26/09/2010

Such a regular occasion . . .

The day started with me heading to my market getting excited about charms and beads and fabric, while Laura had a lie in.

On the way back I bumped into Laura on the street, she had been for a coffee. Laura decided to go to the forbidden city, off she trotted while I had a long hot shower and packed and checked us out. My hair now depending on the water decides how clean it gets when I give it a wet water finger combing. The plus side it's not damaged and is growing really long despite its wild and dirty ways.

I went for a walk exploring new shops and of course bought more. Met Laura in our lane and we grabbed a drink before grabbing a bus to the central train station to book the overnight train to xi-an, only soft sleepers left which are double the price of hard sleepers. We had 3hours, so we went for tea, went to the 24hour post office open on a Sunday, realised we weren't going to have time to pack and send all our crap, so we jumped in a taxi to west station, legged it around the station to the platform and missed our train.

May I point out this is why I prefer India, I'm still in India time mode, it suits me fabulously, give or take half an hour here and there and no checks before boarding the train. Here, bloody china, you have to queue to get all your bags scanned, precious minutes we clearly couldn't afford, and lots of barriers and ticket checks. The train left dot on it's leaving time, outrageous. No wonder people miss trains.

So we got taken to get our ticket changed to the next day and we actually got given some money back for doing so!

We booked into the hostel next to the central station, which the location was crap but the room was huge and it had pool tables, free wifi, laundry etc. Post office trip to send home our parcels, going to take roughly 2months, that's a long long time.

Laura went to bed and I ended up staying out 'til 3am in hunt of a good cuppa tea, a big failure. So in my sulk, as I still wasn't feeling well, I gave my money to the dreaded clown chain for a fish fillet burger meal., to think I trust this fish over any other eating place is silly! The logic, it will have been fried to death.

Beddies about 4am for me. I just wasn't tired.

I do have to say how my mother makes me laugh. We bounced emails off each other as I can get the wifi in my room. She wrote about what she had been reading about Chinese dos and don'ts. Like it's rude to show the bottom of your feet or raise your voice etc. What had me wetting myself was the fact that she wrote, you are not to touch a Chinese persons head as it is very sacred to them. I mean, what does she think I do, go round touching people's heads all round China? ! xx