Advertisement
Published: November 13th 2011
Edit Blog Post
Escape from the hostel
Michael holds the ladder and Chinese man makes his way down as we make an escape to Vietnam Wow, we've been a bit behind with our entries whilst we've been in Vietnam, we will try and catch up at some point!
21st October: Time to leave china and catch our 0730 bus to Hanoi. we woke nice and early and headed downstairs to leave but we were approached by Jody who told us that the key had snapped off in the lock and that was the only exit!!!! we enquired about the fire exit but soon discovered it only went up to the roof, v.v handy! it was 0700 and it was a 15min walk to the bus station so we were all worried about missing our bus but our hostel lady assured us that it would be fine and we could catch the 8am bus but when we asked her would we get our money back she could not speak any english. this is a very common trait in China e.g asking someone something difficult or anything to do with politics they all of a sudden cannot speak english even if they have been doing so for the last 30mins! The hostel lady not realising/acknowledging our urgency we had to conjour up our own escape plan. we checked all the windows but they were barred up, surpise surpise. all hope was lost until Bruce saw a ladder!! so we headed to the fire exit and hoped it would reach the ground... it did not. but then! we saw a toilet with a roof attached to the hostel building and excellent, it reached to this level. we planned to go to that level and then lower the ladder down to the floor from there. So one by one we climbed over a barrier ignoring the 40ft drop and onto the ladder which was put together with masking tape and sank inwards halfway down. Bruce went down first and i handed the backpacks down one by one, then i went down and me and bruce lowered the ladder from the toilet roof to the ground (which was more secure) and again handed the bags down very quickly as the roof began to dip. after the bags were down i put the ladder back up to the fire escape and at this point we had 20mins to get to the bus station and in true chinese style the hostel lady came out to take photos of us and stand in the way of katie, jody and a Chinese man who was ctaching the same bus as us. we were shouting for her to move but she carried on taking pictures so katie decided to give her a helpful prod out the way. Chinese man, then Jody descended the ladder and then katie followed at this point i was holding the ladder against the fire escape on the shed roof. all of a sudden bruce shouted at us all to move to the back of the shed roof as it was dipping too much in the middle and we would fall through. we then moved the ladder to the ground and quickly desended the roof and ran to the bus station carrying our backpacks and got on the bus with a minute to spare....Phew!
So we made it out of China, and what a place China is!
We've decided to compile a list of some of our favourite and least favourite things about China.
Things we loved about China:
1. Tiger Leaping Gorge for the amazing scenery and the achievement of getting to the top and the fun on the way up
2. The way Chinese people have absolutely no sense of urgency and walk at snail pace until a train/plane/bus arrives and then they rush and push to get to the front even if they have 40 minutes to get on!
3. The traffic and the drivers who do not stay in lanes and drive on the pavement if the road is full
4. XingPing for the beautiful scenery and the fun bamboo raft ride
5. PANDAS!!!
6.The Great Wall
7. Forbidden City and the rest of Chinese history
8. Public transport - cheap and on time if a little crowded!
9. Cycling around Yangshuo through the farmer's fields...oh and Katie falling in a ditch Michael says
10. River drifting (drifting should not be called this, it's more like being hurled down a river!!)
11. Chinese people who often suprised us with their generosity and kindness in helping us out.
12. Naxi women in Lijiang and Tiger Leaping Gorge
13. The ladies collectig bottles for recycling whose eyes would light up when they saw a nearly empty bottle and would chase us until we finished our drinks.
things we weren't so fond of!
1. the constant spitting and hacking up of phlegm by the Chinese people
2. children with no nappies/pants peeing and pooing in public whilst their parents held them up, sometimes in the middle iof the street, sometimes pooing over a bin, sometimes pooing over a car or other object.
3. the smog and pollution and smell (mostly in Beijing)
4. the very, very dirty female squat toilets...description not needed
5. being dropped at the wrong hotel in Leshan in the pouring rain and not being able to find where we were for ages as no-one spoke English and our Mandarin could do with a bit of work!!
6. the dogs in Yangshuo market and other maltreatment of animals
Both lists could probably go on for ages and I'm sure we will add to them as we remember more.
Overall it's been a great experience, so glad we went there.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.064s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 7; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0399s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Pat Miller
non-member comment
Graceful exit
You two really know how to live life on the edge! What a tale - your exit from the hostel that is.Even though I knew that you'd made it to your bus on time, my heart was in my mouth reading your account! Much love, Mum xx