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Published: April 17th 2017
With the help of two young Chinese (especially the young girl) we know where to catch the bus from and what time it leaves 1050am. There is only one bus to Wuyi Shan daily, so we must be on it. Breakfast this morning from a local bakery (cosy Y10 =$2) soft rolls with sausages and an egg. Trying to kill time before we go to the bus station – we have about 10-hour ride ahead of us. We are struggling to get used to our backpacks, but all the time taxis cost less than $2, we will be using them.
Caught the bus successfully, but why, oh why, did no one tell us it was going to take 15 excruciating hours? Because we don’t speak Chinese that’s why. The bus cost Y124 ($27) and was another sleeper bus where you lie down. It started to rain not long after we boarded and then an hour later we realised we were still in Xiamen going around in circles picking up passengers and freight, this should have forewarned us about the rest of the trip. No one spoke any English and none of the road signs were in English either, so we
Ruth faning sleep
Some where in Fujianhad no idea where we were at any stage of the journey. We looked at the passing landscape that Tony described as “ugly as sin” “as boring as fuck” and an “ecological disaster”. The Chinese cities are very clean and tidy but their countryside is a mess, dirty, fallen down houses and rubbish everywhere.
We had one stop on the way about 6pm at a roadside café that was swarming with mozzies, the food didn’t look too bad but we didn’t really want to eat as we wanted to avoid using the dreadful “squat” toilets in China. Sleep was impossible on the bus – one old man was smoking, which filled up the bus and then he would throw his butts in the bin which was lined with a plastic bag logically the bag would burn and stink. The TV was on with the same movie in Chinese played over and over at top volume. All this time we still didn’t know where to get off.
At 230am we were told we had arrived in Wuyi Shan we got our backpacks from the luggage compartment and where dismayed to find they smelt like fish. There was a man
standing there urging us on to his mini bus where he would take us to a hotel we really didn’t have the strength to argue, so got on the bus with two fat Chinese ladies. We were taken to Shendoang Hotel which was a three star Tony went in and negotiated a price Y200 so we went in to register and the minibus left (One of the two fat ladies spoke English, she told me she was from Beijing) unfortunately our nightmare was far from over, as we were then subsequently told that our room would cost Y440 ($100). There was nothing we could do, we had obviously been scammed. Seems unfair to pay so much for about 6 hours, we will be leaving this place in the morning.
Awoke this morning with sore backs and still pissed off after being ripped of the night before, Tony barely slept he was so angry and I couldn’t wait to leave either. At least we had a proper wall mounted shower rather than a hand held which was a bonus. I pulled the knob off the toilet and broke it (good). We checked out at 10am and caught a cab. Tony
showed me the hotel he wanted to stay at in the Let’s Go but when we arrived it was closed, so the driver took us to another which was much too expensive, so we moved on to another that cost $62 per night, a bit expensive but it had magnificent views of the surrounding mountains, so we took it.
After unloading our bags, we got the cabbie to take us to the top of the river for the Nine Bend River rafts. The rafts are laced together bamboo each with six chairs affixed to them, and two pole-men, one at the front, one at the back, it cost Y100 ($22) to go for an hour and half cruise which made the horrors of the day disappear as it was very relaxing and the scenery was gorgeous. Each of the rock formations had a name and a story, of course it was all in Chinese but everyone on the raft tried their best to help us understand one lady possessed some English and what she couldn’t say, the others would sign. We had a wonderful time despite the bamboo chairs hurting our already sore bums.
After rafting we walked
into the village and caught the No.6 minibus to Wuyi Shan city for Y2 (-45c) we walked around for a while, went to an ATM and had lunch at a blatant Macca’s rip off called Maddie Chicken – their logo was an underlined Golden Arch. Not bad but the French fries were dripping in grease
It was nearly 3pm so we caught the No.6 back to near our hotel and walked the short distance across the bridge. We are seeing so many amazing sights that the trials and tribulations are all worth it (though it may not seem like it at the time). The scenery around here is very pretty and what we came to China for, even if it is costing more than we expected, hopefully we can tighten up in Shanghai. After a short rest, we wandered down to the hotel’s restaurant for dinner. Of course, no one understands us, so the young girl took us for a tour of the kitchen we were a bit concerned at what we would find. The kitchen was mainly tin and stone, a bit rustic with huge gas burners to fry over she pulled out all manner of vegetables and
we nodded to the ones we wanted (or knew ha ha), eggplant, zucchini, a white root vegetable and a cauliflower. As we passed on the goldfish, they pulled a big hunk of meat out of the freezer which was quite obviously beef, so we nodded. What we didn’t realise was that everything we had nodded to came out on its own huge plate, so instead of a stir fry beef dish with vegetables, we were surrounded by eggplant stir-fry, cauli stir fry etc etc. It was a veritable banquet just for the two of us and everything was great we ate as much as we could (not a bad effort) and it cost us Y65 ($14). Now relaxing in our room, Tony is watching Chinese TV and not understanding any of it. Tomorrow we intend to catch a night train to Hangzhou this should save us the cost of a night’s accommodation – NO MORE BUSES.
