Nanjing
Now that I have seen the other side of travel in China, I'm afraid I may be too spoiled to ever go back. Hostelling sucks! Interesting people, cool vibe, yada yada yada blah blah blah. I miss my Chinese friends!! Thank goodness I am meeting up with Timothy again early tomorrow.
After doing a load of laundry (which has miraculously, thanks to a very warm dorm room, nearly dried...the same of which can not be said for me), I braved the busses to go to the Confucius Temple. It wasn't difficult or terribly far, but with my poor Chinese I missed the stop by a long way and had to get off one bus, cross the street, and come all the way back on the same bus in the opposite direction. Still, I did find it and without the help of any taxis. :)
The temple itself, having recently been to the birthplace of Confucius, was not at all impressive and quite expensive. But I had fun wandering it in the rain anyway, and checking out the 'international lantern festival' that is inside it right now. Scenes from his life, made of silk and lit from within...pretty cool.
The big draw isn't the temple though, it's the insane tourist shopping area that winds through all the tiny streets all around it. For miles and miles. Cobbled streets, little booths, big chain stores...it had it all. I drank something hot and milky full of black jelly things that looked appalling but was actually good (ordering is severely limited by my illiteracy, so I just point and hope for the best - this time, success). Ate some sugar-crusted strawberries on a stick that cost 3 times what the same thing cost in Qingdao. And a hot sweet potato that cost the same as in Yangzhou but was a third the size. I guess they figure the atmospheric lantern light make the inflated prices worthwhile.
Street food aside, I didn't manage to track down anything else edible practically the whole day. Not a good thing for me at all. Everywhere else I've been there are restaurants and street carts everywhere, but here...nothing. I finally ended up in the same little dumpling hut near the hostel for both early lunch and very late dinner. Eating delicious, juicy sheep jiaodzi both times only because it was the only thing in her litany of choices that I recognized and could repeat. She was very nice though, and there's a good chance I will have that once more today before I head out for the train at 11:30.
Back at the hostel, soaked and looking to chill, I sat down with 3 others in front of a pirated copy of 'Live Free or Die Hard' (will Bruce Willis never stop??). About 15 minutes into the film, this big guy of indistinct origin pulled up a chair behind me and says 'Do you mind if I talk to you for a bit?' Engrossed as I was in the film (hey, it's Die Hard!), it took me a while to realize he was talking to me, by which time he was a little pissed off. When I told him i was watching the movie and so no, would not like to talk just then, he proceeded to give me a lecture about how 'In Britain this is something called a bar, and people go there to talk, so if you're here...' The Spanish woman beside me, who arrived the same time I did and is in the same dorm as me, just sat there with this amused look on her face like 'Thank God I don't have to talk to this idiot...'.
2/3 of the way through the movie this group of 3 very odd looking caucasions sat down behind us and spent the entire rest of the film giving each other a running commentary. The 3 of them were all very tall and thin, with matching caramel coloured hair that stood out a long way from their heads like those troll dolls that used to be popular. 2 men, 1 significantly older than the other, and a woman. They'd all seen the movie before. Suffice to say, no surprise ending (no surprises of any kind, once they sat down).
Back to the dorm room, enough of the whole foreigner socializing scene, the BHL Canadian guy living in Qingdao to study Chinese (with an enormous language chip on his shoulder...I mean, the guy wouldn't even talk to ME in anything but Chinese!) is in bed with his Korean girlfriend. Come on people, you're sleeping together in a single bunk in a dorm for 6??? You have got to be kidding me. You can get a private room at this hostel for the same price as 2 dorm beds! Why did I ever leave Yangzhou??
This morning in the dorm, someone's alarm started ringing every 15 minutes starting at 5 to 6. 5 people in the room, and I am the only one it woke up. Of course. After 45 minutes of that I got up and had a shower and went to find some breakfast. Dumplings again (from a different place), and lychees that are delicious but were very, very expensive. It's pouring, seriously pouring, and at 9am I am still the only person in the entire hostel, staff aside, who is awake. Another half hour I'm going to wake everyone in my room up with some VERY loud packing...
And if this terrible message makes it soud like i am totally miserable, well, that would be overstating it. The hot, private showers have been divine, and the sound of the rain on the roof is very, very soporific. The hostel staff are friendly and helpful to a fault, and there are animals here...a big golden retriever and (best of all) an extremely fuzzy caramel coloured lop bunny (who likes to lick the dumpling salt off my fingers). My clothes are now almost all clean, and mostly dry (except the ones I am wearing). And I was warm last night, totally blissfully warm, for the first time in days.
