Typhoons and bijou don't mix

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(Just to warn you, this entry ended up being incredibly long and may be best read in multiple sittings. I hope it's worth the effort)

So just to say it right up front, screw typhoons. They're really starting to mess with my travel plans and are hampering a schedual that's packed fairly full already. The only plus is that they bring a refershing breeze with them that helps to blow away alot of the humidity, and can bring the temperature into the region of bearable. This is nice as I have been sweating like an athiest in church, but it is not enough considering all of the headaches it has caused.
The reason for all this complaining is that a typhoon has indeed been wreaking havoc along the south-eastern coast of China for the last week or so. I briliantly decided to travel through China during monsoon season so as well as the heat and the humidity, typhoons are a fairly typical occurance. We have not been in any danger in any of the places we have been staying, but I'm starting to get fairly annoyed with the fallout from this summer storm.
The trouble all started after Emma and I left Hangzhou. After my amazing experience at Jiuhuashan I had wanted Emma to have the experience of seeing a holy Buddhist mountain. Aside from Jiuhuashan there are three other holy Buddhist peaks in China. One of them happened to be Putuoshan, an island just of the coast near where we were which was described to us as, "the China of our dreams made up of pictures out of a book". Remember that little tag line for later. We had met two other travellers, Alba and Anteres from Spain, who also wanted to visit the island to hang out on the beaches. Remeber that for later as well since this story gets pretty funny. With our heads full of picturesqe ideas of what this island paradise was going to be like the four of us set off on our 4 hour bus ride to Sanjiamen where we where to catch the ferry to paradise.
Operating on typical Chinese time (this is similar to Greek time, Italian time, Turkish time, or the type of scheduals kept anywhere in the world that doesn't care too much) the bus arrived in Sanjiamen roughly five and a half hours later. Too late to now catch a ferry to our dream island we got a couple of rooms for the night and enjoyed some fantastic dumplings and noodles cooked in two hole-in-the-wall restaurants. The food was delicious and cheap. So far the trip was off to a good start.
The next day we caught the ferry over to the island, taking the speedboat that got us there in 10 minutes rather than 30 for the same price. We considered ourselves fairly savvy travellers for having found the boat, and rode our excitment about the island the whole way there. After docking, and laughing at the other ship which was named the Pu Ke (put it together into one word), we bought our tickets for the island and ventured out to meet the crowd hawking hotels and guesthouses. The ticket, by the way, is normal practice as all of these places are protected national parks. You mearly buy the ticket at the enterance and have something nice to paste into the scrapbook or journal.
The first shock when we reached the island was that all of the prices where outrageously expensive. We had figured that they would be fairly steep for China, but these prices where above and beyond those found in the major city centres such as Shanghai. Blow away we proceeded to waste more than two hours hiking around the small town checking out room after room that was priced at five to ten times what we thought it should have been. We where also pestered by hawkers, people who sit and watch for tourists then help to find a room while making a small commission from the hotel. This can often be quite helpful and is worth the small cut for the hawker if you can find something you like for a good deal. The hawker who came across us was not of this kind, and eventually developed into a bit of a shadow trying to find us rooms, restaurants, gifts, or anything else we might need. I'm pretty sure I could have bargined her down and got her first born for under fifty bucks Canadian. The best one she showed us was for four hundred yuan, the price we where hoping to spend, that Anteres and I went to check out. Situated in a nice hotel the room was one of the worst I've ever seen. Solitary confinement in prison offered more ammenities than this room, and I told Anteres that I wouldn't let my dog stay there.
Breaking for lunch, we dejectedly decided to take an overpriced dorm room in a hotel for 500 yuan as it was only going to be one night. Our shadow was fairly dissipointed, and ended our last barginning session by shouting, "OK!" in my face at the top of her lungs. Garlic is an essential part of Chinese cooking for those of you who did not know. Having wasted most of the gorgeous day we dumped our bags and looked around a bit. We where informed that the reason for the price hike was that the patron Buddah of the island was celebrating it's birthday and the island was near capacity. Everything was priced normally the day before, and would return to normal the next day, but for the one night everybody was taking advantage of the opportunity. This only served as salt in the wound as we would only be spending one night on the island with trains to catch back in Hangzhou. We checked out the reasonably low key festivites, and having seen all that the small town had to offer called it an early night in order to be up for the hike to the top of the mountain the next day.
