Just survived a 19 hour train ride from Guilin to Kunming. We bought hard sleeper seats which I have never had a problem with having travelled on other long distance trains before via hard sleeper. This one was particularly bad though. I guess it didn't start off too well when I found this big, smelly, old man sitting on my hard sleeper. Mine was the lower bunk and usually ppl sit on that bed during the day. This guy was gross though, constantly wiping the sweat off his brow, looked like he was gonna hurl something big from deep within his guts. I asked him politely if he wanted to trade his middle bunk for my lower one since he was so comfortably spread on my bed anyway. He didn't have a problem with it. Next all the luggage compartments were full and I had to strap my big, fat backpack to the foot of my narrow bed. I threw the used blanket onto the rest of the bags on the baggage compartment and busted out my sleeping bag to the consternation of the other passengers.
So squeezed in this little bed with all my luggage, the speakers blaring some god-awful love story in chinese, I found it difficult to get to sleep. Added to that were these 2 chinese girls talking into the night about their crappy love lives and when I asked them politely at midnight to shut the hell up, they actually increased their decibel level. So lack of sleep, no food, feeling rather dirty, Fiona and I emerged bleary-eyed at Kunming station and thought about shortening our China trip. I know; whinge whinge whinge, you guys are probably sick of hearing about it. The ppl are just too pushy, rude and selfish. We have decided to cut out the entire Lijiang itinerary and head straight to Chengdu. We booked soft sleeper seats for the day after and have been assured by the lonely planet guide that it is luxurious and u can turn the damn speakers off.
So this means we have cut out a week on our china trip, although since it is high season here, it might take at least a week to organise our flights into Tibet. So we may well end up spending a week in Chengdu waiting for flights to sort itself out. So I guess our trip isn't really cut back after all. We planned to do the Tiger Leaping Gorge in Lijiang but found out it was closed for the month due to monsoon season and the danger of doing the trek in the rain. So that made up our mind about crossing Lijiang off.
I'm not sounding very positive at the moment, I guess just the constant haggling and dealing with the locals has drained me and Fiona out. We both agreed that Tibet is the place to be right now. Of course there is so much to look forward in Tibet, Mongolia and Japan that there is no point staying in a country that we are not really enjoying. Yangshuo was fantastic though and am glad we did it. Am glad I am in China too, if only to do what we can and see the beautiful scenery before it all gets revamped by the government. I guess I sound really negative about the people here, which seems rather rascist given that I am Chinese myself, but the pysche and mentality here has been conditioned to such a degree that it seems to be a completely different race. Mao has a lot to answer for, first the suppression of his people and then Deng suddenly lifting the lid on their poverty and giving everyone a chance to be entrepeneurs...I can see how it can really mess with the minds of the people.
Kunming is a nice city to rest in for the next day though and the Camellia Hotel where we are staying in is really nice.
Aug 6, 2004. 6.19pm. Kunming city
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