After doing a load of laundry (which has miraculously, thanks to a very warm dorm room, nearly dried...the same of which can not be said for me), I braved the busses to go to the Confucius Temple. It wasn't difficult or terribly far, but with my poor Chinese I missed the stop by a long way and had to get off one bus, cross the street, and come all the way back on the same bus in the opposite direction. Still, I did find it and without the help of any taxis. :)
The temple itself, having recently been to the birthplace of Confucius, was not at all impressive and quite expensive. But I had fun wandering it in the rain anyway, and checking out the 'international lantern festival' that is inside it right now. Scenes from his life, made of silk and lit from within...pretty cool.
The big draw isn't the temple though, it's the insane tourist shopping area that winds through all the tiny streets all around it. For miles and miles. Cobbled streets, little booths, big chain stores...it had it all. I drank something hot and milky full of black jelly things that looked appalling but was actually good (ordering is severely limited by my illiteracy, so I just point and hope for the best - this time, success). Ate some sugar-crusted strawberries on a stick that cost 3 times what the same thing cost in Qingdao. And a hot sweet potato that cost the same as in Yangzhou but was a third the size. I guess they figure the atmospheric lantern light make the inflated prices worthwhile.
Street food aside, I didn't manage to track down anything else edible practically the whole day. Not a good thing for me at all. Everywhere else I've been there are restaurants and street carts everywhere, but here...nothing. I finally ended up in the same little dumpling hut near the hostel for both early lunch and very late dinner. Eating delicious, juicy sheep jiaodzi both times only because it was the only thing in her litany of choices that I recognized and could repeat. She was very nice though, and there's a good chance I will have that once more today before I head out for the train at 11:30.
Back at the hostel, soaked and looking to chill, I sat down with 3 others in front of a pirated copy of 'Live Free or Die Hard' (will Bruce Willis never stop??). About 15 minutes into the film, this big guy of indistinct origin pulled up a chair behind me and says 'Do you mind if I talk to you for a bit?' Engrossed as I was in the film (hey, it's Die Hard!), it took me a while to realize he was talking to me, by which time he was a little pissed off. When I told him i was watching the movie and so no, would not like to talk just then, he proceeded to give me a lecture about how 'In Britain this is something called a bar, and people go there to talk, so if you're here...' The Spanish woman beside me, who arrived the same time I did and is in the same dorm as me, just sat there with this amused look on her face like 'Thank God I don't have to talk to this idiot...'.
2/3 of the way through the movie this group of 3 very odd looking caucasions sat down behind us and spent the entire rest of the film giving each other a running commentary. The 3 of them were all very tall and thin, with matching caramel coloured hair that stood out a long way from their heads like those troll dolls that used to be popular. 2 men, 1 significantly older than the other, and a woman. They'd all seen the movie before. Suffice to say, no surprise ending (no surprises of any kind, once they sat down).
Back to the dorm room, enough of the whole foreigner socializing scene, the BHL Canadian guy living in Qingdao to study Chinese (with an enormous language chip on his shoulder...I mean, the guy wouldn't even talk to ME in anything but Chinese!) is in bed with his Korean girlfriend. Come on people, you're sleeping together in a single bunk in a dorm for 6??? You have got to be kidding me. You can get a private room at this hostel for the same price as 2 dorm beds! Why did I ever leave Yangzhou??
This morning in the dorm, someone's alarm started ringing every 15 minutes starting at 5 to 6. 5 people in the room, and I am the only one it woke up. Of course. After 45 minutes of that I got up and had a shower and went to find some breakfast. Dumplings again (from a different place), and lychees that are delicious but were very, very expensive. It's pouring, seriously pouring, and at 9am I am still the only person in the entire hostel, staff aside, who is awake. Another half hour I'm going to wake everyone in my room up with some VERY loud packing...
And if this terrible message makes it soud like i am totally miserable, well, that would be overstating it. The hot, private showers have been divine, and the sound of the rain on the roof is very, very soporific. The hostel staff are friendly and helpful to a fault, and there are animals here...a big golden retriever and (best of all) an extremely fuzzy caramel coloured lop bunny (who likes to lick the dumpling salt off my fingers). My clothes are now almost all clean, and mostly dry (except the ones I am wearing). And I was warm last night, totally blissfully warm, for the first time in days.
posted by Roberta | 9:45 AM
<< Home