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Published: October 26th 2006
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Hekou and Kaiyuen
Nunny in no man's land at the Hekou border We've made it into grand ol' China!
And who'd have thunk it? China was never on our list of destinations, but hey when you're in the area why not just keep travelling north which is pretty much what we did.
We stayed the night in Lao Cai, Vietnem, and from there crossed the border on foot into Hekou, China. Thanks to our friend at the hotel on Lao Cai he managed to purchase bus tickets for us to Kuyuann complete with compulsory life insurance! Mind you, we've not had to purchase this elsewhere since arriving in China (was it our final rort before leaving Vietnam??) but it would supply a small monetary return to any remaining family members if anything untoward did occur on the mountainous road - not sure mind you how much you'd collect on a $2 life insurance policy.
The road was spectacular, climbing through mountains and ensuring a positive first impression of China. Surprisingly, most of the lower areas of the mountains were home to banana plantations and for kms you's see masses of them piled up opn the sides of the road. It was only spoiled when we turned a corner and peered
Hekou and Kaiyuen
Dinner in Kaiyuen into a valley where a factory of sorts spewed forth evil looking substances into the air. Noone spoke english and noone really wanted to sit next to us and it only happenned out of necessity, drunkedness or senility which is the excuse I'm going to use for the ol' bloke that kept falling asleep on me untill the bus lurched the othe way and he spilled out onto the aisle instead.
6 hours or so later we arrive in Kaiyuen where we start treking through the town to a recommended hotel listed in our favourite little yellow guide book. We arrive after some pointed directions from some helpful locals and 10mins of charades in the reception ensured us a double bed. We gratefully head up the stairs only to encounter what seemed to be the troll from the tale "3 Billy Goats Gruff" and her evil step sister who firmly stood their ground and refused us entry claiming there was no room at the inn. I wonder if things would have been different if I'd arrived on a donkey, heavily pregnant .... probably not.
So our friendly receptionist apologises and kicks us out onto the street with a
Hekou and Kaiyuen
Do you have Szechuan chicken? wave up the road to another hotel. Similar story. We walk into the reception, she immediatley shakes her head and shoos us away. Hmmm... kind of the case of "we don't take too kindly to you folks round here". She does however kindly recommend somewhere else to stay.
We decide that before we venture any further we should really get some yuan out and since the Bank of China was vaguely near by I should stay and mind the bags while Andrew missions on down to the bank. It doesn't take too long before I have a crowd, starting small at 5 people that then grows at one point to 30 people, who have all come to find out what I'm doing, and maybe just to see for themselves if what they've heard about westerners is really true (and who knows what rumours they have heard.)
It is at this point that I truely come to realise that NOONE speaks english at all! What starts of as mildly humourous becomes slightly frustrating when I've mimed out that "I'm waiting here for my husband, and then we go to a hotel" about 300 times. Andrew has been away for
Hekou and Kaiyuen
Our fabulous hosts - astounded at the first foreigners to dine at their roadside establishment a while now (he also has tales of miscommunication woes at the bank) and it is quickly becoming dark. The crowd no longer believe that I even have a husband and apparantly are some kind of vagabond landed in their quiet neck of the woods. The police arrive, but as they do not speak english and could not ask me what I was doing they obviously assess that I'm of no immediate threat and leave me be.
Andrew arrives, the signs of frustration on his face. And we are bailed into a taxi and sent of to a hotel where they have the approval to cater for foreigners. The place is lush looking, it has a bowling alley in the foyer! We have no other option but to pay the $30 a night (HUGELY out of our budget) buit are grateful for a nice room and soft bed.
We wonder around the small city and marvel at the civililty of it all! So clean!! So orderly!! Traffic lights! Traffic that stays on the road and a footpath that you can actually walk on! And just to top it all off, we have dinner at a road side diner the the delight of the owners and the amazement of us, when our massive and delicious bowls of noodle soup come to only 7 yuan. That would be just over a dollar kids.
Loving China, we head to bed satisfied and vow to try and find a better phrasebook than what we are currently carrying.
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dero
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bu ya
I kind of thought something like this might occur.... Luckily - we had Sui-May, Karen's brother's fiancee as our translater. Gotta love the bowling alleys and cheap food though! Don't forget the best phrase of all - bu ya!