The mountain ended up being fairly dissapointing the next day as it was quite small, and had only one unimpressive monestary at the peak. After the spectacular views from Jiuhuashan which has over 70 temples pearched on the edge of precipice type cliffs, I was a bit let down with the island as a whole. A strong breeze had come up however, and this made the hike to the top much more bearable than the scorching sun we experienced the day before. We hustled down the mountain to the ferry terminal with lots of time to spare predicting large crowds due to the number of travellers on the island. We also hoped to have time for some more of the fantastic dumplings in Sanjiamen before we had to hop the bus we had booked to Hangzhou once again.
The winds, however, where the edge of the typhoon (Hurricane in North America) that was maving aling the south-eastern coast of China. They had made all ferries inoperable, and we where stranded on the less than impressive island of Putuoshan. Emma and I had a train book for the following day from Hangzhou at noon, and Alba and Anteres where to leave in the evening. Worried we might miss the trains we decided the best course of action would be to spend the night at the ferry terminal. We had been informed that the ticket office may open early as they where hoping to run ferries as early as 5:30 or 6:00 rather than the typical 7:00. Emma and I decided that this would work well as we needed to be on a boat at 7:00 or 7:30 in order to make it on time for our train. Alba and Anteres wanted to do the same, and we all figured that if we stayed up all night we would be able to sleep on the bus and the train later in our journey. The plan was not perfect, however, as the ferry terminal closed it's door early meaning we would have to camp outside. We found a nice alcove from the wind and decided that we would set up shop for the night hoping the police didn't come to evict us at some point.
We also decided that the best way to help the night pass would be to stock up on copious amounts of beer, wine and bijou, the national liquor of China. This, combined with the gale force winds made for an interesting night. I won't go into the details too much as my mother has the website of this blog, but I will say that there where drinking games played and steaking was involved. This all helped to fuel worries that we may be evicted by the police, but the night passed without any offical incidents.
More than a little bleary eyed after a night of no sleep, we where concerned when we lined up the next day as the winds had not decreased at all, but had gotten stronger through the night. By the time 8:00 rolled around we realized that our hopes of making our trains where dashed as there where to be no trains that day. We found some rooms (much cheaper than the night before) and crashed for the day and night hoping for better luck the next day.
The next day was in fact better, and we all managed to get off the island, get our tickets for the bus we missed exchanged for new ones and make it to Hangzhou. Emma and I quickly jumped a cab to the train station and after some haggling got our train tickets exchanged as well. The lady slipped us on a train leaving fourty-five miniutes later, so we barely had time to rush through dinner before we where off on the train to Guilin.
Now the tickets we had booked where for beds in the sleeper compartment, but rather than print us new ones the lady had merely singed and stamped the tickets saying it was alright to let us on the train. This met we had been relegated to the seats on the train, and having arrived late there where none left. Not only that, but the isles where full too, and Emma and I where forced to siit on our bags at the edge of the dining car. This didn't seem so attractive for a 26 hour train journey, and after taking pity on us we where eventually allowed to upgrade our tickets for the bunks. We did have to pay of course, having already paid the price of a buck. Officials seem to work the same everywhere. After more than 36 hours of continous travel Emma and I got of the bus in Yangshuo where we are now.
The place is beautiful, situated along the bank of the Li river with a stunning backdrop of mountains. This is more like the China of my dreams, and although it is a bit too touristy to stay for a long period the place is great. Emma and I have rode bikes through the country, hiked mountains, and hope to rent a scooter tommarrow to check out some of the small villages in the area.
The problem with the typhoon conintues, however, as it has halted much of the train and bus service in the south. Already pressed for time to accomplish all that we want to do, we are now looking at possibly not having enough time to hike Tiger Leaping Gorge which is situated along the Yangtzee. We find out the verdict on the train tickets tommarrow night, and may have to try and make other arrangements. I now hate typoons, monsoon seasons, and everything to do with major stomrs in general. It has provided a few funny moments, a number of stories to tell, and a whole lot of headaches. I am debating moving to the desert where I no longer have to deal with torrential rain at all.
Sorry about the length of this entry as it ended up being fairly epic. I hope some of you made it all the way to the end. Thanks to those of you who did, but shouldn't you really be doing something more productive with your time than surfing the internet. If that's what you are spending your time doing and come across a video on a Spanish website with incriminating evidence I deny everyting and appologise to my mother. Keep checking for more updates and I'll try and make the next one a bit more managable.

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Comments

[Kate J]

Amen!
Having arrived in Ethiopia during the rainy season I second your dislike for monsoons! I think it's a bit ridiculous that i sleep in a pair of sweats with the hood up, in a sleeping bag and under a douvet, and it's Africa! Good to hear of your adventures. www.cpar-ethiopia.blogspot.com