There have been some happenings since my last entry. Most notably has been the end of the teaching term and the beginning of the winter holiday/spring festival. If we just ignore the month or two between my last entry and the holiday then it doesn't seem that bad at all... well... that terrible.
The bright side is of this long awaited return is that I might be able to quench your thirst for pictures of my time here in China. Sloth had wreaked havoc on my motivations and the lack of a battery charger had destroyed any hopes of me achieving anything of quality to show you... well that is accept shots taken from my mobile but no one really wants to see the pictures I take with that...
I suppose firstly I should talk about my holiday. You might want to go out get another beer, burrito, and maybe an extra seat-cushion. I have the feeling that this might be a long one.
The holiday for me started around the 19th of January. Being speedy and lazy and without accountability I was able to get my examining done in half the time I told the administration I needed. I then sat on my ass for a week trying to decide my next course of action. At length I decided that I should just get a ticket to GuangZhou(the closest largest city to me) and go from there. My neighbours and friends mostly having already parted, I was left to travel alone. So armed only with my wits, my wallet, and some very broken Chinese I set out.
I bought my ticket in advance, I translated that I wanted a ticket to GuangZhou for monday and handed the girl the note. She then returned me a ticket, with minimal gesticulations and broken language needed. Monday I was off. When I got to the train station I was surprised to find out that I had gotten a ticket for a soft sleeper. The other options being; Hard Sleeper, Hard Seat, and Standing Room. The cabin was nice enough and the only problems being the heater positioned directly under my head and the woman in the bunk above me crawling around the room like a monkey most of the night. The ride which was to take 7 hours took 9 and had forced me to take a crap while the train was stopped. I'm not sure there were many people outside so I don't think it was too bad for anyone, anyways, they urge you not to do that sort of thing.
I arrived in GuangZhouDong (the east station of GuangZhou) confused and needing to crap... again. The necessities taken care of I decided that I needed to figure out my next step. More confused by the ticket lines in the station I decided to try the main train station, and even more confused by that line I decided to try the neighbouring bus station. This description, it should be noted, is incredibly brief the actual event spanned a few hours and much waffling in the subway system as well as a walk through the Sun Yet San University(quite nice). It should also be mentioned that I got lost in the Textile district... Still I eventually found the bus station and got myself a ticket to KuMing, the capitol of Yunnan province, and decided from there I'd go to LiJiang. I got the Ticket for wednesday and in doing so made it necessary for me to find a place to sleep for two nights. This again took me far too long. I would flash the characters for hotel to people I met on the street and they'd point me in none specific directions and I'd follow them flashing the characters to new passerbys. Eventually I found a place... it was more expensive than I needed but it served the trick. That night I had over priced pizza from pizza hut.
Damn it! I can't figure out how to get this up. it's all in bloody Chinese!
posted by Brett @ 8:35 PM
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