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So here I am, SITTING IN LAOS! I crossed the border this morning… The last week or so has been pretty manic. Of course, we started off in Wenchang, and said our goodbyes to all of our friends and students…
and then headed to Haikou to get or sleeper bus + ferry to the mainland. After a few traffic jams and some rather eccentric Chinese driving, we arrived in Guangzhou. Off we set on foot to the train station where I sumped my bacgs with Sarah and then went on mission number 1: buy [correct] sleeper train tickets to our next destination. This was successfully achieved, even with my very poor Chinese, but did mean a fair few hours waiting around a train station… so when I arrived back bearing tickets, Sarah went of in search of food (train and bus station prices are rather expensive, sound familiar?!) abnd so I babysat our bags; the equivalent of ab out 5 small children!
- We'd made our last official trip to the school the night before we left - after our leaving meal from the English department and as I went around all my classes, my students gave me gifts including a watch, wallet, fragile things (ahem, ideal for travelling) and many of them had made me origami stars - my Chinese name is XingXing - which means star. I was really touched,and it was so sad to have some my students coming out after me once I had waved goobye one last time and they were crying (this is something that is NOT done in China). Back to packing til the early hours, and then after another long, final day we left our Wenchang-home in the late afternoon.
After Guangzhou we got our sleeper train to Guiyang. At which point my tropically infected foot decided to burst all over the bed. These things seem to happen at the worst moments possible and what didn't help, is the fact that, I had put Sarah's exciting pink stuff on it (she was given Chinese medicine for her wounds from her accident) which then meant I had this pink goo all over the bed. Lovely. You will be pleased to know that my disgusting foot is slowly healing I just hope that the tropical infections stay away from the two of us from now on. Once arriving in Guiyang, we got the local streetfood whilst bearing our giant load and hailed a taxi to our hostel. Which no longer existed. But this was only discovered after much confusion. - The taxi driver drove a round a little bit, me studying the map in the front seat being a crap navigator… and eventually we got out and after wandering around and asking locals we walked up some random backstreet - where ever the hostel was on the map- we should have passed it… but after a crowd of Chinese crowding round and attempting to help us, a school girl appeared with rather good English and said "that (a pointed) was it" but then said it no longer was there. Right. After finding another hostel, we dumped our stuff and went off exploring… I was very delighted to find a shop selling an Astroboy t-shirt for 29 kuai - which over my time in China I have developed a slight obsession over - it's just an amazing cartoon. With an Astroboy t-shirt purchased and lots of local steetfood later - along with getting caught in a thunder storm, we headed back to our hostel - a 10 bed dorm room to ourselves, and I tried to lighten my load a little further by discarding some more things I thought I could do without. The following day was rather unsuccessful as we were gong to try ad make it to the biggest waterfall in China. But this never happened (Guiyang just wasn't meant to be for us!) As after an early start and it raining, the bus we were supposed to get on - a public bus that went to our destination… we were told another number that we'd have to get across town. So after navigating our way on foot across town to the supposed bus station with the bus we wanted, we discovered we were supposed to be somewhere else…. After buying tickets for another sleeper train - to leave that night, we then headed back for more streetfood in the rain, walking around markets and going for bubble-drinks without the bubbles.
So we headed to Kunming that night from Guiyang, and then after a day at the Golden Temple (which was actually made of bronze) followed by Sarah and me getting lost for two hours in the forest surrounding the temple… and then a night in a normal bed - and a hot shower,we then headed to a rather unusual and somewhat bizarre vegetarian restaurant that mimicked meat foods rather perculiarly… The following day we went on a major mission to Lunan - a traditional market town - which required the directions of many locals and the riding public buses on very bumpy roads. Back to Kunming to collect all our stuff from our hostel, and then we headed to Jinhong on a sleeper bus. I have never laughed so much in my life. I thought Sarah getting into a hard-sleeper bed on a train was hilarious enough, but she really isn't built for China (she's 6ft) and her long legs getting into the top bunk on a bus just was not meant to be from the start. And there was no room to put anything so we both had our daypacks in bed with us, meanwhile, I was searching for a bag of nuts in my bag, which I found just as the bus jolted away and the lights went off, and so we had a nut-explosion, over me, my bed, and the people sleeping below us! It was a disaster, but I got the giggles all the same, and couldn't move nor tell Sarah what had happened as it was all rather funny.
In Jinhong, we stayed on a college campus and enjoyed wandering around the town a while… damn monsoon season in Asia means it rains everyday! But it also meant we stopped in at some local place and had the best noodle soup EVER! - With the guy making the noodles fresh in front of us… mmm, they were the best noodles I have had on my whole time in Asia so far. And then headed for our last stop in China; Mengla, before crossing the border! So we left Mengla this morning, and after another exciting bus station fiasco with tickets and people telling us to buy tickets at some other place down the road, or round the back of there etc etc, we were on our way to theborder….
Slight panic on the way to the border as I had no passport photos… so I was thinking I was just gonna try and wing it and then pay them extra money t give me a visa without a photo… but then a guy who was on the same bus as us pointed out: if I was to exit China (I had a single entry, which means once I was out I wouldn't be able to return until I had successfully got another Chinese visa - which they are no longer issuing because of the olympics) .. and then if they wouldn't let me in on the Laos side, then I would, be stuck in No-mans land. Rather peculiar. But at Mohan - the town on the border I managed to get photos, so it's ok! - And here I am. And I will leave you there. Hope to hear from you soon!
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