the much anticipated bus trip to Huangshan

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Oh where to begin? There is so much good stuff packed into the last 3 days. We have been on a true adventure - just as we planned. The kids are amazing. So brave and willing to adapt. They are my heros. Whenever I want to whine and complain I look at them dealing with it all and I just try to suck it up appreciate that we are all here together.
The bus: Not so bad! I had such low expectations and then it turned out to be totally fine. It was a bit of a struggle to get to the bus station as we took a taxi to the train station, which is near the bus station but not quite attached. We incorrectly went inside the train station and the security line only to be sent back out and redirected downstairs. My new (and slightly too big to carry with us everywhere) dictionary is coming in handy. I looked up bus station and was able to get us back on track.
We tried to travel light. We didn’t quite succeed but we did manage to use 2 suitcases instead of 4 (but the ones we used were pretty big). We had to bring warmer clothes and even jackets and those things take more space. They just do. Lesson from previous train trip was the kids cannot pull bags after about 5 minutes. Correction: Emily cannot pull a bag at all. Nathan can, but when there are stairs involved it gets too difficult. So he had his backpack, Emily had her backpack (Mark ended up with it seconds into the journey) and Mark and I each had a rolling suitcase and a backpack. We also had this bag of food that I was hauling atop my rolling bag. Oh and I had a purse too. My backpack is really small—to prevent overstuffing, but I had more stuff than it could accommodate. Really, we were traveling light—for us.
A few words about the bus and bus station: the station was very crowded but not in a crazy shoving people way. The train station was much worse when we went to Nanjing. The bus crowd seemed mellower. Probably because they were people who had just worked Saturday and Sunday to earn the luxury of a week off. The national holiday is Wednesday-Friday. Most companies let their employees work Saturday and Sunday to earn Monday and Tuesday off. The bathrooms at the bus station were the worst we’ve seen and Emily flat out refused to go. I can’t really blame her. It was beyond the hole in the ground. I will spare you further details but ICK is not adequate to get the ick factor across. Emily managed to wait til our first stop on the road (which was our only stop as it turned out) and the toilets were much more acceptable. They were the regular hole on floor variety. We can handle those. Oh, no toilet on the bus (THANK GOODNESS) because we were at the back of the bus and that would have been beyond ick.
Many people on our bus were tired and ready to head home to visit family. Some were on vacation like us, I’m sure. We were the only westerners. Nobody cared. We did not draw the usual attention which was a-okay. We sat in our seats and enjoyed the lack of attention. The kids had ipods and paper and pens and Mark studied his Chinese. I snored my way through much of the journey in my usual road trip fashion. It’s what I do. I sleep in moving vehicles to pass the time. Emily only had 1 close call with feeling carsick but she worked through it with deep breathing and looking out the window. Hooray.
When we got off the bus, we were eventually met by Allen, our tour guide and a driver. It took a phone call to describe where we were. I didn’t have to describe what we looked like! Allen is very nice. He’s 22, and from Huangshan. He speaks English and we have enjoyed his stories about the things and people we have seen.
We went to the hotel to check in and drop off our stuff. The hotel is typical of what you get when you get out of the big cities. Our room is clean, but the carpet in our room appears to be from ancient times. I think the hotel I booked was actually better, and the travel agent put us here because he gets a commission here…but the location is a little more central to things besides the mountain and we are here for 5 days. We don’t have internet in our room as the hotel advertised. I guess they have it, but not in our room. Mei you (don’t have). We do have breakfast and the rooms are pretty freakin' cheap. The beds are harder than our beds in Shanghai. Those are going to feel luxuriously soft when we return to them on Friday. These are boxsprings with sheets. Or boxes really…hold the spring. Again, I must share that the kids are just rolling with it all. They are used to nice hotels and they are handling this so well. Even my little diva daughter has not found any fault with the less than fancy accommodations.

After checking in, we went to the Ancient Street with Allen. It’s 500 years old and there were shops and restaurants lining the street. We saw a guy making dumplings and putting on quite a show in the street. We saw a Chinese medicine store that seemed to be as old as the street but was also operational. Emily fell in love with these small wooden dolls and Nathan chose a wooden alligator. Mark bargained for Emily’s and I bargained for Nathan’s. We had a great dinner near the Ancient Street. Allen helped us order and then left us to enjoy our feast. We had a very tasty tofu dish with a spicy sauce. We had some yummy noodles in a light broth and a bunch of other tasty dishes. After dinner we went back to the hotel and went to bed early since we had an early day on Tuesday.

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Photos

truck load of piggies
photo credit: Nathan Slaven

scene from bus
it was pretty...

dinner
noodles with broth...very yummy

making silk!
we saw the worms too

nathan went flying after dinner
the new camera is great for the jumping shots.

Comments

[Linda]

Great blog!
Love hearing that you are enjoying your holiday in Huangshan. The fact that you're the only Westerners at times and nobody pays attention speaks volumes about Team Slaven. Kudos to Emily and Nathan for being so open to new things. Look forward to your next blog!

[robert]

Love the pic of flying Nathan.