We were standing out on our little balcony before when Tony accused me of farting we then realised it was a bird in the bushes going “PFFT”
We went to bed at 8pm last night and slept until 8am this morning. We
wanted to check out where the train station was, so we caught two minibuses; a No.6 and a No.2 to get there, which took about 20 minutes. The train station wasn’t hard to find we thought it would be difficult to explain where we wanted to go but with the Let’s Go book we managed. Tony shows amazing perseverance. Unfortunately, the only train available was the 534pm, so we shall arrive in Hangzhou in the middle of the night which is what we wanted to avoid. We have two top sleeper beds (what the Chinese call “hard sleeper”) and they cost Y128 ($28). I was a bit distressed as I don’t think I can handle another sleepless uncomfortable night, but as Tony said, we have no choice.
After the train station, we went for a walk along the road near our hotel (Jiangnan Mountain Villa) to try and find a walking trail that would lead us into the mountains. We passed several small waterfalls and some overgrown trails the scenery was pretty but somewhat spoilt by touts on motorbikes yelling “Hallo!! Want ride?” You learn to ignore them but it is still annoying, plus no one here seems to
walk so we are somewhat of a curiosity. After a while we found a bitumen road that led to a temple, so we followed that for a couple of kilometres. Most of it was uphill so we walked up a sweat as the sun was quite strong at least we have seen some beautiful blue skies in Wuyi Shan. We passed a big Buddha carved in stone (impressive) and several carvings of Chinese characters in the rock.
At the top, we discovered an entrance fee to a longer walking trail (Y111) about $24 but we decided against it, Tony bought a hat for $4 instead. We then followed the path back down past the Buddha, along the road past our hotel to Wuyi Palace, where there were gardens and a souvenir shop. We had about two and a half hours before we had to leave for our train, so we passed the time lazing in the sun and feeding the fish cookies. Tony bought us ice creams, he didn’t like his so he threw it away and bought another, he didn’t like that one either so I had to give him mine.
We caught a taxi to the
train station but still had a 50 minute wait before embarking. We noticed a Chinese couple smiling (not staring) at us and realised they were on our bamboo raft trip the day before as the woman spoke English we passed the time talking to her and her husband. She was quite helpful and warned us that the Hangzhou train arrived at 3am. We gave her a toy koala and she gave us a necklace she was given in Tibet (for good luck). We boarded the train on time and were pleased to find it is quite nice. We have the top beds out of three, next time we will pick the middle or the bottom beds. We also have little seats against the wall and a little table. We can move freely up and down the train and people come around selling food and drinks.
The train journeyed through some pretty countryside while we played cards for a while, drank beer and ate noodles for dinner. We are a source of curiosity, many people peering over our shoulders as we played cards in a very friendly way. The only way for us large Westerners to get into bed was
to climb up the little ladder and then leap from the luggage rack. We were enjoying ourselves immensely, the only blot being we didn’t know when to get off and we were terrified we would miss our stop. Little did we know that the conductress wakes you up with plenty of time to spare, poor Tony was awake from 2am for no reason. At least we both slept, something we could never achieve on those blasted buses.
3am found us standing on the platform at Hangzhou, with despair we discovered no seats/waiting room after having decided to wait until 6am to check into a hotel to save costs, so we sat on my camping mat (Tony had left his on the train) and leant up against our backpacks to await the dawn. There were several other people all doing the same, and the area was well lit, but you wouldn’t want to fall asleep it was far too cold anyway. Tony and I found the whole thing quite exciting. We were soon joined by a Chinese guy named Wei, who spoke good English he was waiting for a ride to Nanjing where he lived. He was nice and his
conversation helped to pass the time. We gave him a koala and he ran off and returned with a packet of gum must be a tradition to give if you receive.
Wei left us at about 530am it had become a lot colder too, we both had three layers of clothes on. At 6am we asked a taxi to take us to a hotel listed in the Let’s Go that was affordable and she dropped us off at the address but it was closed (again thanks, Let’s Go). We were standing there looking for a cab when we were approached by an old tout who wanted to take us to a hotel so laden with our backpacks on, we followed the old dodgy around the corner and up the road. It was about a 10 minute walk, and when we got arrived there were no rooms. Starting to feel frustrated now, and beginning to get tired. We then got rid of the old tout, caught a taxi to the Yuguan branch of the University to see if we could stay in the Foreign Students Dorm. Again, we had a five minute walk with our backpacks, and when we arrived
at the dorm, do you think anyone behind the desk spoke English? In a Foreign Students Dormitory?
