Market, grasshopper & the beginning of endlessness
Trip Start
Aug 25, 2010
1
9
36
Trip End
Nov 23, 2010
Lijiang, Yunnan, China
Sunday, September 5, 2010
In the morning, I met up with Linda, a Korean Woman and a Hong Kong lady philosopher/artist. We decided to go to the Sunday market together. Pics are cool.
I then went to lunch with Hong Bin, Hong Kong lady and met a girl named Alice who I think Hong Bin might have macked the night before. We sit down and Alice has a plate of skewered insects and a cup full of grubs. All dead, all spicy. I ate half a grasshopper - the head, the abdomen. I was unwilling to eat anything else because of the crunchy v. squishy thing going on.
I walked around Lijiang, tried to get into a couple of the sites but they wanted $$$. I went back to hostel, uploaded pics, wrote in journal etc. Then the fun began. It took me 6 buses, one plane, two cab rides and 26 hours to get to where I am witting right now. Here goes:
Took a taxi to the bus station and got on the overnight bus at 8:30 pm. I had taken this thing to Lijiang and it was fabulous albeit a bit smelly (dirty feet). HK lady and I laughed about it because we agreed after 10 minutes you couldn;t smell it. I thought it was fabulous - I got my own bed tiny that I almost fit in - I was actually able to get some ZZs on my way up to Lijiang. Anyway, the bus on Sunday night - I look at my bed # (lucky 27) and find out it is in the back of the bus. Now I need to describe this. Take the last 5 feet of a bus. Divide it in half horizontally. Outfit it with a small incline that starts three feet in. put bars against the open end of it. Stick 10 (TEN) people into it - five on top and five on the bottom. Imagine me, up against the wall on the left side, with three women and a man next to me. This is where I attempted, and failed to sleep). I wish I got a pic of it but I was too disgruntled at the time.
At 3 am we stopped to pee. We went to this station where the music was BLASTING - like club blasting - in urinals. A nightmare. Again, if I hadn't have been so disgruntled I would have laughed.
I get off bus at 6:30 am and get on a local bus to the Hump Hostel in Kunming figuring I'll crash for the 5 hours before my flight. I eat, I napped, wrote my sister and email. I lost my special bracelet that I have been wearing for 2 years. April gave it to me and it was special and one of the two totems I brought with me. I was distraught and it kind of turned my juju for the worse. I took a two buses to get to the airport. That's 4 buses so far. I get to the airport, check my luggage go through security and realize someone has taken my lip balm, 20 yuan (about $3) and the piece of paper with my directions for when I land. I told the security guy. After 15 minutes, he brought the guys who were in frnt of me back and they had my stuff. They let me go and kept those guys - I felt terrible but I needed that piece of paper.
Plane ride to Guilin was inconsequential except we landed an hour later than expected.
I then take a bus (#5) out of the airport to long distance bus station. A crazy old lady followed me around and efinitely put the whammy on me when I refused to give her money. She yelled - it was a nightmare. More juju put out of kilter.
Ends up, I got on the local instead of the express bus (#6) to Yangshao. It took 2-1/2 hours. I nearly cried. It was 7:30 pm when we got off. I missed the bus to XingPing, my final destination. A man accosted me saying he was from the local hostel and could get me a taxi, etc. I told him to go away and he told me "you are sh*t". Lovely - more juju diminished. I finally found the real taxi guy who was like the godfather. He took me the last 30k Xingping. I arrived at the hostel at 9:30pm - 26 hours after leaving Lijiang.
My juju is a bit better but still not 100%. I am working on correcting that though.
