Luke and I took a last ditch chance on a taller building with supposed hotels on floors three, six and seven. The lady at the first place on the third floor barely took a second glance at us before offering us the cheapest room. She gave us water bottles and a key and our money, no real questions asked. It was bizarre. This was probably the eighteenth hotel we'd walked to that day and it was so easy! So we got a place to stay for the night and woke up at 5:30am to catch the earliest bus out.
We walked a few kilometers to the station in the dark, arriving early enough to locate some snacks and find our bus. Once on the bus, which had a cargo hold the size of a bathtub, we sat on and around our luggage while we were curiously peered at by the bus driver and his assistant. They muttered about our bags and our large foreign party even though the bus had at least three extra seats. We didn't take off for forty minutes and I assumed it had something to do with us, I just couldn't put my finger on the causal relationship between us buying bus tickets and inadvertently delaying their schedule.
It soon became clear that our purchase of seven tickets together left too few seats available for the various random people hitching rides on the side of the road. The bus driver and his assistant had a good thing going: leave several seats open on the bus and pick up people for short distances, then take their cash in hand. They still were able to cycle about fifteen extra riders on our five-hour journey, so I'm not sure what the mumbo-jumbo at seven am was all about. But we did finally get to our destination city, where we had to catch another bus.
That one didn't come forever and the seven of us were enough to get a mianbao che, or small van, to take us up the hills. We asked only to go part of the way so that we could walk into Zhaoxing, though our taxi driver clearly thought that this was a dumb idea. We didn't mind and promptly set off down a dirt road that ended in a flooded river. We turned around and followed a different road that actually led to Zhaoxing.
The crew hikes onward.
Zhaoxing is described as a cool tourist town that is quickly getting "too popular" and less "authentic." We were there in the off-season, so there were neither may tourists or foreigners to be seen. We looked around the various guesthouses and ended up staying in a very cute place with electric blankets, heaters and a whole family of friendly Dong people, the resident "colorful" minorities. The rest of the day we spent walking around the terraced hills and farmland. It was a bit cold and damp, but lovely and quiet.
House on a hill.
Beautiful.
Onto the terraces.
My overall impression of Eastern Guizhou is that I would need to return to fully appreciate it. I now know that there needs to be nicer weather for full enjoyment. I also know where I would like to spend more time, where I can stay and the starting points for little day trips. Because so little is documented in this area, that information was not available for us this trip. Next time though...
I spent some quality alone time in Kaili waiting to catch my train to Kunming, while the boys left for Guiyang on their way south. Kaili is a terrible Chinese city with absolutely nothing interesting to offer the visitor, though I did enjoy riding the bus the wrong way for about forty minutes. I found a crowded market selling Spring Festival items, then retired into a fast food restaurant to get warm and eat. When I'd killed enough time, I returned to the train station several hours early.
Crazy Kaili market.
It was cold. So cold. I'm not sure I've been that cold before. The frigid air turned icy as darkness fell and I could not get warm again. Then my train was delayed an hour. So I waited...and waited...and shivered. When the train finally arrived I was practically in tears. It had been a miserable wait but I had a luxurious sleeper train to board, so I sucked it up and ran down the platform to my car.
Next: I LOVE TRAINS!
ellen
No comments:
Post a Comment