo right, baby! But, especially in Asia, it’s still common, that the man has to pay: Anna, another German student of my University, told me, all her Chinese female friends think this way. And Jiman, a Korean friend, said if you go out with a Korean girl, they even won’t bring any money with them! Good to see, that there is at least little hope at the horizon …
After only 4 hrs sleep and still some alcohol remaining in my blood, I got up to catch my boat. When I finally reached the island, it had a quite developed appearance: houses, cars, a gas station, two big hotels; but beside this, just banana-trees everywhere! I negotiated the black taxi price and told them to bring me to a cheap sleeping place close to the beach. And guess who stayed in the house just next to my accommodation? My three German friends …
In the beginning, I used to think, you meet people several times in different places, because everyone uses the “Lonely Planet Guide”. But this time, neither the island nor the places, we
plants & stone
during the flood you see water instead of stone formations stayed in, were mentioned in the book (that’s why it is still un-touristy!). So how could that happen?! Fate? Coincidence? Or is the world, in the end, just a village? You can travel around, but as soon as you leave your plane, train, ship or bus, you will be in a certain surrounding, to what you will get known to. Like a small island within a huge ocean, but the ocean you don’t know. And propably, you will never know. Because the world is still too big. What you will know, in the end, are these small islands. And if you stay long enough on one of them, then somebody, for sure, will come along, whom you somewhere met before. In my case, it lasted 4 days before Aris came to the island …
In between, I enjoyed the easy way of live: Sleeping until high noon, eating seafruits & fresh fish for breakfast/lunch, taking a nap of the exhausting meal in the hammock, later going to the beach for swimming, walking through the banana-plantations, watching the sunset, having barbecue at the beach, exploring the island with Hein and Wolf, practicing my Chinese with locals and other guests …
There
Liang Wu
aka Apu Nahasapeemapetilon’s cousin in person was a Chinese man from Chengdu, the photographer, who loved to take pictures of other people without asking, paying no attention to privacy, maybe it comes from his loneliness after he got divorced 4 years ago; there was a big family, also from Chengdu, at least 16 persons, from infant to grandpa, non-stop talking, laughing, shouting - urbanites in the countryside, if daddy didn’t bring his notebook, mommy her mobile and sonny his play station, they propably would die of feeling bored; there was a girl from Beijing, who studied for 5 years in Florida, currently reading “Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn”, asking me for the meaning of words like “yond”, although she was the one, who lived for 5 years in the U.S.!; and there was a British couple, coming together with Aris, maybe in their late 50s, now teaching English in Changsha for the second year, the type of traveller, who immediately tells you what happened to them in country XY after they came from country YZ and right before they will go to ZX …
But the most, I appreciated the conversations with Liang Wu, who is the owner of our small hotel (Liang Wu means Liang
cliff walking
with Wolf and Hein (family name) #5 (first name), as he has 4 older brothers (Liang #1, #2, #3, & #4!). From his appearance and pronunciation of broken Mandarin (cause the local language is different from Mandarin), he totally reminded me of Apu Nahasapeemapetilon’s cousin, who frequently has to guard the Kwik-E-Mart. Once, he said to me, from one second to the other:”Your countries over there, they are all well developed.” (Developed - Chinese love to use this word) I asked:”What do you mean by developed?” - “Your living standards are quite high.” was his answer. This guy, sitting on his hammock in front of his hotel in the middle of banana-trees, having all-year perfect weather (don’t forget: it’s February now!), having his whole family around him, living without any extern pressure, living the life most people dream of, he asked me about high living standards?
Why do so many people from far away come to his small island to spend their holidays? Because, in their opinion, this life is more than standard! Hearing that, he could hardly suppress a proud smiling.
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