They couldn’t understand what we wanted, it was becoming a bit of a joke but not a funny one. We then had to walk down the road and catch another taxi to another branch of the Uni, XiXi branch. After being dropped at the main gate, we wandered around with the directions from Let’s Go, turn left at the basketball courts, how were we to know there were two basketball courts? We ended up with a Chinese student showing us the way and checking in was a nightmare, again no English but at least they had a room. We have a two-bed room for Y80 ($17) it’s clean but we have to share squat toilets and showers. Our intention was to go straight out to the lake that Hangzhou is famous for, but we were so tired we had to get some rest it was about 730am.
Around 11am we were on the road again, trying to hunt down breakfast. Again, we desired our staple diet of McDonalds, so after walking for about half an hour we found one but it was
so crowded we just walked right back out again. Further down we found another, less crowded. After brunch, we headed towards the lake. It had started to rain but luckily did not last long. The lake is massive, you cannot see the other side (smog doesn’t help) three kilometres long and three kilometres wide, but also surrounded by pretty gardens and a sea of black heads. We walked around the edge for a while and then decided to take a decorative wooden boat out to the small islands in the middle. The boat cost Y45 ($10) and only took a few minutes to reach the first island. It only took about two minutes to walk around; it was very small but still had about five souvenir shops on it. We jumped back on the boat and went across to the second island, which was a lot bigger. It still didn’t take very long to walk around it; there was a big lake in the middle, obligatory souvenir shops and about 5000 Chinese. There really wasn’t much to see, however, it was very pretty and would have been serene had it not been swarming with people. We posed for a photo
with a young guy who may have been Japanese.
We’d soon had enough and returned to the boat to go back to Hangzhou “No No” said the girl and pointed further down. We waited for another 20 minutes until the next one came “No No” said the girl “Not here”. We asked “Where?” “No English, no English”. We had no idea what she meant, but walked to where she was pointing which was a ferry landing. The ferries were different and we thought they belonged to another company we couldn’t understand how we could just get on those without paying extra? We paid for a round ticket but no one wanted to take us home so we were getting frustrated and pissed off. We went back to where we had been initially dropped off and waited for the next wooden boat. We had, by then, been trying for an hour to get off the island. Luckily the guy on the next boat spoke English and told us that the ferry would take us home and wouldn’t cost us anything. Back to the ferry landing we went and on the end of a lengthy queue. We had about a 10
minute wait but managed to get on the ferry. Walking back to the Uni we stumbled across an Internet Café charging Y3 for an hour, so we sent emails and caught up with the news. By the time we had finished it was nearly 7pm so we went back to our dorm. We had eaten before the Internet Café at a Pizza Hut, which was reasonably expensive. A 12” pizza cost Y55 ($14) but it tasted good. No TV in our room so Tony a bit bored he likes Chinese TV even though he doesn’t understand it. In bed by 830pm bit concerned there would be noise (student dorm on a Saturday night) thank God for earplugs.
Had a little lie in and then on the road by 9am. Have communal showers but very clean and private. Caught cab to train station to arrange tickets to Ningbo tomorrow. Getting tickets somewhere is our hardest and most trying task, and where our patience runs out. We have learnt the hard way that the younger Chinese are the most helpful and luckily a young girl came to our aid. With her help, we booked tickets to Ningbo and then on to
Shanghai the day after. We also learnt that we didn’t have to come to this dodgy train station at all, but could have gone to the more modern one we arrived at from Wuyi Shan (again thank you Let’s Go). At least we can catch the train to Ningbo from there tomorrow; the girl helped us to arrange that so we gave her a koala.
We then caught a bus back to the lake there was a Buddhist monk onboard who left his backpack on a seat near us and went and sat elsewhere, the bus got really crowded and people were standing up but no one moved the backpack, we’re sure they thought it was ours and that we were rude, very charitable of the monk who made no effort to move it. Finally, a man, his wife and child squeezed on and asked us if the backpack was ours we pointed straight to the monk. The man moved it to make room for his wife but the monk made no effort to claim it. We alighted about a kilometre from the lake and walked towards it. Again, there were large crowds of people everywhere, and I can’t handle the staring today, it really gets on my nerves, I wish these goddamn people would walk into a pole or fall off their bikes when they do it. Hangzhou seems to be the worst so far. Hangzhou also has the biggest population of bike riders we have encountered so far, and they are everywhere on the roads and the sidewalks, you need eyes in the back of your head in this city.
We must have walked for nearly five kilometres around the lake visiting a museum on the way which was quite interesting and had ancient artefacts and communist propaganda amongst its collection. We soon had enough of staring people and headed back to Bacchou road to the Internet Café. We passed a KFC on the way (we had a locally made hamburger for breakfast ages ago) but Chinese people were boiling out the doors so we abandoned that idea and bought a Cornetto instead. Tony is currently on the Internet & I’m updating this diary, we seem to have walked for miles today, could be another early night.
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